And so, my esteemed colleagues, Melanie Phillips and Caroline B. Glick, have both concluded that organized American Jewry, including AIPAC, do not have the spine to back Israel as President Obama tries to “throw Israel under the bus.” (Phillips has just informed me that, in a subsequent article, she acknowledges that AIPAC’S presentation was more “nuanced” than she’d originally been led to believe).
Glick reminds us–we, (that’s the royal “we”), need no reminding that AIPAC behaved shamefully in the matter of the persecution of Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman. May I congratulate Dr. Daniel Pipes for having hired Steven J. Rosen long before he and Keith Weissman were both exonerated . Their exoneration should lead to the exoneration and release of Larry Franklin as well.
I wonder what will lead to Jonathan Pollard’s pardon and release? The Coming of the Messiah? Not even then?
By the way: My friend and esteemed colleague, Dr. Barry Rubin, begs to differ. He does not think that the Obama administration’s policy is “so much ‘anti-Israel’ as it is anti-realistic.” Given the intransigence and low-risk tolerance of most Arab states, Rubin doubts that they will risk anything in return for peace with Israel. He predicts that Obama will soon discover that even his charm and hard work are no match for Middle East (non-teleprompter) realities, especially in a time of jihad.
On a wave length, Aayan Hirsi Ali has also just weighed in about the Islamification of Europe. She notes that a multi-cultural and progressive Europe has utterly caved in to Islamism, both in terms of Jews and women. She suggests that immigration must demand loyalty to one’s new country and way of life before loyalty to the Muslim “umma” (people, nation), and its way of life (jihad, taqquiya, gender and religious apartheid). Hirsi Ali doubts that most Muslim immigrants in Europe can be trusted to choose Europe or the ways of the West first, last, or ever.
Aaron Klein, World Net Daily’s reporter in Jerusalem, has written a very important book with the heart-stopping and very sober title: The Late Great State of Israel. Klein emphasizes that Israel is in profound, existential danger, not only from without, but also from within. The book is not pessimistic; it is realistic and we avoid its information and analysis at our peril.
In Klein’s view, Israel faces grave danger from Iran, the Arab League, Palestinian terrorist groups, the United Nations, the European Union, the American government, the anti-Israel grassroots international community, the global media and Academy—and, if that were not enough, from Israeli leaders as well. The same kind of appeasement which has led to the Islamification of Europe is hard at work in Israel and at the highest levels of government. (Stay tuned for an interview with Klein later this month).
As I sit here, contemplating the continuing disasters—the daily suicide bombings in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the rising civilian death toll, the advance of hate and intolerance across the globe—I wearily wonder: Is it too late to turn things around?
Just then, a colleague called my attention to the first liberalization of the mental health laws in Egypt in sixty years. The article, just released by the BBC, describes the treatment of both alleged and real psychiatric patients as similar to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the West.
Egyptians view “mental illness” as shameful, stigmatizing. Husbands dump unwanted wives in loony bins where, in one case, the woman has been confined for 22 years, not because she is mentally ill, but because she no longer has a home and her siblings do not want her. Now, Egyptian psychiatrists are mandated to review cases more quickly and to turn to community- rather than asylum-based remedies.
Thus, from a psychological and educational point of view, great Egypt is 100-150 years behind the West. (I know, I know, ex-psychiatric patients in the West also have good reason to continue to criticize mental health care here but not because people are institutionalized for the rest of their lives. Au contraire.)
Saudi Arabia, the West Bank and Gaza, Iran, Afghanistan and large parts of Pakistan trail the West by anywhere from seven to ten centuries. We are fighting the Past, but this time, the Past is utilizing the weapons of the Future, Ghenghis Khan has nuclear weapons, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah terrorists communicate via computer and cellphone.
Freud would put it this way: As ever, Eros (the life instinct) is battling Thanatos, (the death instinct), chaos is struggling to engulf civilization, the past-repressed threatens to overwhelm present-consciousness. The outcome of this struggle depends on the sacrifices that each of us are willing to make—and yet, lest hubris misguide us, both history and life are, nevertheless, essentially tragic.
Thus Spake Herr Docktor Freud, another brilliant Jew who was forced to flee his Nazified Viennese homeland.
Tunisia manages to keep out the radicals by banning the full veil. The West should do this and prosecute polygamists. Send the extra wives back to their families and stop the outrageous birth rate.
