Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, 1

I am composing an essay that I believe will shed more light on the direct relationship between hatred of Israel and historical Jew-hatred. Here is the introduction:

In this essay I will present political, social, and psychological evidence to show that hatred of Israel in it’s many forms, here termed anti-Zionism, is a modern form of historical Jew-hatred, anti-Semitism. Israel is the most obvious image and symbol of Judaism in modern times. Therefore it is no surprise that it is now the foremost target of historic anti-Semitism.

The topic of this essay has been addressed by many others, with some notable articles recently written by Alan Dershowitz, Benjamin Weinthal, Brendan O’Neill, the ADL, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Wikipedia and others (see links at the end of this section). However, with the exception of the Wikipedia article and some examples by O’Neill, these articles focus narrowly on anti-Israel political events and hate-speech, disregarding a wide range of double standards, distortions, and lies. Moreover, virtually no one has looked into the psychological evidence that reveals the active agencies of unconscious hatreds, and that exposes the resistance to honest self-critique when people breach moral standards. I will present some revealing research in this area, and outline a few templates of how people express their often unconscious hatreds and self-hatreds.

The most common critique of the ‘anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism’ equation is that it is simply an attempt to stifle genuine criticism of Israel or to vilify pro-Palestinian sympathies. I believe this is a crude and often mendacious attempt by people to hide their own anti-Semitism, and to avoid self-critique. Israel is not above criticism any more than any other country. Indeed, criticism is a necessary response to every nation’s policies and initiatives.  But criticism of Israel is a different thing than anti-Zionism, the hatred of Israel and the denial of Israel’s right to exist. I will spend a fair amount of time in this essay exposing the distinction between reasonable criticism of Israel and criticism that is shaped by lies, distortions, and double standards, which are the tools of hatred.

Hiding behind doctrine and ideology, including Christianity, Islam, nationalism, communism, and Marxism, Jew-hatred has been and continues to be the foundation of much of what passes as “honest” criticism of Jews and Israel. Now the Gaza war during the summer of 2014 has unleashed a huge surge of anti-Semitic rage that cannot be ignored or dismissed any longer. What follows are seven distinct categories of hypocrisies and double standards that are used to frame those discussions of Israel that are really intended to be lynchings of Israel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Easily accessible articles that expose important components of the 'anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism' equation:

3 Dershowitz articles:
Is singling out Israel for boycotts anti-Semitic?
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Is-singling-out-Israel-for-boycotts-anti-Semitic-335596
Europe's Alarming Push to Isolate Israel
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Alan-Dershowitz-Nazis-Europe-Israel/2014/03/11/id/558976/
The occupation of Gaza canard
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/The-occupation-of-Gaza-canard-369370

Weinthal
Why Anti-Zionism Is Modern Anti-Semitism
http://www.nationalreview.com/node/384039/print

O’Neill
Is the Left anti-Semitic? Sadly, it is heading that way
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100281417/is-the-left-anti-semitic-sadly-it-is-heading-that-way/

Wikipedia:
New antisemitism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_antisemitism

The Anti-Defamation League:
http://www.adl.org/anti-semitism/
http://www.adl.org/sp/israel-under-attack/protest-video.html

The Simon Wiesenthal Center website, news and events section:
http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4441467#.U-OSamPLd8E
email (and links to articles) with subject: Calls from Berlin to annihilate Jews; "Dirty Jews from the sewers to be killed"; 100 Spanish celebrities accuse Israel of genocide

JNS:
While global anti-Semitism surges, don’t forget U.S. campuses
http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2014/7/28/while-global-anti-semitism-surges-dont-forget-us-campuses#.U-OKP2PLd8E=

Response to article in Middle East Star

The Middle East Star, on 11/21 published an article entitled:
Hamas should be engaged by Israel – by Ed Husain
I genuinely believe the author does not consider himself an enemy of Israel, but rather an Arab voice, probably a lonely Arab voice, seeking peace. But like a fish that is unaware of the water in which it swims, the author, in reality, remains a voice of Arab hatred and oppression of Israel and Jews.

The whole article can be found at:
http://www.middleeaststar.com/index.php/postc/210875107/scat/940f2bfd509e743b
Here are some critical excerpts that are revealing of the omnipresent hate driving the Arab (and Muslim) world. After these excerpts (in italics), you can find my response.

... I can name tens of Muslim clerics, important formulators of public opinion in a region dominated by religion, that will readily condemn acts of terrorism against the West, but will fall silent when it comes to condemning Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Put simply, support for violent resistance against Israel among Arab and Muslim-majority countries -- including allies of the United States such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia -- remains popular.

... From radical Iran to moderate Tunisia, Hamas' Prime Minister Ismail Haniyyeh was welcomed by vast cheering crowds during visits this year.

