Jewish Group
Related: About this forumWhy Jews Are Worried
ATLANTA AN old Jewish joke goes like this: Whats the definition of a Jewish telegram? Start worrying. Details to follow.
I am often asked by fellow Jews about contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe. Is this just like 1939? Are we on the cusp of another Holocaust? Until now, my answer has been an unequivocal no. I have criticized community leaders who, either out of genuine concern or to advance their own purposes, use Holocaust analogies to describe contemporary conditions. These claims are ahistorical. They overstate what is going on now and completely understate the situation in 1939.
The differences between then and now are legion. When there is an outbreak of anti-Semitism today, officials condemn it. This is light-years away from the 1930s and 1940s, when governments were not only silent but complicit. Memory also distinguishes the present from previous events. Now, in contrast to the 1930s, we know matters can escalate. Jews today are resolute in their determination: Never again.
And despite all this I wonder if I am too sanguine. Last month, pro-Gaza protesters on Kurfürstendamm, the legendary avenue in Berlin, chanted, Jews, Jews, cowardly swine. Demonstrators in Dortmund and Frankfurt chanted, Hamas, Hamas; Jews to the gas! And a pro-Hamas marcher in Berlin broke away from the crowd and assaulted an older man who was quietly standing on a corner holding an Israeli flag.
On the eve of Bastille Day, a group of Parisian Jews were trapped in a synagogue by pro-Palestinian rioters and had to be rescued by the police. A few weeks ago signs were posted in Rome urging a boycott of 50 Jewish-owned businesses. In central London last week, anti-Israel protesters targeted a Sainsburys grocery, and the manager reflexively pulled kosher products off the shelves. (The supermarket chain later apologized.)
more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/opinion/deborah-e-lipstadt-on-the-rising-anti-semitism-in-europe.html
Response to Behind the Aegis (Original post)
Purveyor This message was self-deleted by its author.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)like the GLBT forum that I was banned from basically due to my views on israel.
Have fun.
Response to Purveyor (Reply #2)
Behind the Aegis This message was self-deleted by its author.
Response to Purveyor (Reply #2)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
Cha
(297,240 posts)awesome he is getting banned from GLBT Group and possibly this one because he can't tell the difference between anti-Semitism in Europe and the massacre in Gaza. Like the Jewish people are giving Netanyahu direct orders.
The pro-Palestinian protesters are only bringing shame to themselves.
Behind the Aegis
(53,957 posts)This is about anti-Semitism, not anti-Israel comments. Anti-Semitism predates Gaza.
eridani
(51,907 posts)The antisemetic rioters are just using Gaza as an excuse, and this kind of crap has been going on a long time before the state of Israel eve took up imperial conquest.
gtar100
(4,192 posts)decisions to attack and how they are carried out are decided by a few self-interested persons claiming to represent everyone. It's always far more complicated than that. And the people who simply want the violence to stop and are perfectly willing to befriend the stated enemy, these people are ignored. Literally shut out of the conversations. Lust for conflict (which is very high in the media) seeks out polarized individuals and these are the voices broadcast to us the loudest. What about the healers, the people who do not stoop to racial distinctions at every chance they get but are instead willing to see all people as worthy of protection from violence... whether that violence is in the form of oppression, poverty, or outright armed conflict. If we would listen more to those who first reach for compassion and non-violent solutions, this world would be a very different place. But those voices are silenced by ridicule and by conveniently ignoring them.
MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)Conquest, really?
So I guess it would be OK for Juarez to shell school kids in El Paso, since Spain at one time claimed the land it stole from the Apache as "El Paso" and Mexico claims to be a successor in interest to Spain?
Seriously, the Arabs in Gaza are generally immigrants, generally from Eqypt or are racist Arabs who refused to live in a country where Jews and Christians (and Druze and atheists and everyone else) would have equal rights as Muslim Arabs (Israel), so they moved to Gaza.
No "conquest" is involved unless one defines the USA invasion of Nazi Germany "conquest" as well.
Notwithstanding that, the Arabs in Gaza were, and are, welcome to their own country, provided they swear off genocide. They refuse to swear off genocide and keep trying to kill children, all while intentionally maximizing their own civilian deaths.
I really can't believe this kind opinion is tolerated for two seconds among Democrats. How far we have fallen.