All this week you will hear Jewish voices lifted on behalf of Sonia Sotamayor as the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. No doubt all the dozen or so Jewish senators will vote for her confirmation. Like other minority strivers before her, Sotomayor's story resonates for American Jews because it recalls our own struggle to come inside the American establishment. Republican Arlen Specter praised diversity yesterday and said that it was wrong that it took till 1967 for a president to name a black justice to the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall. From the Times coverage of the hearing's opening day:
As he introduced her, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, choked up with emotion over her life story. Mr. Leahy compared her to Louis D. Brandeis, the first Jewish justice, and Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American justice.
On NPR yesterday, Robert Siegel openly criticized Iowa Senator Charles Grassley for his criticism of President Obama's statement that he seeks judges with "empathy." The roles in the interview/encounter were clear. The Jewish journalist was siding with an African-American president on behalf of a Puerto Rican judge; on the other side was a heartland gentile, or as they used to say in postmodernist classes, a dead white male.
I've always been mildly cynical about the Jewish support for the civil rights struggle, though I have been engaged in that struggle myself. I have always wondered what portion of the large Jewish engagement was selfish: that blacks and Puerto Ricans, being far more numerous than Jews, might serve as our surrogates in our efforts to gain acceptance in American society. We could stand up for them without having to stand up so loudly for ourselves. All the Jewish lawyers serving Paul Robeson and other civil rights heroes–they were advocating for the Jews, too.
On the one hand the Sotomayor hearings lessen my cynicism. Jews are part of the American establishment; we're privileged, and still we affirm minority rights as a keystone of modern American society. That's great. I cheered Specter's statement as an expression of liberal, blue-state culture.
On the other hand, the hearings enlarge my cynicism. All this week we will be hearing empowered American Jews praising Sotomayor– from Schumer to Specter to Franken, to Brian Lehrer on WNYC to Nina Totenberg, to Robert Morgenthau and Michael Bloomberg. Many of these Jews are also big supporters of Israel. Does it mean anything to them that in Israel, Palestinians are second-class citizens? And that several million Palestinians live in Jim Crow conditions on the West Bank, or worse, in Gaza? What does it mean that Israeli society is infused with racism, that a Barack Obama could never become prime minister in Israel–no, the Arab parties are not even invited into the governing coalitions, even as Labor breaks bread with the Jewish far right, in precisely the way that Mississippi black voters were dealt out of the Democratic Party in 1964–and that a Sonia Sotomayor would never be treated as an equal?
I have faith. The new Freedom Riders in the West Bank are stirring us all. Younger American Jews are fully aware of this hypocrisy, and that they will want no part of it.
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It will change. But, only to the extent that peace is realized. Just to pose an example of the quandry. In the last two months, Hamas has restrained from firing rockets on Israeli towns. Some attribute that to a change in intent, beyond just a temporary strategic change in tactic, or resulting from the lack of materials to construct rockets. If it results from some change in intent (hopefully in response to Obama, or even to Israel responding to Obama), really wonderful. That makes more change possible. If it results from a temporary PR tactic, then it is nearly identical to the cynical criticisms of Israeli administrations. If it results from the inavailability of bomb and rocket making materials, then it will further the awareness that Hamas seeks Israel's elimination, and Israel will grow more defensive.
"Self-interest" as the basis of compassion, is not a bad thing.
Of course Jews double-deal when it comes to ethnic politics! Do you really believe that the Jews who supported the destruction of Palestine and Palestinians at the same time they supported "civil rights" for blacks in the United States were flawed humanists with their hearts in the right place? Please! Everything about Jewish politics from immigration to either side of the Israel issue and civil rights starts and ends with ethnic concerns. What's right for Jews is often wrong for traditional America. Many Jews have no fear in stating their genetic superiority or talking about Jewish interests, and these aren't fringe people.
But Witty, that 'self-interest' gives way to HYPOCRISY. Not just your average hypocrisy, but Spanish Inquisition hypocrisy.
Thats a false and cynical conclusion. The reality is that the themes of justice are important in most civil and religious Jews' minds, and are acted on in most conditions in which there is a path to. Time, money, personal risk. Its not everybody by any stretch. It CERTAINLY is a constant theme in Phil's and my family. We come from more liberal families on the spectrum, in spite of his distrust of his parents' motivations.
Phil's family is torn by slightly different views on Plaestine, and you always threaten him with ostracism and remind him of the risks of professional failure for straying from the group. Who are you fooling? You aren't a shining example of a humanist. Your primary drive is ethnic and group, and if championing some other group that is no challenge to your group makes you look good, well, then that's just better for you. It's an old game.
