Orwellian Moral Universe On Shabbat Hazon

"The Prophet Isaiah" by Raphael 1511-12, Sant'Agostino, Rome

 

My thoughts today are with hundreds of thousands of Jews who have been forced to honor Shabbat Hazon in their cellars and bunkers, having left their homes behind, in the knowledge that on Shabbat Hazon the prophet Isaiah envisages the awful suffering that God will inflict upon the Jewish people for their transgressions against God, each other, and the Temple. What are these people meant to think is next in store for them? Did we so quickly forget the 'never again'? Shame on us...

Double Standard is a rule or principle that is unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups.

There, right there is the problem. It sounds too dry, too civilized, too abstract. It's doesn't reflect the outrage and emotional charge inherent in the rabid anti-Semitism of 'one standard for everyone else, and then an impossible one for the Jews', displayed these past weeks.

However, this dry term describes the dilemma perfectly. Hezbollah, or rather Iranian rockets are maiming and killing ONLY innocent Israeli civilians, indiscriminately. Their rockets are ONLY fired to cause maximum terror amongst Israel's civilian population; that's their ONLY military and ideological goal. Whenever talk is of any of these murdering thugs, their goal to utterly destroy Israel must be repeated, over and over again. Yet, one is hard pressed to come across a report in the MSM or UN commentary which states these facts outright and without equivocation.

On the other hand, Israel warns the civilian population to evacuate the areas known to be Hezbollah strongholds before commencing surgical attacks. If it hadn't done so, the death toll would be hundred fold. Despite international consensus on Hezbollah's tactics to launch its murderous attacks from within densely populated civilian areas; despite international awareness, that Hezbollah terrorists don't wear uniforms, but instead do everything in their power to disguise themselves as aide workers, innocent civilians, medical personnel, you name it, even fake UNIFIL uniforms and vehicles; despite all of these and many more terrorist tactics, all of which do in fact constitute war crimes, a vast majority of the international community still insists on condemning Israel's only option to stop Hezbollah's terror as disproportionate and as 'war crimes'.

Charles Krauthammer sums it up in an article that is nothing short of brilliant:

What other country, when attacked in an unprovoked aggression across a recognized international frontier, is then put on a countdown clock by the world, given a limited time window in which to fight back, regardless of whether it has restored its own security?

What other country sustains 1,500 indiscriminate rocket attacks into its cities -- every one designed to kill, maim and terrorize civilians -- and is then vilified by the world when it tries to destroy the enemy's infrastructure and strongholds with precision-guided munitions that sometimes have the unintended but unavoidable consequence of collateral civilian death and suffering?

To hear the world pass judgment on the Israel-Hezbollah war as it unfolds is to live in an Orwellian moral universe. With a few significant exceptions (the leadership of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and a very few others), the world -- governments, the media, U.N. bureaucrats -- has completely lost its moral bearings.

The word that obviates all thinking and magically inverts victim into aggressor is "disproportionate," as in the universally decried "disproportionate Israeli response." [...]

The perversity of today's international outcry lies in the fact that there is indeed a disproportion in this war, a radical moral asymmetry between Hezbollah and Israel: Hezbollah is deliberately trying to create civilian casualties on both sides while Israel is deliberately trying to minimize civilian casualties, also on both sides.

In perhaps the most blatant terror campaign from the air since the London Blitz, Hezbollah is raining rockets on Israeli cities and villages. These rockets are packed with ball bearings that can penetrate automobiles and shred human flesh. They are meant to kill and maim. And they do.

But it is a dual campaign. Israeli innocents must die in order for Israel to be terrorized. But Lebanese innocents must also die in order for Israel to be demonized, which is why Hezbollah hides its fighters, its rockets, its launchers, its entire infrastructure among civilians. Creating human shields is a war crime. It is also a Hezbollah specialty.

On Wednesday CNN cameras showed destruction in Tyre. What does Israel have against Tyre and its inhabitants? Nothing. But the long-range Hezbollah rockets that have been raining terror on Haifa are based in Tyre. What is Israel to do? Leave untouched the launch sites that are deliberately placed in built-up areas?

Had Israel wanted to destroy Lebanese civilian infrastructure, it would have turned out the lights in Beirut in the first hour of the war, destroying the billion-dollar power grid and setting back Lebanon 20 years. It did not do that. Instead it attacked dual-use infrastructure -- bridges, roads, airport runways -- and blockaded Lebanon's ports to prevent the reinforcement and resupply of Hezbollah. Ten thousand Katyusha rockets are enough. Israel was not going to allow Hezbollah 10,000 more.

Israel's response to Hezbollah has been to use the most precise weaponry and targeting it can. It has no interest, no desire to kill Lebanese civilians. Does anyone imagine that it could not have leveled south Lebanon, to say nothing of Beirut? Instead, in the bitter fight against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, it has repeatedly dropped leaflets, issued warnings, sent messages by radio and even phone text to Lebanese villagers to evacuate so that they would not be harmed.

Israel knows that these leaflets and warnings give the Hezbollah fighters time to escape and regroup. The advance notification as to where the next attack is coming has allowed Hezbollah to set up elaborate ambushes. The result? Unexpectedly high Israeli infantry casualties. Moral scrupulousness paid in blood. Israeli soldiers die so that Lebanese civilians will not, and who does the international community condemn for disregarding civilian life?

