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STRANGE SYMBIOSIS – ISRAEL & ANTI-SEMITISM
Antiwar.com ^ | December 28, 2001 | Justin Raimondo

Posted on 12/29/2001 12:08:08 AM PST by H.R. Gross

Behind the Headlines
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com

December 28, 2001

STRANGE SYMBIOSIS – ISRAEL & ANTI-SEMITISM
That 'sh*tty little country' is dangerous – to its allies, and to Jews everywhere

As Israel prepares to expel its Arab helots from Palestine, its "amen corner" worldwide is also on the march, excoriating anyone who looks cross-eyed at Ariel Sharon as an "anti-Semite." The latest front in this campaign is England, where Barbara Amiel, wife of media magnate Conrad Black, went on a rampage in the Telegraph, claiming that, at a recent dinner party, the French ambassador referred to Israel as "that sh*tty little country," and wondered why the world had to be dragged to the edge of World War III on account of it. On the basis of evidence gleaned at ritzy cocktail parties, says Ms. Amiel, the world is experiencing a revival of anti-Semitism, which is now "respectable" again.

OSAMA ON MTV?

Oh, please! Does she really expect us to believe that Osama's infamous videos denouncing the "Jews and Crusaders" are the "in" thing with the hip cognoscenti? Lay off the crack pipe, lady, and get real: anti-Semitism is less respectable than pedophilia. After all, hordes of people aren't buying The Protocols of the Elder of Zion the way they're snatching up those Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs, now are they? Amiel's essay is just one breathtaking inversion of reality after another. Getta load-a this:

"For the past 25 years, I've watched sad-faced Israeli activists trudge around Western capitals with heavy hearts beating under ill-fitting suits. They carry folders of transcripts and videotapes to document the misrepresentations in the press and the moral hypocrisy of the world towards Israel. They want to win the war of ideas on its merits. Their attention to detail in translating the hate literature of the Middle East and the hate-filled speeches of its leaders is commendable."

FOLLOW THE MONEY

One can only wonder what "Western capitals" she means: surely not Washington, D.C. Everyone acknowledges that the Israel lobby is among the most powerful in the Imperial City. How else have they managed to get their hands on a grand total of $90 billion-plus in American military and economic aid since Israel's inception?

A STRANGE IRONY

Aside from US exporters, Israel is the single largest beneficiary of our "foreign aid" program: US tax dollars paid for a booby-trap bomb planted near an Arab elementary school, which blasted a group of Palestinian children – children! – to bits. American tax dollars also pay for Israeli "settlements" inhabited by violent, fanatical fundamentalists intent on provoking war no matter what. This image of sad bedraggled little underdogs making their rounds, desperately fighting an uphill battle against overwhelming odds, is nothing but a bad joke – either that, or it is meant to be ironic.

I SHOULD BE SO POWERLESS

If the Israeli lobby is so powerless, then why this American largesse? We not only arm Israel, but we also prop up their sh*tty little socialist economy with constant infusions of cash. Whatever those Israeli "activists" are carrying around in their folders, whatever is on those videotapes, it must be some pretty powerful stuff. Given the Fox News revelations about the extent of Israeli spying in the US, I don't even want to hazard a guess as to what's in them.

THE ONEIDA PURGE

They want to "win the war of ideas on its merits"? Tell that to Jean Ryan, former managing editor of the Oneida (NY) Daily Dispatch, and city editor Dale Seth (a 15-year veteran of the paper), who were both fired when a delegation of Israel Firsters approached the editor and then the owner demanding the paper retract an allegedly "anti-Semitic" post-9/11 editorial written by Seth. Seth's crime was to recall the terrorist origins of the Jewish state – as if no one had ever heard of the Irgun and the Stern Gang, both of which waged war on the Arab civilian population – and without which the state of Israel would never have come into existence. He also made the true but politically incorrect observation that the whole region is rife with religious fanaticism, and Israel is no exception to the rule:

"The United States, through its close association with Israel since its inception, has now been dragged kicking and screaming right into the middle of that centuries-old Middle Eastern conflict. From that position, it would behoove that party in the middle to consider the hearts of the warring parties. Neither can be simply beat into submission."

UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER

A local attorney, Randy Schaal, demanded a meeting with Ryan to protest the editorial: Ryan refused to meet with him, pointing out that that if the staff met with everyone who disagreed with an editorial, they would never get a paper out. She told him to write a letter to the editor, which he did. But Schaal also contacted local politicians, as well as the Anti-Defamation League, and it wasn't long before pressure was brought to bear on the paper's management, which then ordered its editors to come up with a "clarification." This was published alongside Schaal's letter, a letter from Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), and a missive from the mayor of Oneida. Still, Schaal and his fellow Ameners weren't satisfied. They went to the President of the Journal Register Co., and demanded a retraction and an apology: it was unconditional surrender, or nothing.

GROVELING TOWARD BETHLEHEM

After a series of meetings with various self-appointed representatives of the Jewish community, the owners of the Daily Dispatch caved and published a groveling mea culpa: "We understand many felt [the editorial] expressed anti-Semitic sentiments," it said. "We will not further offend our readers by attempting in any way to justify what was written; we can only assure readers that The Dispatch is not anti-Semitic and that we acknowledge the editorial should not have been published."

So much for the Israeli lobby winning the war of ideas on the "merits" of their case. Clearly, another strategy is at work here: not debating their opponents but silencing them.

ODE TO BRUTE FORCE

The rest of Amiel's essay is really a kind of paean to the efficacy of brute force. While those poor bedraggled Israeli "activists" may have been fighting an uphill battle, according to Amiel, in the post-9/11 era the tide seems to be turning, and she can hardly keep herself from gloating that now the Arabs are really going to get it:

"Powerful as the truth may be, it needs a nudge from 16,000lb daisy cutter bombs once in a while. The Arab/Muslim world's intransigence comes into sharper focus when we see the Americans liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban in six weeks and a cornered Arafat unable to go to the bathroom without the risk of being blown into the next world."

PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS

Here is the kind of Zionist who clearly enjoys the brutality and indignity of the Israeli occupation. Such people now feel free to publicly exhibit and even flaunt their perversity, which seems like something straight out of Kraft-Ebbing. What else can one call Amiel's odd interest in controlling Arafat's bowel movements other than a sh*tty little perversion?

THE TERRORISTIC IMPERATIVE

"Nothing succeeds like powerful bombs," exults this war goddess, "as bin Laden explained in his latest video release. 'When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse,' he said." How natural for her to approvingly cite bin Laden on the terroristic imperative: but then that is what tribal warfare is all about, no matter which side one fights on.

CHOO-CHOO

Yes, it is force, not reason or negotiation, that is decisive, avers Ms. Amiel, who gleefully predicts that "All those people badmouthing the Jews and Israel will quieten down." Or else be quieted down, involuntarily, like Jean Ryan, Dale Seth, and now perhaps Carl Cameron, of Fox News. "You are looking," Amiel continues, "at the tail end of the train but the engine has already turned a corner and is going in the opposite direction" – and anyone who shows up at one of those ritzy parties she's always attending had better get on board, or else.

AMIEL'S JIHAD

No one would think to label denunciations of, say, Robert Mugabe, as the equivalent of anti-black racism: but we are expected to just accept that virtually all criticism of Israel and Ariel Sharon is due to "anti-Semitism." Amiel's blatantly dishonest and self-serving jihad is naturally bound to cause resentment among all thinking people – an emotion that could, easily, turn into genuine anti-Semitism. But that, I believe, is the point: anti-Semitism serves the interests of the most extreme wing of the Zionist movement, and always has.

100 YEARS AFTER DREYFUSS

Founded as it is on the permanence of Jewish victimology, and the idea that anti-Semitism is inevitable, Zionism thrives when Jewish persecution grows. It is a natural tendency of Zionist propaganda to exaggerate hostility to Jews. The founder of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, was confirmed in his opinion that it was "futile" to combat anti-Semitism when the infamous Dreyfuss case was at the center of a storm of controversy. Today, however, with the rapid decline and marginalization of anti-Semitism everywhere but in the Middle East, the pressing need for a Jewish state requires more justification.

