Happy Hanukah to all: more light, less darkness!
Earlier today, Bibi Netanyahu stood before a hanukiya at the Western Wall and lit the Hanukah candles. He was accompanied by the U.S. ambassador and settler acolyte, David Friedman (he appears to have left his pickax home). None of this was particularly unusual. It wasn’t even a surprise when he likened himself to the ancient Maccabbees fighting against the Greek pagans to preserve their Judean homeland and right to worship in their Holy Temple. That, of course, would be typical self-aggrandizement by which Netanyahu projects himself onto the great heroes of Jewish history (his followers often refer to him as King Bibi).
What was unusual was the historical connection he attempted to make between the Greek dictator, Antiochus, and the prime minister’s arch-enemy du jour (last week it was Iran, next week, who knows?), the International Criminal Court.
The Maccabean revolt was precipitated by a royal decree that forbade Jews from performing pilgrimage and offering sacrifices at the Temple (anyone catch a similar contemporary restriction imposed by Israel on worshippers of a certain other religion?). Instead, Antiochus declared the Temple dedicated to the Greek god Zeus, and defiled the sacred site by offering sacrifices of unkosher animals like pigs (or so the tradition says). This, of course, outraged the Jews, who rose up in rebellion. Besides the Greeks themselves, the Jewish rebels also targeted Jewish collaborators whom they called Hellenizers. They slaughtered them, as well as Antiochus’ officials and troops.
It’s in this light that Netanyahu offered this dubious historical analogy (remember: Bibi is the son of a one-note Jewish historian of dubious reputation):
Netanyahu said that “new decrees are imposed on the Jewish people. Anti-Semitic decrees of the International Court telling us, the Jews standing by this wall, by this mountain, in this city, in this land, that we have no right to live here, and that if we live here we commit war crimes. Blatant anti-Semitism.”
First of all, the ICC announcement was not “decreed” on “the Jewish people.” It was, in fact, decreed on Israel; more specifically individual military, political and intelligence officials who are accused of committing war crimes from 2014 till today. That also rules out that other over-worn term of opprobrium, blood libel, raised at the same ceremony by a Netanyahu acolyte, Yuval Steinitz. Again, the ICC investigation is not targeted against Jews, specifically. It is targeted against specific acts that violate specific terms of international law. It would not matter (or should not, at least) whether the crimes were committed by Jews, Christians, Muslims or Buddhists.
Nor does the ICC statement have anything to do with Israeli claims to sovereignty (at least not sovereignty over territory within the Green Line) over Jerusalem or the land of Israel. It certainly makes no claim that simply by settling there Israelis have committed a war crime. This, of course, is the type of hyperbole for which demagogues the world over are known.
But as I’ve said before, Netanyahu may be a terrible strategist, but he is a brilliant tactician. And exploiting the setting of the ruins of the Holy Temple and the holiday of Hanukah, which has been embraced by Zionists as a harbinger of the latter-day state of Israel, creates an impressive tableau that resonates among observant Israelis. He has rung the bell and Pavlov’s dogs salivate on cue.
There are numerous terms of opprobrium far-right observant Jews use to smear those they see as deficient in their religious identity. ‘Kapo,’ of course, is one of the most popular. Though ‘Hellenizer’ is less well-known, it carries much the same stigma. Netanyahu didn’t specifically single out Israeli human rights NGOs or dissenting American Jews, he didn’t have to. Every Israeli knows who the Hellenizers among us would be in this context.
Your commentary Rabbi, helpfully reminds us that Zionist assertions, are not logical – even when they appear in a White House Executive Order.
Take the word “anti-semitism.”
“Semitic” is a word that refers to a family of related languages, not to a distinct people. The gist of denouncing someone as an anti-Semite would logically mean you are critical of someone for disliking a family of languages. Someone who dislikes the spoken languages, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese may be a horrible Anti-Romance-ist but not a racist.
Take the phrase “Jewish state.”
This jargon is a rhetorical pretext often aggresively invoked by racists to justify any segregation, prejudice, brutality or Apartheid directed by agents of the State of Israel against non-Jews, in Israel. As is well-known, the United States for decades has protected Israelis from prosecution under international law for this kind of violence, practiced by a Jewish state. Now where’s the logic in protecting a brutal, apartheid self-declared Jewish state from the application of international law?
Take the phrase “self-determination.”
Representatives or partisans of the “Jewish” state aggressively assert that Jews are entitled to self-determination – but in Palestine this can only mean Palestinians are to be denied self-determination. No justice or logic here unless someone assigns approving logic to the attitudes, rhetoric, and the horrific conduct directed against others who lack self determination, with this unjust restriction promoted by a racist ethnocracy, which Israel is and has always been.
Now, pursuant to President Trump’s December 11, 2019 Executive Order, anyone on a college or university campus, who denounces the abuses suffered by Palestinians at the hands of the racist Jewish State is to be sanctioned, as an anti-Semite – a hater of Semitic languages.
This is EXACTLY the core to the story. CRITICIZING ISRAEL GOVERNMENT OR ISRAELI PERSONS. are NOT ANTISEMITISM. eg. should a superior arab israeli citizen for whatever reason be elected as prime minister and subsequently be researched for anything. what would that be, also antisemitism, or would the “jews” just lift their shoulders, who cares he is just an arab. Therein lies the hypocrisy of the “antisemitism” canard.
