Jewish Self-Hatred and the Olive Tree Initiative
The phenomenon of Jews embracing the hateful and mendacious rhetoric of those committed to their annihilation has been so commonplace throughout history that a body of psychological literature on “Jewish self-hatred” emerged decades ago. This maladaptive response to antisemitism has been compared to the psychodynamics of abused children who blame themselves for their predicament and harbor fantasies of appeasing their tormentors, thus ending their torment with “good” behavior. Chronic besiegement also often results in an emotional and moral identification with the aggressor even to the extent of collaboration.
For example, Jewish members of the ironically named “peace movement” continue to protest Israel’s alleged wrongdoings and proffer concessions to Arab-Palestinians who are bent solely on unmitigated terror and the eventual destruction of Israel. These self-hating Jews refuse to modify their stance even in the face of Arab-Palestinian refusals to recognize Israel as the Jewish national state, Muslim praise of suicide bombers and other Jewish mass murderers, and Islamic feting of murderers as role models, as well as the indoctrination of children to hate and kill Jews. Although their very existence is threatened, many Jews harbor the delusion that Muslim Jew-hatred can be eradicated by the right “land for peace” concessions or heartwarming interfaith dialogue despite doctrinal evidence to the contrary. If it’s not relinquishing the Sinai or Gaza that does the trick, these Jewish “peace movement” members would offer up the Golan, Jerusalem or Judea and Samaria.
A prime example of this kind of suicidal thinking was the Oslo Accords wherein Israelis embraced Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a “peace partner” although he refused to publicly denounce terrorism and maintained his chief goal of eradicating Israel. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that the so-called Oslo Accords led to the worst terrorist violence in Israel’s history and failed to end anti-Israel propaganda and the glorification of martyrdom in Arab-Palestinian schools and mosques as promised. The Accords exposed the lies and treachery inherent in negotiations with Muslim terrorists and reinforced the Chamberlain lesson that appeasement is met with increased demands and aggression. Yet, the Israelis succumbed once again in 2005 with the forcible removal of 11,000 Jews from Gaza.
Today, the most recent example of such thinking is Jewish support for and involvement with the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI), which began at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) campus. Created in March 2007, ostensibly to foster “educated discourse” between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups on campus, the group actually has links to Muslim Brotherhood operatives. Having spread to other UC campuses and on the brink of going national, the OTI’s actual strategy serves the purpose of turning U.S. students into pro-Palestinian anti-Israel advocates through specially designed tours to Israel and the Palestinian territories. It seeks to promote the Palestinian narrative and demonize and undermine the Jewish state all the while with the support of Jewish organizations that are wittingly facilitating the indoctrination process of students against the state of Israel.
Muslim Brotherhood Objectives
In 1983, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) representatives from throughout the Middle East, the Gulf States, Europe and the United States met in Amman, Jordan, to unanimously approve the “global project for Palestine.” This multi-phased, long-term plan for a “cultural invasion of the West” centered on the destruction of Jews and Israel. All the participants agreed that total “liberation” of Palestine from Israel and the creation of an Islamic state in its place would be the cornerstone of their plan for global Islamic domination. They also agreed to militarize the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood and coordinate global activities in support of the new jihadist movement centered on Israel’s annihilation.
Hamas, whose charter identifies it as “one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine,” was created in 1987 to carry out plans “to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea.” The Hamas Charter goes on to say, “There is no solution to the Palestinian problems except by jihad. Anything else – acts of diplomacy – are a waste of time. The liberation of the land is an individual duty binding all Muslims everywhere. Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims.”
The focus of the Muslim Brotherhood in America has been da’wa, or proselytization, in the service of expanding the organization’s clout in the U.S. and delegitimizing, dehumanizing and marginalizing the Jewish state. The MB is represented by myriad organizations, including the Hamas-related Muslim Student Association (MSA), omnipresent on university campuses throughout America. Every year, the MSA sponsors a sinister campaign of lies against Israel called “Israel Apartheid Week” in which the group falsely accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing that the MSA compares to the Holocaust. MSA members disparage Israel’s security fence as unfairly impacting Arab-Palestinian transit, even though it was actually erected to prevent suicide bombers from killing Israelis and has successfully reduced attacks against Jews by over 90%. In addition, as part of their campaign to destroy Israel, the MSA calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the Jewish state.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), like the MSA, is active on U.S. university campuses and is also affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood’s partner Hamas. In addition, the ISM has ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. ISM operatives, who receive funding from the MSA, have even admitted to helping these terrorist groups. Although it bills itself as “non-violent,” ISM members are engaged in both violent and non-violent activities, including acting as human shields for terrorist groups and interfering with Israel’s counterterrorism efforts, and endeavors to indoctrinate students against Israel.
OTI touts its mission to expand dialogue and diversity to gain a nuanced perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet OTI architects sought to accomplish their true goal of undermining support for the Jewish state by surreptitiously introducing students to representatives from the ISM, Hamas and other anti-Israel groups who falsely presented themselves as peace-loving victims of Israel aggression. Students met with terrorism supporters, representatives of Muslim Brotherhood organizations and advocates of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, including ISM co-founder George S. Rishwami, twice-arrested Hamas official Aziz Dweik, Palestinian Legislative Council member and Holocaust denier Hanan Ashwari, Al Mubadara co-founder Mustafa Barghouti, Fatah leader Nabeel Shaath, Palestinian Intifada organizer Sari Nusseibeh, Al-Awda director Mazin Qumsiyeh, Hezbollah supporter Ibrahim Sarsur and others. Student participants on OTI trips visit the grave of lifelong terrorist and former president of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, whose primary goal was the destruction of the state of Israel.
