H/T to Dr. Jones for this insightful…and at times, frustrating…article on the meaning of being “Pro-Israel”. I’ll post excerpts with my commentary, but the entire article can be found here.
This election has reignited an old debate: Which party is better for Israel—the Republicans or the Democrats?
MV: Please. This is a no-brainer. I could have answered this question myself and stopped reading the rest of the article. It’s well-known that Republicans care more about Israel than any one else.
Take, for example, a recent Gallup poll about Americans’ most- and least-favored nations. Israel, fairly popular with Americans, is “viewed more favorably by Republicans than by Democrats,” the survey reports. Eighty-four percent of Republicans rank it favorably, compared with only 64 percent of Democrats. This is hardly a new phenomenon: Back in 2006, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found that Republicans favored alignment with Israel over neutrality in the Israeli-Arab conflict 64 percent to 29 percent. By contrast, only 39 percent of Democrats supported alignment with Israel, while 54 percent favored neutrality. But is favoring “neutrality” less pro-Israel than favoring alignment with Israel? Does sympathizing with the terrible fate of the Palestinians make someone less supportive of Israel?
MV: I’m not buying that “neutrality” is equal to “alignment”. They are simply not the same concepts. Either you are for or you are against, period. Being neutral when faced with a nation whose people wake up every morning with the reality that this day could be the day they are driven into the sea and wiped off the map (as the most radical islamic nations have promised to do) is simply not an option. Israel needs the support of all people of good will. But it’s more than just blindly supporting them because they are small, constantly bullied and threatened, and pretty helpless against a strong-arm Islamic onslaught. It’s not just that. People need to understand their history. I can’t believe the number of people I encounter in online discussions who BELIEVE that Israel is the enemy of the Palestinians (instead of the other way around). I can’t believe how many people actually believe that the United Nations just (as one person I was discussing this issue with said to me) “ran the Palestinians off their land and gave it to the Jews to make up for the Holocaust”. Another person who said the same thing put it this way, “Europe was running the UN and they just plopped the Jews down on this land and called it Israel to appease the Jews”. Yes, this person actually said “plopped”. Of course, they both stopped responding to me when I demanded to know how it is that the Jews had been on that land for almost 4,000 years leading up to May 9, 1948. How is it that the UN–in league with Europe–”plopped” down the Jews who built the nation and were living on it 2,000 years before the Birth of Christ and 3,400 years before the birth of Mohammed (peanuts be upon him)? The Jews are in their homeland. They have a right to their homeland. They have a right to their democracy. They have a right to their culture and their way of life. They have a right to their religion. Fuck the Palestinians. They were a bunch of nomads wandering in the desert, ignorant, uneducated, and uncivilized. They were vagrants and marauders. What have they contributed to the world in the past 1,400 years?? Nothing but war and strife. Word.
Many of the people active in this group don’t just believe that the U.S. government should be more active, but also that “active” means pressuring the Israeli government toward compromises. “Like a scout forcefully helping an old lady across the street?” I asked one of its leaders. “Perhaps,” he replied. “Before she’s hit by a truck.”
MV: No. Bullshit! Why should Israel make compromises?? IT’S THEIR HOMELAND!!!!!!! What is it that these nimrods don’t understand about that?? Israel has already given up part of the Palestinian Territories to the damn Muslims, in the interest of “peace”. Is there peace? No. Israel gave up Gaza to the damn Muslims in the interest of “peace”. Is there peace? No. Now Israel is expected to partition Jerusalem–according to the wishes of George W. Bush and Condaleeza Rice, who back-stabbed the Jews at Annapolis and openly frothed and foamed about “the tragic situation the Palestinians face every day”. WHAT?? This is all bullshit. Giving up even the tiniest corner of Jerusalem to the Muslims would be a disaster and most certainly spell the near end for Israel.
In recent years, said Alan Solomont—a leading supporter of the group and a Jewish supporter of Barack Obama’s—”neocons, right-of-center Jewish leaders, and Christian evangelicals” were the people tasked with delineating the “pro-Israel” position. Obama himself expressed a similar sentiment a couple of weeks ago: “I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you’re anti-Israel, and that can’t be the measure of our friendship with Israel.”
