Friends, today you're in for a treat! Special guest star John Stengel, a.k.a. Jack, a frequent contributor of sage observations to this blog, has offered to deploy his unparalleled wisdom in the form of a full-length editorial...and we gladly accept! The subject is the connection between the modern Left and anti-Semitism. Jack's punctuation and spacing are a little eccentric, but that's because technology continually conspires against him. We're grateful that he fights the good fight against his computer (and the Left) each and every day...
The left's massive,reflexively instantaneous, well arranged assault on Israel after Oct.7 necessitates this question:is the left essentially antisemitic? In his 2004 book,Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left,David Horowitz, a courageous and painstakingly documented author, described an American leftist resolution of common cause with that profoundly Jew hating force. He suggests an American left bereft of meaning after the fall of its communist gods.Eric Hoffer, in his book The True Believer, theorized that those so named were always compelled to find a cause upon which to shower fanatic devotion.Perhaps they found in radical Islam a new inammorata suffused with their customary loathing of America. Antiamerican leftists' passionate and reckless identification with a radical Islam which would slaughter them with dispatch, appears to have survived since Horowitz identified it.In his book his book Horowitz refers to the American radical group International Answer's expression of "solidarity" with Palestinian terrorists. Some post Oct.7 huge demonstrations of support for Hamas were organized by . . . yes, International Answer or a successor humbly termed Answer. This is not a spontaneous surge of righteous anger by people of good will who grudgingly countenance murderous animus toward Israel and Jews. It was held ready for instant reaction. We know the antiamerican left is forever determined to "fundamentally transform" (ehh, destroy!) our perfidious country.Why not attack Jewish people, whose high civilization graces and strengthens the US? Surely, antipathetic envy of Jewish relative well being, the product of positive and constructive Jewish standards,traditions and faith, have been historically long proven rationalizations for unprecedented physical, "legal" and doctrinal violence toward Jews. Israel, "an island of civilization in a sea of barbarism" provides radical Islam and its obsequious leftist apologists, consequent aid and comfort in their anguis. The left is quick to level the charge of "microaggression" for even unintended "politically incorrect" words or perceived attitudes. But the gross macroaggressions of Oct7 and the mass celebrations of Hamas' cause and their virulent unmistakeable antisemitism are casually dismissed in as many words by such as the President of Harvard before Congress. She later blamed "confusion". The "Squad's” reflexive clamor for a ceasefire motivated only by immediacy, with contempt for Israel's existential concerns, stands exemplary of far leftist sympathy for and foolish detached empathy with radical Islamist savages. Recent accounts of rape of Jewish women and children by Hamas raiders brought forth a majestic pronunciamento from Hillary on the unacceptability of rape as a weapon. But she is plausibly held to have expectorated on a colleague as a "f---ing Jew". One can imagine her muttering "unless its against a Jew" after her oh so impassioned warning. A perky little rhyme expressing that wish is said to be widely circulating in smart far left circles. And major leftist womens' groups have been silent, deafeningly so. The disgraceful leftist hold on the American academy being manifest, is it any surprise that some of our most exalted campuses have welcomed detestable and cowardly antisemitic outrages. Well, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and stinks like the furthest depths of very hell where antisemitism reposes then... I know there are people of good will on the left but they are done consummate wrong by the Jew hating monsters they countenance in their midst.
-- Jack
RAY TO JACK
ReplyDeleteWould you be offended if I suggested you rewrite your excellent article by adding to it?
Remember that the Arabs are also Semites.
On that note, let me recommend an article by Orit Avnery "How Did the Word "Jew" Become Identified with the Jewish People?"
On the term antisemitism I refer you to Wilhelm Marr who invented the term
Also try Theodor Herzl whose ides created the modern State of Israel.
