A Jewish friend called to ask to ask what I thought about Congresswoman Omar's remarks about AIPAC. I said I understood her to be saying that AIPAC is an effective lobbying organization. I suppose AIPAC would be disinclined to disagree.
I said I thought the ever vigilant heresy hunters were going a step too far by declaring that to be anti-Semitic. He agreed. There are many American Jews -- himself included-- who support the state of Israel without liking the policies of the government of Israel.
I am not a fan of alternative history but sometimes I wonder idly what would've happened had the Arabs in Palestine -- there were no Palestinians in those days -- met the Jewish settlers from Europe not with sticks and rocks but by working and dealing with them as has been customary in that part of the world for 3,500 years. since Elam laid down comprehensive regulations for getting along economically with foreigners.
It is well to remember that when the European Jews showed up, the Arabs were being oppressed and had been oppressed for 400 years by colonizers -- not Europeans, the Turks.
Having chosen to go down the path they did choose, today no one can stand the Palestinians. The closer people are to them the less they can stand them. Egyptians, Saudis, Jordanians and Lebanese want nothing to do with the Palestinians, and the Jordanians and Lebanese fear them, for good reasons.
Turks have no more use for them then any of the other parties in the area, although they have chosen to cynically manipulate them. This is not done the Palestinians any good, although it might be hard to find the Palestinian who has figured this out yet.
You might suppose the historic oppressors of the Arabs in Palestine would meet with more skepticism about the political intent of the Turks toward them, but the political imbecility of the Palestinians is boundless.
And not only te Palestinians.
This past week the Turks decided to be the champions of the Uigers against China and accused China of ethnic suppression. Human Rights Watch, not much more politically sentient than the Palestinians, praised the Turks.
The Turks in this respect are even worse than the Chinese. China is attempting to assimilate the Uighurs, the Tibetans and other minorities but not necessarily to eliminate them, whereas the Turks have devoted themselves to exterminating the Armenians and the Kurds and to extinguishing other minorities within their territory.
Some years ago I made a passing reference in this blog to the Turk suppression of Bulgarian speaking residents of Turkey who are. for example, not allowed to give their children Bulgarian names. I cannot believe that I have any readers in Bulgaria but thanks to Webcrawlers I got a good many approving responses from Bulgarians.
You might suppose Human Rights Watch would know about this but apparently not.
Harry, your own post right here shows exactly why many of us consider folks like Omar to be antisemitic, or at least anti-jewish.
ReplyDeleteIs the government of Israel a wonderful and flawless government and does it have a flawless human rights record? Nope, nowhere close.
Is the government of Israel the worst government in the world with the worst human rights record? Nope, nowhere close. For example, as you point out, the Turks and many others are also far, far from perfect or even good.
So criticism of Israel is, to me, in my humble subjective opinion, prima facie evidence of antisemitism (or at least anti-jewish attitudes), simply because there are so many things in the world to criticize and that focusing on Israel is inherently suspect.
Perhaps Omar also criticizes Turkey and Saudi Arabia and Iran and on and on and on (and let's not forget Sudan), but without that context (if it exists), worrying about AIPAC and being a supporter of BDS makes her almost certainly antisemitic in my view.
Now, is she that much worse than many others (both democrats and republicans)? No, she is not, in my opinion. Has this controversy been blown outta proportion? In my opinion, yes. Is she intensely antisemitic? Probably not, but time will tell.
But I certainly don't trust her on anything to do with Israel at this point.
I see your point, but I disagree with it. At least in the U.S., criticism of Israel, and of pro-Israeli lobbying organizations, is more relevant than other (and perhaps worse) regimes simply because such a disproportionate amount of funding, and such a disproportionate degree of political attention, is paid to it here.
DeletePlus, unlike others guilty of bigoted statements (which characterizes some, but not all, of Omar's), she has apologized for hers, and with apparent sincerity.
Bret,
DeleteIn the end of the day, so what if she is anti-jew? Or even if she hates them with passion?
I mean, given you gave up on trying objective factual reasoning when dealing with anything outside engineer, and now you believe motivated reasoning is the only thing you are interested these days, why do you care for the motivated reasoning of others?
Clovis,
DeleteDid I claim my statements were rational? Indeed, they are not. Being Jewish I have absolutely no hope of being rational or unbiased on the subject.
I suppose she has a particular interest in Israel because of her Palestinian background, just as in the days when a mayor of Chicago could earn points by promising to punch King George in the snoot.
ReplyDeleteI am, I think, hypersensitive to anti-jewish sentiments but I did not think this met that test. It struck me as mighty odd that people who constantly deplore the influence of money on politics should find a reference to an particular example offensive.
The press interest in these young women will fade soon enough
'The press interest in these young women will fade soon enough'
ReplyDeleteI got that right. Zakaria handed Ocasio-Cortez her head on a plate Sunday.