Allison Hoffman at Tablet does an uneven piece on Max Blumenthal, here's the best part:
Growing up, Blumenthal said, Zionism was never discussed; engaging with Jewishness meant cheering when Kevin Youkilis, a Jewish player, made it to the Boston Red Sox. He made his first trip to Israel in 2001, before the Sept. 11 attacks but after the launch of the Second Intifada, and said seeing the circumstances of the Palestinians living in Israel and the occupied territories prompted him to question Israel’s role in the conflict. After President Bush launched the War on Terror, Blumenthal said, he was upset to hear rabbis at High Holiday services drawing parallels between Israel’s fight against Palestinian militants and America’s war on al-Qaida terrorists.
“I wanted to describe myself as a liberal Zionist, but there was no way—the liberal values I’d been raised on were not compatible with Zionism,” he said.
He returned to Israel for the first time this spring after turning in the manuscript for his book, Republican Gomorrah, which will be published in September.
The piece is marred by the sly claim that Blumenthal's video work has hurt his father Sid's career in D.C. (because Sid was notioned for a job in State Department and it didn't happen). The piece offers no evidence for the alleged patricide and worse, pegs the piece to Sid's career. These are two writers, each working his own field…
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Zionism IS compatible with liberal values, if you regard self-governance as of any merit. He gets to live in the US, but CHOOSES instead to selectively criticize Zionism but not Arab or Palestinian national governance. Its odd.
There is ostriching in opposing ostriching as well.
witty says that it's the height of anti-liberalism if Palestinians don't want Jews on their land but it's very liberal for Jews to rid the land (which doesn't belong to them) of it's arab population.
Just to be consistent, Mr. Witty would also have no objection to right-wing Christians, for example, decalring the US as a "Christian State" and creating a state that accords one group based on ethnicity/religion more rights than others, including the indegenous people of the land. This exclusivity "IS compatible with liberal values", if one regards self-governance as of any merit. That said, this recalls I.F. Stone, who perceptively (in "Holy War") noted this sort of contardiction and how Zionism corrupts the huam soal: ""Israel is creating a kind of moral schizophrenia in world Jewry. In the outside world, the welfare of Jews depends on the maintenance of secular non-racial pluralistic societies. In Israel, Jewry finds itself defending a society whose ideal is racial and exclusionist. Jews must fight everywhere for their security-against principles and practices they find themselves defending in Israel."
Newsflash: the Palestinians want to establish an Islamic state, which would by definition accord one religious group more rights than others. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Pal...
You know well, that I did NOT advocate for ridding anyone of Arab population, you lying idiot.
If those that identify as French desire to self-govern, more power to them. If those that identify as Palestinian desire to self-govern, more power to them. If those that identify as Jewish (the people, not necessarily the religion) desire to self-govern, more power to them. If those that identify as civil, desire to self-govern, more power to them.
That's exactly what you mean, Witty because unless you rid the land of its Arab majority, you are NOT 'self-governing." You stress the final result–"self-governance" while ignoring the means of achieving it, which was and is, ethnic cleansing.
excellent post and excellent quote by IF Stone.
And if the Jewish people have to brutalize and dispossess the indigenous people to accomplish their aim of "self-governance" more power to them, right Witty?
Witty it was not the desire of white south africans to self govern that sparked a worldwide movement against their regime. It was the desire of white south africans to self-govern at the expense of black south africans—a majority that were turned into untermenschen and denied their fundamental rights. If you don't deny black south Africans their fundamental rights, then how–please tell me—do you arrive at white "self-rule."?? You can't–nor can you have Jewish self rule in palestine that does not come at the expense of the Arab majority. That seems pretty obvious. Now if you want to talk about the right of Jews 9or any group) to self-govern in a virgin region where there is no dispossession of native peoples involved, no one would deny that right. Unfortunately, earth hasn't many such places left.
They can self-govern all they want, they just can't do it on someone else's land.
Witty, do you understand that he was reconciling his Jewishness and Liberal values with the so-called 'Jewish State'? Of course there are other States with problems like Israel or even worse. That's superficial though. Did you not understand the CONTEXT of his comments?
I don't think that is what Witty meant. He didn't understand Max's comments though. It's about context. Of course, there are other States with problems like Israel or worse, but Max is commenting on Israel because of HIS and IT'S 'Jewishness'. This is about a Jewish liberal, reconciling HIS identity and values with a State that claims to be the 'Jewish State'.
Max Blumenthal is a shmuck opportunist w/ no journalistic credence what so ever. His videos are a sham, pure shock value, anyone can take hours of film and get whatever response they want. Who gives a shit what that kapo has to say
Yoni is a morbidly obese whore who hates the world because she can't control her metabolism.
It isn't what he meant, but it's the logical meaning of his beliefs–there couldn't be Jewish self-determination and a Jewish state in a land where the majority of the inhabitants were Arab Muslims and Christians, unless the majority of those Arabs were forced out. Witty could just defend Israel's existence on pragmatic grounds–they're there and they are no more likely to become a true secular democracy with no ethnic/religious bias than any other Middle Eastern state. It'd be nice if they did, but they won't. But Witty can't help himself–he's a true believer in the old time Zionist religion, even if it means he has to engage in doublethink.
i love the review of the Republican Gomorrah! i want to read it. yoni, you sound jealous. max's videos are great! 400,000 hits ain't nuthin'. it would be a million easy by now if it hadn't been pulled . that alone is journalistic credence. you rock max.
