Irwin Cotler:
“I have the highest respect for the religion of Islam, and recognize the heroic efforts of many religious leaders in contemporary Iran to stand up to the repressions wrought by the ruling system,”
Mindless chatter. The man is utterly clueless about the cult of the madman prophet, as he is concerning what’s actually happening inside Iran, but that won’t stop him from uttering platitudes of praise to a highly offensive ideology, or from offering support to money grubbing Iranian mullahs who are not championing real freedom, and are as radical as the ones already in power.
The Tundra Tabloids just wrote a post the other day about the same issue that Laura Cohen writes about for the National Post and republished by Front Page Mag, concerning the Arab/Muslim – Israeli/Jew relations. Blogger/ME analyst, TINSC, had the following to say about it:
“I remember once a Palestinian propagandist defending Arab suicide bombers on The O’Reilley Factor. He said: “Even your Patrick Henry said: ‘Give me liberty or give me death'”.
Naturally, that wasn’t the first time Arab propagandists have tried to sway public opinion in the USA in terms of American values. Too often, pro-Israel supporters are not prepared to counter such arguments.
Sure. The Pro-Israel activists point out that 90% of the West Bank is unoccupied. We point out that Israel has made all kinds of territorial concessions. We even point out the total lack of civil liberties in the Arab administered portion of the West Bank and Gaza.
These points are all well and fine however, they never pick up the actual thesis behind the Arab propaganda. That thesis is simply this: The only freedom the Arabs of Palestine want is the freedom to murder Jews with impunity.
It’s clear to me that your blog entry above recognizes that thesis. It is an important one to keep in mind when Arabs seek sympathy from the West by blaming Israel for their lack of “freedom”.
The following article takes the very same theme, with the hope to shed light, on and for, her fellow Jews who believe that the Arab Muslim world has their best interests at heart. Getting a head slap of reality is the best medicine to cure that fantasy, and Laura Cohen delivers it with a full swing. KGS
“I have the highest respect for the religion of Islam, and recognize the heroic efforts of many religious leaders in contemporary Iran to stand up to the repressions wrought by the ruling system,” says Jewish human rights activist Irwin Cotler.“I refuse to associate these crimes generically with the mullahs of Iran, and I deplore any attempt to do so,” he continued in his July 24th letter to the editor. And thus began yet another misguided chapter of the never-ending Jewish and liberal quest for the Islamic world to “like us”. Cotler’s bizarre statements have little to do with reality. Iran is where religious fervour , led by a religious leader-the Ayatollah Khomeni, brought upon the Islamic revolution. It is religious fervour — inspired by a perverse interpretation of Shiia Islam — that motivates Iran’s genocidal leader, with the continued blessings of the religious establishment.It has been said that a definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Certainly, there can be no better explanation for Jews, and particularly liberal Jews to keep trying new ways of currying favour in the eyes of the Islamic world.How many strategies have been tried? Too many to list in one short article. But a few noteworthy projects deserve a mention. In Israel, the Jews have tried to give away “land for peace”, and that has failed miserably time and time again. Egypt is a despotic regime, with the fanatic Muslim brotherhood gaining more political ground each passing day. It maintains a frigid and grudging “peace” with Israel and the “peace” with Jordan is only measurably more civil.Israel sends civil aid to disaster zones all over the world, performs open-heart surgeries on Arab babies, gives Arab Israeli citizens full rights under the law, and even treats Palestinian terrorists at Israeli hospitals, but it’s still not enough. Israel has Arab members of the Knesset, and despite the terrorist threat implicit in it, successive Israeli leaders continue to commit to the founding of a Palestinian state. But that’s still not enough for the Muslim world.In the Jewish diaspora, and under the heavy influence of socialist and Marxist dogma, liberal Jews pour small fortunes into “inter-faith” causes, conferences and dialogues in the hopes of finding “greater understanding” with the Islamic world in general-and in particular with the Palestinians.Dear fellow Jews, what is so hard to understand about “we hate your guts, and will continue to kill and maim you”? Just last week, an “inter-faith” Rabbi, the guest speaker at an ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) conference was shocked … shocked to hear that one of the guest imams felt that Jews deserved the Holocaust because they turned their backs against Allah. What is so hard to understand about that?Jews continue to support the Liberal party in Canada, and the Democratic party in America, despite the obvious and undeniable evidence that their true friends are on the Christian, Zionist political right. Unfortunately, their commitment to liberalism trumps their commitment to their own people.Here in Canada, the multi-cultural outreach by Jews to Muslim Canadians continues with the Canadian Jewish Congress funding such initiatives as scholarships for Somali Canadians. Where is the reciprocity in these activities? When was the last time you heard about the King Abdullah scholarship for Jews? Or the American Muslim scholarship fund for Jews? Have you ever been to a Jewish conference where a genocide or an individual death of a Muslim person was described, in theological terms, as being justifiable? Have you ever heard a Jew celebrate when a Muslim has been murdered? When is the last time a Jew gleefully beheaded an enemy, video taped it and uploaded it onto YouTube?Jews: get this through your head once and for all. The Islamic world, under its current leadership, is just not into you.