Having a hard time bringing up all of the comments over at max Blumenthal's last entry on "hate" in Tel Aviv
"The Jewish journalist was siding with an African-American president on behalf of a Puerto Rican judge; on the other side was a heartland gentile, or as they used to say in postmodernist classes, a dead white male." Of course he was. The liberal/Jewish establishment doesn't even try to conceal its contempt for the "dead white males" who built this country. Nor does it do a very good job of concealing its condescension towards its minority ethnic fetish objects. Sotomayor's record isn't even relevant here. Schumer reduces the great Justice Brandeis and the mediocre Sotomayor alike to ethnic ciphers. As long as liberal Jews get to wallow in ethnic narcissism, she's served her purpose.
Weiss: “I have always wondered what portion of the large Jewish engagement was selfish: that blacks and Puerto Ricans, being far more numerous than Jews, might serve as our surrogates in our efforts to gain acceptance in American society.” Worse than the hypocrisy and the usurious nature of the liberal US Jewish establishment vis-à-vis other minorities, I have to wonder if it doesn’t actually deliberately stir up racial conflict in the US by pitting race against race to distract Americans from disproportionate Jewish power through extremist affirmative action programs — the same way the Zionists pit groups against one another in the Mideast for strategic purposes in order to distract from Israeli abuses and expansionism, and keep competing groups weak. One can learn a lot about the way political Judaism operates in the US by watching the Zionists in Israel.
If American Jews would surrender some of the massive Jewish "overrepresentation" in business, law, education and medicine in favor of non-white "underrepresentation" I might buy the we-care-for-the-little-guy argument. But they don't, or course. Never have. If you are a jewish neurosurgeon, or law professor or Supreme Court justice, or Senator you got where you are (i.e. massively overrepresented) based on hard work.and dedication, and not due to discrimination, institutional or otherwise. On the other hand, those white goyim in the fire department (as Justice Ginsburg suggests) are "overrepresented" because they discriminate. We are tired of the double standard. Very. Very. Tired. If one of those 9 or 10 way "overrepresented" Jews in the Senate wants to give up their job for a poor minority I would applaud their honesty and their commitment to racial and social justice. But it ain't going to happen, is it?
Plenty of other people built this country besides "dead white Males". People like you always complain about the power of others. You have the majority, vote in your candidates and run your agenda.
Somewhere, in an alternative universe, District Attorney Robert M. Morgathau sued the Jewish Agency and United Jewish Appeal for financing illegal settlements and confiscating Palestinian lands. This vastly accelerated the movement for a contiguous Palestinian state. After having established Palestinian rights in US courts, Robert attributed his success to the inspiration of Henry Morganthau, former Treasury Secretary, who had refused to work with Irgun terrorists or admit their representatives into the US during WWII, even under extreme pressure from the Zionist Lobby. Henry Morganthau's efforts to stem the flood of weapons smuggling from US groups to Jewish fighters in Palestine were part of his motto "nobody is above the law. Weapons smuggling and money laundering is just plain wrong…no matter who does it."
It's an old trick of the progressives. If you disagree with them on any issue your views on anything else is not valid. This is why the majority of Americans can't stomach your group and you remain small and powerless.
Please read what I actually write rather than fantasizing what "people like you" complain about.
Are you denying that whites descended from western European Christians were largely responsible for the colonizing, founding, building and running of the United States? You can make a case that that isn't the situation now, but to deny the past is just dishonest. It's funny that whites only get credit for the past when there is a gripe, and then the rainbow disappears!
dhimmi, i think he is specifically talking about the colonists because their story is similar to that of the early Zionists
There's a strong argument to be made that Jews supported universalist notions of human rights and equality on the one hand, and ethnic pluralism on the other, as a means of self-protection. At the same time, Jews were fiercely ethnocentric–no marrying out, not even eating with goyim. The professional Jews have been hoist by their own petard. In a multicultural, universalist society, Jews marry out and reject, or at least desert, their very particularist religion. All bets are off, of course, in Israel, where the Jewish pieds noirs are a majority, and (with a residue of social democracy, rapidly fading), as ethnocentric as all get-out.
Dhimmi is right. The dumb goy gets what he deserves. He took a chance by helping political Judaism enter the establishment (Scoop Jackson ushering all those Neocons into the halls of power is one tiny example) , and now that political Judaism is raping the country raw, it's the dumb goys' own fault. The Jews in Israel know how to deal with political Islam, and if Americans are too dumb to comprehend how groups who conflate religion and politics need to be dealt with, well then they lack the strength and character to keep stewardship of the country they built. It's called survival of the fittest ethnicity. The Nazis practiced it as well.
