Over on Daily Kos, mets102 has a boilerplate "diary" up complaining about anti-Semitism in New York City.
Last night, I considered writing about this incident. It is, after all, is the latest in a string of incidents that have hit the New York area in the past few months, including finding a swastika in my elevator. Since then, however, I have found a rant, and a growing anger, building up inside me. The incident in my elevator hit very close to home, but this went further. This was desecrating a synagogue over the holiday. The more and more I think about it, the angrier I get.
Among progressive-left humanitarian racists, old-fashioned anti-Semitism is out of style. They will nod their heads in sympathy and wonder aloud about just why people have such hatred, even as they do little more than spit hatred at those for whom they have decided hatred is acceptable, even mandatory.
The hypocrisy is just astounding.
Hate sites like Daily Kos spit the most vile and atrocious malice in all sorts of directions constantly. The only real question to ask is just what are the boundaries of that malice? Who is it OK to hate and who is it not OK to hate? That they express considerable hatred is not the least little bit in doubt.
They despise conservatives.
They despise Republicans.
They despise Evangelical Christians.
And a distinct segment of them despise Jews who dare to stand up for the Jewish state.
They do not, however, despise genocidal Islamists. They do not mind the rise of radical Islam, the foremost racist movement in the world today, and have thus betrayed women, gays, and Jews in the Middle East.
It is just soooo easy to walk onto a place like Daily Kos and complain about neo-Nazis or skinhead types, but neo-Nazis and skinhead types are not really our big problem as Jews. This is because right-wing anti-Semitism in the United States is but nothing compared to Arab and Muslim genocidal anti-Semitism in Middle East.
That is where the real fight lies. Jews in the United States should feel exceedingly grateful that we live in what is among the least racist, and least anti-Semitic, countries on the entire planet. American Jews have it damn good compared to our Jewish friends and relatives in Europe. Compared to the fact that Jews in the Middle East have been under near constant violent siege for one hundred years, the United States might as well be Shangri-la.
The problem with progressive-left Jews, like mets102, is not that he is wrong to point out anti-Semitism in the United States when it pops up, but that he is so ideologically blinkered (or, perhaps, cowed) that he cannot bring himself to discuss the far worse problem of Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism in public or among his humanitarian racist friends. Part of the reason for this is that they simply do not care about Arab and Muslim genocidal anti-Semitism in the Middle East and are more than happy to defame anyone who does as an "Islamophobe."
Until Jewish progressives are willing to yank their heads out of the sand they will fail to address the real problem. They will, instead, indulge themselves among the like-minded. After all, who among us would disagree that scrawling a swastika on a subway platform or elevator in New York City is revolting? Even humanitarian racists are more than happy to agree that old-fashioned anti-Semitism is not a good thing.
It takes no strength of character whatsoever to make such a claim on a progressive-left site like Daily Kos. Where it takes character is in openly acknowledging a big problem that one's fellow ideologues do not care to admit. Anyone can easily complain about neo-Nazis on the progressive-left and they will pat you on the head and give you a cookie.
But neo-Nazis in the United States are not really such a problem for American Jews. The rise of radical Islam, however, throughout the Middle East, with a little encouragement from the Obama administration, is a problem. A very big problem, in fact, and one that consistently results in the murder of Jews, as the Fogels learned, and not just in the Middle East.
Until progressive-left Jews, as they say, grow a pair, they will continue to ignore the inconvenient fact of traditional Arab and Muslim genocidal anti-Semitism and thus remain irrelevant on the very issue they seek to address.
There is a very important point being made here concerning who or what is the biggest danger to Jews today. You are right; it isn't the Nazis.
ReplyDeleteA lot of these guys seem entirely incapable of getting with the times.
DeleteThey fight yesterday's fights and then jump for the cookie.
It takes neither insight, nor character.
That diary was not about Israel and it was not about the Middle East in general. I am not cowed about anything. There is tremendous antisemitism in the Middle East and it is encouraged by governments and clerics. That, however, does not prevent me from speaking on antisemitism in this country. Additionally, if you actually read my piece, you would have noted that I call out antisemitism from both the right and the left, calling it a disease that plagues the entirety of the political spectrum and not just one portion of it.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama does not support the rise of Islamic fundamentalists in the Middle East. He supports all people enjoying the same blessings of democracy and liberty that we take for granted in this country. How many times do you need to be told this?
Lastly, the party that you support (and make no mistake, by opposing President Obama you are, at the very least, offering de facto support to Mitt Romney and the Republicans) is dominated by Christian fundamentalists who would use the Bible as the basis of the law if they could get away with it. Further, don't forget that it was Christian fundamentalists that supported the "Kill the Gays" law in Uganda. Finally, I would note that the presumptive Republican nominee has quite a serious problem with antisemitism given his leading role in a church that likes to convert itself some dead Jews, particularly those brutally murdered in the Shoah.
I claimed no such thing.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do claim is that if Jews suffer due to anti-Semitism, they primarily suffer from it in the Middle East, where it is far more widespread, far more toxic, and, in fact, genocidal.
We have it easy in the United States by comparison, therefore our main focus of concern should be with our brothers and sisters in Israel.
I further claim that "progressives," for the most part, would not acknowledge the Jihad if they were on their hands and knees in some basement in Karachi.
That's my claim.
Okay, my bad then.
ReplyDeleteBut when you focus on people like Reuven, who let's be honest, is a proud Jew who has done more to fight antisemitism there at that hate site on their own ground than anyone else ever has, this is the problem.
I agree with your overall point. I just don't see why you had to single out this post of his as an example?
In other words, there is a very much stronger case to be made about and against 'humanitarian' racism (a phenomenon I fully acknowledge as being a serious problem amongst the Left) at that site beyond this diary, which in fact *exposed* a number of same there in the comments.
ReplyDeleteYou and I both know Daily Kos is an irredeemable hate site. If something should be written about at that place as an example of same, it certainly isn't Reuven's diaries. Just sayin'...
Well, that's not an unfair point, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteBut, as I say, it is just soooo easy to write what mets102 wrote.
It's kinda like going on to dkos and saying, "Republicans are mean!"
It takes no heart, no character, no insight, nothing.
I mean, really, how many countries have neo-Nazis taken over recently? In the mean time, we also have people like mets telling us that the rise of radical Islam in the misnamed "Arab Spring" represents the "blessings of Democracy."
{If you can imagine.}
I just want people, and particularly Jewish people, to recognize that the real problem is not right-wing American racists, who are largely marginalized, but the millions upon millions of Muslims in the Middle East who wish to impose sharia throughout the region and who have a genocidal hatred toward Jews.
All mets was doing was looking for a scratch behind the ear.
Why climb the mountain? Because it's there. Why use Reuven's diary as a jumping off point? Because it's there.
ReplyDeleteThat's my take. Not much to do with Reuven personally.
If you're using things just because they're there, you're not exactly making the best points either. Are you?
ReplyDeleteWe should be better than our opponents.
I don't think you get my point man. I was suggesting that it wasn't personal; just that R's diary provided an impetus, a nugget of info for a post.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong and if I am and it was personal, I wouldn't be too upset at any rate because Reuven and others have labelled our little site a "hate site," and I don't much like that. That may not be "right," but hey, G-d forgives, I don't (that easily.)
Antisemitism is also rampant in Europe, and I suspect is more the consequence of Muslims rather than neo-Nazis.
ReplyDeleteTo even raise this possibility, however, is forbidden, even if factual. There is something wrong when this is the case, when dogma dictates what is permissible to discuss.
Doodad - I don't much care to get into these internecine pissing matches myself, and R himself knows, as we've discussed multiple times, that I believe he's wasting his time there, but hey whatever. There are thousands of things which could have made this point better than this post, imo. You disagree. We'll agree to disagree, then. :)
ReplyDeleteoldschool - agreed. But here's a question back at you. Shouldn't we *support* folks like Reuven when they bring shit like this up at places like Daily Kos?
No sweat Jay. That's the way all this stuff should end really. Who's more fun than people?
ReplyDeleteJay,
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing wrong to support him, but I don't think he wants it from some, as compared to others.
I agree with Mike that it takes no courage to write a diary there that takes to task neo-Nazis or Republicans, often using red meat, but try to point out actual disconnects between "progressive" talk and walk and see what happens.
Here's a recent post by Rubin which spells out some of these things we discuss:
ReplyDeletehttp://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2012/03/30/betrayal-glorified/2/
"The real story, then, is the crisis of a portion of American Jewry—often a more publicly visible and powerful portion–who have forgotten (or never knew) Jewish history. Some of them push the ignorance of the real Israel and Israeli reality in the universities and media; others merely believe what they are being told daily. They would go to a rally about fighting “Islamophobia” but would be horrified by the idea of going to a rally about fighting revolutionary Islamist antisemitism.....Another part of their problem with Israel is that it is, in a sense, too “Jewish” and at odds with their preferred ideology. They want Israel to be what they want America and Europe to be. Yet instead it is too religious; too traditional; too much of a nation-state; too willing to defend itself; and too willing to recognize its enemies even if they are non-white, non-Western, and non-Christian.If your definition of proper Jewishness is to be like Berkeley and Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Israel is not going to make the grade. On the contrary, Israel seems too much like the South, Midwest, or non-urban areas where people cling to their guns and religion and don’t eagerly turn over large portions of their territory to armed hostile forces that openly proclaim their goal of exterminating them.
I wrote the above paragraph in a style that (hopefully) would be funny but I think it is absolutely true. By being so “primitive,” it embarrasses them, like a Harvard professor whose relatives from the Ozark show up in their pickup truck toting shotguns and going to church...."
There's lots more in the article so read it all but I liked the parts I quoted. Especially the notion of Israel being the yokel cousin of the cosmopolitan American Jewry.
Jay,
ReplyDeletethe real problem is that we cannot seem to bring ourselves to face the main threat against the Jewish people.
Look, I was never someone to jump up and down about Islamic terrorism. Throughout most of the Bush years I basically considered the "War on Terror" to be nonsense. It seemed obvious to me that it was little more than a way to move finances in various directions (like Halliburton) and to bolster Republican political fortunes.
I suspect that it is for this reason, in part, that most progressives still can't bring themselves to give much credence to the actual fact of the matter. This was not so horrible when it was merely Iran, Hamas, and Hez screaming for Jewish blood, but now the radical Islamist hit-parade is surging throughout the region and the Brotherhood is taking over Egypt.
There has to come a point where we finally recognize that, no, radical Islam is a real thing that we need to recognize and discuss, particularly given its roots to Nazi Germany.
And that's really all I am saying.