Well... am I an anti-semite?
I will try to defend myself here from this charge, but truthfully the case looks bleak - I am admitting now that it is just possible that I truly AM an anti-semite.
I wrote a To my Jewish readers section at the end of this article.
And here's how this article started...
After posting a few comments on reddit, I received a private message from diggn_it.
Here is what he wrote:
"After reading your blog further, I found this:
"I stand by the fact that the neocon movement leaders and major players and supporters are all Jewish-Americans, and they work against the interests of the USA and for the benefit of a right wing, expansionist, Likud vision of Israel." What follows is a really weak apology for the other blatant racism on your site.
"Jews in America, for example (if you read the Philip Weiss blog) are doing very well, and indeed are now part of the elite, that strata of society which dictates to the rest of the country its foreign policy, its domestic policy, and are in powerful positions to sway public opinion or, better yet, the other elites' opinions to their views."
And the most damning...
"Jews in America, for example (if you read the Philip Weiss blog) are doing very well, and indeed are now part of the elite, that strata of society which dictates to the rest of the country its foreign policy, its domestic policy, and are in powerful positions to sway public opinion or, better yet, the other elites' opinions to their views....The trouble also is that us Jews are taught, from when we are small kids, to be outsiders - we may live in America/France/Romania - but we are Jews first. And so, being Jewish, being pro-Israel comes first...The trouble with us Jews is that because of the Holocaust, because we became radicalized, we, unlike many other ethnic groups, do not assimilate nor do we want to."
I am not extremely interested in having a conversation with one such as yourself, so I will simply say that your gross negative generalizations for an entire race of people is pretty much the definition of an anti-semite. Your opinions seem entirely based on false conspiracy theories and negative stereotypes of what ALL jew believe (because them jews er all the same!). Half of your evidence is either patently inaccurate or just plain racist (them jews are all successful and run the country and want to be outsiders!).
This is why I think you are anti-semitic. I don't really want or care to hear a response."
I didn't remember writing it - and as I am perpetually tired and zonked out from lack of sleep and overwork lately - and so this led to the somewhat comical situation where I asked "who me wrote that?" repeatedly despite being shown a link to MY blog article.
Mea culpa - of course I wrote it, in my
Dual Loyalty? The case for dual loyalty of the Jewish Diaspora article.
So, the following writing is pretty damning (and yes, while claiming it is out of context, it is STILL pretty damning):
"I stand by the fact that the neocon movement leaders and major players and supporters are all Jewish-Americans, and they work against the interests of the USA and for the benefit of a right wing, expansionist, Likud vision of Israel." What follows is a really weak apology for the other blatant racism on your site.
"Jews in America, for example (if you read the Philip Weiss blog) are doing very well, and indeed are now part of the elite, that strata of society which dictates to the rest of the country its foreign policy, its domestic policy, and are in powerful positions to sway public opinion or, better yet, the other elites' opinions to their views."
"Jews in America, for example (if you read the Philip Weiss blog) are doing very well, and indeed are now part of the elite, that strata of society which dictates to the rest of the country its foreign policy, its domestic policy, and are in powerful positions to sway public opinion or, better yet, the other elites' opinions to their views....The trouble also is that us Jews are taught, from when we are small kids, to be outsiders - we may live in America/France/Romania - but we are Jews first. And so, being Jewish, being pro-Israel comes first...The trouble with us Jews is that because of the Holocaust, because we became radicalized, we, unlike many other ethnic groups, do not assimilate nor do we want to."
This writing pretty much makes me an official anti-semite, the kind who wears a white hood and attends the local KKK rally.
There is no defense.
The prosecution rests - AmericanGoy chooses to represent himself without any need for a lawyer.
diggn_it wrote "I will simply say that your gross negative generalizations for an entire race of people is pretty much the definition of an anti-semite."
He is correct.
Generalizing and making points about an entire race is the definition of being a racist.
But...
But everybody does it.
To a certain extent, if you happen to live in a real world, and you interact with actual people instead of platitudes, you would have to admit it if you are honest.
No matter what country you live in, no matter what race you are - everybody makes general observations about others - other races, other countries, other peoples...
Take a look at Sabra Price is Right! video:
This is the first time Adam Sandler had a role on the Saturday Night Live show (I believe), and the skit was making fun of pushy Jewish swindler merchants, out to cheat and lie to their goyim customer to make a quick buck off of them.
Hilarious!
And, very, very racist.
And... dare I say it... accurate, if you are familiar with that NY millieu? (Now I've done it! What a hole I dug for myself here!).
And what about making fun of the prototypical nagging Jewish mother?
It is all in the degree and the nuance of the racism that it becomes acceptable or not. What I am saying is that racism is in the eye of the beholder.
Lets take this point by point - there are three damning paragraphs I wrote, and I will tell you exactly why I wrote it. I will leave it to you to judge me if, in your view, I am a racist, bigoted anti-semite.
So, to wit!
First Paragraph:"I stand by the fact that the neocon movement leaders and major players and supporters are all Jewish-Americans, and they work against the interests of the USA and for the benefit of a right wing, expansionist, Likud vision of Israel."If you have read my blog at all, you pretty much know that this is correct.
