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It’s a Freaking War, or Joining the Anti-Semites
The more I contemplated this story, the angrier I became. It’s the story of a Jewish champion cyclist, Leah Goldstein, who was uninvited from giving the keynote speech at International Women’s Day, because 30 years earlier she had served in the Israeli Defense Forces. This kind of stupid decision was bad enough. But when the sponsors elaborated on their reasons, they demonstrated what a pathetic and poor example they were for women. They explained that the invitation was revoked due to the Gazan war.
Okay. . .
But they added that supposedly other speakers had been attacked by “pro-Palestinian activists.” Really? Did they actually blame Leah Goldstein for those activists acting like idiots? And they said they were committed to creating “safe spaces”!
They cowered at those nasty activists, and then founder Heather Doughty of the organizing group, INSPIRE, issued this apology and made things worse:
‘We are equally upset,’ INSPIRE’ founder Heather Doughty said.
‘We’re just this tiny little not-for-profit that is trying to do a nice thing, and we were literally attacked. We had speakers [from INSPIRE] verbally attacked. They went to do their grocery shopping, and people came up and were attacking them.’
Goldstein’s critics were allegedly ‘demanding to know what Leah’s position was’ on the Israel-Hamas war.
The Israeli cyclist said that INSPIRE requested she make a statement – which she said was ‘ridiculous.’
The reactions of everyone involved (except Goldstein) are disgusting. First, the people who were challenged in their respective grocery stores, clearly blamed Goldstein for their being accosted, instead of challenging or ignoring the pro-Palestinian activists. Worse yet, instead of realizing that depraved people can show up anywhere, they complained to the organizers of the event.
And the organizers caved in to the bigots who had attacked the speakers, instead of backing the highly celebrated keynote speaker, who had served her obligation in the IDF.
Instead of making a statement that would somehow pacify her sponsors, she said this:
‘If I were to make a statement, I would say that I’m very proud of my training with the IDF, being the first woman to train the commando soldiers,’ she said.
‘So yes, if they want that kind of statement, I’d be happy to say it. But to dis Israel and say, it’s genocide, we’re killing 20,000 innocent children and women and whatnot — it’s a freaking war. That’s what happens.’
Good for Leah Goldstein.
I feel compelled to point out a number of despicable facts in this situation: that the pro-Palestinian activists were actually empowered by the response of INSPIRE; that the women who organized this event did nothing to demonstrate the resolve and empowerment of women; that it was more important for them to be politically correct than to honor their commitment to Goldstein and their organization.
And their actions demonstrate how anti-Semitism can show up under the auspices of “doing the right thing.”
Published in Culture
“International” in an organization’s name very often seems to mean “anti-civilization”.
Do you think so? I’d never thought of it that way, but I’ll need to seriously consider that.
Women’s empowerment movements mean nothing to me anymore. They have shown their lack of backbone by cowering to trans men taking over women’s sports and, now, ignoring the sexual war crimes committed by the Hamas Gazans because for the “pro-women” clan it is more important to show themselves as anti-colonialist than pro-women. Of course, that also shows their ignorance, as it is the Jews who are the indigenous people of the area. They can take their #metoo and put it with my #nomore.
*This comment was edited.
Thanks, cdor! I agree! I’d like to use your last sentence again.
I was never big on joining women’s groups. I tried it a few time, but I didn’t feel it offered me much, and in fact was limited in its goals. I think they are fine for others, but not so much for me.
I have a theory that when the vast majority of people who have lived through the last world war have died the conditions are set for the the next world war. It would seem that the same theory applies to anti-Semitism. Enough people no longer remember first hand the horrors this visited on the world, so we are once again willing to engage in profoundly anti-civilizational activity.
I hate to “like” your comment, Raxxalan, because I don’t like it! But it’s difficult for me to argue against it. There will always be a need for scapegoats.
I agree it isn’t something to like. It isn’t even something to accept. It is something to fight against as hard as possible. Unfortunately it is necessary to understand we are fighting on unfavorable terrain.
Suffrage was a bad idea.
I’ve seen this criticism before. Could you explain, RH?
Int’l Women’s Day: “Well she shouldn’t have worn such a short skirt . She was asking for trouble.”
Similar thought came to my mind in reading the various antisemitic sentiments attending anything to do with Hamas’ Oct 7 barbarity and Israel’s response: Abusers often ask “Why did you make me do it?” Or “See, you made me do it again.” The history of Middle East conflict is absolutely perverse.
I suppose this is, in some ways, a version of the quote, “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.”
I have never had a particularly rosy view of mankind, but even so I have been amazed at the amount of brazen, in-your-face anti-Semitism on display since October 7. And, equally appalling, the amount of sheer cowardice in the face of it.
What’s going on in Gaza doesn’t look like a war. It looks like a slaughter of civilians. It’s just awful.
So, Susan, you might try to see the other side. Many people believe, with good reason, that the Israelis are committing daily war crimes and atrocities, even genocide. There is tremendous evidence of this. About 30,000 dead people, roughly 8,000 women and roughly 11,000 children. I’ve told you this before, and you simply refuse to believe it.
In my view, if you believe the evidence right in front of your eyes, then you would understand why many people conclude that the Israelis are acting dreadfully.
So this particular cyclist gets the cancellation treatment. She was a member of a military that regularly commits war crimes, both in the recent fighting and much prior fighting. This is meticulously documented in voluminous human rights reports, and books. But those writing such reports, or reading them, or citing them, are simply vilified as anti-Semites.
For the record, I don’t like the idea of cancelling a public person — athlete, actor, singer, musician, etc. — for political reasons like this. I didn’t notice many people complaining when it was being done to Russians.
