Let them understand that we are not in 20th-century Europe.
It is time to start calling a spade a spade.
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This is a guest essay written by Saul Goldman. You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.
How do we confront the tidal wave of antisemitism across the world?
We might begin by calling a spade a spade.
The actual origin of this phrase occurs in ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch’s “Apopthegmata Laconica” (“Sayings of the Spartans”). The original phrase was “call a fig a fig,” “call a trough a trough,” and “call a bowl a bowl”. It was rendered into the present form by 16th-century English author Nicolas Udall.
Keep in mind that telling the truth often has consequences. But if, as Joshua Hoffman wrote recently, “Israel might have to become a pariah state. So be it.” — then let it be for all the good reasons.
The truth has become an endangered value largely because of political correctness which, I believe, has evolved from the notion of the polite lie. If the truth will hurt someone’s feelings, then in this kind of morality, lying is good.
We live in a radically subjective world wherein feelings are more important than facts. We lie about everything from business to politics. Commerce is no longer based upon the better product. It is based upon the perception of a better product.
Governance is no longer based upon values. It is about what some politicians can accomplish between election cycles.
Interpersonal relationships are carried on between two personae (the aspect of someone’s character that is presented to or perceived by others) rather than two personalities.
This dissembling actually has a basis in ancient philosophical dualism; it is about the distance between appearance and essence.
Indeed, we speak of one’s persona as the projected self-image we wish people to see because either we fear revealing who we really are or we intentionally want to deceive. While our ancestors were developing a moral consciousness, Western civilization (with its roots in dualism) developed manners and etiquette, which is another example of self-presentation in which the real self remains hidden.
Jews were often described as rude because of their honesty; saying what they meant and likewise meaning what they say. Our sages described the ideal personality as “just as I am outside, I am inside” — or as people say today, “What you see is what you get.”
The divided self, however, affects not only contemporary discourse but also how we understand the world. People are no longer people; some are victims and others are oppressors. Certainly, if any of these “progressive” activists was to lie down on a psychoanalyst’s couch, we might get a better understanding of their need to identify with the oppressed.
What does all this have to do with our counter-offensive in the Muslim war against the Jews? I think that we have been held in a self-imposed censorship of political correctness. We know that alongside the battles in Gaza and Lebanon, there is another battle of ideas. This battle is essentially a rhetorical one.
It is time to talk back.
Palestinians only suffer because they provoked their own misery. Let them understand that we are not in 20th-century Europe. They attack Jews and we will fight back.
Truth: When IDF forces returned to Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank), they actually liberated the locals from the illegal Jordanian occupation. We liberated Gaza from an illegal Egyptian occupation. Had the Jews not come back to their land, the Palestinians would still be living in the same kinds of tents and shacks that their Syrian cousins inhabit.
Ask any Arab, even one from Gaza, would a sick relative of his still be around were it not for the hospital that the Jews built? Or ask the Palestinian activist physician if he would indeed be a doctor had it not been for the medical school endowed by Jews?
They are simply ingrates (ungrateful people). Our job now is simply and courageously to tell the truth.
Public relations or propaganda is based upon perception and persona rather than fact. During a stint of reserve duty many years ago, I remember a small unit was assigned to manage a violent demonstration. A news photographer caught a picture of a soldier pulling the hair of one of the student demonstrators. The camera caught a perspective but not the truth. The soldier was fully armed with his rifle at his side. But, he did not shoot the girl nor hit her with his rifle.
Instead, in order to control her and prevent her from hitting him, he merely held her by the hair; a bit uncomfortable but not harmful. However, on the 6 PM news in America and on the cover of The New York Times it appeared as an instance of “Israeli brutality.”
It is time to remind the world that the biggest colonial offenders were the Muslims. Just ask the Indians or the Spanish whether or not Muslims are colonizers. Indeed, the Muslim vision of a new Caliphate is colonial in nature. And the symbol of Islam (the sword) signals their intentions. Their incursions into Europe and America are about the idea of a world caliphate.
Calling the Jews colonialists is laughable in light of their own history. Between 1354 (when the Ottomans crossed into Europe at Gallipoli) and 1526, the Empire had conquered the territory of present-day Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Hungary. They even laid siege to Vienna in 1683.
The intervention of the Polish King broke the siege, and from then afterwards the Ottomans battled the Habsburg Emperors until 1699, when the Treaty of Karlowitz forced them to surrender Hungary and portions of present-day Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia.
Israeli hasbara (Hebrew for “public diplomacy”) has failed and the efforts of American Jewry are impotent. Donald Trump recently commented that the IDF should stop sending out videos of their targeted assassinations. It leaves a negative impression. Maybe he is right.
Maybe we should be careful of what we send. On the other hand, maybe he is not so correct. Maybe the value of image is superseded by the value of truth. And the truth is that there is no way in which Israel and Hamas can coexist.
There is a time for everything — and it is time for Hamas to go.
Years ago, I watch a series of documentary showing how Mohammad and followers raped and ravaged from the Mid East, north Africa and southern Europe, killing millions. These videos should be a must watch for all who think Israel wants to colonize. Let's start telling the truth!!
Telling the truth based on facts is imperative, but since most people now get there news from social media, they won't hear the truth. It seems that more and more we lack basic critical thinking and the human mind is very easily persuaded by lies.
Telling the truth is again, imperative, but we also need to keep our alliances, as we just saw in that Iranian attack. Many times it is chess game, and many times Israeli politicians, eg., Bibi, just doesn't know how to play or is thinking more about losing power.