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In the early 1990s, I attended a dinner in New York City sponsored by a Jerusalem foundation, highlighted by a dialogue between Henry Kissinger and Fouad Ajami, moderated by Dan Rather. (Ajami was a Lebanese-born university professor who often appeared as a talking head on TV as an expert on the Middle East.) At one point in the evening, Prof. Ajami noted that when Saddam Hussein used nerve gas on his own people, the UN said nothing. But when Israel uses tear gas, it draws international rebuke.
It’s the same today, except worse. Much worse.
Israel experiences the most horrific bloodbath in any one day since the Holocaust, with details too sickening to repeat yet again, and who gets blamed? Israel!
In the words of the infamous document signed by 31 student groups at Harvard, “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
But of course. Israel is always to blame. The leadership of the people who were murdered, slaughtered, butchered, incinerated, raped are to blame – not the murderers, the slaughterers, the butchers, the pyromaniacs, the rapists.
Israel drops more than one million leaflets throughout Gaza City, urging the civilians to flee to the south. Israel makes tens of thousands of phone calls – yes, calls to individuals on their phones – as well as sends out tens of thousands of text messages, saying, “We’re going to bomb your neighborhood. Please get out so you can be safe.”
Hamas, in contrast, urges their people to stay, blocks them from leaving, putting up roadblocks to stop them and allegedly confiscating car keys and shooting their own people dead. Hamas leadership even makes clear that they welcome the death of their own people.
In short, Israel seeks to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza while Hamas seeks to maximize civilian casualties there, but Israel is guilty.
Yet Israel is to blame.
As expressed by Brendan O’Neill on the Spiked website, “So let me get this right. If Israel bombs Hamas targets in Gaza, it is recklessly endangering civilian life. But if it gives civilians fair warning to move away from certain areas, it is engaging in ethnic cleansing. If it drops bombs in built-up suburbs, it is committing a war crime. But if it advises civilians to leave those built-up suburbs before the bombs come, it is also committing a war crime. If it attacks northern Gaza, that’s genocide. Yet when it tells the civilians of northern Gaza to leave first, that’s ‘forced transfer’, which is to say: genocide.
“Everything Israel does is a war crime. Everything. Killing civilians – war crime. Trying not to kill civilians – war crime. Bombing populated areas – war crime. Giving a population time to leave before dropping bombs – war crime. The surrealism of these screams of ‘genocide!’ every time an Israeli soldier so much as picks up his gun was brought home by two headlines in the Independent last week, published just 10 hours apart. Israel is engaged in ‘collective punishment in Gaza’, claimed the first. ‘Israel accused of “trying to ethnically cleanse Gaza Strip” as one million ordered to evacuate’, said the second.”
But of course. Israel is always to blame.
That’s because the spirit that animates the demonizing of Israel is the same spirit that animates Jew-hatred in general.
Jews are hated for being rich and for being poor.
Jews are hated for being powerful (they’re trying to take over the world) and for being weak (those miserable, wretched Jews).
Jews are hated for being religious (they think they’re better than us) and for being secular (they’re trying to fit in as if they were just like us).
Jew are hated by Communists and by Fascists.
Jews are hated when they are victims and when they are victors.
Jews are hated for not fighting back (why did they go as sheep to the slaughter under the Nazis?) and for fighting back (they’re guilty of ethnic cleansing and genocide!).
Jews are hated when they are in exile (there’s a reason they’ve been expelled from so many countries) and when they’re in their homeland (they are evil occupiers who don’t belong there).
Jews are hated by Black supremacists and White supremacists.
And Jew-hatred has a strong tradition in both Christianity and Islam.
It’s always those dirty Jews/Zionists!
And lest you think this is just a matter of rhetoric – a matter of mere words – consider this.
On November 4th I wrote an article titled, “Wake Up World Before Jewish Blood is Shed In Your Country.”
One day later, on the very day the article was posted, Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old, Jewish, pro-Israel protester was struck on the head by a pro-Palestinian protester. He died as a result of his injuries. It only took one day
That is why I will not be silent at such a critical time in Jewish history, not to mention world history.
What about you?
Will you use equal weights and measures, or will you go along with the spirit of the age?
