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As I wrote a response on another thread, I thought this post deserved its own thread. I modified it slightly.
The Jewish New Year comes, as it always seems to come, after a "long hot summer" of warfare, human catastrophe involving the Middle East, and gloom over solutions. The Reform Jewish sermons focus on this suffering and our duty to help alleviate it.
A lot of negative attention seems to focus on Israel. Israel is sometimes out and out blamed for the problems. Now, some have suggested that Israel should let itself be swamped by refugees. Many people seem to have a problem with the Jews having a state. Because of the lingering guilt over the Holocaust this difficulty is expressed as support for "Palestinian rights" or now the needs of refugees from surrounding failed states such as Syria and Iraq.
On the other side I have seen Jews use the argument that "we were there first," pointing to Biblical history. Whatever the truth of that is (and I give the Bible a good amount of credit as a largely accurate oral history) I think it is a very bad idea to use "who was here first" as an argument. If there was any validity the Great Rift Valley of Africa would be a very crowded place.
Early on, the Neanderthals lost out to Cro Magnum man, and those to modern homo sapiens. Since the Great Rift Valley (or if you're Biblical Garden of Eden) days there have been numerous movements of people throughout the globe. It's a fact that the more advanced people, intellectually and otherwise, usually win the inevitable contests. The Native Americans (or if you're Canadian First Nations) lost to the incoming Europeans, big time. Some such as the Taino and the Arawak in the Caribbean did even worse. The Australian Aboriginals lost to the Europeans. Throughout Asian history there have been conquests and slaughters.
More recently, I just read last night that 12 million German speaking people were expelled from Czechoslovakia (as it was then known), Poland, Ukraine and the Balkans after WW II. This was in theory in retaliation for German brutality during WW II. Which brutality was in retaliation for Versailles. And so it goes.
Getting to the bottom line I find it particularly abhorrent that the one movement of people, that of Zionist Jews in the early 20th Century and the post-WW II movement of Jews to the land of Israel is subject to particular Western, self-righteous attack. I don't know if it's a sudden spasm of "conscience," Western self-loathing or a reincarnation of anti-Judaism (I think the latter). But Jews, as always, lose out. Hopefully they lose out only on university campuses and on the pages of elite newspapers. I worry that developments such as the Iran treaty show that it could wind up being far worse.
Responding to Post 3, you left out Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, all of which control vast swaths of unused land. All of whose leaders have fat Swiss bank accounts.
I find it ironic that Hitler was in favor of a Jewish state. I guess the thought was to put all those undesirable Jews in one place instead of having them live among the rest of us. (The Naziis hated the Jews because the Jews largely controlled the financial world. The Jews developed their reputation in finance due to the diaspora creating a network whereby financial transactions could be made through trusted channels.). So to support something that Hitler was in support of gives me pause.
I find it ironic that Hitler was in favor of a Jewish state. I guess the thought was to put all those undesirable Jews in one place instead of having them live among the rest of us. (The Naziis hated the Jews because the Jews largely controlled the financial world. The Jews developed their reputation in finance due to the diaspora creating a network whereby financial transactions could be made through trusted channels.). So to support something that Hitler was in support of gives me pause.
I suspect that Hitler's motives were not the same as the Zionists. He eventually found Jews to be quite concentrated in Poland and Ukraine. That served his purposes beautifully.
As for the rest of the anti-Jewish nonsense in your post, I'm on my way to services. Happy New Year.
I suspect that Hitler's motives were not the same as the Zionists. He eventually found Jews to be quite concentrated in Poland and Ukraine. That served his purposes beautifully.
As for the rest of the anti-Jewish nonsense in your post, I'm on my way to services. Happy New Year.
Haha! "Anti-Jewish"?
It serves the purpose of the Anti-Jewish to have them all concentrated in Israel. Shalom.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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Quote:
Originally Posted by texan2yankee
Who believes a person who says I'm not anti-Semitic, I'm anti-Israel? I sure as hell don't.
If you can't understand the difference between a nation and a religion, it's your problem and not that of those who disagree with Israel yet have no problem with those who practice Judaism.
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