The major players in the neocon movement are Jewish, and it was they who worked both inside (the 'W' Bush administration) and outside (as opinion makers - writers for newspapers, as "expert" guests on TV "news" shows, on radio [Mark Levin]) to push this war.
I would submit to the prosecution my entire section of
Neocons and Israeli Lobby in the USA located on the right hand side of this blog page.
Specifically, if you disagree with the view that it was the mainly Jewish neocons who got us, America and Americans, into this fiasco Iraq War 2 and the occupation (and now try their hardest to make America attack Iran), please just glance at
Scott Ritter on Israeli lobby influence on the United States,
Is Israel to blame for the Iraq War? and
Israel to blame for Iraq War - Part 2.
Of course there was the clearly retarded American president, 'W' Bush, and the eminence grise of the administration, Mr. Cheney (who are not, last I checked, Jews, the wearing of the yarmulka when visiting Israel or at AIPAC conferenfes notwithstanding), who made the call to go to war.
But, right behind them, there was this
The OSP was an open and largely unfiltered conduit to the White House not only for the Iraqi opposition. It also forged close ties to a parallel, ad hoc intelligence operation inside Ariel Sharon's office in Israel specifically to bypass Mossad and provide the Bush administration with more alarmist reports on Saddam's Iraq than Mossad was prepared to authorise.
"None of the Israelis who came were cleared into the Pentagon through normal channels," said one source familiar with the visits. Instead, they were waved in on Mr Feith's authority without having to fill in the usual forms.
The exchange of information continued a long-standing relationship Mr Feith and other Washington neo-conservatives had with Israel's Likud party.
Cheney set up an Office of Special Plans, specifically to bypass the CIA analysts and cherry pick intelligence to find justification for war.
Is calling attention to the fact that Israelis came to the Pentagon and provided this FAKE, BOGUS intelligence to justify Iraq War 2 anti-semitic?
Is calling attention to the fact that Douglas Feith, an American(?) official who has served in the position of Under Secretary at the Pentagon, has had extensive contacts with Likud (Israeli political party) officials?
How about quoting Ari Shavit, a writer for Ha'aretz (an Israeli newspaper):
The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservative intellectuals, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to change the course of history.
.
Ari then interviewed three leading neoconservatives (yes, Jews) who admit and boast of their role in the selling of the Iraq War 2 to America and the (gullible? ignorant of the world? apathetic? pathetic?) American public.
Ari quoted Thomas Friedman as saying:
"Is the Iraq war the great neoconservative war?
It's the war the neoconservatives wanted, Friedman says.
It's the war the neoconservatives marketed.
Those people had an idea to sell when September 11 came, and they sold it.
Oh boy, did they sell it.
So this is not a war that the masses demanded.
This is a war of an elite."
And more:
"I could give you the names of 25 people (all of whom are at this moment within a five-block radius of this office) who, if you had exiled them to a desert island a year and a half ago, the Iraq war would not have happened."
I don't know about me being a damned anti-semite, but that bit from Friedman is pretty damming to me!
Second Paragraph:"Jews in America, for example (if you read the Philip Weiss blog) are doing very well, and indeed are now part of the elite, that strata of society which dictates to the rest of the country its foreign policy, its domestic policy, and are in powerful positions to sway public opinion or, better yet, the other elites' opinions to their views."This is a damning, racist paragraph as it groups all Jews and points out that they are... well off...
Wait, is this so bad?
Racist?
I have noticed this fact myself, from my own observations that Jewish folk do very well in the American system. I have never seen an American Jew who is a bum, living on the street, begging for money.
I have seen a multitude of Jewish lawyers, Jewish bankers, Jewish businessmen, Jewish entertainers, Jewish movie moguls, etc etc etc.
This is common sense and should be obvious to anybody who has lived in America for even a small period of time and has contacts with Jews.
Phillip Weiss wrote extensively on the subject in his blog and reinforced my point.
But forget Mr. Weiss for now, how about
The Jerusalem Post?
It's a list of "the world's most powerful people," 100 of the bankers and media moguls, publishers and image makers who shape the lives of billions. It's an exclusive, insular club, one whose influence stretches around the globe but is concentrated strategically in the highest corridors of power.
More than half its members, at least by one count, are Jewish.
In the Vanity Fair lis of the 100 "world's most powerful people", half of them are Jews.
When I write of the Jewish elite influencing the nation, and the other elites, I am not talking here about the Jews who are middle class, or upper middle class of America. Obviously they have limited influence in the USA, except as
perhaps donors to pro-Israel organizations such as AIPAC or J Street.
What kind of a Jewish elite am I talking about here, exactly?
Re-read the damning paragraph I, the bigot on trial here, wrote:
"Jews in America, for example (if you read the Philip Weiss blog) are doing very well, and indeed are now part of the elite, that strata of society which dictates to the rest of the country its foreign policy, its domestic policy, and are in powerful positions to sway public opinion or, better yet, the other elites' opinions to their views."
Rich and powerful Jews who donate millions to AIPAC, Jews in this administration (neocons), Jews who write articles for the American newspapers, who go on TV "news" shows and urge America to bomb Iran...
