By Max Blumenthal
On Wednesday, I walked around central Jerusalem with my friend, Joseph Dana, an Israel peace activist who has lived in the country for three years. We interviewed young people on camera about the speech President Barack Obama planned to deliver to the Muslim world the following day in Cairo. Though our questions were not provocative at all – we simply asked, “What do you think of Obama’s speech” – the responses our interview subjects offered comprised some of the most shocking comments I have ever recorded on camera. They were racist, hateful, and incredibly ignorant, and were mostly couched within a Zionist context – “this is our land, Obama!” The following day, we edited an hour of interviews into a 3:30 minute video package and released it on Mondoweiss and on the Huffington Post.
Within a few hours, I received an email from a Huffington Post administrator informing me he had scrubbed my video from the site. “I don't see that it has any real news value,” the administrator told me. “For me it only proves that one can find drunk people willing to say just about anything. Especially drunk, moronic people.” For the first time, the premier clearinghouse for online news and opinions had suppressed one of my posts.
Other bloggers and commenters criticized the video on similar grounds. Their complaints generally went like this: In order to advance an agenda, Max Blumenthal exploited the wild remarks of a bunch of drunk Jewish frat-boys innocently showing off in front of their friends. The footage contained in his video in no way reflects what the Israeli public thinks. If Max went to a bar in any college town in the United States he would find the same level of ignorance and racism. Ron Kampeas at the JTA has written that I need “to grow up and put [my talents] to good use.” (While Kampeas praised some of my other video reports exposing right-wing Christians, this latest video revealing the extremism of some Israeli and American Jews seemed to hit too close to home.)
The criticism of my video raised an interesting journalistic issue: Is reporting any less credible when interview subjects are drinking alcohol? Of course not. Journalists interview people at bars all the time, especially in broadcast packages. Beer does not, to my knowledge, contain a special drug that immediately infects drinkers with white supremacist sentiments, violent rhetoric, and anti-democratic tendencies. I get drunk as much as any social drinker and I have never called for “white power” or declared, “fuck the niggers!” as one of my interviewees did. No amount of alcohol could make me express opinions that were not authentically mine. If anything, alcohol is a crude form of truth serum that lubricates the release of closely held opinions and encourages confessional talk.
The notion that the racist diatribes in my video emerged spontaneously from a beery void is a delusion, but for some, it is a necessary one. It allows them to erect a psychological barrier against acknowledging the painful consequences of prolonged Zionist indoctrination. And it enables them to dismiss the disturbing spectacle of young Jews behaving like fascist soccer hooligans in the heart of the capitol of Israel and the spiritual home of the Jewish people.
The people in my video were not white trash, nor were they the “extreme right-wing fringe” as some bloggers have called them. They were the college-educated sons and daughters of middle and upper class American Jews from cosmopolitan metropolises and genteel suburbs. Some had come to Israel on vacation, some had made aliyah, and some told me they were planning to move to Israel in the near future. Many were dual citizens of America and Israel. They may have behaved in a moronic way, but they will not grow up to toil in the custodial arts. Many of these kids will move into white-collar jobs and use their influence to advance Israeli initiatives. Programs like Birthright Israel -- a few of those in my video were on Birthright tours -- exist for the exclusive purpose of indoctrinating American Jews into unyielding, unthinking supporters of Israel. Thus the kids in my video represent at least one aspect of the Zionist project’s future base of political sustenance.
I do not and have never claimed that the characters that appeared in my video were representative of general public opinion in Israel. They reflect only a slice of reality, which is reality nonetheless. On the other hand, a new Yedioth Aronoth poll finds a vast majority of the Israeli public holds a negative opinion of Obama and believes he is biased toward the Palestinians. A top minister in Israel’s government has compared Obama to Pharaoh, claiming his call for a settlement freeze is like casting Jewish children into the river. A group of rightists have launched a campaign against “the anti-Semitic Obama,” apparently convinced they can make inroads with the general public.
Behind the Israeli view of Obama lies a climate of extremism that exploded into the open when the country attacked Gaza. Today, extremist sentiment hovers well above the surface. A groundbreaking study of Israeli attitudes published in the wake of the Gaza war by the Tel Aviv University political psychologist Daniel Bar-Tal, who I recently interviewed, found that “Israeli Jews' consciousness is characterized by a sense of victimization, a siege mentality, blind patriotism, belligerence, self-righteousness, dehumanization of the Palestinians and insensitivity to their suffering.” Bar-Tal commented to me that the army is the primary vehicle for stoking the nationalism of young Israelis. “Some countries are states without armies,” he said. “But Israel today is an army without a state. There is no civilian institution capable of restraining the army’s influence.”
In an interview with me two days ago, the famed Israeli author David Grossman echoed Bar-Tal’s findings, remarking, “The country is trapped in one legitimate narrative: that of the government, which is of paranoia, and every event serves this narrative. Those events that don’t are simply overlooked.”
I have been in Israel for over a month; almost every day I hear expressions of paranoia about Arabs, historical delusions, and the constant refrain that “the world is against us.” I hear this even from some close friends -- young, cosmopolitan Israelis living the good life in the so-called “bubble city” of Tel Aviv. Last week, a friend I play basketball with in a working class suburb of Tel Aviv (he is a high-tech worker from a fifth generation Israeli family) calmly informed me while we sat in the shade by the court: “I’m a Zionist, so of course I prefer the bloodshed on the other side.” While sitting at a bar with an elegant and otherwise charming young woman, she described to me while sipping a mixed drink how she arbitrarily shot at Arabs while serving in the army because “they want to come and steal my house.” On a leafy Tel Aviv street, a friend of a friend who splits time between spinning at local hip-hop clubs and patrolling the streets of Gaza City told me if Israel has to kill 800 Palestinians to save one Israeli Jew, then so be it. “If we wanted to, we could completely wipe Gaza out,” he said. “But we don’t because the IDF is pure.”
Since Gaza, vocal opponents of the Occupation have found themselves increasingly marginalized and are hounded by the authorities (see the New Profile raid, Ezra Nawi, Sami Jubreir, and on and on). Meanwhile, Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteynu party’s unapologetically racist campaign has taken the form of a stream of bills working through the Knesset that would criminalize observance of the Palestinian Nakbah, ban public discussion of a bi-national state, and allow towns to ban people from entering their limits who do not subscribe to Zionist ideals. The bills keep coming like a flood; already, the Nakbah ban has passed a committee vote.
A straight line can be drawn from the rhetoric depicted in my video to the rise of Lieberman, a proto-fascist who draws a startling degree of political strength from Israel’s youth by channeling their innermost fears and resentments. In fact, the author of the Nakbah ban is a 28-year-old named Alex Miller – the youngest ever member of the Knesset and the chairman of Beiteynu’s youth wing. In an interview, Miller told me he introduced the bill simply because, “the Israeli public believes in loyalty.” He added, “Since the founding of our party we have grown in strength. We have never changed our platform and we are seeing increasing support from the public.”
Despite the Huffington Post’s rejection of my video report, it has exploded across the blogosphere. Even the rapper 50 Cent posted it prominently on his official website. It two days it has garnered 100,000 views. I hope those who have watched it, especially those predisposed to dismiss it as anti-Israel propaganda or shock video with “no news value,” will at least ask how vitriolic levels of racism are able to flow through the streets of Jerusalem like sewage, why the grandsons of Holocaust survivors feel compelled to offer the Shoah as justification to behave like fascist street thugs, and how the sons and daughters of successful Jewish American families casually merged Zionist cant with crude white supremacism. The willful avoidance of these painful questions by self-proclaimed supporters of Israel is setting the stage for the complete delegitimization of the country they claim to love. As Obama said, “any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it.”
The settler mentality is not central to the israeli ethos either. They are a fringe group who is destroying Israel w/ each settlement they build and each asshole they brainwash w/ this white/Jew power filth
So these drunk pricks in Israel are held to the same esteem as Mel Gibson who made the Passion of the Christ a movie revered by Christians world wide? Is that the argument here? I am confused….
Yes. Same regarding what the candidate for the US Supreme Ct said about Latina-feminist super wisdom. I can't imagine anyone defending a video clip of American skinheads or neoNazis in the same way. Further, why don't we have some of Israeli Lieberman's statements discussed hotly in our MSM? After all, that's what our Prez has to deal with, so it's a tad important, right?
Where is our master of logic? Richard Witty: The topic of this post was the response to the original. Commenting on that is right on target. Digressing back to "the racist American Jews" is the distraction. No, the article was a reponse to his critics like you. Since you always get slightly incoherent when you are under emotional stress, may I paraphrase?: Richard Witty double: In this mail Max responds to his critics. It is right on target he does so. But since we told him, we couldn't tolerate his video at all, he should have meditated on our critique and then and only then written a remorseful: I am sorry, you are right for us. Insisting that some "racist American Jews" really exist, is a distraction from our well argued critique. ************************************************************************************************************************ Look Richard, interviews on specific topics in the streets are a much used and standard tool in journalism. Maybe you should write rules under what conditions and in what settings Jewish interviewees can be asked what questions only, and where and when? Or according to what rules, what people say, must be censored. Till then it was simply standard journalism, if you like it or not.
As an American Jew I am embarrassed AND horrified by this video. I still believe its propaganda though, Did Max get these assholes to sign a waiver before it made it out the Internets? If not I am sure their lawyer parents will be filing a defamation suit against Max and Mondoweiss sooner than you think.
I disagree. The term Nazi applied to the israelis is gaining more currency by the day. The association of israelis and Nazis has entered mainstream discourse. The israelis railed against the great cartoonist Oilphant for a syndicated cartoon that basically replaced the swastika with the Star of David. It was a powerful visual. The fact is, the associations are inevitable…the reflex cruelty, the massacres, the racist denial of humanity, the euphoria of inflicting brutal degradation, the "God's chosen" rhetoric, the hollow appeals to "self-defense" the flakey mysticism…and so on. The world more and more sees the Israelis as the modern manifestation of Nazism. That doesn't imply they are one in the same, but the similarities are obvious to all but the willfully blind.
MRW, why and get some honest opinion from sober Israelis? There is a reason why he included what he did. If there was more of this shit I assure you he would have included it.
Are you suggesting it's time to replace American X with American-Israeli dual citizen X, the movie? Great, if so–Witty can play the part of Streisand's old fart lump hubby, only this time he's a tolerant gentile, confronted with a hilltop youth with star of David tattoos on his body. LOL
If the proportion of Jewish Students in Ivy League Universities is too low, do we get to keep the Occupied territories?
yoni I certainly hope you are not implying that an endless stream of racist filth from Israelis of all walks of life (including their prime ministers) hasn't been exhaustively documented, going all the way back to the founding of the state? Obviously, that would be an absurd and easily refuted claim.
Are the only people you know Nazi louts?
Ah! Are you talking about the "refuseniks"? Of course, with all the non-Jewish Russian immigrants, who seem to be very right-wing, perhaps Israel will become more diverse.
"Unyielding" and "unthinking" come from the intentional portrayal of Israel as a state removed and unattached from the inhumanity shown by the state of Israel towards the Palestinians. In defense of Israel, I will say this: Israel has certainly been no better nor no worse than any other colonial power. The United States committed genocide against native Americans, used slave labor to build the country, and used jim crow legislation to suppress minority rights. In slightly different terms, the same could be said of the French, British, Belgians–name the country, they did the same. At the same time, those countries have more or less recognized the historical evil of what they did, or at the very least, have come to some terms with it and have made it part of their national discourse. Israel cannot rejoice and define itself by 19th century norms of behavior,
"It was very interesting, because the nut wing crowd is now attacking the "liberal" jews,saying jews always vote for dems so it's their fault." Those bastards! And after all that Jewish neo-conservatives did for them! Those ungrateful bastards. Why, they could never have started the War on Iraq without us! You just can't trust some people!
Yeah, the truth always hurts. So, atta boy, make a veiled attempt to censor the truth by suggesting Max and Phil will be defendants in a lawsuit. It can only help truth seekers, as it will bring the truth even more out in the open.
