Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

Lately on OPP there has been an influx of anti-Semitic posters, most are relatively new. And to this point, a few people have objected, but not many.

This is an old article, but I think it explains much and was written by: Michael Medved the author of eleven books, including the bestsellers What Really Happened to the Class of '65?, Hollywood vs. America, Right Turns,, The Ten Big Lies About America, and 5 Big Lies About American Business.

"Many of the bitter controversies in every corner of the globe inevitably raise the same ancient question: why does the world h**e the Jews?

Whether it’s the angry international reaction to Israel’s efforts to defend itself in Lebanon, or Mel Gibson’s drunken rant in Malibu, the age-old specter of anti-Semitism refuses to disappear. With only 13 million Jews in the world – less than one fourth of one percent of the earth’s population – why does this tiny group inspire such bitter, widespread and often violent animosity?

The answer is obvious to anyone who monitors anti-Semitic propaganda from all its multifarious sources. People who express hatred, resentment or fear regarding the Jews almost always focus on charges of Jewish arrogance, elitism, aggressiveness and lust for power. According to the classic logic of anti-Semites everywhere, Jews deserve harsher treatment than anyone else because they work harder than anyone else to enshrine their own superior status. This argument suggests that the only way to answer constant Jewish demands for special treatment and privilege is to impose special limitations and restrictions on their instinctive will to dominate. According to such logic, the rest of the world must work together to cut Jews down to size; only then will they function on the same plane as everyone else. As Hutton Gibson (Holocaust-denying father of the scandal-tarnished star, Mel) revealingly declared to interviewer Steve Feuerstein: “I don’t know what the Jewish agenda is except that it’s all about control. They’re after one world religion and one world government.”

This central, primeval charge that arrogant Jews seek global dominance originates from three distinct historical factors:

1- The emphasis on the “Chosen People” concept in the Bible

2- The prominence and prosperity of Jews in most nations in which they’ve established significant communities, and

3- The startling successes of the State of Israel in the mere 60 years of its existence.

These circumstances sometimes perplex even people of good will and therefore deserve deeper consideration and explanation.

I. CHOSEN PEOPLE CONCEPT

While it’s true that the Bible speaks repeatedly of a special relationship between God and the Jews, anti-Semitic agitators have always misunderstood or distorted the essential nature of that connection. According to Scripture, the Jews have been chosen for distinct responsibilities, not for unique privileges: we accept special obligations, rather than claiming special power. In Jewish tradition, non-Jews are expected to follow just seven commandments—the Noahide laws of basic morality. According to mainstream Torah teaching, gentiles who follow these rules (don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t commit gross sexual immorality, and so forth) should be judged as righteous and assumed to earn their share in the World to Come (the afterlife). God, however, expects his covenantal people to apply far more numerous and stringent commandments to their behavior – 613 commandments, to be exact – regarding everything from food, to business ethics, marital relations, and Sabbath observance.

The concept of chosen-ness, in other words, involves a significant burden rather than privileged status —a burden reflected in the common phrase, “Ohl Malchus Shamayim” or “The Yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven,” to describe the commitment of every Jew who accepts the covenant of Abraham. Moreover, Jews remain more a “choosing people” than a “chosen people” because so many non-Jews over the centuries (and particularly in recent years) have selected Jewish identity and converted to our faith. In the US, nearly 10% of today’s Jewish population of 5.2 million counts as converts to Judaism. Though we don’t emphasize proselytizing efforts in the style of Evangelical Christians, many of the leaders of the Jewish people (including hugely significant rabbis in nearly every era for the last 2000 years) have been “Jews by Choice” --- those who weren’t born Jewish, but chose to join our people through an ancient, well-established process of conversion.

