Yesterday we picked up Allison Kaplan Sommer’s report for Haaretz on a debate in Israel featuring Peter Beinart and Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, among others.
Foxman did attack Beinart in a gentle and backhanded way, stating “My love and support for Israel is unconditional, it does not depend on the Israeli acceptance of my ideas. My Zionism is not in crisis because my Zionism is not conditioned on an embrace of an idealized view of what I’d like Israel to be.”
David Bromwich writes:
Imagine the head of an American civil rights organization whose job is to expose incidents of prejudice, discrimination, and flagrant abuse of power against the weak, saying at the time of the Montgomery bus boycott: “My love of my home town of Montgomery, Alabama is not conditioned on an embrace of an idealized view of what I’d like Montgomery to be.”
But Israel is more than a hometown. It is a manifestation of an ideology. A better analogy would be to the defenders of communism in the face of the horrors of Stalin & Mao. “My love and support for the Soviet Union is unconditional, it does not depend on the the Kremlin’s acceptance of my ideas. My Communism is not in crisis because my Communism is not conditioned on an embrace of an idealized view of what I’d like the Soviet Union to be.”
This analogy to the embrace of Stalin’s reign is not extreme at all. French and American communist in the 1930s through 1950s issued statements that come very close to the sentiments you satirize here. I have been aware for some time of this comparison of the “Russia firsters” to many of the Zionist supporters here in America.
Of course, during the 40s and 50s large numbers of people left the party precisely because they couldn’t stomach the USSR crap. That is happening with Israel. One could argue that J Street is the Trot splinter.
following up on bromwich’s statement -
or back in the nazi era, a german saying “My love of my homeland is not conditioned on an embrace of an idealized view of what I’d like Germany to be.”
Where’s Dershowitz to tell Foxman that he’s the neo-nazi equivalent of a blind regime supporter? :D
the zionist lie is exposed and there is no way to use wordgames to re-cloak it
I think guys like Foxman love the country Israel has become – for them its their tough guy, leather jacket wearing, motorcycle riding, non filtered cigarette smoking alter ego. I think they get off on Jews treating others poorly, it makes them feel powerful, even if indirectly.
Of course, and as Seafoid will note I’m sure, in reality, the alter ego lives with his mother and rents his motorcycle.
Oh Abe , Mr. it wasn’t a genocide, oh wait it was a genocide but the U.S. Congress shouldn’t recognize it as such Foxman. In the dictionary, for the definition of coward, it says “see Abe Foxman.”
I’m reading Peter’s book and his arguments are pretty impressive against Abe & Co.’s hypocrisies. Abe’s line is just that – nothing more than a line. No argument, no substance, nothing. No rebuttal to Peter’s points
As I read it, I’m so not worried about Peter. He’s smart, maybe too smart, and I’m sure he can hold his own in a debate, as long as he’s allowed on the stage.
I’m still amazed that people even view Abe Foxman as a legitimate force. He simply figured out a long time ago that civil rights is the lingua franca of our times, and thus he understands he will be a lot more effective hiding under the umbrella of civil rights as a minority and lobbying on behalf of ethnic interests – even, and perhaps especially, when those interests run afoul of liberal principles. His life’s work is systemically colored by a deeply cynical view of the world.
Deep down, he just doesn’t care about anyone else but Jews.
I wouldn’t call him a Jewish supremacist, because that’s too harsh. But he is certainly guilty of more than mere indifference to suffering. He has an active role in perpetuating it, because in the end, blood comes way before liberal principle to him.
And all of this is upsetting, because you can no doubt have the best interests of the Jewish people in mind and still live and act in a dignified way. Foxman, on other hand, does the complete opposite.
Foxman runs a Jewish version of Tammany Hall. He doesn’t really care about Jews- if he did he would have stood up against YESHA. What drives him is POWER. Jewish power. All that IDF crap. The jets, the missiles.
All that transience. When it falls apart who’ll be there for the poor Mizrahim and the Orthodox women ?
link to youtube.com
Foxman has not waivered or changed. His ostensible embrace of western humanitarian liberalism was always a vehicle for his own advancement and attack on the once american majority he and his sought to unseat from power. Of course he will not let his superficial american “values” interfere with his support and love for his very own racist state. Stated differently–all that stuff was just something to vex or manipulate the goyim, and now it has lost its usefulness as Israel becomes a racist state and the Foxmans occupy the postions of power in the USA.