18 thoughts on “NY Jews Criticize Columbia Speech by Ahmadinejad – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. I agree. I think the proper response would be to Protest Ahmadinejad (personally) to appear and ask tough questions.

    If Ahmadinejad was given a platform to speak without answering questions (or moderated by a milquetoast who refused tough questions) – then the appearance should be opposed. But I am curious to hear the questions (although I expect much of them to be answered with “weasel words..”)

  2. Ahmadinejad is made out to be more than he really is. He is subservient to Iran’s clerical establishment, who are the real shot-callers in Iran. His remarks on Israel and the Holocaust are pure bluster, very much analogous to when Nikita Khrushchev said “We will bury you” during the Cold War. And even in Iran, he seems to annoy plenty of people – I’d be really surprised if he’s still on the scene in ten years’ time.

    Mark my words – this will all turn out to be much ado about nothing.

  3. new york jews, huh?………………nice.

    Oh you ARE preposterous. What should I have written “Jews who happen to live in New York City?” Trying to insinuate that I’m using an anti-Semitic canard is lower than low & you should be (but won’t be I’m sure) ashamed of yrself.

  4. here…let me help you….try this…

    Jews Worldwide oppose ahmadinejad speech at columbia university.

    since its your blog i will hold my other thoughts.

  5. Here try this:

    Republicans, Dov Hikind, New York Sun, Jewish Press, Masada2000, Bibi Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman, Elliot Abrams, Malcom Hoenlein, Abe Foxman, Alan Dershowitz, neocons, right-wing Jews & someone calling him or herself “Me” oppose Ahmadinejad speech…

    Here’s what Bollinger actually said to Ahmadinejad. And if you’d had yr way he wouldn’t have had the opportunity:

    “Frankly, and in all candor, Mr. President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions. But your avoiding them will in itself be meaningful to us. I do expect you to exhibit the fanatical mind-set that characterizes so much of what you say and do … I am only a professor, who is also a university president, and today I feel all the weight of the modern civilized world yearning to express the revulsion at what you stand for. I only wish I could do better.”

  6. With respect, “New York Jews” is a slur. I’m surprised you don’t realize that. I grew up hearing it (I’m from out West; there are very few Jews but that doesn’t stop people from having opinions about us. And “New York Jew” isn’t a nice expression).

    Also – perhaps you’ve forgotten “Hymietown”? Your comment was unfortunate and I think you should apologize to the millions of Jewish people who live in New York, and who, not so incidentally, are targets because of that. It hasn’t escaped notice that that great majority of the world’s Jewish population lives either in New York or in Israel.

    I think the whole thrust of your commentary about this matter is skewed. People SHOULD be upset about Ahmadijenad. This isn’t about being liberal or politically correct. It’s about seeing nightmares in the rear view window, nightmares come back to life once again.

    Over the past few years, judenhass has become more and more vocal, more and more politically correct. Along with that has come a deconstructionist view of history and reality itself. When a man says “there are no absolutes therefore it is acceptable to question the Holocaust’ – here I am paraphrasing Ahmadijenad – what he’s really saying is that there is no reality.

    I had arguments like this decades ago, when I was a college student. Obviously post-modernism, cubism and various other art forms and philosophies debate the nature of “reality”. But there are indeed certain facts: the earth revolves around the sun, for example. And it doesn’t do a damn bit of good to discuss whether this is true or not. The Holocaust is another fact, something that happened. Questioning it, having cartoon contests about it, along with other revisionist and just plain upside down views of history – such as one I saw in an Arab paper the other day, claiming that “well-armed Jewish militants invaded Palestine in 1948 and drove away the inhabitants so they could establish the state of Israel” – are not meant either to serve the cause of history OR that of the continued existence of the Jewish people, let alone the cause of a harmonious, creative future for this planet.

    No. These arguments are designed to hurt, they are designed to incite, they are designed to induce doubt. They feed fear, they guarantee conflict, hate and war. They are Big Lies and they should be confronted as such. At a certain point trying to argue the devil’s corner is neither interesting or enlightening. It just puts you in the devil’s corner.

    And the same is true of giving him a major platform. There is value in hearing and challenging his arguments but is that outweighed by the fact that he will undoubtedly have found adherents? I’m torn about that. On balance the fact that he was challenged is good, it’s good that he got an earful as well. But – we have a not-insubstantial neonazi movement in America. We have Holocaust deniers, serious antisemites – in my state, attacks doubled last year – attacks on people, synagogues, schools; the office of a Jewish alderman. We Jews unfortunately also have religious enemies. Israel as a state has more enemies than any other nation on this planet. There are people here in the US who actively support organizations like Hezbollah. Many on the Left seem to have lost their moral moorings, lost sight of the big picture, of historical perspectives – and apparently even their common sense; and the far Right and the “realists”, whose only real interests are power and money, are playing them, along with young, unsophisticated people, like violins. Consider this: historically, what easier way has there been to disrupt free-thinking, openminded people, to gain control of a society or a culture, than to attack a small, defenseless part of it? Jews are the traditional easy target. It doesn’t take courage to attack Jews, as Walt/Mearscheimer or Carter or other disingenuous “critics” claim. It takes courage to defend them.

    And look at it this way: when people who traditionally have stood with minorities, women, gays, and little people march with pictures of fanged Jews, when the Star of David is superimposed with mushroom clouds at “peace” rallies, when Jews are accused of 9/11 or fomenting war; when so-called leftists march with far right wing theocratic militias whose bible is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, something is seriously amiss. And we all need to stand together and fight it.

  7. “New York Jews” is a slur. I’m surprised you don’t realize that.

    I AM a New York Jew so don’t go telling me about what’s a slur & what’s not. The people shreying about Ahmadinejad speaking at Columbia are NEW YORK JEWS plain and simple. I use that expression when I’m talking about New York Jews and I was.

    perhaps you’ve forgotten “Hymietown”?

    You also are incredibly condescending. I was born long before 1988 & remember the incident quite well. But I’m not Jesse Jackson and I didn’t use that term. As I said I AM a New York Jew which entitles me to use the phrase when I choose.

    People SHOULD be upset about Ahmadijenad.

    I never said people should NOT be upset about Ahmedinejad. Bollinger was upset about him. But he thought it more important to host the Iranian and tell him to his face what he thought of him than run and hide fr. his propaganda as your side proposes.

    judenhass

    I had to Google this one. The only sites using this term for anti-Semitism are right-wing pro-Israel sites like Jihad Watch. Is that where you come from Sophia?

    Ahmadijenad – what he’s really saying is that there is no reality.

    Oooh, now you’ve gone all epistemological on us. Why don’t you keep the philosophy critiques to the professionals. Ahmadinejad is certainly NOT saying there’s no reality. He has a definite view of what reality is. Though of course the reality he sees is diff. than the one I see and certainly diff. than the one you see.

    such as one I saw in an Arab paper the other day

    You’d have us believe that you read an “Arab paper?” Which one pray tell? In Arabic?

    well-armed Jewish militants invaded Palestine in 1948 and drove away the inhabitants so they could establish the state of Israel

    The only thing that is false in that statement is that Jewish militants “invaded” Palestine though fr a Palestinian or Arab standpoint that might be something they believe. But virtually everything else in that statement is true.

    There is value in hearing and challenging his arguments but is that outweighed by the fact that he will undoubtedly have found adherents?

    If you think this guy found any adherents today at Columbia you know New Yorkers even less than you say you do, which is nil.

    Many on the Left seem to have lost their moral moorings, lost sight of the big picture, of historical perspectives

    On the contrary, it is yr side which never had any sense of historical perspective. Your side cherry picks history for the propaganda pts. it needs to make. I have perfect historical pitch I assure you regarding Jewish history. Certainly perfect compared to the patriotic pro Israel propagandists you may admire.

    Jews are the traditional easy target.

    This is a bogus statement. Jews are not easy targets. Not today and not for a long time.

  8. Holy smokes.

    With respect you are making some astonishing assumptions.

    First, I am not “from a side”. And to suggest that I’m from “jidad watch” is truly a stretch sir.

    I was raised in an idealistic household, truly Leftist in the original sense: my mother was a Socialist – she expressed support for Norman Thomas and I believe she voted for him at least once. My aunt had been a Communist. She met her husband at a Communist rally during the Depression. My grandparents had fled the pogroms, managed to start a little business and a family, then lost everything in the Crash including their house. We are all just little people who respect other little people, and as such believe in human rights, in the absolute necessity of education and the arts, and have no fear of the “the other.” We are the other. Probably you’d have to have grown up out West, as a really tiny minority, where you truly look and are different, to understand that.

