Posted on 05/24/2004 6:02:26 PM PDT by SeenTheLight
There’s been a lot of talk since 9/11 about anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination, and yet according to actual hate crime statistics, it is Jews who have had the most to fear. According to the FBI’s Hate Crimes Statistics Report for 2002, there were 155 anti-Islamic incidents and 931 anti-Jewish incidents. And as anyone who follows these developments knows, the majority of these anti-Jewish acts were perpetrated by Arabs and/or Muslims.
Of course, the media has remained largely silent on this issue, preferring instead to stick to their usual script of brown victims and white oppressors. But Jews themselves do not have that luxury. In contrast, many young Jews who never before encountered anti-Semitism are now reading daily about synagogue burnings, blood libels, grave defacements, school fire-bombings, and the cold-blooded and deliberate murder of Jews. They are also experiencing hatred on a personal level for the first time.
My own brush with anti-Semitism, in the post-9/11 landscape, first came while counter-protesting at ''peace'' rallies in San Francisco leading up to the war in Iraq. Most of the vitriol was couched in anti-Israel terminology, such as the hysterical accusations of ''genocide'' displayed on signs and the ''Intifada'' T-shirts worn by members of the crowd. On one occasion, I was called a ''Zionist pig'' for daring to wave an Israeli flag. But it was the Arab teenager with the ''Kill the Jews'' sign that made the most lasting impression.
Actually, I became aware of Arab anti-Semitism long before 9/11, mostly through my neighborhood grocery stores. San Francisco has many such corner stores, the nicest of which are owned and run by Arab-Americans.
A former neighbor of mine made the mistake one day of engaging in a political conversation with our local Arab store owner. Somehow the subject of Australians came up and she mentioned in passing their attitude towards the British. Not knowing she was Jewish, the man nodded in agreement, saying how much he hated Jews. Dumbfounded, she simply walked out the door without comment. From then on, the store became known as the ''Jew-Haters.'' We continued patronizing the place, joking about how we were going down to the ''Jew-Haters'' for some milk or a loaf of bread. But our casual indifference concealed a real fear--evident in the fact that we both tucked our Star of David necklaces into our shirts whenever we went in after that.
I later switched neighborhoods and hence corner stores, but in a cruel twist of fate, it turned out the ''Jew-Haters'' owned another store in the vicinity of my new address. A friend of mine, who isn’t even Jewish, ended up in an argument one day with the owner, who blamed Israel for the 9/11 attacks and conjured up the conspiracy theory that 4000 Jews stayed home that day on a tip from Mossad. My friend pointed out how ludicrous these accusations were, but to no avail. Not being able to stomach giving money to the ''Jew-Haters'' any longer, neither of us returned to the store
Years later, I still frequent my local, Arab-owned corner stores, mostly out of necessity, but also because, ironically, they provide the friendliest service in the city. But in the back of my mind, there lingers a nagging question. I can’t help wondering if they would be as friendly if they knew I was a Jew? In fact, I wonder if they would want to slit my throat if they knew I was a Jew? As the young men behind the counter smilingly hand me my change, such are the thoughts that go through my mind.
Having lived most of my life as a tolerant, egalitarian type, I dislike feeling this way, but I’ve read too many passages like the one in the Koran where Muslims are instructed not only to avoid befriending ''disbelievers,'' but to kill them as well. I’ve seen the videos of Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg, both Jews, beheaded like animals by calm, cool, Arab terrorists. I’ve seen the photos of Palestinians triumphantly holding up their Jewish-blood-stained hands, and dancing gleefully in the streets--the heads and remains of Jewish soldiers held aloft. But it is the story of Sébastien Selam, the young Jewish DJ in France who was murdered last year by his Arab neighbor, that haunts me the most. The two young men had been friends, but after slitting Sebastien’s throat and mutilating his face with a fork, the Arab youth simply said, ''I have killed my Jew. I will go to heaven.'' How one reconciles a sense of humanity with such callous indifference to life, is a question I continue to struggle with.
The mundane nature of evil has confounded mankind throughout history and the current situation is no exception. Today’s ''monsters'' could very well be the shopkeeper down the street, a neighbor in your building, or even someone you think is a friend. And for Jews in particular, such realities raise difficult questions. All too often, these concerns go unspoken for fear of giving offense, but the rising bodycount should add some perspective. We have seen where such willful ignorance has led in the past. Can we really afford to go down that path again?
In summary? The Israeli Defense Force's current strategy versus Hamas is a superb example of appropriate response.
Continue beheading the snake. >>
I cannot disagree with this--although I would restrict such operations to those who ACTIVELY SUPPORT through arms, funding, training, or other materials. A deli owner with a picture of Osama on the wall doesn't deserve to have his children shot, but he sure as hell deserves to be boycotted.
I do NOT want to see us doing a "kill 'em all, let god sort 'em out" approach because those doing the killing of 'em all will be sorted in precisely the same place as the jihadist murderers.
Well, I stumbled into this flame war a bit late, and there are reasonable morality points being made, but it was not too long ago that the USAAF firebombed and nuked enemy cities, and few Americans in the 1940s would have agreed that we were Nazis. One danger of the escalating deadliness of terrorists is that in the years and decades to come they will provoke a return to Total War as a regrettably acceptable strategy by mainstream citizens of countries capable of unleashing it. The occasional venting by people at FR about nuking Mecca, etc., is a symptom, not the problem. The U.S. changed the world beginning in the early cold war period by choosing not to unleash total war when it had the capability to do so.
On 9/11, interpreting the attack as equivalent to a WMD strike and retaliating with a nuclear strike against Kandahar might have been conceivable. What if actual nukes start going off in our ports and cities? How long will the public put up with it before advocating genocidal nuclear strikes?
I am not talking about a terror strike this year or next, but what happens in the years to come if we lose the initiative and will to prevail in the WOT, and radical Islam becomes the new Soviet Union -- only without the ability for us to deter. If Arab/Iranian/Pak/NK nukes start being used in terror attacks, then either a massive war of occupation of the Muslim world (and NK) or a nuclear war become the main options. Which will people prefer? That is why even the Arabs should want to expunge the terrorists and Nazis from their midst.
A Muslim said it was because they are afraid to speak out.
Unfortunately, the world is more complex, and, as they say in law school: "hard cases make bad law".
What about the harder cases, such as Palestinian women rejoicing and ululating over the massacre of Americans, what about the children (yes, children!) who were involved in dragging the body parts of westerners through the streets in Falluja?
If the moslems will not sort out the bad guys, how much risk are you willing to take erring on the side of caution in trying to sort them out?
Reasonable men and women can differ in answering these questions: those more willing to take risks with our citizens' lives will be more cautious of moslems lives, those more risk-averse, who are not willing to take such chances with our citizens' lives will place a significantly higher priority on eliminating the threat.
I don't think anyone wants to kill moslems simply for being moslems. Rather, I think many people want (rationally enough, perhaps) to kill everyone who is serious about, or supports those who are serious about, destroying Western civilization. Honestly, I think a more aggressive approach now will result in less total death (and especially fewer of us dead) than the more cautious approaches that will leave lots of those roaches alive to come back and try to kill us. But, as I said, reasonable people can differ on that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.