... Israel needs to change. ... A tiny nation of seven million [Israel; 5.25 million Jews] cannot be allowed to damage ties between 360 million Americans and 300 million Arabs.

Here is my critical response:

As ever, the author, although I don’t doubt that he is well-meaning, has it all backwards. 300 million Arabs and 5 million Jews, but our author says the Jews are the problem, not the Arabs! Why are the Jews a problem? Because they are a minority in a region that only knows oppression of minorities. Ask any Copt, any Kurd, any Assyrian Christian. Indeed, ask any Sunni in a Shia country, or Shiite in a Sunni country!

And of course, it is not Israel that "damages ties between 360 million Americans and 300 million Arabs," as the author would have us believe. It is the hatred, violence, and intolerance of the Arab people, institutionalized by governments, mosques, media, and schools that has damaged ties.

Mr. Husain, YOU are the problem, and you are its clearest symbol. You expose with complete clarity the absolute refusal of the Arab world to look at itself and realize how sick, how immoral, and how dysfunctional it is. Until THAT changes, Israel will be just one more excuse for Arab dysfunction.

NGO’s, the EU, and anti-Zionism

Israel is arguably the most vilified country in the world. This is no coincidence. Before the establishment of Israel, Jews were the most vilified people in the world! Anti-Zionism is simply a modern continuation of this long-standing form of bigotry. Jew hatred is much more than a religious issue. It is equally political, social, economic, and cultural. Anti-Zionism may have religious threads woven into it, but it is primarily a political cloak to Jew-hatred. Israel is vilified because it is a Jewish nation, not because of its policies and behaviors. This does NOT mean that Israel is above criticism. Far from it. Israel, like every nation, and every person, is deserving of plenty of criticism. But the hatred and vilification of Israel is of a different order.

To support that statement, consider the following:

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has historically attracted extraordinary, and largely disproportionate, international attention. Not because of its ferocity: The number of Palestinians killed by Israelis (and vice versa) over the past six decades is probably smaller than the 9,000 Muslim Bosnians massacred in Srebrenica in July 1995 by their Serb and Croatian compatriots and decidedly smaller than the death toll from other conflicts throughout the globe that range in the hundreds of thousands if not millions.

Nor has this obsession been driven by humanitarian considerations. Not only is the Gaza Strip not in the throes of a deep crisis, but the humanitarian situation there is better than in some of the countries whose ships have been sent on occasion to break "the siege" of Gaza. Infant mortality in the Gaza Strip, for example, is 17.71 per thousand births compared to Turkey's 24.84 or the global average of 44; life expectancy in Turkey is 72.23 years whereas in Gaza it is 73.68, much higher than the global average of 66.12, not to mention such Arab or Islamic countries as Yemen (63.36), Sudan (52.52), or Somalia (50). Even by more advanced indicators, such as personal computer use or Internet access, Gazans are in a much better position than many of the world's inhabitants. In the words of the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, no Israel-lover by any stretch of imagination, "an average Congolese citizen would probably have sold his mother into slavery to be able to move to the West Bank."

Those two paragraphs are the opening (but for 1 prior paragraph) of an insightful and well-researched article, NGOs vs. Israel, by Ben-Dror Yemini, the opinion-editor of the Israeli daily Maariv. The full article can be found at Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2011, pp. 67-71,
http://www.meforum.org/2919/ngos-vs-israel
This article is worthy of your careful attention, whether you have a general interest to be well informed about this conflict, or you want to deepen your understanding of the subtle but pervasive reach of Jew-hatred.

Anti-Zionist flotilla, and Israel's dilemma

My son and I had this exchange on facebook:

Josh Berer
hey, I'm sick of all these people dissing Israel! Israel has the right to defend its borders... from unarmed international aid workers.... in international waters... wait.

Stephen Berer
... oh wait again... unarmed?

Josh Berer
and you would kill everyone who didnt share your viewpoint. tell me, when people brand israel a pariah state do you scratch your head and wonder why? or does this look like the actions of a government that cares about a meaningful peace with her neighbors? or one that aspires to be a light unto the nations? when Israel talks about how much she wants peace but the palestinians just won't have it, do actions like these just disappear from your memory?
24 minutes ago

Stephen Berer
easy to talk and criticize from the comfort of the US. This event has made me sick, but Israel has to impress more people than liberals. It has to impress the Jew-hating, Israel-hating politicos from Europe, that they play hardball with Israel at their peril. It has to let Iran know that public opinion will not shape Israel's policies, and it will not be intimidated by ANYONE. It has to let Hezbollah and Hamas know that it will defend it's positions aggressively, ruthlessly, if necessary. Honestly Josh, Israel doesn't need to give a good goddam about your opinion or mine. It has more important fish to fry. Sorry bud.

