Historically in Europe, Antisemitism was motivated by Christian faith and a hatred of the rich. Now globally, it's motivated by Islamic faith, a hatred of the rich, and a hatred of military might. It's a variation of the recurring theme where Jews are singled out for the sickness of the world. Who the oppressed of the world really hate i…
Historically in Europe, Antisemitism was motivated by Christian faith and a hatred of the rich. Now globally, it's motivated by Islamic faith, a hatred of the rich, and a hatred of military might. It's a variation of the recurring theme where Jews are singled out for the sickness of the world. Who the oppressed of the world really hate is America. America is the one that truly lures them to temptation, has a chokehold on the global financial system, and yields supreme military might. The Jews are just a crunchier substitute. A breakfast to get you going. No Antisemite is born an Antisemite. They arrive at it after starting out seeking fortitude against temptation, resources to be fairly distributed, and violent power to be constrained. The noble cause sits at the heart of evil.
The Israeli lobbies have an undeniably fierce influence on the US political system and US foreign policy. Many Jews acknowledge this. Many Jews themselves point out that Judaism is not a monolith. Zionist Jews arguably have more in common with Zionist Christians than with other Jews.
Some Jews cling to their persecution complex, in some cases pathologically so, because they were brought up to believe the conspiracy theory that everyone is out to get the Jews.
And there was no suggestion in your reply that in this particular case I am showing signs of a pathological clinging to a persecution complex. You were just speaking of all the other Jews that have a pathological persecution complex, right? Because you wouldn’t dream of being this rude or passive-aggressive?
The Jews are over-represented in America among the rich and powerful, anyone not seeing that is wearing a magical blindfold. But that gives rise to a nasty problem of explaining how this situation came about. If one assumes that the Jews attained this over-representation while playing by the rules, then one must arrive at the unsavory conclusion that the Jews must have some genetic or cultural advantage over the rest of us. That's a hard pill to swallow, even for me, and I'm a Jew! I disgust myself even thinking it. Much easier to believe that the Jews obtained their positions of seniority through excessive wrongdoing. Yes, that must be the truth (I'm being sarcastic).
When there is a major difference between the motivations of organizers and the motivations of participants, by definition, the participants are "useful fools".
> ChatGPT 4o: The term "useful fool" refers to someone who is unwittingly manipulated or used by a group or person to further their own agenda, often without fully understanding the larger implications or the true motives of the manipulators. This term is often used in political contexts where an individual or group is exploited to support a cause, ideology, or propaganda, even though they might not align with the manipulator's ultimate goals. <
When someone leads a chant of "from the river to the sea" the only intentions that matter are the ones of the person holding the megaphone and the organizers pulling his or her strings. The intentions of the people in the crowd are irrelevant.
> Luke 23:34: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. <
The warrant requests issued today against Hamas and Israel's leaders have my almost complete support. The one thing I'm missing is an assertion that the ICC needs to address the question of whether unconstrained use of AI in target acquisition can be considered a war crime (which I hope is the case).
Calls for divestment of university endowments from Israeli companies show a lack of understanding for how financial markets operate. The effect on Israeli companies’ ability to raise funds is most likely to be minimal, and they are already locked out of the IPO market due to investors’ risk aversion. It’s a pointless measure that does nothing to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people. It makes protestors feel accomplished but it accomplishes nothing else.
While I reject the ADL mindless protection of Israel, and lament its misguided attempt to equate critique of Israel with Antisemitism, I do view charges that it yields excessive influence in American politics as Antisemitic. It has the amount of influence that it gets away with, as protected by First Amendment. I'm a free speech advocate and I oppose the ADL's attempts to silence critique of Israel, but I also oppose unfounded innuendo that the ADL is not playing by the rules, or that it should self-censure so as to not feed Antisemitic troupes. It should be obvious that the ADL does not speak for the Jewish people. It answers only to its donors. I support its right to pursue goals that I oppose, just like any other non-profit.