Right on, Dr Bukk. Years ago Donna Hughes wrote a great essay; ‘Defeating the Women Haters” wherein she suggested using women’s rights to protect our self and our culture from Islamism. Of course, our government today is tone deaf to the global women’s struggle.
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/47336,opinion,its-time-lily-livered-europe-stood-up-to-muslim-bigots-ayaan-hirsi-ali
from the Aayan Hirsi article Phyllis mentions above:
“…
it might, perhaps, just be better to respect the culture and religion of a minority.
Women’s shelters have adapted their curriculum – instead of teaching the women who come to them how to become self-reliant, the shelters facilitate prayer rooms and employ mediators from the Islamic community. All this mediation serves only one purpose – that is, to return the woman to the circumstances of abuse she left.
Here is a system, which was a tool to emancipate, that has been completely transformed to serve the Muslim purpose of obedience. If the wife obeys, then the husband no longer needs to beat her. The matter is settled. “
Is it too late to turn things around? I wish I knew what to do. One doesn’t know how to fight anti-Semitism because it makes no sense. We don’t know how to fight enemies who have no instinct for self-preservation and no clear motivation. Here are some thoughts of mine on the subject:
http://www.jochnowitz.net/Essays/AntiSemitism.html
Thanks Phyllis for the great piece.
1) Yes, it is almost too late, if not decisively too tale. It is a matter of wills, not of materiel, of war or other, as the West is well ahead on that, but on willpower the West is way behind.
2) That Partition of India: historians one day will finally describe how fateful it was for the whole world. Likewise, Sri Aurobindo’s last “word” is unspoken, as yet.
3) Israel is like a Petri dish where all the difficulties of the West are being played out and enacted for all to see.
4) In reality, it is Israel the one that has the key now. Unfortunately, Aaron Klein may be proven right in that the rot started inside Israel a while back, may now be too advanced. In spite of appearances, Tzipi Livni is better qualified for the times than Netanyahu, as Likud is weighed down by its fame and need to appear as an appeaser.
5) It seems that Netanyahu and Likud are bound for the big mistake, to believe that appeasement and caving to the Obama administration will at least buy Israel time, which it will not, on the contrary. This apparent “easy road” leads nowhere. In reality, Israel has now the ability, before it is too late, to force the hand of the Obama administration, and even to derail it altogether from its dangerous desires to approach and appease Syria and Iran, but for that it must attack Iran, and right away.
6) As for that brave woman, Ayan Hirsi, she is right, the Muslims in Europe are nor Europeans and will root for the Umma. That that did not happen in India in the 1999 Kargil conflict, for example, is because Muslim Indians are still 100% Indians that were converted, and not immigrants from another race. That’s why there is still hope that Pakis will one day comeback home. That would be the start of the undoing of forceful Jihad. For that you need around here the vision of a Sri Aurobindo, a Metternich or a Bismark.
Now put this one in your pipe and smoke it:
Were Israel to be physically destroyed, nuked to a cinder and all that (Heaven forbid) the USA could pull itself through.
However, were Israel to capitulate, that would imply that Western Civilzation itself
is fatally flawed and is doomed. And that includes Uncle Sam.
In other words, if we go out it will not be with a bang, it will be with a whimper. Courage, the kind of courage that comes from faith is our essential ingredient. Let it not be lacking!
Dear Ms. Chesler, As usual, you are only too spot on! Europe is sleeping its way to annihilation. I simply fail to comprehend the zombie-like lack of any mentality or thought, by almost everybody, as to what is going on in front of their eyes. When one attempts to instill into them some sense of awareness or urgency, one is blanked as though one is some sort of crank. “Ah, sure, it’ll be fine, it’ll be all OK”, is the token response. Any excuse, nay, any falshood, to attack the United States or Israel, or the United Kingdom for that matter, is given a patronising ear by the media. Any defence of those same countries, any sane essay on the reasons for American foreign policy, or Israel’s right to defend itself, is given short shrift.
Here in Ireland, the new God is multiculturalism. There is absolutely NO cognisance taken of the fact that one of those cultures repeatedly and constantly threatens that it WILL conquer the West and subject it to Shari’a Rule. Mention “silent jihad” and they look at you as though you have four heads. Mention Iran and nuclear weaponry and they say “why shouldn’t they have it – America and Israel have it”!!!!! Honestly! That’s the sort of brainless drivel I hear on the radio!!
