I have been watching the Occupy Movement and the antisemitism that has surfaced among some protesters. It seems to be tolerated and that is not good. It points to a blind spot of Leftist activists.
The day Israel was reborn in its ancient homeland, Arabs tried to exterminate it and commit a genocide against the Jews. They have been trying ever since, by war, by terror, and now current methods of delegitimization by “human rights activists” that demonize both Israel and voices for Jewish self-determination.
When Israel is the only country on the planet threatened with extinction, why is not considered a victim?
The day Israel was reborn in its ancient homeland, Arabs tried to exterminate it and commit a genocide against the Jews. They have been trying ever since, by war, by terror, and now current methods of delegitimization by “human rights activists” that demonize both Israel and voices for Jewish self-determination.
When Israel is the only country on the planet threatened with extinction, why is not considered a victim?
Many on the Left are simply too loathe
to admit that Arab-Muslim societies actively engage in practices they falsely charge
against Israel. It’s like there’s no apartheid,
racism, repression or torture in this world, except as committed by Israelis. They invariably invoke liberal values, but should
not liberals first address political ideologies and cultures that are hostile
to liberalism?
When the disconnect is shown, charges of Islamophobia and racism often follow in the rush to enable and even embrace Israel’s adversaries. Attempts by Left-wing activists to silence critics who question their obsession with Israel do not help millions of Arab-Muslims who suffer within discriminatory societies, and the relative silence from these proponents does not help eliminate human rights abuses in the Arab-Muslim world and elsewhere.
When the disconnect is shown, charges of Islamophobia and racism often follow in the rush to enable and even embrace Israel’s adversaries. Attempts by Left-wing activists to silence critics who question their obsession with Israel do not help millions of Arab-Muslims who suffer within discriminatory societies, and the relative silence from these proponents does not help eliminate human rights abuses in the Arab-Muslim world and elsewhere.
One day, perhaps, the activists may realize that
even their Western notions are under threat, not to mention the societies they attack, that provide and
advance human rights globally, even imperfectly. It would remove the fog that clouds their vision and muddles
their reality.
It's because they see Israel as a white, western, colonial, imperialistic tiny version of the USA. They are wrong as rain of course but they continue to cling to an outdated paradigm as do most dinosaurs who have no new ideas.
ReplyDeleteMight I add that one of their heroes was Edward Said.....a freaking ENGLISH TEACHER. Yet his amateurish ideas founded much of their foggy ideology. An ENGLISH TEACHER of all things.
ReplyDeletePhyllis Chesler claims, perhaps rightly, that the significance of Said is that he successfully surplanted Arab men as the victims du jour over women.
ReplyDeleteThis is part of the reason that feminism has basically died.
Western feminists are trapped between the ideal of supporting Arab women versus the multicultural ideal which seeks to honor all cultures.
In any case, good post, School.
These folks have gone astray, through education or otherwise, and can no longer see the forest as they obsess over one tree.
ReplyDeleteNot to say that a tree is unimportant, but do they, with their thoroughly Western orientation, think they are any less immune than Israelis, and that their expression is not blasphemous in the eyes of people who have declared them no less an enemy?
This inability to discern their status in the eyes of those they enable is odd considering how smart they believe they are.
Not to mention the reeking illiberal authoritarianism that requires one stay true to the ideology no matter what.
As to feminism, it's hard to watch how so many women turn their backs on millions of women, even inside Western societies, who are subjected to abuse and denial of basic human and civil rights.
Well, the claim made my contemporary feminists is that having listened to their Muslim and Arab counterparts they have come to believe that Sharia can actually be liberating for women.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it's nonsense. Muslim women are the most oppressed women on the planet and while getting to stoned to death for the crime of being raped may be liberating of the earthly coil, is certainly not liberating in any manner consistent with basic human decency.
As for progressive-left hatred of Israel, part of the problem is that as notions of truth got demeaned in academic post-structural discourse they began, more and more, to simply adopt the so-called "Palestinian narrative."
The problem with liberal progressive Jews, imo, is that they have unconsciously accepted much of that narrative and use the terminology of that narrative.
Speaking incessantly of the "Occupation" means that they see I-P, at least in part, through Palestinian eyes.
Sharia may be liberating for some women, and more power to them. It's just that it eliminates one's right to choose, which is a fundamental right that all liberals should push for.
ReplyDeleteThere are not enough liberal progressive Jews that advocate from the Jewish perspective, unapologetic for values that from which universal human rights developed.
Gilad is home.
ReplyDeleteHow do you like that?
:O)
Great news. Watching the Palestinians, however, makes the stomach turn.
ReplyDeleteDitto oldschool. Worse, no discussion is allowed about that by progressives cause it disturbs the narrative. How can there ever be peace unless such behaviour and everything that lies beneath it gets addressed?
ReplyDeleteThat reinforces the message of the diary. Certainly no discussion is permitted among the activists.
ReplyDeleteI tend to think that others are more open. However, the places where these discussions generally occur are usually where the activists are found. As such, there is so much polarity and so little conversation.
Y'know, I have to say, I have been almost entirely ignoring anything around this story that doesn't reflect my happiness at the kid's release.
ReplyDeleteMaybe tomorrow I will approach some of the more unsavory aspects of things, but today remains a great, great day.
Cheers!
I hear you. I am not obsessing over the Palestinian conduct. It's just more of the same as I see it, even if some cannot discern.
ReplyDelete