Slicing and Dicing the Israeli Salami
Writing in the Jerusalem Post on June 19, columnist Sarah Honig deconstructs the Arab and Palestinian design for defeating Israel via a policy of “salami-slicing.” Unable to destroy Israel in one fell swoop, Honing writes:
[T]hey settled on slicing Israel’s salami bit by bit to deprive it of strategic depth, render it more vulnerable to predations and erode it by demonization and demoralization.
Every concession that Israel makes to its Palestinian pseudo-negotiating counterpart, without the slightest reciprocation, is just another slice of territory, another fragment of legitimacy, lost to its enemies. Honig points out that the term was coined by Hungary’s communist dictator Mátyás Rákosi, who in the 1940s pursued the policy of szalámitaktika — salami tactics — to gradually dismember the opposition parties.
The salami tactic has a long history in the Middle East and was employed with consummate effect by terrorist kingpin and Fatah leader Yasser Arafat, in particular by manipulating the Oslo Accords to his advantage. In an Arabic-language message broadcast on Jordanian TV on September 13, 1993, Arafat revealed that the Oslo DOP (Declaration of Principles) was, in the words of Efraim Karsh, “merely part of the implementation of the PLO’s ‘phased strategy.’” Palestinian Authority Minister Faisal Husseini, in an interview with the Egyptian daily Al-Arabi on June 24, 2001, referred to the Oslo Accords as a “Trojan Horse” and a “temporary procedure” in the larger “strategic” plan to destroy Israel.
Arafat’s purpose was again confirmed by Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Al Quds newspaper, who told the Jerusalem Post on November 20, 2004, that Arafat, intent on pursuing his program of “slices,” had assured him that “the day will come when you will see thousands of Jews fleeing Palestine. … The Oslo Accords will help bring this about.”
The Palestinian dictator in his recipe of “slices” or “plan of phases” was following Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba’s advice that Israel could not be erased in a frontal attack but only by bits and pieces, a plan which echoed the sermonizing of Mohammed Heikal, editor of the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram, who, writing on February 25, 1971, scolded the Arabs for putting the final step before the intermediate one, that is, for aiming at “the elimination of the state of Israel itself” before effacing the traces of the Israeli military victories. Adapting method to circumstance, Arafat, a blood relative of the infamous Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, merely updated the policy of Muftism into the present day under the rubric of his “phased solution.” “Nothing but the sword,” swore al-Husseini, “will decide the future of this country.” Only now, the Palestinian sword, having morphed into the less conspicuous shafra or jambiya, would no longer be wielded to kill with a single thrust but by gradual and tortuous disarticulation.
The bitter joke in this spurious dynamic is that the salami tactic, used so effectively by the Palestinians, has been imputed to Israel as part of its presumed agenda to dissect the West Bank into easily controllable slivers.
Alastair Crooke, formerly a special adviser to EU envoy Javier Solana and founder of the Conflicts Forum, writing in the London Review of Books, blithely accepts the accusation that Israel has “salami-sliced” the West Bank with its “army posts, military zones, fences and Israeli-only roads” — the familiar anti-checkpoint argument that pretends there is no such creature as a Palestinian suicide bomber on his way to butcher as many Israeli civilians as he can possibly take with him.
What would all those Middle Eastern despots do without Israel?It should be in their long term interest to have a State they can rail against.
They will just pick their next target. So many enemies, so little time.
Brazil makes a deal with Iran and The Almighty offers His Judgement-
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/06/22/brazil.floods/index.html
You are not far off. Consider 10,000 incoming missiles over the years and 50 casualties? 50? It is a miracle a day or more in Israel. Hashem is protecting them despite the idolatrous secular government. I am not a Jeremiah, nor are we fortunate enough to have one with us at this time, but the elected leaders should read more of the import of Jeremiah’s prophecy because it is not merely relevant to the time of Nebudchadnezzar.
It’s not a miracel, it’s not Hashem.
It’s good alerts and bomb shelters for the populace.
That’s why so few deaths.
Not long ago, even American President’s who were uneasy with Israel had both the decency and the fairness to support Israel when the Jewish State was brutally and unjustly attacked, Jimmy Carter of course being the most obvious exception.
Now Israel has to contend with an American President Barack Obama who openly expresses his antipathy and hostility towards Israel and the Jewish People, and even encourages others in the International Community to do likewise.
At the same time Israel must do all in her power not to let this President poison the largely positive and friendly relationship Israel enjoys with the American people. Thus Israel has made diplomatic and security concessions which are at odds with the Jewish State’s needs in order not to give Obama even more ammunition to attack and delegitimize Israel.
There is an old Jewish joke which was alleged to have come from Nazi Germany.
In it one old German Jew tells another alte kocker that his Rabbi told him that Hitler y”s will die on a Jewish Holiday. Plainly happy to hear this wonderful piece of information, the other Jew excitedly asks his friend exactly which Jewish Holiday it will be. The other fellow tells him, of course, any day that Hitler y”s dies will be a Jewish Holiday!
A lot of us Jews are starting to feel the same way about Obama.
Send a copy of this article to Netanyahu – he evidently hasn’t figured this out yet.
moslems can get really really bad attacks from this salami. it could kill them.
a) one could also suggest that Habib Bourguiba’s approach was a form of the salami tactic. In March 1965, he delivered a speech in Jericho advocating peace between Arabs and Israelis based on the UN 1947 Resolution that proposed two states (but at the 1947 borders – ridiculous from a security view) but also required Israel to accept U.N. Resolutions 194 (repatriation of the 1948 Palestinian refugees – ridiculous from a demographic angle). In 1973 prior to the Yom Kippur war, he repeated his call for a “just and lasting peace,” citing Israel’s right “not to be exterminated and thrown into the sea.” But in 1973, as in 1967, he sent a military force to fight. He nevertheless gave refuge to the terrorist PLO following its expulsion from Lebanon.
b) I think the various partition plans of 1923, 1937, 1939 and 1947 also were salami-slice tactics
regarding your description of your article, Mr. Solway– “devouring a nation one slice at a time”– THIS, TOO, IS PROGRESSIVISM.
This is what they do. It is of a piece with all the ‘progress’ they are making here in the USA.
Devouring, indeed.
My instant reaction, too! In the U.S., I view it as a ratcheting: one step forward, NO steps back, toward ending the American to which immigrants from all other countries flock.
The world’s now-flaunted anti-semitism is beyond my comprehension and defies all logic.
Polly: The “world,” being largely secular and immersed in moral relativism, cannot abide a people whose existence reminds them daily that there IS a transcendent moral order, that all their rationalizations and justifications for amoral living (man is the measure) ring hollow in the face of objective truth. This is, IMHO, the chief reason for anti-
Semitism; is has very little to do with race and everything to do with bad consciences.
Well, at least there’s some logic there.
That is most definitely true. It is also supported by the fact that many anti-Semites in the world, especially in Europe, have Jewish blood flowing in their veins and often look ‘Semitic’ (which is a linguistic term in any case). They don’t hesitate to hate Jews and Judaism. You can also look at someone like Castro – this is originally a Sephardic Jewish name. Almost certainly his family converted to Catholicism in Spain, eventually producing a left-fascist who hates Israel and Jews, as does his friend Chavez in Venezuela.
Larry, if you are in “The Silicon” you can probably do this math: Assume any reasonable number for the population of Jews in Europe, say in the year 1000. Say there are 25 years to a generation. That makes 40 generations to the year 2000. Assume that during this time, each family has about 3 children, neglecting all other factors (slaughters, conversion…) one finds that the original population would have increased about 10 million-fold. Have I underestimated the effects of persecution? Then call it 1 million-fold. If there were a mere 1000 Jews originally, they should have increased to 1 billion. Where are they? They are intermixed with the descendants of all the other Europeans. In other words, it is practically mathematically certain that every person alive today of European descent has multiple Jewish ancestors.
Darcy,
I’m afraid the secular, morally relativistic world is giving way even as we watch to a genuinely bad, purposefully evil world. Wiping out Jews isn’t just a rejection of moral objectivity in favor of weaker standards, it’s an act of monstrous human destruction, an act against the (largely) innocent, to which much of the world appears to be happily signing on. Jews are no more perfect than any other group. But they are no worse, in spite of bilious propaganda to the contrary.
