Karam
This little blog is, rightfully, a modest blog.
What we are doing here, from my perspective, is simply developing an argument over time. No single entry, or "diary," is meant to be taken as definitive. They are all small bricks which, over time, are building the structure of an argument. The conclusion of this argument is that the progressive-left, as a movement, has betrayed its Jewish constituency and that the Obama administration ruined any possibility of a near-term conclusion of hostilities between the Arabs and the Jews in the Middle East, while validating Arab anti-Jewish racism.
That's the focus.
If I were to lay out what Doodad, Oldschool26, and myself have been discussing over the preceding months in the form of an outline, say for a book, it might look something like this:
Part One, The Progressive Movement:
Chapter 1: Anti-Semitic anti-Zionism
Misdiagnosing the Source of the Problem
Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Spreading of Anti-Semitism in the Arab World
The New Historians and Edward Said
Betrayal: The Mavi Marmara and the Red-Green Alliance
Chapter 2: The Denial of History and Ideological Silencing (Or, What You Can't Discuss):
Language and Propaganda
"Jesus Was the First Palestinian Shaheed"
Pallywood
Newt and the Social Construction of Palestinian National Identity
Chapter 3: The Palestinian Colonization of the Progressive Mind
Post-Modernity and Neo-Colonial Theory
The Oslo Syndrome
Friends as Enemies, Enemies as Friends
The Palestinian Narrative
Chapter 4: Embracing the Multicultural Ideal and the Betrayal of Universal Human Rights
The Betrayal of Universal Human Rights
The Betrayal of the Women of the Middle East
The Betrayal of the Gays of the Middle East
The Betrayal of the Jews of the Middle East
Part Two, Obama's Failures:
Chapter 5: Killing Oslo and Validating Arab anti-Jewish Racism
"Total Settlement Freeze"
Biden's Outrage and Hillary's Tongue-lashing
A Judenrein Palestinian State
Chapter 6: Encouraging the Jihad and Playing Ostrich
If Bush Says that it is Raining...
Chapter 7: Capitulating to Iranian Nukes
Conclusion: Moving On
Anthony Wiener and NY-09
Who Let the Jews Out? (Who? Who?)
In any case, we press ahead.
.
The Day of the Dhimmi is Done - Michael Lumish, PhD, proprietor. (mike.lumish@gmail.com)
"Betrayed its Jewish constituency." Hell yes. You may recall the Center For American Progress kerfluffle over over some of its writers accusing American Jews of pushing for war and being Israel Firsters. Well J-Street honcho piles on :
ReplyDelete"Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a left-leaning voice on Israel issues, said he had no problem with “Israel-firster.”
“If the charge is that you’re putting the interests of another country
before the interests of the United States in the way you would advocate
that, it’s a legitimate question,” Ben-Ami said.
Ben-Ami added
that Jewish groups “should tread lightly” when they make accusations of
anti-Semitism. “Because when they do need to use that word, people won’t
take you seriously,” he said."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/center-for-america-progress-group-tied-to-obama-accused-of-anti-semitic-language/2012/01/17/gIQAcrHXAQ_print.html
Now if "progressives," are gonna use the language of antisemitism like the hard right and left they may as well be crawling in bed with them. Of course what they are really trying to do is bad mouth those Jews who aren't "progressive." There are a lot of ways of doing that without using the language of antisemitism. The fact that one has to really shows how hollow their position is.
I need to start docketing these links so that they are easily at hand... thanks, Doodad.
ReplyDeleteJ-Street, definitely, must play some role in the larger argument.
I suspect that J-Street has already peaked, but Jeremy Ben-Ami warrants a footnote.
Good for him!
".....Anti-Semitism is back
ReplyDeletein style. Its new justification is not race or religion. It is nationalism.