One of the OTI tour guides was a young woman who led a tour for the anti-Israel NGO Sabeel prior to signing on as the Israel office director of a Jewish advocacy group. Sabeel promotes its anti-Israel agenda in Protestant churches in America, supports a one-state solution in which Israel would cease to exist as a Jewish state and advances BDS objectives against Israel.
Jewish Support for Olive Tree
Under the subterfuge of “interfaith outreach” and “fair and balanced dialogue,” several American Jewish organizations have supported the OTI and been complicit in exposing students to blood libels about Israel and sanitized view of terrorism as “resistance operations.” The powerful Orange County branch of the Jewish Federation – one of the largest Jewish organizations in the world whose top priorities include “strengthening of Jewish communities in Israel and around the world” – and Hillel, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, have supported OTI financially and logistically since its inception. Both groups, supported by Jewish philanthropy, enthusiastically promote OTI and recruit students for tours, despite being fully apprised of OTI’s subversive nature and intention to undermine the Jewish state.
With their active sponsorship of the Olive Tree Initiative, both the Jewish Federation and Hillel have indirectly abetted challenges to Israel’s security by consorting with groups that are actively involved in attacks against the Jewish state. These groups have engaged in such activities as BDS, the flotilla movement and the upcoming March on Jerusalem, expected to bring one million people to march along Israel’s borders to end “apartheid and ethnic cleansing” and to demand freedom for “Palestine and its capital Jerusalem.” At least two OTI speakers, Qumsiyeh and Rishwami, are involved in planning this latest assault on Israel’s legitimacy.
Despite horrific examples of subterfuge against Israel and the fact that the program is successful in its efforts to indoctrinate American students, the Jewish Federation and Hillel remain steadfast in their support for OTI. Even the despicable actions of MK (Member of Knesset) Ibrahim Sarsur have not dissuaded them from sponsoring and promoting the program. Sarsur was among those with whom OTI participants met during OTI’s 2010 Middle East trip. However, in June of 2011, Sarsur – an Israeli Arab who claims loyalty to Israel while calling for its annihilation and comparing Israelis to Nazis when addressing the Muslim world – was videotaped praising Hezbollah, calling for the terrorist group to destroy Israel, and advocating for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate centered in Jerusalem.
Remarkably, when asked to sign a petition to withdraw funding from groups that endorse BDS and to do so as a pledge in remembrance of the Fogel family massacred by Arab-Palestinians in Itamar in March 2011, the Jewish Federation of Orange County declined. The organization along with Hillel maintain that they are contributing to interfaith understanding by endorsing OTI. They welcome the opportunity to partner with universities to recruit students for OTI trips so that they can “hear the other side and dialogue.” This despite lectures featuring such canards as Israel is a Nazi-like apartheid state that is stealing land and water and torturing and massacring Arab-Palestinians that indoctrinate students against the Jewish state.
We have come full circle with the problem of Jewish self-hatred when the new antisemitism targets the Jewish homeland instead of Jews themselves as a primary source of conflict and injustice in the world and seeks to delegitimize its very existence, while ignoring actual genocides and occupations in Egypt, Syria, Cyprus and North Korea. This obvious double standard when it comes to Israel is, in fact, a not-so-stealth manifestation of antisemitism. Jewish organizations that fail to recognize the subterfuge and elect to serve as partners in the indoctrination of American youth against the Jewish state are actually hastening their own demise. They are engaging in a partnership with their own enemies to promulgate false narratives that excuse genocide and encourage a second Holocaust.
Excellent and irrefutable article, but it is fails to differentiate between Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Judaism. This article refers almost solely to Reform Jews (JINOs-Jews In Name Only),but rather than “self-hating”, they are simple deluded or brainwashed Liberals.
Every organization now has ties to every other organization now. Think 6 degrees of Planned Parenthood. Cutting away opportunities to have one’s say is always going to hurt in the long run.
Please put this moronic idea of Jewish self-hatred to rest: there is no such thing. What actually does exist is the reality that people, all people, are sometimes stupid or timid enough to be startled into compliance if they do something reasonable but which makes someone else angry and offended.
The recent dust up of the Koran burning is an example of this. Some people simply think that where there’s smoke there’s fire and don’t allow themselves the luxury of having “stupid” or “wrong” in their vocabulary when it comes to other people. Political correctness is a classic example of this as is cultural relativism. When it comes to the West Bank many people simply figure “Well, there must be SOME wrong being done there of those Palestinian Arabs wouldn’t be so angry for so many years.”
You can also apply this to the history of the United States so many feminists, gays and minorities despise. It is not a case of self-loathing but being bullied into questioning one’s own values by yelling or perhaps their own ignorance of their own history. Again, someone gets up and starts bitching and there will inevitably be many who’ll say “Let’s listen” no matter how stupid the bitch is.
It is not “collarboration” is the true sense of the term that is causing white liberals to help America commit cultural and demographic suicide by handing it over to the Third World but an ignorant and misplaced sense of compassion and of America’s own history.
In almost every single instance where someone conspicuously favors the Palestinian Arabs or over represents Jim Crow in America one can find factual errors. The fact is that black folks cry “lynching” and no one bothers to learn the true and small numbers compared to wholesale and racially motivated gang murders today and when Palestinian Arabs cry “Nakba” or “murder” the facts and the actual worse murders of Kurds and Syrians is simply ignored.
The key word here is “context” and not “self-hatred” since it implies Jews hate themselves even in full possession of facts presented fairly.
When it comes to the Muslim Brotherhood logical and reasonable people, who tend to project that logic and reason onto others, have a hard time understanding an entire group of people can simply be one-sided morons. The MB is in fact rather startling in this regard; there are few analogues to this type of stubborn idiocy in America outside the KKK. However just read MB inspiration Sayd Qutb’s essay on his visit to America to see true idiocy and all becomes clear.
