Posted on 05/23/2008 9:43:55 PM PDT by goldstategop
I am often reminded of Martin Luther Kings statement about anti-Zionism:
You declare that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely anti-Zionist. And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops When people criticize Zionism they mean Jew; we are talking anti-Semitism .Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land Anti-Zionist is inherently anti-Semitic and ever will it be so. And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friend, because they are Jews. In short, it is anti-Semitism.
Late last year, Israeli author A.B Yehoshua observed: Instead of attacking Jews they are attacking Zionism, and this is the way because you cannot attack Jews anymore openly.
Anti-Zionism gives old fashion anti-Semitic intent a sheen of civilised discourse, but people of good conscience should not be deceived or intimidated to deal with it or let down their guard. As they say, the devil is in the details. Principally, anti-Zionism is an accurate reflection of unbridled street level anti-Judaism feeding on anti-Semitic myths that in turn nurture the battle against the existence of Israel. Obviously, its easier to disseminate age-old anti-Jewish feeling cloaked as anti-Zionism. But in no way should Anti-Zionism serve as a convenient cover, a euphemism, a loophole for those spewing and fomenting anti-Semitic slander.
For the record, not every criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. No one wants to stifle a free, honest and open debate on all sides. Its all about the pitch the criticism reaches. Moreover, theres no problem with champions of the Palestinian cause who dissent and use industrial strength criticism to make a point about the specific policy of the Israeli government. As long as they recognise Israels right to exist, do not deny individual Jews self-determination and the right to live and do not seek Israels destruction because it is a racist entity guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity (NGO declaration before Durban).
To wit, who can forget the blatantly hypocritical circus of the Durban conference where a considerable number of nations insisted that every reference to Anti-Semitism be linked with the racist practices of Zionism while simultaneously arguing that Zionism was a movement based on racist supremacy akin to apartheid.
It has been noted that the line is crossed when Israel is imbued with known antisemitic stereotypes, when Israelis and Jews are compared to Nazis and blamed for worldwide disasters (the Mel Gibson syndrome), when they are singled out and attacked in a disproportionate manner, and when Israels right to exist as a Jewish state is questioned.
For Gabriel Schoenfeld, editor of Commentary, anti-Semitism is the right and the only word for an anti-Zionism so one-sided, so eager to indict Israel while exculpating Israel's adversaries, so shamefully adroit in the use of moral double standards, so quick to issue false and baseless accusations, and so disposed to invert the language of the Holocaust and to paint Israelis and Jews as evil incarnate. In a similar vein, Ruth Wisse reveals that, Contemporary Anti-Zionism has absorbed all the stereotypes and foundational texts of fascist and Soviet anti-Semitism and applied them to the Middle East. Swedish statesman Per Ahlmark wisely doubts that anyone would believe this declaration, I am against the existence of Great Britain, but Im not anti-British.
History has shown us that rarely has there been anti-Zionism without anti-Semitism. Dr King named the lie, saw that anti-Zionism is often used to mask the face of anti-Semitism and so do I. Take Resolution 3379 (Zionism=racism), a strategy to de-legitimatise Israels right to exist. Arab Historian Bernard Lewis has written that the insidious resolution was chosen as the best stand in for a vicious anti-Semitic campaign by Soviet and Arab Ideological goals. Once accepted, it erased the taboo against publicly expressing anti-Semitic sentiments in the wake of the Holocaust. And as then US Ambassador to the UN Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan recalled in his book A Dangerous Place, the shameless resolution was not only aimed against Israel but also against world Jewry. Intellectual William F. Buckley observed at the time that the UN had become The most concentrated gathering of anti-Semitism since the days of Hitlers Germany while Lionel Trilling maintained that with this legal travesty the ghost of Hitler haunted the halls of the UN.
Recognising the interdependence of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, the US Senate passed a resolution condemning the vote as an encouragement of Anti-Semitism as did the Australian Parliament. In 1991, President Bush in an address to the UN assembly, stated, Zionism is not a policy, it is the idea that led to the creation of a home for the Jewish people in the state of Israel To equate Zionism with racism is to reject Israel itself, a member in good standing of the UN. Even the Vatican, in its document The Church and Racism of the Holy Sees Council acknowledged that, Anti-Zionism serves at times as a screen for anti-Semitism feeding on it and leading to it. (part II, no. 15).
Consider that anti-Zionism is the first type of Jew hatred to deny that it hates Jews. Today, those who hate Jews and who fan the flames of bigotry call themselves anti-Zionists, seeking new modes of packaging their virulent ideology and knowing that if one tells the same lies long enough as Goebbles stated, people will begin to believe them. Yet, it is beyond dispute that throughout the world, classical anti-Semitism is being dressed us as anti-Zionism, a more respectable, but no less poisonous and vile, type of hate.
There is hard and fast evidence that all too often anti-Semitic figures brand themselves anti-Zionists. Consider Kwawe Ture. When speaking on American campuses, the Black Nationalist figures favourite punchline is The only good Zionist is a dead Zionist. Ture asserts he is not anti-Semitic, merely anti-Zionist although he heads the AAPRP, one of the most radical anti-Semitic groups on the left, tells audiences that Jews dominated the slave trade and that Zionists collaborated with the Nazis to create the Holocaust. Clearly, animosity towards Zionism by high profile hate mongers is always bonded to smearing against Judaism. Robert Wistrich remembers an interview with Valery Emelianov a leading member of the ultra right wing Russian group Pamyat in which Elianov kept using the word Zionists where it was plain it was a transparent codeword for Jews, also repeatedly employing the term Jewish Nazis. And what about Syrian Defence Minister Mustafa Tlas and his 1983 book The Matza of Zion, a blood libel clocked as insight into Zionist behaviour and intention. One could also add the Peronist congressman in Argentina who classified Zionism as device for taking over Latin America and the Court in Crete that ruled in 1984 that Jehovahs Witnesses are part of a Zionist conspiracy to rule the world as prime examples.
Even left-wing icon and peace activist Israeli author A. B Yehoshua has recognied the anti-Zionism agenda. In March last years he observed: "Instead of attacking Jews they are attacking Zionism, and this is the way because you cannot attack Jews anymore openly." Let us also recall that that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran spoke at anti-Zionism conference when he infamously spoke about wiping Israel off the map.
The establishment of a Jewish state has not erased anti-Semitism. There is still a need for a demonized scapegoat and Israel itself has become the worlds Jew, its favorite scapegoat. Anti-Zionism is an ingenious way to defame Israel and the Jewish people. And for that very reason, anti-Zionism should not lose its seat on the bus of political correctness that protects certain groups; it should never be made acceptable, tolerated, ignored or hushed up.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Geez. I read this and I thought, "Martin Luther said THAT?"
I had no idea. It’s brilliant in it’s simplicity. No-one has said it better.
One gets so accustomed to the rabid anti-semitism of the Sharpton-Jackson-Farrakhan branches of black activism that is a stunning fresh breeze to experience such words from Martin Luther King. I had no idea he’d said anything like that. Good for him! Those words should be widely re-publicized..... I cannot believe I’ve never seen them before.
1) 15 million Jews in the World of a few billion...and they run the world???
2) the US LOANS money to Israel....the Israelis PAY BACK loans with interest!!!
3) the US pisses billions to the f’muzzies...not one cent has ever been paid back...and the ROI has been nill at best!!!!
1) 15 million Jews in the World of a few billion...and they run the world???
2) the US LOANS money to Israel....the Israelis PAY BACK loans with interest!!!
3) the US pisses billions to the f’muzzies...not one cent has ever been paid back...and the ROI has been nill at best!!!!
Anti-Zionism is NOT anti-semitism. While anti-semites will almost always be anti-Zionists or anti-Israel, most people are ignorant of a few facts about Zionism.
For example:
“The history of Zionism, as well as the widely different forms it has taken, (from Christian Zionism to Socialist Zionism), is extremely complex and well beyond the scope of these articles. However, it’s significance is important, because anti-Zionism is confused with anti-Semitism, and they are not the same thing. Those who have opposed the Zionists, both ideologically and politically, are often labeled anti-Semitic, which some anti-Zionists certainly are (such as the Muslims), but opposing Zionism is not itself anti-Semitic. It is an interesting historical fact, that some of the most radical anti-Zionists were Orthodox Jews, especially those who were inhabitants of Palestine in 1948 when a secular Zionist state was literally forced on them by the United Nations. One can hardly call those anti-Zionist Jews, anti-Semitic.”
There are many anti-Zionist Jews to this day in both Israel and throughout the world. They can hardly be call anti-Semitic. Many of them believe the Jewish state is a mistake on religious grounds.
Like all politicians, King’s knowledge of things was shallow and spoken only to appeal to the emotions. Details and facts weren’t important—and apparently still are not to most people.
