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shira

(30,109 posts)
Fri Aug 17, 2012, 09:35 PM Aug 2012

The War Against the Jews (Very Long Article)

The sustained anti-Israel de-legitimization campaign is a corollary of the millenarian obsession with the Jews in the Christian and the Muslim worlds. Since Israel is the world’s only Jewish state, and since Zionism is the Jewish people’s national liberation movement, anti-Zionism—as opposed to criticism of specific Israeli policies or actions—means denial of the Jewish right to national self-determination. Such a discriminatory denial of this basic right to only one nation (and one of the few that can trace their corporate identity and territorial attachment to antiquity) while allowing it to all other groups and communities, however new and tenuous their claim to nationhood, is pure and unadulterated anti-Jewish racism, or anti-Semitism as it is commonly known.

By any conceivable standard, Israel has been an extraordinary success story: national rebirth in the ancestral homeland after millennia of exile and dispersion; resuscitation of a dormant biblical language; the creation of a modern, highly educated, technologically advanced, and culturally and economically thriving society, as well as a vibrant liberal democracy in one of the world’s least democratic areas. It is a world leader in agricultural, medical, military, and solar energy technologies, among others; a high-tech superpower attracting more venture capital investment per capita than the United States and Europe; home to one of the world’s best health systems and philharmonic orchestras, as well as to ten Nobel Prize laureates. And so on and so forth.

Why then is Israel the only state in the world whose right to exist is constantly debated and challenged while far less successful countries, including numerous “failed states,” are considered legitimate and incontestable members of the international community? The answer offered by this article is that this pervasive prejudice against Israel, the only Jewish state to exist since biblical times, is a corollary of the millenarian obsession with the Jews in the Christian and the Muslim worlds.

On occasion, notably among devout and/or born again Evangelical Christians, this obsession has manifested itself in admiration and support for the national Jewish resurrection in the Holy Land. In most instances, however, anti-Jewish prejudice and animosity, or anti-Semitism as it is commonly known, has served to exacerbate distrust and hatred of Israel. Indeed, the fact that the international coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the libels against Zionism and Israel, such as the despicable comparisons to Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa, have invariably reflected a degree of intensity and emotional involvement well beyond the normal level to be expected of impartial observers would seem to suggest that, rather than being a response to concrete Israeli activities, it is a manifestation of long-standing prejudice that has been brought out into the open by the vicissitudes of the conflict.

much more...
http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/08/14/the-war-against-the-jews/

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
The War Against the Jews (Very Long Article) (Original Post) shira Aug 2012 OP
Post removed Post removed Aug 2012 #1
Post removed Post removed Aug 2012 #2
ahhhh... shaayecanaan Aug 2012 #3
Who is debating Israel's right to exist?...... kayecy Aug 2012 #4
Excuse Me, But Israel Has No Right To Exist (Sharmine Narwani) oberliner Aug 2012 #5
This message was self-deleted by its author shira Aug 2012 #7
This is debate? aranthus Aug 2012 #8
A few Israeli articles discussing the subject... kayecy Aug 2012 #9
You're making the argument that Israel's existence is debated & challenged. shira Aug 2012 #10
That was an odd assortment of links oberliner Aug 2012 #11
The BDS movement, PSC, Free Gaza Movement, ISM, anti-Zionists... shira Aug 2012 #6

Response to shira (Original post)

Response to Post removed (Reply #1)

kayecy

(1,417 posts)
4. Who is debating Israel's right to exist?......
Sat Aug 18, 2012, 05:14 AM
Aug 2012
Why then is Israel the only state in the world whose right to exist is constantly debated

Is it being constantly debated?......By whom?......Apart from Amadinajad and Hamas, most articles in the western press discussing "right to exist" appear to be supporters of Israel.

If a bogey does not exist, the propaganda folk will always create one.


 

oberliner

(58,724 posts)
5. Excuse Me, But Israel Has No Right To Exist (Sharmine Narwani)
Sat Aug 18, 2012, 08:01 AM
Aug 2012

Excerpt (Op Ed is from 2012):

Israel has no right to exist. Break that mental barrier and just say it: “Israel has no right to exist.” Roll it around your tongue, tweet it, post it as your Facebook status update – do it before you think twice. Delegitimization is here – have no fear. Palestine will be less painful than Israel ever was.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/7418

And from 2009:

The Case Against Israel's "Right To Exist"

http://www.countercurrents.org/tucker140309.htm

And going back to 2001:

Israel simply has no right to exist (The Guardian)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/jan/03/comment.israelandthepalestinians

Response to oberliner (Reply #5)

aranthus

(3,385 posts)
8. This is debate?
Sat Aug 18, 2012, 11:01 AM
Aug 2012

It's not honest debate, is it? I don't think that I need to tell you that every piece you posted is founded on lies. Everyone was so steeped in veiled hatred that they were hard to read through. So do people debate Israel's right to exist? I don't think so. They deny it. They lie about it. They propagandize against it. They make war against it. They've been doing that for decades, and don't seem likely to stop. But debate? That term grants their rantings an honor and legitimacy which they don't deserve.

kayecy

(1,417 posts)
9. A few Israeli articles discussing the subject...
Sat Aug 18, 2012, 11:42 AM
Aug 2012
 

oberliner

(58,724 posts)
11. That was an odd assortment of links
Sun Aug 19, 2012, 06:27 PM
Aug 2012

In any case, the debate is out there. Check Mondoweiss or similar discussion forums.

In fact, I ask you, do you think Israel has the right to exist as it is currently constituted, that is to say, as a self-defined Jewish state?

 

shira

(30,109 posts)
6. The BDS movement, PSC, Free Gaza Movement, ISM, anti-Zionists...
Sat Aug 18, 2012, 09:10 AM
Aug 2012

...and all those heavily associated with Electronic Intifada, CounterPunch, Mondoweiss. Also, anti-semites who are popular in the Palestine movement like Gilad Atzmon, Richard Falk, Walt/Mearsheimer, George Galloway...

In short, all of Israel's most vicious critics who argue how unjust Israel's founding was (like yourself) and what a racist, apartheid, colonialist, nazi-style state Israel is (implying it has no right to exist).

Not to mention all those who find fault in practically every act of self-defense Israel has unfortunately ever had to take (which again would include people like yourself). IOW, Israel has no right to defend itself properly.

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