[Before we start, let me mention that you might enjoy my article, "What Jews Should Know about Christians," a revised Jerusalem Post column, available at: http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-jews-should-know-about-christians.html]
By Barry Rubin
Underlying any other factor regarding attitudes toward Israel in the Media-University-Government (MUG) complex is the programmatic and ideological problem faced in honestly understanding and explaining Israel’s behavior.
To report truthfully would require comprehending and communicating the following two paragraphs:
–Most Israelis believe, on the basis of their experience during the 1990s’ Oslo era and with the “peace process” generally, that Palestinian leaders cannot and will not make peace, and that most Arabs and Muslims still want to destroy Israel. As a result, they explain, past Israeli concessions have made Israel’s situation worse, risks to show that Israel wants peace have not persuaded onlookers, withdrawals from territory have only led to that territory being used to launch attacks on Israel.
–In justifying their stance, Israelis cite the extremism of Iran; the advances of Hamas and Hizballah; the growing radicalism and Islamist influence in the Egyptian revolution, and other such factors. In addition, they worry that the Obama Administration policy is undermining Israel and enabling a growing extremism in the region. This is a prevailing viewpoint across the political spectrum.
I could have chosen to make additional points but this shows the main factors. Since the Israeli argument is so cogent and backed by facts and observable realities, it would be dangerously persuasive to those who actually get to hear it.
Instead, the muggers of MUG must insist:
–Peace would be easily and quickly obtained if not for Israel’s policies.
–Settlements and not Arab/Muslim positions are the factor preventing peace, even though it could be pointed out that if the Palestinians made peace all the settlements on their territory would be removed.
–If Israel only had a different government the peace process would rapidly advance.
–Obama and his supporters want to save Israel in spite of itself and they, not Israel’ own leadership, knows what’s best for the country.
–Israelis “know” that Obama is right which is why public opinion polls, statements, and evidence to the contrary is suppressed or spun away. American Jews can support anti-Israel policies in the firm belief that they are really “pro-Israel” policies.
–They have only replaced demonizing the “other” with romanticizing the “other.” Never underestimate the importance of ignorance or of its common form—believing that other people think and act just like themselves. The “great experts” really know very little about the issues. (I could give you a long and amusing list on that point.)
–It is far more pleasant to believe that conflict can be made to disappear, hatreds quenched. If they are all our fault than we can easily fix them.
(No sooner did I write this that up pops a great example of the genre! It’s all Israel’s fault, Netanyahu never showed he wanted peace, blah, blah, blah.)
Or, in short, “Why do they hate us?” because we’ve behaved so badly but we can fix it by behaving properly.
Consequently, the systematic misrepresentation isn’t because these people are mean or that they hate Israel as such (well, actually, a lot of academics but relatively few journalists or government officials do) but because their worldview and political line–including 100 percent support for Obama–requires it.
Equally, their systematic view that revolutionary Islamism isn’t a real threat but just a marginal movement of those who misunderstand Islam and want to hijack it, requires it. Equally, their systematic view that to portray certain peoples as hardline, intransigent, “irrational,” etc., is a form of racism and Islamophobia.
I constantly receive letters from Iranians, Turks, Lebanese, Egyptians, and Syrians about their despair at losing their country, being oppressed, or seeing so much bloodshed in their struggle for democracy and to avoid being crushed by Islamist or radical nationalist dictatorships.
Genuinely moderate Muslims in the West have similar complaints and experiences. One case that typifies many is of a courageous man who is shunned by the politicians, virtually barred from the two mosques in his small city, and sees those who threaten him being praised in the media and feted by local politicians.
These people often have similar symptoms. They are depressed, often closed to tears, deeply frustrated and bewildered. What makes their lot even more bitter is the lack of sympathy for the Western MUG that praises their enemies (and all of ours) at the same time. They, too, are victims of the same syndrome that Israel suffers from.