Ray et al from Jack: It would be you who would be justified in being offended were I to refuse to regard your well founded and stated criticism as worthy of equal good will. I treasure good dialogue. I originally put a paragraph in my essay acknowledging that " antisemitism" is an inaccuracy; I too know of no animus against all of Semitic ethnicity. But for brevity's sake and because in common usage the term is a synonym for antipathy ,even unto murderous hatred, against Jews and Judaism, I deleted it.
ReplyDeleteRay to Jack
ReplyDeleteYour article is still very good, not withstanding my comments. In any event, I wish you a Merry Christmas, which is neither Jewish or Muslim, or even Hindu, much less Buddhist. Ha! It's certainly not atheist, who invented "The Holidays" BS. Ha!
Ray from Jack: I will follow up on the sources you cited. I've always
ReplyDeletebeen mystified by the terrible intensity, malice ,extensiveness and durability of world historical antipathy to Jews and their civilization even though I've read alot about it.An explanation of the origin of the term antisemitism may help me to better understand it. I do think Israel has manifested magnificent courage, steadfastness and constructive principle in combating threats and geographic difficulties as harrowing as to ,perhaps, be close to impossible for us to comprehend. Gads, the history of the "Middle East" has been tortous! You've made creditable points; thanx for them.
RAY TO JACK
DeleteYou are a gracious guy. Thanks. Maybe not much more for me to comment on this subject. BUT (Ha!), I think that Americans in particular need to start rethinking about Israel in the sense that it is a sovereign nation like any other sovereign nation. An act of terrorism happens in Israel happens, and everyone gets emotional, and the media goes nuts, and you name it. How is Israel so different and special from any other sovereign nation who experiences terrorism from whatever source? Do Israelis have special hides? Why does Joe Biden get on his plane and rush over there? Would he do this if some other country experienced a brutal attack by terrorists of any stripe?
Ray, Dr. Waddy et al from Jack: And to you also the best wishes for this glowing season and all its hallowed traditions. Its one of the glories of our civilization.
ReplyDeleteRay et al from Jack: The excellent Jewish conservative journal Commentary often holds forth on the phenomenom of Jewish leftists and even Jewish disdain for Judaism. I understand ( please correct me if you think me wrong)) that some marxist thinking went into Zionism and the founding of Israel.But even the success of Israel does not redeem the proven evil of marxist doctrine. Heaven forbid its lasting influence in that high civilization.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Oh by the way, Fox today disclosed a poll showing 47% of those displaying " from the river to the sea" signs could not identify the river or the sea or both. No matter, they are quite content to function as worker ants!
ReplyDeleteRay from Jack: I'd suggest that Israel and its essential and emotionally laden importance to Judaism manifests very much political power in a country where Jews have found much eventual relief from the almost incomprehensible malice directed at them for centuries. You would think that, of all people, our academic intelligencia would be fully cognizant of the Jewish experience. I think they are and that the marxists who so discredit their profession have obeyed ancestrally Jewish Marx's murderously antisemitic urgings to "suppress" Judaism. Today, the antiamerican left MAY be experiencing its
ReplyDeleteunprecedented discrediting at the hands of an aroused Jewish America which plainly perceives the disdain the antiamerican left harbors for it. Leftist shill Biden did what his party bade him do to alleviate the damage it so richly deserves,which it so presumptuously dismissed because of its many supporters, of good will, among American Jews. as we witness Israel style indomitable resolve in our very land.
Ray, Dr. Waddy et al from Jack: Yes, I think Israel is a very exceptional and creditable land. In the end I am a religious agnostic although I clea ve to Christianity. But I think it entirely possible that the Hebrew Covenant with The Lord as they see him lives. I do not endorse any emotional "proof" of this but I think history may support it.
ReplyDeleteRay, that is a wise observation -- that the Israelis are, in the end, no better or worse than anyone else. I tend to agree that it's unwise to put the "Chosen People" on a pedestal. Anyone who's inclined to do so should read up in the Bible and recall to themselves just how many times the Jews failed God and themselves. They're human -- no more, no less.
