Re: 'prepare' njc

[sl . m]

I agree with Colin that we shouldn't forgive someone their evil acts just because they were treated badly as children, and that this has to apply to nations too. I also agree that to oppose the Israeli government is not to be anti-Semitic necessarily.

Still, if anyone wants to understand the Israelis, a great book is Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 by Benny Morris, a professor of history at Ben-Gurion University.

Morris explains the mentality of the Israeli people - how Jews in the Middle East were always treated badly, always regarded as inferior and with suspicion, denied certain property and other civil rights. One example: any Jew who struck a Muslim child would be killed. So Muslim children, aware of this law, used to taunt Jewish people in the street, trying to encourage them to strike out. Respected Rabbis had to put up with being followed around by crowds of little bullying thugs, trying to provoke violence so that the Jew (who was always in the wrong) would get into trouble. There were numerous laws and practices like this against Jews throughout the entire Middle East.

Then came the Holocaust, during which Jewish people cooperated with the Third Reich and its laws - cooperated with their own demise - because they saw themselves as German and could not believe they would be singled out in this way.

And so afterwards came the awakening - a fierce determination that nothing like that should ever happen again. NEVER AGAIN, became the slogan. Not just "never again" to the Holocaust, but also to the centuries-long prejudice, oppression and superstition that laid the groundwork for it. And never again to the image of the weak Jew who would turn the other cheek. Henceforth, the Jews would defend themselves. Early Zionists took this idea so seriously that one of the things they promoted after WW2 was that Jews had to become physically fit - go to gyms, play sports, become strong - to get rid of the image of the ineffectual, intellectual Jew that anyone could attack with impunity.

If, after the Holocaust, Europe's remaining Jews had wandered around the world as a powerless, poverty stricken diaspora, stateless and without resources - like gypsies - they would have the support of everyone on the Left, because they'd be victims.

But because groups of Zionists decided this must never happen again, and they organized themselves and fought for the land Britain had earlier granted them, and became powerful, wealthy and educated in other countries in the West, as well as in Israel, we hate them! We hate them because they won't let themselves be victims again.

Regarding the charge of anti-Semitism against anyone who doesn't support the state of Israel, I believe that most people in the West are NOT anti-Semitic. But the Arabs are, there's no question of that, and violently so - and always have been, which is an important point to note - not just because of Palestine. If the Arab countries that surround Israel had their way, with the possible exception of Jordan, there would be a second Holocaust.

To fail to recognize this is to collude with anti-Semitism - to cleanse it by calling it something else (self-defence, fighting for Palestine etc).

Also, there DOES appear to be a rise of anti-Semitiism in the West, using criticism of Israel as a kind of Trojan horse. There was a case in Saskatoon recently of an Indian chief saying in public that Hitler was right to "fry these guys", because "how else do you control a disease?" and "now look at them, killing Arabs." There does seem to be more of this stuff around these days, and this terrifies Jewish people, and rightly so.

The Jews in Israel are scared they will face another Holocaust if they don't defend themselves, and therefore they defend themselves vigorously. Which is why Ariel Sharon got elected, as he is the number 1 practitioner of an eye for an eye. And when the Israelis hear the rest of the world failing to support them, it is not surprising that they see it as anti-Semitism, or Jew-hatred - as more of the same thing they've experienced for centuries.

Sarah


From: "kasey simpson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I have enjoyed reading this thread. It is easy to see the passion in each
post. . . I have a great deal of respect and sympathy for the Jews. Look
at their history. The blacks, Native Americans, and Hispanics have rallies,
demonstrations, protest marches, and even violent outburst to be heard, counted, and treated
with equality. When have you ever heard of Jews doing this? Not as slaves in
Egypt, or during the holocaust, not even here in the states.