De'ja' Jew

[drdon326]

The Liberal Anti-Semites: The New Face of an Ancient Hatred

In the aftermath of the 1975 UN motion that condemned Zionism as a form of racism, Italian artist Herbert Pagani wrote:

"Now that the Jews have a homeland, anti-Semitism rises again from its ashes, or better, our ashes, and it is called anti-Zionism. Before it was applied to individuals, today it is applied to a nation. Israel is a ghetto, Jerusalem is Warsaw. We are no longer besieged by the Germans but by the Arabs, whose crescent has often been disguised as a sickle to better fool the Left around the world. I, a left-wing Jew, do not care about a Left whose wish is to liberate all mankind at the expense of one minority, because I belong to that minority."

Today, in the aftermath of the 2001 UN human -rights summit in Durban, we are back to the future. The chorus of harsh international criticism and condemnation of Israel merely resurrects this same dark phoenix. Interestingly, the main promoters of the increasing hostility toward the Jewish state belong to the liberal camp - an old ally and protector of the Jewish people.

In her latest book The Liberal Anti-Semites, Italian journalist Fiamma Nirenstein follows the development of the relationship between the Italian Left and the Jewish people, from the aftermath of the Second World War until today. Nirenstein provides a compelling analysis of the dynamics of this relationship, and of how the Left took an increasingly anti-Israel stand since the Six Day War, eventually becoming one of its most vociferous opponents.

The consequences of this liberal anti-Semitism are very serious: a legitimization of terrorism and a failure to understand its origins. As a result, Nirenstein contends, we fail to see its only possible solution: democracy in the Arab world.

Nirenstein invites the Left to reconsider its position vis-a'-vis Israel and terrorism, warning that Europe, willing or not, will soon have to fight the same war that Israel is fighting today.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1095131866150&p=1006953079969

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compelling read.

[Name removed]

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[still_one]

5. He just justifed the argument of the thread

The extreme left have a hatred of Israel, and only view it from one side.

There is no talking with those views because they are so wraped up in hate.

[drdon326]

7. jimbo...

pm me what was said.

[still_one]

3. So what is the point?

I can name you quite a few extreme right wing conservatives who are anti-Jewish?

Generalizations of any kind are divisive and not productive

As far a creating democracy in the Arab word, it is a nice ideal, but it won't happen in our life time.

The most important thing our country can do is create energy independence

What bush has done is divide the world in the fight against terrorism, NOT take over where Clinton left off in working toward a solution with the Israeli Palestinian issue, and invade a country which was a diversion to the real problem of terrorism.

The extreme left and the extreme right have always been anti-Jewish

Look at it this way, the majority of Jews and Arabs in this country are going to vote for Kerry. If that can happen there is still hope

[whalerider55]

4. with all due respect....

as a person of both the hebrew and liberal persuasion, if it is anti-semitic to see Ariel Sharon as a bloodthirsty, genocidal butcher, as history has both revealed and as the present, when it in turn becomes history will remember him as...

mark me down as an anti-semite.
israel. my homeland, right or wrong. but if it's wrong, g-d grant me the strength to right it.

it was a member of a party allied with sharon that shot Rabin.

whalerider55

[still_one]

8. but the reverse is true also

The problem is that on the Palestinian side the moderate voice is not heard, and they only call for the elimination of the state of Israel.

When bush had taken office, if he had continued where Clinton left off, things might be different.

bush has an agenda, and it is not pro-Israel or pro-Arab, or pro-USA. It is looking for a far right-winged Christian agenda

[Djinn]

11. really

"The problem is that on the Palestinian side the moderate voice is not heard, and they only call for the elimination of the state of Israel."

You may want to check your facts there

[TomClash]

6. I find this argument amazing

Israel has slowly begun to grow to eretz Israel and continues to build illegal settlements, while half its populace abhors its occupation and permanent settlement of the West Bank and Gaza or - as some preach - its future "from the Nile to the Euphrates."

The Left's anti-Israel stance comes from Israel's betrayal of its own foundations - the rise of the Likud (and worse lurking in the shadows), an occupation long past military necessity, a misguided war in Lebanon and so on.

Does the compelling anti-terror read include a chapter on Deir Yassin? Perhaps a few paragraphs about the King David Hotel? Or are heralded Israel prime ministers with pasts in the Irgun and the Stern Gang cleansed from the Jewish State's early history? One man's terror may be another man's liberation.

The equation of anti-semitism to the current stance against the occupation appears to be an attempt to have the cake and eat it too -extraordinary military, economic, cultural and political success of a talented people on the one hand while preserving the victimhood of the old ghetto on the other.

[still_one]

9. It is NOT the same thing. It was under the Brits or Turks

As far as the illegal settlements, that is a direct result of the bush administration not continuing where Clinton left off

Now we are at a stage where radical elements will take an even stronger stand because of this incompentence that bush has thrown us into

[bemildred]

10. "Israel is a ghetto"

Is this really the meme we want to be getting out there?
I thought that ghettos were sort of mandatory, like concentration
camps. You don't get to do vacations in Goa and stuff.

Is this guy aquainted with Fallacci or something? The flair
for dramatic hyperbole is similar.

[Forkboy]

12. Funniest Subject header ever!

[Darranar]

13. This is trash, and blatantly so...

note the use of "the Left" and "Europe" throughout the article, as a generalization tarring the entire group rather than certain sections of it.

Israel fit well in this pattern: a small, weak country evincing sympathy and support among the Left as a socialist nation, with a strong labor union and workers' rights. This dynamic, however, came to an abrupt end with Israel's victory in the Six Day War. The "new Jew" who defends himself and even dares to win "loses all his charm in the eyes of the intellectuals of the Left," beholden as they are to a peculiar ide'e fixe.

To clarify the rigidity of this idea of the Jew, Nirenstein refers to a letter published recently by a large group of professors from the prestigious University of Bologna addressed to their "Jewish friends." The letter contains the bizarre definition of the Jewish people as "a people who suffer, who must suffer because it is in their nature. Because of its fate, the Jewish people must bear the most terrible persecutions without raising a finger, and only then the Jews will gain compassion and solidarity."

So a group of professors in one incident equals the Left? Is it even clear that these professors are leftists?

SINCE ITS repudiation of Israel in 1967, the Left has become the Jewish state's most ferocious critic. This enmity reached its peak at the 2001 UN Summit in Durban, where Israel was officially identified as a pariah state. In the words of Alan Dershowitz, "Israel has become the Jew amongst the nations."

So ferocious criticism of Israel makes the Left anti-semitic?

Israel and the US understand this point. Putting an end to repressive regimes, dictatorships and violent propaganda while providing freedom and rights is the only way forward. Democracy is the strongest weapon the West has against terrorism.

The US and Israel have repeatedly and clearly shown this dedication to "freedom and rights", naturally. Immediately coming to mind is the former's insertion of an unelected and repressive puppet in Iraq and the latter's blatant collective punishment through house demolitions. How dare the European Left oppose such measures! It shows clearly that they are just anti-American and Jew-hating.

:eyes: