Unfortunately, nearly all my non-Jewish friends have been influenced by the Arab propaganda about the current construct of Palestine to a greater or lesser degree. It simply is flavour of the month. The silence that they adopt towards me about the war against Hamas is deafening. It hurts. I wish that they would read this with an open mind, but I know that they will not welcome the invitation.
It is not a flavor of the month, but rather a result of a well financed, protracted and vigorously executed strategy to destroy Israel. The support for anti Israeli academics on campuses, the aggressive opposition against Israeli speakers, the BDS movement, the thousands of flags prepared for the demonstrations, combined with the massive anti Israeli and anti Semitic social media campaign by influencers didn't happened overnight. It was all in place prior to Oct 7th. Unfortunately Israel and its many supporters neglected this issue and did not properly prepared for the global impact of the war images. In the modern world short video clip is much more powerful than just thousands words.
Good point. Yours and mine can co-exist. The strategy you refer to is a major reason for the surge in anti-Semitism and vilification of Israel as a rogue state whose very existence is questioned. I have noticed on my campus and elsewhere that it is increasingly fashionable/trendy to adopt this view. Even schoolchildren here (Australia) go on protest marches with anti-Israel posters, some bearing old anti-Semitic tropes. Social media has helped make the war images part of the vilification of Israel ‘flavour of the month’. Only it will last longer than a literal month.
There have never been Palestinian nation, only few families based hamulas (clans). Historically there was never a legitimate Palestinian government or unifying entity, just few muftis dispensing often self serving Islamic "wisdoms". The Palestinian liberation movement was created by the Soviet KGB in the aftermath of the defeat of the Arab Armies by the IDF in the 6 Day war. Many of those "Palestinian" terror organizations ,PLO, PFLP, Abu NIdal group, Alliance of Palestinian Forces, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Arab liberation front etc. created by the Warsaw pact countries, and supported by the Arab countries were hostile to each other and subscribed to different ideologies. Some groups were leftist radicals some were Jihadists. Prior to that, the Arabs residing in the West Bank were part of Jordan, and those in Gaza were part of Egypt. This partially explain the corruption, the total lack of caring for each other, and even collaborating with Israel against each other. This clan based so called" Palestinian society "is simply not capable of producing a responsible and unifying productive government. The concept of two state solution is not realistic as long as there is an ongoing conflict among the various Palestinian groups and their unwillingness to come to the realization that their desire to destroy Israel might not be achievable.
I woke up this morning with a thought about the young lefties on campuses who are suddenly so pro-palestine. Could it be that since the Boomers had all the really good causes -- civil rights, women's rights, gay rights (not to mention a war to fight against against, and a sexual revolution to usher in, AND we got the 18 year old vote) -- there's nothing really juicy left to fight for or against? So they get swept up in the one thing that's always available -- anti-semitism. P.S. I'm not saying that all those movements have been entirely successful. They COULD continue the good fight for real social justice in this country. But . . . not sexy enough?
Interesting thought! In reading about Israeli history, there has always been an anti-Israel movement in liberal democracies, especially since Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Now with social media and fake news and “citizen journalists” and deep fakes, the anti-Israel movement is getting plenty more oxygen, including from Jews who have internalized antisemitism. So it’s probably a little bit of both: ever-present anti-Zionism (which we know is antisemitism in many cases) and what you said as well!
To your point, I was reminded of a musical that originated in Israel and made it to Broadway in 1971. Here's a link to the song "We're Sorry We Won It." We did it with our Temple youth group, and everyone had an eye patch on in honor of Moshe Dayan. https://archive.org/details/toliveanothersum00selt/25_Sorry_we_won_it.mp3
No. Barbaric comes from Ancient Greek & refers to foreign languages sounding (to Ancient Greek ears) incomprehensible. Bar-ba-bar-ba cf blah-blah-blah.
Another one of so many excellent articles, Joshua. I’m SO glad you came into my inbox shortly after 10.7. I don’t know what I would have done without you. Keep up your important work. 💙🇮🇱💙
Unfortunately, nearly all my non-Jewish friends have been influenced by the Arab propaganda about the current construct of Palestine to a greater or lesser degree. It simply is flavour of the month. The silence that they adopt towards me about the war against Hamas is deafening. It hurts. I wish that they would read this with an open mind, but I know that they will not welcome the invitation.
It is not a flavor of the month, but rather a result of a well financed, protracted and vigorously executed strategy to destroy Israel. The support for anti Israeli academics on campuses, the aggressive opposition against Israeli speakers, the BDS movement, the thousands of flags prepared for the demonstrations, combined with the massive anti Israeli and anti Semitic social media campaign by influencers didn't happened overnight. It was all in place prior to Oct 7th. Unfortunately Israel and its many supporters neglected this issue and did not properly prepared for the global impact of the war images. In the modern world short video clip is much more powerful than just thousands words.
