Friday, August 26, 2016

Dershowitz Awakens

Michael Lumish

I actually do not mean to give him too much of a hard time - not that he would notice, anyway - but in his most recent bit, published in The Algemeiner and G-d knows wherever else, Alan writes:
eyeOver the past several years, progressive Jews and supporters of Israel have had to come to terms with the reality that those who do not reject Israel and accept the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement’s unique brand of bigotry are no longer welcome in some progressive circles. And while both the Democratic and Republican parties have embraced the importance of the U.S. alliance with Israel, that dynamic is under threat more so than at any point in my lifetime.
No!

You don't say!

The progressive-left and the Democratic Party have been increasingly pissing on the Jews of the Middle East since they had the temerity to win the 6 Day War in 1967. That was the year that "David" became "Goliath" in the entirely unoriginal progressive-left imagination.

But Dershowitz knows this.

He speaks as if this is some sort-of recent revelation.

It isn't.

Those of us, like the good professor, who follow the haranguing of Israel on a daily basis have known about this progressive-left tendency for decades, now.

The only real question is just what the hell we want to do about it?

My suggestion, as an American Jew, has been to tell the progressive-left, and the Democratic Party, to go screw. I know that is rather crude, and I have friends from Hebron to Sydney that would not approve of such language, but the point stands.
The self-described “progressive wing” of the Democratic Party — represented by radical and often repressive organizations such as MoveOn, CodePink, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter (BLM) — has become openly opposed to the nation state of the Jewish people.
Well, thank Christ someone who matters noticed.

For decades, practically, I thought it was just me.

In any number of venues, for years now, I was saying, "Hey, if you continue to kick the crap out of the Jews we're likely to take off." And then, y'know, they would call me a racist and I would shake my little fist and leave.

What continues to astonish me, however, is the tenacity with which American Jews continue to grasp at the Democratic Party. I have never seen a people so kicked around who continue to kiss the feet of their abusers.

It's disgusting, really.
Using the pretext of intersectionality — a pseudo-academic theory which insists that all social justice movements, except those supportive of Jews or Israel, are inexorably linked — anti-Israel activists have successfully made opposition to Israel and support for BDS a litmus test, especially for Jews, to belong to “progressive” movements focused on a wide range of issues.
Ayup.

I will never forget the surreal moment of passing by the Malcolm X Student Plaza at San Francisco State University as a graduate student in the Department of History and seeing a bunch of black students on a platform featuring an American flag with 50 little Stars of David.

That was interesting, I have to say.

It certainly made an impression.

17 comments:

  1. If you tell the Democrats to go screw, where do you go? The alt-right? So you prefer actually Nazis to Hillary? Do you really think Israel is safer with Trumps man-crush, PUtin, than with Hillary? Do you not realize that a movement that feeds on hatred of Mexicans, Muslims and blacks will ultimately, and quickly, turn on the Jews? And by the way, it is not only me who associates Trump with the alt-right, it is Ben Shapiro. I understand working to change the mindset of those, fewer than you think, liberals who sympathize with the Palestinins, but to reject liberalism entirely and veer into the lunatic fringes of the right wing is, well, lunacy.

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    Replies
    1. Leftism is not liberalism. How did we get to the point when the word once used to denote support of individual freedoms now means worship of large, expensive, abusive and intrusive government. What exactly is liberal about Hillary and progressive left?

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    2. Who said anything about liberalism?

      It's bad enough that Cher and others call Trump and his supporters Nazis, but for a Jew to draw such an equivalence is gross.

      Anti-Israel people love to exaggerate in similar fashion about how dastardly their adversaries are.

      Clinton is in bed with BLM. I suggest that Jews have more to be concerned by this association than the alt-Right "turning on the Jews."

