What this piece lacks is any sense of proportion. Black anti-semitism exists though it is far, far from being the norm in the African-American community. The root of this problem is in Southern Christianity, rather than BLM or “wokeness”. The simple truth is that Arab Palestinians got severely screwed over by the establishment of the State of Isreal, abetted by the European nations that had utterly failed to protect the many millions of European Jews slaughtered by European Germans. Their answer was to victimize the Palestinians rather than the Germans. Large chunks of Nazi Germany were severed from the German state and parceled out to adjacent states who had suffered under the Nazis. Why wasn’t a state carved out of Germany for the Jews? Nothing could have been more just. However, the Zionist movement had no interest in German lands. They were committed to a messianic view that Jews must return to “Isreal”, a state that had not existed for 1,800 years. These events are completely understandable given the decimation of European Jewry during WWII, however that cannot blind us to the simple fact that Arab Palestinians were utterly screwed over by the Zionist onslaught on lands they had lived in for 1,400 years. Many young people, of all religious and racial backgrounds, including many young Jews, have become aware of this situation, and find it troubling. Let us discuss this terribly tangled situation, this bitter Gordian Knot, and open ourselves to actions that might lend themselves to lessening the suffering and bitterness of the people of Palestine.
This is an interesting connection to make. I’m Australian and don’t necessarily have a dog in this fight yet. We’re generally a decade behind in adopting some of the ‘trendy’ US education theories.
I would also point out that most people are deeply ignorant of the history of the formation of the Israeli state, as evidenced by some of the comments here. No one has mentioned the Balfour Declaration or the Sykes-picot agreement which preceded WWII and the Shoah which allowed for Jews to begin to migrate to Israel, usually Russian and Slavic Askenasi Jews, but a significant minority of Shepardi Jews from North Africa escaping pogroms and ethnic discrimination.
Post-WWII Zionism did toy with a European-based Jewish state, but Israel in its historic location won out because of this pre-existing population there. The British and French WERE NOT keen on the idea but had no real ability to stop it happening and the Jews that were left in Europe were prepared to fight for the independent state. They fought against terrible odds and won in 1948 and again in 1965 and again in 1972. Whatever your opinion of the dodgy dealing in the early 20th century, the Israelis (Arab and jew alike) earned their right to stay by their ability to win wars fought on multiple fronts 3 times in half a century. It’s not their fault that self-styled ‘rescuers’ of Palestinians in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are sore losers.
The hysterical claims of Israel being an Apartheid state are silly and insulting to the people of South Africa who endured constitutionally mandated discrimination based on melanin levels. Israel’s constitution does not treat Arab and Jewish citizen differently, even if in practice, discrimination happens like it does in any multiethnic society.
I think a big reason Israel comes in for such disproportionate criticism is simply that those of us in the west see Israel as part of our moral sphere, within the realm of moral persuasion and generally subject to the same high standards we apply to western democracies.
I've never met a US raised critic of Israel (except a few Palestinian partisans) who won't readily admit that Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea etc behaves worse. The reason they don't critisize those states is they don't really see them as genuine points of contention or subject to influence. Everyone agrees they are behaving badly so there is no sense that maybe if you change minds you might make things better. But they certainly can't admit that they secretly think of Arab countries as outside the sphere of reasonable moral actors.
That's not to say there aren't problems as a result of much of this activism and criticism but it puts a limit on how bad it can get. Before any drastic shifts in foreign policy happen the critiques of Israel must gain broad acceptance and if that ever happens people will start thinking of Israel like Saudi Arabia and the activism will quiet.
Moronic groups like the ADL have insisted so loudly for so long that anti-Zionism = antisemitism. The alleged increase in antisemitism is almost entirely the fault of these moronic groups. At a certain point, people just start trolling and say "okay then I'm antisemitic."
It's always interesting to see which direction a thread goes from the main article. Dumasani
focuses on an ongoing tension in our educational system. He correctly identifies antagonism to Israel coming out of the way in which marginalization is viewed by those trapped in race-consciousness to the extent that alternative explanations are canceled even though the alternative makes sense. I offer the following article to open a broader conversation on anti Zionism as antisemitism:
“When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You are talking anti-Semitism!” — Martin Luther King Jr. . . .
Beware Of “Anti-Zionism Is Not Anti-Semitism” From The Left
Education is certainly an issue. Everybody has their own take on the issue. Israel barely makes a blip with me. The Civilization Changing Fulcrum is Computer Education. How many people do not really want to use it.
I find the lack of mention of the PLATO system these days very interesting. A $100 tablet computer is more powerful than supercomputers of the 1970s. So the issue is if we really tried to make good educational software how many teachers might be unemployed. I started ignoring teachers in grade school because the science fiction I stumbled across was more interesting and informative.
Oh yeah, that is where I learned about atheism and agnosticism.
Are anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli the same thing?
I don't particularly care about semitism either racially or religiously but the Israelis have become a bunch of Nazis in how they deal with the Palestinians.
