Friday, April 20, 2012

Challenging anti-Zionist Jews -- What do they want?

geoffff

I am a very occasional lurker at the blog of British author, novelist, broadcaster and cultural commentator Norman Lebrecht, Slipped Disc. For me the most interesting way of seeing things is from the inside; in this case classical music and related cultures from the standpoint of the artists themselves. However that is not the reason I first went to this site.

That was because I was looking for a place to comment on a strangely spine tingling and bizarre incident at the Royal Albert Hall last September when "pro-Palestinian" agitators, mainly it seems musicians and other artists, including inevitably a number of Jews, disrupted a performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms forcing a break in the broadcast. I had already had plenty to say on the subject elsewhere but Mr Lebrecht kindly provided the perfect place and all the space I needed. Really.

This may well have been the first time ever that musicians sought to tear down a performance by other musicians in front of their audience for any reason, let alone because of their nationality or citizenship. I do believe these creeps set a precedent.

The political class to which these people belong has been neatly nailed by Dr Mike Lumish here and at Israel Thrives. These are Jews who "represent the height of Jewish dhimmitude. They believe as fervently as any "Palestinian" that Israel is a racist, imperialist, colonialist, apartheid, racist state that must make way for yet another Arab state in the region. This is a form of dhimmitude so complete that the "Palestinian narrative" of perfect victimhood has taken over their thinking on the subject completely. They know with a clarity that Yassir Arafat would have admired that the Jews are guilty and that Israel was born in sin. The "New Historians," such as Ian Pappe and an earlier version of Benny Morris, did much to advance this toxic and false notion among Jewish people throughout the world."

Not just Jewish people of course. The anti-Zionist left always, repeat always, has had a few Jews upfront for cover for their antisemitic campaigns. They have always done this. Sometimes their tame Jews lead the charge. For some reason difficult to fathom the left thinks this is a winning hand.This is important for them; and not just the left. But it is the left that incessantly protests that because they have on board some Jews they could not possibly be antisemitic.

As usual they protest too much. They do this without the slightest hint of irony. They have no concept they are proving the point against them.

Each time I hear the "Jew defence" I think well ... duh ...

Jews are often fractious and outspoken. It's part of the culture. They challenge one another and they challenge others and by doing that they mean no disrespect. It is not a random spray of destiny that Israel has over fifty political parties but at the end of the day is always able to form a government. It is difficult to imagine how Israel could be any other way. At the beginning of the twentieth century a large majority of the world's Jews lived in countries where their basic human rights, especially expression, were suppressed or denied. Now the vast majority live in liberal democracies. This is why you will find all sorts of Jews saying all sorts of things.

This is because they are allowed.

Nobody would think that a virulently anti-American US citizen had something worthwhile to hear solely by virtue of his nationality. A rabid hater of Catholicism deserves no more attention just because she is a lapsed Catholic. Yet with the Jews there is a different dynamic at work. Mike linked a diagnosis from this writer. Oslo syndrome. Says it all.

Norman Lebrecht has savaged the decision by the Israeli interior minister to bar former Nazi, Gunter Grass, from entering Israel; a matter also discussed on this blog and at Israel Thrives. Fine. I can respect the opinion, also shared by Alan Dershowitz, although I'm not sure how the Israelis are expected to feel about being lectured from abroad on matters pertaining to the state's sovereignty and security while at war. But what caught my eye was a near perfect example of a thoroughly Dhimminised Jew who commented on the thread of the article.

Here is his world view, informed by the Grass affair, and here is the man, Dr. Martin Gak is a Philosophy PhD from The New School for Social Research currently leading the Centro de Estudios Filosoficos y Fenomenologicos Acanzados, Buenos Aires.

Surely we can't get better than this. An academic, in the southern hemisphere, as far away from those whose lives are in the balance as you can get without leaving the planet, who has swallowed so completely the Palestinian and left narrative that it is simply beyond him to understand that to oppose Zionism, 64 years after the Jewish state was founded, can only mean to oppose Jews and to support the hysterical brutal war against them waged by Arab Muslims who are explicit in their desire to see the destruction of Israel and the Jews. They say so again and again. Why don't they listen?