WHY A JEWISH STATE?

Anti-Semitism in the West, as "hate crime" statistics and other research has shown in recent years, is practically nonexistent. This good news was hailed by Jewish organizations in the US when it was first announced, but the extreme Zionists were no doubt made uneasy. For if anti-Jewish prejudice is distinctly beyond the pale, at least in the civilized world, i.e., the West, then what do we need a Jewish state for? This is a question many Jews, when faced with an appeal to emigrate to Israel, must ask themselves, and, at least up until Ms. Amiel's outburst, the Zionists have had no good answer. Now they appear to have solved the problem by simply redefining "anti-Semitism" to mean any criticism of Israel's expansionist policies and its current radical right-wing government.

THE OLD ANTI-SEMITISM

Anti-Semitism used to mean legal and cultural proscriptions directed against Jews. In medieval Europe, Jews were forced into ghettos, in Nazi Germany they were branded with the yellow star and exterminated, and, in America and Europe, it used to be that some establishments, both high and low, would not do business with Jews. Certain hotels and men's clubs would not admit them, and anti-Semitism was especially rife in the universities where an unofficial Jewish quota kept their numbers and influence limited. This is real anti-Semitism, and, today, it is not only illegal but socially and politically unacceptable: anyone deemed an anti-Semite in this, the original sense, is in effect a pariah, and rightly so.

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To: UberVernunft
"equislings"

Is this your attempt at creating a neologism?

901 posted on 12/29/2001 10:46:24 PM PST by UberVernunft
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Comment #902 Removed by Moderator

Comment #903 Removed by Moderator

To: Yehuda
jawol, or however your online dictionary spells it -

I have no idea what you're babbling about here...

lets see, you pukeChanans

Once again you've lost me -- "pukeChanans"?

routinely call us the "amen corner"

Let's review what has taken place.

You've been caught making bigoted statements. Instead of apologizing you're making it worse by engaging in more name calling and continuing in this quest to reveal more of your strange thinking.

Now you're calling me a new name, "pukeChanans", whatever that means, and are making claims about my supposed behavior based on membership to this imaginary group. Once again this is the thinking of a bigot.

for fighting for our lives,

No one is saying you can't "fight for your own lives".

I just happen to be pointing out that you are making bigoted statements, and that it is inappropriate for this forum.

I reply that we have been saying "amen" to defending Jews for millenia against pagans who wish to destroy us for being Jewish, and thus infer that you and your friends' ancestors seem to share their values

Now I see part of the problem -- when I call you on your obviously racist remarks -- instead of apologizing you go on to "infer" (nothing like a racist making an inference) characteristics of me as part of this imaginary group.

Once again, this is the mindset of a bigot

, and I And so sorry you couldn't handle my combining "moral equivalency" and "quislings":

No, what I can't handle are individuals who post nonsensical insults. I should also remind everyone concerning what this conversation was originally about -- Israel and its policies. This is not a discussion about what happened in Europe a millenium ago. As an American I primarily support the United States and those policies that would benifit the United States. When you throw around a word like "quisling" you show your ignorance. You're the one with divided allegiance -- not me. As far as "moral equivalency", you're the one making the racist remarks -- not me.

both terms seem to suit you.

LOL.

Ironically they only suit you.

904 posted on 12/30/2001 5:37:21 AM PST by UberVernunft
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To: Justin Raimondo
"Ah, sex, it's always sex with you JDL types. Another hairy-backed dwarf, lashing out in the only way he knows how. Poor thing...."

What were you just saying about "Character assassination, name-calling," and "smears,", Ramona?

905 posted on 12/30/2001 7:19:54 AM PST by Don Joe
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To: Justin Raimondo
How's that thing about birds and feathers go again?
906 posted on 12/30/2001 7:20:35 AM PST by Don Joe
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To: Justin Raimondo
"But of course ideologues like yourself don't know about humor....."

Where as arrogant, full-of-themselves blowhards like yourself embody it.

Get over yourself.

907 posted on 12/30/2001 7:22:52 AM PST by Don Joe
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To: Justin Raimondo
"Define 'anti-Semitism'. Is it opposition to Israel -- or a belief that all Jews are evil?"

Why should he go to the bother when the dictionary's already defined it?

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=anti-Semitism

Date: 1882
: hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group

Oops, looks like "all of the above", doesn't it.

908 posted on 12/30/2001 7:26:58 AM PST by Don Joe
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To: IronJack;College Repub
"Presenting your opinions of his opinions as fact doesn't do your case much good."

Unlike, for example, you presenting your opinions of College Repub's opinions, eh?

909 posted on 12/30/2001 7:29:41 AM PST by Don Joe
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To: Justin Raimondo
"I guess it must be hubris -- the Israelis think they can get away with anything, at this point."

Man, talk about hubris! If you really believed your own tripe, you'd be a lot more circumspect in your verbal ejacula, n'est ce pas?

BTW, no offense was intended above, so please don't take any; my use of the word "man" was strictly rhetorical.

910 posted on 12/30/2001 7:33:02 AM PST by Don Joe
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To: Don Joe;Justin Raimondo
What were you just saying about "Character assassination, name-calling," and "smears,", Ramona?

Well, it's nothing new that Justin seems to work his little obsessions in everywhere. Even managed to squeeze this headline into this racialist article of his:

"PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS"

One wonders if this wannabe cross between Yasser Arafat and Maureen Dowd shares his reading time equally between Kraft-Ebbing (link doesn't work btw) and CODOH.

And of course, we have this line. Which is really a topper seeing where it's coming from:

Such people now feel free to publicly exhibit and even flaunt their perversity

Oh well. Perversity has never been absent from the antisemite crowd. Proud tradition from Ernst Röhm to current skinnyheads ;).

911 posted on 12/30/2001 7:39:42 AM PST by Cachelot
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To: The Documentary Lady
Well look what the camel dragged in.
912 posted on 12/30/2001 7:48:51 AM PST by Don Joe
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To: Zorobabel
"I may not agree with Justin, but he has a right to his opinions."

Yes, he has a right to his opinions. However, he has no right to promulgate them here. If his noise is deemed to be outside the scope allowed by the site's owners, then the responsible thing to do is to report the violation, so as to prevent the site from degenerating into a free-for-all.

913 posted on 12/30/2001 7:51:22 AM PST by Don Joe
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Comment #914 Removed by Moderator

To: Justin Raimondo
"Back in the 50s or early 60s, there was a nutball group called the 'National Renaissance Party' which, it turned out, was funded and promoted (secretly, of course) by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith."

Oh?

Did they have much trouble flushing out bigoted knuckle-draggers to fill out the membership rolls? Sounds like a brilliant strategy for getting the vermin to reveal who they are!

915 posted on 12/30/2001 7:53:55 AM PST by Don Joe
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To: AshleyMontagu
"Remember the big to-do about nazis marching through Jewish neighborhoods in Skokie Illinois? It turned out that their leader was a Jewish pedophile. Ooops."

That's interesting. Now tell me about all the goose-steppers who followed him. Like you said, oops.

916 posted on 12/30/2001 7:54:43 AM PST by Don Joe
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To: Justin Raimondo
"Go cry to your Mommy then, and quit bothering the adults."

You certainly know how to turn a phrase.

By the way, is it true what they say about you?

917 posted on 12/30/2001 7:57:26 AM PST by Don Joe
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To: Justin Raimondo
"a group of them recently burned a Christian Bible"

Green does not become you, dear. Besides, no reason to envy, there are no shortage of bibles left for you to have your way with.

918 posted on 12/30/2001 8:00:34 AM PST by Don Joe
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To: Don Joe
"That's interesting. Now tell me about all the goose-steppers who followed him. Like you said, oops".

Were they all Jewish too?

919 posted on 12/30/2001 8:01:47 AM PST by NimbleBunny
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To: Don Joe
Unlike, for example, you presenting your opinions of College Repub's opinions, eh?

Mr. Raimondo presented facts. CR presented opinions. There are no facts in CR's opinions to contravene. Just as there is nothing in your criticism except rhetorical wrangling.

920 posted on 12/30/2001 8:04:13 AM PST by IronJack
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