What **Elvis1Lives **said. Some people use “anti-Semitism” as a way of shutting down valid criticism of Israel, as if criticizing Israel and hating on Jews are the same thing.
Which has literally fuck-all to do with anything. It’s not the words that are antisemitic, it is the context. For example, if you tell your five year old kid, “You probably like watermelon, don’t you?” there’s nothing offensive with those words. If you say the same exact thing to an African-American, of COURSE it is offensive!
I contend that you want to conclude that Rep. Omar did nothing wrong.
It makes no difference to declare the context off-limits instead of the words. It’s an avoidance tactic either way.
This is mostly in line with my thinking.
What if your five year old kid is African-American?
Is it offensive then?
It definitely is an old, anti-semitic stereotype. This column on anti-semitism by Mark Steyn begins by mentioning an 18th century work of fiction set in a fictional kingdom, but to get the plot in motion, the author described laws that limited Jewish rights of property ownership. Such laws did really exist in many countries and were often justified on the grounds that it was just known that Jews could not be real citizens of any country because of their divided loyalty.
I would recommend reading Steyn’s whole column, which was written after the Pttisburg massacre last fall, before the current kerfuffle with Ilhan Omar but certainly seems relevant to this thread. Since Jews began gathering in Israel in the 19th century, even before the official founding, it has been a nation of immigrants and refugees. Many were fleeing persecution and had no other place to go. So today we look around a see certain public figures like Omar or Jeremy Corbyn with a compulsive need to trash Israel but no similar need to go after real human rights abusers like China or Saudi Arabia, and no explanation ever given for that.
Wouldn’t it be more helpful to *address *what they’re saying instead of declaring it out of bounds, with or without the pop psychoanalysis?
This took me literally two seconds to Google:
“The Saudi government might have been strategic at covering up the daily atrocities carried out against minorities, women, activists and even the #YemenGenocide, but the murder of #JamaKhashoggi should be the last evil act they are allowed to commit. #BDSSaudi #murderedjournalist” - Ilhan Omar
Um you realize Jadakiss says “You should do what we do//Stack chips like Hebrews// don’t let the melody intrigue you// we only here for that green paper with the eagle” on that song.
Of course “Hebrew” was edited out not because of a conspiracy at all.
Okay, but Jeremy Corbyn stays silent on China, right?
Okay, but he’s never said anything about Saudi Arabia, right?
In all fairness, “Jeremy Corbyn China Human Rights” took me at least five seconds to Google.
This is patently silly, and offensive.
And that’s *another *avoidance tactic. :rolleyes:
I don’t think it was anti-Semitic. If Omar’s criticisms are valid, then they are valid even if other people are making the same criticisms for bigoted reasons. I don’t think they are valid, but that is not currently the question.
I don’t think it was wrong to accuse Jonathan Pollard of divided loyalties, because other people have accused other people of having divided loyalties. Some people do have divided loyalties, others don’t - one needs to figure it out in each case, on its own, and not just rule it out ab initio.
Regards,
Shodan
She crossed the line at least once in using the term “allegiance to a foreign country.". The “All About The Benjamins” was a maybe, but taken in context, it also appears anti-semitic.
Would it have been anti-Semitic if “all about the Benjamins” had been in reference to Congressmen taking cash from the NRA? If not, then why is pointing out the financial allegiance to the Israeli lobby offensive when pointing out the financial allegiance to other lobbies is not?
My two cents: if this had been a WASP making these comments, nobody would have gotten the vapors over it. But some want to use this to drum up anti-Muslim bigotry.
I don’t see how you can complain about the pro-Israeli lobby without bringing money into it. For the record and just so we’re clear, Israel’s not the only country that has interests, or that uses money to try to corrupt the American political system to further their interests. Obviously Russia and China do the same thing. Saudi Arabia does it too, obviously. A lot of countries do. She’s not saying “Jews control the banks and the media” – that’s a trope. But saying that American politicians are easily influenced by Israeli money is not the same thing. It’s as though some people are saying any comment that criticizes the pro-Israeli lobby’s attempts to influence our system monetarily (among other things) is akin to making antisemitic remarks, and I just don’t buy that and I think we’re gullible as hell if we establish that as a precedent.
I personally think Omar probably does have strong biases against Israel, but that doesn’t mean she can’t make that kind of remark. I would nevertheless agree, however, that her own ethnicity makes it difficult, if not impossible, for her to make such remarks without inviting suspicion, which is why she should probably stay away from foreign policy and just focus on how Trump sucks at presidentin’. Even though I don’t like the precedent it establishes in terms of criticism of Israel, I can’t say I’m entirely against the idea of the Democratic party reining her in and taking away her microphone.
Oh I think there would still be controversy and calls for apologies, but with Omar, there’s a much deeper level of suspicion to overcome, and fair or not, she needs to come to that realization - fast.
If she made it a broad criticism on lobbying, then I don’t think it would be problematic at all. But by singling out Israel, I think she’s falling into that trap.
And apparently she agreed, because she made what appears to me to be a genuine and solid apology.
How about the fact that AIPAC isn’t giving dollars to candidates, unlike the NRA, so she’s factually wrong?
And do you assert that greedy Jews using money to manipulate people just isn’t a theme that has been used for hundreds of years to play on racist sentiments?
Hmm, yeah, why do you think that is?
Does anyone else have any realizing to do?