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Humiliated and Embarrassed by World Opinion
You know what causes most of the world’s UN representatives to have conniption fits? Let’s see, would it be an endless civil war in Syria in which hundreds of thousands have been senselessly killed? No, not really. How about the endless nuclear threats emanating from the psycho-Marxist state of North Korea that endanger world stability? Actually, not so much. Well then, how about the collapse of oil-rich Venezuela into chaos and starvation due to government-imposed socialism? Nope, it’s all good.
Well, what then? Here’s a simple, one-word clue: Israel. That’s really all you need to know, isn’t it? The entire world could be collapsing due to simultaneously occurring wars and various apocalyptic events and the only thing that would get a rise out of this Jew-hating deliberative body is anything at all to do with Israel.
So, when President Trump recently decided to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the apoplexy was palpable as the nakedly anti-Semitic body called for an “emergency” session in order to condemn the outrageous act. It’s as if Trump was saying, in effect, in his inimitable fashion, “Hel-lo-o?! Can we stop the charade already?” And the UN’s response was, “No, the charade must continue, until the end of time or until Israel is destroyed, whichever comes first!”
So the UN had its emergency session, the result of which was, naturally, a lopsided vote declaring American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “null and void.” Whoopee!
The left-wing UK Independent called it a “humiliating blow” for Trump. Seriously? Does anyone believe for an instant that Trump feels humiliated by a meaningless vote from this gallery of rogues? One of the things that helped get him elected is people’s exasperation with exactly this kind of garbage. Nonetheless, the reality-challenged Independent insisted that “it is a considerable embarrassment for the U.S. as it reflects global opinion.”
Ah, the much ballyhooed “global opinion!” So, if “global opinion” clashes with one of Trump’s positions, then we should all be red with embarrassment, right? Actually, no, because the reality is that, as even a cursory glance at world conditions would attest, most “global opinion” is morally depraved, as is this disgusting UN vote and as is the editorializing of the UK Independent.
Here’s the deal. All Trump did was finally make good on what had been promised by the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which was overwhelmingly passed by both houses of Congress. Its purpose was to initiate and fund the relocation of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israel’s actual, official, non-imaginary capital city.
But naturally, there was a fly in the ointment concerning the passing of that act. Then President Clinton threatened a veto in order to get a proviso added that would allow for a six-month presidential waiver period. That meant that every six months the president would evaluate the situation and determine whether or not the time was right to actually go through with it and move the embassy. Until Trump, the time apparently was never quite right – and even he took the first six-month waiver.
So what exactly was the problem for all those years since the passage of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995? Well (speaking in whispered tones now), no one wanted to risk endangering the ultra, super-duper, impossibly fragile and exquisitely delicate negotiations that were involved in the glorious, exalted, earth-shatteringly important and glacially interminable “peace process.”
Imagine a house of cards extending upward into the stratosphere that is so gossamery and finely balanced that the slightest wisp of a breeze could bring it all crashing to the ground in a heartbeat. That’s why such extraordinary care must be taken not to offend what a morally confused world community considers to be the aggrieved party (the so-called “Palestinians”) in the world’s most important “peace process.”
In reality, however, as everyone on Planet Earth knows, the one and only impediment to the final settlement of the stupefyingly monumental “peace process” is … wait for it … the continued existence of the country of Israel. Israel’s supposed peace partners aren’t interested in a final settlement; they’re yearning for a “final solution” as was laid out by Adolph Hitler, the only man who, in the Arab world, comes a close second to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
In other words, the magnificent, grandiose and sublime “peace process” is and has been one of the biggest charades in human history. And, of course, only someone like Trump could have ever come along and kicked the sand castle while saying, “Enough’s enough!”
It was to be expected that this recognition of Jerusalem would cause Palestinians, Arabs, most UN representatives and all Western leftists to go completely bananas. The question for our age is, why? I mean, why is it that every guy named Muhammad (including all umpteen spellings) from Casablanca to Quetta, and all points in between, hates the tiny country of Israel? And, perhaps more importantly, why do Western leftists basically concur?
Could it be true what former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once said in a stirring speech to like-minded Israel haters?
“The basic problem in the Islamic world is the existence of the Zionist regime…. It is a … regime that prevented the progress of the region’s nations…”
This preposterous statement that apparently represents mainstream Muslim “thinking” begs one of the most colossal questions in history: Just exactly how could the “Zionist regime” have done that? The “Zionist regime” is a tiny country smaller in size than Vermont situated in the middle of a vast region of bloodthirsty enemies. In comparison to the Arab world, it has roughly two percent of the population and 0.02 percent of the land area (and that’s not even including Ahmadinejad‘s large, non-Arab country of Iran). So, how has the microscopically tiny “Zionist regime” wielded so much power that it “prevented the progress of the region’s nations?” And – come to think of it – if it did, what does that say about the region’s nations, other than that they are pathetic?