I wish it was only moral relativism. But antisemitism is worse than that. It’s vile, sickening, mindless hatred, of the kind that a religious fellow like myself cannot help but call pure, malevolent evil of the Satan-ish kind. These people, now in every country and a part of every society, do not want to wipe out Jews in order to free themselves to be libertines without a judge. They want to wipe out Jews because THEY HATE JEWS. And we know it is a short step to hate lots of other ‘different’ people, inevitably devolving to ‘anyone who opposes them’.
The secular left and radical Islam are in full partnership now. At some point in the future, when all of us have been dealt with, the two might battle each other for supremacy, as Shia and Sunni will battle in that world, as the Japanese and the Nazis might have battled for power after beating the Allies.
But first, us. And first among us, the Jews. But they’ll get to us all eventually.
I agree with you, dave in dallas. The God haters can’t take action against God directly so they do the next best thing, they go after his creatures, his creation, man — who was made in his image. Instruments of Satan, that’s all they are.
The” World Community ” believes in violent population transfer.
Helen Thomas and Hamas both want the Jews out of the Middle East.
Thomas wants the Jews transferred to Poland.
Hamas wants Jews transferred to the middle of the ocean.
Where there can be no tree to hide a Jew if he is chased by murderers.
They are proponents of violent transfer.
Thomas , with her , ” Get the hell out! ” and Hamas with their baby killing.
Different, to be sure, but the intent, identical.
That is true ethnic cleansing .
On the other hand non violent population transfer has been done before.
I am a proponent of non-violent population transfer.
In fact the very first High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations, Fridtjof Nansen , received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for ending a war that seemed intractable by using non violent population transfer..
” In 1919, he ( Nansen ) became president of the Norwegian Union for the League of Nations and at the Peace Conference in Paris was an influential lobbyist for the adoption of the League Covenant and for recognition of the rights of small nations. From 1920 until his death he was a delegate to the League from Norway. In June, 1921, the Council of the League appointed Nansen its first High Commissioner for Refugees. Stateless refugees recieved a ” Nansen Passport ” , a document of identification which was eventually recognized by fifty-two governments. In the nine-year life of this Office, Nansen ministered to hundreds of thousands of refugees – Russian,Turkish, Armenian, Assyrian, Assyro-Chaldean – utilizing the methods that were to become classic: custodial care, repatriation, rehabilitation, resettlement, emigration, integration. In 1922 at the request of the Greek government and with the approval of the League of Nations, Nansen tried to solve the problem of the Greek refugees who poured into their native land from their homes in Asia Minor after the Greek army had been defeated by the Turks. Nansen arranged an exchange of about 1,250,000 Greeks living on Turkish soil for about 500,000 Turks living in Greece, with appropriate indemnification and provisions for giving them the opportunity for a new start in life.” Nobel Prize Website
IN 1922 FRIDTJOF NANSEN WAS AWARDED THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE .
” We all know from the history books of the exchange of Turks and Greeks, which took place after World War I when, after the war ended, there was a further war between Greece and Turkey, at the end of which, the Greek and Turkish governments agreed on an exchange of populations. And as it appears in the history books, the Greek minority in Turkey was sent to Greece; the Turkish minority in Greece was sent to Turkey. That’s what it says in the history books. But if you look at the treaty in which this agreement was incorporated, it says something different. The parties to be exchanged are defined as Turkish subjects of the Greek Orthodox faith and Greek subjects of the Muslim faith. And if you look more closely at who the people actually were, they were, to a very large extent, Turkish-speaking Orthodox Christians from Turkey and Greek-speaking Muslims from Greece. This was not an exchange of two ethnic minorities. It was a deportation of two religious minorities. ”
Prof. Bernard Lewis, April. 27, 2006 interview, Pew Forum
Ninety-nine and one-half percent of the middle east is muslim. There are enormous swathes of empty land throughout the Arab world. A fraction of the money spent on war would build one thousand Beverly Hills’ for refugees who wanted to move. There are people all over the world looking for better homes and opportunities. Are the Palestinians all of the same mind? No single Palestinian wants a new villa, a new school for his children, and the money to start a bakery?
There is plenty of money for flagship properties in London. Boutique hotels for the privileged instead of cities for the Palestinians?
What if some Palestinians wishes to remain where they are in Israel ? They can. Their reason would be their business. No need to justify or argue. You want to stay? Stay
Where people wish to remain they should be able to do so as citizens of Jordan, which already controls seventy-seven percent of territorial Palestine. If Jordan wishes to change its name to Palestine, as the late King Hussein Ibn Talal suggested, that is its right.
Perhaps there are other countries that would allow applications for citizenship. I don’t know.
Muslims all over the world are on the move. Only the Palestinians stay put?
Hamas wants the Palestinians in Gaza to stay put. They are its hostage.
That is why true humanitarian relief for Gaza would be getting the people out, not the concrete in.
That concrete will bury every hope for freedom in Gaza.
We stand by while Israel is being sliced to pieces and we also turn a blind eye while Lebanon is taken over by Hezbollah. I wish Obama and his minions would crack open a history book every now and then and see that if you don’t stop despots, dictators, and religious fanatics from destroying democracies, there isn’t going to be a happy ending in that part of the world. American policy towards Israel under Obama has been shameful, and the sooner he gets voted out of office and we actually get somebody who knows what they’re doing back into office, the better off that part of the world will be.
Obama & his minions DID “crack open a history book”. Unfortunately, it was a US-published school text book & there was nothing in there about despots, dictators & religious fanatics.
As usual, Mr. Solway, you make your point so very well. Thank you for your insights.
excellent essay David.
Israel should stop dealing with all belligerents until THEY make MEANINGFUL concessions. (I KNOW they will not) and why such a large portion of the world cannot see what is so obvious leads me to think humanity is in for a dark period.
I live in Israel, and feel the slicing first-hand. Arabs don’t want to negotiate, they just pretend. They want it all, as follows from your excellent string of examples.
However, Israel’s problem is global one. After they devour us, they will continue to you. American isolationism just doesn’t work. It’s the same little planet and the dictators’ appetites are ever growing (e.g., Pearl Harbor).
The problem lies in the totalitarian – and authoritarian – nature of governments ruling over Arabs. The tyrants and demagogues need an external enemy to make their desperate, poor citizens forget their plight, and the real reasons for their filthy, dire existence. Russia, Romania, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afganistan – the same story again and again. It especially infuriates them that despite all their perceived might and numbers – they cannot defeat Israel. Thus, it’s very hard to hide their ineptitude even from the information-deprived populace.
Without free trade, there will be no significant middle class in the Middle East. Without thousands – or, better, millions – decently earning men and woman, who value their freedoms and comfort, there will be no non-fanatic rulers. Without democratic and moderate leaders, there will be no compromises, and the endless feud will continue.
The only quick solution is the atomic bomb. Japanese learned their lesson well, and saw from the first row that their Emperor is no God, and their nation is not better than others. But if the West wants to spare their lives – it must find a way to bring wide economic prosperity into these lands.
How to do it – I don’t know. We must find the answer together.
Sometimes I wonder if Israel pulled a King Saul by failing to expel all the Palestinians after the 6 Day War.
Expulsion is the only policy that will truly secure Israel’s borders, but it will require a King David, a true warrior of God, to have the heart to protect his people.
It should have been done. Instead, Israel swallowed the snake. Literally unable to retreat from the West Bank despite her many efforts to do so, Israel can not regurgitate the snake – hostile Arab Muslim population – by withdrawal, and is warned of her destruction by her ‘friends’ if she does it forcibly.
In the end, she will have to face down her so-called friends, who are her biggest threat.
Despite the wishes of many on this website and others, it is the United States that has backed Arab claims for decades, effectively negotiated on behalf of the Arabs, and has used the UN veto as a ‘rescue’ tool to 1) prove her loyalty to Israel and 2) threaten to abandon the veto in order to bludgeon Israel.
Israel’s friends are self-belief, Hashem, and those nations with true common interests. Israel has more common interests with India than with a United States whose elites are provably in bed with the Arabs, Muslims and OPEC.
Let’s be frank, only the willfully deluded, or, those who are operating with less than a full deck, don’t understand what the international community-also known as the (in)human peace brigades-have planned for Israel.A plan, which if Israel accedes to, will be lethal to her health.
In both words and deeds, the PA Arabs-both Fatah & Hamas-have told Israel what they want-ALL of the Jewish homeland.In fact, EVERY leader, EVERY media outlet, EVERY mosque, EVERY educational center prepares the population for the destruction of Israel, AKA, the ‘Zionist entity’.Meanwhile, ALL their terror against Israel is excused, pandered to and rewarded by ‘gestures/concessions’.
So, the urgent question becomes-why are western leaders-with Washington at the lead-behaving like see no evil, hear no evil appeasers? The reasons are varied from country to country, but certain features are very prominent.
Despite the fact that tiny Israel has contributed more to humanity than even most western nations, including ALL the Arab nations combined (see, Start Up Nation for references)Israel is still a pariah. Why?
The Muslims hold the world hostage to oil, they are deathly afraid of Muslim terror, and many leaders are overt/covert anti-semites.The combination of these elements are fueling the onslaught against the only Jewish homeland, a homeland which is rooted longer in history than ANY other nation.Nevertheless, Israel is termed as a ‘colonial upstart’(despite its thousands more years of Jewish history and settlement than the real upstart, colonial powers).
At the end of this death dance either Israel will survive or it will not.The real question is-will Israel’s leaders cease their pandering to the west in time to save the nation, instead, placing fear, abject fear,in the minds of any nation which dares to threaten to destroy her?
Explaining why Israel is ‘legitimate’ is whistling past the graveyard. It is high time that our leaders take a page out of the Muslim/Arab playbook-NOTHING is negotiable, NOTHING is for sale when it comes to ANY part of our homeland,and the Oslo Peace/Death process is over.Case closed.
I confess that since my mind tends to be logical, I am totally unable to understand the blatant hatred much of the world displays, openly and often, toward Israel. As for Barack Obama, I can only assume it is his Muslim upbringing that has led him to do an about face on his election campaign promise to America’s Jews, that he would always support Israel. Why he is now willing to forgo the support and the votes of American Jews, I do not know; perhaps he does not intend to run for president again or maybe he assumes he can make the Jews (as well as the rest of us) for get all that he has done in his first year and a half as president.
But it is my understanding that the main reason Israel cannot just thumb their nose at America is that Israel receives monetary support as well as military equipment from the U.S., without which they are in even more jeopardy. Am I incorrect about this?
Obama’s behavior toward Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu is shameful; I would like nothing better than to see the prime minister tell Obama to take a hike. (Well, maybe I’d enjoy it even more if American Jews publicly disavowed Obama and refused to support him–or his Democrats–financially or with their votes in the future. American Jews’ steadfast support of the Democrat party, another phenomenon I cannot comprehend.) But he can’t do it if in so doing he would be hurting Israel.
Plus I would hate to have NO friends in the Middle East!
Polly, the bulk of the military aid to Israel is a ‘gift’ to US defense contractors. Few know of the true terms of this arrangement, others who do NEVER mention it.
The fact of the matter is that ALL of the military aid has to be poured back into the US defense industry, of which MANY US jobs are created, and the US also gets to use most of the Israeli technology developed for their hardware.MANY US jets use Israeli software which has saved inumerable American lives.
Israel has its own defense industry which suffers because they do not get a slice of this US aid to develop our hardware.Israel agrees to this because they also know that they need more hardware than Israel can produce quickly enough.In effect, they have made a deal with the devil to get this done.Eqypt, on the other hand, a most hostile US ‘friend’ receives almost the same amount of aid WITHOUT strings attached.
There are other issues involved, but this is the gist of the sordid saga.Washington has been pulling Israel’s strings for years.The Arabs do whatever the hell they want & no one says BOO.
Thanks for further elucidation; I need all I can get.
It appears that Israel does not have the vast stores of oil that might encourage us to extend the hand of friendship, no strings attached.
On the other hand, Egypt isn’t known as an oil-rich country, either–is it? Perhaps our aid to Egypt is merely “protection money”? Perhaps Barack doesn’t worry about Israel attacking us or training and sending suicide bombers to the U.S.? Again I confess, I don’t know enough about the Middle East.
if you only get one side of the story …which is all most get. coupled with progressive and liberal education it is not as surprising as it is to those of us who are informed about both sides of this issue.
after x years of indoctrination it is difficult to impossible to be open minded or even a critical thinker. ….who wants to admit that they have been living in a lie for 20 plus years ….
