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Thursday, May 10, 2012

The Failures of Progressive-Left Zionism: The Settlers

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Mike L.

(Cross-Posted at Geoffff's Joint, Bar and Grill.)

Progressive-left Jewish Zionists are failing the Jewish people.

If the first way in which progressive-left Zionism is failing is in its ostrich-like reluctance to acknowledge, and seriously discuss, the rise of the Jihad throughout the Muslim Middle East, another way is through their justifying bigotry against their own people.

Progressive-left Jews are encouraging hatred toward their fellow Jews.  Jews who dare to live in Judea and Samaria are targets not only of Palestinian terrorists, but of progressive-left diaspora Jews who spit hatred at those people.  What is most galling, perhaps, is that these "settlers" are living under exceedingly difficult circumstances, while their Jewish persecutors usually live in clean, safe apartments and houses in Europe, Australia, and North America.  Those of us who live in the United States need not worry that a crazed Jihadi will sneak into our 3 month old baby daughter's room and chop off her head.  Yet, progressive-left diaspora Jews feel free to malign these people.

If Israel is the Jew among nations then the settlers are the Jew among Jews. I think that it is a disgrace and I've written about this before in a 2010 piece entitled, Liberal Jewish Suckers:

I personally do not care whether Jews live there or not. I am not in favor of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Nor do I oppose Jewish settlements in the West Bank. For that matter, I also do not oppose Episcopalians living in Skokie, Illinois, nor Rastafarians living in Kathmandu, Nepal, nor Ethiopians living in Walla Walla, Washington. What we are being told, though, is that Jews living, and thus building, in the West Bank is an impediment to the peace process. This is nonsense. How can the mere presence of Jews in the West Bank prevent Mahmoud Abbas from sitting across the table from Benjamin Netanyahu? All they need to do is agree on Israel's final borders, and thus the borders of the forthcoming Palestinian state, and then those Jews who live in the newly formed state of Palestine will be living under Palestinian rule. Presumably many will leave under those conditions because, or so I guess, most would prefer not to live under Palestinian sovereignty. But should that not be up to them?

Of course, it should. The problem is that when Barack Obama demanded "total settlement freeze" then Mahmoud Abbas was put into the position in which he could demand nothing less, thus ruining any potential there may have been for a negotiated peace. Now, this is, of course, terrible enough, but what compounds the problem is progressive-left Jewish hatred toward those very people who Abbas and Obama do not want living, and thus building, on historically Jewish land.

To my mind there are few things in this world more revolting than Jews who whip up hatred toward other Jews. I do not like it when anti-Semitic Jewish Israel Haters, the Finkelsteins of the world, spit poison and hatred at the Jewish state of Israel and I do not like it when progressive-left diaspora Jews spit poison and hatred at the so-called "settlers." It creates bigotry and it justifies violence against us. It gets used by anti-Semites to justify the very hatred that necessitated the creation of the Jewish state to begin with.

Why must any future state of Palestine be Judenrein? Israel does not demand that their Palestinian population pack up and move out, yet not only does Abbas and the PA insist upon the dismantling of Jewish settlements in their areas of jurisdiction, but even liberal American Jews do so. This is not only a form of unjust bigotry, it is, itself, an impediment to the peace process. Let me be clear. It is not Jewish settlements in the West Bank that are an impediment to the peace process, but the insistence that Jews must not be allowed to live, and thus build, in the West Bank that is the impediment to the peace process.

In this way progressive-left diaspora Jews, who complain bitterly about Jews building housing for themselves in Judea, end up justifying the conflict. If the very idea of Jews building housing for themselves in Judea is so horrendous, and if diaspora Jews whine and bitch and moan about it, how can we blame the Palestinians for refusing to accept Jewish people on that land?

I know that some will say that it's not about Jews, per se, but about Israeli nationals. This is nonsense. Does anyone honestly think that anyone else would care if those people were Muslim? Of course, not. The problem here is not that they are Israelis, but that they are Jews.

Pretending otherwise fools no one.

8 comments:

  1. There is no question that there is bigotry against Jews in this particular.

    That said, like Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, I think Israel should freeze all building beyond the security barrier and the settlement blocs.

    http://www.timesofisrael.com/deputy-pm-meridor-urges-building-freeze-beyond-security-barrier-and-settlement-blocs/

    Those that characterize all settlers seem to do so based on false assumptions.

    According to one researcher, American settlers "were primarily political liberals in the United States, voted for the Democratic Party and have been active in 1960s radicalism in the United States, participating in the Civil Rights Movement and the struggle against the Vietnam War."

    One settler, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, a native New Yorker who in 1983 co-founded the settlement of Efrat, concurred: "It's certainly true in my case. I marched with Martin Luther King. I consider myself a liberal and I voted generally for Democrats."

