In Israel two months back, a hiplooking young man at a bus stop flipped me the bird as I passed with a couple hundred people demonstrating against the evictions in East Jerusalem. That’s Israeli society. From the Guardian:
Two opinion polls suggest many Israelis want their government to continue building settlements in East Jerusalem, even if it brings a rift with the Americans.
I would just love for someone to do a poll with only one question:
Fuck Israel (YES) (NO)
I suspect our politicians would collectively soil their undergarments if they had any idea what sort of powder keg they are sitting on, with their electorate with respect to the issue of Israel.
Hell, you can just see how the so-called fourth estate is straining at the seams to contain and manipulate public opinion, to an increasingly futile effect.
Make that a global poll please. Aren’t there online services to do polls?
Yes! America must know well…They must read its ancient history from the Bible at least….They can also read Bible guides, Encyclopedias, etc…These are the reading that explains why the Jews have the right to reclaim all the Israel…
“In Israel two months back, a hiplooking young man at a bus stop flipped me the bird as”
They will have no compunction about doing much, much worse. And no problem getting a Zionist Rabbi to tell them they are blessed for doing it.
“It’s time for Americans to discover the true character of Israeli society”
Yeah, I can just see their reaction: “We could have had a paradise like that here, but those Jewish liberal bastards passed the Civil Rights laws!”
I know I’ve said this before, but it is really time for the Congressional Black Caucus to recognize Israeli racism.
Go down, Moses!
Way down in Egypt land.
Tell old Pharoah:
Let My People Go!
- Old Spiritual
But not for Arabs.
link to maannews.net
They should have got Hagee to march with them.
Lisa: Moses, ask Pharoah to let your people go.
Milhouse: Oh, now they’re my people!
But not for Arabs.
——————-
Absolutely!
“Twelve years spent looking for a job”
-Boutros Askar, a 39-year-old Christian Arab, has been unemployed in high-tech for 12 years. Askar finished his studies in computer sciences at Tel-Hai Academic College in 1996, but has never found work in the field.
link to haaretz.com
————————————
“3,000 Arab graduates looked for jobs: Only 170 found one”
-Israel’s keenness to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development presents a golden opportunity for minorities to narrow the economic gap with the Jewish population.
link to haaretz.com
———————————–
Survey: Managers think Arab candidates worthy but prefer not to employ them
-While 86% of managers in Israeli industry think there are worthy Arab candidates for management positions, 73% admit they prefer not to employ them.
Link for more of the above
link to angryarabscommentsection.blogspot.com
Many years ago, I was down at the Ferry terminal catching a boat to Seattle when I heard Hebrew. There was an Israeli family had come over from Seattle on the ferry and visiting Bummertown and Kidnap County (the county seat is the town of Poor Tortured. Inside Warshington State jokes.) Anyway, I said “Shalom, welcome to Bummertown, have a Safeway bagel.”
The family matriarch had two questions: “Are you Jewish? Have you visited Israel?”
My natural reticence and good manners prevented me from saying I wouldn’t set foot in the place if my life depended on it, so I said “Well, not yet”
She gave me a look like I was slime which had attached itself to her shoe, and demanded, “WHY NOT?” and would speak to me no longer.
True story, but please, stop me if I’ve told it before!
Oh, I think the “Israeli tourists as ambassadors” program is going to work out so well!
Yeah. That’s pretty much Israel doing the anti-occupation movement’s job for us.
“slime which had attached itself to her shoe”
you’ve really gotta watch this video, Mooser: You and Family Matriarch just may have done some begatting, right there at the ferry.
RE: “psychopathic” gods
PARENTI WRITES: “The god of the Holy Bible – so much adored in the United States and elsewhere – is ferociously vindictive, neurotically jealous, intolerant, vainglorious, punitive, wrathful, sexist, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, sadistic and homicidal.” – Michael Parenti
FROM: God and His Demons – Taking on the Religious Right, By Gregory Elich, COUNTERPUNCH, 03/24/10
LINK – link to counterpunch.org
i aM aLl thAt anD moRe, mucH morE.
be afraid,
be VEEERRRRY afraid of
(cue the duh dum daaaa)
Psychopathic god.
just read the David Sanger piece in NYT, the Israel (has another wet dream and soils the sheets) wages war on Iran war game.
remember when Greenspan said, “the theory was flawed.” Israelis have a tendency — they are so incredibly invested in their own hasbara, and so hubristically certain of their brainiac superiority, that it is impossible for them to form the thought that some other thing might happen other than the scenario they dream up.
What happens when Israel begins the raid on Iran and Americans in the US start attacking synagogues in Brooklyn, Chicago, Philadelphia? What happens when some crazed person in the US has “had enough and is not going to take it anymore,” and unloads a few automatic weapons in an American yeshiva?
