From The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl, June 16, 1895:
I was indifferent to my Jewishness; let us say that it was beneath the level of my awareness. But just as anti-Semitism forces the half-hearted, cowardly, and self-seeking Jews into the arms of Christianity, it powerfully forced my Jewishness to the surface. This has nothing to do with affected religiosity.
Recently neocons Eli Lake and Gabriel ("That is why Iraq is such an important cause") Schoenfeld started following us on Twitter. Guys, if you substitute neoconservatism for anti-Semitism in Herzl's formulation (and the Bush Administration for Christianity), you find me--a happily-assimilating, intermarried Jew (and like Herzl, a feature-writer) who discovered the rock of his Jewishness when you guys pushed my country to incinerate an Arab society in the name of democracy and the sanctity of Israeli occupation.
Tell me, Why shouldn't Herzl, a political visionary if ever there was one, be a role model to young integrated American Jews? Why shouldn't they respond to the real conditions of their lives, as he did when he confronted anti-Semitism, by consulting their Jewishness and coming up with new political ideas for the Middle East to replace your blueprint for permanent war?
I'm beginning to wonder if any of the Jews who write of being assimilated actually know the definition of the word assimilation. Who expects anyone to assimilate these days? But if you aren't going to assimilate, quit talking about it! You can't expect the majority to host you as you are, and then call it assimilation once you get somewhat comfortable. I'd rather Jew be straightforward than assimilate!
Of course, there is no comment regarding Muslim Arabs consulting their Islamism and coming up with new political ideas for the Middle East to replace their blueprint for permanent war. Philip Weiss, ever the bigot.
Assimilation does not mean forgetting your Jewishness. It means successfully combining your own heritage with that of your host country.
The Arab world is full of monarchies and secular dictatorships. So I don't know where you got Islamism from.
Phil isn't a Muslim Arab; why should be speak for them? Israel started all 16 wars it's been in since 1948. All of them.
What about your Jewishness have you connected to? Specifically. Torah, what?
A stroke of sinister genius on the part of political Judaism has been to portray itself as Christianity’s equal in terms of contributions to Western civilization and thus Israel as worthy of unconditional Western support, as if it is a representative and proxy for Western values. The truth is that political Judaism has always hated Christianity and Western civilization and has worked to stab both in the back at every opportunity. Weiss’ latent hatred of Christianity (as evidenced by his attempt to associate it with Bush) actually puts him to work on behalf of political Judaism in this respect: by tearing down Christianity, he’s lifting up Zionism because nature abhors a spiritual vacuum, and Bush and Netanyahu and a whole lot of Jews and goy useful idiots of authoritarian Statist left and right all comprise the Zionist ethos alternative, whether all of them know it or not. I wonder if Weiss and his lefty comrades even realizes that by waging a war against the Christian ethos and equating it to American evangelical red necks (who in reality are Zionists), he’s contributing to the Zionist agenda? The Jews among them might, sub-conciously, given their programming.
For Weiss to first broadcast to all that he’s a Jew and secondly infer his opposition to political Judaism by saying he’s anti-Zionist, but then simultaneously take gratuitous shots at Christianity and equate it to red-neckism (even though it’s one of the cornerstones of Western civilization), makes me wonder how “assimilated” he in fact is. He still clings to that instinctive anti-Christianity that was likely the result of his Jewish upbringing. All these lefty Jews seem to, as well. I’m sure that deep down, the Zionists love this about them because it comports to their long-term goals.
What about your jewishness have you connected to? Worship of a piece of land and worship of your own tribe are your God. I know there are jews who just practice religious judism, I know some of them, you aren't one of them.
Just what we needed, another comment from an ignorant poster.
American proves his ignorance once more. Why bother posting the truth for these idiots?
Ed takes the cake. Now he is throwing his best friend under the bus.
What about your Americanism have you connected to? Specifically. Eating a Ballpark hot dog or roadside hamburger once in a blue moon? Did you ever contact your congress reps regarding the muzzling of the USS Liberty survivors? Did ever serve in the US military? Did you go down to New Orleans and help after the hurricane? Did you join the ACLU defense of Frank Colin's organization when it advocated for Free Speech? Did you contact your congress reps to attempt to prevent Shub's attack on Iraq? Do you contribute regularly to NGOs set up to aid US military veterans?