There is no cure for stupidity and ignorance and naivete have their own problems; I see no reason to put those on a couch and say they need therapy. Lastly, when it comes to Jews either here or in Israel, the fact they are NOT such one-sided morons and at least display the capacity for self-criticism and looking at both sides of an argument is to be cherished not put in “kapo” land.
Respectfully disagree with you on this. Self-hatred is exactly what’s going on, but this should be understood as a manifestation of the schizotypal personality disorder.
The Jewish Establishment nurtures this schizotypal disorder.
http://zioncon.blogspot.com/2012/01/jew-flu.html
This blogspot you cited, Yerushalami, is incredible and I sincerely thank you for the reference: Zioncon.blogspot.com. On the other hand, there is no mention of a Schizotypal Disorder in the Haaretz article so I think on this score you have misled us. While Jewish self-hatred may appear to be a variant of a personality disorder as defined by the DSM, I think it`s a farfetched idea. For one thing, it may well be reversible. Right now I am contemplating Norman Finkelstein, Marxist historian and one whose diatribes against the state of Israel have allowed him some fame. Now that he has denounced the BDS Movement as a `cult`, will the socalled `liberal`left anti-Zionist factions now begin to separate themselves, perhaps denounce him for his òffences`(telling the truth). And will Finkelstein, like Goldstone, begin to shift allegiances, recognizing that he was, and is, a Jew, always was, and there is nothing he can really do to change that one core fact. Just speculating…
My apologies for not adding a few words to distinguish my personal-experience observation from the Jew Flu article.
There ought to be enough information available in the public record for an objective assessment of the self-destructive behavior being discussed here. There’s a persistent pattern stretching over many generations.
Would be helpful if the cause of this behavior could be identified, not just the consequences that many of us have witnessed or experienced (or even manifested at one time or another).
You cannot put tens of thousands of people today and in history on a couch and make facile and arrogant diagnosis of this type, you just can’t do it. The perpetuation of negative Jewish myths throughout history does not cause Jews to unwittingly and predictably feel compassion for murderous racists that amounts to a psychosis. There is no such thing as mind reading.
“Please put this moronic idea of Jewish self-hatred to rest: there is no such thing.”
I take it you’re not Jewish (I am), and I assume you’ve never had any Jewish friends. or maybe you’ve just never spent any time on a college campus. and clearly you’ve never read the New York Times.
you happpen to be dead wrong about this. the self-hating Jew is a stereotype because he is so prevalent. and these days we have the likes of Norman Finkelstein, Roger Cohen, and Tommy Friedman to remind us what he looks like.
wake up and smell the kasha, buddy.
The Oslo Accords were not a fruit of delusional thinking about Arafat or the Palestinians, but rather of a cynical calculation. Arafat and his cronies were known to be thoroughly corrupt and self-serving. The perquisites of actual rule over a quasi-state would be much greater than what they had as leaders of a mere exile body – and would be greatest in conditions of peace and cooperation with Israel. There would be far more wealth to steal, and personal security to enjoy it in.
The expectation was that Arafat and his crew would prefer those perquisites to continued fighting, and would therefore keep the peace.
But Arafat preferred continued violence – perhaps imagining he could get even more, or believing that by covertly fomenting extreme anti-Israel violence, he could continue to pose as the “good cop”.
As for Gaza – was Ariel Sharon a deluded, self-hating Jew? Or did he simpoly decide that maintaining a small Jewish colony among the hostile hordes of Gaza was not worthwhile?
Ariel Sharon was an opportunist who started his career on the Left, then swung Right as the Israeli Left lost its patriotism.
The withdrawal from Gaza was the result of a full-court press in which Leftists barricaded in Israel’s media and judiciary pressured Sharon to implement their favored policies.
The same banana-republic pressure was brought to bear on Bibi during his first tenure, and on Olmert.
Since the Oslo accords blew up, Israelis have been trying desperately to elect a center-right government, and been having their democratic wishes flouted and hamstrung by Lefties embedded in the courts and media…. currently Ehud Barak’s presence in the coalition has allowed him to stymie popular, pragmatic policies regarding East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The Jewish Federation and Hillel actively aid and abet global jihad. They betray every Jew and every non-Muslim. All non-Muslims are targeted in Islam’s 1,400 year war against infidels.
How can anyone ever forget the shocking betrayal of presenting Israel with her “peace” partner, global Muslim terrorist, Egyptian Arafat, who had more Jewish blood on his hands than anyone since Hitler. Arafat and his equally barbaric PLO committed satanic atrocities and mass murders of Lebanon’s Christians. Instead of bringing these savage killers to justice, the PLO murderers were REWARDED for their evil deeds. They were given control of Jewish land, mega money and heavily armed. Arafat and his PLO did EXACTLY as was expected of them: severely persecuted the Arab Christians who were placed against their will under brutal PLO occupation and waged jihad against Israel’s Jews.
How far and how low the leaders of Western civilization have fallen when barbaric Muslim terrorists are respected, admired and given land and heavily financed and armed to make war against Jewish innocents.
Western leaders, who are fully aware of Muslim genocidal plans against Israel’s Jews, PRETEND to be sorry for the Holocaust, and at the same time, ruthlessly demand vulnerable little Israel, surrender half her land to cruel enemies bent on a Second Holocaust.
I also don’t believe this tendency derives from self-loathing. I think it wells up from a part of the deep, Jewish intellectual nature – that everyone can be reasoned with. Anyone.
If you notice, this tendency among Jews is mostly restricted to the US (and a few other highly developed, affluent, Western nations), where clearly they haven’t learned the lessons of the past, namely Nazi Germany. One wonders how many of the Jews of 1936 Germany kept disbelieving what they saw and heard…because they all felt, ultimately, they could talk reasonably to Hitler and his ilk.
By the time they’d figured out that yes, some people, some groups, cannot ever be reasoned with, it was too late, and the gas chambers awaited them.
