How Self-Hatred in Israel differs from the Diaspora

Please see this review of the excellent new book "Jewish Divide over Israel" by Edward Alexander and Paul Bogdanor, Transaction Books, 2006, reviewed by moi.

As part of the review, here is an observation on the difference between Israeli leftist Jewish self-hatred and assimilationist self-hatred in the Diaspora:

By and large, for such secularized assimilated Jews in the Diaspora, Jewish "self-hatred" was less a form of anti-Semitism than it was an expression of indifference to their own Jewish roots and origins.  Most "self-hating" assimilationist Jews in the Diaspora are simply non-Jewish Jews, people with no interest in belonging to the Jewish community or in practicing any form of Judaism.  By and large they do not actively wish other Jews harm and most have no sympathy at all for anti-Semites....

But Israeli Jewish anti-Semites are a completely different kettle of fish.  They are not posturing against Israel and against Jews because they are a small persecuted ethnic minority in some gentile country of residence.  It is true that there is an element of seeking social acceptance for them, attacking Jews and Israel in order to court favor among overseas anti-Semites, especially among Israeli leftists.  There is also clearly a repudiation of all attachment to Jews and Jewishness among such people, where "Canaanism" in the form of post-Jewish Israeliness is almost universal among Israeli anti-Semites.  But that is clearly not the same as Diaspora assimilationism.  Israeli anti-Semites may posture as "Jewish Palestinians", but none of them are seriously trying to learn Arabic or dress and live as Arabs.  

If Diaspora "self-hating" Jews are by and large simply indifferent to their Jewishness, Israeli Jewish anti-Semites quite openly hate their own people and country.  They invariably identify with and endorse the enemies of their country.  Tali Fahima and Udi Adiv differ from other Israeli anti-Semites only in the degree of their actual treason.  Israeli Jewish anti-Semites are not seeking social and cultural acceptance as much as they are seeking the destruction of their own people and the annihilation of their own country.  They resemble far more Lord Haw-Haw or Taliban John than they do the assimilated suburban American Jew.  

As such, Israeli Jewish anti-Semites increasingly resemble the candidly treasonous fringes of the American and European Left.  Just like the American Left is essentially little more than a movement of anti-Americanism and can be counted on to endorse every enemy of the United States and oppose American interests in everything, so the Israeli Left is motivated by an acute desire to see its own country harmed.  The difference of course is that the anti-American Left in the United States is harmless and an amusing distraction, whereas the radical self-hating Israeli Left is actively collaborating with the enemies of its own country during time of war and when the goal of those enemies is the annihilation of Israel.

The New Bishara Treason Chic

The Left joins Bishara Treason Chic

Invitation to a hanging?

Well, the peek-a-boo game is over and the press in Israel have at last been allowed to print the charges against Knesset Member Azmi Bishara.  Bishara is an Anti-Semitic pro-terror Arab fascist, so naturally he is beloved by the Israeli far Left.  An ad was run in Haaretz this week declaring "Azmi Bishara you are our Brother," and signed by a handful of Israeli anti-Israel leftists and communist moonbats, including Anat Biletzki, professor of philosophy at Tel Aviv University.  Because Bishara is so openly a traitor, he is also being celebrated by Neve Gordon from Ben Gurion University, who previously cheered and celebrated such people as nuclear spy Mordecai Vanunu (Gordon declared he deeply admires him and thinks Vanunu was a patriot) and terrorist collaborator Tali Fahima.

The charges against Bishara are described here,  reporting that Bishara

'received several hundred thousand dollars from Hizbullah for delivering intelligence information during the Second War in Lebanon last summer. He was also in touch with intelligence agents from other unnamed countries.  Bishara is accused of handing over information about strategic locations to enable Hizbullah to strike at them during the war. He is also suspected of stealing millions of shekels from Arab aid organizations, laundering the money through eastern Jerusalem money-changers, one of whom has reportedly turned state’s witness. Bishara allegedly received envelopes full of cash, with one such envelope containing $50,000 in cash which he deposited in a Jordanian bank. Officials did not reveal from which country the money came.'

The Jerusalem Post reports that Bishara was helping the Hizbollah choose targets to attack.

When Bishara was elected to the Knesset as head of an Arab fascist party, Israel's moonbats were demanding that he sit on the Knesset intelligence committee.  I guess they wanted to make it easier for him to spy for his terrorist friends.  Instead, he was put on the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Wiretapping (I guess whoever assigned him had a sense of humor).

Bishara is a longtime Stalinist.  That is probably why the anti-Israel Van Leer Institute in Jerualem recruited him for their board.  The New Israel Fund in the US tried to bring Bishara to the Smithsonian as the official representative of Israel for Israel's 50^th independence events in 1998.  Bishara represents the kind of "New Israel" that the New Israel Fund seeks to create.

Bishara is a walking advertisement for why Israel should have capital punishment for treason, for both Jewish and Arab traitors.  The only problem with the idea is that there would be such a long line of those waiting their turns for its application. 

Middle East Translator

We propose installing an automatic online Middle East translator chip on your machines to help you read the mainstream media news.

Here are some examples of how it would work:

Israeli Racism - Translation: When Israel builds a fence or barriers to keep suicide bombers and other terrorists from murdering Jewish children and civilians

Fighting against Racism - Translation: When Palestinians randomly murder hundreds of Jewish civilians

Crimes against Humanity  - Translation: Defending the Lives of Jews

"Zionist Racism" - Translation: Any attempt at Preventing Arabs from murdering Jewish children

Unilateral Action -  Israel deciding unilaterally to protect Jewish children from being murdered, without getting approval from the UN 

Illegal Settlement - Translation: Anywhere Jews live

Obstacle to Peace - Translation: Israel defending its children

Terrorists - Translation: People who kill Americans in Pakistan

Militants and Activists - Translation: People who murder Jews

Anti-Racism - Translation: Ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Middle East

Patriotism - Translation: Israeli Leftists fomenting mutiny in the Israeli army

Peace Seeking - Translation: Israeli Leftists urging people around the world to embargo and boycott Israel and Jews

Moderation - Translation: Agreeing with Arab extremists and fascists

Free Speech - Translation: Protecting the Right of Azmi Bishara to demand openly that Israel be destroyed and all the Jews murdered while denying free speech to rightwing dissidents

Criminal Incitement - Translation: Any sentence with which Israel’s Extreme Left disagrees

Equality - Translation: Exempting Arabs from Israeli military conscription or national service