Jews like
Sheldon Adelson, the third-richest man in America who happens to be Jewish and is insanely Zionist.
Here's what
Mr. Richard Silverstein wrote while reviewing the
New Yorker article profiling that man:
Adelson opposed both Olmert and the peace conference, which was held in Annapolis in late November. The Zionist Organization of America, to which Adelson is a major contributor, ran a full-page ad in the Times, headlined, “SECRETARY RICE: DON’T PROMOTE A STATE FOR PALESTINIANS WHILE THEIR 10 COMMANDMENTS PROMOTE TERRORISM AND ISRAEL’S DESTRUCTION.” The “10 Commandments” referred to the constitution of Fatah, Abbas’s party. “Osama Bin-Laden and Hamas would be proud of Abbas’ Fatah Constitution,” the ad stated.
I don’t know about you, but I’m deeply frightened of a mega-billionaire who shares the political views of Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz, Charles Jacobs, Bibi Netanyahu and Natan Sharansky. There’s no telling how much damage so much money can do in a political process. The following passage describes Adelson’s nutty-as-fruitcake notion that Haim Saban, one of the AIPAC’s most significant donors, is anti-Israel; and the Fatah rump prime minister is a “terrorist.” This is so redolent of Frontpagemagazine, Campus Watch and the David Project rhetoric–it’s scary:
In early November, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, who is widely respected in Washington, was scheduled to appear with Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, at the opening of the Saban Forum, an event in Jerusalem organized by the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy. Adelson phoned the event’s chair, Haim Saban, an Israeli-American businessman, and asked him to contribute to a campaign that he was organizing against the Olmert government; Saban declined. Adelson then asked if he would sign an ad; again, Saban refused. Whereupon, Adelson accused him of funding anti-Israel research at the Saban Center. Saban was surprised, but suggested that when the center’s director, Martin Indyk, was next in Las Vegas he and Adelson could talk. Not long afterward, Indyk met with Adelson at his office at the Venetian, on the Las Vegas Strip. According to a person familiar with what happened at the meeting, Adelson berated Indyk for hosting “terrorists” like Fayyad, who he said was a founder of Fatah. Indyk is said to have replied that Fayyad was never involved in terrorism and was not a member of Fatah, and that Adelson’s problem was really with Olmert, because he dealt with Fayyad. Adelson stood his ground, and declared that the Olmert government was an illegitimate government and should be thrown out.
Natan Shanransky is one of Adelson’s darlings. The former’s One Jerusalem organization has also targeted Olmert with especially incendiary rhetoric. What is important in the passage below is Bruck’s statement that Adelson is breaking a tacit understanding of American Jewish politics concerning Israel:
Historically, most mainstream American Jewish organizations don’t publicly oppose the government of Israel, but in the weeks before and after the Annapolis conference a number of groups were strongly critical. Among them was One Jerusalem, founded in 2000 to protest any peace accord that would include Israeli concessions on Jerusalem. One Jerusalem has received contributions from Adelson. A week before the Annapolis conference, One Jerusalem’s chairman, Natan Sharansky…announced a major campaign against any division of Jerusalem, and against the peace initiative. One Jerusalem referred to Annapolis as “the Munich Conference of the 21st century.” After Olmert asserted Israel’s right as a sovereign state to make decisions regarding its national security, One Jerusalem posted an article on its Web site, headlined, “OLMERT TO WORLD JEWRY: SHUT UP.” Later, as Olmert’s negotiations with Abbas continued, another piece announced, “OLMERT DECLARES WAR ON ISRAEL.”
Again, what is especially noxious here is the notion that an elected Israeli prime minister does not have the right to set Israeli policy if it runs counter to a right wing notion of what it should be. In other words, Adelson favors Israeli democracy when his man (Netanyahu) is running the show. When he isn’t, then the other guy is a charlatan and traitor to the nation who should be destroyed like an insect.
This man is just one example.
But he is only one man and one cannot generalize?
OK, another example then.
Israel is why I became a member of Foreign Affairs Committee says American(?) Congressman.
Here we have an American(?) politician Howard Berman, a Democratic Congressman from California, admitting that he became a member of Foreign Affairs Committee specifically to help out Israel.
Pretty damning.
Again, that is only two examples.
I am still a racist and a closet KKK member.
But wait, there is more.
If you have been faithfully reading my blog, you would have chanced upon my writing on the 'Clean Break' policy paper.
If you have missed out, one of the articles is
here, and here is the money quote:
Anybody reading this blog (and who is knowledgeable about politics in the USA, even from skimming Reuters/AP and watching TV "news", and is not blinded by AIPAC ideology) knows that this is the short version of what happened in modern American history.
First, the A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm policy recommendation paper was written by Richard Perle and other neocons.
The "Clean Break" paper was written for then Israeli prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu, and stated that for Israel to be secure, Iraq, Iran and then Syria would have to be "taken out".
In that order.
