"Hating Jews is back in fashion"

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financeguy

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As Charlie Sheen, John Galliano and Julian Assange demonstrate, anti-semitism is becoming trendy.
It was a great week, this week, for Pope Benedict XI to exonerate the Jews. It’s one of those twist of circumstances that can make even a fundamentalist atheist like myself believe in God – or, at least, the possibility of a great, overhanging Comic Logic to the Universe. Because in the week that anti-Semitism became really, properly zeitgeisty again – you can’t get more culturally now than John Galliano, Charlie Sheen and Julian Assange – thank Great Overhanging Comic Logic that the Pontiff/ex-member of the Hitler Youth decided to shut down that pesky old hatred once and for all in his new work, “Jesus of Nazareth – Part II” (I always said someone should write a sequel to that movie).

But the fact that the Vatican is still, in 2011, chasing its tail over the Jewish responsibility for the crucifixion (an event which, of course, was absolutely essential to Jesus’ divine mission, and thus the Jews should have been applauded for helping Him along the way to it, instead of reviled and persecuted for a couple of millennia) is just the Route One explanation for the persistence of anti-Semitism in our culture. In commissioning this piece, the brief was could I come up with the reason why many people still harbour negative ideas about this fairly tiny racial group, but of course there isn’t one single reason. The old blood libel – “His blood be on us and on our children”, shouted so loudly by the Jews to Pontius Pilate in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ – provides the historical context, but I’m really not sure if John Galliano even speaks Arameaic: and besides, he doesn’t seem to know much simpler historical things, such as the fact that Hitler really didn’t love gays.

This is also what gives anti-Semitism a somewhat ambiguous status with the Left. Despite so many key Lefties being Jewish – Marx, Trotsky, y’know: that level of Leftie – many of them, some less consciously than others, harbour a sense that Jews don’t quite fit into that key Venn Diagram marked Oppressed/Worth Fighting For. Yes, there was the Holocaust, yes there was 2,000 years of persecution and pogroms and massacres, but a) quite a lot of them have got a fair wodge of cash, and b) Israel.


Because Israel has become, in recent years, an icon for the Left of everything that is bad - American imperialism, oil wars, suppression of human rights - and since Jews, even Jews who do not support the state or its policies, are (at least in the minds of, say, Hamas) associated with it, knocking Jews may just be a blow for the oppressed, rather than to them.

As a result, people talking the anti-Jew talk can do it not as racists, but, paradoxically, as if they are somehow sticking up for other races. Underneath one of the various web films of John Galliano looking weirdly cold and lonely at that café that I watched the other day, there were a slew of comments, an awful lot of them supportive of the designer. One of them, johntron67, began: “What is it with the Jews! They’re the only group you just can’t say anything negative about…” What’s amazing about that – the same poster went on, later, to say, sinisterly, that “the cauldron will boil over though, one day soon, and guess who’s gonna get scalded…” – is not so much that johntron67 thinks that saying generally-OK and not-to-be-remarked-upon things about the Jews would include the comment “I love Hitler - your forefathers would’ve been gassed”; but that he really thinks that other ethnic minorities are, in comparison, fair game. Two words: Michael Richards. Charlie, Mel, probably even Galliano – they’ll work again: Mel Gibson is, even as we speak, in a big Hollywood movie, The Beaver. Since his n-word-fuelled outburst onstage in 2006, Kramer is toast.

David Baddiel: Hating Jews is Back in Fashion - Israel Insider
 
Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, and people who comment on YouTube...

What do they all have in common?

Apparently they are the compass of what is "in style" and should be taken seriously.
 
Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, and people who comment on YouTube...

What do they all have in common?

Apparently they are the compass of what is "in style" and should be taken seriously.

What of the European left's comparative silence on human rights abuses in Muslim countries in the Middle East as compared to the fulsome denunciations levelled at Israel?
 
Higher standards. We say we support Israel because they are a democratic blah blah island amongst a blah blah blah sea. And that goes both ways. We claim they are something 'more' so we expect more of them?
 
What of the European left's comparative silence on human rights abuses in Muslim countries in the Middle East as compared to the fulsome denunciations levelled at Israel?

Like Earnie said, "higher standards".

Look at the overall development of the countries, the governments, etc...