” I confess that since my mind tends to be logical, I am totally unable to understand the blatant hatred much of the world displays, openly and often, toward Israel. ”
Almost 2,000 years of christian preaching Jew hatred and 1,500 years of islamic preaching Jew hatred and you wonder where it comes from?
Dear Polly,
Re: “Well, maybe I’d enjoy it even more if American Jews publicly disavowed Obama and refused to support him–or his Democrats–financially or with their votes in the future. American Jews’ steadfast support of the Democrat party, another phenomenon I cannot comprehend.”
I’d enjoy it, too. If only there were a group called American Jews. While I am an American Jew, I didn’t vote for Obama. I’m an independent conservative, leaning toward Republican Party when they are not too progressive.
The problem with humans is that you get hated and punished as part of the group no matter what you, personally, believe and do. Anything our American government does to facilitate group identity, other than AMERICAN, creates discord and ethnic tension. Identity is a private matter, not something that should be counted and compared.
Since our elite is hell bent on setting groups against each other, they will eventually reap what they sow. God help us.
Well, at least it’ll be Kosher salami, right? Hebrew International?
I said a few years ago, that Israel needs to not only build a fence between itself and the Islamists, it needs to announce a policy that every time there is a terrorist attack against Israle, or rocket is launched into Israel, that this wall will be moved a few feet into current Islamist territory.
‘Never appeal to a man’s better nature; He may not have one.
Appeal to his self-interest instead; This gives you more leverage.’
– R. A. Heinlein
Israel can cope with its enemies; It is the ‘friends’ in Europe
and the US who need to be reminded that they have much to gain,
and even more to lose, by failing to support Israel.
I have been saying for years that if the Western press would present this story responsibly, the trouble would be over within a year. The simple fact is that successful propaganda operations tend to encourage those who wage them. All military and terrorist attacks against Israel, all “peace” initiatives, all public speeches by Arabs representing the refugees from the 1948 War are intended to undermine political support for Israel.
One might almost view it as a perceptual “containment” operation, in which the naked facts never make it to a wider audience. In the Cold War we sought to contain Soviet political and military aggression. In this propaganda war, the aim is to prevent generalized clarity with respect to this issue from reaching a wider audience.
These people are refugees who continue to be refugees only because no Arab nation has the decency to take them in. For their part, they have historically made very poor citizens, even in Arab nations, and therefore can be counted on to wreak havoc were their ludicrous claimed “right of return” to ever be granted.
Moreover, the status quo is that of gangsters living well off the fat of public aid intended to help the very people the gangsters want to stay victimized.
If Reuters and the New York Times started telling the truth, the refugee children living in filth would have new homes in short order. This doesn’t serve the ideological purposes of those propaganda rags either, though, so they appear bent on perpetuating the suffering of these people forever, while claiming they are motivated by compassion. This is an egregious and evil lie.
The same process has started in the US and Obama is part of the deconstruction. Our nation is being forced to pander to its Islamic minority while keeping the border open to hordes of illegals. Each is bent on his slice of the American pie no matter what. The will of the American people is overlooked and discounted. Our will to fight for our existence is being destroyed by waves of leftist propaganda. Its not just Obama, he has many accomplices from left wing legislators to a corrupt media. Michael Jackson is dead all hale the new king. Instead of watching Michael dance, we can watch the new king dance around the issues.
It would be worth invoking the Fabian Socialist example as well. Founded in the late 1800′s, this group selected the turtle to symbolize the gradualistic nature of their aspirations–to be clear, global Communist domination–and the wolf in sheep’s clothing to symbolize their effort to cloak genuinely sadistic radicalism and power-mongering in the Queen’s English, and proper suits tailored in the proper places.
The website linked on my name offers a free book on the interaction of Keynes with the Fabians. It is a must read. The strategy is the same one the children of the refugees from the 1948 War are using.
The people who make me sickest are the ones who actually believe they are Pacifists, who go to exhibits of ‘pacifist’ art that consist mainly of 3rd World guerrillas in heroic stances holding machine guns, the people who are so tender-hearted that they will not let their kids play with toy guns, but who still make excuses for Hamas.
