Opuscula Anti-Semitism Is many things To many people

EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT CONSTITUTES “ANTI-SEMITISM.”

Yes ◻     No ◻

Perhaps the statement should be: Everyone THINKS they know what constitutes “anti-Semitism.”

IS IT “ANTI-SEMITIC” to criticize Israel? Israeli Jews do it all the time, even so-called “orthodox” Jews have issues with modern Israel and its government.

As with most criticisms, it is wise to have an answer to a situation other than “throw out the bast*rds.

Is it “anti-Semitic to criticize a Jew?

Jews criticize Jews all the time. If you consider Bernie Sanders a Jew, then politically conservative Jews almost constantly criticize the man. Politically conservative Jews are quick to criticize politically liberal Jews, i.e., Democrats. Most do NOT, however, refer to the others as “nazis” or racists, but it has been known to be said by leftists, both Jewish and non-Jewish..

Jews are not exactly xeonophobic, but sometimes . . .

Black hats look with disdain on clean-shaven and kippa-less Jews who look at bearded, kippa-wearing and tzit-tzit dangling Jews as “extremists.”

There ARE some crazies among us — the harideem who stand along a roadside on Shabat and throw rocks at passing vehicles and those who strung a chain across a major Bnai Brak thoroughfare sans warning; the chain decapitated a scooter driver on Shabat.

These are Muslim tactics and they are rare among most Jews in Israel and elsewhere.

There is much to criticize in Israel. Not all Jews are treated fairly; nor are all Israeli Arabs.

Legal immigrant integration

New legal immigrants are not as quickly integrated into society as possible; read: As quickly as leftists would like.

To be fair — but who wants to be fair? — there are new immigrant integration issues everywhere. But what other country makes as much of an effort to integrate legal immigrants as Israel? (Personal experience.)¹

Netanyahu seems, or perhaps now “seemed,” to be “King for Life,” taking cabinet positions (“portfolios”) for himself if the incumbent displeased him.

Is criticizing Netanyahu either anti-Semitic or anti-Israel or even anti-Likud? Today’s Likud is hardly Begin’s Likud.

Is it anti-American to criticize President Trump? The Democrats and other leftists have been doing that, relentlessly, since Trump took office.

Is it anti-American to criticize laws passed that impact one group’s rights in favor of another? Hardly.

Do Muslims complain of discrimination in the U.S.? Silly question. Muslims complain of discrimination everywhere that they are less than a majority.

Yet, there are many Muslims in Israel who prefer Israel to life in PLO or Hamas-controlled areas.

Two — or three — state solution

Is it anti-anything if a person is for — or against — a “two state solution?” How about a three state solution: Israel, Jordan,, and Egypt. It might work except that Egypt won’t absorb Gaza with its Hamas/Islamic Jihad crazies and Jordan has all the “Palestinians” it can suffer. Gaza once was part of Egypt and the so-called “West Bank” was controlled by Jordan, “back in the day.”

When “Palestine” was ruled from Amman, there was no talk of a state independent of Jordan. Likewise, does anyone recall the residents of Gaza seeking independence from Egypt?

That, of course, is conveniently forgotten. Likewise forgotten is that the PLO’s first leader (Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Hussein² ) was not “Palestinian” or even Jordanian, but Egyptian.

Also forgotten is the time when Lebanon “shared” Mt. Hermon and shelled Israeli civilians or the Katusha’s from Lebanon that fell on Zefat. (Personal experience.)

Critics can’t see own image

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the folks who criticize Israel is their blindness to all other countries less than ideal Human Rights practices.

One major talking point on which the anti-Israel groups harp is Israel’s so-called “occupation” of “Arab” lands.

Consider for a moment that no matter where an American lives in the U.S., he or she is on land taken — usually by force of arms — from the indigenous population, a population, incidentally, that was warehoused in ghettos, a/k/a reservations. America’s treatment of American Indians was far worse than anything Israel has done to Muslims.

The same applies for most countries. Russia recently took Crimea from the Ukraine as the world watched — and did nothing.

Ah, but Russia is not Israel.

Is it anti-Russian to remind the Russian government that it “stole” the Crimea?

Who does BDS hurt?

The anti-Israel folks who promote Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel hurt the people (residents of PLO areas) more than they hurt Israel.

They drove out Soda Stream, a company that employed Muslims from the so-called West Bank and paid them at the same rate as Jews. Sans Soda Stream, the former employees are financially worse off. (Arabs in southern Israel gained from the BDS effort; THEY now have jobs their kin in the north lost.)

Israel is training PLO-area residents in high tech so they can improve their communities’ economies.