There may be a difference in this instance, because the woman was being asked to speak, not to cycle. I don’t know what she was going to speak about. If it was politics, then I could understand a group not wanting to give her a platform for speech with which the group might disagree. It would depend on the specific circumstances.
The other thing that is interesting is that the most vicious vilification of people, as in the OP, is considered perfectly acceptable if it’s done by a Jew, or on behalf of the Jews. I don’t see any actual, substantive argument in the OP. Just rage, name-calling, and slander.
It makes it very difficult to address the dispute in Israel/Palestine.
Susan, I have a specific suggestion for you. Look up Norman Finkelstein on YouTube, and find a talk that he gives about his book Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom. Finkelstein was a distinguished academic, and is an American Jew who is the son of actual Holocaust survivors.
Watch and listen for yourself. Maybe you’ll dismiss him as a self-hating or anti-Semitic Jew. I’ve found him very convincing. He’s opened my eyes, frankly, to a false, pro-Israel narrative that I believed for most of my life.
The truth is out there. But it ain’t always pretty.
You wouldn’t know the truth if it smacked you between the eyes.
You really are sad, Jerry. You insult me, and then expect me to take your recommendations to listen to a man that you know I will detest. Please don’t give me advice. I don’t know how many times you think you can insult me and then expect me to pay attention.
I don’t see any actual, substantive argument in the OP. Just rage, name-calling, and slander.
It wasn’t written to be a scholarly piece. It was meant to express my rage about anti-Semitism and those who are cowed by those who disagree with them. I didn’t call anyone names; I described their behavior.
Obviously you are still getting your figures from Hamas.
What ended the Japanese Imperial system was a war that was so horrible, so devastating that the Japanese people wanted no more of it. The Palestinians have yet to reach that point. I hope the Israelis bring them there. As long as they continue to vote for terrorists to represent them, they can expect more misery. As long as they refuse to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, they can expect more misery. Israel’s not going anywhere, and the sooner they figure that out, the better off they will be.
You don’t have to call anyone names, Susan. I’ll do that for you. Finkelstein is a nutcase. And for someone who stridently wishes to support their own misguided narrative, any nutcase will do.
I just read a little on Finkelstein. He’s worse than a nutcase…
You know, Susan, the anti-Semites’ thinking makes me consider momentarily that leveling all of Gaza is necessary.
They threaten and call for ending precision strikes by withholding precision bombs; withholding delivery of precision artillery shells; forbid bombing Hamas headquarters because they are deliberately buried under hospitals and schools or which are atop occupied apartment buildings; they criticize precision special forces strikes on foot because they supposedly execute Israeli hostages and have to pass though Palestinian-occupied lower floors of apartment buildings; and the only choice they leave the Israelis is to level Gaza (which they want in order to claim war crimes and to motivate a larger invasion of Israel); or else leaving the only choice for the Israelis of either stopping all military action against Hamas and suffer on-going barbaric massacres at the hands of Hamas and the Gazans, or else level Gaza.
Anti-Semites almost make me think maybe they are right that Gaza should be leveled. But they’re just anti-Semites who seek the destruction of all Israel, so I dismiss their entire arguments and manipulations as irrelevant.
Everybody sing: Hooray for Pallywood…
He got his very thought patterns from Hamas. Their figures support that.
Great–and tragic thoughts . I try not to think about it too much.
Can anybody link to an article that discusses this? I’ve googled Leah Goldman cancelled and the only thing that came up was this article on Ricochet. I remember seeing something about this on X, but….?
It isn’t about facts, Jerry. Though Norman Finkelstein is certainly [a] remarkable man of principle and intellect. (Here he is on Gaza, and here he is bizarrely debating Rabbi Shmuley on Piers Morgan.)
But it isn’t about facts, it’s about feelings leading to a decision to believe something. So otherwise good people are invested in believing that Palestinians aren’t suffering that much, that Palestinian civilians aren’t dying that much, that Palestinian culture is so intrinsically awful that perhaps they deserve what’s happening to them anyway – and most centrally, that Palestinians are so different from ‘us’ that their suffering and dying matters less. It’s hard to reach people who are in that place, and facts don’t seem to be a way to do it. I don’t know what is.
Over half of women vote D, and over feelings and desire for nurturing. If those women couldn’t vote, we would be better off, even if we couldn’t vote. I am tired of hearing “suburban women.” Screw um. Odds are they already vote D. Appeasing them is RINO spin to affect our behavior.
Palestinians support Hamas. Hamas denies Israel it’s right to exist. It is not Israel’s responsibility to take care of Palestinians, who elect and support people who wish for the extermination of Israel and the Jews. Just the opposite. It is Israel’s responsibility for protect itself, and its people even if it means destroying those that wish the destruction of the Jews. You are not speaking to infants here. The Jews have seen this movie before. And they know how it ended. It is their duty to make sure that does not happen again.
Lob all the insults you want. I for one am not moved to change what side I am on. Nothing says more about Hamas than their brutal acts-murders, rapes, kidnappings, torture, etc. They started it and established what is permissible in this war. If it takes the Carthage solution to eliminate terrorists and their supporters, so be it.
I really am not insulting anybody.
Palestinians largely hate Americans like myself. I don’t really care overly much what happens to them. They are my enemy, and most of them would kill pretty much any of us on Ricochet. They were cheering on 9/11/2001.
I’ve seen their videos and what’s said in their media. I know you consider them brother Muslims, but I consider them my enemy.
Even the Christian Palestinians? That’s quite a take.
They’re just human beings Omega. Some of them are even Americans like you.
Not Americans like me.