8 thoughts on “Former IDF General, Would-Be Leader of “Zionist Left,” Complains “Leftist” is Equivalent to N-Word – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1.  “The only people who use it are white supremacists and ignorant Ameicans(sic) raised on racism and hate (of whom there are entirely too many)”.

    African Americans use the term freely, as a descriptive term and as a pejorative.

    And, BTW, African Americans are often as bigoted as Whites in their treatment of minorities.

    “No one, certainly not a “white” member of the Israeli Ashkenazi elite, has any right to utter it”

    While many Israeli Jews hold Muslim Arabs in contempt, that animus is not based on any notion of racial superiority (as is likely the case in America), and most Israelis embrace Ethiopian Jews and treat Black African migrants civilly.

    Although Richard will disagree with nearly everything I’ve said here, I’ve lived in Israel long enough to speak from experience.

    1. @ Judah: Please, don’t give me lectures on American language and usage. I assure you I know far more on the subject than you ever will. Especially on this particular subject. You clearly did not understand that there are two entirely different usages of the N-word. The one that is most common and most notorious is the one I described. Some African Americans use the same term in street colloquial. This usage is based on emotional trauma and oppression. The speaker is bsically saying: You can call me the worst word you can think of and I’m going to throw it back in your face and use it in the opposite sense you intend it. This is a way of turning suffering on its head and turn it into something that is more positive. Though many African Americans avoid the term in this colloquial usage for obvious reasons.

      African Americans are often as bigoted as Whites in their treatment of minorities.

      I don’t think we need a white Ashkenazi Jew telling us about African American bigotry. BUt any time you want to tell us about Israeli bigotry toward “minorities,” we’re all ears.

      While many Israeli Jews hold Muslim Arabs in contempt, that animus is not based on any notion of racial superiority

      I almost spit in my coffee cup at that one. Zionism has, from its inception been nothing but an expression of racial superiority. This may have been thanks to the oppression and suffering Jews experienced in Europe, which they brought with them to Eretz Yisrael. An oppressed people or minority almost always needs an even more oppressed minority to lord it over. American immigrant history is full of such exmaples.

      most Israelis embrace Ethiopian Jews and treat Black African migrants civilly.

      Your’e either an outright liar and one of the most ignorant hasbarists this side of Tel Aviv. Anyone who reas any Israeli newspaper knows what you’re claiming is nonsense. Riots, beatings, murders, by Israeli Jews against both Ethiopian Jews and African refugees (do not use the term “migrant” here–it is racist and not permitted).

      I’ve lived in Israel long enough to speak from experience.

      Some of the most ignorant ill-informed Israelis are ones who’ve lived there as you have. Some of the best-informed, sharpest analytical minds on Israel do not live there. As I always say, you can study virtually any field and be deeply immersed and well-informed without living there. This is the 21st century, not the 19th.

      Do astronomers need to live on stars to study them?

      No more comments here.

  2. [comment deleted: this is not the rooting section for Team Israel. Your next comment like this will be your last.]

  3. [comment deleted: I don’t permit scurrilous, deceitful attacks on the Left. Yours were smears with no basis in fact. I have no patience or tolerance for garbage like yours. Your comment wasn’t even worth rebuttal. We deal in facts here. And opinnions like yours mean nothing with credible support, which you neglected to offer.]

  4. As an English <> Hebrew translator, I have to say that your judgement and liguistic sensibility here is off the mark. He doesn’t say that being called “leftist” is like being called n-word, but that in both cases the choice of word is meant to humiliate. There are ימנים, but not שמאליים or אנשי שמאל, but rather the deragatory שמאלנים (or worse variations, as mentioned above).

    1. @jonathan: yours is a distinction without a difference. He linked both words together in the same sentence. You can parse it any way you wish. BUt anyone who knows or speaks Hebrew (apart from you) will understand what he meant and that how I analyzed it is sound.

  5. Hi Richard,

    in the wake of the recent Israeli strikes on Gaza, on Aug. 05 2022, how likely is it that the main reason are the Israel’s internal politics? The conjecture I have seen on other social media platforms assume that, given the looming elections, the ruling party wants to appear strong and war-capable to their constituents.

    The official reason that is given, about PIJ threats could have been used as a reason at any time, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense unless there are some other justifications that I missed. It would seem a real sickness if the governments would sacrifice innocent people from both sides, especially Palestinians who take the brunt of these strikes, for the sake of politics and elections. With the last year’s May escalations and these now, it seems like the different parties are trying to out-murder each other for the sake of appealing to the overblown insecurities of Israeli population, and with it further increasing them.

    The elections-escalations conjecture was mentioned on different platforms but I wish for your article on the topic or a similar voice to give it some weight if it holds merit.

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