MV: Barack Hussein Obama and his racist, elitist, grievance-mongering supporters will do nothing for Israel, you can bet your firstborn child on that. He talks some smack about how he would make sure America defends Israel when he becomes president–but his supporters (especially the self-loathing Jewish liberal ones) seen to forget that in his autobiography he stated he would “side with the Muslims” if it came down to it. Now that was not a direct reference to Israel, but he made his allegiance clear nonetheless. And also this bullshit about “pro-Likud” and Israeli politics is just a distraction. We should be pro-Israel REGARDLESS of who is running their country. Our defense of Israel should not be based on politics, period. It is a human rights issue, not a political one. Politicians are the ones making it political. But the Jews who wake up every morning wondering if a Muslim rocket will land on their house, synagogue, school or grocery store today really couldn’t give a rat’s ass about politics. They just want to live, raise their children, grow olives and live in peace. For G-d’s sake!
And it’s true: If you lower the bar enough, everybody is a friend; everybody is “pro-Israel” as long as they don’t actively agitate for Israel’s demise.
MV: It’s not true. It’s cow patties.
Jimmy Carter, one of the most vocal critics of Israeli policies and of the “Israel lobby” in America, said two weeks ago that all he wants is “to bring peace to Israel. … The security of Israel is … paramount.”
MV: More lies. Jimmy Carter is a notorious…Jew-hater and supporter of…terrorists.
The problem is that along the way the term [Pro-Israel] has been used so often—to describe so many conflicting positions—that it has become practically meaningless, more confusing than clarifying.
MV: Nonsense. Those of us who are truly pro-Israel know exactly what it means. We are not confused and don’t need to clarify a damn thing. The passion we feel for the human rights, protection of democracy, and support of culture of the nation of Israel is NOT meaningless. Their very right to exist is on the line. No other country in the world is facing this issue…except maybe the Tibetans. But that is very different because the Communist government of China is not calling for the Tibetans to be wiped off the map.
So maybe now, for Israel’s 60th birthday, there’s one last position that the “pro-Israel” camp can agree on: It is time to dump the term. Those Democrats might be right when they tell William Daroff: “We are all pro-Israel.” But Republicans are also right when they insist: “We should still talk about the specifics.” Without specifics, being “pro-Israel” is almost like being pro-great-weather or pro-tasty-food.
MV: See, that’s the thing: it’s not. Americans are NOT “all pro-Israel” and using the term does not automatically infer the same meaning when numerous people of varying religious and political opinions say it. There are plenty of Americans of all stripes who will gladly and willing say, “I’m not pro-Israel. Let Israel defend itself and handle its own problems with its neighbors. America shouldn’t get involved. We are getting in the middle of the problems between the Jews and Muslims” and on and on. There are also those who will say they are neither pro nor anti…they just don’t care.
Saying “I am pro-Israel” has a very deep meaning. Those who say it and those who hear it know what it means. This notion that we should stop using the term because it is already “assumed” to be the way Americans feel is simply not based in reality. We need to say it and we need to be proud to say it.
I Call Shenanigans on You
May 10, 2008 at 7:02 pm (Miscellaneous)
Tags: comments
This is why I have the moderation function set on my comments field: because I don’t want nasty, Jew-hating, pro-Muslim comments left anywhere near my blog. It’s like when someone comes inside your house with dog shit on their shoes.
Someone at this website and this email atworld0@gmail.com left a rude, anti-Semitic comment (which I have deleted) on my post about Israel’s 60th anniversary.
This vile little rat, who posts rants at his site calling Jews terrorists, and who has Al Jazeera in his blogroll, was apparently so inspired by my post of celebratory lauds for Israel that he posted this on his blog:
And I’m not a Christian Zionist. Dude, you’re a follower of a pedophile, rapist, and mass murderer. You shouldn’t be so smug.
Leave a Comment