Amending the Ten Commandments: Thou Shall Not Criticize Israel

The title on Haaretz front-page online few days ago read: "Zionist group bans Goldstone from grandson's bar mitzvah"

Judge Richard Goldstone is a Jewish South African internationally respected jurist who made the grave mistake of accepting to write a report on the crimes committed by Israel and Hamas during the bloody Gaza War over a year ago in which over 1500 Palestinians were killed, more than two thirds of them children and civilians.

The opinion of Goldstone has put blame on both Israel and Hamas for crimes they did. That did not fly well with either group, but Israel has a strong reach and loud mouth, supported by its loud mouth chorus allover the world that pledge loyalty to the clan more than to the truth.

so, naturally he has been vilified ever since his critical report by all pro-Israel groups. The latest and the most nauseating action against him is what triggered this posting.

He has been 'barred' by pro-Israel group from attending his grandson's bar mitzvah, a major religious event for Jewish boys indicating the coming of age. It is a very important event in the life of the boy and his family. Here are some excepts from the Haaretz article:

Judge Richard Goldstone, who authored a damning report accusing Israel of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip, has reportedly been banned by pro-Israel activists from attending his grandson's bar mitzvah in his native South Africa.
".... the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) and the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol in Sandton reached an agreement with the Goldstone family under which the judge would not be permitted to attend the synagogue service in Johannesburg next month. "
The head of South Africa's Beth Din - or Jewish religious court - told the blog the court had not been officially involved in the matter, but that he supported the move as it spoke to the sentiments of many in the community .
... Kurstag said he believed Goldstone had done "a tremendous disservice not only to Israel but to the Jewish world. His name is used by hostile elements in the world against Israel and this can increase anti-Semitic waves."

One would imagine that someone with the title of "Head of Jewish Court" would act more like a judge with some commitment to truth and honesty, and not as a head of a self-centered and bigotted clan. But obviously that is too much to expect from him.

The behavior of that group, and many pro-Israel groups demonstrated intense ethnocentric fervor that in many case cannot be distinguished from racism. Why do I say that? Because a basic element of racism is a sense of uniqueness that entitles you and your group to be judged differently compared to other groups. You feel automatically that you deserve benefits, protection and special privileges just because you belong to the 'special group'.
Frequently what accompanies that sense of you being special is the sense that the others are out to get you just because you are special.

As a result, wrongdoings you or your group may be accused of should not even be mentioned by your own group members or others, because either:

1. You simply do not commit any wrongdoings. The others are only picking on you because you are special, hence the charge of anti-Semitism against non-Jews who are critical of Israel.
2. Wrongdoings you are charged with may be true, but you did it only because the others - with their 'hatred for you and your clan' - forced you to do it.
(Remember Golda Meir saying: I hate Arabs because they make us kill their kids”).
3. And even if your clan committed wrongdoings, and even if you could not find a way to use ‘the others made me do it’ argument, no one should talk about your wrongdoings, especially your own people, because it only re-enforces for the others that you and your clan make mistakes. That may open the door to holding you accountable - something you will not accept because you are special.

The label ‘Self-hating Jew’ that Judge Goldstone received before has, for long time been the standard charge against righteous Jews who dare to speak the truth about Israel (for example, Richard Silverstein, Normal Finkelstein, Anna Baltzer, and many others - see their website link below). Even Obama’s aids, Rehm Emmanuel and David Axelrod, received that honor for apparently taking their loyalty to the USA seriously and for advising the president in a way that did not seem whole-heartedly pro occupation, pro illegal settlements and pro Arab land grab.

The so-called head of Jewish Court, Kurstag, went on to say what I think his most sick and nauseating statement:

"I understand that he [Goldstone] is a judge, but he should have had the sense to understand that whatever he said wouldn't be good and he should have just recused himself. "

If the head of a Jewish ‘court' thinks like that, you can only imagine what kind of bigoted clan he is part of.

What is worse is that by the standard that the Jewish Court head prefers, Jews everywhere should recuse themselves before making decisions that may not be in Israel favor, even if they think it is the honest and right decision to make.

