> Think about that for a second. Here are professors at a top American university describing unspeakable atrocities against civilians as a “military action” and merely the natural exercise of a “right to resist.” Whoa.
I agree with a lot of what you say in this post, but this comment irks me.
Do you see? It's a battle of facts. Muslims around me (I disagree with them) are shocked by the "hypocrisy" of Western nations in this precise manner: they believe - rightly or wrongly - that Israel is committing unspeakable atrocities against civilians in the name of “military action” and merely the natural exercise of a “right to exist.”
We can argue over the facts, but I find this useless. I'd like to hear about your thoughts on this: how do we decide on the "right" side of history, the "correct" perspective of issues?
Now, others may disagree and I myself may change my view in the future, but it seems to me that both sides are committing atrocities.
“Oh how fond they are of the book of Esther, which is so beautifully attuned to their bloodthirsty, vengeful, murderous yearning and hope.” — Martin Luther
Let’s suppose that the Hamas combatants had attacked only military targets and refrained from harming civilians in the towns they occupied. Would supporters of Israel and signers of the letter have regarded the Palestinian violence as a legitimate act of war by an oppressed people? I fear not.
As for placing “re-contextualizing” in scare quotes, this risks intellectual dishonesty. We are always in the process of readjusting the hypothetical context of past events. I’m glad that discussion is allowed, but what can that mean if a priori any disagreement is defined in advance as irresponsibly pro-terrorist? I’m not at Columbia and no one will ask for my signature, but if I were, I would ask that those points be addressed. If it were only a matter of condemning atrocities, I would agree; but I fear that there is more to it.
I agree with you - but I fear you seem to be defending the actions of Hamas?
See, condemn Israel should you like - I think you should - but condemn Hamas too. Condemning Hamas or Israel isn't "hatred", it's support for human rights. If you rightly want to look a little deeper, accept that both sides have been hurt badly, and just are propagating that.
Simply, there’s too much hate in the world. Lots of it is promoted for self-serving reasons. The US is not excluded from the shameful act. Social media thrives on spreading hate, vitriol, conspiracy theories and propaganda! One day we’ll realize this!
Oh, Jonathan, I don't know about that! I think "hate" can be quite useful if carefully cultivated and targeted appropriately.
FOR INSTANCE:
I HATE those who use the (non-)word "irregardless" or who use "impact" as a verb! Instant death penalty! No trial necessary! It should be "open season" on them, 24/7!
OR, those who drive down the Interstate in the "hammer" lane 5 mph UNDER the posted limit while chatting away on their "smart" phones or playing some stupid game while staring down at their steering wheel where they have rested their hands which are HOLDING said phones!
OR cutting the federal funding for those (IRS) who are ACTUALLY collecting the money needed for their paychecks and cutting the funding of the entity (DC Metro) enabling the twits to commute to work every day! Duh!
Well, then, I hate soccer moms on their cell phones in minivan-loads of unbundled children, driving around hunting down motorcyclists at intersections and trying to kill said riders....
I am not surprised that some people, affiliated with institutions of higher learning, have written wretched, ribard screeds of hatred condemning Israel for all sufferrings, real and imagined, that have ever befallen mankind.
An intellectual is not necessarily the least bit intelligent.
An intellectual manipulates, bends, synthesizes and, in short, plays with ideas.
An intelligent person thinks logically and correctly. His conclusions are syllogistically valid. His inferences are reasonable.
Also, many intellectuals want to get attention. To get attention, the intellectual will puff up his prose with hyperbole, extravagance and inflammatory feelings.
In 1968, Susan Sontag called the white race the cancer of human history. Norman Mailer wrote that modern bueaucratic life was conducice to cancer !!!
Re Anti Semitism: I appeciated your presentation done by Rabbi Sacks re anti semitism
This chronic scourge, among other things, is so damn illogical. For example, Nazis claimed the Jewish Bankers and Communists had conspired to destroy Germany. Didn't it ever occur to those morons that Bankers and commuunists come from opposite ends of the political spectrum.
