The Swarm
This is not really about Zionsim, but more an example of:
You should read the whole thing. There is a nice suprise at the end.
Sure, it is bad when Islam riots over cartoons. But a respone like this is in some ways worse than a riot.
SD City Beat
a) The Jewish community's ability to swarm at a percieved threat.
b) How quickly the Jewish community will attempt to label any criticism as anti-Semitic.
c) How the Jewish community sometime makes such accusations hastily and incorrectly
d) How they would rather conceal, downplay or hide negatives truths than acknowledge and explain them.
San Diego City Beat
Edwin Decker
My last column saying Hasidic rasta-singer Matisyahu was being disrespectful of women for not shaking their hands (a practice called shomer negiah) has garnered more fireworks than any other column I’ve written. As soon as the paper hit the streets—BANG!—I immediately began receiving e-mails from all across the country calling me “anti-Semitic,” “racist,” “skinhead,” “Nazi,” “white-hood wearer,” “member of a white-power group” and even “a self-hating Jew.”
There are also numerous angry postings on various Jewish websites. One responder with so-called connections threatened to bully Google to take CityBeat off its search engine. [Amazing!] I just finished an interview about the scandal with Donald Harrison from the San Diego Jewish Times. And, unbelievably, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has contacted us. Apparently, they’ve received a “score” of complaints about my column.
OK, I can see getting all irritated about some of the trash I write. I can even understand calling me an anti-Semite, or a Nazi. But going to the ADL to tell on me is so weak.
...
You should read the whole thing. There is a nice suprise at the end.
Sure, it is bad when Islam riots over cartoons. But a respone like this is in some ways worse than a riot.
SD City Beat
posted by Brian at 2:30 PM
5 Comments:
What is happening to this blog? What was a sharp, observant anti-Aipac blog seems to morphing into something else.
In your last post, you referred to the "Jewish Community." That's a gross generalization; really you are talking about a segment of Jewish-Americans, and AIPAC types and other zealots in particular.
Then there was the post about the Israeli military concentration camp field trip. A Soviet re-education camp? C'mon, man--the Holocaust happened, and really not all that long ago; its extent was so massive as to seem inconceivable now, and survivors and descendents continue on. It would be perverse in the extreme, even mad, if Jews didn't recall it to their youth to inspire the cause of self-defense (though the IDF's actions are frequently offensive, in both senses of the word).
Finally, the idea that Milosevic was motivated to secure Serbia's territorial integrity--what are you talking about? The link you sighted was frightfully unknowledgable. Milosevic instigated the break-up of Yugoslavia, as well as the wars in Bosnia and Croatia (these to AUGMENT Serbia's borders); then, whether Kosovo should be rightly part of Serbia is similar to asking whether the West Bank should be part of Israel. History to a degree gives Serbs a dated claim, if an ethnicity can have a permanent claim on a territory, but Kosovar Albanians also have an historical claim. More important: by 1991 Albanians were 90% of the Kosovo population according to official figures, and likely more than that (thus my statement of 15 to one). Milosevic used Kosovo and its mythic status to his purpose: what really motivated Milosevic from the start was power and adulation, and nationalism was the wave he rode and stayed aboard as long as he could. As for the Kosovo war, after the mass killing in Bosnia & Croatia, the West was not wrong to be apprehensive; how many thousands did die in those wars, how many raped, how many ethnically cleansed? Let's say plus 200,000 for the first two, and plus 2 million for the last. At the time of the Kosovo war (1999), the majority Kosovar Albanians had then been living under extreme Apartheid conditions for 10 years; under Serbian control Albanians were pushed out of jobs held in the Yugoslav period, and replaced with Serbs; silent ethnic cleansing was long underway (with Kosovo Albanians fleeing in despair of getting work, as some 150,000 Palestinians have in recent years as well), and fighting between the KLA and Serbian forces was increasing. I cannot see how one could not support Kosovo independence if one supports a Palestinian state in the Occupied Territories (even if that is your second choice to an integrated, single Palestine).
You are too smart to write pap, which suggests to me that you have not really read the Yugoslav histories here; this is third-hand, from generalists.
By contrast, your discussion of Aipac zealots is fact-based, informative, and powerful. I hope that your blog will not move further into vitriol and snark, and go back to reporting the ways in which Aipac & American Likudniks are influencing the American political system and decision-making.
Daniel, I agree that the post on the Jewish Community is somewhat off-topic, but other than that what is your concern? Are you saying the Jewish community doesn't exist?
When someone gets a investiative call from the ADL and an interview by the local jewish newspaper I feel safe saying that the "Jewish Community" has responded.
I think the case is interesting because it shows how quicky the rhetoric gets ratcheted up - from 0 to the Nazi blast in 6.8 seconds.
I am sorry but this is unacceptable. People's careers and lives are at stake and the rhetoric must be more reasonable.
People who argue against AIPAC are ineviately going to be called anti-Semites so I think the case is important.
Regarding Milosovich, let us just agree to disagree. Again, that was somewhat off topic, but I do think the same style of drum beating (including false information) was used to involve us in both wars and therefore it is also of interest.
Daniel,
Here is a whole archive of articles about the Serbian war which provides a more balanced perspective than you get in the MSM.
Malic
Daniel is a typical concern troll. The AIPAC thing always was about the unique and immoral coherent quality of most of the Jewish community (see Chomsky talking abuout a streak of Stalinism) -- who do you think gives money to AIPAC or as they direct? Who is writing those letters?
And we refuse to shake hands with Orthodox Jewish men out of respect for their robust, burgeoning sexuality.
I think when the reference is to the ADL or AIPAC or a Jewish newspaper, the comment should refer to the those entities. It may be that in Washington they are perceived as "the Jewish community," but they aren't, anymore than Tikkun or the Union of Reform Rabbis can be considered "the Jewish community." Put another way: did Allan Ginsburg and Irving Kristol share the same politics? Which one spoke for the "Jewish Community?" I mean, seriously...
As for Kosovo, I'm fine to agree to disagree. But let me note, for example, Juan Cole, no right winger, also characterizes Serbia's actions in the same way. As for Malic--to me it's another example of portraying black as white to justify your own tribe's agenda. Indeed, his writings read like a Likudnik's. The Kosovo story isn't all that complicated: either Kosovo is entitled to independence or it is not. If Taiwan is entitled to independence, why not Kosovo? If Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia itself are entitled to independence, why not Kosovo? What historical claim outweighs the preference of 90% of the population? That the Albanians are now oppressive of the remaining Serbs is an issue--but I can't see how it calls for the incorporation of Kosovo into Serbia. I agree that the war on Kosovo set a troubling precedent of illegal involvement in a conflict, as it broke with just war principles and the U.N. Charter; that said, as I think the situation had the potential to be distabilizing and in any case was as obscene as the occupation of the West Bank, I think the problem reflects the need for revision of international law. Similarly, as I noted before, I would support world action to push Israel back to 1967 lines, even though the country is not an imminent threat to the U.S. Don't think war would be required, though.
I remain a fan of this blog, and find it educational to learn how this relatively small group maintains such disproportionate influence. To me that mission will be better served if the writing keeps its focus and doesn't make snarky generalizations or hateful asides, however enjoyable they feel to the writer at the moment.
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