Vive (Or Rather, Avivah) La Difference
Reformed leftist Roger L. Simon flags a Jerusalem Post column by Northern Ireland-born Denis MacEoin for getting to the nut of the difference between Israel and Hamas:
Israel guarantees civil liberties to all its citizens, Jew or Arab alike, but it is dubbed "an apartheid state"; Hamas, ever the bully, kills its opponents and denies the rest the most basic rights, but we march on behalf of Hamas. The Left prefers the bully because the bully represents a finger in the face of the establishment? Almost no one on the Left has any understanding of militant Islam. Their politics is a politics of gesture, where wearing a keffiyeh is cool but understanding its symbolism is too much effort even for intellectuals.
MacEoin is right on target about a whole lot:
Hamas is a bully aided by a bigger bully, Iran. And, just as strident and threatening human bullies get away with their aggression so long as no one calls their bluff, so Hamas has been getting away with murder and torture because the UN and many states won't call its two-faced self-portrayal as the victim in the piece. In the struggle to take over Gaza from Fatah, it went on a rampage that killed hundreds of Palestinians. Even during this most recent assault, in early January, it executed Fatah members for violating their house arrest. A few weeks ago, Hamas determined to hurt yet more of its compatriots by introducing Islamic hudud punishments to the Strip, from amputations and stonings, to crucifixions and hangings.Like all bullies, it likes to taunt its victims. It did just that for years after Israel left Gaza, firing rockets every day into towns like Sderot or Netivot. No one who has dismissed these rockets as harmless homemade toys has ever had the guts to spend a few weeks in Sderot, scurrying from shelter to shelter. And, oh yes, it also built up an arsenal (supplied by Iran) of Grad missiles that certainly aren't anybody's toys.
Like all bullies, Hamas likes to make boastful threats. Its 1988 Covenant is replete with them. It threatens to destroy the State of Israel by violence and violence alone. It says it will never accept the work of conferences or peacemakers, and only jihad will solve its problems. Meanwhile, the Palestinians see their lives drained away in a culture that embraces death and martyrdom, their children exposed to a steady diet of military training and preparation for violent death as suicide bombers.
Even if the Palestinians want peace, Hamas won't let them have it, because Hamas knows best, and jihad "is the only solution." Don't believe me, read the Covenant. It likes nothing better than killing Jews, and the bigger bully in Teheran thinks that's a damn fine thing too. No one says a word, because the UN is dominated by the Islamic states, and the Western governments know where the oil comes from, and nobody likes the Jews much anyway. The people calling for the end of Israel while they march on the streets of London and Dublin aren't all Muslims by any means.
There can be no greater indication of this boastfulness than what has happened in recent days. Having taken a heavy battering from Israel, Hamas now proclaims a "great victory," and its supporters dance in the ruined streets of Gaza, drunk on their own demagoguery. For all its bluster, Hamas, like all bullies, is a coward at heart. Watch those films of Hamas gunmen dragging screaming children along with them to act as human shields, watch how they fire from behind the little ones, knowing no Israeli soldier will fire back. And even as they put their own children's lives at risk, they shout to high heaven that the Israelis are Nazis and the Jews are child-killers. This blatant pornography spreads through the Western media, and people never once ask "what does this look like from the other side," because they are addicted to the comforting news that the Yids are baby-killers as they'd always known, that they do poison wells, that no Christian child is safe come Passover.
Too many on the left a big part of the problem, accenting their Che shirts with kuffiyas to show their solidarity with the murderers they like to dub heroes. I just mailed a letter to Bernard Henri-Lévy in France. I don't know him, but he's still a hero of sorts to the left, and thus, one of the few very slim chances of shaking some sense into them and maybe getting them to see the danger of the totalitarian system in religion's clothes known as Islam. It's a very, very slim chance, I have to admit, but we have to try whatever we can. What, if anything, do you think it'll take to wake those on the left?
To understand the civilization-wide takeover in progress, check out Jihadwatch's Robert Spencer's new book, Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs
Unfortunately, the answer to your question is not good for the Jews.
Europe will deal with the problem when they can conclusively blame it on the Jews, and begin the new Holocaust.
Thus it is as it has always been. And the oldest hatred marches on.
brian at January 26, 2009 6:23 AM
Slightly off topic ... what's the significance of "Avivah?" there's lots of Google entries but nothing obvious. I'm curious because the finance company that has a lot of my money invested has decided to change its name to "Aviva" for no obvious reason.