This is the Truth.

The version put forward by the Islamofascists, together with their sympathizers and apologists is simply to turn every bit of that truth around 180 degrees. Just listen to their statements and you quickly catch on. It never ceases to amaze me how successful that strategy, invented by none other than Liar-In-Chief Yasser Arafat, keeps proving to be. A good example of this inversion of truth strategy is dissected over at 'The Free West', German newspaper DIE WELT's English blog.

'What is clear is that Israel, realizing it is incapable of destroying Hizbullah, has decided to destroy Lebanon,' Khoury proceeds, as if Israel were responding in a fit of pique, rather than with precision and caution against specific military targets. [...]

'Lebanon has to join the battle against Israel not because it wants to, not because there are still Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, but because the only options Israel offers the Arab Middle East are to submit or to collaborate in the crushing of the Palestinians.' Well no. Israel is not intent on crushing the Palestinians, merely in preventing them from crushing Israel. The bottom-line, the refusal of the Islamic world to accept the existence of Israel, is always neatly avoided in this sort of discussion.

If Hezbollah are indeed concerned about the human suffering, and wish to truly turn the tables, why not simply give the two soldiers back? Why? Because terrorist organizations live and breathe for moments such as these. So do the anti-Semites, who not so secretly agree with the Islamofascist notion that Israel should be exterminated.

The President understands this only too well.

A few recent related posts on ATB:

'Can We Get Over It Already' We Are All Jews Now
'Hezbollah Runs Lebanon' And 'Hamas Ready To Cut A Deal'
"One Foot In Terror One Foot In Politics"
Commander-In-Chief From Hell
Just Cause
UN's Global Mission: Reviving, Fueling And Spreading Rabid Anti-Semitism
The Devil's Arithmetic Part II
The Devil's Arithmetic Part I
The Muslim Brotherhood And Hezbollah Detonate The Political Bomb
The Washington Post Inaugurates The New Moderate
Unmasking The Hamas Code Of Honor
'Israel Cannot Succeed By Empowering Terrorists'
'Pallywood Does Not Recognize Israel
'The Palestinian-Spin-Of-The-Century' The World's Most Audacious Marketing Coup'
Total War

Comments

[jess1dering]

Thanks Ken,
New Bookmark.

[Michael van der Galien]

The heavy breathing in the video is unnerving, the desparation in the pleas for help is so very real, and the man's shout as the building finally collapses and the video goes silent takes away my breath.

I agree completely.

[Kenny Pierce]

Jess,

Alexandra is a contributer to NewsBusters.

[Kenny Pierce]

Michael,

You need never apologize for giving me advice, especially when it's good advice.

[weekenderman]

The heavy breathing in the video is unnerving, the desparation in the pleas for help is so very real, and the man's shout as the building finally collapses and the video goes silent takes away my breath.

[Michael van der Galien]

Kenny,

Yes that is much better. Sorry for telling you what to do, but I really was shocked due to that video. As I said, I never heard that kind of emotion in a voice before.

Man...

[jess1dering]

...... What's Alexandra's NewsBusters platform ?
....... Wouldn't we have to send 90% of what's written about this war , Kenny ?

[Kenny Pierce]

Michael,

Highly strengthened warning now established; is this better?

[Kenny Pierce]

Thought I'd pass on a great line from an article that mentions the Israelis' bad behavior in passing. (The article as a whole is about the split between "liberal" and "conservative" visible in practically every mainline church. My own take on that topic, which I wrote a year ago and which I think makes an interesting comparison to Tonkowich's, is here. But both Tonkowich's article and my own post are off the topic of this thread.)

The line in question has to do with weak-headed clerical support for disinvesting in Israel because Israel treats those poor little Arabs so badly; I've emphasized the line I really love in the following passage:

In the same session, several speakers--mostly pastors--argued in favor of divestment, explaining that they had visited the Palestinians, "engaged in dialogue," and were "deeply concerned." No one informed these undoubtedly well-meaning people that the plural of "anecdote" is not "data."

I am so going to plagiarize that last line...only, with all due and most sincere respect to Tonkowich for coming up with the core idea of the bon mot, I think I'll generally quote it as, "The singular of 'data' is not 'anecdote.'"

[Kenny Pierce]

Michael,

I'm terribly sorry I didn't think to make the warning more explicit. I'm going to go back and strengthen that up a bit.

[Kenny Pierce]

RL's presence raises a couple of points I think are worth emphasizing.

1. Nobody owes it to me -- or to you, or to any of us -- to refute my position. Refuting a position takes time and trouble, and everybody has a perfect right to ignore other people. To be paid attention to is a privilege, and while on a mostly courteous blog like this one it doesn't have to be earned, it most certainly can be forfeited.

Now, I have rather a lot of tolerance for rudeness -- you long-term ATB'ers remember David Byron, right? I eventually decided that his habit of confusing unrelenting verbal abuse with civil discussion, his lunatic-fringe willingness to believe any and every conspiracy theory that would fall in line with his bitterly anti-American agenda, and his inability to string three paragraphs together with fewer than six logical fallacies, was just too much of a pain to make it worth the trouble -- even though I was (at least originally) interested in the point of view he held. But it took quite a long time before I gave up and said, "Just not worth it."

