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The Ugliness of Hatred
Lately I’ve been reading far too much about conditions in Israel. It is creating little tears in my soul. I read one book that gave a first-person view of October 7 at one of the kibbutzim that was raided. The book I’m in the process of finishing includes that story, but begins with the riots, or pogrom in Hebron, Israel, in 1929. I’d never heard of that specific incident. I feel deeply wounded by the suffering. I will report on that book later, because I think it clarifies a few things about the relationship between Arabs and Jews.
On New Year’s Eve in New York, one woman was quoted in this way:
Jewish leaders slammed a massive crew of anti-Israel protesters who gathered in Times Square on New Year’s Day to call for ‘intifada revolution’ on the same day an ISIS-inspired terrorist carried out a deadly car attack in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
The protest — organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the People’s Forum — was led in a chant of ‘There is only one solution: intifada revolution.’
On Fox News tonight, there was also a report that people were calling for a “global intifada.”
I think it’s time that we realized that these people are not just talking about Israel. They are talking about the United States. And not just the Jews, but all those who support the Jews.
Witnessing that hatred is bad enough, but I also had nasty comments on this site recently that were clearly anti-Semitic but were cleaned up enough to be passable. The person who spewed this venom has imagined that he is more empowered than ever to attack the Jews. I don’t feel threatened; only sickened.
I’m just going to keep counting on my friends.
Published in Culture
I’m going to have to start using the flag button on some of our more decorum-challenged members or I’ll end up getting suspended myself. And I put up with the likes of Kenneth., for crying out loud.
He’s very clever at his wording. I don’t think they’d okay the flag. But I deeply appreciate the sentiment, Percival!
I don’t worry about the Jews on Ricochet. They can take care of themselves and give better than they get. I object to the folks that quote The Protocols of the Elders of Zion or spout nonsense such as was published by Henry Ford’s The Dearborn Independent because Ricochet ain’t Stormfront and I want to make sure that even casual readers get that. So I’m not going to try to “win over” antisemites. I’m just going to get as many people as possible laughing at them.
I almost always forget about humor. It’s hard but effective.
Ridicule can be a very effective weapon . . .
Jerry is getting to be more openly hostile to both the State of Israel and to Jews more specifically. But he is a paper tiger. He hasn’t answered a single question of mine in something like three years now (and I have asked plenty. Just witness his recent ridiculous Talmud quote and my challenge that he has not responded to). He is what Rush Limbaugh would call a “drive-by commenter.” He’ll write his attacks and then slink away like Joe Biden, never having to justify or substantiate his claims.
You’re right, Steve. Most of the time I can blow him off, but I’m feeling especially vulnerable at this time.
Don’t worry, we’ve got your back!
Does not this film clip endorse attacking one’s hated political opponents with an automobile? How is that different from Bourbon Street on New Year’s morning?
You think that after New Orleans, after Magdeburg, after Waukesha, that a GIF from The Blues Brothers is going to trigger someone to do likewise?
Please.
No, but after New Orleans, Magdeburg, Waukesha, Nice. New York and others, it is in really poor taste. The poor victims from New Orleans haven’t even been buried yet, for pity’s sake.
Please yourself.
Anti-Zionism is always just cover for anti-Semitism, but ultimately it is, or leads to, a hatred of Western Civilization. People who hate the State of Israel do so because is is a bastion of Western moral principles, as well as Western ideas about government and law. Such people may even convince themselves that their animus is only directed at “Zionists”. Even so, it eventually morphs into anti-Western self-loathing.
Jew hatred stems from a hatred of self, magnified by a loss of civilizational confidence.
You hit it right on the head!
I’ve had the same issue with him. I post questions to him, and he has yet to respond to any of them. Yet, he brags about being a lawyer, so words should be his strength, shouldn’t they? He should have no trouble demolishing a 68 year old woman with a high school diploma and a one-year clerical certificate from the local community college, but he refuses to engage. Maybe he thinks he is above all of us, and it would be undignified and demeaning to actually converse with us ‘little people’?
Unfortunately, that only works if the target of ridicule has the intelligence to realize they’re being mocked.
It’s standard Ricochet practice that we don’t call out a member for criticism when they haven’t (yet) participated in that thread.
I still think the “person” under discussion doesn’t reply because it isn’t programmed sufficiently to do so. Several years ago, he stated in a huff that he was leaving Ricochet. Fine. I’ve said so before and I’ll suggest again that the account was taken over by a foreign bot. The statements are increasingly unhinged and ridiculous. Have the Ricochet PTB investigated this possibility? Is it a legit account paid for with a legit credit card? I just can’t believe that any middle-aged human, let alone an attorney, is capable of such self-delusion.
I believe it is him. At some level he gets little satisfaction from taunting us, so he has become more and more extreme. But yours is an interesting theory.
So I guess his schtick is, “If you can’t be insightful, be annoying.”
I try to make sure he doesn’t get that out of me!