Norman at January 26, 2009 7:53 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/01/26/vive_or_rather.html#comment-1623210">comment from NormanNot off-topic, Norman. Avivah is just a Hebrew name. Sort of sounds like Vive, but with an Israeli twist. When you're born Jewish, your parents give you Hebrew names as well as your English names, usually naming you after your relatives. Mine, of course, gave me really queer ones, probably because my mother, who's a biblical scholar of sorts, didn't know Hebrew or any Israelis when I was born. My given Hebrew names are Aharonah Baileh, which is, I guess, kind of like being named Esmerelda Gertrude. When I worked on a kibbutz, Yad Mordechai, after winning a trip to Israel, a lady there told me my name on the kibbutz would be Anat. Kind of sounds like "a snot" to me (Asnat being another Hebrew name, I think), but at least nobody was thinking of me as some version of Gertrude.
My late Advice Lady partner, Marlowe, was actually named Gertrude by her German parents. She used to joke that she changed her name because she couldn't imagine anyone saying, "Fuck me, Gertrude!"
Amy Alkon
at January 26, 2009 8:15 AM
Didn't know that - thanks.
I'm Jewish, sort of. My mother was. She treated it a bit like a family secret. Considering what happened to some of my relatives in Germany, I can understand. I have never seen the inside of a synagogue, or had anything to do with it, so the Avivah thing and extra names is news to me. Still, if I had been living in Germany in WWII, I would have been "Jewish enough" to exterminate, not having 4 "aryan" grandparents, or whatever it was.
Norman at January 26, 2009 9:16 AM
The Left prefers the bully because the bully represents a finger in the face of the establishment? Almost no one on the Left has any understanding of militant Islam. Their politics is a politics of gesture, where wearing a keffiyeh is cool but understanding its symbolism is too much effort even for intellectuals.
This kind of childish "poke in the eye" has long been what I've disliked about the left. Our land was attacked in the most egregious way on 9/11/01 by radical authoritarians who, hiding behind their religious cult, have made no bones about their ultimate goals: to kill, convert or enslave anyone who doesn't think like them.
And what have we gotten from the left almost all the past 8 years? After a brief "honeymoon" period after 9/11 in which everyone "came together" for show, the left was, right up to and including the recent inauguration, constantly flinging all manner of childish, profane invective at the President, a man who, for all his many faults, was at least trying to perform the very adult task of protecting us from another attack and keeping those who would again commit such an act on the defensive.
From their behavior, I can only conclude that the left considers national defense and security a laughing matter, much as a 6 year-old might sass a parent trying to protect him from his own stupidity. And in the bargain, we have had to listen to the Europeans, who due to their history should know better, and to whom we have provided our precious human and financial resources for their defense during the last 60+ years, show their appreciation by parroting this invective. All this while they are themselves rotting from within with Wahhabi infiltration of their stagnant Socialist cradle-to-grave societies.
If you get the idea I'm fed up with the left's juvenile coddling of our mortal enemies, you'd be correct. I just hope they're all happy with who they've elected to protect them, and us, the next few years.
cpabroker at January 26, 2009 12:29 PM
as one converting to Judaism, I find it astounding at the number of Jews who support "Palestine" or are "anti-Zionist" (as if that can be really separated from self-hatred). It quirks me even more for most of them to call themselves 'progressive' or 'leftist' and not dare inquire into what such labels entail from a political standpoint.
farker at January 26, 2009 1:51 PM
My late Advice Lady partner, Marlowe, was actually named Gertrude by her German parents. She used to joke that she changed her name because she couldn't imagine anyone saying, "Fuck me, Gertrude!"
My grandmother's name was Gertrude. Thanks for that mental image.
Conan the Grammarian at January 26, 2009 9:43 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/01/26/vive_or_rather.html#comment-1623331">comment from Conan the GrammarianSorry! (But, it's always nice to visit Marlowe in my head.)
Amy Alkon
at January 27, 2009 12:04 AM
I think modern "moderate" religion as it's practiced in western countries is the impostor best described as secular humanism in religion's clothing. They pretend to take the bible seriously when it's convenient, but they'll scarf down a shrimp cocktail with no fear of being stoned to death by their co-religionists. Militant islam is much more true to the essence of religion which is the devaluing of life in the real world in favor of some other "better" world.
Luke Baggins at January 30, 2009 8:37 PM
About to board flight to LA watching a Muslim dude praying to Allah. Soooo, how long would it take me to walk to LA from NY? Just askin!
overseas at August 24, 2011 8:11 AM
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