You will not see the rubber hitting the road Phil because what sparks Jewish interest is what is in the interest of the Jews. A multicultural America strengthens Jewish power. A multicultural Israel weakens Jewish power. The one thing Jews are is consistent in their own self interest…but that the rest of us were.
"I care about you because at some point I might be in the same position" is not a bad motivation.
I don't have the power to threaten Phil with ostracism. I am periodically appalled by his inferences that his parents or brothers and sisters are racist. And, you live in fantasy-land to imagine what my "primary drive" is.
The test of virtue is power — how one behaves when he has power over others, and whether he uses that power to advance the interests of the whole, or whether he uses it to advance his own narrow segment. The Founders had the opportunity to make kings, lords and noblemen of themselves, but surrendered their power to the Constitution because they recognized it was the right thing to do for the entire country, and was an opportunity for a big step down the road of evolutionary civilization. In contrast, once political Judaism gathers power for itself, it clings to it greedily and viciously. All Americans can than God the Founders were Christians instead of Jews.
Ed, you know how I feel about Christianity, the weak link, and today's multiculturalism is the logical conclusion. Take a look at Brazil, that is where we are headed. It is time to rethink the situation.
I'm sorry. You are right that you don't have the power to threaten Phil with group ostracism, but you have often reminded him that he risks career suicide if he doesn't change his views. You've done that, which is the same as reminding him that he risks ostracism from the group. As far as your primary drive goes, that is obvious. You make no bones about being a Jew first.
Agreed. The idea that empathy is in one's self-interest is not such a bad one to promote.
Ed, I don't agree that most Americans get what they deserve. Even though few people are happy with the political system, most Americans have very little chance to influence the system or elect candidates they agree with. Am I really responsible if a person says one thing while capaigning, and does something entirely different in office? Is everyone who isn't a political terrorist at this point weak and stupid?
Most people's empathy is based on self-interest – even if it is something as vain as 'making myself look / feel good'
The Dark Side of Henry Morganthau was the Plan to which he lent his name, the Morganthau Plan for Germany post WWII. Overview: In the original proposal this was to be achieved in three main steps. * Germany was to be partitioned into two independent states. (So it was not the Soviet Union's idea) * Germany's main centers of mining and industry, including the Saar area, the Ruhr area and Upper Silesia were to be Internationalized or annexed by neighboring nations. (like what Israel is doing today) * All heavy industry was to be dismantled or otherwise destroyed. (the appearance of a viable state) Henry Morgathau certainly does not deserve a place in the pantheon of great men. No one is above the law especially when he wielded it.
One other thing Ed, not all the founding father were Christians, some of them were Deists like Thomas Jefferson for instance.
Ed needs to pray about that.
More on the Henry Morgathau Plan: In occupied Germany, the Morgenthau plan lived on in the U.S. occupation directive JCS 1067 and in the Allied "industrial disarmament" plans, designed to reduce German economic might and to destroy Germany's capability to wage war by complete or partial de-industrialisation and restrictions imposed on utilization of remaining production capacity. By 1950, after the virtual completion of the by then much watered-out "level of industry" plans, equipment had been removed from 706 manufacturing plants in the west and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6,700,000 tons. In 1945 the German Red Cross was dissolved , and the International Red Cross and other international relief agencies were kept from helping ethnic Germans through strict controls on supplies and on travel. The few agencies permitted to operate within Germany, such as the indigenous Caritas Verband, were not allowed to use imported supplies. When the Vatican attempted to transmit food supplies from Chile to German infants the U.S. State Department forbade it. In early October 1945 the UK government privately acknowledged in a cabinet meeting that, German civilian adult death rates had risen to four times the pre-war levels and death rates amongst the German children had risen by 10 times the pre-war levels. In early 1946 U.S. President Harry S. Truman finally bowed to pressure from Senators, Congress and public to allow foreign relief organization to enter Germany in order to review the food situation. In mid-1946 non-German relief organizations were finally permitted to help starving German children. During 1946 the average German adult received less than 1,500 calories a day. 2,000 calories was then considered the minimum an individual can endure on for a limited period of time with reasonable health. to read more, http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Morgenthau_P...