The idea that Jews are more reasonable than other people and therefore over project reason onto others is its own laughable racist comment.
Ah. So a fairly insular and culturally unique people don’t develop their own equally unique beliefs and tendencies. I see.
So how do you identify someone who is Cambodian, with all of their uniqueness? Brand them on the forehead? Since, obviously in your skewed view, they can’t possibly have actual identifiable traits. Lest I be Waaacist. Horrors.
You will, of course, let me know when you successfully pass logic 101, please.
Excellent summary. My own condensation of this “break bread with the annihilationists” phenomenon after many years of headshaking has been “Israel has no greater enemy than the secular Jew”, but perhaps should be expanded slightly to “…secular Western Liberal Jew”. But the main point is, perhaps this is no more than the modern version of Jews doing whatever it takes publicly to fit in with the dominant surrounding European gentiles in order to be “allowed” to maintain their traditions in private. This worked pretty well in most countries most of the time, but of course the Governemnt always knew where Jews were if a convenient scapegoat were required. Getting into bed with Islamofascist gropus like Hamas and the MB is, hwever, a step over the precipice.
OTI was in Israel several months ago and I spoke with several of the bewildered youth who were in the group. They were a confused bunch of sarcastic brats who know absolutely nothing about Israel’s legal rights, the history of Islam, or the plans that Islam has for eliminating Israel and dominating the world. That The Federation is supporting this disinformation campaign is no surprise. They’re nothing but the Judenrat, leading Jews to the cattle cars, just as they did in the 1930s. I don’t know what to do about any of this, but suggest that Jews stop funding Federation activities and start sending money directly to Jews who live in Yeduah and the Shomron.
I stopped giving to Hillel and the local Federation several years ago, specifically over this kind of nonsense. Whether it’s DC’s JCC putting on the anti-Semitic play “Seven Jewish Children” (followed of course by a “discussion”), Rachel Corrie’s mother being hosted at San Francisco’s “Jewish” Film Festival, the NY Federation hosting “progressive” critics of Israel under their big tent, the Orange County Federation funding OTI, or the ADL obsessing over “Christian” anti-Semitism while ignoring that from the Arab and Islamic sector, it’s clear that much of the Jewish establishment in the US is dangerously clueless.
A very good description and short analysis of the phenomenon of the “self-loathing” Jew syndrome, Janet, particularly your reference to the abused child identifying with the abuser. I also appreciate Ian Cook’s reference to the impact of the secular Jew against him/herself. I have been studying this phenomenon for some time and I would like to add my own thoughts to it:
In the first place, it is not unnatural for an ethnic or racial group to produce people who are ashamed of and/or despise themselves. In the case of Blacks in the USA, this phenomenon was quite natural, in fact, until Blacks took it upon themselves to take pride in themselves and to teach their associates and children to hold themselves (as Blacks) with pride. The same phenomenon can be found amongst the Native people of North America. The Plains Indians in Canada became a despised, humiliated and feared minority, their culture and aspirations nearly erased until such a time, about one generation ago, when elders and activists arose who could see through the phantasmagoria produced by the White society-at-large and residential schools in particular and explain in language their people could comprehend what had actually occurred to them. In addition, a rejeuvination of Native culture and cultural activities has taken place so that Native people can once again take pride in themselves as they once did before the coming of the White man. It’s no accident that self-hating Natives were referred to as “apples”, red on the outside and white within.
The same set of factors which occurred to the Blacks in the USA and Native Indians in North America has also occurred to the Jewish people only for a much much longer time. And, as Iain has suggested, this self-hatred takes place amongst secular Jews as opposed to religious ones. Religious Jews and Zionists (Jews with a purpose)hold onto their Judaism as a core value. On the other hand, those without core values are more apt to loathe their own kind. From a psychological perspective, the àbused child`syndrome can explain a good deal. Another explanation may be found in an expansion of the Stockholm Syndrome in which the captive overidentifies with the punisher in hopes that he will be treated well, allowed to exist and, perhaps, even be accepted. One method of achieving such a status is to despise one`s own kind even more than the dominating punisher does. In this case, the `punisher`is the non-Jewish society which refuses to accept the Jew. By hating oneself sufficiently and by becoming one with those who despise him, the Jewish self-hater hopes to become a part of the society which formerly refused to accept him. A study of the concentration camp Kapos would be useful here. In the end, of course, once these Kapos had served their useful purposes, they were discarded, done away with and exterminated.
The Jewish self-hater is different in kind from Blacks who have despised themselves or the Native Americans who learned to loathe their own selves because the Jew has had to face the challenges of being a minority in alien societies for a much longer time period so that the Stockholm Syndrome appears to be actually imprinted upon his very psyche. Some people may even attribute this characteristic as an indelible part of the Jewish landscape it is so profound. In addition, Jewish self-hatred is practiced by some of the most intelligent, gifted and obsessively compulsive people that societies have to offer. Furthermore, the destruction to the Jewish people caused by these self-haters is enormous in nature and exceedingly threatening. Our very survival as a nation (Israel) and as a people (Jewish) is put at tremendous risk by the influence and constant haranguing of these people both in the private and, particularly, public domain. I would go one step further and suggest that such individuals represent our (Jews) gravest threat.