Yet I'm outtahere on RL after his very first post. Which brings me to my second point:

2. When the blood libel shows up, that's it for me. Party over, relationship over, I'm backing slowly out of the room without turning my back on whoever the blood libeler is, and there will be no further conversation.

Look, for those of you unfamiliar with the history of the really nasty anti-Semitism, think about this: would it occur to you, if you were criticizing...oh, say Howard Dean or Dubya, depending on your political persuasion...would it occur to you to say, "I can just imagine that guy eating the flesh and drinking the blood of children"? I mean, you're talking a truly sick mind if somebody's just going to pull that out of the depths of their psyche, right?

But I'll give you a hint: RL ain't makin' that up on his own. When you go hunt up the blackest, foulest stinkholes of anti-Semitism, what you'll find periodically is the blood libel -- the accusations of ritual killings of children, often with concomitant accusations of cannibalism. In the last century, accusations from an old case in the 19th century were resurrected in the truly evil Nazi propaganda rag Der Stürmer (hence my reference above), and then were picked up and widely disseminated throughout the Arab world. This image, this language -- it isn't made up on the spot. It's passed down from sicko to sicko.

In other words, when somebody is in the middle of criticizing people who happen to be Jews, and suddenly you start hearing words spill out of his mouth about those Jews' eating the flesh and drinking the blood of babies, this is a huge red flag that tells you, "This guy has been spending a lot of time with a very nasty bunch of people." And you get away from that guy in one hell of a hurry.

I mean, I know RL isn't accusing Olmert of actually doing this; so it isn't an full-blown blood libel we have here. But the very use of the image is a red flag that, for me at least, instantly says, "Whoa, that's it, full stop, we're done."

Which is why RL will get no refutation from me, and why I think anybody who spends any time on him is making a decision to waste however much time they're spending.

[weekenderman]

Well, 142 rockets were fired by Hezbollah into civilian positions in Israel on Sunday, and Israel has agreed to a 48-hour cessation in airstrikes after Lebanese civilians were unintentionally killed because they were hanging out around terrorists.

How ludicrious for people over there to protest violently at UN offices after Lebanese civilians are accidently killed, after dancing in the streets whenever Israeli or American citizens are killed by terrorist strikes!

All I can say is if rockets continue to be fired from Lebanon into Israel during these next 48 hours, that will be proof that a future "cease fire" would be pointless for Israel.

[Crusader.NoRegrets.]

Alexandra

I think RL is another Hizb'allah plant! No,wait, the English is too good. Possibly a convert rotting in some British inner city slum, typing away on his Mum's computer while she's out doing the shopping?

OK, now I get to do the gracious apology thing, and rise to the lofy heights of GoO. Look what you've started Kenny :o)

Sorry RL (there, I said it) but I think people like you are far from harmless and needing counselling. I suspect that on your current trajectory you are going to get mixed up with the wrong kind of people, and end up suffering grievous injury, or a long incarceration. Those who live their lives by the "Protocols" usually end up in a bad way, mate. History has not been kind to societies who live by such rubbish. (I think that'll make a great Ph.D. thesis, by the way - the correlation between anti-semitism and stunted growth).

RL - the Lebanese people who count were crying for war, they wanted war, they wanted a Jihad. Well now they have one, and in treu Arab fashion, they suddenly don't like it, and want the world to rescue them yet again, no doubt after which rescue they'll celebrate their "victory" over the US and Israel, and plan for the next round, 6 years from now, using the current generation of teenagers as the next wave of bombers and killers.

RL, there are no more civilians in the ME.

[Gang of One]

Ghost,

Interesting post; thought provoking. I have been putting off reading Arthur Hertzberg's seminal work on Zionism "The Zionist Idea" and his follow-up, "The Fate of Zionism." Unfortunately, he is no longer with us, and so I can't speak with him about some of these ideas and current developments. He was the rabbi at my synagogue as well as a dear friend ...

[Ghost Dansing]

I hesitate to discuss RL anymore, however he offers an example of how some simple fact, specifically that their have been, and are Jews that are not Zionists...disagree with the concept of Zionism and perhaps even the creation of the State of Israel can be turned into some kind of quasi-apocolyptic, judgement-of-God-type of extremist viewpoint.

The Jews have a long tradition of Liberal intellectual discourse on nearly all things, and while there are certainly extremist Jews, it is not necessarily this cultural habit of thought that makes them so.

RL is apparently doing an intellectual "shake 'n bake" attempting to translate Jewish internal disagreements into the basis for a wholesale condemnation of Israel.

Zionism, while often discussed within a religio-historical context, was at least in part a political solution to chronic antisemitism that existed in Europe and elsewhere (part of the problem is that it was a European political solution that continues to be resented in the Middle East).

The Jews were continually persecuted...the idea that they should all go back where they came from became a theme in the minds of 19th and early 20th Century bigots, and some Jews also had similar ideas (ideas that really caught-on in 19th Century Colonialist minds)...

To really do injustice to all the nuances of history, these ideas culminated in early 20th Century fiats such as the Balfour Declaration, that was perfectly confluent with European Colonialist attitudes, forshadowing the implementation of Colonialist solutions among many many other Colonialist solutions.

That there were and are Jews then and now that do not embrace the Zionist solution, is a fact.