Finally, the whole idea of the “Chosen People” has never brought the assumption that God selected us for unusual political, military or even economic authority. The Bible suggests that the Jews will be “a nation of priests and a holy nation” --- not some sort of all-conquering superpower within the Middle East or the world at large. Our tradition has always defined Jewish power as spiritual, rather than practical and worldly. No Jewish leader, going all the way back to Moses and Abraham, has ever suggested that our people should dominate the world and control other nations. The Bible specifies relatively modest borders for the Holy Land, and repeatedly mentions the much larger, far more formidable empires to the south (Egypt) and to the East (Babylonia, Assyria, Persia). Even during the glory days of ancient Israel under David and Solomon the Jewish state never achieved full control of that promised territory—let alone a world-girdling empire. At that time, as with Israel today, the Jewish people sought only to live unmolested within the confines of their own cherished land, each man “beneath his own vine and own fig tree.”

II. JEWISH PROMINENCE AND SUCCESS IN THE LANDS OF THE DIASPORA

No one can deny that Jews in the United States and in many other nations recently have achieved surprising levels of prosperity and influence but any talk of Jewish “dominance” or “control” in those societies remains the province of neo-N**i propagandists. There is no significant industry or arena of endeavor – no, not one--in any nation in the world (outside of Israel) in which Jews outnumber or rule over non-Jews. Even the famous Jewish command of Hollywood is an ignorant myth concerning an increasingly international industry in which the prominence of influential Jews has actually decreased in the last seventy years. Most of the pioneering movie studios founded and owned by immigrant Jewish families have either gone out of the movie production business altogether (M-G-M) or else sold out to strikingly non-Jewish corporations (Columbia to the Japanese Sony Corporation, and 20th Century Fox to an Australian descendant of Presbyterian clergy, Rupert Murdoch). The two largest entertainment conglomerates in the world boast board chairmen who are African-American (Richard Parsons at Time Warner) and Arab American (George Mitchell at Disney) neither of whom are remotely Jewish. The yearly lists of Hollywood’s most influential power players, as identified by Premiere Magazine and other sources, regularly show that close to one-fourth of the movers-and-shakers are Jews—a disproportionate showing, to be sure, but hardly an indication of Jewish dominance. Similarly, the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest corporations features a top ten ranking that includes three oil companies with strong Arab ties and no affection wh**ever for Israel, as well as a car company (Ford) founded by one of history’s most outspoken anti-Semites, and a retailer run by conservative Christians from Arkansas (Wal-Mart)—but not a single corporation that was founded, run, or owned by Jews. Among the top 100, at most six (including Home Depot, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers) could classify in any way as “Jewish companies.” With these incontrovertible facts easy to verify for anyone with access to the internet or a library, it becomes even more difficult to explain the persistent, pernicious and utterly false belief that Jews “own” or “control” most of the world’s banks, newspapers, media companies and other important institutions. Part of the confusion involves appalling lies and misinformation: many callers to my radio show somehow believe that the Rockefellers are Jewish (they were actually German Christians who arrived in Philadelphia in 1723) or that the Rothschild family—a favorite target of anti-Semites for more than 200 years-- still dominates world banking (the family’s power actually peaked in the Napoleonic era and their influence on the global economy today is either invisible or non-existent).

There is also a tendency on the part of paranoid anti-Semites to search out a few Jewish names even in areas in which Jews play minor roles in order to triumphantly affirm the myth of “Jewish control.” Consider the case of the Bush administration and the frequent, laughably absurd charge that it’s somehow dominated by Jewish “neo-conservatives” who forced the President to make war on Iraq for the sake of Israel. In t***h, Jews remained conspicuously absent from positions of authority during the first Bush term: for the first time in more than 65 years (since the Presidency of FDR!) the President’s Cabinet (15 department heads in all) included not a single Jew. The true believers in a Neo-Con cabal invariably cite just two names who held sub-cabinet posts (Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense and Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy) and a single civilian advisor to the Defense Department (Richard Perle, of the Defense Policy Board) who doesn’t even count as an administration employee. The anti-Semites focus on these names not because of their importance (anyone who believes that Wolfowitz and Feith secretly controlled their imperious, tough-as-nails boss, Don Rumsfeld, knows nothing about Rummy) but because they happen to be Jewish. Similarly, conspir****ts like to blame Jews in the Senate for pushing us into war with Iraq, while ignoring the fact that a bare majority of the eleven Jewish Senators at the time (including such fierce anti-war advocates as Russ Feingold and Barbara Boxer) actually v**ed against the resolution authorizing war –at a time when nearly 80% of their gentile colleagues lined up on the other side to support the President in deposing Saddam Hussein.

