The British National Union of Journalists recently voted to boycott Israel (whatever that means). Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen provides the perfect response:
In Iran, the government overturned the convictions of six men who, among other things, killed a young couple because they were walking together in public. In China, local authorities seized about 60 women and forcibly aborted their pregnancies. In Russia, the Putin government expanded its control of the media. In Cuba . . . oh, well, you already know. But what you may not know is that given such a vast palette of injustice and depredations, the British National Union of Journalists made a truly original move: It singled out Israel to boycott...
So what explains this fury at Israel -- and only at Israel? What explains this need to denounce, to boycott...
The British journalists, like the academics before them, dare to tread where an army of goons has gone before. If they do not recognize the ember of anti-Semitism still glowing within them, they ought to park themselves before a mirror and ask why, of all the nations, they single out Israel for reprimand and obloquy. This business of assigning to Jews a special burden, for seeing in them more of mankind's bad qualities and less of its good, has a dark and ugly pedigree: the Chosen People, again -- and again in the wrong way.
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Samuel — I agree with you — Israel always gets blamed for everything — however as a Jew and a Zionist who was brought up on the stories of kibbituzniks building the country by day and dancing horas at night it is a little distressing to spend time in Israel and just see how messed up the country is — no hope, rude people, lack of values. And then to go to the Arab countries who, despite their own huge problems, seem to have more of a sense of hope, of family, of good hostmanship
It’s a hard one…
Cheers ben
benkepes.wordpress.com benkepes(Quote)
I find this a startling revelation. I thought Israel was the good guys. What do I know, only what I get from the MEDIA, so there’s your answer. madmouser(Quote)
People single out Israel because the Jews are attempting to do what Hitler attempted. Create an ethnic state. Jews are carrying out the necessary bloodletting required to create an ethnic state. They are engaging in genocide, ethnic cleasing and every other atrocity that one human being can do to another. Muck Israel and the Zionists.
Jews have wormed their way into the United States government and now the United Staes is supporting the ideology of ethnic and religious states which is against everything we are supposed to represent. Just for spite we should turn the United States into an Aryan Christian nation and see how the Jews like that.
If jews want an ethnic state then the condition for that should be that they all have to live there. Otherwise Israel should be opened up for the taking.
Jews are safest in an enviroment where people oppose what they are doing to Palestinians. Jews are safest in a country where the people uphold and defend the Consitution. Jews are safest in a nation where people oppose places like Gitmo. Jews are safest in a country where there is rule of law.
The Jews are responsible for bringing the United States down to the level of Gitmo, ethnic states, Iraqi holocaust and aggressive war. Israel ranks at the bottom of nations among the people of the world. If they come for Jews tomorrow who will speak out.
Now you want to discuss whats wrong with Israel and who the bad guys are. For the most part the neocons are Jewish Zionists. Rahm Emanuel is the democrat who chooses party nominees and nobody gets the nomination who doesn’t kiss Jewish ring. Dennis Kucinich for instance. 60% of democrats’ campaign money comes from Jews.
During the last presidential election democratic party elites (Rahm Emanuel) gave Gore the boot and foist John Kerry off on us. Kerry said he would do a better job of taking out Israel’s enemies and rearranging the middle east for Israel. Even though the majority in the United States opposed those policies. Now Zionists control the government and we are doing evil things. What should the penality be for those who bring down the United States of America.
I know who the good guys are and I don’t who the evil ones are and I am sick of jews portraying themselves as innocent victim when they are neither. In most cases they are the victimizers and I hope that one day they get their just rewards. thesouthtoday(Quote)
Oh british Journalists…such a distorted view of reality! haha Like the blog, it has a similar feel to the things I talk about. I went ahead and blogrolled you
http://politicsandreligion.wordpress.com Justin(Quote)
Thanks for passing this story on. Nice post. Just where did “the southtoday” go to school, Arian High? smithofthelongfield(Quote)
Yeah thanks for passing the story along. It will fit nicely with all the other bs self serving propaganda put out by the jews every minute of the day.