Yes, REALLY, that is what the "Clean Break" paper was about - go read it yourself here:
"Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria’s regional ambitions. "
"An effective approach, and one with which American can sympathize, would be if Israel seized the strategic initiative along its northern borders by engaging Hizballah, Syria, and Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon, including by:
* striking Syria’s drug-money and counterfeiting infrastructure in Lebanon, all of which focuses on Razi Qanan.
* paralleling Syria’s behavior by establishing the precedent that Syrian territory is not immune to attacks emanating from Lebanon by Israeli proxy forces.
* striking Syrian military targets in Lebanon, and should that prove insufficient, striking at select targets in Syria proper. "
So lets not kid ourselves - Israel views the destabilization of Iraq, Iran and Syria as its national goals.
So what happened after the "Clean Break" study, written by American Citizens for Israel?
Why, the
Project for the New American Century was born.
Think about the dates.
"Clean Break" was written in 1996.
PNAC is founded by Jewish neocons in 1997.
PNAC is then, simply, an organization to carry out the "Clean Break" goals to make Israel more secure in the Middle East, by using American military and money to accomplish those goals.
Do you see now what I mean by:
"Jews in America, for example (if you read the Philip Weiss blog) are doing very well, and indeed are now part of the elite, that strata of society which dictates to the rest of the country its foreign policy, its domestic policy, and are in powerful positions to sway public opinion or, better yet, the other elites' opinions to their views."
Now, perhaps you have realized this on your own. Unless you were doing the typical American male behavior of ignoring every and each news and concentrating on following only the football, baseball, basketball and NASCAR news on ESPN's Sportscenter, perhaps you have yourself noticed the "experts" on TV who urged America to take action on Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction.
"Experts" on TV like Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, William Kristol, Eliot Abrams, Charles Krauthammer (all Jewish, by the by) - experts who now
boast about their role in bringing on the calamity of Iraq War 2.
Third Paragraph:And the most damning...
"Jews in America, for example (if you read the Philip Weiss blog) are doing very well, and indeed are now part of the elite, that strata of society which dictates to the rest of the country its foreign policy, its domestic policy, and are in powerful positions to sway public opinion or, better yet, the other elites' opinions to their views....The trouble also is that us Jews are taught, from when we are small kids, to be outsiders - we may live in America/France/Romania - but we are Jews first. And so, being Jewish, being pro-Israel comes first...The trouble with us Jews is that because of the Holocaust, because we became radicalized, we, unlike many other ethnic groups, do not assimilate nor do we want to."I have already explained why I feel justified writing that Jews are part of the elite, that strata of society to "sway public opinion or, better yet, the other elites' opinions to their views."
Again, we are talking about major political players, not Joe Schmoe upper middle class Jewish family guy, but people like Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol, Eliot Abrams, Charles Krauthammer, Thomas Friedman...
But what particularly offended diggn_it is this paragraph:
The trouble also is that us Jews are taught, from when we are small kids, to be outsiders - we may live in America/France/Romania - but we are Jews first. And so, being Jewish, being pro-Israel comes first...The trouble with us Jews is that because of the Holocaust, because we became radicalized, we, unlike many other ethnic groups, do not assimilate nor do we want to.
Damning.
Racist.
Bigoted.
And 100% true, in my view.
Diggn_it did not like me employing me writing a paragraph as if I was Jewish (I am a goy - a non-Jew, which should be obvious just by glancing at the title of this blog and my nom de plume).
But also, he was offended by generalizing and writing that ALL Jews are taught, from the youngest age, to be outsiders, to recognize the fact that they are unique, that they are Jewish, that they are different from the herd in which they live. ("herd" - another racist word used, as if to say that Jews are parasites and that they "feed" on the herd. Great, now I've done it again! Perhaps not going to law school was a good call and my mother was wrong, after all).
Offended he might be, but... is it true?
Phillip Weiss
My Jewish Problem: Jewish Superiority, Jewish Elite:
I went to a friend's son's bar mitzvah on Saturday and in some part because of my blog, and its discussion of Jewish politics, felt a little alienated. I forgot to get a yarmulke, then I ran to get one. I wondered who if anyone there had seen my ideas. Later, at the reception, I got into a discussion about these issues with an old friend, who was joined by a friend of his.
My friend said he was a secular Jew and asked me how I define myself. An assimilating Jew, I said. Shortly after that, his friend said, I don't know what an assimilating Jew is, and walked away.
My friend is more intellectual. He said, What do you think will be lost if Jews assimilate into America? He answered his own question: the excellence that Jews have brought to any number of endeavors, science, the arts, finance, education, and so forth.
I said, But what if these qualities are more widely shared with assimilation? Will our excellence pull up others' mediocrity?
He said, I think those qualities will be diluted. I.e., lost.
We are better than the goyim, and must actively work NOT to assimilate.
We cannot intermarry - we must keep the blood in, and only marry other Jews (there I go again, writing as if I was a Jew - forgive me, and bear with me).
Still it is interesting that my friend and I shared a premise: Jews are superior; for whatever reason Jewish culture is superior in areas of modern civilized achievement.
In discussing My Jewish Problem on this blog, that's a core Jewish value I would point to: Jewish exceptionalism. Belief in that idea underlies so much of Jewish social attitudes and achievement.