To me, one of the most mystifying aspects of the stubborn belief in Jewish influence and power is the notion that our fractious, deeply divided, largely disaffiliated people somehow manages to get together to exert that authority. I’m a Jewish radio talk show host, and so is the appalling (and unfunny) Al Franken of Air America. We agree on nothing, and we’ve both managed to survive several very angry, bitter, public confrontations. Do Jew-h**ers believe that behind the scenes we receive the same secret memos from Jewish Conspiracy Central, or else get together in dank, shadowy rooms to study the one-hundred-year-old h**x, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”? Less than half of the U.S. Jewish population (alas!) gives to any Jewish charity, or holds membership in any synagogue, Temple, pro-Israel lobbying group, B’nai B’rith lodge, or other Jewish organization.

In this context, the almost mystical, profoundly illogical belief in “Jewish power” based on our over-representation among accountants and dentists amounts to more than a delusion; it is, in fact, a sickness.

III: ISRAEL’S SUCCESS – AND ALLEGEDLY “EXPANSIONIST” AND “IMPERIALIST” NATURE

In order to credit Islamist denunciations of an “Israeli Empire,” or worry that the perennially embattled Jewish state might indeed count as uniquely aggressive and power hungry, one must remain incurably ignorant not only of contemporary history but of rudimentary geography. The merest glance at a map reveals the incontrovertible fact that Israel remains, in every sense, a tiny nation. Egypt alone – representing only one of Israel’s twenty hostile Arab neighbors—is more than 48 times the land area of Israel. Adding together only the various Arab nations (without including other vast Islamic homelands like Iran and Afghanistan and Pakistan), the Arabs control well over 300 times the area of the New Jersey-sized Jewish state. In other words, even before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran succeeds (God forbid) in his plan to “wipe Israel from the map,” 99.7% of the Arab lands are already free of Jews.

Moreover, for nearly thirty years, Israel has been shrinking and retreating – not expanding – hardly the behavior of an aggressive empire bent on world domination. After capturing the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza and the West Bank in a defensive war in 1967, Israel returned the vast Sinai to Egypt in 1978, agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian State on most of the West Bank and Gaza in 1993, vacated its security zone in Lebanon in 2000, abandoned Gaza entirely in 2005 and, under the current Prime Minister, committed to moving out of nearly all territory in the West Bank in the near future. In retrospect, some of these moves look like horrible policy mistakes, but they unequivocally indicate that there is no basis at all to suggest that Israeli aggression accounts for contemporary anti-Semitism.

The establishment of the modern Jewish state wasn’t a cause of Jew hatred, but a response to Jew hatred—not only in Europe, but throughout the Islamic world where some 800,000 Middle Eastern and North African Jews were driven from their ancient communities and found new homes in Israel. None of Israel’s eight major wars has been about a Jewish lust for new territory. All of them have been about a beleaguered nation’s ceaseless attempts to make its citizens secure from murderous attack in the distinctly limited area of their ancestral homeland. Every Arab child in Lebanon, in Gaza, and in the West Bank could sleep sweet, undisturbed slumber as soon as tomorrow night if the adults once-and-for-all gave up their long-standing project of driving the Jews out of the Middle East.

Contrary to anti-Semitic presumptions, Israel has never demanded special privileges of any kind, but yearns (and bleeds) only for the same rights other nations enjoy: to live undisturbed beside its neighbors without unceasing attack by terrorists, m*****as and, occasionally, major armies. Montenegro, the newest member of the family of nations after a referendum this year, won independence and worldwide recognition despite the fact that more than 45% of the e*****rate opposed bringing the nation into existence, and only a bare majority claims Montenegrin (as opposed to Serbian) nationality. More than 80% of the residents of Israel are Jewish, and they have fought tenaciously for their nationhood for nearly sixty years. The desire for peaceful borders and acceptance from fanatical neighbors hardly amounts to an Israeli demand of privileged status, but the refusal to grant that recognition reflects the classical attitude of the anti-Semite: that Jews indeed deserve different treatment from all other nations on earth but in a negative, hostile and, ultimately murderous sense.