    As such, as a child I was raised abhoring segregation, bigotry, the treatment of people simply because they are women, gay, foreign, different. There was plenty of evidence of that even in the Western city where I grew up: real hatred of Mexicans, a widely held view that Native Americans are sub-human; there was de facto segregation in the barrios and in the “Five Points” area. Yet it was obvious to me even as a child, being raised by an artist, that all of us have beauty within, and all of us are capable of communicating, if not via words, then via music and art and dance (which are my professions – specifically in the study and performance of Middle Eastern and North African and Central Asian arts, ahem. One couldn’t grow up hearing the cantors and feel that Arabs and Turks and Berbers are strangers! And how could one hear such beauty, see the work of people from India and Morocco and Egypt and Iran, and not want to study it and learn about it and get to know the people who made it???? )

    I was raised believing in the ideals of “to each, from each,” and they continue to make sense to me today – but along with that, there was respect for peaceful, democratic and evolutional political means. Therefore I fear totalitarianism and violence, and don’t see how Stalinism or violent revolutionary means are truly progressive. I did grow up in the 1950’s, when people were literally going hungry and there were tens and tens of millions of displaced people in the wake of WWII. There were people starving, utterly bereft, living in hopeless situations. China had become moribund and the people were dying. Russia –

    In view of that and in view of the horror stories about Czarist Russia, which I also imbided along with my mother’s milk, I could understand both the Russian Revolution and the Maoist. However the insane destructiveness of Stalin and the “cultural revolution” I found terrifying and repellant. I find the impulse toward such movements today, be they religious, culturally or politically motivated, equally frightening.

    During the Vietnam era, I was in college and participated in the demonstrations against the war. Some were frightening. One night we confronted the National Guard. It was a strange thing, standing in the floodlights under a blood red flag, confronting the guns of an army. I was truly afraid, we all were. I was with a group of medics and we were afraid they or the notoriously brutal police (in Chicago) would target our red crosses. We couldn’t sleep that night, for fear of the march downtown on the morrow.

    But even then, even when I was really just a kid, it was clear to me that some of the “revolutionaries” were no better than Nixon, not really. They were prepared to be violent, to smash and harm.

    Similarly, much of the “peace” movement today is alarming. I don’t find it edifying to see “progressives” marching with Hezbollah banners and chanting “Khybar! Khybar!” or marching around with pictures of fanged Jews and mushroom clouds superimposed on the Star of David. These are not small matters. In view of history they cannot be lightly dismissed, ESPECIALLY BY LEFTISTS.

    I am dismayed that you leapt to such conclusions about me. I don’t understand how you could hear a voice who’s been on the left all her life, who is deeply involved with and tries to build bridges to Middle Eastern culture, who believes that dialogue and compassion and reconciliation can solve problems, and assume it’s coming from Jihad Watch.

    I’m trying to tell you something here: there are a lot of diverse people and ideas in the East, and we do no honor to them by giving the Ahmadijenads or the Nasrallahs or the Hamas or the Ba’ath, our support – which many on the “new” Left appear to be doing. Alarmingly, we seem to be ignoring the dissidents, the people who ARE struggling against oppression there. We ignore the fact that there are minorities suffering and isolated; we ignore the oppression of women. It isn’t politically correct I guess, to mention it. Cultural relativism has forgiven even drastic mutiliations of women and girls; I’ve read books where it’s explained as nothing more serious than a nose job in the West. I don’t buy that.

    I do think we should respect the attempts by people who actually put their money where their mouth is and invest their lives and money in trying to help people, refugees from Afghanistan for example, or villagers in Turkey, or women in Egypt or the Swat Valley or Uzbekistan – by learning about them, helping them sell their work, and trying to bridge the gap between their world and the world of the 747 and the truck. There are people who are getting caught in the gap between centuries, as well as in the traditional cultural gap between East and West, and in the political crossfires.