PS: I did all of those things. And I ask, what the heck does Torah have to do with being a patriotic American or, for that matter, a sincere humanist? BTW, the Torah paints a picture of a zero-sum world led by a tyrannical and juvenile God. Talk about Freud's theory of projectionism, it's a perfect anthropomorphic example!
Remember "the White Man's Burden?" Manifest Destiny? WASP sense of noblise oblige (sic)? All three used the Old Testament to justify their benevolent exploitation of lesser human groups. The Torah is the original blueprint, a map for allowing predators to sleep at night. Sorry I have to do this, but it's in your own best interest; besides, God told me so. Thus sociopathic man became normal. We don't buy it anymore.
Really? Some of us have noted that Phil's chief expressed motive for doing what he does is that he's a Jew; next comes his secondary self ID, as an American (USA citizen). The logic of his many expressed articles is that his chief engine of protest is that he is an American Jew, rather than a Jewish American. Ed is obviously on his side yet Ed is merely reminding us all of what Phil himself has often directly expressed or implied. Phil has admitted that he doesn't feel as comfortable around Gentiles and so he enlists only his selected Jews in close and partnership support of his personal enterprise–kudos to Phil for his honesty. What we are left with otherwise in terms of judging the extent of Phil's assimilation as an American is his many comments and juxtapositions in context with his Wife, the Phil-described WASP. We have yet to hear anything out of the mouth of said wife on this blog. For those of us who have been in mixed Jewish-Gentile marriages we see the obvious. There are no kids, so it's clearer than it otherwise would be. Phil clearly holds the psychological high ground. Some of us can reasonably imagine what Phil's wife would say if we got her alone and she was no longer in the imbalanced relationship. This of course is true also of virtually any marriage–it's just more so in marriages such as Phil's. Given that, we at least all know that neither Phil nor his shiksa wife would ever give ismail the time of day. Not after looking at his comments…
ismail is suffering from vicarious traumatic neurosis (the lesson of the Holocaust, never again only for jews), as he lounges in the USA, protected by underpaid goys, and as goys are raped via the IRS fund disbursements for his clan both here and in Israel, and goys are still dying for his comfort, in Iraq, as it will be in Iran.
Starting to wonder if Gabriel Schoenfeld is actually Ismail.
It was a question for Phil, not a negative one, just seeking clarification of what he meant.
@ ismail, I’m not throwing anyone under the bus. I’m merely pointing out that so long as Judaism by and large conflates religion and politics (ie political Judaism), to first identify oneself as a Jew and then simultaneously declare that your working towards a post-tribal world is a contradiction. Weiss somewhat mitigates this by working against political Judaism’s Zionist incarnation. However, between his anti-Christianity (albeit soft) and his Left-Statist politics, he re-embraces a previous incarnation of political Judaic tribalism — Jewish Bolshevism. Why would any sane human being reject Zionism as intolerant, bigoted and murderous, but then embrace an ideology that is more intolerant, bigoted and murderous? Yet that’s exactly what so many of the left-wing anti-Zionist Jews are doing. I know Weiss is no Jewish Bolshevik totalitarian, but neither were a lot of the other Jews who got swept up in Communism.
It takes only one set of blueprints for a permanent war to be in action. When someone brings his own permanent war plans and execute them against you, your reaction is by no means a different version of the permanent war. In brief Muslims Arabs have no blueprint for permanent war, they just react to the one Israelis impose on them.
Even when your best friend is Jewish, you still advocating killing all of them. What a friend. Only an insane idiot thinks as you.
I remember how you and your dutch friends sat on their hands by the Serbs murdered 8000 muslims.
The AJC Attacks:
um…that's phil, 'ismail.'
"you still advocating killing all of them.” Where on earth did you get that? Do you really believe that frank dialogue unflattering to political Judaism is the equivalent of attempted murder? Only a Zionist would argue that disagreeing with him is akin to trying to kill him. The Zionist authoritarian megalomania ('How dare you disagree with my assessment; your impudence is an insult, an attack!…Genocide! Genocide!) is truly epic.
Assimilation has a definite meaning, and keeping a separate identity doesn't fit the definition. I didn't comment on what anyone should or shouldn't do, but you can't claim to be assimilated when you haven't assimilated. What's so difficult about that?