I was being ironic, the point being that if white gentile Americans collectively decided to play by political Judaism’s rules, we’d all be Nazis instead of Americans. And Nazism is exactly the kind of reaction that political Judaism, when indulged and tolerated in the Western sphere, inspires — as we saw when the murderous Soviet Jewish Bolshevik thesis dialectically led to Hitler and the murderous Nazi antithesis. The lesson would extend to other tribalists who refuse to assimilate out of calculated and cynical ethnocentric self-advancement and money/power-grabbing in imitation of political Judaism’s successful model — for example, ethnocentric groups like La Raza (apparently of which Sotomayor is a member). America is being balkanized by these types of ethno-political tribalists, who hope to plunder it the way political Judaism has.
LeaNder don't you dare tell me those German children/people deserved it. May 7th 1945 was Germany's unconditional surrender. May 8th was V-E day
The key to climbing above the law is to delay accountability until long after it matters.
Ed, I have to disagree with you when you state that the Americans get what we deserve. Few Americans are satisfied with the political system, and even fewer have any way of changing things. How many people actually have faith in politicians? Is it my fault if a candidate does one thing as a candidate and another in office? Apparently, my interests are far different than the interests of a national politician. Am I weak and stupid because I'm not a political terrorist?
The previous post didn't show until now, so I posted again. I agree that America is being pruposely Balkanized. Anything can happen, but if we stay on the current course, it doesn't take a neurosurgeon to see that life in the U.S. could get very nasty. Unfortunately, the people who could change our course are too cowardly to do so, or seem to believe that they can triangulate forever.
Deists who had traveled through a Christian consciousness. The Lefties and other atheist-Statists want to believe one can skip such a stage of consciousness altogether, which is why they are economic materialists, just as are their soulless, money-worshipping hyper-Capitalist counterparts. Relative primates, all.
Good response Ed.
Part of the problem is the US system of government . I think that Piet Hein states the problem quite well:
"You make no bones about being a Jew first." I'm a human being FIRST, a Jew as a flavor of human being, an American as a citizen. Don't get fascist in some desparate attempt to demean.
RE: his motto "nobody is above the law" Hud Bannon: "Well, I've always thought the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner. Sometimes I lean one way and sometimes I lean the other." SOURCE – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057163/
Thanks Phil for the wonderful example of how a self-hating Jew thinks. Jews risked their lives in the civil rights movement alongside blacks and you are so poisoned by your hatred of the Jews that you think they were doing it out of self interest. You should be ashamed. Your family should be ashamed for having produced you.
Thom, have you ever wondered about how much MONEY Phil, Max and Jesse are making out of this? In some ways, they are the antisemites' classic Jew – they will do anything for money. I am working on this one… stay tuned… There were Kapos in WW II who acted the same…
BTW, in order to be a second-class citizen, you have to be a citizen. The Palestinians aren't Israeli citizens. The Israeli-Arabs, are citizens and they have the same legal rights as the Jewish citizens of Israel. As for the Palestinians, a better analogy would be: "Does it mean anything to supporters of America that in America, people who are citizens of Afghanistan don't have the same rights as American citizens?
Jews were third- and fourth-class countries in Arab countries before they were wholly kicked out of Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Morocco and many other Islamic countries. Jewish community existed in Syria for hundreds of years. Now they are non-existent. By the way, Egypt is presently kicking out all its Coptic Christians. It's not cool to complain that Arabs and Muslims are racist.
Assuming that everything you said is 100% correct, why should an average American be forced to fund Israel, excuse Israel's sins, possibly fight for Israel or take sides in any way? I really don't care what happes to you people.
You do have a sense of humor. I see you in a totally different light now!
I don't know what planet you're living on thedhimmi, but the Democrats (ie. the progressives) control teh White House, the Congress and have a filibuster proof Senate. That woudl suggest it is the conservatives that the majority of Americans can't stomach. Sorry to break it to you.
". I am working on this one… stay tuned…" Wowee, another one of Jake's conspiracy theories. Hold on to your seats folks, this one's sure to be a doozie.
Everyone does what they do out of self interest, especially when they risk heir lives. That does';t make their motivations less noble Thom. As they say, build a bridge…
It's fine to criticize Arab countries for being racist. but to suggest Arabs are racist is a generality. It's like saying all Jews are fascist, racists just because Israel is a fascist apartheid state. Surely you can see the difference Beverly.
Israeli Arabs are 3rd class citizens behind the Ashkenazim and the Sephardi. In fact, they are 4th class if you include the Ethiopian Jews. Israeli Arabs cannot marry who they want. Are not able to leave and return to the country. Cannot live in some areas.
Does that apply to all cultural and ethnic groups? Does the use of empathy apply across the board, or it is limited to perspective applied from a frozen time frame?