    Iran is such a place. There are tribes who still go on migrations over the mountains, people who are learned nuclear scientists. Israel, tiny as it is, is another such place: there are Bedouin in the Negev whose traditional life styles are coming into conflict with attempts to tame the desert, and also are victimized – the women – by the men within their tribal groups, men who burned down a cooperative where they were making textiles to sell. So the issues are complex and manifold and it does no good to shout at people who have invested a lifetime in learning about them.

    Also, you misread me about the speech at Columbia: I stated that I was torn about the efficacy of such an event, not that I opposed it per se.

    Finally, I think you are in denial about some facts of life. You state that I don’t know New Yorkers if I think Ahmadijenad will have found supporters there – but such events aren’t local anymore – they are international. And there are people here in the America who hate and few Jews, who would use Israel as a pawn (and who have, repeatedly – along with the Palestinian people and other Arab peoples and states!); there are indeed neonazis and other racists. It is dismaying to me that the KKK and the nazis are finding common cause with the proPalestinians. That is not something that can be lightly dismissed. Nor can the element, within the proPalestinian movement, that indeed supports the utter destruction of Israel.

    That’s real and cannot be ignored even as those of us who ARE interested in real world solutions struggle to engage people in at least discussing regional and rational and non-violent possibilities, that take into consideration problems like desertization, climate change, population growth and all those other nitty gritty, boring details that sustain life! REAL leftists do think about these things because we aren’t just interested in words. We are interested in seeing that people have food, clothing, shelter, security, education, and civil and human rights. At some point, it has to be seen that propaganda and lies are enemies of progress. We shouldn’t be afraid to speak out – although it seems that when we do we are accused of being “from your side” or some damn thing, as you have so unfortunately attacked me.

    As far as the Arab paper is concerned, I do not read Arabic, though I speak a little. Languages are not my strong suit though I do try. Music and dance and visual art – those are my first languages and I struggle with words.

    But there are responsible people out there who do read and who provide good translations. One can’t simply ignore the huge body of writing in major Middle Eastern papers or on state-sponsored media, in books, cartoons, films, TV shows. One cannot just ignore incitement from pulpit, from militias, from political leaders.

    At some point one has to accept the fact that there is much propaganda in the Middle East, much judenhass (glad you found out what that means!), and so much revisionist history that it’s difficult for people growing up to know what is real and what isn’t.

    If people are told that al Yahood is evil and that Israel is a demonic creation, wicked and yes, heir to Nazi Germany, then they will of course want to attack and destroy it. Similarly, it does no good for people to ignore the suffering of the Arabs, either as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict, of the many wars that have broken out in the modern Middle East, of internal conflicts, and of their use as pawns between giant powers like the US, Europe and the Soviet Union.

    There is also a time warp that is damaging to traditional cultures and societies: we suffered from it in the West as well. So much has changed, so fast, just since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution: the world is utterly changed and people are struggling to cope with that fact alone. Unfortunately people have an alarming propensity to attack each other when they are stressed, when the means already exist to work out our problems. But we don’t seem wise enough to employ them.

    You, sir, might start by not jumping to conclusions about people who try to communicate with you.

  9. I don’t understand how you could hear a voice who’s been on the left all her life, who is deeply involved with and tries to build bridges to Middle Eastern culture, who believes that dialogue and compassion and reconciliation can solve problems,

    Your personal story is truly touching & I appreciate your sharing it. But the truth of the matter is that no matter what values you were brought up with you have retreated fr. them by fearing Ahmadinejad’s speech. A truly open, giving & caring person would be able to see him as an evil leader but acknowledge the importance of hearing what he has to say in order to rebut it. Only those who fear ideas say “shut it down.” How can you make the claim that you are building bridges when you are actually dismantling them? I am not afraid of radical Islam because I know my ideas are better. His ideas will not stand the test of history. Mine will.

    You do not need to lecture me about what the left’s moral responsibilities are. Only someone who has retreated fr. the values of the left gives lectures about how the left has abandoned its responsibilities. The world seems to have traumatized you & you seem to want to retreat into a protective cocoon. I know I have not abandoned my responsibilities. If you want to lecture people about their inadequacies this isn’t the place to do it.