If one applies that standard to our government in the US , and considering how many Jews are in our congress, cabinet, military, National Security Council, White House high position, wouldn't that tantamount accepting that Jews will always have doubtful loyalty to their homelands, with Israel receiving their primary - if not the only - loyalty they have?

Would not that be called flagrant antisemitism? Only, in this case, it has the seal of approval of a head of a Jewish Court.

Khaled

Links:
'Paranoid' Netanyahu Calls Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel 'Self-hating Jews'- Hiffington Post
Report: Zionist group bans Goldstone from grandson's bar mitzvah - Haaretz - Israel News

Web sites of Righteous Jews that regularly receive the honor of being labeled self-hating Jews for being honest:
Tikun Olam (Richard silverstein)
Jews for Justice for Palestinians
Anna in the Middle East (Anna Baltzer)
Jews Against the Occupation
Norman G. Finkelstein

Willful ignorance, like eternal victimhood, is a bliss - Part 2

Part 2 is a brief presentation of two excellent articles mentioned in Part 1 of this posting

Gideon Levi wrote recently a very interesting article about the Tennis Match events in Sweden, titled "Has anyone in Israel asked why the Swedes hate us?". It is a must-read, and it discusses the reason for pervasive and unreal sense of innocence some Israelis have, and the real anger the world outside Israel feels.

The world is always against us, period. But the world is not against us - to the contrary: The truth is that there is no other nation toward which the world is so forgiving, even today. Yes, today. Granted, world public opinion is very critical, sometimes in a way that's unique to Israel, but most governments (except Venezuela and Turkey, but including Egypt and Sweden) are far from being in sync with the public opinion in their countries. The official world continues to be sympathetic to Israel, regardless of its actions. The rise of Hamas, the increase in hatred for Islam in the West, the American hegemony - all this helps in strengthening the support, and we know how to make the very most of it.

And in a scathing criticism of the role of media manipulation in manufacturing the apparent sense of innocence amongst Israelis, he adds:

What's the difference between national tennis player Andy Ram and national tennis player Thomas Johansson? Johansson and his angry fans saw real pictures from Gaza; Ram and his complacent fans never did. Had Ram seen them, maybe he, too, would demonstrate. But he, like most Israelis, was spared this discomfort, thanks to the gung-ho Israeli press.

He is not shy of recognizing that the truth about what Israel does would lead normal people to protest the horror of what they witnessed Israel doing to the Palestinians.

Can we and Ram really criticize those who were horrified by the pictures from the war? Can we reproach those who dare to protest against the people responsible for those scenes? Are we demanding that the world remain silent once again?

A more pointed article by Akiva Eldar has an even more provoking title: "Is an Israeli Jewish sense of victimization perpetuating the conflict with Palestinians?". It reviews an academic research done in Israel on the sensitive topic of perpetual victimhood by Daniel Bar-Tal, an eminent Israeli political psychologists - probably soon to be pronounce a self-hating Jew.

Israeli Jews' consciousness is characterized by a sense of victimization, a siege mentality, blind patriotism, belligerence, self-righteousness, dehumanization of the Palestinians and insensitivity to their suffering.

"Most of the [Israeli] nation retains a simplistic collective memory of the conflict, a black-and-white memory that portrays us in a very positive light and the Arabs in a very negative one," says the professor from Tel Aviv University. This memory, along with the ethos of the conflict and collective emotions such as fear, hatred and anger, turns into a psycho-social infrastructure of the kind experienced by nations that have been involved in a long-term violent conflict..."

That study goes back in history to assess the collective memory of Israelis about what happened in 1948.

"The study demonstrated that widespread support for the official memory testifies to a lower level of critical thinking, as well as belief in traditional values, high identification with Jewish identity, a tendency to delegitimize the Arabs, and support for taking aggressive steps against the Palestinians."

Bar-Tal, while also critical of the violence committed by Hamas, sees the stance of the average Israeli as "[relying] primarily on prolonged indoctrination that is based on ignorance and even nurtures it."

In his opinion ... the general public is not interested in knowing what Israel did in Gaza for many years; how the disengagement was carried out and why, or what its outcome was for the Palestinians; why Hamas came to power in democratic elections; how many people were killed in Gaza from the disengagement until the start of the recent war; and whether it was possible to extend the recent cease-fire or even who violated it first.