One of the worst things in life is for someone to wake up and discover he’s been supporting evil. Indeed, not only an evil in the abstract but forces and ideas that threaten his own freedom and happiness. A lot of people in the West have already woken up but many more need to do so.
Israel has everything a leftie would covet: social programs and universal access to education and healthcare. Of course the lefies would never forgive Israel for allying with the Great Satan over the much more appetizing USSR.
Personally I don’t think peace (not even temporary) will ever be achieved until Islam reforms, but to do that will mean to rewrite or reinterpret “the most perfect book ever written” – which is synonymous to apostasy (you cannot reform or rewrite something that is already perfect).
Already perfect, and if you don’t agree, we’ll kill you. Isn’t that called a self-reinforcing loop?
The only consolation is, an unstoppable logic loop is doomed to crash, as it eventually exhausts the resources of the operating system. That’s why we have to stop buying Middle East oil. It keeps feeding the wormhole.
Drill, baby, drill. I’m not really a big fan of hers, but Sarah starts looking smarter every day. You don’t have to make it all here, but you do have to deleverage the scummy, extorting, lying Arabs.
So, Jewish greens: shut up and let us drill, or this thing will never end. And you’ll be paying for your own destruction.
I’m commenting on your piece, “what jews should know about christians” here.
You explain very well how evangelical & other conservative Christians are now deeply pro-Jewish and pro-Israel. As a Christian, I have attempted to explain this fact to liberal Jewish friends with little success. From now on I will pass on your essay.
I will point out, if you do wish to find antisemitism is modern Christian churches, the place to look are the liberal soft-Christian churches. These churches are more likely to be pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, and sometimes nastily antisemitic.
The times they are achangin’
I tend to see a similarity in these liberal soft-Christian churches and those <Tikun Olam rabbis and that is a Secular version of the faith.
Very true about liberal Christians. To see a swamp of anti-Israel sentiment, check the form Wondercafe, of the United Church of Canada (look and Politics and Global Issues). Very depressing.
Honestly this is nothing new. The MUG also felt that Hitler was good for everyone too until it was almost too late for the world. The problematic issue here is that the axis of evil is on its way to atomic weapons that will begin and end the open-versions of world war 3 (instead of the closed proxy based version we are dealing with today) within hours instead of years. The west will not have real-time to counterattack, they will just be gone.
The hour is late. The MUG complex is deranged or worse. They deserve neither respect nor quarter. They are a clear and present danger. They are traitors to the civliization that has nurtured and supports them.
Re “What Jews should know about Christians”
“Israel and Jews should also shake the extended hand of conservatives and Christians which is so often sincerely offered.”
I think Israel does. I think your article is directed more at American Jews. I say that because you speak of “most” or at least “many” Jews. Israel has become in the recent dacade the largest Jewish community in the world, surpassing the American Jewish community, so if we speak about most Jews Israel should be a significant part of that.
“Most Jews today (or should I merely say many?)… have a tremendous fear of Christians”
I don’t think the overwhelming majority of Jews in Israel have a tremendous fear of Christians… They might be suspicious of the Evangelical intentions (whether they expect us to eventually convert, and what will they do if we won’t), but I wouldn’t say they fear them. My impression is that the general attitude towards them is, as it goes in Hebrew, Cabdehu Ve’Hashdehu, literally “respect him and suspect him”, meaning approach carefully, but approach, treat friendly and respectfully, but don’t completely trust until you know the real intentions.
Of course, past traumas are powerful, but present experience is more powerful. And Israeli Jews live in a very different environment than American Jews. Here in the Middle East the threat isn’t coming from zealot Christians. We have enemies among the Christians, but also allies, and some common fate. The Christians here are often powerless victims. The way they are driven out of Iraq, for instance, is just like how the Jews were driven out of Iraq, where they predated the Arab-Muslim conquest by more than a millennium. More than 60% of Israelis have at least one parent coming from Middle Eastern Jewish communities that were treated like that. What’s happening to the Christians is both touching that old wound and scary for all the kuffar of whatever background. For most American Jews this is a far away event that has very little relevance to their lives. They’re scared of the whims of the Christian majority. Everything is fine at the moment, but Jews know it’s always temporary, or at least has been until now, so they fear what seems to them (sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly) like “reactionary forces” among the Christians. They can afford to fear Glenn Beck because they have nothing better to fear. Israelis love Glenn Beck.