The history of antisemitism is complex filled with misunderstandings and stereotypes. An interesting thesis published in 2014 by 2 economists attribute the success of the minority Jewish population to early “literacy”. This placed the Jewish people into sectors of the economy in Western Europe that caused resentment and scapegoating.
The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492 (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World, 42) https://a.co/d/ajSDrXv
The Montefiore article is fantastic. Here it is with free access in case anyone wants to read it. The overall moral is that we, too often, jump into longstanding issues with trite understandings. We can recognize villains, innocent victims and legitimate issues without conflating them.
There's one missing element that is crude to express and awful to know. I grew up in the Bible belt in the South, but these thoughts which I am about to write here are not limited to the South. So don't blame this on my fellow Southerners. Those who interpret the Bible literally are antisemitic because they blame Jews for the death of Jesus. It's as simple as that. When we know that Thomas Jefferson's beloved Monticello fell into disrepair until a Jewish family bought it and restored it out of their appreciation to him for writing the right to religious freedom into the Virginia constitution we are enlightened. What it means to be a "practicing" American free from religious prejudice is the idea that needs to be emphasized.
Those of us who were born in the 15 to 20 years after WWII ended were steeped in the horror of
the concentration camps where six million Jews,
including 1.5 million Jewish children were tortured and slaughtered. We grew up watching countless
movies depicting the events before, during and
after the war.
Americans who were born in the 1970s and later didn’t grow up watching those movies about
WWII, they grew up in the aftermath of the War in Vietnam. Their perspective on Israel and the
middle east generally is very different. So I chalk
up much of the difference in current attitudes
to people growing up in a very different era.
But that doesn’t explain why students are demonstrating vehemently against Israel & what Israel is doing in Gaza and the West Bank. Nor does it explain why the atrocities committed on Jewish civilians by Hamas on Oct.7th are being ignored by the demonstrators and many of the usual people who comment on things like this.
The feeling I’m getting is the same feeling I had when Trump became President and millions of Americans’ believed everything said on Foxnews
as if it was the word of God. It’s the same feeling I had when thousands of Americans refused to be vaccinated for Covid and started fights with people who were wearing masks, literally ripping masks off of total strangers.
Those things didn’t happen as some would say, “organically.” There are a lot of people who, to this day are incensed that their childrens’ schools were shut down in the middle of a deadly pandemic in
order to save their lives. That’s irrational.
We now know a lot of the irrational behavior we
observed happened because Russian & republican operatives as well as Foxnews were deliberately manipulating unsuspecting people on social media
to believe things that simply weren’t true. I think
many of the perceptions we are seeing about Hamas/Israel/civilians living in Gaza & the West
Bank, are distorted perceptions coming from paid, trained, operatives targeting and manipulating college students, whose knowledge of middle east history is sketchy at best.
I also think Putin is responsible for the war.Things
haven’t been going well for Putin in Ukraine, so
he metaphorically lit a match and tossed it into the middle east. He knew the U.S. was likely to get involved and he knew his allies in the GOP would make a fuss about the cost of sending arms to
both Israel and Ukraine.
When I went to college, they were bastions of
liberal culture. But roughly 10-15 years ago or
more, wealthy conservatives like the Koch Bros
began donating very large sums of money to
colleges and universities and were eventually
offered seats on the Board of Directors. They
were then able to give input on who should be
hired to teach and I guarantee new hires were
conservative and very willing to influence
students to be conservative as well.
The conservative influence in colleges was
planned. The conservative majority on the
Supreme Court was planned as well, and Mitch
McConnell’s manipulations made it possible.
Citizens United was planned and PACs were set
up as money laundering devices mostly for
foreign money. It would probably be a good idea
for Dems to create a comprehensive plan to
neutralize the GOP’s manipulations intended to result in a permanent authoritarian government.
As Rabbi Sacks shows in the illustrative video at the end of this article, the historical basis of anti-Semitism is an irrational, hypocritical embrace of scapegoating - a psychological trap that uses projection to satisfy the anger of perceived victimization. The challenge that faces liberal arts institutions, then, is to recommit their efforts to foster scrupulous rationality in all spheres of education, especially history, comparative religion, and social studies.
I too endorse the views of historian and author Simon Sebag Montefiore, as portrayed in his recent article in The Atlantic, 'The Decolonization Narrative is Dangerous and False.' Montefiore explains that with respect to Gaza specifically, and less so with respect to the West Bank, Israelis are neither settlers nor colonists, and certainly not oppressors.
> Think about that for a second. Here are professors at a top American university describing unspeakable atrocities against civilians as a “military action” and merely the natural exercise of a “right to resist.” Whoa.
I agree with a lot of what you say in this post, but this comment irks me.
Do you see? It's a battle of facts. Muslims around me (I disagree with them) are shocked by the "hypocrisy" of Western nations in this precise manner: they believe - rightly or wrongly - that Israel is committing unspeakable atrocities against civilians in the name of “military action” and merely the natural exercise of a “right to exist.”
We can argue over the facts, but I find this useless. I'd like to hear about your thoughts on this: how do we decide on the "right" side of history, the "correct" perspective of issues?
Now, others may disagree and I myself may change my view in the future, but it seems to me that both sides are committing atrocities.
Nor can I find it in me to harshly condemn either side. Read more in my complete explanation, https://medium.com/@safwansamsudeen/choose-the-garden-over-the-courtroom-65028708627f
Jews are not safe there. They need to leave and come back home to the USA once and for all. The Israel Project has failed.
That's a bad idea. Anti-semitism and hatred must not be given into, it must be fought.
Anti-semitism?!?! Concern for Jewish lives in Israel is now "anti-semitism"???
You misunderstood me, my friend. Anti semitic people who threaten the Jews - we must not give into to their wants.
They want Jews to exit. But that's only for them to be persecuted elsewhere. No, Jews must stay here - we can't give into hatred.
Do note that I'm not an "Israel supporter" by any means, https://medium.com/@safwansamsudeen/choose-the-garden-over-the-courtroom-65028708627f
“Oh how fond they are of the book of Esther, which is so beautifully attuned to their bloodthirsty, vengeful, murderous yearning and hope.” — Martin Luther
https://cwspangle.substack.com/p/oh-how-fond-they-are-of-the-book
Let’s suppose that the Hamas combatants had attacked only military targets and refrained from harming civilians in the towns they occupied. Would supporters of Israel and signers of the letter have regarded the Palestinian violence as a legitimate act of war by an oppressed people? I fear not.
As for placing “re-contextualizing” in scare quotes, this risks intellectual dishonesty. We are always in the process of readjusting the hypothetical context of past events. I’m glad that discussion is allowed, but what can that mean if a priori any disagreement is defined in advance as irresponsibly pro-terrorist? I’m not at Columbia and no one will ask for my signature, but if I were, I would ask that those points be addressed. If it were only a matter of condemning atrocities, I would agree; but I fear that there is more to it.
I agree with you - but I fear you seem to be defending the actions of Hamas?
See, condemn Israel should you like - I think you should - but condemn Hamas too. Condemning Hamas or Israel isn't "hatred", it's support for human rights. If you rightly want to look a little deeper, accept that both sides have been hurt badly, and just are propagating that.
You want a solution? Stop the hurt.
An excellent, illuminating, judicious posting. Kudos, and thanks!
Simply, there’s too much hate in the world. Lots of it is promoted for self-serving reasons. The US is not excluded from the shameful act. Social media thrives on spreading hate, vitriol, conspiracy theories and propaganda! One day we’ll realize this!
Agreed. It sounds like a platitude but we simply must teach children worldwide that they cannot hate.