Based on the kind of responses that I’m seeing on this comment section I would say that discussion of this topic is quite attractive to Antisemites. Can you critique the ADL without calling the ugly out of the woodwork? A bit of a challenge.
Historically in Europe, Antisemitism was motivated by Christian faith and a hatred of the rich. Now globally, it's motivated by Islamic faith, a hatred of the rich, and a hatred of military might. It's a variation of the recurring theme where Jews are singled out for the sickness of the world. Who the oppressed of the world really hate is America. America is the one that truly lures them to temptation, has a chokehold on the global financial system, and yields supreme military might. The Jews are just a crunchier substitute. A breakfast to get you going. No Antisemite is born an Antisemite. They arrive at it after starting out seeking fortitude against temptation, resources to be fairly distributed, and violent power to be constrained. The noble cause sits at the heart of evil.
The Israeli lobbies have an undeniably fierce influence on the US political system and US foreign policy. Many Jews acknowledge this. Many Jews themselves point out that Judaism is not a monolith. Zionist Jews arguably have more in common with Zionist Christians than with other Jews.
Some Jews cling to their persecution complex, in some cases pathologically so, because they were brought up to believe the conspiracy theory that everyone is out to get the Jews.
And there was no suggestion in your reply that in this particular case I am showing signs of a pathological clinging to a persecution complex. You were just speaking of all the other Jews that have a pathological persecution complex, right? Because you wouldn’t dream of being this rude or passive-aggressive?
The Jews are over-represented in America among the rich and powerful, anyone not seeing that is wearing a magical blindfold. But that gives rise to a nasty problem of explaining how this situation came about. If one assumes that the Jews attained this over-representation while playing by the rules, then one must arrive at the unsavory conclusion that the Jews must have some genetic or cultural advantage over the rest of us. That's a hard pill to swallow, even for me, and I'm a Jew! I disgust myself even thinking it. Much easier to believe that the Jews obtained their positions of seniority through excessive wrongdoing. Yes, that must be the truth (I'm being sarcastic).
When there is a major difference between the motivations of organizers and the motivations of participants, by definition, the participants are "useful fools".
> ChatGPT 4o: The term "useful fool" refers to someone who is unwittingly manipulated or used by a group or person to further their own agenda, often without fully understanding the larger implications or the true motives of the manipulators. This term is often used in political contexts where an individual or group is exploited to support a cause, ideology, or propaganda, even though they might not align with the manipulator's ultimate goals. <
When someone leads a chant of "from the river to the sea" the only intentions that matter are the ones of the person holding the megaphone and the organizers pulling his or her strings. The intentions of the people in the crowd are irrelevant.
> Luke 23:34: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. <
The warrant requests issued today against Hamas and Israel's leaders have my almost complete support. The one thing I'm missing is an assertion that the ICC needs to address the question of whether unconstrained use of AI in target acquisition can be considered a war crime (which I hope is the case).
Calls for divestment of university endowments from Israeli companies show a lack of understanding for how financial markets operate. The effect on Israeli companies’ ability to raise funds is most likely to be minimal, and they are already locked out of the IPO market due to investors’ risk aversion. It’s a pointless measure that does nothing to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people. It makes protestors feel accomplished but it accomplishes nothing else.
While I reject the ADL mindless protection of Israel, and lament its misguided attempt to equate critique of Israel with Antisemitism, I do view charges that it yields excessive influence in American politics as Antisemitic. It has the amount of influence that it gets away with, as protected by First Amendment. I'm a free speech advocate and I oppose the ADL's attempts to silence critique of Israel, but I also oppose unfounded innuendo that the ADL is not playing by the rules, or that it should self-censure so as to not feed Antisemitic troupes. It should be obvious that the ADL does not speak for the Jewish people. It answers only to its donors. I support its right to pursue goals that I oppose, just like any other non-profit.
Based on the kind of responses that I’m seeing on this comment section I would say that discussion of this topic is quite attractive to Antisemites. Can you critique the ADL without calling the ugly out of the woodwork? A bit of a challenge.