Mike L.
By "it" of course I mean the purpose of this blog and my major area of concern.
The Jews are between 13 and 14 million people. We represent a tiny proportion of the world population and our numbers have been kept, throughout the centuries, artificially low due to incessant, chronic persecution.
Almost half of our number live in Israel and almost half live in the United States, along with an important smattering throughout Europe, Australia, and elsewhere in the Americas. We have been driven out of the Arab world almost entirely.
Those of us fortunate enough to live in North America or Australia are doing just fine, thank you very much. Those of us who live in Europe are slowly being driven away and those of us who live in Israel, live under a constant state of siege.
This is what so many of our "progressive" friends fail to understand. They believe that the conflict should be characterized as a vicious military force (the Jews) oppressing the peaceful native population (the Palestinians).
This is a lie and it seems to me that as pro-Israel / pro-Jewish bloggers it is our job to make them understand that it is a lie.
It is, in fact, essentially the same lie that is told about the Jewish people generation upon generation, century upon century. In one way or another, depending upon time, place, and circumstance, they tell one another that we are wicked.
Today is no different.
Only the form has changed.
{Just a thought.}
A famous Progressive icon proves you right again.
ReplyDelete"Former President Jimmy Carter called “unacceptable” a court ruling that declared the State of Israel is not responsible for the death of American activist Rachel Corrie.
“The killing of an American peace activist is unacceptable. The court’s decision confirms a climate of impunity, which facilitates Israeli human rights violations against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Territory,” Carter said in a statement from the Atlanta-based Carter Center."
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jimmy-carter-calls-corrie-ruling-unacceptable/
The key word is "impunity."
DeleteTruly sad, especially coming from a former president.
DeleteIndeed Mike. One can almost feel the need he and others like him have to PUNISH Israel. Then again he always felt that way...."In Palestine Carter recounts a conversation with Golda Meir in which he commented that “a common historical pattern was that Israel was punished whenever the leaders turned away from the devout worship of God.” Meir’s response- a shrug and a laugh-deeply disturbed his Christian sensibilities and led him to wonder if the Jews really deserved their state."
Deletehttp://jcpa.org/article/sarah-schmidt-on-bearing-false-witness-jimmy-carters-palestine-peace-not-apartheid-edited-by-camera/
What an asshole he is.
But let's not forget that Jimmy Carter was a hard-right Republican president who is a modern leader of the conservative movement.
DeleteOh, wait...
I'd say Carter cancels out Ron Paul. And let's move on from there.
Shame that he's the only president of my lifetime who actually had the energy thing right. Too bad he was so bad at his job that he made it impossible for even Democrats to vote for him over Reagan...
*for many Democrats
DeleteJust to pre-empt volleytroll's inevitable claim that I said no Democrats voted for him, and whatnot. Eye roll...
Some just have an inherent antipathy for Jews and Zionism, others for the West, represented by Israel.
ReplyDeleteMany believe that the West is solely responsible for all the bad behavior in the world today, past and present. These are the humanitarian racists who believe that they cannot be racist because only they stand for social justice. What a crock they have invented.
When social justice cries out across the globe, these folks generally cannot be found. Yet, when one points to instances of the lack of social justice, such as the treatment of women and children, slavery, incitement to hatred and genocide, etc., there is no shortage of people to shout down the so-called bigoted "Islamophobes."
In this circumstance, these people will not understand. It will change their world view. Many of them, as expressed by their words and behavior, are woefully ignorant about history.
Better in my view to advocate to those who have not yet decided and are willing, able and eager to learn. They are awash with false and negative information about Israel, not about the positive role it has played, despite a reality that is uniquely perilous.
It's almost like we are standing on a sort-of political fault line, right at this very moment.
DeleteThe reason for this is because of the obvious hypocrisy that you point out.
When social justice cries out across the globe, these folks generally cannot be found.
This is the primary failure of the western left. They don't give a shit about universal human rights, yet they point the trembling finger of blame at the Jews in the Middle East on a daily basis.
It seems to me that in the long, slow process of political change among western diaspora Jews that we are approaching a tipping point. My suspicion is that liberal diaspora Jewry is beginning to move away from the left due its antipathy toward Israel.
If, in the US, we go toward the Republicans it will be as reformers, but I do not know that is where we should go.
I am a newly anointed independent.
I think it's not the Jews that need information, but the liberal leaning Democrats that are inclined to the principles of democracy and universal human rights, but have not had access to information free from the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist narratives that permeate their environments. These people outnumber Jews by far and can move the Democrats in a positive way.
DeleteTime will push most Jews away from the "progressive-left" perspective when it comes to Israel, not to mention the USA. That perspective is extremist. The hate manifested by these folks is too overt to be overlooked or rationalized indefinitely.