Jewish exceptionalism.
Jews are superior.
Mr Weiss again, in the
Kevin MacDonald and the Politics of WASP Resentment.
I will skip the polemics that Mr. Weiss writes about Mr. Macdonald, and only quote the paragraphs that have bearing on my case, as a good defense lawyer should:
I agree that Jews tend to be ethnocentric. As an assimilationist Jew, I am intensely aware of this trait. The Jewish law against intermarriage smacks of racism in today's America (even Jews agree, in opinion surveys; and mad Joe Lieberman lied about these laws when he ran for president 8 years ago). As Norman Mailer observed to the American Conservative, post-Holocaust Jews are fixated on the question, "Is it good for the Jews?" Pure ethnocentrism, and grotesque-- when you consider the cultural and political power Jews have achieved in the U.S.
We hit that Jewish law against intermarriage again. And, by the by, Mr. Weiss seems to agree that American Jews (hell, all Jews worldwide) have a tribal policy, a policy of always looking out for their people first.
Well, OK, you might say, you AmericanGoy are a raging anti-semite, and Phillip Weiss is a self hating Jew. But there is only two of you, and this does not make the case at all..
Fine.
As I drive to work every day in the beautiful Obama City, I drive through various ethnic neighborhoods.
One of them is a Jewish neighborhood.
And everywhere, there are the big blue and white signs, with the Star of David on them.
There are two types.
One group of signs, murals and billboards is "We stand with Israel!" (which is self explanatory).
The other group is "Operation Jewish Education".
Being a curious fella, I looked up what the heck that "operation" is all about.
Jewish Post article on the subject:
There is a crisis in our community. Rampant assimilation and intermarriage are obvious to all and, tragically, accepted by far too many. They have taken an enormous toll and threaten to decimate the American Jewish community, representing a peril more insidious than any external enemy. Until all of our children can connect with their heritage, substantial elements of the North American Jewish community will continue to drift into oblivion.
There is a crisis!
Jews are marrying non-Jews! They are marrying the.... other... the... goyim.
Shame, shame, etc etc.
The crisis proportions of this trend became evident to all with the 1990 population study. Since its publication, Jewish organizations and philanthropies have scurried about to establish institutional programs under the banner of "continuity," and "saving the at-risk population."
The "at-risk population"?
What, is this a plague decimating the Jewish population, like AIDS was to gay men in the 1980's?
We are talking about LOVE here, people!
Very few, if any, substantive solutions have been implemented. Band-aid approaches have been proposed where radical procedures are needed. The true solution to this crisis is actually quite simple and obvious: We must educate our children Jewishly.
We must teach our children that they are Jews - that they should not integrate, nor assimilate, and only marry nice Jewish boys and girls and not those filthy goyim/non-Jews.
In the absence of affordable, quality Jewish education, Torah and Jewishness are being lost to the vast majority of our young people. This should not come as a surprise. Only approximately 14% of our young people have been receiving an intensive Jewish education. The remaining 86% have been intermarrying and assimilating at extraordinary high rates. Why shouldn't they? What bond do they possess to link them to our 4,000 years of heritage and history?
Again, the Jews are assimilating into the American society.
THIS. MUST. STOP.
The ramifications of this situation are enormous. The intermarriage rate of the non-day school population is approximately 62%. This disastrous impact of 3 non-Jewish family units being created for every Jewish family unit will result in two polarized segments of Jews: a minority that is educated and committed and the much larger majority that has little or no affiliation with Jewish heritage or institutions.
One segment of the Jewish population, whose kids were not brainwashed by the "Jewish" education, will not be committed to the Jewish heritage and institutions.
And here, silly me, I thought that America is supposed to be this huge melting pot, where people come in and, I don't know, assimilate and become AMERICANS?Currently, a program is operating in Chicago that should serve as a national model.
The Chicago Federation has agreed to manage these funds with the contractual understanding that the principal can never be invaded and that only 5%-7% can be distributed annually. The goal for Chicago is to capitalize these funds with $300 million. At a 7% payout, every student can go to day school and yeshiva for free.
Every single Orthodox Rabbi and a substantial number of the Conservative and Reform Rabbis in the city have signed similar documents stating that every Jew is mandated to participate in this initiative.
What did I wrote again that was so offensive, racist and bigoted?
"The trouble also is that us Jews are taught, from when we are small kids, to be outsiders - we may live in America/France/Romania - but we are Jews first. And so, being Jewish, being pro-Israel comes first."Jews as outsiders who do not assimilate?
What gave me, the racist bigot anti-semite, THAT idea?
Perhaps the
fivepercent.org webpage did:
DECLARATION OF INTENT
Recognizing that rampant Jewish illiteracy and assimilation represent a peril more insidious than any external enemy and will continue to decimate the Jewish community;
Recognizing that historic authority and present Jewish rabbinic, communal and religious leaders have mandated that each Jew is obligated and has a duty and responsibility to take protective measures to assure the survival of our people; Recognizing that intensive primary and secondary day school education rooted in Torah min Hashamayim has proven to be the most effective defense against assimilation and the resulting losses to the Jewish people
What?
