I had to struggle with myself to decide which of two headlines was most appropriate for this article – the one above or “The hard core of lunatics are pulling up the drawbridge”.
A Jewish friend in Canada drew my attention to an article in the Jewish Ledger, an independent weekly newspaper in Westport, Connecticut. The headline over it is “Saving Israel” Expert says American Jews key to Israel’s survival. I have rarely read such dangerous nonsense. It’s the voice of Zionism, deluded as ever, but with more than a hint of panic.
The “expert” quoted is Dr. Daniel Gordis, senior vice president of the Jerusalem-based Shalem Center, which describes itself as a research and education institute. He had addressed a standing-room only crowd of close to 300 in the small sanctuary of Westport’s Conservative Synagogue.
His main point was that Israel has survived all conventional military attacks and frustrated their aims (never mind that Israel’s survival was never in question), and has reduced terrorism to a minor threat, but there is now a threat “that is capable of succeeding and against which Israel has no defense.”
What, according to Gordis, is this new threat?
“The direct assault that Israel is now under by the Arabs via appeals to the world community. This co-ordinated effort aims to delegitimize the Jewish state and cause it to be treated as an international pariah, whose products and scholars will be boycotted and ostracized from the international community.”
Gordis went on to say that in order to survive this new attack, “American Jews must fight in the halls of Congress and on the American campuses. This means getting involved with organizations willing to present Jewish arguments, e.g. The American Israel Political Action Committee, AIPAC.” (Its real title is The American Israel Public Affairs Committee; and “Jewish arguments” is a misrepresentation. Some Jewish arguments are opposed to Zionist arguments. Gordis wants more American Jews to present Zionist arguments).
So according to Gordis the fact that the Zionist (not Jewish) state is now being seen by a still smallish but growing number of people in the Western world as a pariah state is all the fault of the Arabs. To say that I think one has to be either a devilish spin doctor who knows what he is saying is propaganda nonsense, or deluded close to the point of clinical madness.
The real reasons for Israel’s worsening image in the world are the extraordinary self-righteousness of its leaders, their contempt for international law and their policies, policies which currently amount to completing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by stealth. That plus the fact that more and more people are beginning to see Israel for what it really is – the obstacle to peace on terms virtually all Palestinians and most other Arabs and Muslims everywhere could accept.
My view is that if more American Jews take Gordis’s advice and become active in support of this Israel, they will not be saving it but assisting it to to commit suicide. They’d also be exposing themselves to a charge of complicity in its crimes.
In an apparent effort to frighten more American Jews into campaigning for Israel right or wrong, Gordis reportedly said this:
“If Israel were to be destroyed, American Jewry would be reduced to the bleak existence they experienced years ago in Poland or Russia.”
I can only guess at what Gordis was seeking to imply with those words. One obvious implication is that he meant something like this. If there was a turning against American Jews, and if Israel did not exist to be a refuge of last resort for them, they would be persecuted and possibly exterminated.
One of my own often stated fears is that, provoked by the Zionist state’s behaviour, there could be another great turning against Jews, possibly starting in America. It follows, or so it seems to me, that the way to stop the monster of anti-Semitism going on the rampage again is not by supporting Israel on its present course as Gordis advocates.
THE way is by making Americans and other Westerners among whom most Jews live aware of the difference between Judaism and Zionism, and thus why it is wrong to blame all Jews everywhere for the crimes of the hardest core Zionist few in Israel. It could also be said, and should be said, that American and other Western Jews could best protect their own real interests by distancing themselves from the monster the Zionist state has become. (And in my view was always bound to become with the failure of the major powers to control it).
Gordis is in no doubt that Israel will have to attack Iran. He reportedly said:
“Israel cannot accept a nuclear-armed Iran because the basic Zionist concept was to relieve Jews of existential threat. The Iranian threat could easily have been stopped by Presidents Bush or Obama, via bombings by the United States Air Force. Since clearly this didn’t and won’t happen, the IDF will have to do it.”
The notion of a nuclear armed Iran posing an existential threat to Israel is beyond crazy. It presumes that a nuclear-armed Iran would launch a first strike against Israel. That would never happen. If it did, the whole of Iran would be obliterated. No Iranian leader is ever going to be that stupid. Not even by mis-calculation.
Zionism is playing up the Iranian threat because a nuclear-armed Iran would change the balance of power in a way that prevented Israel from imposing its will on the region at no significant cost.
On “the war with Islam” Gordis reportedly told his American audience this:
“We are at war with Islam and any denials to the contrary may be politically correct, but are wholly inaccurate. Of course there are Muslims who are not Jihadists, but they represent a small percentage and are irrelevant. Militant Islam is succeeding in Europe, the Middle East and is coming to America.”
So far as I know there were no men and women in white coats to carry Daniel away to the nearest asylum.
The Canadian friend who drew my attention to the article in the Jewish Ledger was Sid Shniad, the co-chair of Independent Jewish Voices. In my thank you e-mail to him I commented, “What expletive deleted nonsense!” He replied, “The hard core of lunatics are pulling up the drawbridge.”
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If Israel has a problem Israel is to blame. They go about threatening everyone and fear mongering. The are the ones creating the climate of hatred. If they wold behave like reasonable people they would have little or no problems. Of course the world is upset with them. Their Lobby groups are controlling and vindictive. They attempt to Silence people, even attempt to Silence the press.
They create the problems giving people misinformation. Unfortunately for them most people have figured it out. They endanger the rest of the Jewish communities when they say they speak for all the Jews. They do not speck for anyone but Israel.
If the Jewish communities speak against Israel or anyone for that matter they are demonized. This type of behavior is irresponsible and shameful. If there is anger towards Israel, they themselves create it. Condemning the Goldstone report is just one example.
