It has been said that anti-Semitism is the Protean Evil. It can fit into anyone's paranoid worldview. For example, if you hate Communism, it is a trivial matter to decide (and find compelling evidence) that Jews are Communists. On the other hand, if you hate Capitalism, it is an equally trivial matter to find support for the proposition that Jews are Capitalists. It is a bitter fact of life that Jews tend to be successful at adapting to whatever system they are in; success then breeds resentment, and a two thousand year old hatred presents a low energy, well worn pathway for distress and anger to be channeled away from one's own shortcomings.
Today David Bogner, an Israeli, shows how even the non anti-Semite can easily fall into he pattern of attributing events to "the Jews" when in reality they are minor players:
Damned if we do... and damned if we don't
In an Op-Ed piece yesterday, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times lambasted Israel... both for having been too supportive of now-ex-Egyptian- President Mubarak, and for not being supportive enough of the protesters who ultimately got him to resign.
And today, Iran is just the latest voice in the Muslim world to blame Israel for having supported the protesters and engineering the overthrow of Mubarak.
What Israel actually did was exactly nothing.
Israel never had any ability to actually influence events in Egypt. Obama's dithering was all his own; it is characterological. Obama may well be the least likely President to be influenced by Israel since Eisenhower. Here is more from David Bogner, discussing the banal evil of Tom Friedman, friend of Israel and flat earther extraordinaire, who spent a few days speaking to young people in Tahrir Square and thinks that makes him knowledgeable about the Egyptian Military Coup (née Revolution.)
But even Friedman acknowledged why Israel might choose the devil it knows over the one it doesn't"
"... everyone can or should understand Israel’s strategic concerns. They are totally valid. The peace treaty with Egypt has been the cornerstone of Israeli strategy and economic growth for 30 years. Israel has scrupulously abided by the treaty. Of course Israelis are worried about convulsion here. How could they not? But the way they are handling themselves, is not helping them." [emphasis mine]
Again, WTF? Either we have a right to be concerned about regime change by a mob made up of G-d knows who, or we do not. Which is it Tom?
And yet from Turkey to Tehran Israel has been lambasted for egging on and supporting the protesters. We simply can't win.
I might add that the protesters themselves accused Mubarak of being an Israeli agent. The one thing uniting all factions in Egypt, from the secular democrats to the Muslim Brotherhood, is animus toward the Jews.
In contrast to Tom Friedman, who I am sure does not possess a single anti-Semitic bone in his body but is a willing tool of anti-Semitism, it is refreshing to see that some people do not need to disguise their Jew-hatred with anti-Zionism nonsense or a more subtle antipathy evinced by their need to assign blame to Israel where none( or minimal) can possibly be due.
'Zorba the Greek' composer: I’m anti-Semitic
BERLIN – Mikis Theodorakis, best known for composing the musical score to the film Zorba the Greek, recently declared on Greek television that he was “anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.” “Everything that happens today in the world has to do with the Zionists,” was one such comment.
Another was “American Jews are behind the world economic crisis that has hit Greece also.” Theodorakis also blasted Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou for establishing closer relations with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who was guilty, he said, of “war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza.”
The 86-year-old composer said in 2003 that Israel “is the root of evil.”
The Tom Friedmans of the world are much more dangerous than the honest anti-Semites. I prefer an honest Jew hater to Tom Friedman's "more in sadness than anger" animus any day of the week.
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