Yesterday's great report on this site from East Jerusalem contained a shrewd statement about the power of the Israel lobby. Antony Loewenstein was interviewing Yehiel Grenimann of Rabbis for Human Rights outside the protest of the seizure of a Palestinian home in East Jerusalem, when Grenimann said the following:
A lot of Jews in the Diaspora don't want to know what really goes on. They have a very powerful emotional reaction to the Holocaust– state of Israel. They are very much locked into a position Israel, right or wrong. I grew up with it and I understand it. And I think it's a tragedy.
While I don't know the full context for Grenimann's remarks, this is not just a beautiful analysis of Jewish identity. It is a political dissection of the Israel lobby. Grenimann's remarks tie into Mike Desch's view that "the myth of (U.S.) abandonment" of the Jews during the Holocaust underlies the U.S. special relationship to Israel. And when Grenimann says this delusion is "powerful" and tragic, he is suggesting the power that Jews have in America to shape U.S. policy in the Middle East. In a word, the Israel lobby. Yes it's changing. Along with Jewish identity. But in time?
Knowing more about what is going on is important. It is still possible to be committed to Israel while discouraging inhumane policies and behaviors. Its metaphorically just asking Israel to drive on the right side of the road, to figure out how to do that safely. Its faster when the rules are obeyed.
Political Judaism has utilized the Holocaust in the same manner as the Jewish Bolsheviks utilized Russian pogroms, and as the Nazis utilized Jewish Bolshevism: as a fear inducing motivational tool, as a galvanizing force, and as an incitement to extremist violence. Given the success of the Israel lobby, and of the hugely disproportionate number of Jews in the contemporary American establishment, such cynical opportunism, victimization exploitation and fear-mongering is clearly an effective short term motivational strategy, but the ultimate cost has demonstrably outweighed the benefits. Unfortunately, political Judaism’s narcissistic leadership cares mostly about its own ego, success and gratification, as its stubborn refusal to break the cycle demonstrates.
There's a difference between violation of traffic rules (acts malum prohibitum) and felonies (acts malum in se). At least there is in US and English law. Hebrew law? Well, yes it's true Israeli Jews get there faster when nobody else is allowed on the road.
Agreed, except that "the ultimate cost" is that there has been no significant cost to Israel for its occupation. That's the problem, no?
Political Judaism was allowed to run amok in the Soviet Union in its Jewish Bolshevik incarnation for decades before Stalin needed the goy to fight WWII and so appealed to Russian nationalism in part by purging a portion of his Jews from the Communist hierarchy (which goyish Russians understood to be a dedicated enemy within.) Hitler and the Nazis still extracted a toll with the Holocaust. The Jewish Zionists have been running amok in the Levant for decades, utilizing American Jewish Zionists to arrange unconditional support and underwriting to Israel. Because of this, political Islam will eventually extract a major toll on either Israel, or the U.S., (as with 9/11), and political Judaism is hoping for the latter in order to get America to undertake WWIII against Islam on Zionism’s behalf, since the post 9/11 attempts to do so with the Iraq war went awry. But these types of epic schemes ultimately never work out on political Judaism’s behalf, as one would think it would have realized after the Holocaust. “Never Again!” or “Never Learns!"?
"where money talks", today's Financial Times: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9c986efa-755c-11de-9ed5...
Greinmann is a rabbi like I am the Mufti of Islamabad.
I hate it when people throw around legal terms without knowing what they mean. Malum prohibitum means that something is illegal simply because the government prohibits it. Malum in se means that it is inherently wrong, whether the government says so or not. Many regulations (setting the heights of safety bars on stairs, etc.) are malum prohibitum, but some are malum in se (driving recklessly), A felony just means a crime with a potential sentence of one year or more in prison. Some felonies are malum prohibitum. If your 18th birthday were today, and at 11:55 PM you sleep with someone whose birthday is tomorrow, in some jurisdictions, that is (or at least used to be) a felony. Where is the inherent evil there?
From Judonia Rising: The Israel Lobby and American Society:
More from Judonia Rising: The Israel Lobby and American Society:
More from Judonia Rising: The Israel Lobby and American Society: