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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 They explained that the invitation was revoked due to the Gazan war.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
I am not sure about that. I have started to read up and listen to podcasts on this topic, but it rings true at least to an outsider, with some knowledge of medieval history.
Considering what we have seen, Can you blame them?
Exactly. I try to cut the benefit of the doubt to everybody and try to see their side, but I don’t know what the hell they are going to do about the Palestinians, except total all out war.
This reminds me of a joke I heard recently:
What’s the difference between President Trump and a secular Jew? Trump has Jewish grandchildren. lol
I sometimes compare the Two-State Solution to setting up a Jewish homeland next door to Nazi Germany.
But the comparison is unfair — to the Nazis.
According to a number of experts there is a significant problem with radicalized children of moderate tolerant Muslim immigrants: The parents come to Europe for the peace and mutual tolerance, but the children throw that away. Regardless of where the children are radicalized –online or in mosques or in social settings–the inescapable fact is that the fundamental religious texts teach intolerance and war. This is the problem with calls for a Muslim Reformation: Any true Christian reformation means attention to what Jesus said, which was peaceful, whereas what Muhammad said was warlike. Local cultures can exert a moderating influence, but the fundamental texts remain.
This is my view.
Could that be a backlash/ response to the left’s general love of tribalism, identity, and victimology? If you are told that Western/ European culture is colonist and oppressive why wouldn’t you gravitate to a mort martial philosophy of your own identity group?
I’m sure that is a factor, but you should also consider that Islam has had many periods of greater and lesser tolerance.
There are other choices.
This absolutely is true and it doesn’t make much sense. The Muslim brotherhood made the radical stuff more popular recently.
I’ve listened to Jasser a bit in the past, and I found what he didn’t say to be more important than what he said. In my listening he never condemned the fundamental writings or tenets, or questioned the rightness or infallibility of the Koran; he only said that people were currently interpreting it wrong. I found this to be weak tea when addressing islamic jihad.
Yes.
This is basically my view, with one exception.
He makes it sound like (and granted, I don’t know anything about this) Judaism and Christianity had to back away from a lot of their texts. I don’t think this is true, and it’s certainly not going to be as much of a big deal as it is for Islam, but again I’m limited in all of this stuff.
He’s been specific about condemning political Islam for years.
He makes it sound like it’s the same thing as what Judaism and Christianity supposedly had to do. He’s not very persuasive. The Islamic texts are problematic. Good intent, but I’m just not very sure about that.
That’s what it was. I just remembered, the biggest thing that alarmed me was, that in a question about islamic jihad he skirted the assertion that islam should in fact become the world’s one religious state. In other words, he was willing to argue that islam was being misapplied, but not assert that it would not one day be universal.
Jasser is articulate and thoughtful and talked about promoting peace, but his answer left dhimmitude and especially compulsory conversion unaddressed and on the table — though it was clear that that was part of the question. I got the impression at the time, it was as if he didn’t want to go too far and fall afoul of some of his religious tenets or those of his co-religionists. I stopped listening to his interviews after this.
If he does not condemn conversion by the sword, he’s at best fundamentally misguided and irrelevant.
That’s part of it, but I think he’s an islamic supremacist as well.
And apparently he’s put his life on the line, or so he says. But I still doubt the rightness of his ultimate ends.
OK that’s very clear. The guy left me uneasy as well.
For what it’s worth, I sort of knew a Sufi Muslim for a while. The really super nice Muslims. lol
Forgive me, but I suspect you haven’t heard or read enough of his work to be able to say this. I think you’ve made a leap due to your limited exposure to him. I’ve been following him for 15 years.
So do you think he’s ultimately secretly supporting a caliphate? Are you aware that he served in the US Navy?
I stopped listening to him years ago. The navy sounds about right, but I don’t remember how he served, and I do know that military service in itself doesn’t command any necessary trust.
As far as his speech, I think he was being less than candid. I think every sentence was parsed. He may have been walking a fine line. But I do know that he ignored a key point regarding world-wide islamic jihad. Maybe he truly believes that one day the world should rightly be entirely islamic, or maybe he just presents his words to prevent further calls for his killing. I don’t know.
Frankly, I don’t think there is any such thing as islamic peace with infidels; I think violence is hard-wired in through their most respected writing, the Koran. And moslems must make a choice. Take Ayaan Hirsi Ali as an example. And take the Gazan moslem who left islam and iirc converted to Judaism and he was very outspoken about moslem intentions. This man I would believe before Jasser.
Maybe I got Jasser wrong back then, but ultimately I think he’s irrelevant. And yes, if I recall, he does seem to equate older Judaism and Christianity to 1400 year-old islam and imply that all religions evolve and are subject to cultural trends and reinterpretations, and I reject this as well.