What to do? Is it too late to turn the great lumbering ship around? Is it too late to give sight to the blind? A brain to the apparently brainless? We must ALWAYS hope. WE must ALWAYS pray. We must ALWAYS continue to try to instill some awareness of the impending colossal tragedy.
WE rely on people like YOU, Ms. Chesler. People like YOU and your gifted colleagues and fellow writers who unceasingly give of your time, knowledge and energy in order to do your utmost to educate the people. You must NEVER give up your efforts – and of course we know you won’t. With the grace of God, civilization will endure and will project itself into a better and brighter future. But first, we must rid the EVIL from our midst. May God Bless You, M’am. Eamonn, Dublin, Ireland.
“As ever, Eros (the life instinct) is battling Thanatos, (the death instinct) …. the past-repressed threatens to overwhelm present-consciousness. The outcome of this struggle depends on the sacrifices that each of us are willing to make—and yet, lest hubris misguide us, both history and life are, nevertheless, essentially tragic.”
That’s deep! (and kind of depressing)
Mr. Jochnowitz:
1. Thanks for the very interesting article. Please allow me a couple of comments.
2. I never thought of Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma) as anti-Semite, but not only you make a good case for it in your article, it also makes sense, at least of a prejudice in that regard, I will explain at the end.
3. I am one who thinks Gandhi did more bad than good to India. Harijan was a word he coined to refer to the Dalits and untouchables (Sanskrit Hari = God, Jan = Sons, sons of God), and the name of his main publication at that time. I did not know the specifics comments on Germany’s Jews, but was familiar with a couple of disastrous letters he addressed to Hitler and Mussolini, and very familiar, as I have used it before, with the open letter he addressed to the English people, quoting from it: “I want you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions. Let them take possession of your beautiful island with your many beautiful buildings… If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourself, man, woman and child to be slaughtered…I am telling His Excellency the Viceroy that my services are at the disposal of His Majesty’s government, should they consider them of any practical use in enhancing my appeal.” So, what else to say? For India to be whole again, they must review the role of Gandhi, but that is not the only review they must do.
4. Not only Hinduism has no tradition of hating Jews, actually India welcomed many Jews from the Diaspora, among other religious refugees. When you write: “Hinduism has no tradition of hating Jews; Gandhi must have picked it up from the Christian, European world of South Africa, where he had lived and worked with Jews.”, you must know that Gandhi was essentially and morally a Christian even though he considered himself a Hindu. His wrong approach to Ahimsa (non-violence) cannot be sustained nor has precedents under Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism), for starters he often did violence to his own body with prolonged fasts designed to impose his moral will on others. Although he admired the Bhagavad Gita, he could never understand it, specifically the injunction by Krishna to Arjuna to fight.
Dear Phyllis
Thanks again for taking the bull by the horns–and blowing the double shofar warning of what we must be afraid, very afraid of: first, the enemies who are at the gates and wish to annihilate us sooner than later (the moderates will wait a few years); and second, the enemies already within, both the fanatical preachers of Islamo-Fascism and the leftish self-haters who cannot wait for Dhimmitude to descend upon them.
If the is not much left we can do, at least we cannot any longer plead ignorance or innocence.
The cards are on the table.
The ball is in our court.
The time for politeness and political correctness is over.
We must say loud and clear, as you have, Phyllis: Here I stand!
Norman
MiamaMan,
Thank you.
The Brittish divided the mandate into two states. Jordan and Israel. Proof that the “two-state” scenario is no solution.
Could anyone please give me an example of any conquered land ever being returned? Clearly, tiny Israel is being chisled away.
Jew-hatred is such an entrenched concept that it is completely accepted. The only way to appease the arabs is to march into the sea. They are bleeding the US dry and buying it up as they go along. I am telling anyone who I can. We(Western Civilization)are in grave danger!
“…have both concluded that organized American Jewry, including AIPAC”
Numerous American-Jews persecuted their fellow Jews for daring to say that Franklin D. Roosevelt wasn’t doing enough during the Holocaust era. The same thing is happening once again. Barack Obama is an untouchable. Marty Peretz, for instance, apparently still defends him. I think we can take for granted that Obama is still supported by 70% of all American-Jews. Let’s face it, alas, some Jews are often their own worst enemy. They will crap all over a friend like Sarah Palin while bowing to a president who spent 20 years listening to the anti-Semitic sermons of his pastor.