Israelis used to prefer the Democrats because they were more pro-Israel. Now we prefer the Republicans because they’re more pro-Israel. It’s quite basic, nothing too complicated. And we catch thes changes fast because it’s our lives that are on the line. After Obama was elected a poll in Israel showed most of the Jews here thought he was a nice person, but only 6% thought he was pro-Israel. And that was before we knew what he was actually going to do. Very few people here were fooled by his words. If the poll was taken today I doubt that many people would say he is a nice person. American Jews will still vote for him because for most of them Israel is the last on their list of worries. 6 million Jews more or less won’t make any difference to them. They’ll still have their lives, families, homes and jobs the morning after the Muslim bomb falls here. And the rest don’t understand the region. They think Sarah Palin is scary.
The people in my nighborhood hardly ever think about Christians, let alone have a “tremendous fear” of them. There might still be some degree of instinctive fear or distrust based mostly on the past plus some nasty churches, but it’s nothing remotely similar to the hostile attitudes you described among American Jews. They are afraid of ghosts because they don’t routinely experience explosions. An Israeli would have to be completely insane to fear a devout Christian like Allen West more than any devout leftist in the Obama administration. We can’t afford not to know who our friends and who our enemies are. What the people in my town have a “tremendous fear” of are Grad rockets and the Iranian bomb. And whenever the siren goes off and we run for shelter we know the people who launched the rockets aren’t Christian. The Christians are almost gone from Gaza now, after we left. They were attacked by the same people who launch the rockets.
The funny thing about most American Jews is that they support the delegitimization of the US as a European Christian Naiton…along with the Left. Now the Left is delegitimizing Israel as a Jewish State, and the Jews are all in a huff. Sucks, dont it.
Im staunchy Pro Israel and a great admirer of Jewish Culture and acheivement.
I dont hate Jews, but that doesnt preclude a rational European Christian from realizing that American (and European) Jews are largely hostile to me and mine, European Christians and their Nation States. I wish it werent so. But there it is. They havent endeared themselves to European Christians with this behavior. Pushing Multiculturalism, mass immigration, Diversity Promotion Discrimination, pushing Christianity out of the public sphere, attempting to delegitimize Christian participation in governance and informing legislation.
Shameful.
What on earth are you talking about? I admire European and other Christians around the world. I haven’t pushed the agendas you refer to. I don’t know, personally, anyone who has done what you say. What you are referring to is a group of left wing supporters who are not religious Jews, and who ally themselves with the far left views of the world. To blanket ALL Jews with such views is to completely misunderstand or hold,(oooh dear it has to be said)…..ANTISEMITIC views! I level that aginst you because you seem to think we Jews control the world, its thoughts, governments etc. The people you refer to comprise of many atheists, agnostics and lefties……MOST ARE NOT JEWS! The Jews that I know, believe that what is wrong with the world today, is its lack of moral compass. It no longer knows what is the right way to behave. That includes all our governments!
Not True Scotsman
I said, most American Jews, not all Jews. The large majority of American Jews, that have shown themselves to be the farthest Left ethnic group in voting and political opinion in US consistently for the last 50 years. Even the African Americans are more often than not social conservatives on social issues, and supportive of Christian principles, values in the public sphere (even if they do vote Left).
Im routinely called a Zionist Stooge.
Ive never said that Jews control the world. American Jewry has been influential in promoting Leftist subversion of Euro Christian nations. That is without question.
Interstingly enough, religious American Jews are much more freindly to Christians. However religious Israeli Jews are much more likely to attack Christians, harrass them, and generally make them feel unwelcome in Israeli society. That isnt the case with American Christians towards Jews.