The thought-processes that begot Zionism were probably not ubiquitous; however there is at least one generally parallel example in which the idea of displacing the displaced to a place, for mixed reasons all of which had to do with a stew of racism, colonialism and expediency: Liberia.

Personnally, I consider Zionism's historical role in the creation of Israel to be fait accompli...Israel is an artifact of 19th Century Colonialist thought that included Zionism in the mix.

Where a residual of Zionism plays in the modern State of Israel has more to do with how it will eventually come to grips with immgration and citizenship issues in Israel, within the context of its Public Policy and Law. That is why the "right of return" issue is a stumbling block when it comes to the creation of a Paletinian State alongside Israel.

How homogenous can Israel be? How heterogenous?

[Gang of One]

Kenny,

That is devastating, to say the least. I doubt I would ever apologize for ranting against anyone defending that or even claiming it was a conspiracy -- and I have had to sever relations with a few 'friends' over this.
As for the musings of RL, only thing I can say is that as a lapsed orthodox Jew, the few who hold out for a return of Moshiach as the only propagator of a rebuilt Eretz Yisroel are, thankfully, just that: few in number. We tolerate them, we do not shun them, as they are Jews with a different vision. Their problem is with the State of Israel as a non-authentic entity, anyone of their number who would actually approve of her destruction or the destruction of her citizens would be roundly and soundly put down and rebuked. I know many Envangelicals, Baptists and Catholics who probably pray more fervently for the Jewish people and for Israel than many of the Jews I know -- ironic isn't it?
RL is neither a true Christian or Jew. I do not know what RL is and I don't care to label him/her. But RL's outlook is just as poisonous and wrong-headed as are those of all anti-Semites.
Sorry if you feel ad-hominemized, RL, but you expose yourself as being warped, ill-informed and leaning slightly toward the abyss.
I will pray for your soul.

[Michael van der Galien]

Kenny, you might want to warn people that a video like this can be really shocking! That video at your own blog I mean. What the heck. I've never heard so much petrified trembling emotion in anyone's voice man... My God.
Man, I never want to hear that again in my life.

[Michael van der Galien]

Kenny,

I think it's the right decision to ignore that RL character. His posts make no sense. Just a couple of insults regarding zionist Jews and everyone that might agree with them, something about God and that's it.
He just throws in some weird sentences and leaves it at that.

From a professional point of view it seems that his mind is:
A- highly obsessive, and
B- extremely confused
C- very chaotic

He truly needs help.

[Kenny Pierce]

[sitting here idly musing on the conservative/libertian analog to the Liberal Man's Burden...the thankless task of "speaking Truth to Insanity..."]

[Kenny Pierce]

Gang of One,

Meanwhile, if you want to see what I'm like when genuinely enraged, Mohammed Atta and Yasser Arafat will be ice-skating before I apologize for this post.

My patience and forbearance, you perceive, are not infinite.

[RL]

Kenny Boy,

All of my Jewish mentors, teachers, and dear friends would vehemently and totally disagree with your baseless, defamatory, judgmental, slanderous, and extremely-vicious ad-hominem attack (how very "christian" of you).

You don't need to have a doctorate in mathematics in order to be terrorized by the "shock and awe" of the gut-wrenching and heart-breaking human statistics/toll at,

www.lebanonundersiege.gov.lb

The pagan nation of Israel is living under the perfectly Just and perfectly Holy wrath of the thrice-Holy: Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer God Almighty, Who is revealed to us in the inspired (verbal plenary inspiration), immutable, infallible, and inerrant words of the New Covenant.

how about honestly answering my questions, instead of resorting to vicious ad-hominem attacks ?

True Torah Jews,

jewsagainstzionism.com

it is my sincere hope and prayer that you are not on the same side of the Biblical doctrine of election
(double-predestination) as the great majority of the jewish population of the nation of Israel.
(ie. reprobation, eternal-damnation)

Matthew 7:13-29
Romans 8:9

[weekenderman]

Good point on kudos for Gang of One, Kenny. I've made over-the-top on threads on various blogs, but usually don't admit my mistakes until after someone else calls me out on it.

Gang of One is a gracious person, indeed -- although that simply is par-for-the-course for the regular posters on Alexandra's incredible ATB blog. :)

[Kenny Pierce]

Ann,

[blushing] Thank you. Alexandra is kind enough to let me rant at much greater length than any other blogmistress I know would ever allow. Alexandra and I first met, you know (actually you don't), over at Ann Althouse's blog, on the first and pretty much the last time I've ever posted there. My comment was about half as long as my ordinary ATB comment and Ann flipped out about how absurd it was for me to "expect" her to read a comment so disgracefully long. Though, to be fair, since I was saying that her post was thoroughly wrongheaded in every respect, I imagine she was mostly honked off about that more than the length. At any rate, Ann tried a point-for-point rebuttal of my post, making, IMHO, a number of egregious logical errors in the process; I rebutted right back; she chose not to respond and I don't think I've bothered to leave a comment of substance since -- and I'm 100% certain that Ann has neither noticed nor cared.

But Alexandra was also commenting on the same thread, and if I remember correctly she took Ann's side but did so politely; and because I like people who can disagree politely I followed the link to her site -- and as you know, to see Alexandra's site is to know instantly that you've found something absolutely unique. So it was the beginning of what has been for the past year a thoroughly delightful friendship -- and considerably more than one, as more and more intelligent people have dropped by and decided to stick around and enhance the conversations on a regular basis.

