By Ted Belman (originally published 3 years ago)
Jerry Gordon writes Burg goes ballistic: paints Israel as “Zionist ghetto” because he said “to define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end”. Others say the opposite, namely, that being Jewish is the key to its survival.
This is no small matter.
There is no question but that much demonization and slander of Israel has to do with it going against prevailing notions, except in the Muslim world, and insisting that it be a Jewish state first and multicultural second. Even in Israel this fight is waged by the left including the courts, media and academia. They support Israel as a state like any other state and argue it should be democratic first and Jewish second. In fact they agree with Burg.
I understand that this demonization is intended to bring about Israel’s destruction either conceptually or physically. It is not about the “poor Palestinians” or about civil rights.
But the Jewish left in Israel and the US have a different agenda. They really believe that there must be equality in both civil and political rights (although they also have an animus for religion in general and religious Jews in particular). A Jewish state flies in the face of this. It leaves Israel open to charges of racism. Furthermore, the left throughout the west, including the majority of Jews, continues to embrace multiculturalism. They are for dismantling their cultures on this alter and demanding Israel do the same.
Rabbi Andrew Davis, director of Arza, the Zionist wing of the Reform Movement, now the largest movement of Jews in North America underscores this
“Now we need to move to the next level of Zionism, which is how to build a state of equality, justice and democracy.”
“Part of our Zionist agenda is not only to connect Reform Jews and Israel, but to impact Israeli society,”
“Our commitment to religious justice issues, to democracy, pluralism, are tremendously important values that need to be strengthened and supported more in Israeli society. Our aliya efforts are designed to put more troops on the ground to strengthen Israel in these ways.”
Sounds messianic doesn’t it. This is the religion of the Jewish left. They fight for the rights of others. For them this is what Judaism and being Jewish is all about.
Make no mistake about it, democracy and pluralism, will deny or sap the Jewish raison d’etre. It is easy to see how the principle of equality would hamstring Israel as a Jewish state.
We on the right fight for the opposite. We do not apologize for our culture but insist on it, both in America and in Israel. We believe that fighting for our culture and winning is necessary for our survival. We are also against discrimination and for equality but we believe that we have the right to protect our culture, to give it a favoured place in Israel and to advance the ingathering of the exiles. Judaism is more than universalism. If there is a conflict between being democratic and Jewish, so be it.
Previously I wrote two articles on the subject, It pays to be Jewish and Particularism Before Universalism
Recently the Supreme Court of Israel held that Israel can’t discriminate in allocating JNF land. If this decision is allowed to stand, where does it end. Does it mean that the Law of Return also falls to the same principle. If not why not? If Israel passed a law providing Arabs with financial incentives to emigrate, would the SC hold it to be discriminatory and require that it be offered to all citizens? In many western democracies, the laws of the land are sometimes trumped by the interests of national security. In Israel too. This concept must be extended to include the protection of Israel as a Jewish state.
On an aside I would point out that the JNF could have righted the situation regarding their land by cancelling the agreement with the ILA so that the JNF managed the land. The JNF is run by liberal Jews and it declined to do this. How sad and destructive.
One of the icons of the left is affirmative action which obviously denies equality. Affirmative action is seen as making up for years of discrimination and therefor worthy. If anyone or people are entitled to affirmative action, the Jews are. I look upon the Balfour Declaration as an act of affirmative action and the recognition of the State of Israel, after the Holocaust, as another act of affirmative action. In fact, the rationale for the creation of the Israel was the need to create a refuge for Jews in recognition of two thousand years of discrimination. Jews are entitled to this assistance or favouritism or protection whatever you may call it. We paid for it in blood.
The world and specially the Middle-East is a different place today. We all need to look around and realize that things have changed a great deal. Wake up before it’s too late!
No difference between Arabs desire in 1947 and 2011.
Destroying the Jewishstate.
Only new tactics!(terror,boycott,de-ligitimization)
8)
Oh sure. There is free speech if you are on satans side. Thats how it seems anyway.
No free speech? Or is there more?
I hear ya Yamit. But the country I live in would have locked me up. I was already locked up for severaj weeks for calling a zealot a BASTARD.
