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“1871 Ten Commandments” by silicon_press_uk is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
A couple hundred years ago, when Charlton Heston came down off Mount Ararat with the Ten Commandments inscribed on two stone tablets, he told the crowd of extras waiting for him at the foot of Rodeo Drive — I’m paraphrasing from memory here so a few details may not be quite right — he said “Actually I have 11 commandments but the laser printer malfunctioned and we couldn’t get the last one on the tablets. But here it is. Number 11: Do not badmouth Israel.”
Today, just about the only commandments Americans take seriously are Number 9, the one about murder, and Number 11. Nobody breaks a sweat about swearing or adultery or working on the Sabbath, but if you say anything snide about Netanyahu you better be ready for a public stoning.
Just ask Ilhan Omar, the newly elected Congresswoman from Minneapolis. She had the temerity to observe in public that the Israel lobby gets whatever it wants from the Congress because it showers money on Congresscritters. She has further had the gall to suggest that it is not proper for the American government to require loyalty to Israel as a condition of serving on a Congressional committee or holding a public job. For these remarks she has been branded as anti-Semite and widely and hysterically condemned, mostly by her fellow Democrats.
Or ask Bahia Amawi, a longtime speech pathologist working for the school system in Austin, Texas. At the end of last year, she was told that renewal of her employment contract depended on her signing an oath that she would not participate in any boycott of Israel. She refused to sign. She lost her job.
Texas is one of 25 states that have, by legislation or executive order, tried to prohibit their citizens from boycotting Israel. This is what Congresswoman Omar meant by requiring allegiance to another state, and what she meant when she said, “It’s the Benjamins, baby,” meaning blizzards of 100-dollar bills, that account for this widespread nonsense. (Federal courts in three states have struck down the pro-Israel restraints because they violate the US Constitution’s guarantees of free speech. Ms. Amawi got her job back, eventually. And yes, she is an American citizen.)
Or ask Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who dared to observe the other day that her ancestors, the Palestinians, suffered greatly because of the creation of the modern state of Israel after World War II. She is no Great Communicator, and her syntax was a bit murky as she tried to explain her mixed feelings about the mutual suffering of Jews and Palestinians, now locked in one of the oldest and deadliest rivalries in history. Her colleagues went nuts, Republican Liz Cheney accusing her of “vile anti-Semitism,” of holding “sickening” and “evil” beliefs.
Consider these undeniable truths:
- One of the largest, richest and most successful lobbying organizations in Washington DC is AIPAC — the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. To say that it is rich, powerful and successful should not be controversial.
- The Constitution forbids the government to restrain the free speech of free Americans, and it is long and well established that a boycott is a form of political speech.
And now consider the hysteria of people who react to the mildest criticism of Israel’s government, or lobbyists — emphatically not of the Jewish people — by equating the critics to the people who operated the ovens at Auschwitz. Consider the priorities of a United States Senate whose very first order of business when it convened this year was to pass legislation enabling the states to prohibit participation in boycotts against Israel — legislation that was AIPAC’s number one priority.
Sounds like collusion by political candidates with a foreign power. Robert Mueller, please call your office.
The Evangelicals are at work here as well. Pentecostals, Southern Baptists and various independent churches (some quite large) have staunchly aligned themselves with the nation of Israel. For reasons that are doctrinal, historical and especially eschatological, powerful right-wing preachers (John Hagee, Pat Robertson, Rod Parsley and Creflo Dollar to name just a few) have successfully linked support for Israel to both American patriotism and admission into Heaven. Entire television networks are devoted to this ideation: Trinity Broadcasting Network, Day Star and a few others. Hell, even that fallen angel Jimmy Swaggert has his own 24-7 TV platform!
Will wonders never cease?
If you’re using the term wonders euphemistically for abject stupidity then, yes, wonders WILL indeed cease and much, much sooner than most people suspect.
Even IF Rashida Tlaib were, in fact, a Great Communicator it wouldn’t matter. The profoundly illiterate (and innumerate) masses would still only be capable of misguided knee-jerk reactions based solely on their astoundingly erroneous beliefs. Ms. Omar is more correct than she probably knows, it’s all about the Benjamins, baby, ALL other priorities rescinded.
” …legislation that was AIPAC’s number one priority.”
Disagree. AIPAC’s numer one priority has always been to wipe Iran off the face of the earth.
There will be a false flag operation in The Gulf, very soon, courtesy of AIPAC and their supporters. I’m willing to put 10 grand on it, and lay 2 to 1. Any takers?
Okay, number one legislative priority.
Giggle.
In a better world, the number one legislative priority – for all concerned – would be to eliminate the United States Senate.
