And for those of you who may not know, that is an Israeli "Iron Dome" defense rocket which Israel uses to... pretty successfully, I am happy to say... take down the Kassams and Katyushas that Hamas likes to shoot into Israel.
If you want to understand why Israelis, if not Jews more generally, are trending toward the political right, it's actually pretty obvious. We're under attack and you clearly don't give a shit.
That's why.
Look.
I criticize the left for two reasons. The first is that I come out of that political movement in the US and I am deeply disappointed with it and with President Barack Obama. The second reason is because it is now the western left in the US, not the right-wing, which leads the charge in the defamation of the Jewish people and the Jewish state of Israel.
Even a cursory survey of the Israel tagged writings on Daily Kos or the Huffington Post or the Guardian demonstrate the hatred pouring forth.
It's a sad shame because we were a big part in building American progressivism from the New Deal to the Civil Rights Movement to the Anti-War Movement to Second Wave Feminism and GLBT to the New Left and the Green movement.
I am less clear about Jewish American involvement in 19th century Abolitionism, but I am confident that, relative to our numbers, it was substantial.
"We're under attack and you clearly don't give a shit."
ReplyDeleteIt's worse than that. Not giving a shit would actually be good. What's galling about the Western Left is that they're actively engaged in undermining Jewish normal national existence and giving aid and comfort to Arab eliminationism directed at the Jewish state.
Supporting us is excellent. Being neutral about this conflict is absolutely fine. But once they take our enemies' side, they shouldn't be surprised when the majority of Israeli Jews treat their political stance with cold shoulders at best. Though, of course, like Hamas, they're accustomed to having the cake of bashing Israel and keeping Israeli restraint for their outrages at the same time. They like their wars deluxe, the anti-Zionists do.
Here's a question for ya.
DeleteI have asserted in the past that the western left has helped kill the Israeli left.
I have no sociological data to back up that claim, but it just seems like common sense.
Israelis know that the western left tends to be more and more hostile and, thus, more and more Israelis are turning away from it.
There are other factors, of course, such as the failure of Oslo, but do you think that my supposition makes sense?
Mike,
DeleteIf you're talking about scientific polling with hard numbers, then I don't have sociological data either, and for reasons I will point out, it's not an easy thing to show. My evidence is only anecdotal, but let me say that the first time I read the post you linked to, I said to myself, "Exactly!" It's not just common sense but also accords with the situation I know in my country.
I brought up the point that Israeli Jews are politically flexible. This is important for your thesis because it means more than scratching the surface is needed to see how the Israeli Jewish Left has been estranged from the Western Left. Simply put, if you take a combination of typically left-wing causes like socialism, gay rights and environmentalism, there are still quite a lot of Israeli Jews who are into those causes just as before and so, to the untrained eye, seem to be no different from their Western Leftist counterparts.
What happened over the 2000s was that the Israeli Jewish Left was torn away from the Western Left because of the latter's adoption of anti-Zionism as one its causes along with other like environmentalism and gay rights. Israeli Jewish Leftists did not and still do not have any wish to abandon those causes, but the Western Leftists' insistence on eliminating the Jewish State as a left-wing cause has meant a breach that can't be sealed. Sometimes the Western Leftists would boot Israeli Leftists who "stubbornly clung" to the Jewish nation's right to a state, and sometimes the Israeli Leftists were the ones who would part ways from their European and American counterparts in disgust; either way, this single issue has been a critical wedge. I'm reminded of the "Single-Issue Jew" cartoon by DHonig, who still posts on DKos. In Israel this is precisely how things have turned out.
It's not easy to find out those Israeli Jews who are today Leftists in all but anti-Zionism. Unless you're well acquainted with them, you'll know only one side of their political existence: You'll either find such a one as a left-winger talking about environmentalism and gay rights, or a foreign policy hawk talking about the need to keep the post-1967 territories (if only for security reasons, such as to prevent Kassams raining on Tel Aviv as well). This seeming contradiction is usually compartmentalized, though let it be clear that there's no contradiction in staying left-wing in all things except the one you can't compromise with because your life depends on it.
The Israeli Jewish Left sans anti-Zionism is still in existence, but it is isolated from the Western Left because of that exact unacceptable demand of the latter, the demand of allegiance to anti-Zionism.
This -
Delete"though let it be clear that there's no contradiction in staying left-wing in all things except the one you can't compromise with because your life depends on it."
.