Good point. Yours and mine can co-exist. The strategy you refer to is a major reason for the surge in anti-Semitism and vilification of Israel as a rogue state whose very existence is questioned. I have noticed on my campus and elsewhere that it is increasingly fashionable/trendy to adopt this view. Even schoolchildren here (Australia) go on protest marches with anti-Israel posters, some bearing old anti-Semitic tropes. Social media has helped make the war images part of the vilification of Israel ‘flavour of the month’. Only it will last longer than a literal month.
There have never been Palestinian nation, only few families based hamulas (clans). Historically there was never a legitimate Palestinian government or unifying entity, just few muftis dispensing often self serving Islamic "wisdoms". The Palestinian liberation movement was created by the Soviet KGB in the aftermath of the defeat of the Arab Armies by the IDF in the 6 Day war. Many of those "Palestinian" terror organizations ,PLO, PFLP, Abu NIdal group, Alliance of Palestinian Forces, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Arab liberation front etc. created by the Warsaw pact countries, and supported by the Arab countries were hostile to each other and subscribed to different ideologies. Some groups were leftist radicals some were Jihadists. Prior to that, the Arabs residing in the West Bank were part of Jordan, and those in Gaza were part of Egypt. This partially explain the corruption, the total lack of caring for each other, and even collaborating with Israel against each other. This clan based so called" Palestinian society "is simply not capable of producing a responsible and unifying productive government. The concept of two state solution is not realistic as long as there is an ongoing conflict among the various Palestinian groups and their unwillingness to come to the realization that their desire to destroy Israel might not be achievable.
I woke up this morning with a thought about the young lefties on campuses who are suddenly so pro-palestine. Could it be that since the Boomers had all the really good causes -- civil rights, women's rights, gay rights (not to mention a war to fight against against, and a sexual revolution to usher in, AND we got the 18 year old vote) -- there's nothing really juicy left to fight for or against? So they get swept up in the one thing that's always available -- anti-semitism. P.S. I'm not saying that all those movements have been entirely successful. They COULD continue the good fight for real social justice in this country. But . . . not sexy enough?
Interesting thought! In reading about Israeli history, there has always been an anti-Israel movement in liberal democracies, especially since Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Now with social media and fake news and “citizen journalists” and deep fakes, the anti-Israel movement is getting plenty more oxygen, including from Jews who have internalized antisemitism. So it’s probably a little bit of both: ever-present anti-Zionism (which we know is antisemitism in many cases) and what you said as well!
To your point, I was reminded of a musical that originated in Israel and made it to Broadway in 1971. Here's a link to the song "We're Sorry We Won It." We did it with our Temple youth group, and everyone had an eye patch on in honor of Moshe Dayan. https://archive.org/details/toliveanothersum00selt/25_Sorry_we_won_it.mp3
Here are the lyrics:
We're so ashamed
We really didn't mean to
Who'd think that such a thing was in the cards
Our blindfolds ready
Our throats were washed and clean you
Had nothing else to do but bring the swords
But when somebody was sharpening the knives
And everyone else was very, very still
We grew so scared we jumped up straight and closed our eyes
And *bang*, we just lashed out against our will
We're sorry we won it
We must have overdone it
We know quite well that a Jew has his place
A Jew who is a winner is a disgrace
Oh please world
Excuse us
We're asking you for forgiveness
We're awfully sorry
We're sorry we won the war
Well, now it's done
And we made some people angry
It's true that's not so very neighborly
But with all the screaming
Those terrible harangues we
Heard rumors we'd get pushed into the sea
In history the Jew is not a winner
We knew this at the Mediterranean
But faced with all that water there to drink for dinner
We lost our guts as we were stepping in
We're sorry we won it
We must have overdone it
We know quite well that a Jew has his place
A Jew who is a winner is a disgrace
Oh please world
Excuse us
We're asking you for forgiveness
We're awfully sorry
We're sorry we won the war
Well now we've learned
And we promise you quite truly
A promise we know you would not misuse
If faced with battle
From king or prince or coolie
We promise we'll do everything to lose
And once again the world can shed its tears
And cry and pray we make it out somehow
You've been just wonderful to us through all the years
We wouldn't want to spoil your pleasure now
We're sorry we won it
We must have overdone it
We know quite well that a Jew has his place
A Jew who is a winner is a disgrace
Oh please world
Excuse us
We're asking you for forgiveness
We're awfully sorry
We're sorry we won the war
Oh please world
Excuse us
We're asking you for forgiveness
We're awfully sorry
We're sorry we won the war
Fascinating article. What I find incredible, is how many individuals actually believe that a place called Palestine actually exists.
Great piece, explained with historical facts and accuracy. Education and communication are so very important.
Amazing research 🙏🇮🇱 Ps the words Barbaric and Arabic have the same letters. Is this a coincidence?
Must be a coincidence! 😝
😁
No. Barbaric comes from Ancient Greek & refers to foreign languages sounding (to Ancient Greek ears) incomprehensible. Bar-ba-bar-ba cf blah-blah-blah.
Another one of so many excellent articles, Joshua. I’m SO glad you came into my inbox shortly after 10.7. I don’t know what I would have done without you. Keep up your important work. 💙🇮🇱💙
❤️❤️❤️