Thanks so much to those who are well educated, enlightened, sophistocated and who attended schools other than Arian (sic) High.
smithofthelongfield has a high duh factor. Duh what is the difference between an Aryan Nation and a Jewish State you moron.
If the United States has been reduced by the damn Jews to supporting the ideology of ethnic states then we should make the United States into an Aryan Christian nation.
Duh can you make an argument against an ethnic and religious Aryan Christian State? Good go ahead. Then take those arguments and apply them to the jewish state and bingo a light bulb may go off in your empty head. thesouthtoday(Quote)
thesouthtoday,
People single out Israel because the Jews are attempting to do what Hitler attempted. Create an ethnic state.
What’s wrong with a state based on ethnicity? Japan, France, England and Ireland, among countless others, are all states comprised of a single ethnicity. The Franks became France. The English became England. The Celts became Ireland, Scotland and Wales. I could go on. The United States is the exception to this norm.
In fact, I’d posit that states based on a single ethnicity can be better, in certain circumstances, than those that are not. The reason Africa is torn by civil war is that warring tribes were grouped together in artificial countries created by European colonial powers.
Jews are carrying out the necessary bloodletting required to create an ethnic state. They are engaging in genocide, ethnic cleasing and every other atrocity that one human being can do to another. Muck Israel and the Zionists.
The majority of Jews and Israelis want a peaceful, two-state solution: A viable state for Jews (Israel) and Palestinians (Palestine). It’s just that the extremists get much of the media’s attention. I don’t have time to go deep into the history, but the Arabs/Palestinians were offered a state on very generous terms several times over the decades, and but rejected the proposals because they wanted all the land.
If jews want an ethnic state then the condition for that should be that they all have to live there. Otherwise Israel should be opened up for the taking.
OK. So, to follow your logic: No French people should be allowed to live outside of France? No Japanese people should be allowed to live outside of Japan? And so on.
The Jews are responsible for bringing the United States down to the level of Gitmo, ethnic states, Iraqi holocaust and aggressive war. Israel ranks at the bottom of nations among the people of the world. If they come for Jews tomorrow who will speak out.
Please limit yourself to using rational, logical arguments to refute these points. I will not tolerate anti-Semitism (or hatred towards any religion, ethnicity or race) on my blog. I welcome opposing points of view, but everyone must remain tactful and considerate. Your comments are approaching anti-Semitism, and if you cross that line I will ban you.
Now you want to discuss whats wrong with Israel and who the bad guys are. For the most part the neocons are Jewish Zionists. Rahm Emanuel is the democrat who chooses party nominees and nobody gets the nomination who doesn’t kiss Jewish ring. Dennis Kucinich for instance. 60% of democrats’ campaign money comes from Jews.
I’m calling you out on this. Cite me your sources.
I know who the good guys are and I don’t who the evil ones are and I am sick of jews portraying themselves as innocent victim when they are neither. In most cases they are the victimizers and I hope that one day they get their just rewards.
See my above comment in regards to anti-Semitism on my blog. Samuel J. Scott(Quote)
benkepes,
it is a little distressing to spend time in Israel and just see how messed up the country is — no hope, rude people, lack of values. And then to go to the Arab countries who, despite their own huge problems, seem to have more of a sense of hope, of family, of good hostmanship
Your comment is very interesting. I’ve been to Israel twice, but I’ve never stayed long enough to get an accurate feel for the country’s mood. (I can only read about it in The Jerusalem Post and Ha’aretz.)
In each of the two times I was there, I found my friends and my friends’ families to be very gracious hosts. Everyone was very family-oriented — much more so than in (non-Jewish) America. And I wouldn’t say there was a sense or hope or despair — it was more of a “whatever will be, will be” view of things. Though everyone did seem to hate the current government.
In regards to your “lack of values” comment, are you referring to “secular” Israelis compared to “religious” ones? (I hate those terms because the Hebrew meanings don’t translate well into the English words.) While a slim majority of Israelis are secular, this is changing due to the high birthrates of religious Israelis.