It really is quite a remarkable blog, isn't it?

Oh, and I'll tell you something else that's remarkable: that apology from Gang of One is about as handsome and gracious an apology as you're ever likely to see. Just speaking for myself, it's much easier to avoid saying something I regret in the first place than it is to apologize adequately once I've said it; so GoO has just shot way up in my estimation. Well done, mate!

[Kenny Pierce]

If RL thinks Jews are not Christian, I don't know many Jews who would disagree or take offense.

If he thinks they are pagan, then this former classics major who leaned heavily on Walter Burkert's Greek Religion in preparing his senior thesis, can assure you that RL hasn't the foggiest idea of what a pagan is.

RL, I'm an evangelical Christian myself who would be delighted to see the Jewish nation convert wholesale to Christianity; but I don't have a friggin' clue what you're talking about. Back up and go slower, or something.

Is "True Torah Jews" the new term for "Messianic Jews," i.e., Jewish Christians? (Please, let's not have any Jewish people leaping in to inform me that "Jewish Christian" is a contradiction in terms; I'm just trying to clarify what RL is talking about.)

Whoa, whoa, wait, I just reread RL's first post more carefully, and we have an unmistakable blood libel reference. "I can picture the cruel, cowardly, merciless, and weak PM Ehud Olmert fantasizing about eating the flesh and drinking the blood of precious Lebanese babies" -- this is straightforward Der Stürmer stuff. Our boy RL has been hanging out with the kind of people who think the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are authoritative.

RL, I mean this as kindly and gently and charitably as I can: you are out of your poor little mind. Get professional help; get prescription medication; get extremely aggressive therapy; get it all now. I will pray for you very seriously, but you should know that I won't respond to another word you say on this blog...unless you post a request for a recommendation for a good therapist or a sane and godly Christian pastor (as opposed to the nutcase under whose influence you appear presently to be).

What was it we were saying earlier about anti-Semitism? Boy, there's the real thing for you, right there.

[RL]

Why is it that the zionist jews in the nation of Israel are arguably the most hated human-beings on the face of the earth, and arguably the most hated human-beings in the history of the world ?

[h]

Ooops my mistake - Goldstein is dead killed by a mob of Arabs. He is regarded by 99% of jews and Israelis as an evil man whose death is a blessing.

How does the Islamic world view Nassie? OBL? Zaquawi?

[h]

Dr Goldstein is in an Israeli jail and he will never see the outside world again.

Can you tell me, RL, about the cold blooded, cowardly, evil, vile, wicked, mass murderer and Islamic terroist Osama Ben Laden? Yassir Arafat? Nasrallah? Ayman Al Zawahiri?

Should I go on?

[RL]

Dave,

What can you tell all of us about the cold-blooded, cowardly, evil, vile, wicked, mass-murderer, and zionist-terrorist named, "Dr." baruch goldstein ?

[Dave]

All,
without his AK-47 by his side the dead Hezbollah terrorist in the ditch in Tyre is just another MSM civilian victum of the IDF war machine.....add them up. Let us not consider the target of the Iranian rockets fired to who knows where......

[Ghost Dansing]

"Who are the Israeli jews according to the Lord Jesus Christ?
St. John 8:42-47
Just one of the many "hard Truths" of the inerrant Word of the Risen and Living Messiah."

We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into their sins. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold him up to contempt.

And it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater in us than in the Jews.

As for them, according to the witness of the Apostle, "None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on him. [Roman Catechism I, 5, 11; cf. Heb 6:6; 1 Cor 2:8]

Nor did demons crucify him; it is you who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and sins. [St. Francis of Assisi, Admonitio 5, 3]

As the Church declared at the Second Vatican Council:

... [N]either all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion... the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture.

One who pretends to absolutely judge the Jews arrogates unto himself the righteousness of The God of Israel...perhaps RL is the second coming.

In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of her saints, the Church has never forgotten that "sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured."389 Taking into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself, The Church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone.

[RL]

Jews Against zionism (True Torah Jews) zionist Alert for July 29, 2006 is Code Orange
(High Threat Level). Current zionist activities and statements present an imminent threat to safety and security.

who is the cold-blooded, cowardly, and evil zionist-terrorist who assassinated
Mr. Yitzhak Rabin ?

To the annoying and obnoxious cyber-stalker on this thread who has sent me unsolicited and unwelcome e-mails, why don't you go and join the zionist-terrorist group known as the JDL/Jewish Defense League ("right wing terrorist-group") ?

FBI's official description of the JDL,
"right wing terrorist-group". FBI.gov

[weekenderman]

I wonder what this RL character thinks of the fact the lady he refers to as "Alexandra the Beautiful" and "a classy lady" believes quite differently than he does when it comes to the existence of the nation of Israel in its present location . . . and the right of Israel to protect herself from the terrorists?

[RL]

Interesting content at,

nkusa.org

[brian]

This RL person can keep that hateful bile to itself as far as I'm concerned. Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Lebanese babies? That sounds like a Nasrallah special to me. A true Christian would never utter such disgusting slander against anyone, therefore RL needs to refrain from polluting this blog with it's vileness. Talk about Anti-Semite!

[weekenderman]

RL (so-called "Roaring Lamb") is a regular on the WorldMagBlog site. He always spouts out nonsense on that blog too, and the other visitors mostly just ignore him.

(for evidence of that, simply check out the World Magazine blog)

RL has made it clear at that site that he thinks the leadership and population of Israel is a non-Christian and pagan lot, and even links to websites that theorize that if it were not for these "Zionist" Jews, the Holocause likely would never have happened.

Quite strange stuff, in my opinion, but maybe you can help straighten out his faulty logic?

Personally, I think he's hopeless, but I suppose nothing is impossible for God?

[Gang of One]

RL,

Are you quoting something from another source, or is this your own screed?

[RL]

Dear Alexandra the Beautiful,

i like the new look of your site, nice job ! This doesn't surprise me coming from a classy lady who has good taste.

lebanonembassy.org
(Please click on, Photos of Agression)

www.lebanonundersiege.gov.lb

jewsnotzionists.org
jewsagainstzionism.com

i can picture the cruel, cowardly, merciless, and weak PM Ehud Olmert fantasizing about eating the flesh and drinking the blood of precious Lebanese babies. He is a zionist terrorist and a war criminal who ought to be extradited to the Netherlands, and put on trial at the Hague for his US taxpayer funded ($3.2 billion per year) war crimes against the Lebanese people. Shame on the Israeli zionists, and shame on the corrupt, notorious, scandalous, and anti-American zionist spies of Aipac. Shame on them. zionism is NOT the answer !!
Where is the notorious convicted felon jonathan pollard, and what is he doing there ?

The government of the nation of Israel has repeatedly stated that its "defensive war" is not against the Lebanese people, nor against the nation of Lebanon. What is the nation of Israel actively doing in terms of real humanitarian-relief concerning the faultless Lebanese people ?

The Prince of Peace is the only true hope for this war-ravaged region of the world.
(John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Matthew 5:9).

Please pray for the peace of Beirut and Jerusalem. Thank you and God bless you.

Who are the Israeli jews according to the Lord Jesus Christ ?

St. John 8:42-47

Just one of the many "hard Truths" of the inerrant Word of the Risen and Living Messiah.

God bless the faultless women and children of Lebanon, and may the Living God continue to bless and have mercy on Lebanon. in Jesus' Holy and Mighty Name, Amen.

Chaim.org

[Gang of One]

Michael said:

Posted by: Michael van der Galien | Saturday, July 29, 2006 at 02:12 PM

In fact, that SHOUTING MADE ME WANT TO PUNCH AIDAN IN THE FACE. Be it that something like that, of course, is utterly impossible on the internet.

Kenny, Michael, Alexandra and everyone here, again, my apologies for going right after Aidan's jugular -- that is as well my first reaction, and then I forget to engage my brain before I put my mouth in gear before and allowing myself to calm down. Not very encouraging behavior for someone who reads this blog all the time and who admires the way some posters can write lengthy, well-informed and thoughtful posts. Someday I hope to have that kind of reserve.
True enough, Aidan may be completely uninformed and is swayed by the rhetoric and propoganda that emanates from so many quarters these days. Myabe Aidan is in the middle of it all, posting from Tyre or somewhere near to the action. Could be that Aidan has no knowledge of the history of the ME. I don't know. I only know that what Aidan says sounds like so much of the drivel that passes for opinion on the left. It comes across as self-righteous, sanctimonious and anti-Semitic.
Kenny, you are quite correct in noting that not all who disagree with Israel's policies are necessarily anti-Semites -- heck, just about every Jew I know in and out of my family has at least three different and sometimes opposing opinions about the way Israel conducts her affairs. That is natural, normal and important. It is when I hear the knee-jerk accusations that are based on fallacies and lies that I have a hard time keeping my cool.
I will make a greater effort at responding to posts, such as Aidan's, with less vitriol and more virtue.

[Michael van der Galien]

Something else.

I am now writing a guest blog for something called Unity08, every other weekend that is.

Because of it, they had to have a headshot photo of me. I also decided to put that one on my blog. From now on there's nothing anonymous about me.

For those who are interested: this is me.
(warning: picture might contain shocking material)

[Ann]

I am proud to be a reader of this blog. I am proud to stand behind a blogger who has no problem saying things the way they are, and defending Jews in such a strong and steadfast way. And what fine comments I always find on this blog. Kenny you are simply incredible, but then so is ATB.

[igout]

I consider myself somewhat anti-semetic, yet ever since 9/11 Israel doesn't have a more implacable (and right now, a more concerned) supporter. We live in funny times, no?
HEY, all you antisemites out there! Stop being Islam's waterboys. There;s one brave, freedom loving country in the whole damn armpit of the middle east, and it's fighting for its life.

[Michael van der Galien]

In fact, that SHOUTING MADE ME WANT TO PUNCH AIDAN IN THE FACE. Be it that something like that, of course, is utterly impossible on the internet.

[Michael van der Galien]

Kenny,

Ha, whenever I read something truly outrages I respond to it myself. A week ago or something a Dutch news network reported about Russia's attitude saying that Putin believed Israel's response to be 'disproportionate'.

The problem?

The Dutch news network, NOS Journaal I believe, called Israel's actions 'disproportionate' themselves. I don't remember word for word, but it was something like
"Putin also strongly condemned Israel's disproportionate response. He said: blahblahblah"

hehe... They should should have reported "Putin also strongly condemned Israel's response". But no, they just had to put that word "disproportionate" in there.