The older I get, the more convinced I become that the US Senate sits at the epicenter of The Evil.
You can love the Jewish people and still not like their fascist leaders.
Amen.
And then there is this web site:
https://canarymission.org/
This is quite a s**t list – of anyone in North American academia who has espoused supposed pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli views. Israeli border officials have reportedly been using this dossier to keep people out of the country.
Holy s**t!
Nobody knows who runs it, or where it’s located; Internet sleuthing has come up with dead ends. Its intimidation by targeting individual students with the baldly-stated goal of making them unemployable has been quite effective. At least one student was pulled out of class to be questioned by FBI agents because his name showed up here. Canary Mission is an object lesson in the risks of saying too much on social media.
Do you have a source for the story about the involvement of FBI agents?
I think it was this:
https://theintercept.com/2018/06/24/students-for-justice-in-palestine-fbi-sjp/
It sure was. So, bottom line, anyone who expresses sympathy for the Palestinians or who criticizes Israel’s brutality toward them can expect a visit from guys in suits, carrying badges and guns, inquiring about their terrorist tendencies. I think … oh, wait someone’s at the door, I’ll be right back………….
It’s not known if Canary Mission is supported by the Israeli government, but it dovetails with the goals of the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs to go on the offensive after the BDS movement in North America and Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Strategic_Affairs
https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Ministry-of-Strategic-Affairs-to-create-international-anti-BDS-legal-team-574946
“And now consider the hysteria of people who react to the mildest criticism of Israel’s government, or lobbyists — emphatically not of the Jewish people — by equating the critics to the people who operated the ovens at Auschwitz.”
Also worth noting, is that these same people (or at least their allies) have since 2016 weaponised “free speech” to palliate – even vindicate – the renaissance of the vilest right wing dogmas.
They will defend to the death the right of racists and homophobes to express their views in university campuses, which are apparently speakeasies now. On the other hand, criticising Israeli policy is an anti-Semitic hate crime. Truly, interesting times!
Sharpen your pitch forks.
I don’t particularly want to be prejudiced against any race or culture (we’re all human), but in the case of the Jews I have to admit I find it very difficult not to do so after coming across the following:
https://goyimgazette.com/truth-talmud/
https://thesaker.is/zionism-judaism-and-the-jewish-state-of-israel/
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-History-Religion-Thousand-Political/dp/0745328407/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=shahak+jewish&qid=1558434915&s=books&sr=1-1
And recalling the atrocities likewise committed by Christendom and Islam down the centuries — both religions sharing the same roots as the Jewish one — I really do wonder if the world might not have been a happier place had Abraham and his ilk never existed.
Abraham was quite an interesting character; his story one of the truly great ancient sagas (along with the Iliad and the Epic of Gilgamesh). His lifestyle was pastoral and his influence on the nascent Cananite city-states was generally positive (the Edomites would take issue with this point). God favored Abraham because of his monotheistic faith and his rejection of the institution of civilization. It’s the civilizations that Abraham eschewed that have caused all of our problems thru the ages, not the Hebrews…Interestingly, the word ‘Hebrew’ is derived from the Sumerian word ‘wanderer’.
It remains a fact that the three religions I listed all deferred to Abraham as a major figure in their respective mythologies, and all showed a sorry history — still unfinished — of exploitation, intolerance and the rest of it. And I frankly find it a bit difficult to believe that Abraham’s own values and way of life had nothing to do with all that.
If Abraham eschewed civilization, all I can say is that he’s entitled to his opinion — which I reject — as long as he and his kind don’t try to force their beliefs on me. Not all forms of civilization are worthy of condemnation, surely. (Premodern) China showed a pretty good record from at least the 10th century AD onwards. She seldom engaged in armed quarrels with her neighbors, did not overtax her natural resources in her development, had very little slavery, had a thriving economy, and produced plenty of great art and literature. And Confucius was very pro-civilization, yet the endless bloodstains that mar the annals of the three Abrahamic religions are completely absent in those of Confucianism.
It’s true – Abraham was no saint; nor was he a devil. In fact, he was very much a pragmatist; he did what was necessary to get along. The first true environmentalist, he was careful to preserve the land, by not allowing his herds to overgraze. Abraham was, for the most part, scrupulous in his dealings with his ‘civilized’ neighbors, but was not above prevarication or even belligerence when forced against a wall…He was a human – complicated.
Furthermore, the emergence and evolution of cultures in The West (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Europe) reflects a rather different trajectory than that of the more homogenous cultures of the Far East. For this reason, I believe that your comparison regarding Confucianism, as well intended as it is, needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
I didn’t know that different cultural trajectories can be used as an excuse for morally reprehensible behavior. (Shrugs.)