Here's a thought.
At this moment in time, people of Left persuasions are more likely to bear animosities towards Zionism and Israel than others.
It can also be said, as a general, over-arching and thus not precise statement, that Left-persuasion people are more likely to think the world can be perfected, while Right-persuasion people are dubious.
Zionism is inherently messy. It has set itself the totally legitimate and defensible goal of creating - and now, maintaining - a Jewish state; yet this inevitably has an impact on the local Arabs; the best one can hope for is a rather messy compromise. Starry-eyed Utopians don't like messiness, so they either detest the Zionists for the past crime of having messed up the area, or for being messy with the way they do their thing, or for ensuring by their very existence that the future reality will continue to be messy.
Of course, this tells us nothing about why some Left-persuasion people single out Israel for their ire. The Chinese also make the world rather messy, after all.
An over simplification, I know, but worth mentioning.
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6 comments:
FROM CAROL HERMAN
Perhaps, you're stuck with this word "zionism." Which is just another "ism" ... And, doesn't really carry any realistic weight.
What does it mean? That Israel has to be created? It's there.
Does it mean you're have to super-size your Judaism? Ain't gonna happen. In today's world the "yoot" have walked away from their grandparents reliance on make believe.
Heck, kids, today, have even walked away from TV shows. And, hollywood's movies. When was the last time YOU heard of a great new series? That compares to anything like what came out in the Golden Age of movies and TV?
As to "more people hate us tha like us," the real truth is most people don't want to be bothered. REALLY. Everywhere in the world are people with their own problems.
Besides, how would you rate "Zionism," if you could be led to think Morris Talansky represents "zion?" He represents "something." Because he was on the periphery of Israeli politics, MAKING MONEY.
Just like a lot of AMerican Jews who sold "trees." When I was a kid you couldn't pass up the opportunity to "plant a tree in Israel." And, all it was ... was a Jewish March of Dimes.
The March of Dime was a money maker. PERIOD. It never gave either Dr. Salk, or Dr. Sabin a single dime. (And, boy were they flommoxed when a vaccine to fight polio was found! So, that old non-profit looked around for something more fool-proof. Now, they collect quarters for birth defects; knowing full well that nature supplies.)
Politics, in America, which is a miraculous success story, also got started with names that went to hell in a hand basket. In other words? Tories, were the people who supported the English king. GONE. FEDERALISTS, were the New Englanders. They hated Slavery. And, they supported a STRONG CENTRAL GOVERNMENT. While the strongest faction (from all the saved papers we have), where the Virginians. Who hated the Federalists. And, who fought tooth and nail against giving up States RIghts.
Even the original group of men who were elected to the presidency; they thought of themselves as elites. And, they also thought they'd "keep the crown" among themselves; never having to worry that a "commoner" would ever get elected. (Well? They owned the rules that became the Constitution. And, they held many arguments of what those powers meant.)
Funny. Jefferson, a Virginian, and definitely NOT a FEDERALIST, was the one who wrote his name on the LOUISIANA PURCHASE. Made with Napoleon. Where, actually, John Adams and LIVINGSTON, in France, representing America, SIGNED THE TREATY without getting approval to do so. Because it would take too much time!
Jefferson (who saw the benefits to this land grab; which also excluded Spain. Forget about the Indians. Is on record as saying "it didn't meet Constitutionality." Hence, don't look for the Constitutionality of something this good. You could say PROVIDENCE.) When it doubt: GOD GAVE IT TO YA.
Oh, yeah. The WHIGS hit the dust. In case you didn't know. Because in 1824, when the first MAN OF THE PEOPLE: Andrew Jackson, won the presidency, working behind the scenes, in the Senate, HENRY CLAY made a deal with John Quincy Adams, the son of the former president. And, had Florida STEAL the election and give it to the guy who came in sedond. For this, he got the Secretary of War cabinet seat.)
And, for this? The WHIGS were politically finished. (Even Though Abraham Lincoln was being mentored by Henry Clay.) And, the old man, Andrew Jackson ran again in 1828, and won by a much bigger margin. And, then, old as he was, he ran again in 1832, and got re-elected.