Again, much of this is just my superficial impressions. I’ll be in Israel for three weeks later this summer, and I’ll be interested to see if anything has changed. Samuel J. Scott(Quote)
Thesouthtoday needs a muzzle, imho.
At any rate, however, Israel’s would-be defenders need to quit whining about Israel being “singled out.” Israel is supposed by the West to be this great bulwark of democracy, learning, and rule of law in the Middle East. The countries that are always mentioned in the context of “why doesn’t the media attack them” aren’t. We should all hold Israel to a higher standard — after all, the Israeli people have a meaningful vote, and Israel receives the most foreign aid from the US of any country in the world. China, Russia, Iran, Cuba et al, on the other hand, are not expected by the media and the West in general to be free, democratic, learned, rational, modern, or any other positive. These countries are NEVER portrayed in a positive light in the mediia, which is perhaps why you don’t notice them being condemned. Do the defenders of Israel really want to group their beloved country with sponsors of terror and torture? Jeff(Quote)
Jeff Israel isn’t a democracy, its an ethnocracy. And Samuel you should be banned from your own blog if you do not allow anti-semitism here. White Jews have DNA that is more like to that of Attila the Hun then to Abraham or Jesus. The Palestinian people have the same DNA as the Jews of ancient Israel and clearly they are semites. To support Israel means that you support the ethnic cleansing, genocide and other atrocities commited by the jews against semites.
Furthermore let me make one thing perfectly clear. There is no crime greater than the trashing of the United States Constitution and supporting a foreign nation at our expense and that includes hatred of the white jews.
Since ethnic states are so swell in your estimation then I suppose we should rethink Nazism and what Hitler was attempting to accomplish because the only difference between Nazi Germany and Israel is that one would have been Aryan and the other would be Jewish (depending upon the Jew’s success in getting the Christians to do their work for them since they can’t do it for themselves).
Thank you for reminding me about France Japan etc. That is all the evidence I need. We must at this point make the United States into a Christian Aryan nation as we have every right to do.
The United Nations has perdicted that by 2050 western nations will be overrun with immigrants from Africa, Asia and the middle east and that we will be in decline. They never said anything about Mexico but I suppose Mexicans will be the main reason we will be in decline.
Anyway if ethnic states are good enough for France, Japan and the wonderful Jewish state then by God they are good enough for me. So if all of those who are not purely white and solidly Chrisitian will just pack your bags and get the hell out it will save us the trouble of blood running in our pure white Christian streets. Gee I hope Mexicans can swim better than they speak English. thesouthtoday(Quote)
PS how much more anti-semitic can you get then dropping 500 pound bombs on Iraqis who never did anything to us. That happened because of the vile evil Jewish neocons who wormed their way into our government and by god my speech is not conditioned upon jewish approval and I will speak the truth and i don’t give a shit is you are they like it or not. Jews are behind our holocaust in the middle east and what they are doing is the evil. It is not evil to accuse them and to demand that they pay for what they have wrought. They should be held accountable just the same as bush/cheney.
Who if not jews have brought about a sitution where its ok to drop bombs on their enemies but you must’nt oppose them are speak of what evil they do because that is considered to be evil. I don’t like them and I don’t like what they do so ban me to hell and gone I don’t care. World class assholes are not likable. Perhaps they should change their ways and then people woudln’t hate them. They have no right to demand that we shut up about what they do.
Go ahead Samuel ban me. You can’t handle the truth so you ban people. I say we ban people like you from our country and that would be better. A pure christian aryan nation. The only way to save ourselves. thesouthtoday(Quote)
Hey, thesouthtoday: just wondering: what’s YOUR ethnicity? Jeff(Quote)
I would not be allowed to live in Israel thats for sure.
Neither France, Japan, Ireland or any of the Arab states demanded that WE secure their pure ethnic and religious states for them. It is OUR business what Israel does because we hold its fate in the palms of our hands. Jews should be ashamed to demand that those excluded from their state create it for them. If jews had discovered america they’d still be getting scalped by indians.
