Posted on 09/10/2002 3:41:31 PM PDT by zapiks44
In 2002, 60 years after the Holocaust, a Jewish girl cannot go out to an anti-neo-Nazi rally and hold up the Israeli flag.
The past two years have been a perplexing time to be a young "liberal" Jew in America. As an Israeli American, I have often been required to defend Israel from her liberal detractors. An epidemic is crossing our nation's campuses, as confused college kids are lumping together the American civil rights movement with the anti-apartheid movement with the Palestinian independence movement.
Encouraged by groups like the Nation of Islam, black pride slogans have been appropriated for Palestinian protests and the language of Malcolm X has been subverted to serve the adherents of Yasser Arafat.
This has been particularly disturbing to me, as I have been extensively involved with attempts to heal the breach between the Jewish and African American communities.
During these troubling times, I remain proud of my Jewish heritage. During a mission trip to Israel with the International Hillel Organization, I learned that there are no absolutes in politics just as there are no absolutes in life. My sense of Israeli and Jewish identity was rekindled as I began to realize, together with my Jewish brethren in our homeland, that no matter how I or anyone else feels about the current actions of the Israeli government, the Israeli nation has the right to exist in its current form, as a homeland for Jews. I rediscovered that as an Israeli American, I could always hold my head up high. And I do.
Today I sojourned to the U.S. Capitol to join the counter-rally against a neo-Nazi demonstration. As I watched the neo-Nazis approach the south Capitol lawn, my ears were pelted with offensive slogans and vile rhetoric.
How can I describe my feelings as I watched them pass, with their swastikas, Aryan banners, anti-Israel posters and crossed out stars of David?
To these Nazi sympathizers, who applaud the victimization of minorities, of Jews, who extol the brutal slaughter of 12 million people including whole branches of my family tree, to them I wanted to sing out, "I AM A JEW! I AM AN ISRAELI AMERICAN! NOW IT IS YOU THAT ARE IN THE MINORITY. WE ARE STRONG AND WE ARE HERE FOREVER!"
Unfurling a blue and white Israeli flag, I walked briskly and purposefully toward the gathering of anti-Nazi protesters. Watching 300 neo-Nazis with their strident rhetoric, I felt small, isolated and helpless.
As I walked toward my compatriots, my fellow protesters, I felt more empowered with each step. These were people who believed as I did, rational tolerant people whose personal morality impelled them to stand together and denunciate hatred and intolerance. They would stand with me, protest with me, and perhaps attempt to educate -- with me.
Or so I thought.
As I walked deeper and deeper through the crowd of protesters, waving the Israeli flag high and proud above my head, I began to feel less and less welcome. I marched on, waving the flag even higher so each and every neo-Nazi could see the flag of the Jewish people.
Suddenly I realized that the cries and jeers at the sight of the flag, originated not from the neo-Nazis, but from the anti-Nazi protesters.
I continued through the crowd and tried hard to ignore the glares. Inevitably, I was confronted. Abusive, although not unfamiliar words assaulted me at first: "Israel is fascist!" "Zionism is racism!" An old woman with a sweet face screamed at me, "You are a Nazi!" she cried. What had started out as a protest against racism quickly turned into a forum of hatred and fanaticism. I and the flag I held were their targets.
What could I do? Would I turn around? Could I let them disrespect this symbol of my people, and retreat in fear? I held my flag even higher. And I attempted, among the threats, the jostling and chaotic vehemence, to reason.
"I am not the enemy! The enemy is right across the street. Please, let's share this common ground and fight together!"
Despite my intense rage, I stayed true to my nonviolent beliefs and fought her and the crowd that had begun to form around me, with my words.
The crowd of anti-Nazi protesters did not have the same nonviolent ideology. I was spat upon. I was physically and verbally threatened. Grown men accosted me and tried to rip the Israeli flag out of my hands. Several were very close to actually assaulting me. Police intervened and blocked the anti-Nazi protesters from approaching me. These were supposed to be the good guys, and yet the hatred they exuded was just as potent as that of the Nazis themselves.