What this piece lacks is any sense of proportion. Black anti-semitism exists though it is far, far from being the norm in the African-American community. The root of this problem is in Southern Christianity, rather than BLM or “wokeness”. The simple truth is that Arab Palestinians got severely screwed over by the establishment of the State of Isreal, abetted by the European nations that had utterly failed to protect the many millions of European Jews slaughtered by European Germans. Their answer was to victimize the Palestinians rather than the Germans. Large chunks of Nazi Germany were severed from the German state and parceled out to adjacent states who had suffered under the Nazis. Why wasn’t a state carved out of Germany for the Jews? Nothing could have been more just. However, the Zionist movement had no interest in German lands. They were committed to a messianic view that Jews must return to “Isreal”, a state that had not existed for 1,800 years. These events are completely understandable given the decimation of European Jewry during WWII, however that cannot blind us to the simple fact that Arab Palestinians were utterly screwed over by the Zionist onslaught on lands they had lived in for 1,400 years. Many young people, of all religious and racial backgrounds, including many young Jews, have become aware of this situation, and find it troubling. Let us discuss this terribly tangled situation, this bitter Gordian Knot, and open ourselves to actions that might lend themselves to lessening the suffering and bitterness of the people of Palestine.
This is an interesting connection to make. I’m Australian and don’t necessarily have a dog in this fight yet. We’re generally a decade behind in adopting some of the ‘trendy’ US education theories.
I would also point out that most people are deeply ignorant of the history of the formation of the Israeli state, as evidenced by some of the comments here. No one has mentioned the Balfour Declaration or the Sykes-picot agreement which preceded WWII and the Shoah which allowed for Jews to begin to migrate to Israel, usually Russian and Slavic Askenasi Jews, but a significant minority of Shepardi Jews from North Africa escaping pogroms and ethnic discrimination.
Post-WWII Zionism did toy with a European-based Jewish state, but Israel in its historic location won out because of this pre-existing population there. The British and French WERE NOT keen on the idea but had no real ability to stop it happening and the Jews that were left in Europe were prepared to fight for the independent state. They fought against terrible odds and won in 1948 and again in 1965 and again in 1972. Whatever your opinion of the dodgy dealing in the early 20th century, the Israelis (Arab and jew alike) earned their right to stay by their ability to win wars fought on multiple fronts 3 times in half a century. It’s not their fault that self-styled ‘rescuers’ of Palestinians in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are sore losers.
The hysterical claims of Israel being an Apartheid state are silly and insulting to the people of South Africa who endured constitutionally mandated discrimination based on melanin levels. Israel’s constitution does not treat Arab and Jewish citizen differently, even if in practice, discrimination happens like it does in any multiethnic society.
I think a big reason Israel comes in for such disproportionate criticism is simply that those of us in the west see Israel as part of our moral sphere, within the realm of moral persuasion and generally subject to the same high standards we apply to western democracies.
I've never met a US raised critic of Israel (except a few Palestinian partisans) who won't readily admit that Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea etc behaves worse. The reason they don't critisize those states is they don't really see them as genuine points of contention or subject to influence. Everyone agrees they are behaving badly so there is no sense that maybe if you change minds you might make things better. But they certainly can't admit that they secretly think of Arab countries as outside the sphere of reasonable moral actors.
That's not to say there aren't problems as a result of much of this activism and criticism but it puts a limit on how bad it can get. Before any drastic shifts in foreign policy happen the critiques of Israel must gain broad acceptance and if that ever happens people will start thinking of Israel like Saudi Arabia and the activism will quiet.
TY for this fine article, M Washington. As expected, You get pushback for stating the truth of the matter. KOKO.
Moronic groups like the ADL have insisted so loudly for so long that anti-Zionism = antisemitism. The alleged increase in antisemitism is almost entirely the fault of these moronic groups. At a certain point, people just start trolling and say "okay then I'm antisemitic."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nHT-SjIM0tA
It's always interesting to see which direction a thread goes from the main article. Dumasani
focuses on an ongoing tension in our educational system. He correctly identifies antagonism to Israel coming out of the way in which marginalization is viewed by those trapped in race-consciousness to the extent that alternative explanations are canceled even though the alternative makes sense. I offer the following article to open a broader conversation on anti Zionism as antisemitism:
“When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You are talking anti-Semitism!” — Martin Luther King Jr. . . .
Beware Of “Anti-Zionism Is Not Anti-Semitism” From The Left
https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/324746/beware-anti-zionism-is-not-anti-semitism-from-the-left/
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=us9-OvlEENo
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gtdsdW4CviI
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1e_dbsVQrk4
Education is certainly an issue. Everybody has their own take on the issue. Israel barely makes a blip with me. The Civilization Changing Fulcrum is Computer Education. How many people do not really want to use it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)
I find the lack of mention of the PLATO system these days very interesting. A $100 tablet computer is more powerful than supercomputers of the 1970s. So the issue is if we really tried to make good educational software how many teachers might be unemployed. I started ignoring teachers in grade school because the science fiction I stumbled across was more interesting and informative.
Oh yeah, that is where I learned about atheism and agnosticism.
Are anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli the same thing?
I don't particularly care about semitism either racially or religiously but the Israelis have become a bunch of Nazis in how they deal with the Palestinians.