BDS’ raison d'être, no less than Iran’s, is to destroy Israel.

If it did, the UN would have to close out at least two “Palestinian-specific” welfare programs: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and United Nations Development Programme's Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People.

Gaza, incidentally, with cooperation from the Israeli government, is shipping record amounts of strawberries to England as well as to the PLO territories.

When Israel, under Ariel Sharon, forced Jewish farmers out of Gaza in 2005, the Muslims destroyed most of the greenhouses and infrastructure left by the departing Jews. It has taken more than a decade of foreign funding to restore what was destroyed in 2005.

Palestinians harvest strawberries at their farm in the northern Gaza Strip, March 5, 2007. Photo: Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Bottom line

The bottom line is that most of the people who are anti-Israel have no first hand experience with Israel, Gaza, or the PLO-controlled areas. This includes the anti-Israel representatives in the U.S. House who, despite Israel allowing them entry to the PLO areas, declined the opportunity.³

People who DO know first hand what goes on in Israel can criticize the country’s government — but not the people; they are as diverse as the people in the U.S. — after taking a look at their own history and after looking at other countries around the globe.

People also can criticize Jews for being “clannish” or a bit “xenophobic” — and why not, given the centuries of persecution for their belief or ancestry — but tarring all Jews with the same broad brush is a sign or ignorance.

The true anti-Jew — Arabs also are Semites so “anti-Semite” is not accurate unless these people also hate Arabs — DOES know a Jew is a Jew is a Jew, regardless of level of observance, where the person lives, what he or she eats (or avoids), or with what political party the person affiliates (e.g., Democrat=Good Jew, Republican=Bad Jew — or maybe it is the other way around).

Ignorance.

The hallmark of a bigot.

Sources

1. Immigration: https://tinyurl.com/t5vgtmz

2. PLO leader: https://tinyurl.com/rrk2cdh

3. Rep. Tlaib: https://tinyurl.com/y6obleb2

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

We were not alone Our PR mistakes

 

HE'S CORRECT, BUT . . .

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Europe's reaction to last week's Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris, downplayed the anti-Semitic nature of them.

"In the world and in Europe, most of the discussion was about freedom of expression, extremism and Islamophobia," Lieberman said. "But the Jewish and anti-Semitic aspects were hardly mentioned and this is particularly grave."

HIS VIEWPOINT HAS BLINDERS

It's not just us

We made the same mistake after World War Two by claiming the Shoah was strictly a Jewish issue.

Almost no one argues that some 6 million Jews were slaughtered simply because they were Jews or had at least one Jewish grandparent.

But the nazis (the name does not deserve capitalization) almost completely wiped out the Roma - gypsies. The regime also murdered those who were physically or mentally deficient. Communists and Socialists, other than their own brand of socialist - were murdered.

Then there were the civilians who died when their towns and cities were attacked by German troops or rockets.

We don't "own:" the Shoah and it is our mistake to even suggest that we were the nazi's only victims.

Islamists against everyone

It's not just Jews the Islamists was to eliminate, although except for right-wing Israeli Jews we generally make a compliant target.

It is anyone who might object to sharia law or a caliphate controlling their lives.

When the nazis came for the Jews, I didn't speak up because I was not a Jew.

When the nazis came for the gypsies, I didn't speak up because I was not a gypsy.

When the nazis came for the Communists, I didn't speak up because I was not a Communist.

Then the nazis came for me and there was no one to speak up for me.

The Islamists are today's nazis.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás in Reason in Common Sense, p. 284, volume 1 of The Life of Reason

Just as we - Jews - claimed ownership of the Shoah, casting aside the 6 million "others" as not worth counting, Lieberman is casting aside all the non-Jews slaughtered by the Islamists in France and the non-Jewish girls captured, raped, and sold into slavery by Boko Haram, or even Muslim girls and men who fail to adopt extremism.

By claiming every Islamist attack is anti-Semitic or anti-Israel we give "the world" a warm fuzzy feeling that only we - Jews - are Islamists' targets and as long as we - Jews - are considered the Islamists' ONLY targets, all others are safe.

That's a lie.

No one was safe from the nazis.

No one is safe from the Islamists.

James Foley, an American journalist, was beheaded simply because he was an American. He was not Jewish.

Screen capture from ISIS video

We need to stop trying to own everything as "anti-Semitic" or "anti-Israel." It doesn't help our cause and, in many cases, it hinders it.