Furthermore the last time I looked immigrants were trashing France and British citizens were moving elsewhere to get away from the immigrants and the Pope is worried that Europe is becoming Islamic.
The greatest migration in the history of the world and the United States is giving the jews their own pure state. A nice target. thesouthtoday(Quote)
I think what Sam is suggesting in his series on “fixing” the conflict is, indeed, that the US (and the West generally) needs to rethink the way it conducts business with Palestinians and Israelis, especially when it comes to “giving” people “their own… state.” Indeed, Israel is the #1 recipient of US foreign aid, and that aid comes with very few strings attached. Guess who’s second? Egypt. (Barring Afghanistan and Iraq, which are really a different kettle of fish.) As the old saying goes, money talks, BS walks; Israel might get thrown some sh**, but they come up smelling like roses every time.
At any rate, a point of clarification: no state is truly “ethnic.” Japan has (or had) an ethnic minority that is/was slowly dying out. France, Italy, and Spain (just three examples) are conglomerates of tribes/nations, some of whom preserve their own language. The UK is becoming less united, as Scots and the Welsh rediscover nationalism. Jewish “ethnicity” is an issue without ready solution. Genealogically, there is little evidence to support that all Jews are literal descendents of Abraham; indeed, quite the contrary. The Jewish people do have some traits of a nation, however, and Zionists believe those traits substantial enough to justify a nation-state. Yet, Jews are no more singularly Semitic than Spaniards are Castilian.
Finally, that Jews have been able over the past 65 years to convince the majority in this country that US support of Israel is vital to US security is no different than the Cuban lobby’s ability to convince the old white guys in DC that the 40 year old embargo against Cuba is also vital to US security. It’s a damn shame no-one’s been able to convince Congress that throwing out the Bush Administration is vital to US security. Jeff(Quote)
thesouthtoday,
The Palestinian people have the same DNA as the Jews of ancient Israel and clearly they are semites.
Point of clarification: “Semite” is a linguistic classification, not an ethnic one. All people who speak Semitic languages are Semitic peoples.
On another note: Jews indeed are a mix of people. During the Diaspora, Jews, to varying degrees, intermixed with the non-Jews in their various countries. And some non-Jews converted. So although their DNA is not “pure” (which is a meaningless term, anyway), they are still fully Jewish. I’ll go into this in a further comment in response to another comment.
To support Israel means that you support the ethnic cleansing, genocide and other atrocities commited by the jews against semites.
You do realize that this statement is BS, right? Here’s a parallel: Anyone who “supports” the United States must support the war in Iraq. Some of the most patriot people I know hate the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. To be a patriot is to love one’s country so much that you will be the first one to criticize it when it does something wrong.
I love Israel. And I criticize Israel when I believe it does something wrong. (See my “Fixing the Middle East” post series — particularly my comments on the separation barrier — for examples.) Some of the most vocal critics of Israeli policy are Jews and Israelis who love Israel.
Since ethnic states are so swell in your estimation then I suppose we should rethink Nazism and what Hitler was attempting to accomplish because the only difference between Nazi Germany and Israel is that one would have been Aryan and the other would be Jewish (depending upon the Jew’s success in getting the Christians to do their work for them since they can’t do it for themselves).
You’re drawing a false dichotomy. Both the intents and the means are different. The Nazis decided to rid Germany of other ethnicities after the country had long been multicultural to begin with. Israel was founded as a Jewish State, and the government hopes to preserve that state. Germany also tried to eliminate other races internally through violent and evil means. Israel is trying to preserve its Jewish character by encouraging the creation of a Palestinian state and separate itself from Arab populations (although the means of separation, in certain instances, are not being enacted very well at the moment). Samuel J. Scott(Quote)
thesouthtoday,
PS how much more anti-semitic can you get then dropping 500 pound bombs on Iraqis who never did anything to us.
Um, Iraqis are not Semites. See my prior comment.
That happened because of the vile evil Jewish neocons who wormed their way into our government
Thanks for the laugh. I needed that.
Let me give you a hypothetical: Say all the neocons have red hair. Would it make sense to say that “the redheads” made us invade Iraq? Of course not. The fact that they have red hair — or are Jews — have nothing to do with the disasterous policies they advocated. The people who supported the war in Iraq are not Jewish neocons — they are neocons who happen to be Jews. Do you see the difference? I know it’s somewhat subtle. Samuel J. Scott(Quote)
Jeff,
I think what Sam is suggesting in his series on “fixing” the conflict is, indeed, that the US (and the West generally) needs to rethink the way it conducts business with Palestinians and Israelis, especially when it comes to “giving” people “their own… state.”
Indeed. The Israel-Palestinian conflict (not to mention the rest of the Middle East) is very complex, and many of the problems are interrelated. It’s not as simple as “give the Palestinians democracy” or “get rid of Israel” or “give everyone lots of money” or “tear down/build the separation barrier.” There is not magic pill. That’s why my series is — and will be — full of numerous, long posts.
Indeed, Israel is the #1 recipient of US foreign aid, and that aid comes with very few strings attached. Guess who’s second? Egypt. (Barring Afghanistan and Iraq, which are really a different kettle of fish.) As the old saying goes, money talks, BS walks; Israel might get thrown some sh**, but they come up smelling like roses every time.
I’m not sure if I’m interpreting your point correctly, but it sounds like you’re saying that Israel puts the money to good use, unlike many other Middle Eastern states. Israel has indeed built a functioning capitalist democracy with the aid it has received. Unfortunately, a lot of money given to other Arab states goes to weapons or the bank accounts of their so-called leaders rather than education, infrastructure and medicine.
Jewish “ethnicity” is an issue without ready solution. Genealogically, there is little evidence to support that all Jews are literal descendents of Abraham; indeed, quite the contrary. The Jewish people do have some traits of a nation, however, and Zionists believe those traits substantial enough to justify a nation-state. Yet, Jews are no more singularly Semitic than Spaniards are Castilian.
Jut a point on terminology. I use the term “ethnicity” to refer to a collection of common cultural norms rather than race or DNA or a similar trait. The DNA of all peoples have been well mixed by now, (In the Jewish context, non-Hebrews from Egypt joined them during the Exodus; many people converted — including Ruth, an ancestor of King David; and Diaspora Jews intermixed with non-Jews in their countries. So everyone is mixed, but the cultural practices are still held in common.
Finally, that Jews have been able over the past 65 years to convince the majority in this country that US support of Israel is vital to US security is no different than the Cuban lobby’s ability to convince the old white guys in DC that the 40 year old embargo against Cuba is also vital to US security.
Yes, you are accurate. But I’d argue that an alliance with Israel is indeed vital to U.S. security while the Cuban embargo is not.
It’s a damn shame no-one’s been able to convince Congress that throwing out the Bush Administration is vital to US security.
No kidding. Samuel J. Scott(Quote)
Well, we can argue all day (and have, I think) about whether or not a US-Israeli alliance is good or bad for US security, but I’m not going to go down that path again.
As for Iraqis not being Semites, I hate to fall on thesouthtoday’s side, but Arabic is a Semitic language; Iraqis speak Arabic; Iraqis are therefore Semites.
My point about Jewish ethnicity is this: although many “cultural practices are still held in common,” many are not. As you note, Diaspora Jews have come to adopt many of the cultural norms of their surrounding majority neighbors — even going so far as to eat pork or hold the Sabbath on Sunday. A common example is the Ashkenazi-Sephardi dichotomy. So, while Jews do have much historical, religious, and “cultural” heritage, they are not a unified “nation” in the sense that other nations are; in this way, Israel is much more like the US than it is like Japan.
One final note, and again I find myself nearly agreeing with thesouthtoday, though I hope to be more less aggressive: Zionists did not take an empty land to form Israel. Without the deaths, expulsion, and exodus of many Arabs from the land in the early 20th century, there would be no “Jewish character” to “preserve” in modern Israel. It is fine now to advocate a “separation,” if one thinks that will work, but we cannot ignore the history that got us here in the first place. Jeff(Quote)
Jeff,
Ugh. I can’t believe I said that Iraqis are not Semites. My mistake. I retract that statement.