Sanger’s article had no body count, and no estimate of the damage to civilian infrastructure. That alone marks the war gamers as having lost their capacity to function as human beings. Even to formulate the thought process of warring on Iran should subject these cowardly thugs to prosecution under the terms of the UN Convention Against Genocide.
this is the sort of shit that Mooser mentions from time to time, and that I wonder if some Jews fear: that crazed demogogues in Israel and their functionaries in the US are labelling ALL Jews with their label, and attempting to make all Jews complicit in the crimes of the criminal cabal that appears to be running the show in Israelworld. If Israel attacks Iran, innocent Jews will suffer. That will happen. know this. goddamn it, FEAR this, fear this and do something about it, not a la J Street by backstopping the efforts of AIPAC to subvert Obama’s presidency, but by grabbing your own out-of-control “co-people” and shaking some sense into them. Use Ian Lustick/Jabotinsky’s “pedagogic” method: kill your fellow Jews until you’ve “beat it into their heads” that they are behaving like out-of-control brutes.
this shit has to stop. Israel is out of control.
“Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.”
Okay, Psychopathic God, please tell me by what mechanism we should beat some sense into our fellow Jews? Call a general convocation, vote on a resolution and distribute it to all Jews? Publish and article in “Official Jewish Monthly”? Get the “Schmope” (that’s the Jewish Pope) to make an ex cathedra statement?
You really don’t understand the relationship between Judaism and Zionism, do you. Nor do you seem to have any idea of exactly how the Jewish religion is non-structured.
Once again, you are trying to use the concepts of Zionists and anti-Semites (and it’s amazing how they conflate) as a context. It doesn’t work that way.
Zionism exists, not because any majority or plurality or representative body, or even priestly individuals said yes, Zionism exists because there is no mechanism by which “the Jews” could have said “No”.
Again, the only reason we think of Zionism as Jewish, in my opinion, is because it’s just about the only surviving western-based set-up of it’s type extant. If we were back in the days of “self determination”, as it existed in the Balkans (and from whence the Zionists got their ideas) we wouldn’t think of Zionism as something Jewish, we would think of it as another bid for supremacy and brutal exploitation, couched in terms of “self-determination, by people who happened to be Jewish. But who are participating in a popular form of political crime, available to anyone with the resources, and the chutzpah
That doesn’t, I am quick to say, make it right, or even anything less than criminal in its execution. But it doesn’t make it Jewish.
And to look for solutions from the “Jewish community” is to play right into the hands of the Zionists. “Please don’t throw me in the brier, patch, Massa” That’s exactly where the Zionists want the solutions to Zionism to come from, the people who couldn’t manage to say “No” in the first place, nor impose their vaunted Jewish “values” on it.
There were a few (or more?) Zionists who did not want a state. See
this about Judah Magnes.
However, they were outnumbered then (1929) and may well be outnumbered now. Rabbis are often afraid to “break their rice bowls” by breaking with Israel. Media people, doubtless, as well. It’s no joke to live under a punitive coercive regime where the punishment (apart from being called “self-hating”) may be losing your job, your friends, your community. Ask Phil. Even if decent Jews constituted a majority (in USA), what good would it do if they were afraid to speak up, especially within Jewish communities. Imagine unfurling your I-love-Palestine flag in the synagogue when someone begins her pitch for Israel bonds.
There should be a Jewish pro-Palestine LOBBY. Anyone know how to start one?
Sorry, folks, the Judah Magnes link is REALLY this
Zionism exists, not because any majority or plurality or representative body, or even priestly individuals said yes, Zionism exists because there is no mechanism by which “the Jews” could have said “No”.
Utter nonsense.
I agree that Zionism is just another group of people playing the “ethnic self-determination “game of that sort of nationalism, which was advocated by Woodrow Wilson from his ivory tower. Ironically, it seems, Wilson was advocating for the same principles that ignited WW1. And, I agree with Mooser that the solution(s) can’t merely rely on the Jewish Community–or at least, those who says they are acting for that community; Mooser’s point about
being a Jew doesn’t rely on any top-down subservience–although as a practical matter, as with the Catholic Church, so the dissenting Catholics don’t seem to have any impact on the Church, dissenting Jews don’t seem to have any impact on powerful organizations, such as AIPAC or JINSA. etc.
So, I guess my question for Mooser, who I respect for his well-informed individual objectivity (except for his rascist comments blanketing all southern whites), is: Since we should not ask for solutions from the “Jewish community,” who should we look to?
“Zionism exists, not because any majority or plurality or representative body, or even priestly individuals said yes, Zionism exists because there is no mechanism by which “the Jews” could have said “No”.”
and
“we wouldn’t think of Zionism as something Jewish, we would think of it as another bid for supremacy and brutal exploitation, couched in terms of “self-determination, by people who happened to be Jewish. But who are participating in a popular form of political crime, available to anyone with the resources, and the chutzpah”
I’m trying to understand, Mooser; thanks.