    And in general I don’t approve of essay length comments here. I strongly urge you to create yr own blog. You seem to have lots of things to say. I don’t agree with many of them. But the place to write long monographs is yr own blog.

    we do no honor to them by giving the Ahmadijenads or the Nasrallahs or the Hamas or the Ba’ath, our support

    I am not doing this. Again your comments are misplaced. If there are people doing this you should be making these comments elsewhere, not here. But really, you claim to be making bridges to other religions & cultures in the Middle East yet you excoriate the very movements that are in the center of countries like Iran, Lebanon, Syria or Palestine. How can you build a bridge to a movement like Hamas which represents half of all Palestinians when you see it as pure evil? I am not saying that I support Hamas. But at least I understand that it must be part of the solution, rather than only the problem.

    Cultural relativism

    When you use a neocon term like this how can you possibly see yrself as a member of the left? Perhaps “former left.” But I have no idea what this term means. It is a pejorative used by people who wish to excoriate their political enemies. To me, cultural relativisim is the cry of those who believe that western values are superior to all others and should be imposed on those who don’t share them. It’s the Bushite cry for Mideast democracy at all costs. In short, it’s a deluded failure.

    there are responsible people out there who do read and who provide good translations.

    Yes, “responsible” people like Debka, CAMERA & MEMRI where you undoubtedly “read” the Arab paper you claim to have “read.” What you don’t realize is that by imbibing their propaganda you are not imbibing Arab reality. You are imbibing only that portion of reality which the propagandists working for those groups wish you to see. So do tell us which of those propaganda outfits’ translations (which are often inaccurate btw) were you reading?

  10. Man, when the Sun agrees w. you you know you’ve either sold out, they’ve come to their senses or the Moshiach is about to arrive (well, I guess in this case none of those are true, but it IS remarkable & will not happen again for at least another millenium if I & they last that long).

  11. Again, you are leaping to conclusions, this time about my sources. I don’t read Debka as a rule. CAMERA and MEMRI, on the other hand, shouldn’t be lightly dismissed. They back themselves up. I haven’t seen honest refutations of their work.

    Beyond that there are lots of Arab papers published IN ENGLISH, where you can read articles and essays and editorials. This is also true of Iranian papers. And, there are a lot of blogs, also in English.

    People do not have to rely upon translations to see the ideas therein, they don’t have to have translations to see vile cartoons that echo the worst of the Nazis, and it’s sheer denial at best to claim that this is the case. There was an excellent program a few months ago on PBS, detailing the shocking rise of antisemitism in the Middle East. (I sometimes use the word “judenhass” because the term “antisemitism” is often either misunderstood or deliberately abused in discussions about the Middle East.) Scholars like the German historian Matthais Kuntzel, and others before him, have written about the pernicious influence of European antisemitism on Middle Eastern culture. This is an exacerbating factor in the Arab-Israeli conflict and can’t be ignored or brushed aside. I feel it most certainly is incumbent upon people not to declare that this is a figment of MEMRI’s imagination because it isn’t, and it was a factor as early as the 1920’s, and has had terrible ramifications. Unless it’s honestly confronted, there will continue to be conflict and war when peaceful, rational solutions are available.

    Moreover the rise of antisemitism in Europe and in the US can’t be ignored either. In Europe it’s quite drastic, in the US went down somewhat last year – but not in my state. In my state attacks and desecrations doubled in one year – in my neighborhood alone overtly Jewish, ie Jews wearing distinguishing dress or hair, etc, have been attacked, a Jewish alderman’s office was desecrated, synagogues have been defaced, even firebombed.

    I think the Left most certainly has a responsibility NOT to call people who discuss these issues “right wing”, especially when they are Left wing; but rather to listen to what is happening. The same is true of what is occuring on campuses (I have first hand experience with that too – I hear what my students are being told, some by teachers, some by fellow students.)

    Similarly, calling me a “neocon” isn’t answering my argument, it’s just putting me down. That’s a kind of cop-out, isn’t it?

    Real feminists defend real women, regardless of where they live, and I’m a real feminist, and have the scars to prove it, sir. “Cultural relativism” says I shouldn’t care, it says I should respect “indigenous cultures” more than people. It says honor killings shouldn’t be a matter of concern, religious oppression shouldn’t be a matter of concern, death threats against artists should’t worry me, and just because people march around with signs threatening to drop bombs on Israel I shouldn’t worry – it’s probably just a MEMRI translation.