Opuscula Anti-SemitismIndividual vs. Group hatred

 

An article on the Arutz Seven web site titled Europe: Jewish Life 'Unsustainable' Due to Rising Anti-Semitism (http://tinyurl.com/k5yby8k) reports on the increase in attacks on Jews and things Jewish in Europe and includes mention of the recent anti-Semitic incident in Overland Park near Kansas City KS.

There is a difference that in Europe, the attacks often are made by groups of cowards, attacking lone Jews or Jewish property while in the U.S., attacks typically are made by individual crazies acting alone - as was the case of Frazier Glenn, a/k/a F. Glenn Miller, the Overland Park shooter.

There also is, I suggest, a difference in the mentality of the Jewish population.

In Europe, even after the creation of modern Israel and its military successes, the Jewish mentality still, for the most part, is "don't make waves." Keep a low profile, don't do anything obviously Jewish, don't wear uniquely Jewish apparel - no kippot, not "Jewish" jewelry.

Jews in the U.S., particularly those Jews born post-WW 2, have a "don't tread on me" mentality; push me and I'll push you back - harder.

In Europe, while the Jews are cowering, the neo-nazis and the Islamists are proving their "in you face" attitude is the way to power, if not true respect.

When the Islamists can take over entire neighborhoods in England and impose shiria law on all residents, Moslem or not, this should be a lesson to Jews that cowering only will generate more attacks.

European Jews need a revival of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), Jews who are as "in your face" as the anti-Semites.

Where Jews defend themselves - as in the U.S., even in European-mentality ghettos such as Williamsburg in New York - anti-Semites are "discouraged" from attacking Jews. Where the police cannot or will not do their job, Jews defend themselves.

Call them vigilantes if you will; call them fools who are endangering their lives, but know that their very presence helps protect their fellow Jews.

My Moroccan father-in-law, ע''ה, knew how to deal with anti-Jews (Arabs are Semites, too, so "anti-Semite" seems an inappropriate label for Moslems) and because of that he had their respect both in Morocco and in Israel.

Few people respect cowards or people who behave as cowards as the Jews of Europe behave.

European Jews need to organize into self-defense groups. They need to learn self-defense, be it krav magraw as its taught by Israelis, karate, savate, or other "self-survival" skills and then advertise the fact that they are willing to use these skills if attacked.

Today's laws never will protect a Jew for a pre-emptive strike, but the law should not prevent a Jew from defending his person and his property. If the Jews of Europe don't defend themselves now, they will be unable to legally defend themselves later.

It's difficult to prevent an individual from attacking as Frazier Glenn did in Overland Park KS, but it is easy enough to identify and defend against groups intent on doing damage to Jews and "things Jewish."

There is two options for European Jews:

Option 1: Learn to defend yourselves and then defend yourselves.

Option 2: Move to Israel and let Jews who do know how to defend Jews protect you.

Option 1 is by far the better option if Jews expect to have any future in Europe.

Oxfam: Politically blind Or anti-peace in Mid-East

It seems hatred of anything "Israel" blinds eyes to reality.

The whole Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is, at best, short-sighted and, at worst, hinders any possibility of the elusive "peace in the middle east."

Case in point: Oxfam's boycott of SodaStream.

Oxfam is upset because a formerly British company, now owned by Israelis, is situated in what a BBC employee termed an area that "Under most interpretations of international law - although not Israel's - building homes and businesses on such territory is illegal." Never mind that the statement is false; it's the BBC after all.

Oxfam insists - based on input from Palestine Solidarity Campaign , that SodaStream is treating its Palestinian employees badly, that the mere fact the company is located on land (a) originally on the Israeli side of the UN partition plan and (b) captured during Jordan's war of aggression in 1967.

Apparently it was inconvenient for Oxfam and the BBC to visit the SodaStream site in Ma'ale Adumim; perhaps they couldn’t get past the stop sign (see photograph from article, below).

Guess which buildings in the picture are "pre-49" and "post-49." Click on the photo to see a larger version.

The leed paragraph of a Judy Maltz article in the left-leaning Israeli newspaper HaAretz seems to portend a balanced presentation of the Oxfam-SodaStream issue. The reporter wrote:

"SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum on Sunday accused Oxfam of providing funding to the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign against Israel and said that an invitation he recently issued to the president of the organization to visit the company’s West Bank factory had been “ignored.”"

Birnbaum suggested that the reason American actress Scarlett Johansson dumped Oxfam in favor of representing SodaStream was "perhaps because of financial motivations, they are prepared to sacrifice the jobs of 1,300 people, including 950 Palestinians and Arabs, and I cannot see, and she cannot see either, how that would advance peace and humanity in the region.”