Lets take it point by point here:
1) rampant Jewish illiteracy and assimilation represent a peril more insidious than any external enemy and will continue to decimate the Jewish community
2) each Jew is obligated and has a duty and responsibility to take protective measures to assure the survival of our people
3) intensive primary and secondary day school education rooted in Torah min Hashamayim has proven to be the most effective defense against assimilation and the resulting losses to the Jewish people.
Does anybody want to tell me about Jews assimilating into American mainstream again?
OK, I know, I know - I am a hood wearing, card carrying anti-semite.
I am sorry, but, you know - facts are facts.
What about Jews being pro-Israel en masse?
Richard Silverstein
Chicago Jewish Museum Cancels Israel Exhibit, Federation Presidents Calls it ‘Anti-Israel’:
The Chicago Jewish community appears very touchy about anything remotely critical of Israel. Jewish directors of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs apparently pressured its director to cancel a talk by Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer last year. Now some of the same figures may have deemed an Israel-focussed exhibit at Spertus College to be too hot to handle. As a result the exhibit, Imaginary Coordinates, already closed briefly during its run after controversy first erupted, has been closed two and a half months early because of complaints that it was anti-Israel:
Feeling pressure from members of the Jewish community, Chicago’s Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies said Friday it is closing 2½ months early a museum exhibition on Holy Land maps and boundaries that dealt with Israeli and Palestinian concepts of homeland.
Spertus President Howard Sulkin said in a statement that the institute’s trustees “came to realize that parts of the exhibition were not in keeping with aspects of our mission as a Jewish institution and did not belong at Spertus. This exhibition caused pain for members of our audience. That was never our intent and we apologize.”
“Spertus was at risk of seriously alienating its core constituency,” said trustee Philip Gordon. He said the board agreed “that our fiduciary and mission-based responsibility to Spertus required us to direct the staff to close the exhibition.”
I have in my hand right now the most recent
Obama City Jewish Star, and am reading the following article as I write this entitled
Predictable end to Spertus Show.
Lets see:
In the first review of the exhibit to appear, the Jewish Star (May 9) predicted that Jewish viewers would be "puzzled, distressed and possibly angered by the show's perspective," which promoted the symmetry of Jewish and Palestinian visions, views and national identities, without offering context.
Here is the money quote from the
Jewish Star article:
"The exhibit unhinges the specifically Jewish ties to the land," and "is as much a [political] treatise as an exhibit," the Jewish Star review stated.
The exhibit unhinges the specifically Jewish ties to the land of Palestine/Israel.
Because, you see, before the 1948 coming of a mass immigration of European Jews, there were no people living there. And anybody who claims that there were people living there, and that they were ethnically cleansed by the Israelis is a nazi, bigot, KKK or the Israeli historian
Benny Morris.
From
Jewish Star,
In a June 20 statement announcing the early closing of "Imaginary Coordinates", Dr. Howard A. Sulkin, President of Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies (of which the museum is one facet), said that the board of Trustees voted to end the exhibit when they "came to realize that parts of the exhibition were not in keeping with our mission as a Jewish institution and did not belong at Spertus.
I guess showing the fact that a people - now called Palestinians - lived on, worked on, and died on the land now called Israel before 1948 is offensive.
And it also is "not in keeping with our mission as a Jewish institution".
Not Jewish-American.
Thus a 1942 drawing by a father to his son during the holocaust, that concluded with the hope of the land of Israel was mounted together with a vial containing earth from a destroyed Palestinian village that was gathered in 1992 by an individual born in that village.
A viewer would understandably conclude from this pairing that what the nazis did to the Jews of Europe, is equivalent to what the Jews of Israel did to Arabs in Palestine. The Israelis are today's nazis, was the implication.
Hey, I disagree with that.
The Israelis are today's Serbian war criminals, is my view - for example, look at
this case of a Serbian war criminal.
Milan Martic, 52, was found guilty of murder and persecution during his leadership of the self-declared Krajina Serb republic in the early 1990s.
Replace the "self-declared Krajina Serb republic" with self-declared Israel, Jewish republic, and you have the 1948 history of the birth of Israel in a nutshell.
Again, if you don't believe me.... well, believe me,
facts are hard to spin these days in the age of internet.
Did I establish that Jews are outsiders, willing outsiders who do not want to assimilate and support Israel to the point of it being almost like a part of Judaism, the Jewish religion?
From Australia,
Time to rally around the Hatikvah.
The way that some important schools, synagogues and organisations plainly state by omission that they do not recognise the Jewish State as she is currently constituted and performing, as being fully legitimate in their eyes.
In terms of saying the Prayer for the State of Israel, religious Zionists include the words “reshit tzmichat geulateinu” -- a recognition that the current existing State of Israel is part of the redemptive process of the Jewish people and has spiritual and religious currency.
The deliberate non-inclusion of these words implies the opposite. It is an attempt to somehow support the People of Israel but not the State itself as an entity.
Even some of our biggest modern Orthodox day schools have trouble in recognising this -- something which was a given not so long ago -- and it is time for the boards of such mainstream schools to sit up and take action and to re-establish what was once the status quo and to stop this alarming drift.