‘But, Mom! we’re playing Freedom Fighters vs Zionists!”
“Oh. Well, in that case, alright”
The fastest way to get people to abandon absurd demands is with ultimatums- not let’s make a deal, but this is the deal. If you break or refuse the deal, we will make things worse for you than they already are.
To Ed, above – well, don’t count on my math after all these years.
I agree, virtually all Europeans have Jewish blood. The theory of the ‘mixed multitudes’ leaving with Moshe and his followers out of Egypt – I imagine you know that. It is the other side of things. Today, in the US, Europe and in Israel we see some of the most diligent ‘anti-Zionists’ being literally Jewish. Only a shame that they don’t have the self-awareness to understand why they do what they do, and just ‘leave’ the tribe in peace.
I had a famous Professor, Halkin, who was visiting from Jerusalem in my senior year at Berkeley. His estimate then was that there would be 100 million Bnei Yisrael in the world if not for anti-Semitism and willful assimilation. The leftist Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua, now a ‘pensioner’, claimed that even in Biblical days many Jews ‘opted out’ willingly.
I am afraid we are don’t want to face some of the realities of human nature.
My bad for the errors of English.
WHile it may be true that even in biblical days, many Jews ‘opted out’ willingly. On the other hand, how many identifiable groups from 2000 years ago are still identifiable. How about 5000 years ago?
Where are the Persians?
Where are the Medes?
Where are the Macedonians?
The Jews have outlasted them all, many without even the benefit of a homeland.
Do you wonder at that interesting fact MarkThe Great or do you have some sort of explanation? I have been studying that all of my life and still cannot even make an internet post about it. Not even a decent sermon.
How many groups? How much history? Yet the Jews still are the Jews.
In the world at large Jews are still way out of proportion in terms of numbers, attention or accomplishment. Thieves, famous criminals, science, medicine. technology, politics, media, art… name it. The “chosen people”. Heh.
Let someone else be “chosen” for a change. I would just like a nice retirement by the lake with the grandchildren visiting, OK just grand-dogs now but the next generation of the family looks good. I have confidence in them. Nice American family working hard and maybe I can rest a bit when the time comes.
I think you have more to say MarkThe Great. Just say it.
Spin
The Jerusalem Post has a few good columnists – but I do not see Sarah Honig among them.
She tends to focus on history but somehow she just chooses those facts that suit her story and that’s rather problematic. Anyway, Israelis and Palestinians have much in common: Both people are Semites. Their languages, especially the written one, are similar and difficult(at least for me). Both people detest pork. Their religions are so similar, because at least 60 per cent of Islam is either of Jewish or Christian origin. The rest are rules of conduct and these rules cause most problems because they focus on the time Mohammed lived – and those times have been rather violent and not so hygienic(That is why the instructions for washing made some sense). Islam is not worse than any other religion, it only needs a reform to adapt it to the 21st century.
“Islam is not worse than any other religion, it only needs a reform to adapt it to the 21st century.”
Just one reform?
Not sure what you have been reading, Marianne; probably government issued text books.
I am about as Kosher as a pork chop, but what seems to be happening utterly appals me.
This whole “Semite” thing is very murky and is ultimately used as a weapon against just one group, the Jews, specifically the Israeli ones.
Through the usual “creative” manufacture of “history”, Arabs claim an Avrahamic origin through Yishmael, who was only the forefather of some tribes that intermarried with many other peoples that were already settled in Arabia much earlier than him and within which the Ishmaelite lineage was largely assimilated. Therefore, the equation Arab = Ishmaelite = Semite is a myth, because Ishmael was not an Arab, nor the forefather of all Arabs.
Actually, his descent contributed to the formation of the peoples that came to be known as Arabs some centuries later. Connected with the alleged Ishmaelite identification, the Semitic identity is taken for granted, yet, this is also a half-truth because the Arabian ethnicity and culture arose from an original Kushite stock that was subsequently assimilated by the Semitic tribes that came after them, and even the Ishmaelites were a mixed group with a strong Hamitic component
The written and spoken languages are not “similar” (well they may be to you). Hebrew is a very ancient language and one of the earlier of the written texts. Arabic is a comparatively recent invention, especially in its written form. Even the name “Arab” found no earlier than 500BC, and then in Hebrew and Greek documents. There is no archaeological evidence of “Arabic” writing before the 6th C BC.