There's real powers at stake during elections.
It's rather childish to "blame" things on the left. When the truth isn't even complex: IT IS THE WAY PEOPLE BEHAVE.
Here. Let me help you out. Israel has many American supporters! Has nothing to do with being born Jewish. Or even knowing Jews. We're a thin crop. And, we're not spread out in every corner of the USA. However, Israel's SUCCESSES are many!
Today, up a Drudge, he's leading with the arrests, made in Israel, against the arabs who had planned on attacking Bush's helicopter.
Drudge ran the article that said ISRAELI COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WORKS. (Ours do not. The FBI and the CIA, can't work together. And, the work they do separately, is also terrible.)
There's nothing like the TRUTH. It hangs out there OBVIOUSLY.
And, where Israel shines is that she is getting better and better at coming across, even with a hostile press!
Just like yesterday. Talansky, by now you know, LIED. He didn't survive his cross examination. And, Olmert (plus the other Ehud), were in the photograph at Goldwasser's funeral. Barak looked GLUM. His public face. While Olmert, who is a mensh, hugged the widow.
There was no downside!
Even better, Olmert made sure the Knesset voted "on the deal."
While, when Olmert was in France, recently, the loons in Labor thought of passing a no-confidence vote in the knesset. ANd, Shalomi is threatening to spit into someone's face.
You don't need "zionism" to explain a creep like that.
Heck, enough Jews in Israel speak English WELL, so that you can write your blog in English. How about that!
The English language is a connective tissue into the world's technological success stories.
As to the left? Expect in a free country to hear it all.
And, expect academia to keep shoving their garbage around; because they took over "credentialing" to the point it doesn't even matter, anymore.
Oh, Blair is out there, today, picking up the statehood for gazoo, mantra, today. You'd think he'd be a hasbeen by now; but the press gives him coverage just the same.
But have you noticed? We're getting less Bill Clinton?
Perhaps, a lot of things don't end, exactly, they just thud away?
I think you have a good point, there, Yaacov. Perhaps the difference between the Zionists and the Chinese is that the Jews were victims and rose above it to create the State of Israel. On a leftist view, nobody is supposed to do that. Victims are supposed to go on being victims forever. Perhaps there's a sort of odd resentment of the very fact that Zionists are Jews who have risen above their history and past. It challenges leftist determinism.
CAROL HERMAN
Excuse me, but the Chinese were victins, too. (And, so were the Japenese. But they got lucky. When they surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur, he wrote their Constitution for them. And, democracy ensued.)
Also, Burtrand Russell (while WW2 was on-going), said he wasn't worried about the world, "even if every White man killed each other. Because there's China and India. And, they're smart people. Who would be able to re-populate the globe.)
Of course, "that" never came to pass. But you still have lots of smart people in this world who aren't White. Aren't male. And, aren't even Jewish.
By the way, during America's HIPPY DAYS, of the 1960's, and part of the 1970's ... most of the left took drugs. When you look at who was getting elected, you'd see very few hippies. Who acted towards politics, the way they acted towards real jobs: Where they just didn't care.
I still think the word "zionism" is just an "ism" ... and deserves to be forgotten. Because whatever it does in Hebrew, it fails to do in English.
And, if you're gonna have democracy in Israel continuing, you're gonna have "leftists." As well as elected lunatics like Shlomi. And, arabs.
Arabs are a fact of life over there.
The good thing about the word "Utopia" is that it means NEVER-NEVER-LAND. It means the place isn't something you can find on this globe. It's an idea. And there are lots of ideas that aren't even good enough to use as toilet paper.
I think when Arik Sharon, who was a genius at picking "labels," picked his first one; when he was running against Labor ... picked "Shalom Zion." Nice to know he picked goodbye as part of his reference. But he didn't win seats. The people who vote weren't ready.
And, then? He twisted Menachem Begin's arm to get him to be less incipid, so he could run LIKUD. (Likud was Arik Sharon's word.)
