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Dec 5, 2012
Don’t pish on me, and tell me it’s raining
A Guest Post by Dr. Harold Goldmeier
WE APOLOGIZE FOR HURTING YOUR FEELINGS—NOT!!
An old
expression goes something like, “Don’t pish on me, and tell me it’s
raining.” That is exactly what some Jewish
critics of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians and Arabs do when they cry
about being called anti-Semitic for their activities and policy positions.
Professor Eva
Illouz of the Hebrew University is the latest to take up the cudgel offended at
the reaction she is getting from supporters of Israel. In a recent article in The Forward reprinted in Haaretz (November 30, 2012), she lumps
herself in with Peter Beinart, Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler, Avi Shlaim, and
Shlomo Sand, for doing “nothing more than (exercising) the right to think and
evaluate critically the accomplishments and failures of the state of Israel.”
There is too
little space here to document the depths of depraved criticism her fellow
travelers heap on Israel, the one-sided blame they cast, and their calls for
actions against Israel that can only lead to Israel’s vanquish and
disappearance. This is the group that the distinguished Professor proudly
claims as her like-minded colleagues.
I am not being
facetious to call her distinguished. Professor Illouz won the Best Book Award prize,
and her works on emotions, culture, and communication are translated into 15
different languages. In fact, all of the people in her claque are recognized
experts in their fields of study. They are internationally award winning
intellectuals, and, in other circumstances, Jews over which we kvell. However, they put their talents and energies
into exoteric diatribes against the Jewish State without a scintilla of sweat
for her sworn enemies and their murderous agenda.
Chomsky, son
Hebrew teachers and a former kibbutznik, wages war for decades against Israel
with vile and scurrilous claims. His recurring theme is that the creation of
Israel was “wrong and disastrous.” He regularly compares Israel’s actions to
those of the Nazis.
Butler
preceded Beinart in the boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions campaign against
Israel. She coined the colorful and sympathetic attributions of Hamas and
Hezbollah as progressive and social movements.
She is an executive member of a freedom theatre in Jenin. Its most
famous playwright and director was Juliano Mer-Khanis, gunned down by
Palestinian nationalists. He was driving with his one year old son in the car
when Mafia-like gunmen carried out their death sentence for his crime of being
an Israeli-Palestinian bringing culture and messages of peace through art to
his people (see my comments, Life In Israel, April, 2011). Butler can only
visit an “Israeli institution or an Israeli cultural event,” she has said, “in
order to use the occasion to…” bring attention to the brutality Israel wreaks
on the Palestinians. All this despite
Israel’s love and guarantees for freedom of speech where people are not
murdered for their views or their sexual orientation.
The noxious
exhalations of this liege of miserable intelligentsia are reflections not of their
dutiful commitment to the sustenance of Israel or the Jewish people, nor the
exercising of their right and obligation to honestly criticize the democratic
state when they believe it wrongheaded, misguided, or worse. Their opinions do not come from a place of
true concern for the fate of the Jews. Theirs is not guilt of anti-Semitism by
association, but guilt by collaboration with those who solely wish for the utter
destruction of Israel and the Jews.
The good
Professor Illouz self-identifies with the anti-Semitic Chomsky, et al. These
anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, euthanasic haters, give gravitas to the BDS
movement, the Holocaust deniers, the no acceptance ever of Israel’s right to
exist crazies; they swirl around those with a Jewish identity, accomplishments,
and world renown acclaim, like bees on honey exuberating in the pother of
one-sided anger and hate.
Supporters and
legitimate critics of Israel’s policies and actions through the democratic
process must never relent exposing these people for what they believe. On the
other hand, I want to adopt as an action plan the Daniel Gordis manifesto that
claims
“ It doesn’t matter if they are in Israel or outside, or if
they are Jewish or not. If they are working to end Israel, or to end it as
a Jewish and democratic State, then they are our enemies, plain and
simple. There are enemies who cannot be loved or compromised into submission,
and you need to recognize that…. YOU NEED TO SHOW US THAT YOU CARE ABOUT ISRAEL
MORE THAN YOU CARE ABOUT DIALOGUE WITH ISRAEL’S ENEMIES (emphasis added).”
I would love to be able to just
ignore you.
To
paraphrase President Kennedy, I will apologize for calling your kind
anti-Semitic if you will apologize for being so.
Harold Goldmeier is a former Research and Teaching Fellow at Harvard University where he received his doctorate. He served in the administrations of three US governors, is Managing Director of a business marketing and development company, and is managing partner of Goldmeier LLC consulting on business development, education and community development matters. He writes on Life in Israel, Arutz Sheva, American Thinker, The Times of Israel, and other publications.
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