When a police officer told me that I should leave for my own safety, I staunchly refused. With every shout, hiss, slur and threat, the Israeli flag stood higher in my hands. Blocking out all the defamatory statements about Israel, I stood at the forefront of the protesters and held up that flag as much for them to see as for the neo-Nazis.
I have never felt more proud or more alone in my entire life.
Eventually, I was made to relinquish the flag to its owner, who wanted to leave.
I didn't want to go and give them the satisfaction of my defeat, but I have never been so disgusted with humanity, and wanted to be as far away from these "champions of humanitarianism" as possible.
I wanted to show them the hypocrisy of fighting fascism by tearing down a flag and telling someone she does not have the right to be there because of her heritage. I wanted to give them glasses that would correct the myopic vision with which they saw as complex a situation as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one so clear cut and categorically absolute.
But all I could do was ask them, "Why are you doing this?" "Why are you doing this?" With all of the research I've done on the conflict, for all my convictions, all I could say was "Why are you doing this?"
I must admit that I, like many young Jews and Zionists my age, feel betrayed by American liberals. With regards to the Middle East, there seems to be no appreciation of the moral ambiguity, the political nuances, the multiple layers of media spin. Faced with such a complex situation, young people too often ask others to chew it, swallow it and digest it for them, and then tell them in absolute terms which side is most appropriate to their general belief structure.
Are you in favor of affirmative action? Are you for civil liberties and women's rights? Why, then, you must be pro-Palestinian! Anti-Globalization? Humanitarian? Pro- Palestinian! Ever voted Democratic/ Libertarian/Socialist or even abstained from voting for a Republican? Then Palestine is the side for you!
Strongly held political views in no way justify acting in such a callous and hateful way toward a fellow human being. With their blind hatred of Israel, these anti-Nazi protesters treated me as roughly as the neo-Nazis on the other side of the partition would have, had they but had the opportunity.
Today, I held my head -- and the Israeli flag -- up high; not in Israel, but in what I had previously considered to be a safe environment. For what better place to applaud the existence of a state for Jews than at a Neo-Nazi counter-rally on Capitol Hill?
I was sadly mistaken. As I went out to face the neo-Nazi demonstration, I found myself hated, both by the neo-Nazis and by those who were there to protest against them. I found myself alone in the middle. And for the first time in my life as an American, I truly understood the crushing impact of anti-Semitism.
In a very palpable way, I was an outsider, hated by everyone. With rabid anti-Semites on one side and anti-Israel fomenters on the other, surrounded by bystanders willing to do nothing as I suffered horrid abuse, I wept É and as Jews must do in this post-Holocaust world, I stood my ground. Truth.
A District resident, Sarah Kopelovich, 21, is a senior at George Washington University.
Your search for Kopelovich resulted in a total of 1 match.
Kopelovich, Sarah
Email: kokopeli@gwu.edu
Me thinks that a belief in the danger of some clowns who call themselve or rather who are labeled as the neo-Nazis is itself a dangerous cult. But that's just me...
But I have a question.
She writes: To these Nazi sympathizers, who applaud the victimization of minorities, of Jews, who extol the brutal slaughter of 12 million people including whole branches of my family tree...
How did the Holocaust of 6 million people get to be a Holocaust of 12 million? Is she mistaken or using hyperbole? Or was she writing about some other slaughter of millions?
By including all the victims who weren't Jews?
Then you're either incredibly naive, or you're transparently hoping for the destruction of Israel from within.
Which is it?
Feel free to explain why you think it's a marvelous idea for Israel to welcome into its land a flood of millions of people who wish to destroy Israel and Jews. That's not to say that all Palestinians do, but there are clearly huge numbers of them who fervently wish it, enough so that a "right of return" would overwhelm Israel like christening a highway for trojan horses.
This is either what you want to happen, or you're so amazingly ignorant of the situation that it's hard to take your pronouncements about "what Israel should do" seriously.
I had considered that. But I always thought that the 6 million figure accounted for the Romanians and the Poles, etc, etc.