Today’s anti-Semitism is predicated on preferring Palestinian and pan-Arab
nationalism to Jewish nationalism.And like its racist and religious
predecessors, its aim is to deny the right of Jews to be free.In the
face of this onslaught the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora have two
choices. We can either succumb to our enemies, or we can fight
back."http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=254400
And so another "supporter of Israel," a well known, president of the Jewish Labor Committee, blames Israel for it all like Gutman did recently. And everyone's surprised because the guy is,you know, a "supporter of Israel." But see, this is what happens to some Progressives/Leftists/Democrats. They just can't keep it in anymore or they mess up in their haste to label some of their fellow Jews who don't share their political ideology.
ReplyDelete"Speaking before more than 350 guests, most of them from various trade
unions, Appelbaum condemned what he called “new expressions of contempt
for Israel within the Arab world,” a reference to the movement to
delegitimize Israel. That contempt, he said, is at least partly rooted
“in the conviction that Israel will never accept the right of the
Palestinians to an independent state.”
But Appelbaum added that Israel was “cursed with a right-wing
coalition government that’s regularly giving credence” to that point of
view. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “talks a good game about a
two-state solution,” he said, his administration “shamelessly” promotes
“the construction of illegal settlements on the West Bank” — a policy
that “severely impedes negotiations.”
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/israeli_official_leaves_jlc_dinner_after_criticism_netanyahu
Did you know that Israel haters like Philip Weiss think his group represent "left/liberal opinion today?" Yes, I know, unbelievably narcissistic isn't it? But so he says.
ReplyDelete"The headline for the piece is, "My son got into Eton and I can’t tell my
big fat liberal friends." I think this throwaway line signals the
growing alienation of Israel supporters from left/liberal opinion
today."
I'm not gonna link and it and give the lout any hits but just want to show how that crowd thinks that Israel supporters are getting alienated from "left/liberal opinion
today." Heck, any self respecting person SHOULD alienate themselves from people like him and thoughts like theirs. You know, those with "left/liberal opinions."
They've bought into the Palestinian shibboleth that "settlements" are a impediment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
ReplyDeleteIt's a notion that is racist to the core and, yet, it is one spread by the Obama administration.
Doodad,
ReplyDeleteMound o’ Scheiss is extreme (IMO, probably the most extreme of the entire anti-Zionist blogosphere), but that is of little consolation, because in the passage of the years its tenets drift into the mainstream (at which point it will set a new standard for extremity).
I remember when talk of the Right of Return was considered extremism and meriting hide-rating (or troll-rating, as it was called back then). A Kossack had to post at Mound o’ Scheiss if he wanted to advocate it seriously, without dispute. No such thing now: Apart from a couple of protests from the few pro-Israel posters remaining on DKos, the Right of Return can be freely advocated there.
Right now Mound o’ Scheiss sets the standard for extremism in being a place where Zionism to Nazism analogies are fully accepted. They are a bannable offense on DKos, but as anyone who ever lurked in the I/P threads in times of tension (e.g. the Second Lebanon War or the Terrorist Flotilla affair) knows, those rules are waiting for an opportunity to be ignored and maybe even repealed.
Both places are swamps.
ReplyDeleteZion,
ReplyDeleteyou talk like you were a Kossack back in the day.
I assume the name "Shergald" may mean something to you.
In my early days at My Left Wing, Shergald was there telling those people that Hamas was about social justice.
Both places promote hatred while pretending to support social justice and human rights.
ReplyDeleteHow sad is that?The left is dead.
Karmafish,
ReplyDeleteIn July 2006, when the Second Lebanon War broke out, Daily Kos came to my attention as a center of anti-Israel invective. I've lurked on the I/P threads ever since.
I remember Shergald well, and Carl Nyberg, and Rusty Pipes, and most of the crew from that day. I have an entire CD of DKos I/P threads archived from those old days up till recently.
Indeed it is racist but that escapes the progressive mind as much as the fact that before there were settlements there was conflict. Anything to avoid the real cause of it.
ReplyDelete