The poet, Heinrich Heine, was not a self-hating Jew. He converted to Protestantism in order to better himself. At the end of his life, he admitted that this conversion did him little or no good and that he remained the pitiful Jew he always was. Neither was the great physician and psychologist, Alfred Adler, who converted to Protestantism on reaching the USA in order to gain admittance to the American society. The point is, neither Adler nor Heine ever castigated themselves with regard to their Jewishness. Real self-haters include people like Noam Chomsky (linguist), Illan Pappe (historian), Richard Falk (UN) and Jerrold Cohen (poster) whose jeremiads and actions against the state of Israel are so consistent, so irrational and so intense as to preclude any mollifying or rational understanding other than the fact that Israel stands for the Jewishness they so deplore. Much like the Kapos of yesterday, however, they may come to realize that public hatred of their own kind, no matter what colour varnish they put on it, is simply the externalization of their own self-hatred and that, in the end, non-Jewish society will never ever extend their arms and fully accept them anyway. In fact, some, like Richard Goldstone (judge), upon changing his opinion (Operation Cast Lead in Gaza) and admitting that he had been wrong re his judgements against Israel, has been duly excoriated by the selfsame people who were formerly enraptured by him. As noted, this trail of events relate to the status of the aforementioned Kapo.
The weakness in my approach is quite simple: I have no actual case studies upon which to draw. A genuine psychological analysis would require that. While I may expand my thesis, the drawback of having no indepth actual case study to draw upon remains.
Saying everyone who disagrees with you suffers from some disease is very convenient. It sure as hell saves on debate miles. Yeah, hey look, they’re kapos suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. They don’t know what they’re saying. Let’s feel compassion for them while laughing at them and hating them for not having our ability to withstand such shock and exhibit our own nice examples of discernment. Later after the next Holocaust we’ll take them in after they apologize for not being more like us and learn there is only right and right.
I really can’t think of anything more arrogant or self-serving.
Actually, “Fail”, what is more “self-serving” is your distortion of what you read and perhaps do not clearly understand as well as the arrogance of your stance in refusing to really entertain an opinion other than your own. I’m sure all the Kapos will be delighted by your own “diagnosis”, however, given that your explanation for their murderous behaviour can now be put down to some kind of stress related disease, according to you. How do you explain the evidence that many, most Jews, refused to become Kapos? Of course, it didn’t occur to you that the term “Kapo” also had a symbolic meaning. Your obvious hostility, incidentally, permeating this forum, indicates that opinions other than your own will not be reasonably discussed.
I read the article: it says the same thing – people who disagree with you are sick in their minds. I know exactly what “kapo” means. I’m saying you’re wrong and this article you think so smart isn’t about academics but cheap psychology. At least I’m not saying you’re wrong cuz you’re nuts. Not much debate left after that silly proposition.
By the way, “Fail”, did you even bother to review the (excellent) reference cited by Yerushalmi? No, I guess you’re too busy putting down perspectives other than your own to inquire and inform yourself.
Your insults show you have no rebuttal. You simply assume an analogue to your cherished disease theory: I’m ignorant, I don’t get this, I don’t understand that. At least I put my opinions into a form with thoughts other than about your assumed failings.
No, “Fail”, you fail to bring a reasoned approach to a critical line of thought. I thought you might but it’s obvious that with all the cheap shots you’ve taken that you are not capable or just incapable. The problem with people like you on a forum like this, a forum full of informed and thoughtful people, is that you bring absolutely no new information to the table and you distract rather than add.
Saying a Jew hates themselves merely because they think differently than you is the height of ignorance. Who are you to decide what is “right” thinking?
Mr. Burton, you have run right into one of the paradoxes of human existence. Your theme seems to be covered by the quote, “Saying everyone who disagrees with you suffers from some disease is very convenient.”
Disease has antecedents that are not easily detected and sequelae that are not properly attributed to the disease. Self-hatred is a symptom and like every theoretical construct, it avoids definitive definition. Would you know self-hatred if you fell over it. Geez, I wonder how I would have reacted to the hope of survival if I were given the opportunity to become a Kapo. Sitting at the computer, I “know” I would grab the nearest rock and pummel the first Nazi to cross my family’s path. But truth be told, I have no idea how I would react in the clinches.
Back to your point. When people like Pape or Chomsky take unassailable positions, that says more about internal mechanisms than the reality of the matter. When information is excluded from consideration in formulating ideas, it speaks to cognitive limitations, even if those cognitive limitations take the form of sophisticated (literally sophist) arguments. The attempt to construct meaning from your observations is the cognitive limitation I am referring to. Let me refer you to Daniel Kahaneman’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow” for a popular, but rather dense treatment of human heuristics and biases.
I think the slaughter of the Fogel parents and children in their beds in Itamar represents a true challenge to the mental frailties of people who ignore, justify, or even praise the act. The failure to empathize with innocent victims or seeing dead babies in political terms is a reflection of imperfect human ideational processes. We are all imperfect, some more than others. If lack of empathy gets really bad, we call it disease, whether that lack of empathy is turned on your own or focused on “the other.”
The OTI phenomenon falls exactly into the lack of empathy pathology. One side is presented to the exclusion of the other side. Even when, on occasion, both sides are presented, the failure to engage in the parsing of those ideas results in confusion and leaves humans open to “nudging.”
In summary, I would suggest to you a simple exercise. Acquire a copy of the Talmud tractate “Bava Metziah” and master the first page. It should take you about six months of irregular effort. The page deals with the following conundrum: “Two people [come before a court] holding a coat. This one says it is mine and the other says it is mine.” This is the first page of Talmud presented to ten-year olds in Yeshiva. They may take as long as a year to master the first page, if ever.
Thanks Dad: I’ll see if my ignorant monkey-brain can wrap itself around the subtle fact that everyone who disagrees with me is a retarded mental case. Since that would make you one I hope the pages you recommend to me aren’t on the level of “Every thing I say is a lie” or “Tall is the new short” or that kind of “Deep Thought.”
We are at a stage in the process of ( Geulah ) Redemption when the ingathering of the exiles is picking up speed. The Shoah was the last opportunity for Humankind to redeem itself. Humankind failed miserably. Throughout Jewish history we have suffered from either grinding oppression or spiritually debilitating affluence. That is still true today.