Jews not supporting to the hilt the state of Israel?
Alarming trend, dear chaps!
Symbols are important. And one of the most important symbols of the Jewish State is Hatikvah. The anthem of the State of Israel.
“The 2000-year-old hope, To be a free People in our Land, The Land of Zion and Jerusalem”.
We are also proud Australians and properly have no difficulty in singing Advance Australia Fair, of course.
Wait, wait wait.
You do not have a problem singing the Australian national anthem, but this is stated as a by the by, offhand remark. I get the feeling that the author cares more for the national anthem of Israel, and his being an Australian citizen is somewhat of an afterthought. As in "I don't have a problem with ALSO singing the Australian national anthem".
O..... K......
It is time that we declare that, not withstanding a person’s individual belief, we in this community who recognise the fact of the legitimacy of the Jewish State, those of us who recognise the importance of the Jewish State as she is today to the spiritual and physical survival and renaissance of the Jewish People, will simply not accept as being OK that institutions, rabbis and leaders who do not allow the singing of Hatikvah in their synagogues or at functions -- and especially those functions which are ostensibly held to celebrate Israel herself.
Wait wait wait.
Hooooooold on there feller.
You mean to tell me that the Israeli national anthem is sung in Australia's synagogues and in Australian-Jewish organizations and gatherings?
Interesting. I asked around, and wouldn't you know it - the Ha'tikvah is also sung a lot in American synagogues.
Think about it - a national anthem of a foreign country is sung in America as being part of a religious ceremony.
Which leads me to the article where the "daming" racist, bigoted, anti-semitic paragraphs I wrote come from -
Dual Loyalty? The case for dual loyalty of the Jewish Diaspora by AmericanGoy.
How about this example.
United Jewish Communities: The Federations of North America article on Jewish education:
Several communities have recently taken steps to improve Israel education.
This spring Baltimore Hebrew University for the first time offered a professional development course for teachers on how to bring Israel into the classroom.
Team-taught by an education professor and a political science professor, the course combines content with brainstorming sessions on how to make the content accessible to children of different ages.
In teaching about the current situation, one teacher showed students a film clip profiling a teen-age girl in Jerusalem talking about how her day-to-day life has been affected by the fear of terrorism.
Another designed a board game in which players move around a map of Israel and answer questions about life there.
Hana Bor, the education professor co-teaching the course, said the course is not just focused on the current crisis, but about teaching about Israel in general.
Without fostering a student connection to Israel, students "wouldn't care less about the crisis," she said. "We don't want to teach only the negative."
Both the Jewish Education Service of North America, working with the federation system's United Jewish Communities, and CAJE have circulated curricular materials with suggestions on teaching about Israel, terrorism and the current situation.
The Jewish Education Center of Cleveland put together "Israel Now: A Solidarity Response Curriculum," which has been circulated nationally through JESNA and the UJC and focuses on several key ideas.
Among them: that Israel is a "special place" for Jews worldwide, that Jews need to stand by it in crisis and that it is "important to be 'critical consumers' of the media, carefully evaluating the veracity and slant of the news about Israel."
Re-read the last part.
The Jewish Education Center of Cleveland put together "Israel Now: A Solidarity Response Curriculum," which has been circulated nationally...
Israel is a "special place" for Jews worldwide, that Jews need to stand by it in crisis and that it is "important to be 'critical consumers' of the media, carefully evaluating the veracity and slant of the news about Israel.Does all of this - pages and pages of facts and anecdotes - not prove my points?
That Jews do not assimilate, that Jews are pro-Israel, to the point of not caring about their own country first, but caring about Israel first and foremost?
How about this article?
The Canadian Jewish News:
TORONTO — Though 60 years have passed since Israel became a state, there are still many members of Toronto’s Jewish community who remember that joyful moment in May 1948 like it was yesterday.
Of particular note was the raucous singing of Hatikvah that erupted at the gathering, she said.
“It was the loudest Hatikvah I heard in my life,” Hirt said. “That was my introduction to being a passionate Zionist.”
Hirt added that as a result, she’s been active in support of Israel and of UJA Federation causes ever since, as both a donor and a volunteer on numerous projects over the years.
“I tried to instil in my students my own passion for Israel,” she said.
Assimilation? Being a patriot to the country that you live in?
No, no and no.
Being Jewish comes first, and, by extension, being pro-Israel is more important and takes precedence than being a patriot to the country that one lives in.
Whether America, Canada or Australia... or
Cuba.
But but but... this is all racist, bigoted, anti-semitic writing and... an... and... (insert derogatory words followed by the obligatory phrase anti-semite here).
Am I generalizing about a big group of people.
Yes.
Am I right?
Ahh, that is the crux of the matter now, isn't it?
When reading lefty blogs, I particularly liked reading the often uttered phrase when dealing with a (neocon or not) right wing shill's talking point and dismissing them: "Facts have a liberal slant".
Well, now there is an addendum, it seems.
Facts seem to have an anti-semitic slant these days in America.
