JERUSALEM — My most recent column, asking if Israel and the United States are friends, brought forth some of the nasty stuff that is known to exist, but is disturbing when it comes to light.
Among the comments sent to the Jerusalem Post blog section
“WE ARE NOT FRIENDS. Get it through your thick skulls. Nations are not “friends” they are allies and right now the US has little incentive to be dragged into conflict with Iran. Fight your own wars and get the hell out of our domestic politics. Amazing the chutzpah of some of these Israelis. Glad to know you are so grateful for everything we give you.”
“Let the Jew fight their own war. They have bought off the GOP and now wish the USA to defend them again. Good luck suckers. It is enough we send you 3 billion a year. Give Gaza back and you won’t be hated by the world.”
“If Israel attacking the USS Liberty, slaughtering American sailors and machine-gunning the injured on life rafts is friendship, then we are the best of friends. If creating false documents, intelligence and computer laptops to lie the US into war means good relations, then we Americans are on the best of terms with the Zionist state. If having Zionist Jews control our media and government is cooperation, then we fully cooperate with Israel.“
” Hope Obama doesn’t try to draft me to save Israel from Iran, I’m not going. Iran is no problem. Who have they ever attacked?”
Assuming the names associated with these comments are genuine, my guess is that the authors are neither Jews nor Arabs.
I haven’t figured out why people holding such views read the Jerusalem Post. Maybe they don’t they realize that its orientations are Jewish and Israeli? Or it may be the best source for renewing their animosity.
If anyone out there is inclined to check the talkbacks in other overtly Jewish media (leaving aside the point that all the media are owned by Jews), let me know what you find.
Individuals–some with Jewish names–answered those comments. One noted that Gaza was “given back,” and did not produce anything like peace. Others indicated that the US was no help when Jews were under intense pressure in Europe, and chided the Obama mantra that “all options are on the table.”
The comment about the USS Liberty led me to a detailed article in Wikipedia. It describes missed communications and other snafus among American and Israeli personnel, and offers reasons to blame both sides for the disaster. Rather than Israelis shooting American survivors, Israeli helicopters rescued Americans, expecting to find that they were Egyptians.
Extreme antipathy to Israel is not restricted to Gentiles. I hear from an American Jew with a long history of activity in the community, who has gone off the rails. By associating Israel with one of the most prominent of the Nazi symbols, he is beyond what deserves a response.
“It’s been quite a while since Arabs have tried to annex Israeli lands. Israelis, on the other hand, feel they are entitled to take Arab lands for lebensraum in East Jerusalem and elsewhere.”
We needn’t parse these comments for anti-Semitism or self-hating Jews. (If it looks like a duck . . . ) Nor should we gnash our teeth or seek refuge in the cellar of a friendly Gentile.
Attitudes like these are less apparent in predominantly Christian societies than in the past, or perhaps they more often reside under the rocks on account of not being politically correct, Anti-Zionism/Semitism among Muslims has taken its place. The status of Jews in Muslim societies was not the paradise that some claim. One of my neighbors comes from the Mashadi (Iran) community, where families had been converted to Islam by force in the 1830s, but preserved their Judaism for several generations in secret.
This is not the 1930s. Israel needn’t beg for protection. Diaspora Jews are no longer powerless and fearful of annoying others with their protests.
Some may object to the “pushy” nature of Israel’s Prime Minister and think that quiet respect is the best way to maintain friends. Yet those who note the comments and actions coming out of Iran (as well as Washington and European capitals) should wonder about timid reliance on others.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted at ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com