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    3. "Who said anything about liberalism?"
      Joseph did. And I must admit that the left has done a fine job rejecting it for some sort of Potemkin version which disallows unwanted speech. Liberals discuss differing points of view, progressives denounce differing points of view. I can think of vulgar things about Trump's personality, (Hillary is no prize), but the meme that has traveled the world for the past year of him being the worst racist since Hitler is OTT, IMV, and I am fed up with so-called progressives generally hurling this slander at anyone who isn't 100% a part of the program. It is dangerous and it is totalitarian. In the meantime, it is the "progressive left" that has been turning on the Jews for decades. Rather than worry about the hysterical predictions offered by Joseph, Hillary, and the DNC, we have a real, in the flesh, Hillary with some rather bad associations and positions concerning Israel and the future of the Jews. She has made it clear that she wants to double down on Obama's "accomplishments," and he has called her the most qualified person ever to run for the office, because, hell, what's one more lie?
      re: Ben Shapiro, he's a movement conservative, and he's a smart guy. He doesn't like Trump. He likes Hillary even less.
      Hillary Clinton called Robert Byrd her mentor, Obama had the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Excuses?

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    4. Joseph,
      Trump did say he doesn't want the votes of the haters. Like all politicians in a race, he's probably lying about that. But does Hillary want the vote of haters? She's been courting more than a few.
      You see, our political system and social order are breaking down, and that brings all kinds of nuts out of the woodwork. The center is not holding. It's all part of the transformation we were promised.

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    5. Shapiro has forfeited his credibility on this issue, and using SPLC is very suspect. It's as corrupt as the Clinton Foundation.

      Not saying there is an absence of Jew hatred inside the Right Wing. I think there is more on the Left, COMBINED with people that actually engage in violence.

      The motivation on one side is to restore values threatened by identity politics and secularism, not to put people in camps. On the other hand, the motivation is to use identity politics and secularism to eliminate the same values and create a global culture. We see how successful that is!

      Democrats are no one to preach anymore. They have become the very thing they once fought against, and they are kidding themselves to believe otherwise.

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    6. oldschooltwentysix,
      How has Ben Shapiro forfeited his credibility on this issue?

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    7. Which issue may be the better question, but Shapiro, following the Michelle Fields episode, where she and he were completely repudiated, has said things that make Trump look innocent by comparison, such as a "flaming heap of human garbage." This animosity bleeds into his analysis when it touches or concerns Trump or those that are not in the NeverTrump camp.

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    8. Which issue is the better question reminds me of that old New Jersey joke.
      Q: You know any Jersey jokes?
      A: Which exit?

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. One KKK guy did. Others, not so much:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvcgRlz2ftg

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    2. And that guy wasn't seriou, see Snopes. but back to Trump https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/star-of-the-show/2016/08/25/a539743e-6afd-11e6-8225-fbb8a6fc65bc_story.html?utm_term=.9d6260a66cd4

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    3. It's about as serious as Nazis endorsing Trump. Yet we are supposed to take that seriously.

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  3. Progressives seem not to understand the damage they are doing with their demonization of opponents for political differences. It is a poison that even Bill Clinton realized in a moment of candor.

    Combined with the abuse of power via Executive fiat and in the bureaucracy, they will be hard pressed to complain when they are on the receiving end. But they will, with righteous indignation.

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  4. If your friends don't like your saying "screw," say it in Yiddish... :-)

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  5. Check out Ezra Levant's Donald Trump video that every Jew should at least watch.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2G9MR1n7Es

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  6. No one will ever fight harder for you than you do. I lay this at the feet of American Jews. Stick your heads in the noose if you like. Perhaps you think you're making a point. I don't care.

    Anyone see the movie "Natural Born Killers"? In one scene Mikey and Mallory for once, refuse to kill the only person in the pharmacy. That person asks "Why? Don't you always kill someone?" To which Mickey says "If we kill you there won't be anyone to tell the story".

    So if American Jews are determined to vanish off the earth then that's on them. Go wear your BLM t-shirts and chatter on about how all points of view are precious and valid. If nothing else, Hillary's Regime will be the break with Israel that never heals and that can only be for the best for all of us.

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