"In a way, it's like having a gun–it all depends on who is handling it" A gun's effect is exactly the same no matter who pulls the trigger. Someone who rejects the use of guns and knows they present as much danger to the person handling them as those they point them out, would not be handling a gun, (except to unload it and throw it away). Please don't confuse the way guns are used in media to advance and resolve plots with the way guns are actually used as reflected by statistics and research. They are two completely different things.
But you miss every time, you pompous, oily bigot. I am ashamed you say you are an American.
If they are such a fringe group, Yoni, why can no-one stop them? Why are they protected by the Army? Why are supplies allowed through? That is completely ridiculous, settlers are an acceopted way for Israel to gain more land by arranging the "facts on the ground". Do you feel like going and telling them they have to move? Now tell me, what kind of country allows this kind of situation to build up to this point. Most of those settlers are from freaking AMERICA. They were not chased into Israel by persecution, were they?
Indictment of course, but also to put them in their comparative perspective. The end of colonialism is not much fun for those who've emotionally invested in it.
Jerusalem is not legally part of Israel.
The United States, for better or worse, was not brought into existence by international consensus, ratified by the UN, and obligating Israel to certain standards in return for its existence as a country. Israel then blithely went its own way, returning to the tactics and measures of the very countries which had created the "problem" (of refugee Jews) which Israel was supposed to solve.
Yeah, if you want to see the last one of this special ilk, watch Leni Reifenstahl's Triumph Of The Will–a bit less Wagnerian, Israel's, more fiddle and violin than drums and wind instruments.
It was a statement of some bigotry to present it as "typical". None of them ever said it was typical other than that it happened and was real and the questions were rather innocent. "What do you think ob Barak Obama's speech?". I actually think we should invite Joseph for a comment, he surely knows the places around Jerusalem and knows were that mindset hangs out.
The difference is that Borat, an Israeli, gets to satirize the goy boys in his fictional bigoted homeland based on Slavic culture, and gets to satirize goy whites in the USA, and make a hefty profit and get applause from the MSM & Entertainment industry, while a similar Borat movie on Jewish-American bigotry and Israeli bigotry gets no play at all, even while it slowly determines the death of the USA (and Israel).
Well, technically they are just bigots, replacing the word Jew with the word "anti-semite." It's that old saw, sawing away, it all depends on who's ox is being gored. Key thing is non-Jewish Americans need to wake up and quit giving Israel a blank check to do what Hitler did; of course, Israel would match Hitler much more except it's a welfare state and so has to watch PR impact of what it really wants to do.
Yoni, I get this sort of filth from Israelis in emails. Israelis, I might add, who will no longer communicate with me because I mock them and hold views they dont like. They are under 35 yrs old. So dont tell me this is an aberration. And you know it.
Don't worry, Dana. I predict your israeli friends will wind up being staunch Obama supporters by the end of his first term. The idea that he will seriously challenge Israel's right to eternal Nazism is looking increasingly far-fetched.
Neither Jerusalem nor the West Bank is legally part of Israel. They are not under world-recognized Israeli sovereignty, but world-recognized Israeli occupation, with all the duties that entails, none of which Israel performs. Must be nice to know with such certainty what any final status agreement entails. Obviously you know much more insider information than the average USA citizen, you know, those dummies who pay Israel's bills?
The only — I mean only — people I ever heard use the word 'nigger' in Manhattan for years and years, apart from blacks doing rap, were older Jews. In the shmatte business, the diamond business. Regularly. Always in private conversations, at dinner. In front of their kids, who were my friends. It was usually 'these fuck-king niggers'.
That's right guys, you don't get the news on Israeli fascists' Street by interviewing a bunch of drunk American yuppie Jews – you refer to studies on sober Israeli Jews. http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3... http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3... http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3... http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3... http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3... And carnas – your dishonesty aside – the POINT of comparing Mel Gibson's anti-semitic tirade to the anti-semitic (Arabs are semites, right?) and Islamophobic and anti-Black rantings of those yuppie American Jews is that BOTH were inebriated. In the case of Mel Gibson, the point made by those HuffPo commentators is that while he was DRUNK, it was no excuse. Many said that the truth is often spoken when drunk. Furthermore, they extracted a hell of a lot of meaning from the rantings of a drunk actor/director/celeb. Now, I don't think there is anything special about antisemitism by celebrities versus nobody Jews. Both are racists and bigots. Who does Mel Gibson represent? He's a human being like the rest of us. He's interested in politics like the rest of us. He's immersed in Jewish culture in the Diaspora by being a part of Hollywood. Those nobody yuppie Jews ARE Jews and thus are immersed in Jewish culture. They are privileged. Many were on that stupid 'birthright' program. Some were campaigners for Obama – directly. And according to the polls, 78% of American Jews voted for Obama. So they probably voted for the guy. The point is here is this group (Jews) who are incredibly well-off in terms of groups versus groups. Here are these kids who are representative of a portion of the group. Here they are, inebriated and following the logic of several commentators on HuffPo, being inebriated makes you tell the truth. Thus – here's this group within the group, drunk, and telling the truth as they see it. When we juxtapose their blatant racism and bigotry against : The fact that the Palestinians are the ones suffering more – poverty/lack of support, ie. military and economic/most Palestinian youth are depressed according to polls/the history of the conflict and the fact that Israel ethnically cleansed Palestine and stole the land from the Arabs and gave it to Jewish immigrants/constant abuse and humiliation and blah blah WHILE AT THE SAME TIME Jews are well-off. The US is a great 'friend' to IsraHell and American society is phil-semitic where we have shitty movies like You don't Mess with the Zohan and constant stream of Holocaust films to internalize Jewish suffering and the Jewish point of view into the goyim. Israel is the 4th strongest military power in the world that has been given carte blanche to do whatever they want to anyone. blah blah blah then really, it's not hard to see that the group of people with everything (Jews) – ridiculing and terrorizing a group of people with NOTHING (the Palestinians) – are just a bunch of fucking Nazis. There are plenty of studies that show how racist and batshit insane the israelis jewish community is. decadent/modern lifestyle, living off the Occupation, advanced army, blah blah while living next door to a tragedy THEY created and perpetuate. we can say the Germans didn't know what was going on in the camps, but the Nazis Jewish Zionists know exactly whats going on. its happening in their backyard and they love it that way.
