printIf Christians value celebrating the Easter Holy Week in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City—and it is majestic, believe me—they ought to pay more attention to the plans the Middle East Quartet is hatching for Israel. The United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia may push Israel to “withdraw to the [indefensible] armistice lines drawn up between the Jewish state and Jordan in 1949.” For the time being, the US has postponed a Quartet meeting, probably because Obama is already in bad odor with American on so many other issues.
Last Friday, Glenn Beck infuriated FoxNews’s Saudi shareholders by taking a symbolic, if unequivocal, stand for the Jew among the nations (yeah, yeah, I oppose foreign aid); for the civilized society (instead of the adjacent savage society). For “in Israel—foibles and frailties notwithstanding—the West has reclaimed a small spot of sanity in a sea of savagery, where enlightened western law prevails, and where Christians and Jews and their holy places are safe. (Muslims are always secure in western societies, Arab-Israelis too.).
When Jews commenced what must be the most remarkable modern-day national revival, Israel was a wasteland. Palestinians had done precious little for the land they purport to so love. As Ludwig von Mises (a utilitarian classical liberal), observed: For centuries the Near East has been a cultural backwater. “The Mohammedans”—to quote the delightfully archaic Mises—have for hundreds of years failed to produce so much as a “book of significance,” much less any scientific or other advancement.
Is there any wonder? The catalysts for creativity and prosperity are the ideas of individual freedom and freedom from the state. As Mises noted, these ideas are inimical to the cultures of the Near East, and the Islamic world in particular. Yet the “civilized” world is working diligently to shrink the civilized sphere that is Israel and expand the barbaric Palestinian Authority. (Question: What does unoccupied Palestinian land look like? Answer: Like Gaza.)
I must say that the rabbi Glenn entertained for his hour long “In Defense of Israel” show instantiated everything that is wrong with the American rabbinate, in particular, and American Jews, in general. Let me explain.
A woman in Beck’s audience asked the perspicacious question about the divide between American and Israeli Jews. Israelis and diaspora Jews: never the twain shall meet. But Rabbi Joseph Potasnik (a real “tembel”) gave her some tribal reply. Where does Glenn find these people? The rabbi was as ghettoized as any representative of CAIR.. Contrast that with the concision with which Dore Gold (a former Israeli ambassador) made his points.
American Jews are left-liberals, for the most, when it comes to the concerns of their fellow Americans, but rightist on matters Israel. In other words, hypocrites. They advocate a multicultural, immigration free-for-all, pluralist pottage for America. But when it comes to Israel, that’s another matter entirely.
As most left-liberal Jews who support Israel see it, Israel has the right to retain its creedal and cultural distinctiveness and its Jewish majority, but not so America. Israel should control immigration and guards its borders, but not the US. Ask this kind of Jew if he supports a “Right of Return” for every self-styled Palestinian refugee, and he’ll say, “Never. Are you insane? That’s a euphemism for Israel’s demise.”
The very thing he opposes for Israel, the left-liberal Jew champions for America: a global right of return to the US for the citizens of the world. When it comes to “returning” to America (but not Israel), humankind has a positive, manufactured right to venture wherever, whenever.
Thank you, Ilana, for the fierce and uplifting article confirming that Israel is a vibrant democracy in a sea of backwardness, savage in their hatred toward Israel, and unwilling to look up and out at true freedom; incapable of improving their lot despite all the chances Israel has given them over the many years.
You and I have lived in Israel and we experienced that freedom of thought and of movement and of ideas that is found in few western countries. So with hope for the future of Israel and their amazing society which promotes education, and universities, freedom of thought and of expression, and top medical aid systems (including first on the scene in Japan, by the way), as well as efficient agricultural production—I say thanks for you continual defence of this brave little nation, for its beauty and for its beautiful people. Bravo Ilana. Ann-Wendy
Israel was able to defend the 1949 borders (it did so in 1956, 1967, and numerous other times). What it cannot do is survive if it gets DEMORALIZED (see the South African equivalent:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._de_Klerk )
Ultimately, Israel will lose if the Israeli people give up – not whether Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, and Bangaladesh vote for 32,710 idiotic retarded UN Resolutions.
But the threat is somewhat real – Jews are especially prone to leftist guilt in spite of the known 90 year track record of pathological Jew hating by Moslem Arabs.
Hey Myron! Always good comments. Surrender is not an option if Israelis wish to continue living, but they are not alone.
Please visit http://www.jewishworldreview.com and read Walter Williams comments about “HATE-AMERICA SOCIOLOGY”.
“THE COPPER SCROLL” by Rosenberg may be Israel’s future.
“ONE SECOND AFTER” by William R. Forstchen may be our American future.
Civilized cultures – they may be different in many aspects – must stand and hold fast otherwise they will be eradicated from this planet.
Time to watch “LORD OF THE RINGS” again.
Nice write up on hypocrisy of left-lib US Jews: America must “welcome the Other” (G. Aronoff, “Lifting the Lamp Again”, Hadassah Mag, Apr/May ’11)…but not Israel. This sort of Tribal having one’s cake and eating it too is eventually going to land Jews in serious trouble. It’s getting noticed.
I have an observation that has concerned me for a long time. Roughly, the Jews have a worldwide population of 15 Million; approximately 8 million actually in Israel. VS: 1.4 billion Muslims,1 billion Arabs, 2.? Christians, 2.? White Europeans, 2 Billion or more Orientals, 1.? Billion Blacks. Something like 15 million in a sea of over six billion people. Yet everyone focuses on maybe two to five million left wing Jews. Ilana, being Jewish, has the ‘in house’ right; to point out the hypocrisy within the Jewish community. For the rest of us though, for every left wing Jew in the world, there are a million left wing Whites of European descent, same for Muslims, Arabs, Blacks and Orientals. A left wing Jew has no power without the millions of collaborators that surround them. Ted Kennedy did as much damage as Soros is doing. We Goy need to stop looking at the ants and concentrate on the hive.