Oslo did not fail. It was a fraud from the start. For the "Palestinians" it was a great success.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Daily Kos, stating simple and obvious truths are now against the rules, apparently.
ReplyDeleteSo true. It is almost impossible for the majority (2+ / 3-)
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to even acknowledge that civilians in Israel are being deliberately targeted for rocket attacks.
They see nothing wrong with this kind of terrorism.
I wonder if it were happening to them and their families if the feeling would be the same.
Any attacks targeting civilians is reprehensible and to defend or downplay such immoral acts is as well.
by JNEREBEL on Mon Nov 19, 2012 at 08:19:06 AM PST
I have to ask what is 'troll-worthy' in that comment? Stating a simple truth, that nobody at Daily Kos cared when it was Israeli civilians under attack? This is a fact.
Diaries about the hundreds of rockets launched into Israel leading up to last week = 0.
Diaries since Israel starting shooting back = 38.
38 > 0.
Or was this part 'troll-worthy?' -
"Any attacks targeting civilians is reprehensible and to defend or downplay such immoral acts is as well."
Perhaps "Speaking While Zionist" was ultimately the 'troll-worthy' crime?
Diary of the day. Not even gonna bother quoting or anything (yawn, some probable zombie used to really totally think Israel was, like, SuperAwesome, but now she is SOOOOO over them! also, Nazis and apartheid, etc etc etc, you know the drill), but the main thing that drew my interest is a theme that seems to be taking hold there in these diaries.
ReplyDeleteCalls for 'civility.' As in - a diarist or a commenter says "Jews control the media," or compares Israel to Nazi Germany for the 14,000th time, and what have you. They're just expressing an opinion, you see, and if one disagrees then one must very rationally consider the proposition put forth, and if one is to dispute it, one must put forth a scholarly essay for review by one's peers. It is not enough to simply tell the bigoted moron to fuck off, as they deserve. No. One must take care not to appear too uppity.
See, the problem with I-P at Daily Kos has apparently been that there was never enough such 'rational debate' as to whether, say, Joooz control the media.
It's incredible, it truly is. "Now calm down, Jews. We're just askin' questions. No one accused you of harvesting organs. We're just askin' if Israel does as a matter of state policy. That's all. Why can't you guys be more reasonable?!"
The tsunami of Jew hate at dKos is no more surprising than the sun coming up in the morning. Neither is the ineffectiveness of the handful of Pro-I responses. A few sandbags cannot stop a tidal wave.
ReplyDeleteBTW has anyone noticed how many Kossacks are JUSTIFYING Hamas rocket attacks? Is it just me or has that number increased by a huge amount this time around?
ReplyDeleteI hadn't jumped into I-P there yet during Cast Lead, so I can't make the comparison between then and now, but yeah, there's definitely that going on there, too.
DeleteI mean, and it goes beyond just that. Implicit in Daily Kos neo-Nazi Diane Gee's 'argument' that all Israeli Jews are legitimate military targets, is that they're then not only open to free rocket attacks, but to everything else too. Jihadis kidnapping and beheading a 13-year old girl? Sure, why not! She would have been eligible for military service in just a few years.
It's a sickness. But we all know that here.
I never used the term 'Kossack' when I was there, but now I think it's quite a fitting name for them.
Jay, the Jihadi argument that all Israeli Jews are legitimate military targets because of the draft in that country is twisted in a particularly sadistic way.
DeleteIt is because the Jews of the Middle East remain under constant siege, and because they represent a tiny minority in which the hostile majority outnumbers them by a factor of 50 or 60 to 1, that Jewish Israelis send their kids into the IDF.
They're not happy about it, but they clearly understand why it's necessary.
What the WhatHerFaceIdiot is basically saying is that because they must defend themselves, Israelis are thereby legitimate targets for attack.
The notion is sick and evil and the very last thing in this world that it is is liberal. On the contrary, it's sadistic.
The circular logic of hate, or something like that, eh?
DeleteVery well said, Mike.
HA! Analogy of the year. ;)
ReplyDelete"The difference is that in this one we have a little thing called the IDF."
ReplyDeleteFuckin' A!
Video of what's happening in Israel:
ReplyDeleteworst action movie that you will ever live in.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=436182526445934
https://www.facebook.com/ISRAEL.TRUTH
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Hat tip to Kasim Hafeez from his facebook page The Israel Campaign
(Kasim Hafeez's website: www.theisraelcampaign.org)