My point exactly.



The cycle of generational violence must be broken in the home, the schools and by the media. It takes a massive effort on the part of all those involved.

If someone says they are anti-Zionist then the next question should be
"Why?"

Why would anyone be opposed to a Jewish state in their homeland - Israel
now 64 years later?

Anti-Zionism now is Anti-Israel.

Note that these people do not claim to be opposed merely to the policies
of Israel. No, they are opposed to Israel itself. They oppose the idea of
Israel.

Why?

Of all the countries surrounding Israel in the Middle East, only democratic Israel
maintains freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press,
full rights to all citizens, protections of minorities and women. Why
would someone single out Israel for derision while tolerating the oppression
of the neighboring Muslim states?

The usual rationale is that the land did not belong to the Jews but
in fact the Jews living there have as much right to the land there as
anyone. It was acquired legally during immigration there over several
centuries before civil war broke out and the English left. And of course
Israel always was the birthplace of the Jews and the land they originally
ruled and developed.

If the they simply do not want them there because they are Jewish, if
it would be alright the people there were some other religion or ethnicity...
If the issue is that it is a Jewish state then it is antisemitism.
Pure and Simple.

Bumped to meet the challenge.

Good luck with that...

Thanks, but I'll be fine. Care to join the festivities?

Yes please, what shall I bring? :

Your enviable intellect and gorgeous countenance.

And I will wear my brand new wading boots too!

I predict that when they show up, we will both need a pair.

Bring the high tops, we can always hose them down after the party!...

The Jewish people have built a nation and their detractors have to come to terms with this. They are going nowhere and any attempts to delegitimize their ethnicity and heritage are worthless diversions.

Zionism reversed Jewish historical passivity to persecution and asserted the Jewish right to self-determination and independent survival. This is why anti-Zionists see it as a perversion of Jewish humanism. Zionism entails the difficulty of dealing with sometimes impossible moral dilemmas, which traditional Jewish passivity in the wake of historical persecution had never faced. By negating Zionism, the anti-semite is arguing that the Jew must always be the victim, for victims do no wrong and deserve our sympathy and support.

Israel errs like all other nations: it is normal. What anti-Zionists find so obscene is that Israel is neither martyr nor saint. Their outrage refuses legitimacy to a people's national liberation movement. Israel's stubborn refusal to comply with the invitation to commit national suicide and thereby regain a supposedly lost moral ground draws condemnation. Jews now have the right to self-determination, and that is what the anti-semite dislikes so much.

Emanuele Ottolenghi is the Leone Ginzburg Fellow in Israel Studies at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and the Middle East Centre at St Antony's College, Oxford


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/nov/29/comment


So, this raises the question, 'Why single out Israel and hold it up repeatedly as a Pariah among the international community?' The answer is, of course, anti-Semitism, for no other nation is subject to such scrutiny. Israel is not infallible, but nor is any other nation, many whose human rights record makes Israel's pale into insignificance, but they are not hated and villified like Israel.

Before this turns into the usual argument regarding 'rights' to the land that is now immaterial as the nation exists, and as such, has the right to exist as any other nation.

Somehow, everything our culture reviles is attributed indirectly, or directly, to Israel or the Jewish people. That says more about our values than it does about Israel and the Jewish people.

Zionism reversed Jewish historical passivity to persecution and asserted the Jewish right to self-determination and independent survival. This is why anti-Zionists see it as a perversion of Jewish humanism. Zionism entails the difficulty of dealing with sometimes impossible moral dilemmas, which traditional Jewish passivity in the wake of historical persecution had never faced. By negating Zionism, the anti-semite is arguing that the Jew must always be the victim, for victims do no wrong and deserve our sympathy and support.

Israel errs like all other nations: it is normal. What anti-Zionists find so obscene is that Israel is neither martyr nor saint. Their outrage refuses legitimacy to a people's national liberation movement. Israel's stubborn refusal to comply with the invitation to commit national suicide and thereby regain a supposedly lost moral ground draws condemnation. Jews now have the right to self-determination, and that is what the anti-semite dislikes so much.

Emanuele Ottolenghi is the Leone Ginzburg Fellow in Israel Studies at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and the Middle East Centre at St Antony's College, Oxford


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/nov/29/comment


So, this raises the question, 'Why single out Israel and hold it up repeatedly as a Pariah among the international community?' The answer is, of course, anti-Semitism, for no other nation is subject to such scrutiny. Israel is not infallible, but nor is any other nation, many whose human rights record makes Israel's pale into insignificance, but they are not hated and villified like Israel.

Before this turns into the usual argument regarding 'rights' to the land that is now immaterial as the nation exists, and as such, has the right to exist as any other nation.

Somehow, everything our culture reviles is attributed indirectly, or directly, to Israel or the Jewish people. That says more about our values than it does about Israel and the Jewish people.

Beauty, brains and a great sense of humour!

I have to disagree that the detractors are going nowhere. The birthrates of their detractors are some of the highest in the world and the the hatred appears to be intensifying (if that is even possible). Oil money is ever more plentiful allowing a build-up of small arms and weapons production. Education is increasing the ability of building ever more effective IED's and rockets.

Children are being taught from birth to hate Jews and Western Civilization to the degree that suicide bombing is a "normal" thing to do. Some western people support the attacks on Israel as a legitimate form of behavior. The collection of conditions and trends along these lines may point to the end of Israel and eventually the end of Western civilization as we know it.

I think your comment was directed to the fools on the internet who have said many stupid things and mostly just express blind hatred. However, all detractors do not fit into the "going nowhere" category.

Semantics?...Holly War?...Sterotyping?...Creative wordplay?...Anti-Americanism is in vogue?.. Islamism?... Judeophobia?...Protocols of the Elders of Zion?...Post Zionist?...

Slice it, dice it, chop it up...doesn't matter...Anti-Semitism is easy to identify...If all else fails, just follow your nose....

Beauty, brains and a great sense of humour!

Hotrod, me thinks you are smitten. That's good.