Orthodox religious Jews in Israel make everybody, including secular Israelis feel uncomfortable; because they are so dogmatic; They cost unfortunately the country lots of money; but are not really the peacemakers; quite the opposite; all orthodox religions create seperation between huminaty, instead of believing in compassion and respect..
Hey, I am an Orthodox Religious Jew in Israel. I have always advocated compassion and respect, and I work and pay taxes. I would advise you to deepen your research on the topic, and to be less dogmatic yourself.
I have been through the wringer from both American left and right as a pro Israel American Jew since the internets became a viable way for individuals to comment on events of the day.
Either way, the same themes bear out. Jews have control way beyond numbers in political influence, money, media…They have dual loyalty. They cannot be trusted blah whatever.
The left are worse in general. They have turned Godwins law on it’s head such that antisemitism does not exist. The right blames the Jews for electing a liberal Democrat, as if 2 percent of the population, awesome as we may be in some imaginations, had that much power.
Jews win in only limited ways in history. Joked with some family friends this Rosh Hashana “every Jewish holiday has the same theme. They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.”
Writ above “American Jewry has been influential in promoting Leftist subversion of Euro Christian nations”.
QED
Heh. Can get the same crapola on HuffPo. Just a simple mirror inversion.
Mirror inversion, heh?
The fix is simple, if Jews dont want to be criticized by the Right and frowned upon, they can quit using their organizations as centers of Anti Christian and Lefting political agendas.
To call people Anti Semites for noticing, is par for the course. Seems Jews can dish it out, but they cant take it. Classic tribalist hypocrisy.
Clearly EscapeVelocity you are one of those rare individuals with the courage to openly expose the Jews and their “AntiChristian Leftwing agenda”.
Keep going. You are on a roll.
Dont have time for more comments now. Busy replying to a Liberal Atheist who accused the Jewish people of a Neocon Corporate Capitalist Agenda. I wonder what would happen if the two of you ever got together? Maybe more in common that one would think.
The Left is extremely hostile to Christianity and European Civilization.
American (and European) Jews are the farthest Left religio-ethnic group…who routinely vote over 4 to 1 for the Leftist Democrat party (which has been drifting farther and farther Left since the 60s).
Noticing this is not just politically incorrect, but Anti Semitic.
QED
This is exactly why Jews have such a mistrust of “Christians”. EscapeVelocity is clearly an antisemite, and he uses classical antisemitic accusations against “the Jews”. Maybe he didn’t read Barry Rubin’s other writings about the leftist Jewish hatred of Jews and oppression of Jews. They are much more anti-Jewish than anti-Christian. But to a hater like EscapeVelocity, he cannot and will not see or understand this. Accusing Jews of tribalism is classical antisemitism. EscapeVelocity is as much a Christian as a KKK member. I wouldn’t be surprised if sympathized with their ideology.
Jews are tribalists. They have supported Israel as a Jewsih State, and have done everything in their power to delegitimize Euro Christian nations as Euro Christian nations. Empowerment of the minorities, Multiculturalism, Diversity Promotion, Affirmative Action, pushing Christian symbols out of the public sphere, pushing Christinaity out of the public sphere, and in informing governance and legislation, rewriting history to serve these interests.
Let me be clear, its not just Jews that have done this. A gaggle of minority groupos have joined the party, and they all are enabled by guilt ridden self hating Euro Christian Leftists…taking advantage of a general self doubt and guilt amongst Euro Christian civiilzation in general, holocaust, World Wars, colonialism, racism, Jim Crow, etc.
There is a lot of blame to go around.
But what is needed is clear thinking. Mugabe wasnt a hero of Anti Racism even though he fought white supremacy. This mistake often of a lessor scale is the general zeitgeist of the Left and its gaggle of minroity victimization identity politics groups. The Jews only being one example of many.
But its much easier to shout Anti-Semite at someone and circle the wagons.
Good Luck with that.