How many christians, muslims, buddhists has the ICC prosecuted, AND YET NOT ONE RAISED THE CANARD OF RELIGION PERSECUTION.
WHY WHEN IT COMES TO ISRAELIS MISBEHAVING JUDGEMENT IS AUTOMATICALLY “ANTISEMITISM” ??
further instead of confronting and cleaning the chronic and endemic corruptionSSS that start at the top to clean the JEWISH famous ugly face IT IS MUCH MUCH EASIER TO BEAT A CHEST AND CLAIM , THE WORLD IS AGAINST US, THEY ARE ANTISEMITES. it is time to drop the chip from the shoulder and take place among the rest of the world citizenry and not pretend we are a better race, a superior race a different breed. NO WONDER WE ARE EQUATED TO NAZIS with such claims.
n. dayan
You did not mention what the Chinese did to the Tibetans. You opinions are very selective and you obviously have grievances.
It seems to me the English is not your mother tongue at least syntactically. I do read your posts but if you can have a native Anglo edit them they would be clearer.
I don’t mean this as criticism. I just would like to get the ‘clear’ gist of what you are saying as I also live in a place in Israel which has had many objects ‘lobbed’ at it. BTW I have a married daughter in Ashdod with five girls. The second youngest has PTSD ‘petit mal’ from the sirens etc.
@ avram:
C’mon buddy, your using Hasbara tactic 101.6. No has to solve all the world’s injustice before they criticize Israel.
Clearly, someone who could write a sentence like the one you did–English isn’t your mother tongue either. We don’t point out linguistic deficiencies around here. To be transparent, I sometimes (rarely) do when I truly can’t understand someone’s English; or when I feel they’re insufferable and need to have the hot-air in their balloon popped. But I do not approve of people criticizing commenters who are not native speakers.
First, sirens don’t generally cause petit mal seizures. But even if they did, who is sounding the sirens? Your own government. So you ought to talk to them about your granddaughter’s seizures. I’d suggest that you also tell your government to stop attacking Gaza and assassinating its leaders. If it stopped and honored a ceasefire it signed, there would be no Palestinian rockets causing sirens to sound. But most important: for every Israeli child who has seizures, there are 100 Palestinian children who’ve lost a mother or father from Israeli slaughter. But I don’t hear a single bit of regard for them. So pardon me, but when I can hear you express 1/10 the sorrow you feel for your own granddaughter, then I can empathize with you.
Mr. Baldwin Cooke
And a “White Supremacist” is a fan of White Castle Chicken Supreme sandwiches.
Antisemitism is implicitly understood as hatred of Jews and things Jewish and has been for the past 150 years.
It has nothing to do with the Semitic “race” or group of languages – it is and has always been the good old hatred of Jews and things Jewish wrapped in a modern (~1870) wrapper.
That being said, criticism of Israel is not antisemitism.
Singling out Israel for evils that are common around the world, while denying its right to exist and ignoring the evils of those criticizing it – is.
@ Luciano:
No, no, no. There are certainly evils ‘common around the world.’ But we don’t have to solve them or even debate them all before we criticize Israel for its own evils. We can walk and chew gum at the same time here. The idea that no nation’s sins can be condemned unless all are condemned and ended is ludicrous and a perfect Hasbara tactic.
Neither the ICC nor the PA which brought the ICC case “denies Israel the right to exist.” That’s pure malarkey. Israel clearly has a right to exist…as a democratic state offering full equality to all citizens regardless of ethnicity or religion. If it is not such a state, then it will eventually have to become one. If it does not then no one will have to deny Israel’s right to exist. Eventually, it will not exist just as East Germany, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union no longer exist–having been replaced by a system that, while not perfect, is more normalized.
Bibi’s blather aside, Israel needs to ‘lawyer up’, and send an amicus curiae to represent her at The Hague.
Full cooperation on Israel’s part during the investigation is necessary.
The simple fact is, that the IDF does commit incidental war crimes as she defends herself from her enemies, and unlike terrorist organizations such as Hamas, IJ and PFLP, who commit war crimes as part of their war strategy.
What concerns me more then the ICC, are existential threats like climate change, and the fact the President Trump is ’tilting at windmills’.
@ Dean Dyer:
Nope. IDF war crimes are not ‘incidental.’ In fact, they are integral to Israel’s pursuit of its own interests in the region. War crimes and mass murder of civilians are deeply embedded in Israel’s military tactics and strategy. That’s why, barring any unforeseen intervention, both Israeli generals and leaders; and Palestinian militant leaders and commanders will join each other in the Hague, where they both belong.
Your last comment in this thread.
avram :
i gave the examples ONLY to give examples, it was not intended to be a wikipendia compendium
SECOND, you are criticizing my english writing style, that goes beyond the uppity underhanded nitpicking. as usual you are concentrating on the messenger rather than the message.
as for your family’s maladies i am in the same boat, further for 66 years of my life i had zero need for hospitals and yet after been hit by a kid messenging while i was on a zebra i have had further than 16 hospitalizations (read surgical operations), i do not compare nor do i ask you to shield yourself behind someone else’s issues nor do bring them to the table for they have zero relevancy to the antisemitism issue being discussed.
FURTHER MY ENGLISH IS AS PERFECT AS ANY OXFORD EDUCATED ENGLISHMAN.