"Self governance" is one of those loaded phrases that seem so reasonable and non-objectionable, even laudable, until you really look more closely. In modern democracies, self-governance doesn't apply to ethnic constituencies. It applies to political ones. As for Jews having their own state, I would say that setting yourself apart from everyone else is not so much a modern concept as an ancient, tribal, anti-democratic one. It certainly doesn't represent American values. To Theodore Roosevelt, it would be an alien concept dangerous to the principles of American democracy.
this begs the question of what principle he violates and what he gets out of it.
Or at the expense of those they govern over. You can't have a "liberal" Jewish state that gives preferential treatment to Jews while ruling over non-Jews who have lesser or no rights. You wouldn't ever agree to it if the tables were turned, so its disingenuous to claim that its somehow a "liberal value" when Jews are the ones in the catbird seat.
Tell that to most of the Muslim states and to the future Palestinian state.
Zionism is many things. a cultural space. a homeland. national liberation. anti-colonialism. religious. secular. democratic. authoritarian. There are many kinds of Zionisms. And none of them whatsoever have anything to do with equality.
Do any such states constantly paint themselves as "the only democracy in the Middle East?" Do any always say they have "the most moral army in the world?" Do any of them say they have an exclusive "special relationship" with the USA to which they are entitled? And this because of "shared values?" Do any of them consistently conflate their state interests with USA interests? (Cf: "GM IS America") And would anyone in the world believe them? Do not responsible and tax-paying and donating Jewish Americans have a double reason for raising eyebrows at what is done by Israel in the name of "the Jewish people" and "the American people?"
Furthermore, even in a relatively free society, such as the USA or any state of Western Europe, no citizen's right to self-govern is without limits. This is elementary. To make this point glaringly obvious: Jeffrey Dahmer did not have a pure right of self-governance, although he acted as if he thought he did. All rights come with duties attached. A collective "self" by virtue of its multiplication beyond one individual has a corresponding reach and so incorporates more extensive duties. To make this point glaringly obvious: Nazi Germany did not have a pure right of self-governance, although it said it did as it was a recognized sovereign state. It took a world war to convince it it had over-stepped higher law. And, as lovelyisraelis said, it took a world economic war on the S African apartheid regime to convince it of higher responsibilities. For two years now the BDS movement has been growing… The world has a vested interest as a whole in not allowing any state regime total self-governance no matter what the impact on the rest of the world. Means and ends are always intertwined. Nobody begrudged Mister Dahmer his erotic fantasies, but when he enacted them he had to be caught and put down.
A kapo was a MOT who served the inhumane Nazi Regime as way to save himself, obtain relative luxuries, and its reasonable to assume the kapos rationalized their choice by saying to themselves at least they had the power to help fellow MOTs in little ways, here and there. A reasonably objective person would conclude the kapos were a needed, or at least a very useful cog in the Nazi machine. The kapos made the machine more efficient. In what inhumane machine comparable to the Nazi Regime does Blumenthal serve as a cog?
The French can self govern, they just can't do it in Germany, can they?
To the same extent that the US, which is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people from Vietnam to Iraq, paints itself as the moral compass of the world. How about they just renounce all these claims and do whatever they want? Kinda like most of the countries in the world, no?
He puts Jews in jeopardy to his own ego and his own 'career' (even though his daddy pays for it both monetarily and w/ his career). He is doing this to try to get exposure so his new book that his daddy paid for, might sell over 100 copies. Its all self promotion, he could give a shit about Jews, about Israel, about you lefties, or anything but himself.
give anyone a camera, enough time an enough of daddy's money and they can eventually find some ass hole who will say exactly what they are looking for.
Oh, so he's living off of his 'daddy' now is he? You are so petty and TYPICAL. Boring. Come up with new material, loser.
Come on, it's not that hard to find racist people in Israel – just read the comments of eitan and jake – the video merely reflects this reality
Max might be getting money from MondoLies. MondoLies collects money, probably from stupid antisemites who dont' realize they are funding a sneaky bunch of Jewish liars. See the Home Page. A bunch of losers cheating each other. Max is in the middle of it. LOLOL!!!
Daniel Patrick Moynihan was called a racist. All he did was present the facts. At that time, people didn't want to hear the facts. Eventually, he was considered a high-statesman among American Democrats. Moynihan was ahead of his time. I am doing the same. You don't like the facts? You don't want to hear criticism of Islamic society, al-Shafiq? Then maybe YOU have a problem with facts and reality. Don't blame Israel and don't call me a racist for merely presenting the truth. Even if the truth is not welcome at MondoLies.
"If those that identify as French desire to self-govern, more power to them." Right, and if those who identify as Aryan desire to self-govern, more power to them. Wait a minute. We did this experiment–in Germany in the thirties. Inviting tribes to "self govern" leads to racism and contempt for the other. Why not let everyone in any given country participate in their own government? Isn't that the real democratic solution?
jake the poisonous snake..aka the Daniel Patrick Moynihan of the Negev!
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