I'll be sure to keep Alexandra updated.

Further: indeed, not everyone critical of Israel is an anti-Semite. However; these days the closet anti-semites are coming out. With avengence.
The hatred coming from the American left has suprised me. It's ridiculous. Those people are filled with hatred towards Israel, talking about how Israel should never have been created in the first place, etc.

[Kenny Pierce]

Well, Aidan did make a serious mistake by walking into the conversation and SHOUTING AT US BEFORE HE DID ANYTHING ELSE, which does tend to put people in the mood for slapping you back to wherever it was you came from and is not generally a great conversational opener. But it's nothing that a display of reasonably good humor in his next post can't overcome.

[brian]

Well said, Kenny P. I think that you may have nailed the difference between the right blogs and the uber-lefty blogs, which is you last comment:

"Avoid the obvious signs of dishonest anti-Israeli malice that I listed above, and you'll be accepted into the conversation with genuine delight. Even if your views differ from the local consensus. Really and truly."

The problem is that if your views differ from the consensus, like Joe Lieberman, for example, it's time for a Stalinist purge.

[Gang of One]

Kenny,

You are far more gracious than I am. How you have the patience for these mindless fools is awesome.

[Kenny Pierce]

Now, Aidan, to your specific arguments:

1. Are you under the impression that there will ever be an end to the turmoil in the Middle East until either (a) Islamic terrorists have been utterly defeated or (b) Israel has ceased to exist? This is not meant to be snarky; I'm genuinely curious as to whether you think there is any alternative besides those two. For example, did you agree six years ago with the Israeli doves who believed that if Israel would just pull out of Gaza and southern Lebanon, then this would bring the Middle East closer to an end to the turmoil; and if so, how do you think that's worked out? What is it that you propose Israel should do in order to move toward a permanent end to the turmoil in the Middle East?

2. I don't think you know what "disproportionate" means in this context. I have to go take my kids to a movie but later on I'll find you the link to an excellent article on the topic.

The tone of this post is meant to be cheerfully interested in your opinion, by the way. Hard to do in a text comment but that's the intent.

[Gang of One]

Aidan sez:

CRITICS OF ISRAEL ARE NOT IMMEDIATELY ANTI-SEMITES, YOU IDIOT.
there are jews amongst them, and most just want to see an end to the turmoil of the middle east, a turmoil which is being escalated by disproportionate israeli attacks on mostly civilians. just check the death toll from any reliable source.

Well, Aidan, it appears that the anti-Semitic idiot is, in fact, you. And 'those jews among them' are moral cowards and have already sold their souls to the cult of liberalism.
If Israel were to act "proportionally" the entire Arab ME would be a radioactive glass-covered parking lot. You talk about civilan casualties. Yeah, no doubt non-combatants are dying, but the blame for that rests squarely on the shoulders of the terrorists who use other civilians as shields. That you deliberately ignore this shows your true colors -- an anti-Semite and an apologist for the terrorist scum.
Who provoked this? The Israelis? In your mind, I think that is what you believe. Who continuously has taken it on the chin, allowing the world to restrain her while your friends in keffiyehs and semtex vests walk into pizzerias, night-clubs, weedings and market-places to murder innocent civilians ... while talking about not escalating the cycle of violence? Israel has done more than any nation in the history of this world to appease her would-be annihiltors and kowtow to 'worl opinion' only to be condemned at each turn.
Please. You are full of schkeit, and I can smell your evil garbage all the way over here. At the risk of having Alexandra ban me for life, I tell you to FOAD, arse-hole. You have nothing of any value to add to this.

Alexandra, my apologies for spilling bile on the floor of your salon. Forgive me ...

[Kenny Pierce]

Aidan,

Before you START SCREAMING you might have the good sense to make sure your accusation is well-founded. Nobody here is saying that anybody who offers any criticism of Israel is ipso facto an anti-Semite. We are, however, saying that most of Israel's critics, and certainly the overwhelming number of Israel's critics in this current engagement, are motivated by malice: either (in the case of most European and practically all Arab critics of Israel) more or less naked, traditional anti-Semitism, or (in the case of some American Jews on the Left albeit a rapidly shrinking number of Israeli peaceniks) hatred of Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Right whom such Jews blame for Israel's problems, or (in the case of much of the American goy Left) a modern form of group-hatred of Jews that is based not on religious grounds but on the Left's habit of hating "Power." To explicate the last class of modern anti-Semits: Jews as a group are notoriously successful and disproportionately well-ensconced in "the Establishment," and Israel is notoriously better at kicking ass than Arabs. This makes Israel ipso factor The Oppressor, in the group-dominated identity politics of one particularly large Leftist subculture. This subculture suffers from the particular form of moral confusion that Sheldon Vanauken (who invented the term "sexism") described, in a retrospective and repentant memoir, as being blind to the fact that "'loving my neighbor' and 'hating the oppressor of my neighbor' were not necessarily the same thing." Hatred of The Oppressor gives the Rachel Corries of the world the sense of moral superiority that they can't be bothered to obtain through the old-fashioned but personally inconvenient route of developing actual personal moral virtues -- chastity, for example. And these people rush to criticize Israel through the peculiarly modern anti-Semitism that sees Israel as Power, sees speaking moral condemnation as "speaking Truth to Power" whether or not you've taken the slightest trouble to make sure that your "Truth" is actually true, and flatters itself that "speaking Truth to Power" in that sense makes you a morally admirable person. Is this anti-Semitism in the traditional religious sense? No. Can this malice be equally well directed at other sources of "Power" who aren't Jewish? Sure; the people who hate Israel disproportionately hate Halliburton as well (though, intellectual consistency being one of those virtues that require effort to acquire, they tend not to object to I-Inherited-My-Money Teddy Kennedy or I-Married-My-Money John Kerry, or for that matter big-time Halliburton shareholder Lady Bird Johnson). Does this change the fact that these people hate Israel not because of what she does, but because of who she is? Not a bit; and therefore I think it's absolutely fair to say they are motivated not by honest evaluation of Israel's deeds, but by "anti-Semitism," meaning in this case "hatred of Israel out of group-dominated malice rather than on honest ethical grounds."