The HaAretz article continued:

" In response to this charge, the Oxfam spokesman said: “Oxfam wants to see a just and lasting agreement that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. We support a two-state solution, and we believe that settlements in the West Bank are an obstacle to achieving that peace. Any company located in the settlements contributes to their viability and legitimizes them. This is not about labor practices or SodaStream in particular, but the bigger issue of settlements, which continue to take land and resources from Palestinian communities that we work with. Some Palestinians in the West Bank do find work in Israeli settlements, but this is often because they are restricted from pursuing other livelihoods and have little other choice. For example, Oxfam works in Palestinian farming communities – they have lost much of their land to settlements and they are rarely allowed to build new wells or get enough water. Unable to make a living, their only option is often found in settlement factories and farms, which receive government tax breaks, support, and don’t face any of the restrictions on building and development that Palestinian communities nearby do.” "

When reporters do visit

Unlike the BBC writers working from anti-Israel handouts, a Times of Israel article led off with:

MISHOR ADUMIM, Israel — The SodaStream factory, situated just off the highway leading down from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, was abuzz on Sunday with journalists from across the globe trying to get a glimpse of the action.

"The tour of the carbonated beverage-maker plant was organized especially for curious foreign correspondents on the eve of the Super Bowl, which featured an ad starring its glamorous spokeswoman Scarlett Johansson. The factory, SodaStream’s charismatic US-born CEO Daniel Birnbaum proudly declared, used to produce munitions for the Israeli army. It was bought in 1996 by the fizzy drink start-up, seeking to better the world by doing away with polluting plastic bottles.

The article continues:

Today, the Mishor Adumim plant — the first of eight Israeli locations and 22 worldwide — employs 1,300 workers; 950 Arabs (450 Israeli and 500 Palestinian) and 350 Israeli Jews. Salaries and work benefits — management asserts and workers confirm — are equal for all workers in comparable jobs, regardless of ethnicity or citizenship. The factory secures Israeli work permits for its Palestinian employees as well as rides from their home and back, SodaStream’s Chief Operating Officer Yossi Azarzar told The Times of Israel.

Palestinians and Israelis work at the SodaStream factory in the Mishor Adumim industrial park, February 2, 2014. (Photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Birnbaum, the CEO, was clearly cognizant of the dispute. He spoke of Jewish-Arab coexistence as he stood next to a veiled young Arab woman working on the assembly line across from an older woman with a black head covering who immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union in 1993.

Zooming in on Birnbaum and the two women, the camera crews and microphone-holding reporters overlooked another young Palestinian woman standing nearby, fitting plastic valves into a large metal tray. Nahida Fares, 28, graduated Nablus’s A-Najjah University in primary school education. She began working for Israeli companies two years ago, when she could find no work in her field in Ramallah, where she lives with her husband and infant child.

“There are no job opportunities in the West Bank,” Fares told The Times of Israel. “Even the jobs that do exist pay no more than NIS 1,500-2,000 ($430-570) a month.” Fares now earns triple those sums. Fares’s husband, a first lieutenant in the Palestinians’ prestigious Preventive Security Force, earns NIS 2,000 ($570) per month after 10 years of service.

According to the "unbiased" BBC

The "unbiased" BBC's Middle East correspondent, Kevin Connolly, pretending to write a news article, slants the issues at once against SodaStream and Israel, quoting selected sources such as Sarah Colborne, campaign director for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Connolly editorializes - writes sans attribution- that:

"The boycott movement is important.

"Supporters of the Palestinians have hit on a tactic that might encourage ordinary consumers to start differentiating products from the factories and farms of Israel on the one hand and Israeli settlements on the other.

"Israel is worried - especially at the prospect of the movement gathering pace if peace talks with the Palestinians collapse."

Possibly what bother's Mr. Connolly is the fact that SodaStream no longer is a English firm. In two of his editorial's opening paragraphs, he opines that:

"The company - now under Israeli ownership - likes to emphasise its green credentials, trading on the idea that making your own cola at home in a re-usable bottle saves plastic bottles and therefore, ultimately, saves the planet.

The SodaStream has always exhibited a Dr Who-style capacity for self-reinvention - it started out as a machine for producing fresh soda water in the homes of the wealthy and well-connected in Edwardian England."

Sources

Kevin Connolly/BBC editorial:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25966781

Judy Miltz/HaAretz article:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.571986

Elhanan Miller/Times of Israel article:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/at-sodastream-palestinians-hope-their-bubble-wont-burst/?utm_source=Start-Up+Daily&utm_campaign=b736272ff2-2014_02_04_SUI2_4_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fb879fad58-b736272ff2-54610173

Stand With Us YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDdH_7GjW40