Jerusalem

Remembering Blake’s Jerusalem, and Islam’s Jerusalem, and our Jerusalem of the Zionist dream, I remember my Jerusalem, she to whom I’ve been married these 33 years now, as of 10/30/2009, my wife, my Nancy.

While reading S.Y. Agnon’s Betrothed, I wrote the following on pages 82 and 83 this morning, responding to, “The Consul was very pleased with [Jerusalem]. True, what he had seen with his own eyes was unlike the Jerusalem of legend or the Jerusalem of his imagination.... But since one did not really know where to make a start, or how to proceed in the way of reform, it was best to leave Jerusalem as she was.”

I have loved Jerusalem all the days of my living.
I loved her when I rejected her
And I loved her before I knew her.
She who lay with me in other worlds
She called to me here, and I sought her out.
Oh Jerusalem, your loving fills me.
I who was tossed as the seaweeds on the shore
Have been carried by your tides
To great depths. I who am but a grain of sand,
Now storm-tossed out to sea, there
You and my Maker are merging into One.

Natural Gradients, Part II stevespell

This is the stevespell recension of Natural Gradients. My suggestion is to use the normspell version, posted July 17, as a guide to unpack this recension. FYI, I’m still struggling with the first stanza, the introduction.

This recension includes a number of Arabic/Muslim terms. Most are noted and defined in the text, except these three: shahid (shahheedz), Shahada (shahhoddaz), and sharia (sharreya). Shahid is a martyr, although currently the term has strong overtones of terrorism. Shahada is the Muslim profession of faith. Sharia is the Muslim body of law.

II. Dissintegrel Plasez, Innershel Fors

Theze lower werlz, divvienlee bliend
Tu the kalkuless konnekten Seel* tu deed.
               * sum say “The Werd”
How konshents abenden in the hewman feelz,
Dekayz in hate, verb and reverb,
Til the Seel iz torn ov its knowen root.
The hate-sik men, loss thaer gide,
Flownder intu thaer oen noos.

So goez Eron and the Kanannite horz
In sexuwel frenzeez, all hate an despaerz.
The dotteren Libnon an Gozza depraevd
Spred thaer legz an bluddee rape.
Thaer sunz thay bedek in dinammite
Tu pay obesans tu thaer molokh godz.
Idel worshippen the toolz a deth,
Thay spind until thay baenkerrupt.
All konsumen thay morrel det.
     The Juj a naeshenz, iz bend them kors
     And bend thay neez a biter remors.

Sureya, Arrabeya: a blowen sanz.
A breth divvine iz blo yu owt.
Sureya, jest a toothless maw;
Arrabeya, all achoek in tar.
Stomp yur fout and shaek yur fist,
But nun afeerd, an mennee spit,
A breth divvine, the windz revers,
An sandz inter yur liefless werks.

Felastinnee, witherz yur roots.
Ware yur foutpathz in the aenshen hillz?
Mennee the fabel, few the maps.
Ware iz the shepper leed yu sheep?
Tu sakraffise! Yur blud so cheep.
Deth by drone or suwasside;
Deth the oenlee hoep yu kno.
Deth bekumz yu, Felastee.
Hu ar yu? A mith a desees.

Ejipt iz a rotten ship.
Usa-buks ar plug it hoel,
An set the kors iz kapten chart,
But underdeks a brutherhoud
Iz seethen por, extremen heet.
Sparkz a leep, ignite a berth
Engulpen all in Misserree.*
               * Mis’r is the Arabic for Egypt

Erak, Pakkastan: rejen ov pees?*
               * Dar al Islom
Rajen a pesez for jakkel an kro.
Shahheedz an shahhoddaz, sharreya* in shrowdz,
               * 3 Islamic terms; see above
Furee an deth-wish a relijjes vowz.
The mud flats krakkel in persisten drowt.
A kaffeya unravvelz on a dried owt reed.
Trikkellen blud an a kar in flaemd.
Sekt an tribe the fragmen a state.

Ewrope, nostaljen, reternz tu the slash
An bern ov sikkel an kattel kar.
Az evree extreem in its oppazzit meet;
Leftess proffessenz an notsee kreeps.
Tugether, drunk on the mithek Jew,
Obsesst tu klip hem egel weengz,
Az faro did, an maek em groen.
Kno thay not wut faroez fate?
But slopee thot it roelz the way
An mith an trueth an self deseet
An arraggans all innermix.
But Ziyon fenikslife endorz.
     So hate ye Ziyon wile ye may.
     Yur beer awaets. Yur drunken nite
     Will end at yur dissonner grave.