    According to the researcher, many who moved to the settlements after the Six-Day War see what they're doing in Israel as an extension of their radicalism in the United States, in part as an expression of their own Jewish civil rights.

    http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/the-american-settler-you-don-t-know-1.388640?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.212%2C2.214%2C

    The Haaretz article is worth the read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. School, why do you think that Jews should cease building beyond the security barrier and the settlement blocs?

      Does it make a difference at this point?

      If Obama had not driven the final nail into the coffin of the peace process I might agree with you, but he did.

      So why should not Jews build in Judea?

      Delete
  2. Because it doesn't make a difference at this point and that will become clearer.

    To stop would make apparent the deceptive intentions of the Palestinians. It may provide legitimacy on what exists if Israel declares boundaries and withdraws from the rest of the occupied territory.

    That is not to say that all Jews must leave. They would not be subject to Israeli sovereignty. I suppose that Israel could require they receive protection under law, but who knows if it could be implemented.

    Obama certainly made a poor move in this regard, but if not settlements then the Palestinians would have used something else as a vehicle to express their anti-Israel, anti-Jew intentions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, but toward what end?

      If it doesn't make a difference at this point, then what is the point?

      My understanding is that Israel has not built outside of established townships for a decade, now.

      It seems to me that all Israel needs to do is define the borders and tell the Palestinians... please, excuse me... to go fuck themselves.

      It's been 75 years since the local Arabs first refused a state for themselves under the Peel Commission.

      When is enough, enough?

      Delete
    2. What is the point? Must there be a point?

      I agree that Israel should define the borders, but it would be better to have international recognition of them. It would serve as notice for a Palestinian state as well. Perhaps that is what Meridor meant.

      The intent of the Arabs is open and apparent, when it comes to a state. All of Israel is occupied land. This reality is improper to face by some people who prefer to draw wrong assumptions. Or mistake it as Islamophobia. It is cynical when done for partisan gain and , actually, serves to diminish Jewish self-determination as understood by most Israelis and Jews.

      Delete
    3. Well, international recognition would be terrific, but Israel clearly cannot count on much cooperation from the international community, in general, which is why a unilateral approach seems to be the only way.

      I know that many people would point to Gaza as a criticism of the idea, but I really do not see where Israel has much choice. Some people suggest that it should unilaterally annex Area C, but I do not know if that's truly the best scenario. Either way I would leave it up to the Knesset to make the right decision on final borders, if they would be so inclined, which I do not see either.

      All that I know for certain is that the Arab war against the Jews in the Middle East has been ongoing since they were relieved of dhimmitude.

      I just want it to end.

      Delete
  3. Basic Middle East Facts:

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2018/04/basic-middle-east-facts.html

    ==============================
    Ancient Roman historians
    connected Jews with the Land of Israel
    :


    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/05/guest-post-cornelius-tacticus.html

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/02/guest-post-josephus-vs-muslim-liars.html

    ==============================
    Did Captain Kirk believe in negotiating with terrorists?

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/08/can-jews-learn-from-captain-kirk.html

    ==============================
    Why Israel’s 1967 Borders are Undefendable:

    www.algemeiner.com/2017/10/27/israel-cannot-withdraw-from-the-west-bank/

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/03/guest-post-why-1967-borders-are-suicide.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Reform Jews ally themselves with the anti-Israel
    Far-Left and the anti-Israel Intersectionality
    Movement, so it is correct to publicize these
    short blog articles that expose Reform Judaism:

    ==============================
    Rambam Refutes Reform Judaism:

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/11/rambam-vs-reform-judaism.html

    ==============================
    Why Barak Hullman left Reform Judaism and became Orthodox:

    http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-reform-judaism-doesnt-work-wont-work-and-how-to-fix-it/

    ==============================
    How a Reform Rabbi Became Orthodox (true story):

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/07/how-did-reform-rabbi-become-orthodox-jew.html

    ==============================
    Reform Judaism vs. Real Judaism:

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/05/guest-post-real-judaism.html

    ==============================
    Sephardic Jews REJECT Reform Judaism:

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/07/sephardim-reject-reform.html

    ==============================
    How Reform Jews CHEATED on the Pew survey:

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/06/reform-jews-cheated-pew-survey.html

    ==============================
    Quick quote from Famous Jewish
    mega-donor about Jewish Continuity
    :


    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2018/02/mr-sy-syms.html

    ==============================
    Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch vs Reform Judaism:

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2018/03/rabbi-hirsch-vs-reform.html

    ==============================
    Last but not least, the Reform Jews strongly opposed efforts to save European Jews from the Holocaust during World War II. Those rescue efforts were led by Orthodox Jews, who the Reform Jews considered to be behind-the-times and obsolete and an embarrassment.

    The Reform Jews got what they wanted:
    the rescue efforts failed.

    ReplyDelete