    Meanwhile the Right says that the environment shouldn’t be a matter of concern, and that I shouldn’t care about the planet.

    But I do care. I don’t think it’s right to ignore oppressed people just because they happen to be women. I don’t think it’s right to ignore rocket attacks on people just because they happen to be Israelis. Nor should we ignore genocides in Africa, terrorism in Thailand and Bali, poverty in Baltimore or racism in Louisiana. Having ideals doesn’t make a person a neocon.

    As an artist, am I a neocon because I don’t want Ayaan HIrsi Ali or Salmon Rushdie or Theo van Gogh harmed? Hell – I’ve been harmed, harmed by people who think we should look alike, march alike, behave alike, follow the rules. When I say something it isn’t coming from a political point of view, as in a book, but from a lifetime of experience. You should at least respect that, and understand that if people are taking the time to write to you maybe they are hearing something in your voice that is disturbing, that is striking a false note, and that is both dismissive and judgemental, and reflect. That’s all I’m really asking.

    (It’s SO easy to attack a person, call them a rightwinger or a neocon or make false assumptions about them, isn’t it? But it doesn’t solve anything. I’m also wondering, when DID the Left become so dogmatic and judgmental? Was it always? Many of us older Lefties don’t understand, I admit it. We were raised with admonishments to be open-minded, tolerant, and at least listen to the other guy’s arguments before calling him a name!)

    As far as Hamas, Hezbollah, etc are concerned, or radicals like Admadijenad, the fact that they are at the center of their societies, as you claim, doesn’t mean that they are good or right, any more than other radical organizations or even governments – even democratically elected governments – are good or right. Or is it now de riguere for “leftists” to support radical right wing organizations? Or just to “understand” them?

    One can understand the relative poverty and marginalization of the Shi’a, for example, and study the Lebanese Civil War, and from that gather that an organization empowering Shi’a and fighting the Israeli occupation might logically arise. But there’s a great leap from that to an outfit that claims Jews have no room for a homeland in the Middle East, or who honestly appear to believe in The Protocols, and who are sworn to the violent destruction of their neighbors.

    I also disagree that these groups or politicians ARE at the center of their societies. Hezbollah most certainly does not represent all or even most of the Lebanese people, not even all Shi’a – but they do have a lot of guns and they will use them. Does that make them “central to their societies” or is it their guns?

    And, the Iranian theocracy chooses the candidates who can run for office and rigorously enforces its idea of law and propriety, to a terrifying degree.

    As for Hamas, I sincerely hope they do not represent the core of the Palestinian people, their true ideals.

    I apologize if I have written too many words. I was honestly trying to connect with you.

  12. You seem to like to publish books when you write comments. As I already said, I don’t relish this practice. So let’s let this be the end of this conversation. You are more than welcome to visit this blog & comment in other threads as you wish. But pls. let yr previous comment be yr last in this thread. If you ignore this request as you ignored my request to write more briefly, then I will respond accordingly.

    CAMERA and MEMRI, on the other hand, shouldn’t be lightly dismissed. They back themselves up. I haven’t seen honest refutations of their work.

    You are only betraying how little you really know about these groups. Their translations though sometimes accurate, are highly suspect. I have written here about one terribly embarrassing example of mistranslation & this was not a one-off incident. The fact that you do not know about the inaccuracy & unreliability of their work shows the insularity of yr viewpt. on this subject.

    Scholars like the German historian Matthais Kuntzel, and others before him, have written about the pernicious influence of European antisemitism on Middle Eastern culture.

    I cannot believe how obssessed you are with anti-Semitism. This phenomenon is a symptom of what’s wrong but not the cause. THere is only one way to resolve all of this & that is by negotiating an end to the conflict. Anti-Semitism exists because there is no settlement. You’ve got yr head buried in the sand if you want to fight the battle with Arabs over anti-Semitism. Of course anti-Semitism is a horrible thing. But in the ME it exists because of the war between Israel and the Arabs. If there were no war anti-Semitism would be at best a minor irritant.

    the rise of antisemitism in Europe and in the US can’t be ignored either. In Europe it’s quite drastic

    Again, with the anti-Semitism. Instead of fixating on this phenomenon why don’t you try to live a good, rich Jewish life. I believe part of this may be due to the fact that you’ve lived all or most of yr life in small communities without many Jews. If you’d lived in the places I’ve lived you’d realize that anti-Semitism isn’t nearly the danger you find it.