I have been reading this article by Cohen on the issue and I have to say, it is quite poignant. Left-leaning liberal Jews just don't seem to be able to face up to the ugly truth.
They'd rather make a self-delusional point of keeping these non-reciprocal interfaith dialogues going than trying to figure out who their real friends are. The whole issue has even made me think of the concept of anti-semitism, and how Muslims have subverted the very meaning of the word in order to make a point of justifying their own actions.
While the term's etymology might suggest that anti-semitism is directed against all Semitic peoples, it has been used exclusively to refer to hostility toward Jews since its initial usage.
First mention of anti-semitism was probably made in 1860 by the Austrian Jewish scholar Moritz Steinschneider in the phrase "antisemitic prejudices"("antisemitische Vorurteile"). Steinschneider used this phrase to characterize Ernest Renan's ideas about how "Semitic races" were inferior to "Aryan races." These pseudo-scientific theories concerning race, civilization, and "progress" had become quite widespread in Europe in the second half of the 19th century, especially as Prussian nationalistic historian Heinrich von Treitschke did much to promote this form of racism. In Treitschke's writings Semitic was synonymous with Jewish, in contrast to its usage by Renan and others.
Given the historical context and the ethnic makeup of Europe when the term was first coined, it is quite clear that anti-semitism is aimed at Jews exclusively and has a very distinct definition.
However, all of this started changing in the mid to late 80's. As a Belgian and a Fleming, I noticed with the increasing Arab Muslim immigration that Muslims were very eager to start subverting and twisting the conventional definition of the word. When VB in particular became a rising force in the Belgian political landscape, the accusation of anti-semitism aimed at VB party members more often than not originated from Muslims in our country. From the Jewish community this was almost unheard of ! At many occasions have I seen high ranking VB members invited to television debates, only to get excoriated by both the debate moderators
and the Arab Muslim participants in the debate, who liberally smacked people like Filip Dewinter around the ears with the accusation of anti-semitism !
As a consequence, anti-semitism all of a sudden started getting a double meaning:
1) anti-semitism in the original and proper sense, as defined by Jewish organisations who wanted to widen the awareness of the Holocaust, like the Anne Frank Foundation.
2) antisemitism in the wider sense, an unjustified appropriation of both PC/MC self-declared leftwing 'moral majorities' and the 'eternally victimized' Muslim communities in Europe, with the specific intent to shame all critics of Islam into believing they are vehemently racist.
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Of course, it is quite clear to understand how this exactly came about. Arab Muslims had become the dominant subgroup within the context of European immigration, and in all probability they decided 'Ethnically speaking we are a Semitic people and as it goes, the numerically largest Semitic group
within Europe, so if anyone starts criticising us, we'll throw the accusation of antisemitism in their face so we can declare those people racists." Strange but true, but Jewish Holocaust awareness projects seemed to be oblivious of what was going on at the time and this went completely unnoticed !
Ironically however, the accusation of genuine anti-semitism can't really be aimed at VB. In the mid to late 80's I was 14 to 19 years old. When I was about 14, I couldn't help wondering "Adults and politics, what is all this fuss really about ?" So, any time my parents received political leaflets in their
letterbox in the run-up to elections, I started reading all of them to get a better grasp of politics, including the VB ones. Never ever have I seen anti-Jewish rhetoric, cartoons or any other type of anti-Jewish propaganda contained within these VB leaflets. The vast majority of subjects revolved around Flemish socioeconomic issues, Belgian immigration policies and the Flanders-Wallonia rift more than anything else, and last but not least around…Muslims rubbing us up the wrong way ! The only foreigner I can really think of who has actually grasped what VB is all about would be Pamela Gellar in my mind, according to what I have read on her excellent site Atlas Shrugs.
Nevertheless, mud tends to stick, and that is probably why the foreign media are ill-informed about VB, portraying it as a bunch of neo-nazis.
And this is probably the main reason why a self-proclaimed 'moral guru' like Charles Johnson can further the same myth over and over again. Many leftwing liberal Jews do not realise that some stealth Jihadi Muslims have hijacked anti-semitism in order to turn it into a credible argument to back up the claim that Westerners are intolerant towards them ! They have taken the very word out of it's original context to justify their position towards civilized societies in the West ! The founder of the Arab European League, Dyab Abou Jahjah, was regularly pitted against Filip Dewinter in televised debates, and used the word anti-semitism often to portray his adversary as racist !
What we see happening today is a continuation of the innate fear liberal Jewish people have for anything that is associated with 'the right', 'conservatives', 'nationalists', 'patriots', 'national pride' and the like. They'd rather close ranks with the very same people that have vowed to destroy all of them, rather than form a coalition with their natural allies in this day and age ! It's quite clear to me how MSM scaremongering has had a profound influence on the secular liberal Jewish communities on the globe in particular. These tactics have blinded these people. They erroneously assume they can defuse the situation by appeasing and reaching out to Islam, while anti-semitism is part and parcel of Islamic ideology and won't go away by simply ignoring it. Their minds have been poisoned against themselves !