As opposed to Jews, who are the most powerful ethnic group in the Western world and certainly the United States – a country that facilitates IDENTITY POLITICS just look at how much of a spot-light Jewish intellectuals who are anti-Zionist are given Jews themselves have power just by being Jews and THOSE jews are representative of the youth culture. when you back up that video with the studies that SHOW DEFINITIVELY that Israelis are racist scumbags, then yea, it's not only a valid video but it's more telling than some celeb who got pulled over on a DUI and started ranting about Jews
i'm not allowed to use the word game, but you insist on using the word "nazis". americans used napalm in vietnam, did that make them nazis. the chinese were brutal in tieneman square, are they nazis the russians were brutal against chechnya, are they nazis the french were brutal in algeria, are they nazis. if you wish to inflame those who agree with you, maybe your usage of words is useful. if you wish for dialogue your usage of words is foolish. if you wish for a compromise solution to the israeli palestinian confrontation, your usage of words is foolish if you want language that is a blowtorch, use the word nazi if you want language that dissects or furthers understanding, don't use it.
Not sure what you mean, Mooser. If I use a gun to stop someone intent on committing an evil deed, is that the same as another using a gun to commit an evil deed? I agree that a gun's effect, that is, killing, is the same no matter who pulls the trigger. I guess you have turned by comment into a debate over means and ends? I may be wrong, I'm just guessing… Alcohol can be a means to a good end (more open, honest, more ready to be vulnerable and take a risk toward deep communication), or it can be a means to a bad end (more blaring one's own bigotry, insecurity, bias, parnoia, etc).
Rowan already posted a bunch of videos of a French comedian who mocked Israeli Jewish settlers (inbred Nazis). The French Jewish community had a hissy-fit and are making life miserable for the comedian. There's no comparison. The Jewish Establishment is corrupt to the core. They do not believe in freedom of speech when it comes to criticisms of Jewishness. The only reason they prosper is because most goyim are fucking stupid and disorganized.
[I incorrectly posted this to the wrong thread. Belongs here. Sorry for the repeat.]
Max is correct. Former US Ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, said in a recent interview about Netanyahu's choice of Lieberman over Livni: “Bibi can’t behave with Washington like the boy who killed his parents and then asked for mercy because he was an orphan. He can’t say, I can’t make compromises because I have Lieberman in my coalition.”
RE: "…it presents a philosophy, if you will, through ignoramuses, thereby denigrating the philosophy…" MY COMMENT: I refer to such types as ignoranuses™! PS. I can't bring myself to actually watch Max's video. I still have not gotten over the "Golani will bring you a log to stick up your ass" video from the IDF checkpoint. FROM HAARETZ: (excerpt) …Last week, soldiers from the Golani infantry brigade posted a video on YouTube depicting a blindfolded Palestinian being forced to repeat phrases in Hebrew as the soldiers manning the checkpoint laugh in the background. One of the lines is: "Golani will bring you a log to stick up your ass." As the detainee repeats the words, the soldiers are heard laughing raucously in the background…. ARTICLE / VIDEO – http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037217.html
what is your point, moron? that people are racist? no shit that's NOT the issue the issue is that no one ever sees how disgusting Israelis are and how racist Jews can be the standard is that Jews are poor poor victims all the time and people pick on them for no reason when Jews are shown being racist, THIS is the reaction we get psychopaths like you get all defensive psychopaths like you post videos of other racists to equate both groups it's not the same one group gets away with being racists (Jews) and the other (goyim) get lampooned and socially ostracized/rebuked/etc. oh and it doesn't help that a bunch of hillbillies can't do anything with their racism. they can be upset and racist – great. but it doesn't amount to anything. whereas Jews, can get careers by being racist Max explained the crucial reasons why he felt the video was legit: these Jews are going to become something some random hillbilly is not these Jews have tremendous political clout by being Jews – they have access to Holocaust exploitation/Nazi card/Hitler card/etc. sort of like a video game Jew summons Hitler card!!!!! Hitler analogy appears. Goyim is intimidated. Goyim shuts up. Looses job at college. Jew is victorious. 12 experience points obtained! And career at AIPAC and 50,000% Moskowitz Prize to colonize Palestinian land!
Its fair for him to conduct such journalism. Its also fair for me to state that I regard it as cheap, malicious, a tarnish to Phil's brand.
East Jerusalem and the West Bank aren't part of Israel under international law. The legal status of West Jerusalem isn't as clear. For one thing, the General Assembly Resolutions setting up a Corpus Separatum, like all GA resolutions, aren't legally binding. Second of all, it doesn't make much sense that the parts intended for the Arab state according to the Partition Plan that were captured by Israel in its war of independence are recognized as Israeli territory while the parts of Jerusalem captured at the same time are not. As for the final status agreement – considering the fact that even the Palestinians (Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah, not Hamas) only demand East Jerusalem, it isn't outrageous to conclude that an agreement would almost certainly recognize West Jerusalem as part of Israel and as its capital. My guess is that the same agreement would also recognize East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
LeaNder, If it wasn't presented as typical, then it was saying nothing.
Thanks Dana, interesting, I am pleased you support Max and Joseph as an insider. I am equally pleased The Magnus Zionist/Jeremia Haber does, below his comment on Ron Kampeas critique: http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2009/06/05/... Best take so far on Blumen-journalism … Jeremiah Haber, 06/06/09 04:55 PM Ron, Now that Max’s “immature video” has been witnessed over 100,000 times in the last two days, maybe you can take a deep breath and think a bit. Let’s assume that 90% of the viewers just stop at Max’s video. That leaves 10% who look into some of his other posts from Israel-Palestine, including his interviews with David Grossman, with members of Liberman’s party, with Israeli activists on the West Bank. That means that more people will get significant information about Israel because of the “immature video” in two days than read your blog in months. Ron, you’re in denial Even Jeffrey Goldberg was disturbed by the behavior of the students, who were drunk more with the power of being a Jew in Jerusalem than the booze (and some of them didn’t sound drunk at all. These are not just drunk kids. These are Jewish kids, orthodox kids, who are full of hate when drunk. If you were an orthodox educator, could you just dismiss that? Hey a lot of people beat their wives, why pick on the frummies who do? Denial, denial, denial
These are astute questions; We await Yoni C's response. Seems like Israel had been going backward in human development for a long time. I resent this as an American who is forced to pay for it by my whore government.