    Just how do you know so much about the dangers of European anti-Semitism? Have you visited Europe? Spoken or written to European Jewish leaders about the problem? If you haven’t & are just relying on the ADL & similar groups whose raison d’etre is to get Jews to believe that anti-Semitism is a critical problem facing the world–then of course you’re going to be as morbidly fixated on this as you are.

    I think the Left most certainly has a responsibility NOT to call people who discuss these issues “right wing”, especially when they are Left wing;

    Yr views precisely mimic groups like the Jewish Defense League, ADL and other right-wing Jewish defense organizations. An obssession with anti-Semitism IS right wing (notice I wrote “obssession” and not “concern,” which is valid). Someone who believes that this is the most important problem facing Jews in the world is not only divorced fr. reality, but right-wing.

    “Cultural relativism” says I shouldn’t care, it says I should respect “indigenous cultures” more than people. It says honor killings shouldn’t be a matter of concern, religious oppression shouldn’t be a matter of concern, death threats against artists should’t worry me, and just because people march around with signs threatening to drop bombs on Israel I shouldn’t worry

    You’re just on a self-righteous tear which I find nauseating. Do NOT get on a soapbox & start preaching to me about the superiority of yr moral code. I don’t need that. If you don’t respect indigenous cultures then you ARE a neocon. That is the hallmark of the neocon philosophy. Our values are superior to yours. Yours are backward, bestial. And don’t preach to me about honor killings. I think they’re as horrible as you do. But what would you propose–that the U.S. invade every country in which incidents happen that offend our values? Where does that stop? Do we militarily intervene to bring so-called democracy to Syria, Iran, Palestine, etc?

    As an artist, am I a neocon because I don’t want Ayaan HIrsi Ali or Salmon Rushdie or Theo van Gogh harmed?

    No, you’re a neocon because you are obssessed with these incidents & read Muslim-Arab religion and culture as backward, violent and intolerant. You’re a neocon because you have hardly said a word about the suffering of Arabs or Muslims. You have no balance or perspective in yr analysis. You are a monomaniacal fantatic I’m sorry to say.

    maybe they are hearing something in your voice that is disturbing,

    What you hear in my voice is not my problem, but yours. My voice is my voice. I’m comfortable with it as are my readers and that’s all that matters to me. If you’re not, pls. don’t try to lecture me or think that I should mend the error of my ways on yr account. It ain’t gonna happen.

    when DID the Left become so dogmatic and judgmental?

    Your comments here have been nothing but dogmatic & judgmental about those religions & cultures that offend you & yr sensibility & you have the nerve to call me those words?

    As far as Hamas, Hezbollah, etc are concerned, or radicals like Admadijenad, the fact that they are at the center of their societies, as you claim, doesn’t mean that they are good or right

    No, they may not be. But are you willing to force the 50% of Palestinians who believe in Hamas to bend to yr will or that of the Israelis in order to get them to renounce their allegiance? It simply can’t be done. Hamas may not be my cup of tea. But that doesn’t mean that a peaceful agreement can’t be negotiated with them (or Hezbollah or even Iran for that matter). I am a pragmatist & you are a moralist. Moralism can cause immense damage in the world when taken to extremes just as pragmatism can. My pragmatism is not taken to extremes, your moralism is.

    I also disagree that these groups or politicians ARE at the center of their societies. Hezbollah most certainly does not represent all or even most of the Lebanese people

    Hezbollah has over 33% of Lebanese votes. I didn’t say they were the majority. But they ARE at the center of Lebanese society. You simply cannot have a functioning political system in Lebanon by dismissing or ignorning Hezbollah. This group does not use its guns in its internal political efforts within Lebanese society. It uses its votes & support fr. the people. I don’t support Hezbollah. But I don’t write the group off as sadistic thugs either as you seem to do.

  13. Scholars like the German historian Matthais Kuntzel, and others before him, have written about the pernicious influence of European antisemitism on Middle Eastern culture

    I used to believe Matthias Küntzel was a half-wit with a doctorate, but then I realized that he had found a very lucrative niche for himself as a professional German anti-anti-Semite.

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