Many Muslim countries have been stuck in an infancy stage for centuries. You don't treat a child and a young adult the same.
 
Exactly the same reason why everyone cracked it so heavily at the US for waterboarding, when within the global range of torture nastiness, well, it's not exactly the same as having your testicles cut off and fed to you, no? Doesn't matter - higher standards.
 
Did you not like the answers so far?



No, the question has not been addressed.

This is the question:
Originally Posted by financeguy

What of the European left's comparative silence on human rights abuses in Muslim countries in the Middle East as compared to the fulsome denunciations levelled at Israel?
 
Awaiting replies to this question.

Seek and ye shall find:

Like Earnie said, "higher standards".

Look at the overall development of the countries, the governments, etc...

Many Muslim countries have been stuck in an infancy stage for centuries. You don't treat a child and a young adult the same.

Exactly the same reason why everyone cracked it so heavily at the US for waterboarding, when within the global range of torture nastiness, well, it's not exactly the same as having your testicles cut off and fed to you, no? Doesn't matter - higher standards.
 
Is Earnie's answer THAT hard to understand? If you don't agree with him, at least respond to his answer rather than pretending the question hasn't been answered at all.

This is far too often the case with you iron horse. You don't LIKE the answer so you cover your eyes and ears and pretend to have never seen or heard it.



I'm seeking.

What does this statement mean?

"Many Muslim countries have been stuck in an infancy stage for centuries. You don't treat a child and a young adult the same." ~posted by BVS

Do you not think that in the overall scheme of things that one is considered much more developed and advance than the other?
 
A little article from National Review magazine. All too common unfortunately.

After Israel's Dec 2008-Jan 2009 war in Gaza, the Scottish regional council of West Dunbartonshire resolved to succor racially oppressed Hamas militants by banning use of the Dunbartonshire purse for purchases from the Jewish state. But for Israelis, having failed to learn from the moral censure of the aged councilmen, chauvinistically defended themselves again in the May 2010 flotilla raid. Compounding the outrage, the wily and devious transnationals found a way around the boycott: Israeli books made it into Dunbartonshire libraries via collaborating English translators and publishers. So the council elders convened once more, and, going beyond mere Israeli manufactures, banned all new books written by Israelis from their libraries. Some ten neighboring councils followed suit.
The first question that comes to mind is: What to do about Ecclesiates? More to the point: When will the councils ban books by authors from Syria and Iran? Never of course. This is partly because they are hypocrites, and partly because, unlike Israel, Syria and Iran don't produce books worth reading--a fact that indicates where the actual repression in the Middle East lies.
 
Higher standards.
Aaahh. The soft bigotry of low expectations.
We say we support Israel because they are a democratic blah blah island amongst a blah blah blah sea. And that goes both ways. We claim they are something 'more' so we expect more of them?

I'm not sure a lot of the Arab world sees our infidel standards as "higher."
 
Many Muslim countries have been stuck in an infancy stage for centuries. You don't treat a child and a young adult the same.

You mean like savages? There's quite a bit of passive racism in that sentence. Just sayin'
 
Jive Turkey said:
You mean like savages? There's quite a bit of passive racism in that sentence. Just sayin'

I completely agree. I didn't say I support this line of thought, but to deny it exists and to deny that it's part of the reason is turning a blind eye.
 
What of the European left's comparative silence on human rights abuses in Muslim countries in the Middle East as compared to the fulsome denunciations levelled at Israel?

I read this a few times and I still think there is a distinction nobody else seems to have picked up on. While I don't particularly know or care what the European Left have to say:

1. Human rights abuses in 'Muslim countries in the Middle East' are, as far as I can tell, a matter inflicted by the regimes of those countries, on the citizens of those countries.

2. The sort of aggression that Israel is criticised for mainly seems to concern its ever-fluid borders with the quasi-country neighbouring it (Palestine) and at times the odd bona fide neighbouring country (Lebanon). Naturally, the government of Israel is not under attack for torturing or bombing the crap out of its own Jewish citizens, since to the best of my knowledge it doesn't do things like that.

If the European Left is comparatively silent about the former, I don't know why off the top of my head. There seemed to be a hell of a lot of noise about Libya, only now that they've gone and intervened suddenly everyone is against that. Less noise about Syria, to be sure.
 