It's the dishonesty of these people that disgusts me most. Universities everywhere, including Australia, have "anti-Zionists" on staff with tenure and these often include Jews. If you will the destruction of Israel, why not say so? Why mumble your words? If you think that advocating the stripping of free people of all their civil and political rights, for no other reason than they are Jews, or perhaps more to the point, not Muslims, then please explain how this is not the vilest form of antisemitism? Please tell us how the dismantling of a hugely successful and productive liberal democracy in the face of Islamic totalitarian imperialism will benefit humankind.

They must know that Israelis, like free people everywhere, will fight to the death before they see their precious state destroyed and replaced by an abomination like the regimes that oppress the people of Iran, Syria, Gaza and a dozen other places. So would Australians. So would many others I suggest. How can anti-Zionists, including Jews, honestly deny that they are pro-war?

Posted at Slipped Disc and The Radical Secularist.

Cross posted at Geoffff's Joint, Bar and Grill

15 comments:

  1. What drives anti-Zionist Jews to be anti-Zionist?

    They would argue that it's a matter of social justice and human rights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They might argue that but as soon as you say you are antizionist you are automatically against social justice and human rights for Jews. It's that simple. Principled people who have criticism would render that criticism where it belongs (specific government policies for example,) not against an entire state.

      No, I suspect it is ideology; guilt; rejection of religion/culture; a good way to meet chicks or make friends, etc. It has nothing to do with actual social justice and human rights.

      Delete
  2. I like the post, and left a comment at your blog, as follows:

    The farther one is removed, the easier it is to be out of touch.

    I wonder how many blogs are out there where so much is said and so little seen. For example, the PhD received no comments at his blog.

    When it comes to Israel, he seems long past gone, a prisoner to one sided narratives that have taken hold of academia starting in the 1970s. He is far from alone.

    The PhD seems to adopt the secular utopian strain of anti-Zionism that opposes Israel because it symbolizes a system based on capitalism and nation states. Israel, and Jews, are simply part of the greater struggle to achieve a just, universal and multicultural society of peoples.

    This strain Orwell and others warned about. It is not utopia at all. It will coerce its vision on the rest of us because it happens to know what is best for humankind.

    Then there is religious strain, with European and Islamic components. Besides rejecting Christ, the former sees Jews an evil people plotting to control the planet, while Islam has made Jews the existential enemy that must be erased to reach salvation.

    All three variants mentioned have a penchant to be totalitarian. They all borrow from each other and conflate animosity between Israel and Jews under the rubric of anti-Zionism, each for their own purposes.

    Ironically, Jewish utopians seem to think that they are not also targets of those they help. They believe that everyone wants their version of utopia, but the reality is that many, many millions have a much different picture in mind, and intend to achieve it by means of aggression.

    I agree with the overall take that, despite claims to the contrary, anti-Zionism is pro-war in practice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great comment! I especially like the reference to the 70's style narratives. These guys are indeed dinosaurs.

      Delete
  3. btw, geoffff,

    one of these days you must give us your thoughts on the Jewish situation in Australia.

    In the US we're good. In Europe, not so much. In the Middle East they are under siege.

    Australia?

    I have no idea.

    I'd love to hear what you have to say on that. My guess is that Australia is probably not a bad place to be Jewish... except for the fact that Isi left!

    :O)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's about as good as it gets, Mike.

      I've never met Isi Leibler but I first saw him in 1974 at a pro-Palestinian rally on the campus of the University of Queensland where I was a politically active undergraduate. The rally had been organised by the ugly left that had used student union money to bring out a group of "Palestinian students" to tour the country as part of their national "one state solution" campaign.

      The show had just come from Melbourne which had been a riot -- literally. People bashed in the streets, including elderly survivors, by Maoist and Stalinist thugs and their Muslim Brotherhood allies. Some had been bussed or flown into Brisbane from Sydney and Melbourne by their organisations and trouble was expected.

      I was on the fringe at the rear heckling and shouting rude things when someone pointed out Isi Leibler, already a national communal leader, standing quietly alone right in the middle of it about twenty yards in front. He had flown up from Melbourne to witness and support.

      Isi Leibler is a man of enormous dignity. His very presence defused the thugs. Their nasty campaign fizzled. I regret to this day not taking the opportunity to meet him.