It's not the music. I like rap actually (Immortal technique). I mean, read their comments and try to convince me they didn't just get off the shortbus.
"Within the Jewish community it has always been considered a form of heresy to compare Israeli actions or policies with those of the Nazis, and certainly one must be very careful in doing so. But what does it mean when Israeli soldiers paint identification numbers on Palestinian arms; when young Palestinian men and boys of a certain age are told through Israeli loudspeakers to gather in the town square; when Israeli soldiers openly admit to shooting Palestinian children for sport; when some of the Palestinian dead must be buried in mass graves while the bodies of others are left in city streets and camp alleyways because the army will not allow proper burial; when certain Israeli officials and Jewish intellectuals publicly call for the destruction of Palestinian villages in retaliation for suicide bombings or for the transfer of the Palestinian population out of the West Bank and Gaza; when 46 percent of the Israeli public favors such transfers and when transfer or expulsion becomes a legitimate part of popular discourse; when government officials speak of the “cleansing of the refugee camps”; and when a leading Israeli intellectual calls for hermetic separation between Israelis and Palestinians in the form of a Berlin Wall, caring not whether the Palestinians on the other side of the wall may starve to death as a result." sara roy http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/roy_holocau...
I can personally vouch that nearly every post I have ever written there which is even mildly critical of Israel has been censored, though I did manage to get one through critical of Dershowitz's rantings which left me in a mild state of shock. Additionally, posts critical of the anti-"white male" and "white trash" viewpoints she frequently hosts on her site get deleted as well. There is but one proper liberalism, and it is either pro-Israel or politely silent, exclusive to the middle and upper class and their interests, and espouses a corrosive ideology of class superiority and racist, sexist divisiveness. Where's the liberalism in that? You can find the same mindset and censorship policy at many of the so-called "progressive" sites, which begs the question: "why?"
I posted this already under Dana's post above which escaped my attention so far. It is The Magnes Zionist/Jerry Haber's response to Ron Kampeas, one of the critics to whom Max links. Jeremiah Haber 06/06/09 04:55 PM Ron, Now that Max’s “immature video” has been witnessed over 100,000 times in the last two days, maybe you can take a deep breath and think a bit. Let’s assume that 90% of the viewers just stop at Max’s video. That leaves 10% who look into some of his other posts from Israel-Palestine, including his interviews with David Grossman, with members of Liberman’s party, with Israeli activists on the West Bank. That means that more people will get significant information about Israel because of the “immature video” in two days than read your blog in months. Ron, you’re in denial Even Jeffrey Goldberg was disturbed by the behavior of the students, who were drunk more with the power of being a Jew in Jerusalem than the booze (and some of them didn’t sound drunk at all.) These are not just drunk kids. These are Jewish kids, orthodox kids, who are full of hate when drunk. If you were an orthodox educator, could you just dismiss that? Hey a lot of people beat their wives, why pick on the frummies who do? Denial, denial, denial
there oughta be a rule: use the word nazi without ample provocation and automatically lose the game. Ditto for "anti-Semitism."
Two cases in point: Keith Olbermann and Rachel Madow. Both studiously ignore the fact that the United States supports the Semitic-Supremacist government of Netanyahu-Lieberman. In fact, during the Israeli attack on Gaza, Olbermann, made absolutely no mention of the shameless killings of large numbers of Palestinian civilians.
Charles Krauthammer has made an enormously successful career out of hate speech, so much so, that his ideas have been adopted as the editorial policy of the Washington Post Group, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. Krauthammer's greatest triumph is the institutionalization of his racist beliefs in the US Congress.
Drinking is just a way of turning inside out – whatever one is naturally, drink can exaggerate it, by removing some of the external inhibitions. naturally talkative people become more so, sweet people go gooey, and the naturally violent go for the bar brawls. Someone here said alcohol is like a crude 'truth serum". That's just about it, I think.
I wasn't apologizing for Israel. I was making the point that Israel is in a long line of evil perpetuated by states interested in conquest, occupation, and dispossession, whether blessed, damned, or ignored by international law. My ultimate point is that Israel is still actively operating on those premises while other colonizers have at least given lip service to their own injustices. Imho, this shows just how far Israel is outside of normal national behavior.
i agree that unprovoked use of the term 'antisemitism' is a sign of intellectual weakness. but let me pose a question: this "lovelyisraelis" commenter and caryl churchill also in her play "seven jewish children" emphasized the jewish usage of the "chosen people" concept. although i am familiar with some jews who might emphasize jewish rights in the land based upon "chosen people" i find it extremely rare, whereas ancient homeland/ the need for a sovereign state and the land which we prayed for is the only appropriate place for such a state/ and arab rejectionism are 99 times more commonly referred to rather than "chosen people". i react to the "chosen people" accusation as unfair and even if i don't say it out loud in my mind i file it under antisemitism. would you care to comment.
The key point in all this is that the vulgar trolls exposed by Max Blumenthal are merely communicating the Israeli zeitgeist. They aren't some aberration, to the embarrassment of their feckless apologists. Face it: The Zionist = Nazi comparison that makes hacks like Dershowitz foam is growing more legitimate everyday.(BTW–Congratulations to Max Blumenthal for having the courage to document a specifically Jewish brand of hate. It's not just the Nazis anymore…)
It was at least typical of the attitude of the mostly Jewish American students and their feeling of entitlement based on not much knowledge.There was the occasional orthodox who shared their view as other people passing by. I am assuming that some Israelis speak English without much of an accent. And Joseph Dana, wrote a short text accompanying the video. Compared to you, I somehow trust them that they wouldn't produce/fake this atmosphere, by e.g. not using 50% who actually thought moderate to positive about Obama. It's obvious that more young people and less married couples will be out in the streets at that time. So it is clearly a specific segment, and that this segment contains many Jewish American students Joseph told us. But the rest is apparent.
I have always seen Zionism as a racist, ultra-nationalistic ideology more than a religious one, but I would imagine the "Chosen People" rhetoric is not exactly rare among the Ultra Orthodox religious settler movement. When Jews say "this land is ours!", what exactly is the ideological basis for claiming that lands currently belonging conspicuously to Palestinians somehow belong to the Jews by right? International law does not recognize Israel's right to the West Bank, Gaza or East Jerusalem, so where does this right come from? From the rule of the gun, a feeling of moral and racial superiority or the will of God seem to be the preferred justifications as best I can tell. Is that "anti-Semitism" or just an opinion?
yona Jews NEED a sovereign state?? no—they are ENTITLED to a sovereign state, unlike all the other people who might desire one. They are entitled because they are "chosen." One of the charming fellows in Max's video says "what obama doesn't understand is this is OUR land. " You're just plain lying if you're trying to tell us this perspective is not ubiquitous among Israel supporters, despite the fact it is plainly, obviously, unequivocally NOT their land. But they are the "chosen" Their leadership routinely refers to the land they are stealing as "judea and samaria" (invoking the biblical names) and declares Israel belongs to Jews "from the jordan to the sea." Your argument holds absolutely no water whatsoever.
"…Taking foreign people on trips to villages and camps to show only the glory and none of the warts has a long history dating lately back to the Czars of Russia…" Yes, they are referred to as "Potemkin villages". "…"Potemkin village" has come to mean, especially in a political context, any hollow or false construct, physical or figurative, meant to hide an undesirable or potentially damaging situation…" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village
Just a tip: using google's site filter you can find lots of examples of racism that Huffpo did feel was fit to post Google: site:huffingtonpost.com racist supporters video
Wrote my post before reading Sean's which makes the same points..probably better than I have. But Sean is not quite accurate in ascribing the "chosen people" rhetoric solely to the "ultra-orthodox" It was a mainstay for Israel's zionist founders, the bulk of whom were atheists. It's not exclusively a religious argument at all. It's an argument to be made when one has absolutely no case whatsoever. Essentially, it means—we can impose our will on this situation and you can't stop us. That is of course, apart from the religious crazies who actually believe the great realtor in the sky deeded the Mid east to them. Yona must know perfectly well that these religious crazies exist in enormous numbers and are a VERY potent political force in israeli politics and the military. Denial of this well-worn point is quite absurd. The fact even makes it into the Times now and then. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10274.sht... more: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10274.sht...
Crooks and Liars has turned into a loser blog with idiotic comments. Too bad. It was great at one time, but it's gone fearful, and reduced its previous effectiveness.
Poor LeaNder, still talking to Richard Witty as if he possessed an independent platform for evaluation, susceptible to things like "logic," "facts," and "reasoning". Witty's mind is made up: Zionism is a good. It can be nothing else.
If Huffington Post doesn't wake up, they'll be marginalized soon as well. I mean, RawStory handles all the stories that HuffPo carries, the important ones anyway, and does it succinctly. And if Hilary Rosen (HuffPo Political Editor) and her band of journalistic newbies are going to continue to repeat the NYT lies about Iran's nuclear capability and the growing mood in this country against rabid red-dog zionism usurping our national interests, people will move.
Fine. Then once that final status agreement is implemented, Israel can have West Jerusalem as its capital. Until then Israel's capital is Tel Aviv.
@ No israel Please continue commenting, whatever your online moniker. Your comments are interesting, provoking and well thought out. I agree with you about Max's writing chops – he must be woodshedding, but I don't know how he finds the time with all the running around he's doing. Max, Excellent piece. No matter the backlash, you know that you are appreciated by seekers of the truth. "The people in my video were not white trash" No need for a descriptor – they were trash, no matter the color of their skin or the religion of their parents. PM
Dana that is a nice post. I cannot of course attest to its truth, but it has the sound of truth. My first realization with this racist tinge in Israeli thinking occurred about 20 years back. I was friends with an Israeli sabra who lived in this country since 1955 and he was recounting stories of the war in 1948 where he served in the infantry. This was a man I respected as a friend and colleague. As he described his Arab enemies I became more and more appalled. If the word 'negro' or 'black' was substituted for 'Arab' he would have been certified as an out and out racist. He was oblivious to the contradiction. And this was someone who supported the civil rights movement in this country in the sixties. I didn't confront him on this, but it did strike me: how long would it take for the Palestinians to be considered human beings.
Ridiculous. Palestinians are dying in droves and the navel-gazing Zionist's first and foremost concern is the Jewish image. Your post inspires more anti-Semitic sentiment than any of Max's work. Congratulations, Jay.
Huffington Post, you bunch of wimps, put the video back up.
Max, you have made a critical error in your purpose for promoting this video. To the masses, it simply reenforces their views against Jews. I find it hard to believe that you could not find a single Jew in Jerusalem who supports Obama, or who could talk about this issue with less vitriol. But what you have done is create an image of Jews — a negative image of Jews — by your choices as a reporter. This is no different than what Fox News does on a daily basis. I understand that this is not your intent, but it is your EFFECT. Does this sink in for you? Maybe just a little bit? Violence against Jews is a real problem across the US and Europe. Most people will view this video and simply view it as a representation of Jews, WHICH IT IS NOT. I am extremely disappointed in you, Max, and your attempt to rationalize your actions.
I have a huge problem with Israeli policies toward Gaza. The problem is that people like M.M. will immediately turn to words like "Zionist" and not engage in the issue. I hope you are happy with these intelligent masses you have brought to your site, Max.
Hey Magnes, I'm surprised that you vocalize against one critical of American Zionists using the Nazi reference, when it has been so abused and overused by the right-wing Zionists in reference to anyone who challenges their agenda of Greater Israel and ongoing oppression of Palestinians. Let's face it, the utter dilution of terms like "Nazi", "Hitler", and "antisemite" by routine use as pejorative scorn for those who disagree with an agenda spring from the well of Zionism, not from anti-Zionism. PM
Sorry, the duplicate post was an accident.
Samizdat Max, keep exposing the filthy reality under the spin. HuffPo is funded to be a part of the spin effort. Everything else it does is peripheral, part of the prog furniture required to obscure it's mission. Good on you Max.
what is true is true and will be known worldwide. what has gonearound and mixed wioth the races will be known ……door to door
@Jay, "To the masses, it simply reenforces their views against Jews." You, my friend, are sick. You make statements like the above, insinuating that "the masses", which I guess denotes gentiles, have some kind of genetic inclination to be "against Jews". You then go on to say "violence against Jews is a real problem in the US and Europe". I agree that violence is a problem in the US and Europe, but I would need some citations to show that "violence against Jews" is more prevalent in the US. Examine yourself and your statements. PM
to lovely israelis- find yourself a new name and i might address you, dude.
Pardon? I just BURIED you, (dude).
Perhaps the recent bomb plot in New York against Jewish targets is insignificant to you. It's significant to me. The the only person who claims these kids are "typical" is Max. And the only facts he has to back this up is his gut. If he truly wants to make a point, he should do a scientific poll, not cherry picked interviews. Last Gallup poll before the election showed Jews voting for Obama over McCain by 74% to 22%. So somehow, Max found a portion the 22% of American Jewish Voters and chose to represent them in his video without any context of the greater support Obama has by American Jews. This video is completely dishonest, and I can't believe Max simply claims that this is "typical." They are clearly out of the norm. I would appreciate some facts here. Max is promoting a double standard of "evidence" that Cheney and Bush used… apparently it is hard to see this when he is the one using "gut-checked facts."
But Herzl loved Wagner:) He went and listened to Tannhäuser as often as possible while he was writing Der Judenstaat – and claimed it was only when he was listening to Wagner his ideas made sense to himself. And the Tannhäuser Prelude was performed at the opening of the first World Zionist Congress…
Huffingtonpost hypocrisy "This latest apology was greeted with cautious optimism by some Jews who had harshly admonished Mr. Gibson only days before upon learning that he had berated Jews in an obscene tirade after his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol early on Friday morning. "… "''This is finally an apology,'' said Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League. ''We're glad that he owned up that what he said was not only offensive, but bigoted. When he's finished with alcohol rehabilitation, we will be ready and willing to meet with him and to help him get rid of his other addiction, which is prejudice.'' "… "Ariel Emanuel, a partner in the Endeavor agency, has been among Mr. Gibson's most pointed critics in Hollywood in the last few days, using the HUFFINGTONPOST.COM Web site on Sunday to call on Hollywood to refuse to work with Mr. Gibson. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=98...
i hear you. but let us proceed step by step. i take it that you mean by zionism, the zionism of ben gurion rather than the zionism of judah magnes or martin buber. it seems clear to me that theodor herzl was a prophet, seeing the doom coming towards europe's jews. he proposed a solution, the jewish homeland. the only logical place for that homeland was israel or if you prefer is/pal. herzl's first choice (personally) was to assimilate into germany, but when this proved impossible and the proof of its impossibility proved itself in france during the dreyfus affair his zionism congealed. to react to danger and oppression with nationalism is "logical" rather than racist. what makes it racist are the specifics of is/pal. there were people living there who were uninterested in a large jewish influx and the large jewish influx was largely uninterested in taking the "natives" into consideration.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=98...
Are you the ADL police come to censor Max from showing these kids spewing hate speech and threatening to kill the President of the United States because it might incite the unentitled and unsophisticated masses to violence against the Jews? You really do need to get over yourself. More appropriate, those boys appear dangerous and should be charged with a felony on reentry to the United States for threatening violence against the President. The new all-purpose definition of anti-semitism! Anything that embarrasses or makes me look bad. Accusations like yours twist and devalue the concept. Have you seen Joseph Dana's website and the settler and IDF violence, beating people, knocking down houses, throwing rocks, dragging people on the ground, turning over cars? Maybe you should have a word with him too.
Good job, Max! You found 10 or 12 of the dumbest jerks in all of Israel, recorded them, and put a video out of them, helping to promote more anti-semitism and anti-Israel hate than already exists! Well done! Adolf Hitler would be proud of you! Keep up the good work! Be sure to never interview random, intelligent Jewish people. Only interview 4 or 5 racist idiots, and 5 or 6 other complete morons, who are possibly the most stupid people in the world who happen to be Jewish, and use them to promote anti-semitic hate, and pretend it's "for peace" and blame it on Israel and zionism. Great job, Himmler! Every Jew-hater in the world will love the absurd propagangda you produce to further the nazi anti-Jew cause! Congrats!
…agreed.
The kids in Max's video have provided a vital educational service to the public. Basically, they have given us a Cliff Notes version of 60 years of Israeli history. Fuck the Geneva Conventions Fuck purity of arms Fuck the International Court of Justice Fuck the Palestinians and their desire to live on THEIR land Fuck the UN Fuck facts Fuck journalists Fuck the Red Cross Fuck Amnesty International Fuck world opinion Fuck every precept of human decency Fuck non-jews Fuck non-Israelis Fuck nuclear disarmament (except for everyone else) Fuck black people Kill all the Arabs Fuck being human–we're israeli and p.s….we're VICTIMS!
let's take east jerusalem, which as you state is considered to belong to the palestinians by the united nations or maybe is international according to some united nations general assembly resolution. now the fact is that jerusalem played a major role in the survival of the jewish people as a unit during the diaspora. jews face jerusalem when they pray. they break a glass at weddings in memory of jerusalem. they say next year in jerusalem at the end of the seder. they fast in memory of jerusalem on the 9th of av. jews pray towards jerusalem. muslims pray towards mecca. now, i didn't mention the words "chosen people" once. i pointed out the historical connection.
six days in the making and i thought i could rest biding my time judging damned from the blest when all of my children get put through this test the poison's been swallowed no antidote known now i'm so sorry now i'm alone
I think what Max did was this, he portrayed extremists and idiots, and there seems to be this perception that everything Jewish is good. There is no such thing as 100% good. Jewish people, just like others can be racist, can be extremists, and some of them lack the empathy and care to look at and treat others as they would look at themselves, just like everyone else. They don't like Obama's policies, that is fine, but why do they attack Obama's race as a result? Not to mention why did they not use white racial slurs to address his white side and not just go for the gusto stereotypes of black people and use derogatory terms targeted towards black people?
okay, dude. since you insist. did jews need a sovereign state between the years 1939 and 1945. obviously they did. herzl was a prophet seeing the doom coming the way of the jewish people and he proposed an action to avoid that doom: a homeland. where? in the only natural place. the homeland that jews had prayed towards during the entirety of the diaspora. ubiquitous- means universal. untrue. many supporters of israel are willing to forgo the west bank. interesting thing about islam- it says that it recognizes moses as a prophet, but it doesn't recognize any of his words. that's called having your cake and eating it too. and calling zionists nazis and then saying, i just buried you, dude. what is that called, dude? take a long walk off a short pier.
..awfully nice of you, paul. this is my new moniker and I'll try to hang onto it for awhile for consistency's sake. I'm listening to Brad Shepik. Cooking. I'll try to make a post here and there. I've been banned from the site 116 times already. I don't really think I was all that out of line. maybe I was. This stuff is emotional and sometimes the endless talk talk talk makes a person want to scream.
Blumenthal and Dana did not interview "10 or 12 of the dumbest jerks in Israel." They interviewed the people who were on the street that night–mostly crud, racist, chauvinist Jewish supremacists with an astonishing sense of entitlement. Even though most of them were apparently American, they clearly cared far more about Israel than they did about this country. The said part is that their views were typical of Zionist Americans. Remember the one boy complaining that Obama didn't "care about the Jews?" Why should he? His job isn't to care about Jews, Italians, Irish, Swedes or anyone else. His job is to protect the best interests of all Americans, not one group more than any other. If you think these guys were an exception to what Israelis or Zionist Americans think of the rest of us, just go back and look at what Israelis were posting on their websites after 9-11. They were delighted. They were saying, "now American knows what we go through ever day." Well, I say phooey on them. If the average American ever gets a chance to vote against these anti-American bigots, I'll be there with bells and whistles, throwing confetti in the air.
RE: "…The the only person who claims these kids are "typical" is Max…" *AN EXCERPT FROM A HAARETZ ARTICLE OF 01/27/09 ENTITLED “Police arrest Jewish teens for allegedly assaulting Arab youth in Galilee”: An Arab youth from the Galilee village of Majd el-Krum was injured lightly on Monday night after a gang of Jewish teens beat him with sticks while he was walking along the promenade in Tiberias. Police arrested eight suspects ranging from 14 to 16 years of age who are believed to have taken part in the assault. The victim, Mohammed Mansur, was rushed to Poriah Hospital near Tiberias, where he was treated for injuries sustained all over his body….. SOURCE - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059164.html
As someone wisely stated..it's bad enough to jump out of a burning building and land on someone else's back. The jews of europe landed on the backs of the Palestinians and then started BEATING them. The early zionists were in cahoots with the Nazis. That is well documented. They also exterted influence on the United States…successfully urging it not to accept jews from Russia and Europe so that they would have no choice but to emigrate to israel. The psychopath Ben Gurion—in one of the most grotesque examples of anti-Semitism imaginable, proudly declared "if i could save all the jewish children from the holocaust by sending them to England, or only half, by sending them to Israel, I'd choose the latter." ..plainly, a very sick and disturbed individual who cared about establishing a Nazi state in the desert but cared nothing for Europeran victims of Nazism. But all this amounts to arguing evolution to a creationist. You're not part of the "reality based community" as Bush derisively referred to non-insane members of society
You also need to have a look at current scholarship regarding jewish affinity for "the homeland." It has no basis in traditional Judaism. It was cooked up in the 19th century for pragmatic political reasons, then given a phony, ancient pedigree. Moreover, the whole "history" is a farce…the exodus from egypt, the unified jewish presence in the region, the twin kingdoms, the works. As a jew, I'm delighted to learn our origins are multiple, not singular and that we are NOT one people but many. To the Judeo-zombies of Israel, this truth is anathema. To each his own.
That would be fine if it were true however the fact that Phil is not the only one who knows better and for the doppler to insist it is the ranting of drunks is fine. We know better. The protocols of the elders of zion and the facts of what these jews have done all over the world by infiltration of so many races to hide themselves still would not protect them ever. There is a test I call the hoody test which I have found shows the real faces of who is and who is not. The protocols and the facts that remain will be turned ten fold on them from their own doing.
Why if the occupation moved to 67 boarders would never make any difference they do not belong there and will be expelled with anymeans and yes with millions of martyrs or nukes, then the world wide real holocaust will begin mr doppler because when a person goes out of there way to make themselves be hated as a race & religon and says they are going to israel to suit up and shoot some arabs after the arabs gave the jew a job because of his pathetic disposition with drug use it speaks volumes of natural inherited hate filled souless people who are chosen for one thing only ….to be the test of all mankind to resist and rid themselves of such a people who are so hate filled and believe they are above the laws and have the right to kill over a lie. Yes what has gone around is now comming around full circle and when the electric is non exsistant and no planes are flying weapons that will be left are the guns..do you know how many gangs in the usa there are which out number the police that want to go door to door and make them all kosher..I guess not, too bad germany and russia can't take the souless inbread bastards back, and that is not name calling just the facts.
The evil has done it self in and will not survive and neither will the usa which will be open for the native population to return to their land where ever they want. mr doppler getting a bunch of truth by booze and beer is a good thing it shows the inner feelings which would never have shown otherwise. The jews spew hatred all the time just unaware of the fact they are not saying it to another jew…I must refraine from cutting the heads off the bastards
so there was no temple in jerusalem. jews never prayed towards jerusalem. jews never said, next year in jerusalem. all this began in the 19th century. and if you were in poland in 1931, would you be glad that there is an exit route via the jewish agency or not? you have arguments, but your bottom line is foolish.
Oh, dear – you haven't received the latest memo? Mustn't use the Holocaust to justify Israel: that's basically buying into Arab anti-Israel canards (http://bit.ly/a9DAn ). ;)
Well, that 'bomb plot' turned out not to be so serious as it was hyped up to be. (And, in any case, it was supposedly aimed at an IDF fundraiser, which is somewhat different from planning to bomb a regular service…)