In conclusion, none of the three obsessive fears of Jew h**ers—the “Chosen People” concept, Jewish prosperity in the Diaspora, and Israel’s success (so far) in nation-building and self-defense –demonstrates in any way a push for world conquest or superior standing for the children of Abraham. How, then, can we understand the imperishable belief that Jews function as an arrogant, imperious, overbearing people? In a few words, that resentment stems in t***h from the age-old Jewish refusal to abandon our separate identity, our irreducible distinctiveness through the millennia. My friends Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin provide the most compelling exposition on this dynamic in their invaluable book, Why the Jews?, recently reissued.

In any event, the logic becomes most accessible when considered in personal, intimate terms. If a small group among your neighbors refuses invitations to worship in your churches and mosques, to eat the food you prepare in your homes, to marry your daughters, to embrace your nationalisms, or to share your enthusiasm for the ultimate, universally applicable perfection of your Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Catholic, Islamic, N**i or C*******t worldview, then it’s all but certain you will resent the members of that stubborn group – and assume that they exclude themselves from elements of your society due to an innate, obnoxious sense of superiority.

For Jews who try to remain faithful to the old covenant, there’s no choice about the unyielding refusal to assimilate and disappear—and no surprise at the angry reaction in much of the world. After all, the Bible repeatedly predicts that response. This realization doesn’t make it any easier to cope with anti-Semitism, but it does make the eternal hatred comprehensible. No matter how inconvenient or unpopular, we get our marching orders from the commandments--including the crucial and celebrated injunction to choose life, for ourselves and our people.

wuzblynd Loc: thomson georgia

Great post! I have learned to pay att.to the Jewishness of the Bible. It a book about God, his people Israel, and his son Jesus. Jews! Written by jews , to jews and about jews. Romans 3 v2 says the bible was given or untrusted to the Jew. Says it again in psalm 147 , v19. I am not Jewish but I will always stand with the Jewish people . if you want to know where we are in Gods plan then watch the jews, they are the clock.

amadeus

Because th world is not believing MESSIAH is of the JEWISH race / or that HE had come to EARTH MM years ago, HE is YAHWEH [YHWH] Most JEWS do not believe HE even came once that long ago.... SO there needs to be a great awakening among the JEWS and those who do not believe in HIM. WE are to love the JEWS and pray for them >>I do,,,,,, so many other people also, jet I am not a JEW myself...

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

Thank you so very much. Keep reading and praying, hold fast to you religion!!

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

Yes, that does set us apart, but the vast majority of Jewish people hold absolutely no animosity toward those who believe differently. In fact, should you take the time to read many of my comments, you will find that not only do I support but I defend Christianity as do every single Jewish person that I know. And do continue to pray, for others and yourself.

UncleJesse Loc: Hazzard Co, GA

Have you seen the Seinfeld episode where his Uncle Leo blames many problems in his life to anti-Semitism?

Just as there are a few in the world who for wh**ever reason, h**e Jews, there are a few Jews who believe anti-Semites show themselves when ever they get bad service at a diner or lose a business deal. Yes, there are Jews that believe their messiah will rule over the world politically and militarily as one religion and government from Jerusalem but most Jews don't really believe that but they can't shake that stereotype any more than Latino's can shake the stereotype of being extraordinarily passionate or that the Irish drink too much.

But I think there is a ring of t***h to what you wrote although it is a far cry from declaring that the whole world is anti-Semitic. The t***h is the world loves an underdog and as long as the Palestinians are kept walled-in and occupied, there will be Jewish h**ers. Yet, as long as there are Jewish h**ers, the Palestinians will be walled-in and occupied. It's a vicious cycle and I hope that some day Jews will break the cycle by taking the recommendations of Miko Peled.