Now, let's take it to the next level.
Why should Europe welcome into its land a flood of millions of people who wish to destroy Europe and Europeans?
Yet, Europe (and America) are expected to welcome millions of hordes of Third Worlders. If they don't, Abe Foxman will express concern about their racism. Why the double standard?
Her letter is sprinkled with a variety of "blood and soil" phrases that have specific philosophical ramifications:
"my Jewish identity was rekindled"
"together with my Jewish bretheren in our homeland" (is she an American? If so...isn't America her "homeland"?)
"could I let them disrespect this symbol of my people?"
Tragically, many Jews have been playing a double game for many decades now. They have been relentless in attacking an destroying any manifestation of group identity amongst non-Jewish white people. The main strategy has been to ally with various non-white racial groups and propagate the idea that any such manifestation of white group identity is the equivalent of racism and Nazism.
Meanwhile, they have been equally relentless in supporting a nation that is founded on the very same group-based identity that they have found so horrible in other whites.
Should Israel have a Jewish star on its flag? If so...would she accept a cross on the US flag? (nope...it would make her feel like an outsider)
Should Israel bar immigration by anyone who isn't Jewish? If so....why shouldn't France or the UK only allow French and English descended people to immigrate? (nope....that would be 'racist')
As Ayn Rand once said "contradictions don't exist, if you find one, check your premises".
The Faustian bargain that many Jews have made (namely, to attack non-jewish white ethnic identity to prevent Jews from feeling like 'outsiders' and 'excluded' by working to radicalize nonwhite racial groups and promoting universalist philosophy) is coming home to roost.
In my years at various universities, Jewish liberals were at the forefront of "antiracist" movements aimed at placing all whites under the universalist microscope. South Africa was evil because it didn't allow blacks to vote....third world immigration had to continue unabated regardless of the demographic consequences across Europe and the US....affirmative action was sacrosanct because whites had to be punished for "past discrimination".....etc etc etc.
Now...this same universalistic ideology is being applied to Jews.
My entire college experience revolved around my being villified for my race, my gender, and my religion. I was the epitome of evil in the universe. I lost count of the number of times that the historic accomplishments of Western Man were smeared and my ancestors were maligned....slavery, Indian massacres, global warming...you name it.
And many of the folks doing the smearing and maligning were just like dear Sarah here.
I'm sorry if I sound a little cynical...but she's only upset that this stuff is being thrown her way for the first time. If this anti-Israel stuff blew over tomorrow...she'd be back on the anti-white political bandwagon in a NY minute.
I've got a question for you. Given teh realities of Israel, should paleo-cons support it? It is a Western nation-state built around an ethnic core.
I'm not talking about supporting US aid to Israel, but I do find the Palestinianism of some paleos and most white nationalists to be troubling. They seem to put anti-Semetism ahead of nationalism. In so doing, they undermine all paelos.
That many paleos, Pat Buchanan NOT included, seem to go beyond desiring American non-involvement in the Middle East vis-a-vis Israel and Palestine, and actually shed crocodile tears for the 'poor, oppressed Palestinians' is ridiculous, and certainly does more harm than good. I can only speak for myself, but I have no quarrel whatsoever with the existence of Israel. Like Europe, though, if the people therein don't start having more babies, they're going to lose it...which is another topic altogether, I suppose.
They might not be the problem that the media portray them to be, but to deny that they aren't there is pretty naive. I don't think the Turner Diaries was a runaway best seller (we certainly won't be seeing it on the NYTs list anytime soon- hopefully) but it did (does) enjoy quite a little cult success. I've seen estimates of around 500,000 copies sold over the years (who knows how many downloads. That any American would read and "take wisdom" from such a work or look on it as a blueprint or battleplan is sickening. That any American would slide a Swastika armband on his sleeve, or salute Hitler or burn across is also revolting. And they're out there- I have first hand experience.
I hate the liberals, but I hate American Nazis no less. They are all enemies of freedom and all enemies of the USA.
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