The above quote is from a series on “Racism and Anti-Semitism” here:
http://theautonomist.com/aaphp/permanent/phil_gen/antisemitism5.php
Hank
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Check out this awesome video:
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The same kind of terrorists who support Obama did this:
http://www.frugalsites.net/911/attack/
Never apologize for them.
Never appease them.
Never forget.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The facts that you are hopelessly wrong, are compelling in the extreme. Repeating your belief, ad nauseum, that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism, is not an argument.
Fact: Iran uses the term "Zionist" as a euphemism for "Jews".
Evidence? Holocaust denial ... anti-Zionism? No.
The UN equates, formally, Zionism with Apartheid South Africa. I grew up in Apartheid South Africa, leaving there when I was 27. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a classic Liberal tactic. Make an outrageous statement that changes the argument. The argument is so spurious and factually dishonest, that there can be no other explanation than anti-Semitism.
Jimmy Carter then, "when I'm re-elected, I will f*ck the Jews".
Now: Israel practises apartheid. Anti-Zionism? Hardly.
Herr Obergruppenfeurer Pat Buchanan: refers to Capitol Hill as "Israeli-occupied territory."
Says that: ".. despite Hitler's anti-Semitic and genocidal tendencies, he was "an individual of great courage...Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path."
Buchanan also hasn't found a Nazi war criminal yet that he hasn't defended. See John Demjanjuk, Frank Walus & Karl Limas. Anti-Zionism? Hardly.
The facts are clear and compelling, despite your wrongheaded protestations. And I ask whether you, perhaps, are attempting to mitigate your own views of Israel and the Jews .... just as the likes of Herr Obergruppenfeurer Pat Buchanan, Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Ramsay Clark, etc, do?
The facts are irrefutable and, apparently, uncomfortable.
The Martin Luther King of reality was a distinct man, both a better man and a more flawed man than the main stream media/ Shake-Down Jackson caracture of a man we see today.
He was a serious theologian -— not a race trader.
He engaged in mild corruption and maritial infidelity.
He made alliances of convenience with communists and socialist -— and Republicans.
Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
But don’t you see what’s happened?
Those who are anit-Israel say they are only anti-Zionism, and everybody knows that ruse is being used as a cover for anti-Semitism.
So now, when someone points out that the Zionists are essentially socialists, it’s suddenly labeled as anti-Semitism. It is a trick meant to silence those who wish to point out a simple truth. Pointing out that Zionists, of which the Labor party in Israel is still mostly comprised, are socialist (of the communist kind) is not anti-Israel or anti-Semitism; if it is anti-anything it is anti-socialist. The absolute best thing Israel could do for its own freedom and economy is stamp out Zionism—or if they want to retain the pro-Jewish state aspects, at least rid it of socialism.
Israel is their own country and they can run it any way they like, and defend it any way they like, but Zionism is not a good thing, and it’s not anti-Semitic to point that out.
As for this:
“Such Jews are a tiny minority even among Orthodox Jews.”
So, because they are a minority, they do not have a right to speak?
You are wrong, though.
http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/index.cfm
Hank
“self-hating Jews?”
See my previous post.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2020594/posts?page=13#13
You know nothing about me. Do you always accuse people of things when you don’t understand them.
Before posting to me again, please read these articles. I am the author.
http://theautonomist.com/aaphp/permanent/phil_gen/antisemitism1.php
It’s a series. It’s long. You’ll learn something in spite of yourself.
Hank
What ever group within a religion that may have a different view on an issue is not what is being spoken of.
Right now, today we have Ahmadinejad of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc. who want to wipe Israel and all Jews off the map.
“Today” to get around sounding outright Anti-Semite, the Liberal Fascist say Anti-Zionist or Neocon.
You can split hairs, but wishing doesn’t make it so.
We are talking now, today and our time is running out.
Please read the articles referenced in the previous post.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2020594/posts?page=14#14
Otherwise do not bother posting to me again. You have no idea what you are talking about. Principles are not the same as your feelings. The truth is the truth no matter how you feel about it.
Hank
I think the first mark of a propagandist is a serious problem with the dictionary -- substituting the wrong words for one another without due regard for what words really mean.
So pal, next time, before you sit down to type up a bunch of garbage, OPEN UP YOUR FUNK'N DICTIONARY! There you will find a definition of "Zionism":
"Zi-on-ism (from 1896)
an international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine and later for the support of modern Israel."
Note immediately, the word "socialist" does not appear in the definition. So there's no reason for you do confuse "socialist" with "Zionist."
If you have a problem with socialism, that's one thing. Zionism is something different.