That part of Humanity, busy with evil acts, is playing a role in the ultimate Redemption even though they are unaware. Ultimately Jews will become less welcome in the USA. Only that discomfort will cause them to return to Israel.
And that , sadly, will signal a new dark age in America.
I pray that I am wrong however the writing is on the wall.
Menachem – the problem is American Jews, not American gentiles!!!
This religious Jew sees the emergence of America as part of G-d’s plan for redemption – a world power based not on ethnic pride, but on deeply Jewish ideas about individual worth, free will, universal brotherhood, and a responsible communion that balances justice and mercy.
I see America – and to some extent, the Anglosphere – as the flowering of Jewish seeds planted long ago in in the West.
And most definitely part of the redemption.
Our prophets tell us that the righteous of the nations will gather around faithful Jews and Israel… Scholars like Maimonides describe Christianity’s positive role in spreading G-d’s truth to the nations.
This is happening before our eyes in America.
Ben David, From a historical point of view you are absolutely correct. Unfortunately the USA has elected a President who is intent on throwing away these blessings and rebuilding ( therefor first destroying ) the country we both love and rebuilding it in his own image. I pray he does not succeed.
Oh look, PJM’s resident fanatic and bigot thinks humanity has failed the Jews because we’re just not as cool or righteous or whatever other moronic superiority syndrome allows such a man to delight at Japanese dying in their thousands because they weren’t 100% on board with Israeli policies. And then there were those G———-d sent tornadoes that punished Americans in Missouri for some other superstitious weirdness.
Redeem this.
Once again, “Fail”, you fail to comprehend what Menachem is writing due to your obvious hostility. He is not a fanatic unless you call all torah interpreters “fanatic”. He expresses an opinion based on torah; it’s that simple. He does it with sureness, not arrogance. You snipe at him as you do at others, using this forum as a target for your generalized anger. You could add to the discussion if you were to clarify, objectify and deal with the proceedings with less of a chip on your shoulder, much less. Why don’t you try it?
Do you need a direct link to him gloating over those Japanese and American deaths at PJM?
If a Catholic crowed here about Jews dying was just an example getting their just desserts cuz of some weird Catholic dogma would you defend that? Obviously not. You’re hopeless prejudiced and can’t even see it.
I’m hostile to bigots; so what? I’m frickin’ proud of it. Do you take pride in defending them when they’re Jewish and pillorying them when they’re not? That’s a fifth grade intellect talking.
He’s not writing in response to me: I could link dozens of his crazy comments that have nothing to do with me. How much more to you want me to objectify than saying what’s good for the gander is good for the goose? Is that an impenetrable Gordian Knot for you? Consider what you fail to comprehend and leave the thinking to me.
No “gloating”, “Fail” but sorrow. You are so angry that you cannot think straight. It shows.
No, “Fail”, no “gloating” but sorrow. You appear to lack something fundamental which would allow you to pick up on essentials. Of course, as with any personality disordered creature, you are not cognizant.
What is it with you and this nonsense about “anger” and “hostility”; is that supposed to comprise some kind of debate?
Robert, Thank you for rising to my defense. I ignore such posters based upon some 800 year old advice from one of the greatest minds of all time, Maimonides. I offer it to you as you also will benefit. Thank you again. MBY
” I seek no victory. For the honor of my soul and character consists in deviating from the paths of fools, but not in
conquering them. “
thanks, Menachem. Good advice. I think I’ll become more cognizant. We, Jews, have the advantage of thousands of years of learning to draw upon and I don’t think I’ve normally taken advantage of what I really possess.
Why bother conquering them when you have mysterious beings who live behind the stars murdering them for you with tornadoes and tsunamis?
Sometimes I think you 2 guys pose as Jews to make them look as prejudiced and stupid as possible. If I’d never heard of Maimonides I’d bet 19 million dollars based on your bigotry that says wisdom is only where you officially want it to be based on religion and ethnicity and so Maimonides was Jewish. Sadly, I’d be 19 million dollars richer.
Menachem: Would it be possible to correspond with you privately? I will be back in Israel in April. If interested, my email address is: haymond@islandnet.com. In the meantime, “Fail” just had to respond and, thanks in part to you, I can see how utterly empty his responses really are and what he writes was never worth responding to.
That’s because your “wisdom” consists of believing a non-Jew is a bigot and a Jew a self-hating and ignorant, useful idiot according to whatever gov’t policy Israel has on any given day. Since Israel’s leaders have adopted different stances over the decades that means I go from bigot if I disagreed with staying in Gaza to non-bigot in 2005 and will go back to bigot if Israel decides to re-occupy Gaza. With that ethnocentric moving goal post determined by fewer people than live in Greater Chicago how could it not be wisdom?
But that’s okay pal, leave the driving to us and maybe someday I’ll read the monkey people’s Bill of Rights to you out loud and explain things like the “greater good” and why monkey people had to go to sophisticated Europe in our straw hats and corn cob pipes to straighten out ye olde wise people and yer dumb old world feuds based on some debauched fairy tale.
As a part-time teacher at UC Irvine for the past 14 years, I can state that Levy is correct about OTI. It is a fig leaf designed to sway students to the Palestinian narrative. At least 3 Jewish students have come back and joined Students for Justice in Palestine on at least two UC campuses.
It is hardly surprising that the OC Jewish Federation would support and fund OTI through their financial arm, the Rose Project. For years, they have denied the problem of anti-Semitism at UCI because they are in bed with the university and don’t want prospective Jewish students scared away from UCI-which is happening anyway due to the bad reputation that the MSU has given the campus. It was the Oren event when the MSU disrupted the Israeli ambassador’s speech that woke up the community that there really was a problem at UCI. Still the Federation continues to plug ahead with this misguided venture. On wonders just what the real motivation is.
God forbid one of these kids gets killed on an OTI trip to the treacherous West Bank someday. Watch the lawsuits fly.
