 | By Joshua18
September 17, 2010 | Share |
Another excellent article by the formidable Phyllis Chesler:
'Why Israel? Why the Jews? Why are so many presumably “civilized” people, “good” people, educated people, so eager to join the Jew-hating, death-eating barbarians–century after century, country after country? In the Book of Esther, set in ancient Persia, Haman, the Viceroy, plots the genocidal extermination of the Persian Jews. He tells the King: “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from every other group and they do not observe the King’s laws. Therefore, it is not befitting the King to tolerate them.”
Jews are everywhere, Jews are “different,” Jews hold themselves apart, they have dual loyalties, or no loyalty to the realm, only to God.
Here we have it, the universal accusation and the justification for anti-Semitic persecution. Luckily, the King fancies the very Jewish Esther, takes her into his harem, “chooses” her as his beloved—and through her efforts (and that of the entire Jewish community), Esther saves the Jews. And King Achashverosh kills Haman and his entire family instead.
Back then, the Jews, led by Esther’s uncle Mordechai, backed Esther, fasted for her, prayed for her. Today, many Jews join with Haman’s descendants. The psychiatrically deranged Hasidic sect, Neturai Karta, literally takes money from Ahmadinejad and participates in demonstrations against the Jewish state. But other, seemingly less deranged Jews insist that their anti-Zionist activism has been undertaken “for our own good” or for the greater glory of (their version of) Judaism.
Please understand: Such Jews are sincere, even zealous, very zealous. They believe that their anti-Zionism and anti-Judaism represents a specifically Jewish response to evil and a specifically Jewish pursuit of justice. They believe that only their approach will “save” Jews and all humanity.'
For the rest of the piece, follow the link:
http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2010/09/15/a-yom-kippur-prayer-fo...
DeborahMaccoby
Sat, 09/18/2010 - 21:45
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Joshua18: Phyllis Chesler asks: "why do Jews do this? Why are so many educated and politically active Jews, including Israeli Jews, often the ones who fight against Jewish interests, even against Jewish survival?" I'd like to ask a question in my turn: are Israel's present policies conducive to Jewish interests and Jewish survival? The brutal and unnecessary attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, the blocade on Gaza, the brutal and unnecessary attack on the flotilla, the refusal even to take the first step of freezing settlements on the West Bank,are all against Israeli interests and Israeli survival, and they also impinge on Jewish interests and Jewish survival. Can the Jews survive as a people if they lose the moral values which have ensured their survival up till now?
Re the question of why Jewish activists don't protest against Muslim human rights abuses to the same extent, the answer lies in Chesler's own statement that "all Jews are accountable for each other". We feel responsible as Jews to point out to Israel how destructive and self-destructive its policies are, and also to point out how disastrous its policies are for the world Jewish community, who are associated with these policies. And we want to make it clear to the outside world that a significant and growing number of Jews don't support those policies. Antisemites are only too happy to claim that all Jews support these policies - we want to make it clear that these antisemites are wrong.
Joshua, as it's just after Yom Kippur, I hope you will make the effort to respond to this in a civilised way, however much you will disagree with it.
best wishes and Shana Tova ,
Deborah