"Socialist Zionism (or Labor Zionism) strove to achieve Jewish national and social redemption by fusing Zionism with Socialism. Its founder was Nachman Syrkin, who promulgated this view shortly before the third Zionist Congress (1899)."
Learn some history and discover how things change their names but ideologically remain the same. I don't really care whether you do this or not, it may be to hard for you, in which case you can persiste in your ignorance comforted by your dictionary.
Labor Zionism and Socialist Zionism
There are many varieties of Zionism, but the one dominating Israels politics today is Social Zionism: [from Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
"The Socialist Zionist idea gave rise to many pioneering youth movements, such as Hashomer Hatz'air and Hehalutz. The leaders of Socialist Zionist parties were among the most prominent in the pre-independence Palestine community and the State of Israel; David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Berl Katznelson are but three examples. Socialist Zionism is the progenitor of most of Israel's settlement movements and the Israel Labor Party, one of Israel's two main political parties."
Hank
So you have a problem with socialists -- whether Americans, Russians, Europeans or Israelis, right? That's fine, go after them. Criticize & condemn socialists all day long -- no one will call you "anti-Semitic" for that.
But don't confuse socialists with all Zionists, since the two are not necessarily the same.
And while you are criticizing all socialists, why not condemn history's most vile socialists of all -- the National Socialists. You remember them don't you?
They were decidedly NOT Zionists.
Are you calling me anti-semitic? Did you bother to read my articles? Well I know the answer to that.
I don’t care whether you think I’m “going after” anyone or not, and couldn’t care less what you call me. I just find it interesting that ignorance can be so militant.
Pointing out that Zionism, in its largest manifestation, has problems with it, has nothing to do with what anyone thinks about or wants for the Jews. There are Christian Zionists too.
http://christianactionforisrael.org/czionism.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_isra.htm
The fact is I’m not anti-Zionist. I think much of what what Zionists believe is a mistake. I believe the Christian Zionist movement is a mistake as well. Does that mean I’m anti-Christian? I have no interest in convincing Zionists to change anything they believe or to not pursue whatever they think is right. I’m not opposed to anyone believing and pursuing anything they choose.
The only thing I am opposed to is oppression; the only thing I’m anti is anti-collectivism and anti-statism. My underlying principle is individualism as in “individual liberty.” I am not even anti-Islam, though I am radically opposed to almost everything they do, because it is so oppressive. If someone could be a muslim and not indulge in its oppressive practicies, more power to him. I doubt it’s possible.
That’s the only reason I do not like to see any freely discussed issue described is some kind of “prejudice” simply because it is not the currently accepted view. The next thing you find is the government declaring all such discussion as “hate speech” and there goes your freedom of speech.
You have done what many people like you do. You have judged other’s motives based on your own weaknesses. Since you could not say what I have said without hatred or prejudice you assume I cannot. Assume what you like however. It’s no skin of my nose.
Hank
The simplest way to test the proposition is with a thought experiment. If Israel was just another small Arab state, like South Yemen say, and everything else was the same--jealous neighbor squabbling about territory, conflicts about access to water, greater prosperity instigating resentment among regional rivals, but just another bunch of Arabs with no Jews around, would anyone give a damn about them one way or the other? The answer is manifestly not.
"Zionism" is opposed precisely because it is Jewish. If it were some small Islamic faction, regional groups might object, even strenuously, but the rest of the world wouldn't care a whit.
While Rev. King was a supporter of Israel and a friend of the Jews, the above quoted words are a hoax.
I suspect whether there were any Zionism or not, the alarming and growing anti-Semitism would still be going on, because, as you say, it's because Israel is Jewish. Interestingly, there is growing anti-Christian sentiment, especially in this country, which I find equally alarming.
As the economic and social (Islamic invasion) problems grow worse in Europe, and more people become frightened looking for someone to blame, you can expect more irrational racism, directed particularly at the Jews, but also Christians. The signs do not look good. (It is against the law to homeschool in Germany. Europe is mostly secular, but those Christians who choose to homeschool in Germany are being prosecuted by the state and having their children taken away from them. That law, by the way, was instituted under the Nazi regime.)
Hank
Nice work! I think there's a whole industry out there ginning up fake quotes, many anti-Semitic, but here's one going the other way.
However, your article makes clear that the sentiment expressed does indeed reflect ML King's true feelings, even if these exact words are not accurate.
See post 22 below, and check out the link. The sentiment is true to King, but those exact words are not.