A kick to his groin would have ended quickly his harassment. Violence has it’s time and place and can be sooo spiritually uplifting for the righteous and so painful for the evildoers. 🙂 (Remember Pinchas)
I am sure you are correct that many European intellectuals bought into your understanding but the truth is that it was the European Nazis who were and still are the main movers and shakers of a single European economic and political entity. The EU is based on the Nazi plans published in Berlin in 1942 ” The Eu was founded and initially led by “former” Nazis and fascists, as was the Charlemagne prize awarded to TONY BLAIR, EDWARD HEATH, ROY JENKINS and others for their role in removing democratic sovereignty from the nation states of Europe” What they failed to achieve by military means they seek by non military means… THE EU!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nf5KeC4dAs
http://www.freenations.freeuk.com/index.html
A nation-state does not contradict democratic principles. No one would deny that Iceland, Japan, Poland (to name just a few) are democracies. The only difference between these three countries and the Jewish nation-state of Israel is that their founding people account for way over 90% of their population.
If there is a problem, it’s only a problem the Europeans created after WWII by rejecting the idea of nation-states, which they blame for all the wars of the 20th century. Hence, the amalgamation of European countries into a single European Union (EU), intended to prevent internecine wars, and which is steadily eroding the national sovereignty of its member states.
And the ultimate shameful irony of the EU now: its rabid support for the creation of a new “Palestinian state”!
Yamit. The fact is that some Jews ie Jews for Jesus have bought into the replacement theology. They can be difficult to distinguish between them and Zionists. I had attended a Holocaust Memorial. I went to a private ceremony for the Jews followed by a public ceremony. Much to my dismay I was followed by a Christian Zealot Minister representing Bridges for Peace. I kept ditching him and he kept finding me. I told him that a Jew cannot survive in the church. They do get some of us.
EVERY JEW ALIVE TODAY IS A MIRACLE
The Chinese Bamboo
The Dead End of Jewish Culture
One-quarter of American Jews have rejected watered-down Judaism in favor of full-strength Christianity. Why?
American Jews — numbered at 5,200,000 strong in 2000 — constitute the second largest and the most influential Jewish community in the World. Yet, that figure hardly provides the objective observer with any insight as to the community’s future viability.
The United Jewish Communities’ “National Jewish Population Survey 2000” — a decennial demographic study — found that, due to a negative net birthrate (i.e., Jewish deaths exceeded Jewish births for that period), America’s Jewish population had declined by 300,000 souls from 1990 to 2000. This translates to an average net loss of 82 Jews per day for that decade. This is hardly surprising in light of the study’s finding that 70% of Jewish women in the United States between the ages of 25 and 29 were childless.
The study also discovered that, due to an ongoing intermarriage rate in excess of 50%, of all children under the age of 12 with Jewish parentage in the United States, less than half have two Jewish parents. Of the more than half with a gentile parent, (according to other surveys) only a quarter thereof will be raised as Jews. Of these, only a small minority will marry other Jews, as it will be almost impossible for an intermarried Jew, however sincere, to convince his or her child to do what he or she failed to do, namely: marry a fellow Jew.
The Message is clear. The American Exile will end.
When the nation-state of Israel was resurrected in 1948, it was home to a mere 5% of World Jewry. Today, it constitutes the largest Jewish community in the World, and is home to 40% of World Jewry. And Israel’s Jewish community is the only one in the World with a positive net birthrate.
Due to ongoing terrorism and the enduring hostility of much of the World, Israel may not seem safe for the individual Jew. Yet, it is the only country in the World that is safe for the collective Jew.
Again, the Message is clear. If the Jewish people are to have a Future, it will only be found in Israel. American Jews can either be a part of that Future, or they can simply disappear.
At 5,200,000 strong, American Jewry will not vanish overnight. But its days are numbered!!
Op-Ed: It Pays to Be Jewish, Ted belman
“Ye shall not try the LORD your God, as ye tried Him in Massah.”
Particularism Before Universalism
Superior Sectarianism
By Sara Yoheved Rigler