The context of the Holocaust memory is a central part of the Israeli psyche:

"Nets-Zehngut and Bar-Tal find a close connection between the collective memory and the memory of "past persecutions of Jews" ("the whole world is against us," and the Holocaust). The more significant the memory of persecution, the stronger the tendency to adopt Zionist narratives. F"

The article concludes with specific statistics about the 1948 partitions and the lack of awareness of objective facts about that era by a large portion of the Israeli society.

The articles by Gideon Levi and Akiva Eldar are excellent assets for anyone that has interest in the psychology of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, and both have implications for Jewish culture outside Israel as well. This psychological aspect of the conflict is, in my opinion, the single most important obstacle to the resolution of the conflict.

From it stems most if not all the evils chronically afflicting that sad part of the world.

Khaled

Par1 1 of this posting can be found here.

Links to cited articles:

Is an Israeli Jewish sense of victimization perpetuating the conflict with Palestinians? Akiva eldar - - Haaretz - Israel News

Has anyone in Israel asked why the Swedes hate us? - Gideon Levy - Haaretz - Israel News

Innocent photo - Grave consequences

Here is a puzzle for you.

The first picture you see below: what kind of emotions does it trigger?

Want to guess what the story behind the photo is? Give it a shot, but do not peek at the text under the picture.

Let me help you a bit. Two women, one of them dressed in a white uniform taking a close look at the other woman's eye. Are you closer to a good guess?

The women look European. The hair style, dress and white uniform seem old fashioned. The colors of the photo look like faded old technicolor pictures. Got it?

If you are as ignorant as I am, you would guess this is a nurse in an eye clinic somewhere in Europe, 60 years or so ago. the nurse was probably doing some basic evaluation before the doctor comes in to examined the patient.

And, you would be close, yet very wrong.


Take a look at the full photo below. Notice the shiny metal instruments on the desk.

Give up on guessing? OK, here is the answer.

It sure was a clinic. And the 'angel of mercy' is a German nurse taking some measurements of the 'patient'. Measurements like color of the eyes, tone of the skin, and few skull dimensions.

The clinical question is 'Will the patient live or die?'

And the treatment plan? It all depends on the diagnosis, and it was one of two diagnoses.

If the measurements were 'right', the patient was deemed Aryan. And if so, they will be sent home and have a good long happy life among 'look-alike' fellow Aryans in a society where every one shared the same pure gene pool.

If the skull measurements and eye color suggested that the 'patient' was a Jew, Gypsy or Roma, then they would be sent where living was a bit less happy, and life was likely to be a lot shorter than for their Aryan fellows, such as in a slave labor camp and eventually in a concentration camp.

And, by the way, a simple identifying tattoo on the forearm of the 'impure' citizen was required, just to avoid any future confusion about what they are, and to avoid the need for future re-testing.

Now, do you still have the same feeling you had about the photo before you knew the truth?

I came across this photo in the Wikimedia Commons collection donated by the German historic archives about Germany in prewar times. I remember how neutral I was toward the photo till I read the description, then I suddenly had a knot in my stomach, and truly felt nauseous.

I guess the thought that a simple physical measurement can decide if a human must live or die, is hard to stomach.

Put yourself in that poor woman's seat. Think of your daughter's height or the shape of her skull, or your son's skin tone, and how curly his hair is. Think if any of these simple things was the major determinant of their stature in the society, the kind of school they can attend, or worse: if they must be removed from the society's gene pool for 'the benefit of the rest of us'.

Pretty easy to get nauseated and physically sick at the thought. Yet, millions have endured that: Gypsies, Jews, Roma in the 1930s and 1940s Germany, and Tutsi and Huto in 1990 Rowanda. And much more millions knew about it, and did nothing for so long.

I saw photo above for the first time about 2 months ago. I was not sure how to make a post out of it, but I knew I want to post how it made me feel, so I saved it. And just today, a Jewish friend emailed me the cartoon below, and I felt it was time to write this posting.

As for the cartoon, it speaks for itself.


Khaled

Original description of the photo (translated from German)
"Crime Rassehygienische and Biological Research Center of the National Health .- woman with a white gown (nurse Eva Justin?) In determining the color of eyes of a young woman (Gypsies / Roma?)"