I once read that “hate destroys the vessel that carries it!”
Oh, Jonathan, I don't know about that! I think "hate" can be quite useful if carefully cultivated and targeted appropriately.
FOR INSTANCE:
I HATE those who use the (non-)word "irregardless" or who use "impact" as a verb! Instant death penalty! No trial necessary! It should be "open season" on them, 24/7!
OR, those who drive down the Interstate in the "hammer" lane 5 mph UNDER the posted limit while chatting away on their "smart" phones or playing some stupid game while staring down at their steering wheel where they have rested their hands which are HOLDING said phones!
OR cutting the federal funding for those (IRS) who are ACTUALLY collecting the money needed for their paychecks and cutting the funding of the entity (DC Metro) enabling the twits to commute to work every day! Duh!
"Hate" can be VERY useful!
Well, then, I hate soccer moms on their cell phones in minivan-loads of unbundled children, driving around hunting down motorcyclists at intersections and trying to kill said riders....
Ain't THAT the truth!
I am not surprised that some people, affiliated with institutions of higher learning, have written wretched, ribard screeds of hatred condemning Israel for all sufferrings, real and imagined, that have ever befallen mankind.
An intellectual is not necessarily the least bit intelligent.
An intellectual manipulates, bends, synthesizes and, in short, plays with ideas.
An intelligent person thinks logically and correctly. His conclusions are syllogistically valid. His inferences are reasonable.
Also, many intellectuals want to get attention. To get attention, the intellectual will puff up his prose with hyperbole, extravagance and inflammatory feelings.
In 1968, Susan Sontag called the white race the cancer of human history. Norman Mailer wrote that modern bueaucratic life was conducice to cancer !!!
Re Anti Semitism: I appeciated your presentation done by Rabbi Sacks re anti semitism
This chronic scourge, among other things, is so damn illogical. For example, Nazis claimed the Jewish Bankers and Communists had conspired to destroy Germany. Didn't it ever occur to those morons that Bankers and commuunists come from opposite ends of the political spectrum.
Interesting distinction betw intelligent people and intellectuals....
THIS JUST IN!
The Jews have now been replaced by Yahweh as the "Chosen People"!
American Republicans are now the "Chosen People"! Just ask any one of them!
The Christian Nationalists are a at the top of the list!
It's appalling for Americans to think that Zionists are not religious wackos just because they were persecuted in the past.
For being religious wackos. 😄
Too harsh. We don't persecute religious wackos. If you do, you give them fuel to burn their fire.
I wonder what you think of choosing the garden.
https://medium.com/@safwansamsudeen/choose-the-garden-over-the-courtroom-65028708627f
The history of antisemitism is complex filled with misunderstandings and stereotypes. An interesting thesis published in 2014 by 2 economists attribute the success of the minority Jewish population to early “literacy”. This placed the Jewish people into sectors of the economy in Western Europe that caused resentment and scapegoating.
The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492 (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World, 42) https://a.co/d/ajSDrXv
Fascinating. Thanks, Billy!
The Montefiore article is fantastic. Here it is with free access in case anyone wants to read it. The overall moral is that we, too often, jump into longstanding issues with trite understandings. We can recognize villains, innocent victims and legitimate issues without conflating them.
https://web.archive.org/web/20231028195532/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/decolonization-narrative-dangerous-and-false/675799/
Yep. I really recommend that piece. He also wrote a great book on Jerusalem...super smart guy...
There's one missing element that is crude to express and awful to know. I grew up in the Bible belt in the South, but these thoughts which I am about to write here are not limited to the South. So don't blame this on my fellow Southerners. Those who interpret the Bible literally are antisemitic because they blame Jews for the death of Jesus. It's as simple as that. When we know that Thomas Jefferson's beloved Monticello fell into disrepair until a Jewish family bought it and restored it out of their appreciation to him for writing the right to religious freedom into the Virginia constitution we are enlightened. What it means to be a "practicing" American free from religious prejudice is the idea that needs to be emphasized.