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

I appreciate your comments. And of note, I am not the author of this well written article. However, of late the h**e, yes h**e, from some posters on OPP has over showed the considerate and informed posters. Read the ranting of KHH1, Anonymous, paschn, Nickolai, moldyoldy, Sicilianthing, eagleye13, and others which would make a large population of current posters on OPP who advertise their h**e..... and Uncle Leo .... he was designed to show everyone the evils of anti-Semitism and just how hurtful it is. We do not often say anything, we do not run to local police when the swastika are burned, yes it still happens, in our yards or painted on our Synagogues, and we do not fill up the local or national news about just how badly many are treated..... we just more often shrug and put one foot in front of the other and walk on. And, who will post about the newest murders in Kansas? Man K**ls 3 at Jewish Centers in Kansas City Suburb http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/14/us/3-k**led-in-shootings-at-jewish-center-and-retirement-home-in-kansas.html?_r=0..... I doubt that anyone even cares. But, if they were black????

And you suggest that we take the recommendation of Miko Peled. Please tell us what part? Give up Israel and incorporate into the Arab nation? Give up our religion? He says that we have NO RIGHTS of return. He goes beyond being a Anti-Semitic, he h**es Jews, HE IS A PALENSINIAN, perhaps not by birth, but by belief and beyond that he denies the bible!! Listen to him! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOaxAckFCuQ

One last thing, Israel and her people are not underdogs. Only Muslims refer to us as DOGS or MONKEY.

UncleJesse Loc: Hazzard Co, GA

BTW, it is not meant as a bad thing. The American saying of "the underdog" is like the story of the American Revolution, the movie Rocky (Sylvester Stallone as the boxer), Karate Kid, the movie Rudy, David versus Goliath, US hockey team win over Russia in '80 Olympics, all sorts of literature, etc. All are American's romance with the side that is expected not to win, who wins.

I didn't see Miko Peled as you did. I saw him taking the position of breaking the cycle by the Jews there making it a secular democracy with ties to neither Judiasm nor to Islam. There could still be smaller, city-states for parts of Jerusalem or for Gaza that would be separate religious oriented governments to satisfy the orthodox citizens. It seemed reasonable, then the Palestinians would not have anything to complain about except for retribution of lost land and home claims so they'd have to accept giving those claims up and just view it as the cost of losing the war.

I didn't see where anyone would give up their religion and everyone would be free to practice as they wish as it is like in the US.

I don't think there were any rights for any people to colonize any land already occupied and I think that's all he's saying. Europeans didn't have any rights to take the land from the American Indian, but they did it. So too Europeans didn't have the rights in the Levant or in South Africa but they did it. That's all history.

I think Miko's thoughts are something to consider and is likely the future, eventually. You can't wish the Palestinians would just stop hating, go away, disappear, have a change of heart and declare Israel's right to exist. So too, you can't just keep going to the rest of the world and keep complaining forever that they h**e you because the world gets Israel fatigue after many decades. The world sees many religious wars and will step in to prevent massacres but if the Palestinians ever start harping that they want their land back in a secular democracy with equal rights as Jews, you could see the world isolating Israel until it does it. That's why it would be smarter to just bring them in and get rid of an official state religion to avoid all that.

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

You are entitled to your understandings.

UncleJesse Loc: Hazzard Co, GA

That was very nice to let me write out my understandings rather than insult me for not having the same understanding as you. You are patient with me because you know I haven't lived the life of a Jew but if I had the same life experiences as you, I would see it the same way as you. So too, if we both lived the life of a Palestinian, we'd probably see it the same way as they do. I think there's a ring of t***h to what you wrote and I also think there's a benefit to understanding the thoughts of Palestinians.

I recall many many years ago in a college class there was an exchange student from Lebanon. He was a Lebanese Christian. I never understood why he told me while we were collaborating on a project that he h**es Jews. I had asked him but he couldn't give specifics. Over the years I tried to study what went on in Lebanon and I've concluded that the experience of people he knew led him to have this opinion even though he couldn't explain why. I saw recently on the news how the Palestinians just are getting more resolute on their h**e to the point where the only satisfaction they have is to have more babies to raise them to destroy Jews. That's a difficult h**e to overcome and the strategy and policy in Israel isn't thinking long-term how to cancel out the next generations of h**e. Instead, it seems as though it is escalating. Like I wrote before, it seems like a vicious cycle where the policy of protection is necessary which results in new generations of h**ers. I hope there's a way to break the cycle. That's why the idea of offering hope of equal status in a secular government seems like a potential option that would break the cycle. Being outnumbered by Palestinians and trusting them to remain peaceful with such an option is too unrealistic for Israeli's to do that overnight. There'd have to be small steps with milestones toward such a goal.