This is the mother of all paranoid fantasies. In reality, the basic problem in the Islamic world is not the existence of the Zionist regime, but rather that it thinks that its basic problem is the existence of the Zionist regime.
Imagine if a certifiable paranoid schizophrenic claimed he was being persecuted by, say, a neighbor across the street who wanted nothing more than to mind his own business and be left alone. And then imagine that instead of insisting on therapy or treatment, the entire world’s psychiatric community said in unison, “Yes, you’re absolutely right about that neighbor!” and indulged his pathology to the nth degree while hounding the innocent neighbor. There’s the Middle East problem in a nutshell. (Well, that, plus there’s also Islam, which seems to be anathema to human progress and modernity.)
But what about Western leftists? They’re certainly never going to admit to anti-Semitism since they fancy themselves paragons of tolerance. Perhaps it comes down to the fact that, for the left, everything boils down to identity politics. So, in their view, Israel is a country of “white” colonists who stole the land from the Palestinians, who are the oppressed “people of color.” And when it comes to identity politics, there is one basic overriding theme: white is loathsome and everything else is phenomenally fabulous, breathtakingly stupendous and without blemish!
So, to those on the left who have been rendered moral idiots by identity politics, it doesn’t matter how many Jews have been murdered, enslaved, mistreated or run out of various countries throughout their long history. It doesn’t matter that their presence in Israel precedes the existence of Islam by a couple of thousand years. It doesn’t matter that Jerusalem has served as no one’s capital other than the Jews. It doesn’t matter that there has never been a political entity called “Palestine.” It doesn’t matter that the Jews were the originators of what became known as Judeo-Christian ethics, which led to the most enlightened and prosperous civilization in history. It doesn’t matter that they suffered the Holocaust, which occurred in our living memory. It doesn’t matter how much they have contributed to scientific knowledge and human progress, nor how many Nobel Prizes they have won. It doesn’t matter that all they want is to be left alone and just have one tiny little refuge for Jews in the middle of all that vastness of basket-case Islamic countries.
Hmm … maybe it really is just mindless anti-Semitism after all. In any case, all of the above mentioned extenuating circumstances of Jewish history are apparently trumped (ha!) by an irrational hatred so virulent that it renders its possessed multitudes into the intellectual and moral equivalent of “The Walking Dead.” You can almost imagine them staggering around growling and grunting unintelligibly, their brains dead to reason, their singular monomaniacal focus being the ripping apart of the “Zionist regime.”
But we’re told by the UK Independent that Trump and America should be embarrassed because of “global opinion.”
The world is full of horrible countries that cause endless human misery. They can’t, or won’t, figure out even the simplest guidelines for creating a decent society for their own citizens, but they all have an opinion on Israel. The UN – whose membership requirements are lax, to say the least – welcomes them with open arms and gladly gives them a stage for expressing their revulsion with the “Zionist regime.” And even worse, most postmodern, post-Christian, Western European countries, at the very least, go along with the distorted leftist orthodoxy that considers the very existence of the tiny country of Israel the world’s most intolerable problem.
Trump doesn’t have the authority to dismantle the UN, but it sure would be wonderful if he would kick the entire kit and caboodle right out of our country. Let the UN convene in ____ (fill in the blank with despicable country of choice).
Published in General
I couldn’t like this post more if I wrote it. I’m an American of WASP heritage. I just saw an article reporting the increasing anti-semitism in Europe. And we are all very aware of the history there and of the continuing hate process in the middle east. But I must declare my ignorance. Can someone responding to this post please offer a clear explanation for the cause of this outrageous phenomenon?
Nice rant.
This made me LOL. This is why the world is freaked out by Trump. He can’t be embarrassed (much like the shameless Left, I might add).
I’m going to reveal my religious nuttery, but I believe it’s the manifestation of the Cosmic Spiritual War. Seriously.
Leftism and Islam(ism) are grounded in envy — class and/or culture warfare. Envy and its first-cousin, pride, and their cousin once-removed, self-pity, are Satan’s downfall. This is why antisemitism is a perpetual feature in human society — our fallen human condition. It can only be fixed by God’s intervention. And when that happens, I wouldn’t want to be on the side of “global opinion” about God’s chosen people. Yikes.
Okay. Thank you. It works for me better than anything earthly that I can discover.
“Every time a friend succeeds I die a little.” – Gore Vidal
Altus, Oklahoma is a small town of 25,000 with a meat-processing plant, an air base and not much else. Also of note were the Wilmes family who, round about the ’90s were the owners of all four car dealerships in town and who were also the richest family there.