      Delete
    2. I like Isi Liebler a lot for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he is a balls-to-the-wall, unhesitating, unflinching supporter of the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

      Delete
  4. Danny Danon speaks some truths

    http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=266302

    Attempts to explain the rationality behind the Zionist dream of building a state in our historic homeland will simply not work with those who are attempting infiltrate Israel’s borders only to attack us from within.

    It is time that we recognize the reality we are faced with. The State of Israel is at war. This war is being fought on a completely different battlefield than in the past, one in which the word de-legitimization has replaced bullets and provocative actions such as the flotilla have replaced tanks and fighter planes.

    Nevertheless, we must not be confused by this new type of warfare. Just as we did not hesitate to confront to violent acts perpetuated by our enemies in the past, we cannot waver in our resolve against this new threat.

    Would we allow a suicide bomber into our country so that we could attempt a “dialogue” with him? Of course not.

    Here, too, we must not be naïve and bury our heads in the sand. While the “delegitimization battle” may be sometimes confusing and seem less dangerous then actual acts of war, the implications of capitulation will be just as dire for Israel’s future as a military loss would be.

    TO COMBAT this new form of warfare we must be just as creative now as we have been in the past on the traditional battlefield.

    We must immediately implement a three-pronged approach to keeping these terrorists out of Israel: prevent, arrest and deport.

    ...

    The militant activist from Denmark who attacked the IDF officer should have never been in a position to do so. He never should have been allowed entry into Israel. Once he was allowed in, he should have been arrested and tried at the first sign of illegal activity. Even now, it is unacceptable that he is walking free in our country after violently attacking an officer. He must be arrested and deported immediately.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unfortunately Western Jews have no knowledge of modern Jewish history which did not originate in the USA.
    1.The "Yevsektsiya" (Jewish section of the Soviet Communist Party, 1917) goal was to expunge the idea of Zionism (dream of a future Israel) from the Jewish conscience: for the Bolsheviks it meant a despicable "bourgeois nationalism".

    They created a new Stalinist "homeland", called Birobidjan in E. Siberia.

    2. Churchill in his essay "Zionism versus Bolshevism.
    A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People. 1920.

    Correctly described the schism between the Internationalist (Communist) Jewry and the Nationalists (Zionists.)

    American Jews spared from the Holocaust led a sheltered life and became the reincarnation of the anti-Israeli "Yevsektsiya".
    They pursue the self-loathing Marx's ideology - he summed it up in his work "On the Jewish Question" 1843.-

    There is a very lucid essay by Isi Liebler in the Jerusalem post:

    INTELLECTUALS AND THE LEFT
    Recommended reading:
    http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwordfromjerusalem.com%2F%3Fp%3D4021

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, as I mentioned above, the utopian strain.

      Delete
    2. Bela, great post and welcome. I especially like this from Lieber:

      "The situation became exacerbated in recent years with a major change in public perceptions and the emergence of a consensus moving the country somewhat to a right of center approach to the Israel-Palestinian impasse, thus further marginalizing the far left. To the dismay of the radicals, , their bête noire, Netanyahu, far from being reviled , emerged as the most popular leader.

      Oz and Grossman are neither post-Zionists nor self-hating Jews. They unquestionably love Israel. But the public support of the government appears to have unhinged them and a number of other “doves”. In their frenzied desperation to dissociate themselves from the national consensus which broadly endorses Netanyahu, they succumbed to employing vitriolic language that comes perilously close to being indistinguishable from the anti-Zionist left."

      How accurately that describes some "Progressive Zionists," we know as well. At least in terms of Netanyahu/Likud Derangement Syndrome.

      Delete
  6. Here is the youtube video of Obama Cairo speech where he unequivocally owned up his Muslim fate and expressed his adherence to Islam. Watch the video before it will be removed.
    Watch, cringe and cry.
    This is the man American Jews voted for and supporting vigorously.
    They deserve their ugly fate.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tCAffMSWSzY#t=28

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Muslim "fate"?

      Bela, welcome to Israel Thrives, but do you mean Muslim faith?

      In either case, I have to tell you that I believe that you are entirely wrong.

      I do have my issues with the Cairo speech, tho. The main one being the implied moral equivalency between the Holocaust and the "nakba."

      Delete
  7. Sorry, I made a typo. The correct words are: "My Muslim faith" -thanks for the correction.
    Beyond that I cannot be "entirely wrong" because the video speaks for itself.

    ReplyDelete