Yes, Shelley, that has played a huge part in anti-Semitism though it doesn't account for Muslim anti-Semitism...
This is the best analysis of the current situation I have seen. The Columbia letter was excellent and should be a model for all the universities now.
Thanks, Judy!
Those of us who were born in the 15 to 20 years after WWII ended were steeped in the horror of
the concentration camps where six million Jews,
including 1.5 million Jewish children were tortured and slaughtered. We grew up watching countless
movies depicting the events before, during and
after the war.
Americans who were born in the 1970s and later didn’t grow up watching those movies about
WWII, they grew up in the aftermath of the War in Vietnam. Their perspective on Israel and the
middle east generally is very different. So I chalk
up much of the difference in current attitudes
to people growing up in a very different era.
But that doesn’t explain why students are demonstrating vehemently against Israel & what Israel is doing in Gaza and the West Bank. Nor does it explain why the atrocities committed on Jewish civilians by Hamas on Oct.7th are being ignored by the demonstrators and many of the usual people who comment on things like this.
The feeling I’m getting is the same feeling I had when Trump became President and millions of Americans’ believed everything said on Foxnews
as if it was the word of God. It’s the same feeling I had when thousands of Americans refused to be vaccinated for Covid and started fights with people who were wearing masks, literally ripping masks off of total strangers.
Those things didn’t happen as some would say, “organically.” There are a lot of people who, to this day are incensed that their childrens’ schools were shut down in the middle of a deadly pandemic in
order to save their lives. That’s irrational.
We now know a lot of the irrational behavior we
observed happened because Russian & republican operatives as well as Foxnews were deliberately manipulating unsuspecting people on social media
to believe things that simply weren’t true. I think
many of the perceptions we are seeing about Hamas/Israel/civilians living in Gaza & the West
Bank, are distorted perceptions coming from paid, trained, operatives targeting and manipulating college students, whose knowledge of middle east history is sketchy at best.
I also think Putin is responsible for the war.Things
haven’t been going well for Putin in Ukraine, so
he metaphorically lit a match and tossed it into the middle east. He knew the U.S. was likely to get involved and he knew his allies in the GOP would make a fuss about the cost of sending arms to
both Israel and Ukraine.
When I went to college, they were bastions of
liberal culture. But roughly 10-15 years ago or
more, wealthy conservatives like the Koch Bros
began donating very large sums of money to
colleges and universities and were eventually
offered seats on the Board of Directors. They
were then able to give input on who should be
hired to teach and I guarantee new hires were
conservative and very willing to influence
students to be conservative as well.
The conservative influence in colleges was
planned. The conservative majority on the
Supreme Court was planned as well, and Mitch
McConnell’s manipulations made it possible.
Citizens United was planned and PACs were set
up as money laundering devices mostly for
foreign money. It would probably be a good idea
for Dems to create a comprehensive plan to
neutralize the GOP’s manipulations intended to result in a permanent authoritarian government.
I know what you mean. I once thought the American people had a lot of common sense. Now I'm not so sure...
Thoughtful and insightful piece. We need more of this from all sides. Thank you. I agree; that letter from Columbia was masterful.
As Rabbi Sacks shows in the illustrative video at the end of this article, the historical basis of anti-Semitism is an irrational, hypocritical embrace of scapegoating - a psychological trap that uses projection to satisfy the anger of perceived victimization. The challenge that faces liberal arts institutions, then, is to recommit their efforts to foster scrupulous rationality in all spheres of education, especially history, comparative religion, and social studies.
I too endorse the views of historian and author Simon Sebag Montefiore, as portrayed in his recent article in The Atlantic, 'The Decolonization Narrative is Dangerous and False.' Montefiore explains that with respect to Gaza specifically, and less so with respect to the West Bank, Israelis are neither settlers nor colonists, and certainly not oppressors.
Thanks, JoAnne!