Kerserz ov Ziyon in a titen biend
Tu kontroel the mith kontrolen yu.
Like Layokkowon, yu kannot unwiend
The koyeld konfuze agrip ov yu.
Islom, ware iz yur self-kritteek?
A kompashen, a merseeful God, yu pray?
Re-rit yur Korron. Now it say:
     “In the name of the errashennat, the kerseeful,”
     “Thare iz no God; mo tromma iz owwer messij.”
Yur ulamma* sez the jehod iz meen
               * Muslim legal scholars
     “Wor iz a shor a pruver a faeth.”
But wut leeder say, “we ar da falt!
     “Owwer faeth iz an utter desrepaer;
     “Vilens an anger a braken ar law.”
O the nacherrel gradeyenz
Muev in arks we kant perdikt.
Dar al Islom iz no mor,
And Islom iz now a Dar al Horb.

Natural Gradients, Part II

My blog has been much too quiet as I have been working studiously to complete Part II of Natural Gradients (Nacherrel Gradeyenz). Part II particularly, is a difficult and controversial statement, as you will see, and so I have worked with especial care and concern for accuracy, altho I expect I will offend not a few people. I have not yet completed the stevespell recension, which I hope to post in a day or two, but here is the normspell. Like Part I above, posted on June 28, the two versions are complementary, but by no means identical. Each should help expand the insights of the other.

In the text below you will need to know three Muslim terms: “dhimma,” “Dar al Islam,” and “Dar al Harb.” You can google them to find a range of meanings and usages.

Briefly, as I understand and use them, the dhimma is the body of Islamic laws dealing with non-Muslims. It means “protected” but many, if not most non-Muslims would consider that a euphemism. Jews and Christians do not have equal status to Muslims under the law. “Idolaters” like Hindus and Buddhists have even lower status. Bluntly, it is a legal system of apartheid, pure and simple.

“Dar al Islam” and “Dar al Harb” are complementary terms. “Dar” can be translated as “region;” “Islam” as “peace,” and “harb” as war. The Dar al Islam is that portion of the world where governments and social norms are based on Islam (the religion). The Dar al Harb is the rest of the world. In Muslim ideology the whole world must be brought to Islam. Naturally, not all Muslims believe that, but it is, and always has been a dominant force in Islam.

I find it ironic that so many Muslims are bitter about Western colonialism, when in fact, Islam is a fundamentally colonialist religion. Its outer borders have always been regions of war as it has sought to bring the whole world into the Dar al Islam, while other cultures have fought to maintain (or expand) their own identities. The modern ring of conflict around the Muslim world is not something new or unusual in history. But let us not forget that Christianity, capitalism, and Marxism, among other ideologies, have been equally expansionist and ringed by conflict.

Nacherrel Gradeyenz
Natural Gradients
II. Dissintegrel Plasez, Momenz ov Inersha

And so it is in these lower worlds
Where dissembling despots gag on lies,
And choke their sickly souls in hate.
In quicksand to their necks, they flail
And point, accusing those they fear,
Clueless they are soon to sink away.
A coin flipped, a data point forgot.

You Zion haters! You bigot nations,
Led by Iran and Lebanon.
You think your place in the world secure,
And time will serve your hate-filled ends,
But day by day you sink in the muck
Of your hate and lies and your moral debt.
The Judge of nations, that strange attractor,
Will call your debt and melt you down.

Syria, Arabia: blowing sands
Erase your borders, a storm divine.
Petromuck pollutes your lands.
And petrogold pollutes your soul.
You walk the world with arrogance,
But wolves gather to tear you apart.

Palestinian: can an orchard grow
In a dry wadi or watered with salt?
How then can your people arise,
Nurtured on the salt of Arab hate,
And your parched self-image: an anti-Jew?

Egypt: your greatness was stripped long ago.
From pharaoh your fate as a minor state.
Now the Brotherhood will cause your place,
Petty as it is, to disappear.

Iraq, Pakistan: flay yourselves.
Like a sick old man with multiple ills:
A hundred doctors, a hundred scalpels,
Tearing your sick and wrinkled bodies.

You anti-Zionists! Show me what good
You bring to the world. I see nothing!
No arts, no science, no freedom of thought.
But this you have in great abundance:
Your hanging judges, your dhimma laws,
Your people muzzled, your knowledge twisted,
Classrooms that teach your children to hate.
Rival warlords terrorize your streets;
The most vicious are those that rule the state.
You squander your wealth on death machines
Driven by the jihad that Islam breeds.
Dar al Islam is the Dar al Harb!
A parable of hatred is all you are.

And you think you anti-Zionists in Europe
Won’t stumble and fall, just the same?
You leftist professors, skinheads, nazis,
Vomiting your hatred in double standards.
You march through your halls with your jackboot books,
Your political positions, mere billy clubs.
Say it straight, like your teacher Horst Wessel:
Jews should be weak and live in fear.
And Israel’s strength is just too much to bear.