Of course any give critic of Israel's policy is not, as you say, automatically anti-Semitic. So here is a checklist that you can use in order to determine whether a particular critic may reasonably be presumed to be motivated by anti-Semitism.

1. He/she is a goy/shiksha -- just because there's just something not right about saying a Jew is anti-Semitic.

2. He holds Israel to a standard of behavior that he would never even think of holding his own country or his own people or Israel's neighbors to -- not in order to argue that the Israelis are a superior race who ought to behave better than other people, but in order to argue that they are a specially foul bunch of evilly murderous folks.

3. Murderous behavior that would bring forth his denunciation if its target were his own nation or people, magically gets a pass if its target is Jewish people, in particular Israelis.

4. He snatches at any convenient technical term of military ethics -- "disproportionate," for example -- and hurls it at the Israelis without bothering to find out first what it means, while at the same time going through the most violent mental gymnastics to avoid having to admit the applicability of other such terms that patently apply to the killers of Jews -- "terrorist," for example.

I'll put it to you simply: a reasonable critic of any group or nation, is somebody whose criticism of particular kinds of behavior is consistent no matter which people are engaging in that kind of behavior. But let's say that (to take an easy analogy) there are a bunch of kids on the playground, and there's one particular kid who -- according to one large clique of like-minded children -- is always wrong in every situation, who can never do anything right, who can be attacked by any other child and know that the clique will find a way to blame it on him, who no matter how well he behaves and no matter how badly his enemies behave is blamed for all conflict by the clique -- imagine such a situation. Now, is it possible that the clique's target is universally at fault? Sure. Some kids are bad seed and are always causing trouble. But let's say that a shameless double standard is applied to his behavior. Is it still possible that he occasionally behaves badly and deserves to be constructively criticized? Again, sure, it's not only possible but almost inevitable, people being generally imperfect. Therefore is it equally possible that if there's someone who occasionally criticizes the behavior of the clique's target, that person is an honest and non-malicious critic? Of course.

Does it change the fact that the clique is composed of dishonest, malicious [non-Baptist word omitted out of respect for Alexandra]? Not a bit. And does the fact that the victimized child may have an honest critic here and there, make it out of court to point the finger at the clique's malice and call it what it is? Not a bit.

If you think you have honest criticism of Israel to offer, then put it out there. If you go back and read the archived comments on this blog, you'll see that there's lots of room for disagreement here and that if you can make a rational case, you'll be welcomed with open arms. Just know that we're going to push you to make explicit the ethical principles to which you adhere, and if you are applying one standard to Israel and a different standard to everybody else then we'll call you on it. The tone with which we call you on it...well, that will depend on the tone with which you make your case.

But rest assured that none of us here is going to assume that you are an anti-Semite just because you offer criticism of Israel's policies. Nor do we assume that you are the second coming of Rachel Corrie or Ralph Nader or Howard Dean just because you take up positions well to the left of center; the fact that many people on the Left are mindless and frequently malicious jerks does not blind us to the fact that (a) many people on the Right and Center are also mindless and frequently malicious jerks and (b) many people on the Left are good-hearted and thoughtful people.

Avoid the obvious signs of dishonest anti-Israeli malice that I listed above, and you'll be accepted into the conversation with genuine delight. Even if your views differ from the local consensus. Really and truly.

[brian]

Yes, the problem is that Isreal didn't just abduct 3 Hezbos while killing 8 more inside of Lebanon and then launch rocket for rocket at Lebanese cities, without warning anyone first. That would constitute a response that would be acceptable to you?

Why don't the IDF just lay down their modern, precise American hardware and start sending their boys into Hezbo viiliages with shrapnel bombs strapped to themselves? After all, that would be equal and fair, no?

Why wouldn't the IDF just abandon all principle and sink to the depraved sickening tactics of terrorist murderers, for the sake of avoiding the awful state of disproprtion they currently find themselves?

The IDF should completely flatten southern Lebanon, take it for themselves, so they will be able to march to Beirut and claim it for Jehova? Convert to Judaism or die for the "Greater Zionist Cooperation Sphere".

Lebanon exists only until Judaism obliterates it, as it has others before. The Star of David will rise over every mosque in Greater Isreal, all who stand in the way will be slaughtered as the pigs they are.

Oh wait. That's what the Islamists think they are going to do. How did I get that backwards?