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

There is never a good reason for insults, it shows intolerance and ignorance. What you say is true, to walk in mile in another's shoes. I only know about the Palestinian problems and such through my family who lives in Israel. They are much more honest than news reporters. The big issue is Hamas, there was agreements, but Hamas broke every deal...and it has been ongoing. But, again, as you say I am not from Palestine.

BTW, did you take the time to view the link I provided? If not, I understand.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

I have no problem with Jews. I had a Jewish Grandmother (Ann Waldorf) so therefore I would have been oven material. Now those Tasmanian T**********e Vampires --- they
are a different story

She Wolf Loc: Currently Georgia

I do not believe the majority of people h**e the Jewish people. I don't. I really don't give them much thought one way or another. I believe the term anti-Semitic is used in cases where it simply does not apply. Personally, I am tired of the victim status some of the members of the Israeli government uses to justify their own horrific behavior. When your military has 21st century weapons and your so called attackers are throwing rocks or have out dated missiles that really can't do that much damage, you are committing genocide by murdering them. You can call self defense but that does not make it so.

I donate quite a bit of money to J-Street. These young people are not hung up on the same tired old issues. They want to see change for everyone. Just stop practicing apartheid against the Palestinians while at the same time crying victim and I have no problem with your government.

To have differences with the policies of a government and to h**e the people are two separate things. I don't h**e the Jewish people. As I have stated I really don't give much thought to other religions, except to believe you have the right to practice your faith in any way you see fit. You do not have the right to k**l in the name of that faith.

Blacksheep

That's all a bunch of gas. The reason Jews have been persecuted so much is because they always seem to end up running the banks and having lots of money, and are stand-offish. If you aren't Jewish, you aren't welcome to the party. That really tends to piss a lot of people off.

A good example of this attitude that had nothing to do with Jews was in Rhodesia, when it was b****s against w****s. W****s had built successful farms and businesses and the b****s wanted to take over. They were jealous of the successful w****s. So they did, they pushed out the w****s, took over everything, and the economy of course collapsed because they didn't know how to run anything. Success breeds jealousy, jealousy turns to hatred.

Jews move into some area of finance and next thing you know, Jews have taken over, simply because they're so much better at it, and everyone else gets pissed off at them and starts saying ugly things about them.

Jews don't assimilate worth a s**t. They keep themselves separate almost as much as Muslims do, and that's their downfall. If they were the lives of the party all the time, everyone would love them, but instead the stereotype of the money-grubbing Jew is an actual fact. Jews are money grubbers and we all know it.

Look at the two TV reality shows that feature Jew families: Hardcore Pawn and Pawn Stars. Pawn Stars isn't too bad, the obvious arrogance and lust for money is pretty ugly but the characters are pretty human even if they do screw with each other all the time. Hardcore Pawn, tho, is gross. Talk about greedy, cheap-ass, stingy, c***ting Jews, wow. It's like they h**e each other as much as they h**e the world, and all they want is More Profit, More Profit.

That's how the world sees Jews, and that's why the Jews are h**ed. Forget that article above and it's litany of excuses. Jews are h**ed because of how they act.

Loki Loc: Georgia

I always attributed at least some anti-Semitism to the machinations of International Bankers with names like Rothschild and Warburg, I suppose the assumption being that all Jews are somehow connected to these financiers who control governments. These people don't realize that the same bankers who financed Z*****t settlements in the Holy Land also financed the N**is and Bolsheviks. Perhaps the notion that there is some sort of nebulous, conspiratorial connection between the banksters and the average Jew is because Jews are so few in number.