By all means, Israel can be criticized along many lines, and true friends of Israel are more than happy to share their comments, their criticisms, and their concerns.
But this unequal, unfair, unethical demonizing of Israel and the Jewish people must be confronted and exposed, especially when the nation faces yet another existential threat.
Which side are you on?
Orwell’s 1984 the 2 minutes of hate was directed at Emmanuel Goldstein.
If every last Jew vanished from the earth the antisemites would blame their unhappiness on what the Jews did when there were Jews. The proper answer is not to try to win hearts and minds , but to do what the Israelis have done–build an army so powerful that the Jew haters know they are signing their own death warrant when they attempt to take it on.
This is difficult to comprehend. Hamas began this war by attacking Israel – yet Israel is to blame for defending itself?
Does this make America to blame for declaring war on Japan following their bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941?
Too many similar occurrences over the past 20 years in the Middle East. beg common sense answers..
What secular Jews in America need to understand, and I mean politicians, lawyers, business owners, etc etc, just because you still have some freedoms here and you are deceived into thinking that your with the in crowd of antisemitism, anti Israel, anti Zionism, etc think twice as they don’t have all the power yet because if they did they would come after you to destroy you.
Do you think all those rich and connected people in Germany ever thought that the neighbors they grew up with, politicians they were friends with, people they had family dinners with, etc would turn on them? No they didn’t. But when Hitler had all the power they lost everything including their lives.
It’s the same in America as well as globally.
They will always turn against the Jews. It is an ancient hatred and jealousy right from the pits of hell.
May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob open your blinded eyes and your deaf ears and give you a new heart to receive Jeshua as your Messiah.
ABBA is waiting for you to repent and call upon the Name of the Lord while you still have opportunity.
Does it never occur to you that we are very proud to be Jewish? Or do you only see this issue as a way to push your unwanted proselytizing on us? Give it a rest.
Clearly it all comes down to those pesky settlements, if only the West Bank was judenrein everything would be comity and peace and love—well… we must also make Israel as a whole judenrein— that too — but other than that, which is non-negotiable, Hamas and the Islamists aren’t anti-semitic: Hamas even modified their charter! — and there’s nothing to worry about from Iran, they have no interest in getting the bomb — thus It’s not about Quranic hate and bloodlust—what are you, a racist—? — No one could tolerate being occupied, even though the local Arabs rejected their own state all along, since 1937 — I have an idea, maybe if the folks in the settlements start speaking Spanish, maybe they’ll be welcomed in by the great humanists of the PA and Fatah — Or this: time to indulge a whole lotta jihadis, in their desire for paradise.
Indeed Israel is always to blame, no matter what is does it’s guilty of genocide, racism, stealing land, etc. Thus given given the never ending evilness of Israel, it makes perfect sense to eliminate Hamas and all its supporters thereof – totally and unreservedly – regardless of whatever collateral civilian casualties there may be and the consequent total destruction of buildings. property, infrastructure, etc. It’s go for broke time and the hell with whatever condemnation is hurled at Israel because Israel will be condemned anyways. Unrelenting bombs away until the enemy is destroyed.
muslims love death , oblige as many of them that you can . otherwise you could be next . as hundreds in europe have found out and continue to do so .
Why are so many prominent Jews in America so anti- freedom of speech? Anti- border enforcement and slander Trump supporters so much.. I’m talking about people like Rob Reiner , I’m asking because I am curious and want the opinion from a conservative Jew. I’m talking about those among the ~90% who vote Democrat.
I don’t understand the question. Rob Reiner is stupider than the character he played in “All in the Family” in the ’60s, and his Jewish identity is nonexistent, just like that of the 90% you mention.
“And Jew-hatred has a strong tradition in both Christianity and Islam.”
The part about Christianity is what you’re not allowed to say in public these days, even though Christianity is based on the idea that God rejected the Jews due to their wickedness and condemned them to eternal exile unless they accept the idolatrous worship of a human being (who happened to be Jewish!) Many Western people who call themselves Christians reject these positions, and we Jews are glad that they do so, but they are in deep denial of their own history and the actual tenets of their religion.
I would have been afraid to write the sentence which you wrote, but now that you have written it, its truth cannot be denied.