There were rumors that the police wouldn’t touch them.
There were rumors that they imported cocaine in the trunks of their new cars.
I was an outsider and only lived there for three years; surely there were a lot of darker Wilmes stories I didn’t hear.
Regardless, the Wilmes people were winning at life and people there seemed enthralled by a bitter admiration – envy, in short.
The Middle East has roughly two-hundred million people in it. Israel has about eight million of those – and not all of them are Jews.
The US won’t touch them, and indeed supports them almost always.
They get funding from private citizens around the world and free stuff from the US.
There are many dark stories about the evils that Jews do. That these stories are nonsense doesn’t affect their ubiquity among the losers of the world.
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It is probably clear from the above that I am intensely pro-Israel and pro-Jew. Their successes come from hard work, solid strategy, and are won in spite of reflexive opposition from people of various religions and creeds.
When people are indoctrinated rather than educated this is the result.
Thank you Greg for posting this. I’ve been wanting to say the same things for months. I wish I could give it 1000 likes.
A lovely young man from an Arabic country lived next door for a short time. One June morning I pointed out to him the silly battle going on between the robins over the fruiting amelanchier tree. Although there was plenty of fruit they just fought and fought over the territory. Then as we watched a large flock of cedar waxwings flew in and stripped the fruit from the tree then flew off. The robins continued to fight. He turned to me wide -eyed and said, “That is JUST like my people. We fight and fight and miss out on everything.”
Great post.
The content is clear and accurate, and you earn full style points for working in the word “gossamery.”
????????? Fantastic post! I can’t even single out a particular part to quote or Like–I agree with it all!
I have had first-hand experience with Arabs from the Middle East. They are the most arrogant people on Earth. They generally feel that they are superior to every other culture, and they believe that they are destined to be the World Leaders by Allah, despite the obvious reality of their countries’ inferior roles. The fact that Israel is so successful and dominant on the World Stage, and they are not, drives them insanely nuts. They just can’t accept it and have to invent excuses to explain it away.
I do not know why Anti-Semitism is increasing in Europe, but the influx of Muslims must be a contributing factor.
You’d think that they would connect the dots, since everything happens according to Allah per their teachings. If they are not successful and Israel is, it must be because Allah wants it that way….
Gd created the UN for the purpose of establishment of the State of Israel. This fulfills an old Jewish tradition that we may not return to The Land without the approval of “the nations.” (That’s “we” as a collective, not only as individuals.)
The UN, having fulfilled its purpose early on, has done nothing useful since.
One theory of increased European antisemitism is multifactoral and kind of ugly to think about. First, the underlying antisemitism that animated and enabled the Holocaust (and pogroms before) never went away. Defeat may have quieted it, but all kinds of nasty things fester in the humiliation of defeat (see also, Steven’s comment about Arab culture and Albert Camus’ “The Plague”). The odd European support for the historic revisionism and lies of Palestinian Arabs against the well documented historical truths of the Jewish people from antiquity through the democratic processes of modern Israel is where I think it’s kind of ugly: by choosing to believe that the Jews are oppressors, capable of untold evil against their Arab neighbors, it retroactively justifies their own (the Europeans) behavior against their Jewish neighbors in perpetrating the Holocaust.
Greg, your essay is impassioned and right on the button. I’ve read a lot of great posts on Ricochet, but yours is the best thing I’ve read so far. It’s fantastic!
Kent
Great post. I think we all, here at least, puzzle at the insanity of it all. Money buys PR and arms and Israel’s enemies have had too much of it because the west found and developed their energy then let them impose cartel pricing. And we, the west, subsidize Palestine to keep that key symbolic part of the narrative alive, and the world is a mob easily swayed by massive global PR, jealousy, envy and embarrassment at it’s own failure, but nothing really explains it. It’s enough to make one a believer. Evil always goes after the Jews and now Christians– always– how does one get one’s mind around that?
Setting aside the well-founded (IMO) religious explanation for antisemitism given up-thread (God’s people and all that), I figure the reason leftists are so reflexively anti-Israel is that the tiny nation stands as a rebuke for multiculturalism. A small, desert nation inspired by Judeo-Christian beliefs and Western sensibilities grew to a successful, modern country in a few decades, whereas the surrounding countries, with greater natural resources, didn’t.
For leftists, this inequality of results is itself proof of nefarious behavior. All that was necessary was writing the narrative to fit the predetermined verdict. And here we are.
Yes, it’s the Evan Sayet speech — they despise and mock those values and behaviors which lead to success, and promote those values and behaviors which lead to failure. That’s how you know it’s satanic.
The very touchstone of evil.