Aaahh. The soft bigotry of low expectations.

When you're talking about cultural or development differences at a 'people' level - as BVS mentioned - then yes, it is passive racism (as Jive Turkey said) or soft bigotry (as you said) to suggest as much. But I was talking about perceived institutional/government human rights abuses. Israel strongly claims to be a part of a set of nations that hold themselves to a higher set of standards when it comes to human rights. They also claim that this is specifically one of the main reasons why we should support them first and foremost in the region, over other Middle Eastern nations who don't live up to those ideals and make no claim to.

And really, 'European Left'? I have no idea what they have or haven't done, but the US (left AND right) is also knee deep in hypocrisy and bullshit when it comes to this sort of thing. No doubt the European Right is too. Everyone is, really. There's plenty to go around, no need to single individual groups out. If we cared that much we'd get on Israel's back when they fuck up AND treat Saudi Arabia like the bunch of degenerate, extremist arseholes that they are. But we pump billions into both, and get pissed and cry antisemitism when someone mentions one and are generally too scared to mention the other.
 
gherman said:
South Park and Borat made hating jews a part of comedy and an attempt to make it funny.

I feel sorry for people like you. Unless of course you're being sarcastic... Which I really hope you are
 
I preferred your pre-edit post

I feel sorry for fuck faces like you. I was being sarcastic but if you say something like that to me again I'll shove my fist down your fucking throat.

There is some sarcasm for you :)
 
If the European Left is comparatively silent about the former, I don't know why off the top of my head. There seemed to be a hell of a lot of noise about Libya, only now that they've gone and intervened suddenly everyone is against that. Less noise about Syria, to be sure.

Well, consider the following, and I'll do my best to explain the background and distinguish between facts and my own personal take.

The current Irish justice minister, Alan Shatter, happens to be Jewish, and also happens to be a fervent and outspoken supporter (at least by Irish standards, by US standards he would probably be considered mainstream pro-Israel) of Israel. (It has been claimed he would have gotten the slightly more senior foreign minister post if he was not an Israel supporter, but his opinions were deemed not representative of the electorate, which may well be the case).

Another politician, Chris Andrews, son of the former Irish minister of state for foreign affairs, unsuccessful candidate for election to parliament during last year's general election, member of a very prominent and well-connected Irish political family, recently took to Twitter to announce his belief that Alan Shatter is no more or less than an Israeli agent in Ireland.

This article from the (populist, conservative, pro-Israel) newspaper the Irish Independent alleges that Andrews, in making said Twitter comments, was making or at least was influenced by age-old anti-semitic insults and slurs:

Fianna Fail grandee and former TD, Chris Andrews, was this week travelling with the flotilla intended for Palestine (his ship was damaged in a Greek port on Wednesday and couldn't continue). Which is his democratic right.

What's less admirable is his comment on Twitter, describing Alan Shatter as "Israel's puppet in Ireland". This was a bad-minded and scurrilous thing to say, so astonishingly contemptible that I wondered if he fully meant it -- or had the fatal immediacy of the internet claimed another victim before he'd time to put his brain in gear.

Presumably he did; he then argued with other Tweeters about Shatter, Israel, that whole mess in the Levant.

So. Chris Andrews believes an Irish citizen and Government minister is an agent of a foreign state. Not merely an agent: a "puppet", which has long been a notorious slur against Jews.

Of all the world conflicts, why are we so hostile to Israel? - Analysis, Opinion - Independent.ie

And now I will go into personal opinion mode.

I submit that the Irish Independent are largely correct on this - and, that comments made by Sinn Fein member of parliament Aengus O'Snodaigh about Alan Shatter a few years ago are in a similar vein:

http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f199/israel-attacks-gaza-191779-35.html#post5746362

In my opinion, implying that someone is basically a traitor purely by virtue of the fact that the person is Jewish and/or supports Israel is a borderline blood libel. (It would be no more fair than to allege that an Irish Catholic who supports the Palestinians is doing so only because they report to the Vatican and hate Jew because of their religion, for example).

Sadly, to this day in some European countries, particularly the ones that chickened out of WWII, one can still be nasty about the Jews, and get away with it.
 
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