Judging by your collection of comments on this blog over the years, seems to me you are clearly a Jew first, a humanist second, and an American third (with an Israeli insurance policy). No need to declare you are first not an animal–animals can not write and we all know it.
So humans come in "flavors"? You a human or an ice cream scoop?
Witty's a wise Latina woman; have some traditional (only) empathy.
There's no question that the Civil Rights movement and its current legacy would have gone nowhere without the support provided then and now by whites. Nor would Israel survive without the USA's support (or even have been recognized)–and the USA is still majority white (down to 65% from 90% in 1960 and headed for national minority status fast). Affirmative action in its many forms has been at the whites' expense–especially those whites from the lower socio-economic classes; they've mostly gone along with it. The test of virtue is power. We will increasingly see what advancing ethnic power groups do with virtue, with realizing equal empathy and/or stupidity.
We all know that blacks dominate basketball because of discrimination. When the highest profile pro-team managers pick their players, if there results a disparate impact against white players the test/criteria for selection should be reevaluated; meanwhile no new players should be brought onboard any team.
True. Morganthau's plan sought to reduce Germany to a pre-industrial state, a totally agrarian society. He was all for drastic collective punishment. His plan was never officially implemented, though it was commenced and carried out by the use of Germans as actual slaves by both the Allied powers and the USSR, the former did it for over five years; the USSR continued for much longer.
The USSR ripped out every factory down to the nuts and bolts and shipped it all to red territory.
Yeah, you got a point. Organized Jewry calls assimilation "the Silent Holocaust." Zionists (and orthodox jews) have always feared assimilation at least as much as anti-semitism. Israel shows what Jewish values are when Jews have all the power.
Yes, the dots that always connect: divide and conquer in the diaspora and in the Hebrew homeland enforce a uni-culture that is Jewish in substance–with a fig leave of diversity and humanistic values to keep the welfare checks coming from the US taxpayers.
Yes, Ed nails the operative macro; many of the founding fathers were Deists, but as Ed artfully states, they all "traveled through a Christian consciousness."
Thanks Laurie, I knew the USSR robbed Germany of all industrial material and shipped it to the USSR, right down to nuts and bolts on factory floors, but I didn't know the Allied Powers did this also. LOL. You have LeaNder's number… Where would she be today if Morganthau had had his way?
For sure, Phil chose to create this blog because he knew bucking the Jewish establishment line was a sure-fire way to become a millionaire quick in the good old USA. Yeah a few idealistic Jewish kids defied their parents and risked their lives in the civil rights movement; this is not inconsistent with the fact organized Jewry supported the civil rights movement and 1965 immigration act to fracture white gentile solidarity and thus insure that the USA would never opt to be the new Nazi Germany. The Kapo analogy is silly and illogical. Kapos served the powers that were for their own self-interest. Phil would never be a Kapo. Witty for example, already is a Kapo. Thom and Jake are Kapo boot-lickers.
You betray your name in your presumption.
I disagree with that characterization of human motives. The idea that when people are charitable, they are doing it to make themselves feel good so it is actually a selfish act. I think people are capable of genuine altruism. Doing things for the good of others despite it not being in their own interests.
Israeli Arabs are free to marry whoever they want. Of course, they have to find a religious authority (in their case Islamis religious authority) willing to perform the ceremony, or get married outside of Israel. That applies to Jews and Arabs alike. Lots of Jews get married outside of Israel due to the fact that when two Jews want to marry each other in Israel there are rules about religious divorces or marrying a Cohen that are unfair to women. I empathize though. I cannot marry who I want (Jessica Alba) just because she has no idea who I am.
This article is such garbage.
I'll probably regret asking this but when did Amy Goodman ever call suicide bombings resistance?
Pitting race against race? Wow, Phil, I see why Digg classifies this as a hate site.
They got elected in fair elections. That's how we select our Senators in this country. I don't know the demographics for the individual Senators. For that matter, I don't know who all the Jewish Senators are, but I would be surprised if a single one of them got more votes from Jews than from non-Jews. I think the white firefighters had a legitimate beef. If the test was racially biased, it should be thrown out, but not just because the results were all white. In business, law, education, and medicine you get there by hard work, dedication, and aptitude. If the Jews happen to have a higher percentage than most that is because a high percentage of Jews value education.
Saying all Jews are fascists or racist because Israel is a fascist apartheid state is like saying that all Arabs are Buddhists because Saudi Arabia is a Buddhist country. Though you are right that not all Arabs are racists.
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