ReplyDeleteHappy Saturnalia to all! Don't forget to buy presents for your slaves.
Jack, I think you would find that the searing, genocidal hatred for Jews that now obtains in much of the Middle East is a fairly new phenomenon. Jews lived circumscribed but tolerable lives deep inside the Arab world for centuries, as did Christians, who were in a similar position. The rise of fundamentalist Islam, however, plus Arab nationalism, plus anti-Israel sentiment, has changed all that in a big way.
Jack, many early Zionists were also Marxists, yes, but it seems to me that the (nationalist) spirit of Zionism is, at bottom, antithetical to internationalist Marxism, no?
Jack, I doubt that the relationship between Jews and the Democratic Party will fundamentally change, but I'm willing to be proven wrong. Is there any polling evidence to support the idea that large numbers of Jews are now itching to vote for Trump? Actually, the only poll I found indicates the opposite:
https://www.jewishelectorateinstitute.org/november-2023-national-survey-of-jewish-voters/
Jack, your notion that history "proves" the validity, and permanence, of God's covenant with the Jews intrigues me. Do say more...
RAY TO DR. NICHOLAS WADDY (also known as Nick)
DeleteDisagree with you about Jews and Christians living tolerable lives deep inside the Arab (MUSLIM) world of Islam for centuries. Take the Ottoman Empire which controlled the Eastern Orthodox part of Europe for about 500 years, right up to World War l (with the exception of Greece to 1821). Christians and Jews could practice their religions, but with restrictions, and were ALWAYS subordinate to the Turks, and in Bosnia to peoples who converted to Islam. The premier historian on this (in my opinion) is Bat Ye'or.
As far as Islam is concerned, it was ALWAYS fundamentalist, and this is true in Saudi Arabia today. In the end, Sharia Law is above everything.
Ironic that only in Turkey (for the most part) did Ataturk break the chains of Islam when he reorganized Turkey after World War l, to his great credit.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I can only suggest that history may endorse theCovenant. One of the main verities so characteristically expressed by Shakespeare is, in King Lear, the tortuous acquisition of wisdom through suffering. I think it possible the Lord of the Jewish faith chose them to exemplify how he wanted humanity to conduct itself. Their
ReplyDeleteperseverence in sustaining their gracious civilization and their faith,in the face of almost unimaginable trial,may be continuing fulfillment of his divine intent. I would welcome criticism of this from all better informed than I am.
Dr. Waddy fromJack: But surpassingly maniacal antipathy toward Jews much predates the current Middle East conflict. Medieval Europe and Jew despising Luther's Germany provide examples. What explains the terrible intensity of it then and now? Is it envy alone? Surely ethnic, economic, geographic and social conflicts have been rife worldwide but of this execrable and still persistent subhuman ferocity?
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Victimhood as a rationale for dysfunction is of course all the "rage" these days. But Judaism just keeps on keeping on in exemplary fortitude.
ReplyDeleteRay, I should think your observation validates my point. No one LIKES to be treated as a second-class citizen, or an unwelcome guest, but it's tolerable. Being hunted like an animal or enslaved is...less tolerable. Yes, Islam AND Christianity have long histories of discrimination against infidels, but they have often accommodated them, to varying degrees, as well.
ReplyDeleteWell, Jack, you're right that the Jews have demonstrated remarkable fortitude and inner strength over centuries (or at least the Jews who remained Jews did -- plenty must have defected), but of late many Jews have also hopped on the victimhood bandwagon. Indeed, the conceit that any criticism of Israel reenacts the Holocaust is often used by Jews to place themselves beyond the pale of criticism. The Jews survived for as long as they did not just by being noble -- but by being cunning (and I don't use that word in a pejorative sense). Why have they been so fiercely hated? That's a long, long story, but the short answer is that they haven't always been hated. Anti-Semitism waxes and wanes. Presumably, the main objective of the Hamas attacks was to infuse new life into modern anti-Semitism...and, unfortunately, it worked like a charm.