I have a special problem with this. If pro-Israel sympathy can be taken from Rev. King's actual words, why bother to make something up and give a false provenance (a nonexistant "Saturday Review" article). I have still not learned who perpretated this hoax, and as a conservative, it really bothers me that someone would go to the trouble to make this up, no matter how well intentioned.
"Hank," I think you are busted, you busted yourself.
We've already established, with a dictionary, that "Zionism" simply means anyone who supports Israel. So, virtually all Americans are "Zionists," right?
Now you say you are not anti-Zionist, only anti-Socialist, and you detect, eagle-eye that you are, in ultra-liberal Israel, some of their Liberals are socialists, and most of those are hiding under the beds of Zionists (gasp)!
But you also tell us you oppose "Christian Zionists," though NOT because they are Christians, and certainly NOT because Christians are socialists, right?
So why then oppose Christian Zionism?
I think you're busted.
Agreed. My guess would be that someone in the King family remembered King saying something along those lines, and wanting to fortify King's legacy, allowed the hoax to ahead.
Thanks for the update ping - always bad to see such a hoax, whatever the purpose may be. In this case it seems to try to amplify a view that MLK actually expressed, which may not be as bad as trying to have him say the opposite of what he actually believed, but any hoax with historic and political ramifications is particularly despicable.
I’ve never seen them before either. I had no idea he said those words and I’m pretty good with all things *history*.
Hi, Twink!! :^)
See link and update at #22 - apparently this particular quote is a hoax, although it does reflect an actual view he expressed, so it is not the type of hoax that puts words in someone’s mouth that they never would have uttered. Still, some unknown hoaxer decided to make up a fancy quotation that sounded reminiscent of his “I Have a Dream” speech. It appears clear now that it is not a legitimate quotation from MLK.
What do you mean? I’m asking seriously. I don’t consider Martin Luther King Jr. as saintly as some here. I was actually surprised that he was so revered on this site. Like JFK and RFK, if he hadn’t been asassinated (sp), I think we’d be viewing him differently.
Thank you. You know your stuff.
Hi Enchante :)
I’m a little slow, lol. Just read and replied to that post. And my typing skills are non-existent, too.
I saw your post after reading the thread/topic and agreed with you. I had never seen that quote from MLK. Thought I was aging really quickly ;) The memory is the first thing to go, so I’m told.
How are you? :)
OT: I’m well, thanks. I’m watching the replay on the NASA website of the highly successful landing of the “Phoenix” probe this evening - I was out in the mountains until dark so I’m catching up on the exciting happenings with Phoenix. Amazing that this thing could be landed on Mars with such incredible precision (they did slightly overshoot the target landing zone but they were still well within the general area desired, and the landing seems to have been just about perfect). Incredible that such a thing is even possible.
You get out way more than I do :)
I had no idea this was happening.
Happy to read you’re enjoying this. I’ll have to google it tomorrow. Glad to catch you on a thread.
Nite :)
“I think you’re busted.”
Well, thanks for your opinion.
Hank
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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Right on, goldstategop!
“While Rev. King was a supporter of Israel and a friend of the Jews, the above quoted words are a hoax.”
What a disappointment.
That he was a very complex person.
People prop him up for their own purposes (e.g., Jesse Jackson has made a living off “Selma”),
and people denigrate him for flaws (serious links to Soviet agents who were using him -— or at least trying to, serial adulterer, financial hijinks)
In general, however, he was an OK guy.
Blacks were, no doubt, getting screwed over.
The race industry that has taken over, in contrast, is complete B.S.
You didn't know that the slightest criticism of Isreal will bring out the howls of "jew-hater" on this board? You do now.
“You didn’t know that the slightest criticism of Isreal will bring out the howls of ‘jew-hater’ on this board? You do now.”
There is a view that the Jews, and I think that includes Christians as well, these days, are like the canary in the mine. When totalitarianism and statism are about to take over, the Jews and Christians will be the first to feel the persecution and oppression. It’s a good sign to look for, and it is not looking good today.
I’m another kind of canary, a test for tolerance for true independent individual thinking. I am almost never in agreement with any majority, so I know what unreasonable criticism is. That’s OK, I’m used to it, and don’t really care what other people think or say about me. What is interesting to me, is the extent of intolerance of any ideas that do not conform to the latest politically accepted views on a forum called ‘Free Republic’ which should above all else jealously guard free speech and expression of ideas. Free Republic has become very strange.
Hank
Thanks for the reply. I see it that way, too. Not sure it’s the most accurate (the way I see it) but it’s what I know.
Very complex and complicated, imo.
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