A Tip 'O the Kippa to the Elder of Ziyon.
As I have mentioned on a number of occassions my father's side of the family was killed by the Nazis during Operation Barbarossa in the Ukraine during World War II. In the little village of Medzhybizh they were, along with the non-Jewish residents, forced into road building for the Nazi advance and when the road was done they were made to dig large and long ditches. When the ditches were done the Jews were lined up in those ditches and shot dead.
About 3,000 Jews were killed in Medzhybizh by the Einsatzgruppen (Nazi Death Squads) in 1942.
But what I really find amazing - what I find shocking to the core - is the fact that if I point out that the Imam or Ayatollah above is screaming for the slaughter of the Jews, it makes me the racist in the opinion of the progressive-left, including many progressive-left Jews.
Here is the transcript:
The Islamic nation, which is the guardian of Truth, must be aware of the conspiracies of Falsehood, and of the snares of those who lie in wait. Allah has taught [Muslims] that their worst enemies are those about whom He said: "You shall find the Jews and the polytheists to be the most hostile towards the believers" [Koran 5:82]. Thus, Allah made Jihad for His sake and endurance of pain and hardship effective means to fight the people of Falsehood....The confrontation [with the Jews] is inevitable. Our Prophet does not lie. He told us that there would be a confrontation between the Muslims and the Jews before the Day of Judgment, and that the Muslims would vanquish them to the point that the Jews would hide behind the stones and the trees, but the stones and the trees would say: "Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." Prepare for that day, for it will surely arrive, because the divine revelation harbors no lies.The great Arab nation is about 400 million people. The vast Muslim population is around 1.5 billion people. The Jews represent a tiny minority of about 6 million people in the Middle East surrounded by huge numbers opposed to Jewish sovereignty on Jewish land and, yet, they get the blame for the murderous hostility toward them. The Jews in Germany in the 1930s, by the way, you should know, represented about 1 percent of the population.
The entire situation is profoundly unjust and all that we can do, or so it seems to me, is stand up and say "NO."
We will not allow non-Jews, like Barack Obama and Mahmoud Abbas, to tell us where Jews may, or may not, be allowed to live.
We will not allow non-Jews, or anyone, to screech for the murder of Jews without standing up against such genocidal mania.
If Islam contains an element of fascist, genocidal Jew Hatred then it needs to be pointed out.
The problem is not someone like Pamela Geller. The problem is political Islam and thus the very people that Pamela Geller points toward.
If As-A-Jew - as a "progressive-left Zionist" - you think that I am the enemy, then you are a fool.
Calling people that expose this hate and bigotry haters and bigots is a testament to the moral deficiency of those doing the calling. They do not seem to have the capacity to determine the difference between hate and the response to hate. They maintain a view of "tolerance" that is Orwellian.
ReplyDeleteI want to know why this hatred is the only one that's considered unacceptable to call out / expose amongst a certain portion of the left. I found a link to something somewhere, hell if I can remember now, but it was to an old Daily Kos A-I diary a few days ago, from long before I jumped into the topic there. Glanced at the comments and I couldn't believe what I was reading. Somebody brought up the historical fact of dhimmitude, and they were immediately pounced on by half a dozen people and called a racist, racist-y 'Islamophobic' racist. It was astonishing, really.
ReplyDeleteMy last few diaries there were intended to draw out hidden antisemites, and I got at least one who, in a diary about an incident where Jews were targeted in New Jersey, came right out and said that antisemitism is understandable because she hates Israel. I'm sure she thinks drawing swastikas on synagogues in New Jersey is a matter of social justice, but can you imagine someone on the left making a similar statement about any other group of people?
This makes it all the more remarkable that left-wing groups don’t mobilise against these religious extremists as they do against the far-right. Anti-fascists who happily march against the BNP or EDL rarely show that level of commitment against Anjem Choudhary’s group. Why?
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[B]uilding a broad alliance against religious extremists would also shed light on other unsavoury groups. In recent years university campuses have invited xenophobic preachers such as Haitham al-Haddad, Kamal El Mekki and others, despite their extreme views on women, homosexuals and integration. Islamic Societies at Kingston, London South Bank and London Metropolitan universities have all come under deserved criticism, while the UK-based Islamic Education & Research Academy has a whole roster of xenophobic preachers. These groups and socities shouldn’t be banned – after all we must value free speech – but they should be actively opposed by left-wingers who care about the proliferation of bigotry in our society. Otherwise its painfully obvious that we are not applying our principles consistently.
Because they hate Jews. Always have always will. Things are rarely more complicated than they look at first blush. "Progressives" hate Israel because they hate Jews and it's more politically digestible to frame their hatred that way. Elie Wiesel said this DECADES ago "The left hates Israel and the right hates the Jews..."
DeleteHi Trudy,
DeleteI have to say, you always have a way of brightening my day!
:O)
The truth, of course, is that only a portion of the left hates Israel. Jay is of the left and he does not hate Israel and I was from the left and certainly did not. Stuart is on the left and doesn't hate Israel... maybe.
The left, of course, is millions upon millions of people thinking in all sorts of different ways upon varying subjects, Israel being merely one.
The problem in my view is not that the left hates Israel, but that the left is OK with hatred of Israel. They accept it and thus they accept anti-Semitic anti-Zionists as part of the larger coalition.
I would say this:
It is not that most progressives are anti-Semitic. They aren't. It's that they don't get it, they don't care, and they very much want you to shut the fuck up.
I know that some people who read here and even some who participate here will object to the vulgarity, but I have to say, sometimes a little vulgarity gets the point across. And the point above neatly sums up my experience as a member of the progressive-left and I bet Jay would concur.
Progressives as a group do not necessarily hate Israel, but they surely hate us. That is, they loathe and despise Jews who stand up too strongly for Israel because they consider us a remarkable pain in the ass.
Hatred toward Israel is acceptable on the left.
Pro-Israel defiance is not.
Make of it what you will.
That sure does seem to sum up my experience, as well, Mike.
DeleteFanatical hatred of Israel is by no means a regular topic brought up amongst us (I have never been working on a community garden and had some guy muttering darkly about the Jews under his breath the whole time, for instance), nor is having such feelings a requirement by any means.
The real problem is that too many 'progressives' are just fine and dandy with antisemitic 'anti-Zionists,' and when we push back against them or expose them for just what they are, that somehow makes us 'the problem,' particularly on progressive-left internet venues. Which said boards and such certainly do matter in shaping the boundaries of acceptable discussion in 'real life,' as well.
In the interest of promoting peace and comity, we should just shut up or something, I suppose. I reject that course of action, myself, however. Those who would seek to destroy the world's sole Jewish state, whether their motives are based upon ignorant fantasies or racist lies and malicious intent, deserve no place in any sort of respectable 'Big Tent.' Unless we're talking a KKK circus, or something like that...
Mike,
Delete"It is not that most progressives are anti-Semitic. They aren't. It's that they don't get it, they don't care, and they very much want you to shut the fuck up."
That's about it. Or as I put it once or twice: The Far Left doesn't condone Arab imperialist murder of Israeli Jews, oh no, no, no! They "just" offer some sage reasoning as to how the Israeli Jews have brought such acts on themselves, for example by setting up a state of their own in the midst of the Arab world.
In early 1933 when the Nazis first came to power and started official antisemitic persecution, they met with all the major German Jewish organizations to get THEM on board with a 'Zionist' appeal to expatriating them all to Palestine. The German Jews refused to even discuss it. The Zionist groups in Germany, albeit a tiny minority inside the Jewish community saw an opportunity and told the Nazis they could work with them which lead to the infamous "Transfer Agreement". All the rest of the German Jews - famously antizionist the lot of them, wound up exterminated.
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