Bonus Material:If there is one article, one thing that proves everything I wrote about in this article and on my blog as a whole, it would be this:
Ha'aretz, Rosner's BlogAIPAC changes its tune, will sing Hatikva at policy conferenceWASHINGTON - The 4,500 participants at the annual AIPAC policy conference, which begins next week, will be singing both "Hatikvah" and "The Star Spangled Banner." The Israeli national anthem was not sung at the conference last year, provoking criticism of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee from all sides.
U.S. Vice-President Richard Cheney will be the keynote speaker at this year's conference, which will be held in the shadow of what the pro-Israel lobby organization perceives as the twin threats to the country - Hamas and Iran's nuclear program.
Last year's decision to skip "Hatikvah" has been linked to the investigation at the time into senior AIPAC officials and a desire to avoid any suspicion of dual loyalties.
The tradition of singing the Israeli national anthem at AIPAC gatherings began many years ago, and it was upheld at a large convention of the organization's activists held in Los Angeles a few months ago.
The defense rests its case...
To my Jewish readers.I hope that this article, and indeed this blog has given you food for thought, especially if you happen to be Jewish.
I have a fair few Jewish acquaintances and a great Jewish friend, who happens to be an immigrant to America from Israel.
This does not establish my credentials, and indeed a case can be made that perhaps I am a "closet" anti-semite, hiding my real views.
Perhaps.
I did have some discussions about Israel and the Jerusalem area with my friend, and we agreed to disagree (a copious amount of drinks were consummed by both parties, and we, even if wanted to, were unable to execute our karate/krav maga moves on each other).
What I am trying to say here (it is late and I am rambling now - forgive me) is this...
Think on what I wrote, whether you think I am a bigot, racist anti-semite or not.
Think on the role of AIPAC in the American political process.
Think on the role of someone like Sheldon Adelson, part of the Jewish elite in this country.
Think, if you are Jewish, as you sing Ha'tikvah in your American synagogue, a national anthem of a foreign country, exactly where your loyalties lie.
As you donate money to the Jewish causes - a religious education, a Jewish school, a Jewish charity or... AIPAC... think of the effect.
I want you to be aware and pick your loyalty.
The retard, outgoing American president has said "You are either with us or against us!".
We, Jews and goyim, have not reached this phase (let us hope we won't).
We can all work together for the betterment of America and mankind (to me, the order is important).
Am I a bigot?
As an American Jew, with all the dual-loyalty brouhaha that accompanies that fact, are you a traitor?
It is all in the nuances, in my opinion.
But, as I hold in my hand the Chicago Jewish Star no. 424, June 27-july 17 2008 edition, I glance at the articles...
Front page
Assad's gambit: peace or process? - about Syria vis-a-vis Israel.
Soldiers killed? - about Israeli soldiers being pronounced dead after being captured by a Lebanese militia in a 2006 cross border raid.
Jordan stops Red-Dead Peace Canal - about a Jordanian (now defunct?) project to pump water to replenish the Dead Sea.
The already quoted
Predictable end to Spertus show.
And a picture, with the caption "French Leader Expresses Pride in Israel".
Notice a trend in the topics and articles on the front page of CHICAGO Jewish Star?
That's right - only one article deals with a Chicago news story, and that only because it affects the perception of Israel.
The rest of the front page articles in this Chicago paper are all about Israel.
What more can I say here?
I hope that you, an American who happens to be Jewish, will continue to read my blog and comment on my articles, ESPECIALLY if you disagree with something I wrote, like diggn_it wrote to me on reddit.
Lets quote that message to me from diggn_it in it's entirety:
After reading your blog further, I found this:
"I stand by the fact that the neocon movement leaders and major players and supporters are all Jewish-Americans, and they work against the interests of the USA and for the benefit of a right wing, expansionist, Likud vision of Israel." What follows is a really weak apology for the other blatant racism on your site.
"Jews in America, for example (if you read the Philip Weiss blog) are doing very well, and indeed are now part of the elite, that strata of society which dictates to the rest of the country its foreign policy, its domestic policy, and are in powerful positions to sway public opinion or, better yet, the other elites' opinions to their views."
And the most damning...
"Jews in America, for example (if you read the Philip Weiss blog) are doing very well, and indeed are now part of the elite, that strata of society which dictates to the rest of the country its foreign policy, its domestic policy, and are in powerful positions to sway public opinion or, better yet, the other elites' opinions to their views....The trouble also is that us Jews are taught, from when we are small kids, to be outsiders - we may live in America/France/Romania - but we are Jews first. And so, being Jewish, being pro-Israel comes first...The trouble with us Jews is that because of the Holocaust, because we became radicalized, we, unlike many other ethnic groups, do not assimilate nor do we want to."
I am not extremely interested in having a conversation with one such as yourself, so I will simply say that your gross negative generalizations for an entire race of people is pretty much the definition of an anti-semite. Your opinions seem entirely based on false conspiracy theories and negative stereotypes of what ALL jew believe (because them jews er all the same!). Half of your evidence is either patently inaccurate or just plain racist (them jews are all successful and run the country and want to be outsiders!).
This is why I think you are anti-semitic. I don't really want or care to hear a response.
I will let you decide.
Good night.