Indeed, the term “Arabia” is Greek, as well as Egypt, Syria, Libya, etc. and its probable etymology may be of Semitic origin: 1) ‘arabah = steppe, wilderness; 2) ‘ereb = mixture of peoples. Both terms are appropriate to them. Wherever Arabs have conquered, the lands became deserted; the Arabian peninsula itself was not so dry, and Yemen had an irrigation network that allowed the land to be fruitful before Northern Arabs invaded and subdued the Sabean kingdom. Spain and Sicily were fertile lands in Roman times; they became dry during the Arab occupation.
Islam “borrowed” heavily from religions extant at the time of the mysterious mohammed: “Syncretic” would be altogether too generous a term. It is also the ultimate proselytizing religion: Covert or die / become a slave. I can’t find too many similarities in the Bible or Talmud.
The Koran is basically strategic and tactical doctrine dressed up with borrowed philosophies and extremely bizarre social constraints. You may not be aware that before Islam, the arabs and their Kushite kin in Africa were ruled by queens and in fact, lived in a matriarchal society. This extended to women playing an important role in military activities. Thus the social system of pre-islamic “arabia” was Hamitic, not Semitic.
In pre-islamic society, Arabians had a matrilineal succession, the husband entered the wife’s clan and lived in her home, and it was generally the woman who decided to divorce. Women were free to choose their partner, and often married younger men. It was also usual that clans had female names, and there are some hints that suggest that even polyandry was practised – a custom not found among Semites but within some peoples in India and other regions of Asia. Also their religion had the same character, as the worship of the goddesses, the “daughters of Allah” (name of a pre-Islamic moon-god) prevailed over that of the male idols. Islam set out to to reverse all the Arabians’ culture.
It’s not only the deranged Muslims Israel must cope with, it is also the European ‘intelligentsia’ who stir the pot of hatred in the capitols of Europe. Home on holiday several years ago I witnessed a mob heading toward the Israeli Embassy in Dublin. Looking at this lot led me to think they couldn’t find their shoes as they didn’t look like the usual suspects. Later on in several article and one TV interview I discovered most of them were of the rent-a-mob variety, hired for the day by the local lefties to try and humiliate Israel. In my homeland, we have nothing to be proud of when it comes to Israel, and even less after the revolting spectacle of the ‘peace’ flotilla and the subsequent removal of a low level diplomat from the Israeli embassy over the alleged passport caper. I use the word alleged, because that was the word minister Michael Martin used when describing his intention of tossing this diplomat out. No proof of course, but we condemn you regardless, so get out. Through the years we allowed people from the Muslim world to enter our country and sure enough, they dragged their cultural and religious problems with them, mostly refusing all the while to respect my country’s way of life. This I lay at the feet of the Multi-Cult politically correct leftist drones who waffle on at the drop of a hat on the evils of Israel, but in the meantime, couldn’t possibly find that tiny country on a map, and who never but never read the history of that nation. I worry for the future of Israel, I fear for her every time the US president opens his mouth as he seems hell bent on chopping her to bits, and never will I understand why Netanyahu accepts such shabby treatment from a man who has no interest in seeing the State of Israel flourish. Thank you for this article and good luck to you.
With every day, it requires a more blatantt anti-Semitism to see Israel as somehow the troublemaker. Fortunately, anti-Semites are as imaginative and creative as ever.
As Helen Thomas (“You are not supposed to say that out loud, Helen!”) has demonstrated, the real objection to Israel is that it continues to exist, despite the ever-growing unanimity of elite opinion that this is not a good thing.
In the context of the Iranian G (for genocide) Bomb, the thickness of any particular slice of the salami may soon become irrelevant. The 12th Mahdi “moderates” appear to be planning to barbecue the whole salami at once.
The West’s (and now, to our shame, America’s) tepid response is Iran’s greatest encouragement.
In a (slightly) different context, Churchill once wrote that England’s time of weakness is Europe’s time of peril. Substitute America and the world for England and Europe, and consider.