Gary Fouse
Adj teacher
UCI-Ext
“Remarkably, when asked to sign a petition to withdraw funding from groups that endorse BDS and to do so as a pledge in remembrance of the Fogel family massacred by Arab-Palestinians in Itamar in March 2011, the Jewish Federation of Orange County declined. The organization along with Hillel maintain that they are contributing to interfaith understanding by endorsing OTI”
“Jewish organizations that fail to recognize the subterfuge and elect to serve as partners in the indoctrination of American youth against the Jewish state are actually hastening their own demise”
I think you are missing an important point. These groups are NOT hastening their own demise. Rather, they are keeping the money flowing to prevent the demise of their own individual paychecks. I saw the OTI in a local United Methodist church here. My impression was that it was an entity that had died long ago and even smelled to high heaven of mold.
It takes lots of money to fund a church. This particular one had a little preschool; the purpose of which I initially assumed was to pay the rent and pastor’s salary, since as far as I could tell, the preschool teachers were under orders to make sure the children were NOT exposed to Jesus or the 10 Commandments. Sounded like they put on a really great “Spring Fling” though. No way could a small school, plus a tiny, not-really-believing congregation pay so much overhead (thus the mold smell). After reading this article I suppose it is as much about paying the rent and pastor’s salary as it is the fact that if you want to brainwash, why not start them out young, eh? More bang for the buck.
No, rather than hastening their own demise, I suspect endorsing the MB, ooops, I mean the OTI keeps a steady source of revenue in the bank account. Just as souls are saved one at a time, they are sold one at a time. It’s not peculiar to Jews, it’s the human condition.
That said, I want to thank you for helping to understand what it is that causes secular Jews to act as they do. “This maladaptive response to antisemitism has been compared to the psychodynamics of abused children who blame themselves for their predicament and harbor fantasies of appeasing their tormentors, thus ending their torment with “good” behavior. Chronic besiegement also often results in an emotional and moral identification with the aggressor even to the extent of collaboration.” Best explanation ever! I’m saving this article!
Ms Janet Levy is confusing different behaviour at different places which are engaged for different motives.In OC , I understand thee is a good number of Pseudo-jews ( JINO ) who are deeply ignorant of the mideast, who are unaware of the double speech of the arabs, who never heard the words takkyia, muruna, etc.. Those pseudo-jews, are maybe self-loathing, but I guess they are merely ignorant, and willing to adopt the arab narrative just out of inertia because some local rabbi or community big shot says OC jews should behave nicely and should try to understand the motives of the arab anger at Israel. This is a very common attitude among semi-educated people who think of themselvrs bearer of superior values just because they have a good paycheck. Let’s call those people liberal, ignorant, weak , but self-hating is a little overblown. They do belong to what Lenin called the ” useful idiots ” who like Kerensky paved the way of power for the bolcheviks.
In Israel, the ” useful idiots ” comes from a different breed. A part of the ” peace now ” activists were army officers, kibbutznik who fought wars, and perceived that the israeli presence in Judea-samaria was a burden rather than an asset. Another part came from the weakened labour party who lost election to the right and to the national-religious camp in 1977. They thought they could retake power by forgeting their patriotic link with the Israel history and restore their former luster by delivering a somewhat illusory peace deal. My opinion is that most of the adept of this illusory peace deal were actively hiding their feeling of telling and spreading a lie, deep under the clamor of their new faith in peace . They were somewhat spreading a lie because they knew deep under that there was really no one to deliver such a peace deal on the arab side. in fact they went through a wishful thinking process: They pretended that Arafat was ready for peace in the same way as Sadate signed peace with israel. They insisted on that confusion, the ” peace now ” movement received tons of money from the american jewish ” useful idiots “, the medias sang the same iddylliac tune for years, the CIA managed to prop up the ” peace now ” in something larger and fianlly the end of the cold war provided the ” historic window ” of opportunity where the israeli left felt it had an open road to see that their wishful thinking would turn into reality. The USA government seized the moment and convoked Yitzhak Shamir to the Madrid conference, and gave him a very harsh time and a very strict ultimatum: The USA would guaranty the 10 B $ loans necessary for Israel to integrate a million of russian jewish immigrants in exchange for Israel to follow the ” Land-for-peace ” framework . Shamir didn’ t budged but he was ejected from power in Israel and the left of Peres-Rabin stepped in ; it was 1992, Peres-Rabin organized the Oslo agreements as a tentative way to engage the arab-palestinian into a position that would compel the arab-palestinian to behave as a responsible partner. That was the deepest psychological mistake the israeli left made , but it made it as a kind of bet, based on an inductive thought and not on a deductive conclusion. So I would not qualify Peres-Rabin as a bunch of ” self-hating ” jews, but rather as a group of useful idiots. Of course the ” land-for-peace ” process has always worked to the exclusive benefit of arafat and his gang , but that was thanks to the enormous pressure upon israel poured by the USA and Europe.
So the painful question is rather why the israeli left never recognized that it made an historic mistake ? I think it has to do with a complex of superiority- completely unjustified – rooted in the history of the left who still think of itself as the only legitimate zionist group , even if since 1993 ( Oslo agreements ) their bet has been nullified by the arab-palestinian terrorism. Now Ariel Sharon repeated himself the terrible mistake of the left, evacuated a small but essential part of the gaza strip ( facing the egypt border ), and also allowed the hamas to take part in the palestinian election.I think Sharon knew he was making a mistake but felt compelled to do so because of the huge pressure from G:W:Bush.So in the 19 years since the oslo process has been agreed we HAVE SEEN A CONTINUOUS DETERIORATION OF ISRAEL STATUS.IT HAS MORE TO DO WITH POLITICAL MISTAKES AND LITTLE TO DO WITH SELF-HATE.I would rather ask Ms Levy if she feel she is in a justified position to criticize in such an overblown way a few million israelis who for their large majority have served in the army, payed all their life high taxes , and have made political mistakes mainly in good faith because they lacked the historical-political education necessary to avoid them.
