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...