As far as cultural practices of various Jews in the Diaspora and Israel, I’d argue that they have much more in common than they do not. Jews are united by what they have in common. For example, as far as the English “nation,” I’d say that Londoners have more in common with someone in Yorkshire than they do not.
As I’m beginning to address in my “Solving the Middle East” series, the Jews formed a state through many various means — and some were aggressive and some not. Sometimes they bought land from Arabs and the Ottoman Empire (sort of an absentee landlord), sometimes they forcibly expelled Arabs. Sometimes they build on pre-existing Jewish settlements and towns. And everything in between.
Of course we cannot ignore history (from the Holocaust to expulsions of Arabs) and the effects of those historical memories on the Middle East conflict, but I argue that — to be completely practical — any solution must start from the present reality on the ground, so to speak. Samuel J. Scott(Quote)
1) Isn’t York in England? At any rate, I would still aver that an Orthodox Jew from Poland has as much in common with a Morroccan Sephardi as an Italian Roman Catholic has in common with an Irish Catholic from Boston. I suppose it’s a matter of opinion; though, I imagine you’d disagree.
2) I think you missed my point about the Jewish nature of the Israeli State: that being, that when the state was founded, it necessitated the elimination of some of the current inhabitants of that state, which at the very least wasn’t very nice. Jeff(Quote)
Yeah, York is in the northern part of England, just below Scotland. My point was that Londoners and people from Yorkshire still have more in common than they do not — since they are part of the English nation — even though London and York can seem like two different worlds.
It’s complicated to respond to your point. Yes, your two Catholics have only their religion in common (other than being of European descent and such things). But your comparison isn’t entire valid because Judaism is a religion and a culture and an ethnicity (to use as many loaded words as possible).
That’s why we — at least most of us — consider ourselves to be a nation. It’s also why Jews around the world have more in common than they do not. Sure, Jews in various places may flavor their Judaisms with Ashkenazi Chassidism, Sephardic traditionalism or myriad other things, but the base-level characteristics are usually the same. I hate to sound ethno-centric, but perhaps only Jews can see the commonalities.
Of course, the creation of the Jewish State frequently required the relocation of Arabs (whether with their will or against it) around 1948. But the proposed U.N. partrition years earlier would have allowed everyone to stay pretty much where they were. The Arabs, of course, rejected it and began committing violence. Samuel J. Scott(Quote)
Of course there are commonalities, and yes, even this “goy” can see them. I remember fighting this fight cognitively with myself once before, and I still can’t figure it out; so, I guess I’ll let it be.
Arabs weren’t the only ones committing violence; in fact, it was Israeli violence that drove the British from Israel. But, my point has been made.
The antagonist rests. Jeff(Quote)
why not?
i mean, why not israel?
among all the ‘bad’ nations of the world its one of the most mediatically peverse. israel acts as it likes, it disrespects other ‘nations’. and it fights unevenly. something like beating on children with a stick. if thats not enough reason to boycot a place i dont know what is. antony(Quote)
I don’t believe that boycotting is necessarily the answer to life’s woes concerning the Israeli/Palestine conflict. The truth must be told, and sometimes I think that is punishment enough. The backlash from the truth, can cause unexpected results, especially from people who are not jewish. This is the burden that judaics must bear, whether they were involved in the current problems or not. Ironically, I find it interesting that Britian would consider boycotting Israel, considering the deep ties it has with Israel…much greater than America I might add. I think that the threat of a boycott is self-imposed to look like the “anti-semitic everyone is always picking on us” plea. It will not work in our favor.
We are chosen to show the mercy and grace of God, and if we do not reflect that we will be chosen for death and destruction, as per the Torah. I say we choose life! Choose the truth, choose forgiveness, choose repentance and choose restitution to those we have willfully wronged. We must choose to call upon the name of our God, for He alone is our help in time of trouble. (even when we started the trouble) Eden Hadassah(Quote)