On the specific subject of self-hating jews, I can state as afrech jew that they are a fringe group, quite marginal since the collapse of the soviet union, and if since some of them have surfaced again into the ecologist movement very few of them have openly sided with the arab camp. Here in Europe we had the sad privilege of nazism, communism, and since the last 30 years a muslim invasion , so we have experienced at close range what means to face your enemy.Maybe one day the american jews will have passed through that kind of experience ( god forbid ) and heir political maturity will be improved as a result ?
Thank you et merci, Philippe, for your interesting, intelligent and informative analysis. Very few forums other than some in Pajamasmedia are actually worth the time and energy it takes to read the contents.
That’s because few people believe that Jews who don’t agree with other Jews suffer from a mental disorder. Keep in mind this means by your own logic that you yourself cannot disagree upon pain of being diagnosed as insane from afar by total strangers albeit Jewish ones which is scant consolation I imagine. I imagine that after the next Israeli elections the definition of sanity itself will undergo a wholesale revision in someone’s household. One can only hope there will be no important policy changes (read definition of sanity) coming from the Israeli parliament.
to favor and to support genocidal maniacs implacably bent upon exterminating you.
Well tahnk you for the kudos, but here in Europe jews do behave differently from the american jews; history has left its mark ( shoah, WW II, ) we know quite well how to discern double-speakers , we are just facing the muslim side of the mediterranean sea, and israel is only a 4 hours flight away.
Communist russia disappeared 20 years ago , and some of its followers were jews , now this category of useful idiots is dwindling, but the anti-israel propaganda is still very heavy.In France, antisemitism is legally
banned by law, but the medias are so overtly anti-israel that the antisemitic consequences (verbal abuse, violent assault, arson, even murders of jews ) by french-arab hoodlums are very frequent.A single number translates the situation : 20,000 jewish pupils are studying in catholic day school in France to avoid being bullied by french-arab pupils. Out of 65 millions citizens, the guess is that 10 millions are french of arab background.
One explanation, certainly not a justification of the phenomena you can’t get a grip on is that the Jews in the leadership positions that are responsible for these terrible decisions have standard liberal reactions (even though they deny they are liberal).
First, they believe that their motives (“dialog”) are so pure and noble that anyone who opposes them must be bad or have bad motives (“splitting the community”).
Despite ALL the dispostive evidence that has been revealed about OTI, they continue to fund it and allow their Jewish Federation’s name to be used by OTI as a sponsoring organization. This applies to the extreme difficulty of abandoning a cherished belief. (Just as liberals everywhere defend the abysmal state of the economy and unconstitutional assumption of powers by equivications, minimizations, and hiding of the facts.)
As others have written, Liberalism has replaced Judaism as their religion. The Federation, aside from the OTI fiasco, has steadfastly refused to sign a simple pledge that they will not knowingly support any anti-Israel entity or any entity that encourages boycotts, divestments, or sanctions against Israel. ANY ordinary Jew would sign that immediately without equivication yet they will not go on record publically to support Israel.
I’ve given this problem a lot of thought over the years and have dismissed profits, aggrandizement, or other motives as simply not applying to the individuals I know in the Jewish organization leadership. They believe they are in the right (because of their motives) and anyone who disagrees is either uninformed or is incomprehensibly intent on splitting the community.
Another element is that the professionals in the Jewish organizations are defending their terrible records over the years because their salaries, which I estimate in the 6 digit range, are at stake. NOBODY in the opposition to their positions or strategies stand to make a dime from our efforts. In fact, some who can’t stomach or fathom what and why they do such things, do so at considerable risk to their livelihoods.
Thanks so much for writing this article on the phenomena of Jewish self-hatred as it applies to the Orange County Jewish Federation and the Olive Tree Initiative.
“Another element is that the professionals in the Jewish organizations are defending their terrible records over the years because their salaries, which I estimate in the 6 digit range, are at stake. NOBODY in the opposition to their positions or strategies stand to make a dime from our efforts. In fact, some who can’t stomach or fathom what and why they do such things, do so at considerable risk to their livelihoods.”
The “community organization” aspect of this discussion should not be overlooked as it could well be the driving force. The many faces of “interfaith outreach” are an extension of the discussion of OTI. Follow the money circle of these organizations and I suspect you will find that much more of this has to do with self-love than it has to do with self-hate. A six figure salary can buy a lot of self-love.
It’s an excellent article. But what would it do? What would 100 excellent articles do? What would a law suit (and there have been attempts to fight this with law suits) do?
The officials at OCT and OC Jewish Federation are laughing at us.
Nothing works. The mechanisms that protected lives of Jews in America for over 200 years are falling down. The future is getting darker and darker.
The fact that many Jewish organizations themselves are de-facto Jew-hating gives me no comfort.
When nothing lawful works, how long can we be patient? Are we waiting for the American Ilan Halimi to be tortured to death?
The utter deafening silence over the atrocities in Syria by the organized political Left and the many Jewish ultra-Liberal voices expressing criticism over every Israeli misstep is profund. The lack of tears shed for the thousands of civilians murdered in Syria is due to the fact that they have all been shed in vain (crocodile tears) for Israel’s failure to reach some absurdly unrealistic and idealistic notion of self-proclaimed tikkun olam. The very fact that Bashar’s father (Hafez) did exactly the same thing to more than twice the number now slaughtered in the very same cities of Homs, Hama, and Aleppo 20 years ago without the presence of any international reporter or UN condemnation or whimper in international forums (foreign reporters were banned for more than ten years from enetering any of these towns) only proves thatthe Left is willfully deaf, dumb and blind .