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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 They explained that the invitation was revoked due to the Gazan war.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.”
Discussion (84)
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"International" in an organization's name very often seems to mean "anti-civilization".
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Do you think so? I'd never thought of it that way, but I'll need to seriously consider that.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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