When the US waged war on Iraq, I joined those protesters who tried to say NO, tried to say, Not in MY name. I was powerless. The US prides itself on granting its citizens the right to SPEAK, but it does not have the coordinating obligation or mechanism to HEAR. That’s why actions like the psychiatrist in Ft. Hood take place: at some point, after saying ‘can you hear me now’ too many times with no connecting dial tone, you take a different approach.
The other day Ellen Tauscher, a Roman Catholic — same as my background — repeated as official policy that she, apparently endorses, that Iran must submit itself to the imperialist will of the Pox Americana. It is true that this Pox is heavily influenced by Jews, but it is American. Jews don’t get inside the mouths and tongues of every American lawmaker and control the moving and wagging and word formation. Can’t blame it on the Jews. Are they Jews as Jews or zionist imperialists who happen to be Jews?
America’s gone zionist. Some Jews have gone zionist. But zionism does not equal Jewishness.
Part of my google signature:
IDEA: make Israel the 51st state — watch how fast their billions in aid will be cut!
(1 in 4 US children on food stamps — link to nytimes.com)
you don’t often see statistics on the social situation in Israel, but there is a problem of poverty in Israel, as well; iirc, about 17% function below the poverty line. Abortion is a problem as well, attributed to poor economic conditions.
There is significant crime (Jew on Jew) in Israel, and prostitution is out of control: Israel has one of the highest rates in the world of male use of prostitutes on a regular basis. Many in IDF spend time not-on-duty by getting drunk and brawling, according to Avigail Abarbenal.
welcome to the hotel Israel
such a lovely place
such a lovely place
Of all the sins of the Israeli people: giving the finger to a foreigner who comes to protest rates pretty low on the list.
“Of all the sins of the Israeli people: giving the finger to a foreigner who comes to protest rates pretty low on the list”
WJ
—————————-
You totally missed the point. It’s not the gesture itself. It’s the mentality behind it..
You bet it’s the mentality! The very idea of giving them a finger, they’ll be grabbing your hand and your whole arm I tell you! What kind of a freiermentality is that?
And the Lord said, “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have expelled the Palestinians, and have oppressed those they didn’t expelled, and they occupied what they haven’t gotten at first, and because one of them gave a finger to my faithful blogger, So I will send a fire upon Judah,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.” (Amos 2:4-5, slightly amended)
Why transpose what Jehovah said about the Egyptians to the Zionists when you can just read further on in the book exactly what His opinion of a political-religious empire based on Judaism is? Why can’t we have a King like other nations?
If I’m not mistaken, He’s pretty explicit about our failings, and from what I can see, we haven’t changed much. The Golden Calf is our Red Heifer.
Heh. You can turn on the TV anytime and see some pastor or priest interpreting the OT. How often do you see a Rabbi interpreting the NT? The OT is a Jewish work, written for Jews. The NT is viewed as a supplement to it; I guess that’s the pastor and priest excuse. Have you ever met a Jew who thinks God literally created the world in 7 days? OTH, how many Christians take this literally? A private school can select its pupils; a public school has to take in all children. How do we solve this problem?
flipped me the bird
——————
I had no idea what this could mean . I Googled it..’gave me the finger’.
I knew I’d learn stuff on this site.
Atheist, the expression is derived from the early Jewish custom of burnt sacrifices. After the dove or turkey or whatever was ritually killed and roasted, God (or His personal assistant or escort) was supposed to come get it, but He never did, and they got pretty nasty and rotten after a while. Sometimes people would take this as a sign that a sacrifice was not worthy, even to the extent of throwing the rotted, half-burnt bird back in their face (“From a guy like you, who marries a Gentile girl, He wants no gifts, you nudnik!)
Thus, the expression “flipping someone the bird” for making a derogatory gesture.
You didn’t know that?
Mooser. You made me laugh. And louder at the “nudnik” point.. Thank you..
If you had paid attention in Sunday School, instead of gaining a prize (Red and Yaller tickets?) for Scripture Knowledge by writing a list of the Kings of Judah on your shirt-cuffs, you would know these things.
Where does the phrase “flipping the bird” come from?
(Folklore/proverbial expressions)
The following, from Eric Partridge’s “Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English,” may be relevant although it makes no mention of the hand gesture. To give someone the bird is “to dismiss [him], send him about his business . . . late C. 19-20. [From] the theatre . . . In Australia, ‘give the bird’ is to treat with derision: from before 1916.” In obsolete theatrical usage (Partridge gives a date of 1883), “the bird” is defined as “a hissing of an actor,” from the sound made by geese.
(extract from the “Phrase Derivations Discussion Forum”)
link to phrases.shu.ac.uk
Durint the Korean War and the Vietnam War, American POWS captured on film after being tortured, and saying the literally tortured piece, often flipped the bird or finger. The orientals didn’t know what the gesture meant. Clearly a Western
gesture; although now the orient is more wise to the old western symbol of
utter rejection of whatever is said, and of the official speaker.
And, Mooser, what does it mean to a Gentile guy who marries a Jewish girl?