[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
In theory, true. It might not be their country, but it is a place that they can go if shit hits the fan wherever they are. That’s why it was created, basically. The big lesson of the Holocaust was that the Jews need to have a place where they can go when their host country turns against them.
[/QUOTE]
I think a lot of non-Jews simply don’t get it.
And many, of course, simply couldn’t care less or spend the time to wonder about the increasing likelihood, for example, that any outspoken Jew (or many non-Jews) who hold a position on Israel that differs from some leftist-dogmas and rightist-dogmas… will be accused of traitorous dual loyalty. No matter how thoroughly based that position may be on facts, logic, or a close reading of international law.
That’s really, honestly and truly, a red flag for society, that double standard is, and should be, a clarion clear warning sign that some elements in society are beginning to curdle. So to speak. Nobody, for instance, who said that we should support NATO, even if it angered Russia, would be called a “NATO Firster”. We don’t, in this country, scrutinize people’s ancestry and if they happen to have WASP ancestors, accuse them of being totally nonobjective, and probably placing the UK’s welfare first, before their own home’s. But if a (gasp!) Jew were to say that we should support Israel, even without adding in the “and so the fuck what if it angers people who are our ideological enemies anyway”, watch how quick some folks will be ready to hurl the “Israel Firster!” label. Or, for example, the PNAC’s documents, which unambiguously and constantly talked about how the US could use Israel for our own benefit and/or how Israel should be more independent and not use US aid… were cast as being the actions of an “Israel Firster” cabal. Or when folks like Wolfy were shown to be"Israel Firsters" due to such damning evidence as having spent a year in Israel when he was a child, or having a sister who lives there.
Even otherwise rational folks, like tom, will often do linguistic somersaults and rhetorical back flips to classify statements like “most American Jews place Israel before all other concerns.” as meaning anything other than that most American Jews would place Israel before all other concerns. And there is, of course, also the fact that slanders (even incoherent and absurd slanders like The Israel Lobby) are no longer fringe, tinfoil hattist sentiments, but mainstream “academic” sentiments.
And then, of course, as you can see from many a Dope thread or public discussion, once someone challenges the slanderous nature of the “Dual Loyalty” canard, apologists often go on to talk about how “Nobody can ever criticize Israel, at all, without being called an anti-Semite by the powerful Jewish Lobby which blocks all free discussion in America. And, if only Americans knew the truth, they’d be anti-Israel too!”
For instance, I’m sure reading over only Dope threads, folks could come across quotes that are eerily similar to something like, say “You’re a Jewish extremist, supporter of Israel, so you want to bias anyone who criticizes Zionism.” We have at least three or four posters who use that exact language, down to the racist epithet “Jewish extremist”.
Of course, googling for the screed I took that quote from would be best, as folks can see for themselves whether statements like that, and the ones I’m about to quote, would probably find a warm and inviting home with certain factions in the debate. For those in the peanut gallery reading along, does the quote above, or the ones I’m about to supply, sound at all similar to what a certain faction’s rhetoric often ends up as?
-“Do you hate people who don’t want to be controlled? Do you hate Americans who don’t want the Israeli lobby to have Americans fight and die and thousands maimed because Israel wants it in the Middle East? We have a war in Iraq because Israel wanted that war, not for American interests.They lied to us about weapons of mass destruction, and now they’re trying to get America into war against Iran, and I think it would be a tragedy for this country, a tragedy for the world.”
-“Pearl and people like Wolfowitz, Feith, Wurmser, Kristol, Abrams — we can go on and on. It sounds like a Jewish wedding. They have set American policy and they have hurt American interests in the Middle East. Just as I have said for years, as Walt and Mearsheimer of Harvard have said, it’s a fact. And we are dying right now in Iraq because we’re there for Israel’s interests.”
-“Q: As far as I know, the president of the United States, who is the commander in chief, is not Jewish. The vice president of the United States is not Jewish. The secretary of defense is not Jewish. The national security advisor to the president, not Jewish. The director of the CIA, not Jewish. Are these people simply tools of the Zionist conspiracy?”
“A: They’re not tools of a conspiracy, but they are definitely tools of the Zionist media and political power. Even the “Washington Post” said that 60 percent of the contributions for the Republican Party come from Jewish sources. Plus, if any politician in America dares to criticize Israel, millions will go to his opponents and he will be attacked in the media where Zionists have incredible power.”
A quick google search would reveal the source of those quotes, and why, when (usually) leftists, but sometimes paleocons, are so free using similar slurs, and that their slanders evoke no disgust, but often “academic” agreement (see The Israel Lobby)… there is cause to wonder at just how serious some of the world would be about preventing another Vernichtung, were it to roll around.
Which isn’t to say that the racist positions inherent in the “dual loyalty” or “mighty covert Israel Lobby” or “Zionist Occupied Government” are necessarily a threat, or something to get worked up about. To borrow an analogy, most of those folks are “parlor pinks”, happy to talk the talk, but more likely to look longingly at a diagram of a molotov than to actually start throwing them. They’re harmless.
What the frequency and acceptance of such views shows, however, is that if the shit ever really did hit the fan again, folks could not count on the “anti-racist left” or the “multiculturist” movements to lift a finger. Heck, in many cases, they’re often the ones using the slurs.