The illegal Wall another. The blockade on Gaza and the continuing to remove Palestinian's from their homes and land yet another and the list goes on and on. They claim Iran is problem when they in fact have not allowed inspectors in themselves, whereas Iran has.
Israel defies international laws continually. The double standard is one of their major downfalls. The laws are there for all the people in all countries and if they expect the rest of the world to live by them, they should as well but refuse too. They they claim to be victims, when they are in fact the perpetrator. It is difficult to claim Victim when you are one of the best Armed countries in the World. Israel is anything but a victim.
The Islamic terrorism is a ploy to deflect world's negative opinion on the illegal state called Israel. In fact, Jewish terrorists killed many British officers in Palestine and the British Government fail to bring the matters to the British public.
If Israel do attack Iran, American military personnel will go home in coffins, so Americans needs to wake up and warn the Zionists that their young men & women in uniform are not expendedable for Israel.
Another good post Alan. Gordis is definitely clinically mad.
Your readers may also be interested in a video of recent public meeting at Manchester University at which ANC and COSATU leaders (currently touring Britain) spoke about the parallels between Israel and Apartheid South Africa. They argued that Israel's oppression of the Palestinians is WORSE than Apartheid South Africa. See the video of the whole meeting at;
http://manchesterstopwar.org/reports-activities/678-video-anc-and-cosatu-leaders-speak-about-sanctions-against-israel.html
[...] “Saving Israel” or assisting it to commit suicide? By Alan Hart 2009 December 15 by kanan48 Via: Alan Hart. [...]
I think Gordis', and many other fanatical Zionists', ploy is to try to actually equate Judaism with Zionism in the minds of the general public, i.e., the only good Jew is a Zionist Jew. By doing this, they hope those non-Zionist Jews will embrace Zionism to protect Judaism from being wiped off the face of the earth. However, this is going to backfire; if they align themselves with Zionists, they are due to experience a significant rise in anti-Semitism throughout the world. Innocent Jews will suffer the consequences of what Zionists have done.
Israel touts everything as an existential threat, whether it is Iran's nuclear program, Hamas' little rockets or the J Street Lobby in Washington. They find existential threats everywhere they look, and this is a much more dangerous mentality than anything I've seen from even Kim Jong Il.
Americans are colluding in the crimes against humanity committed by Israel. Why do we allow our own elected representatives to continue to support it? We're no better than the Germans who denied their own complicity in the Holocaust, by keeping silent. Thank you for this site. Americans: Find out about your own representative and speak out against their collusion and complicity; Demand that they stop taking money from lobbies which support it; lend support to organizations that are boycotting Israeli products.
The Jewish Ledger report, by someone described as "a retired oil company executive," paraphrases Gordon, it does not directly quote him. You have turned the paraphrases into quotations. In fairness to Gordis, you should make a note of that.
Modern Zionism in its defiance of international laws behaves much like Daniel's "little horn" (Old Covenant Zionism, Dan. 7:8, 25-26), who because of persecution against innocent Christians (Dan. 7:21-22) (ancient Palestinians) and the shedding of their innocent blood (Christ and his Apostles, Matt. 23:32-38) eventually lost favor with the Romans after growing more defiant against the world powers in their last days leading up to A.D 70, which resulted in their destruction and exile, Lk. 21:20-22, 32; Matt. 24:2f).
Could it be possible that history could repeat itself again in modern day Zionism and that the usurpers may fall due to their own arrogance? Further, and from a Biblical perspective, this shows just how deluded and far removed from the Bible "Christian Zionists" and the Dispensational movement is for supporting the Israelis and their inhumane crimes against the Palestinians even to the point of glee among some.
I would hope that the religious Jews who oppose Zionism are not punished for the sins of the Zionists, especially since they have been very vocal and actively demonstrative against the deception. While these comments are primarily biblically oriented, it is because many Zionist supporters in America are "Christian Zionists" who support Israel based on misapplied and misunderstood passages of the Bible which they erroneously believe is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. But prophecy aside consider:
These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
A proud look,
A lying tongue
Hands that shed innocent blood
A heart that devises wicked plans
Feet that are swift in running to evil
A false witness who speaks lies
And one who sows discord among his brethren, (Pro. 6:17-19)
There is no doubt Israel has done all these things against the Palestinians.
To commit them is one thing.
To refuse to repent [of the crimes] in defiance of international laws is another.
But to support this refusal to repent in the name of God as "Christian Zionists" /Dispensationalists do, is the "8th abomination."
Trivial slip: When you write "Gordis is also in doubt that Israel will have to attack Iran" you presumably mean to say "...is in no doubt..."
the only peacefully solution in the middle east , is in israeli hands and the usa. if booth of them don,t find a commun denominator , we as human will suffer consequence inraparable for future generation , not enough to write and bring article to the world , we are supoust to get united to bring peace in that region , it is not zionism the issue is what it represent for the american imperialism , they will use zionism until they wont have any need from them , they are using them for there imperial porpose , and they are doing a good job
The same old nonsense: if you criticize the Zionist state (I am unwiling to dignify it with the name Israel given the Hebrew meaning of the name - ie Prince of God, I think) you are a racist anti semite. And so must the Prophets of Old be antisemite also for their criticism of the people of Israel make ours pale by comparison. But I digress. Given the above then no criticism of the Zionist state is valid, so it can only be the Arabs at fault.
This nonsense is so transparent yet millions are taken in by it
As for myself I have a lot of sympathy for the Neturei Karta people, ultra orthodox religious jews who reject the Zionist state. Thus I am aware of the difference between Jew and Zionist.
And I flatly refuse the line that to be a christian i must be a full fledged zionist.
It is never love to indulge the evil of a group or make excuses for that group. But this is what the Christian Zionists do, and what I tended to do until i took another look at the Law of God