Then? Likud befouled itself.
And, today, you see the real war Israel is facing. Where there are elites who don't want to lose control of knesset seats. Even though all Bibi got were a dozen seats; you can thank him, among other things, for Morris Talansky.
So far? It doesn't seem the ball's gone through the goal post. But it's ugly and messy.
While I happen to see opportunities, here, for the "mensh-lich-kyte" of Olmert to come through. And, for enough voters to realize how the media has been playing with a burning fiddle.
The media doesn't have to win, ya know.
Privately, I e-mailed Ya'acov. With a link to a DRUDGE article; where, in San Francisco, enough signatures have been gathered to put UP ON THE NOVEMBER BALLOT, a local "name change" for the sewer plant. If it passes, the sewer plant (in San Francisco), will be called the George W. Bush Sewer Treatment Center.)
People are funny. Don't forget it only counts if enough people (in San Francisco) vote that way.
And, if this passes? Then on November 4th, Bush's legacy will have been found. Identified. And, labeled.
You can't fly with just one wing.
You need both wings. And, a stable center that holds passengers.
I can think of an alternative explanation.
Leftwing people, and other people who are not left-wing, like myself, "single out" Israel for criticism because Israel claims to have the most moral army in the world and claims to hold the moral high ground.
People ask Israel to be perfect because it claims to be perfect. Just one example from your own blog: I recall your stating that Israeli Arabs are "respected as law-abiding citizens," when there are videos of schools in Israel teaching their students not to date the law-abiding Bedouins. Some respect.
And why do you single out those who single out Israel for criticism? Why don't you criticize those who single out Palestinian terrorism, when Tamil suicide-bombing is far more lethal and frequent? Why don't you criticize those who ask what can be wrong with Palestinians, but don't ask what can be wrong with Tamils, Basques, Irish people and other ethnic groups who have resorted to terrorism on a long-term basis?
Double standards, now and forever.
FROM CAROL HERMAN
ALL "isms" belong to Marx. Karl. Not Groucho.
And, of course, this hooey doesn't work in democracies because it never attracts enough bed-wetting fellows. So, unless you cheat, you can't win at the ballot box.
Now, zionism is also one of those bed-fellows. How do I know? I'm a Jew, and I never got bitten by the "ism" bugs.
Even "capitalism" doesn't tell you a thing about a system where ordinary folk can ignore the politicians. Since the money moves among people who buy and sell stocks, property, and commodities.
It's also why heads of companies in societies that have free markets, calls these top guys CEO's.
Bush was never much of a CEO.
And, he was a very poor choice to lead the GOP.
Not that I care. I'm quite independent. And, I know every 4 years other choices come along.
As to solving the world's problems, since I'm not running for anything; and I don't care if you agree, or not; you're not even producing a valid argument. IT'S NONE OF MY BUSINESS. And, there's nothing that I can do to change the way the world works. Most of us lack this button, where belly buttons don't count.
Didn't Ben Gurion end up in some scandal at the end? Didn't he have to resign? What was the Rotem Affair about?
Maybe, like Karl's Marx, all this hooey about government, instead of businesses, leading anything, is the joke?
Trust me, there's no need for "isms" in business dealings.
"Isms" used by governments are all circular paths.
In today's world, believe it or not, there are lots of Americans proud of Israel's MOXIE. Proud that she fights back, successfully. Proud that she can stand her ground! That's what sticks out.
Just like from 1776 to 1789 ... when John Adams said "PROVIDENCE HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THESE RESULTS." And, he wasn't talking about Rhode Island!
See? Israel can lose the zionist label, just as America lost her colonial one. Americans just aren't colonials. Those came (and still come from) poor socialist habits practiced by europeans.
For the longest time, I stopped caring about what happens "across the pond." Or in other people's back yards.
THRILLED TO BE AN AMERICAN!
Yeah, those Tamils. They're out there blowing themselves up every couple of months, or even weeks, these days. And just the other day, one of them drove a front-loader down the street and...
Oh. Wait.
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