Mr. Jochnowitz:
1) Continuing the comments on your interesting article and Gandhi (Mahatma), you were also correct that Gandhi, wrongly, tried to globalize his non-cooperation doctrine, as part of the Satyagraha movement, and thought it could be used anywhere.
2) This is a dangerous illusion, that produced his several naive letters to Hitler, Mussolini, and others. It was also instrumental in his failure to prevent the partition of India.
3) Non-cooperation as a political movement only works with enlightened government systems, as those created by the Anglo-Saxon race. As such it worked in India, and later was successfully used by Dr. King in the US. On contrast, it is a fact that Hitler had advised Lord Halifax in Berlin that the best way to solve their “Indian problem” was to intern Gandhi, Nehru, and other troublemakers in concentration camps and simply destroy them. With a Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, or a Castro, Gandhi would not have lasted a month.
4) Poor Gandhi must had died a broken man, for none of his pet projects were being finally tried or advanced under Nehru’s India. The Charka (spinning will) that he tried to impose on other members of the Indian Congress, was, of course, totally abandoned as impractical; his views on celibacy were being flaunted right and left, and India, instead of going back to the pastoral and bucolic existence he envisioned, was on a frantic socialistic industrialization path following the Soviet and Communist Chinese models, the latter given way to the incredibly naive policy by Nehru of “Hindi Chini Bai Bai”, the roots of the fatal Sino-Indian war in 1962 where India lost much territory and that had disastrous consequences for the future of Tibet.
I have lived in Israel for over 30 years and seen close up how the Israeli Left, nurtured by Israel’s academia, has eroded the security of the state by insisting that all of us accept the illusion that we can make peace just by wishing it to happen.
It has been a long, frustrating ride but all but the most deluded here now know for a fact that any land given away will immediately turn into a bigger problem. The lesson of the Hamas takeover of Gaza has not been lost on the Israeli public or Israel’s leaders.
And leaders in Muslim countries, Iran included, need a cause like the Palestinians to divert the attention of their own people from the corruption and poverty of their own countries. Without Israel, the instability in many of those places would soon match Iraq and Afghanistan.
As for the US, the Obama administration appears to be even more destructive to American interests than their policy towards us. The days of America as a super-power and economic and military leader are numbered.
Back here in Israel, most of us know full well that even if our leaders do try to give up more land, that effort will be met with more and more terror. Ironically, the Palestinians themselves are our best defense of all!
I constantly refer to Mahatma Gandhi as an example of white guilt. He was a whack job, although courageous, who should have been mostly ignored. The well meaning but childishly naive Gandhi can even be blamed indirectly for the murders of countless Indian citizens. He foolishly wanted the British to leave—when the reality on the ground required them to remain in the country for probably another 20 years. India needed the Brits to gradually hand over power.
15. RH:
1) Thanks, very nice summary of Israel’s current state-of-affairs.
2) Hey Phyllis, please I ain’t trying to hijack your column, please let me know if I am going overboard, but the fact is that I’m “unemployed” and have some time in my hands. Right now, I’m trying to get a contract in rainy WA under Obama’s “stimulus package”, but nothing definite yet. I don’t know if you would like to restrict postings here to “under 3″ or maybe “under 4″. I will abide, ja, ja.
4) Israel’s greatest city is Netanya, the closet there is to Dodge City and the birthplace of Krav Maga, and I ain’t Jew.
5) Negationists tried to hijack the Holocaust, which is not historically unique. The Shoa is unique though. What I would call the Rabbi Emil Fackenheim Doctrine of Absolute Evil, sometimes referred to in Hebrew circles as the 605 Mitzvah, would be the Porrajmos.
6) They did not have an Einstein, Neils Bohr, Chaim Hertzog, Elie Wiesel or Captain Dreyfus, not a Louis Brandeis, or Theodor Herzl, but were abandoned to the follies of Nazis’ racial laws, like little children in a Maelstrom, even a hardcore Nazi like Dr. Mengele pitied them. Yes, those tribes from India, the Gypsies.
Que sera sera.
It is purely God Almighty’s design that America is today the greatest nation on Earth. It is also His design that Americans in large numbers are turning to Islam as the way that they prefer to live, especially women. And it is also His design that America will one day soon be the United States of Islam.
Nothing including Prof Chesler, could stop that. So… que sera sera.