Consolation in a Time of Madness

Hate tirades against Jews and “Zionists” demonically dominate the airwaves throughout the Islamic world; mosque sermons, demonstrations, UN meetings, and university lectures around the world keep up the steady drumbeat: Pigs have descended from Jews-which is why Muslims cannot eat pigs; Israelis are to blame for Palestinian suffering and, until that specific suffering is alleviated, the President of the United States cannot ask Iran to halt its nuclear progress.

I grow weary, disconsolate.

More than seven years ago, when I first sounded the alarm about the new anti-Semitism, I was given a massive brush off by some of the same Jewish organization leaders who are, only now, screaming “gevalt” from the rooftops.

I was certainly not heeded by the Jewish Left which instantly demonized me as a traitor and heretic for having exposed the betrayal of the truth and of the Jews by the world’s progressivist intelligentsia. But then, this group has never met a terrorist they didn’t adore…Continue reading on Chesler Chronicles >>

 

The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism

Dr. Andrew Bostom has compiled, edited, translated, introduced, and written what amounts to a major “J’Accuse.” The Legacy of Islamic AntiSemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History is an overwhelming and powerful book, perhaps the first of its kind. Bostom, who is also the author of The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims, challenges all the prevailing views.

The common view, both in the West and among Jews, is that Islam was kinder and gentler towards Jews than Christianity was. Not so, not so, argues Bostom, a view which he documents in 766 pages. Bostom also refutes the notion that Islamic Jew-hatred was only recently learned from the Nazis; on the contrary, in his view, Islamic anti-Semitism is as old as Islam itself.

Yes, of course, vis a vis Jews, there were always lucky escapes. Jewish survivors all specialize in luck. But the myth of the Golden Age in Spain as one in which Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived in naught but peace and harmony has now been firmly and fully laid to rest by Bostom’s work…Continue reading on Chesler Chronicles >>

No Hate Speech Allowed: This Blogger’s Declaration of Independence

For the second time since I began blogging, I’ve decided not to publish a comment [on Chesler Chronicles], not because the writing is illiterate or filthy with curses, (I’ve jettisoned some of those in the past), but because, like Israel, I’ve decided that “Enough is enough.” I am tired of putting up with the written equivalent of screaming street corner hate speech at my own blog.

I have had enough of those commentators who sound like Norman Finkelstein or David Irving, who cloak their Big Lies in sarcastic, intellectual sound-bites or who imperiously drone on for hundreds, even thousands of words. Often, they sound “logical.” Sometimes, like Finkelstein, they pretend to great scholarship by presenting many footnotes.

A footnote does not a scholar make…Continue reading on Chesler Chronicles >>

When Friends Fight About Ideas

I have to get this off my chest or I will explode. This is my therapy session. Today, I am truly a blogger.

The internet seems to incite cowards to strike-and-flee, often under assumed names. They have no shame and no manners. I accept this as par for the course at the hands of strangers. In addition to kind words, praise, and some admiration, I am also used to a certain amount of vitriol, sarcasm, thinly veiled anti-Semitism, and to more overt demonizations of Israel, America, feminism, or of one political party over another.

Look: I received my first death threats in 1970-1971, when I began speaking out about rape and gender-based double standards in general and in psychiatry in particular. The threats continued as I led campaigns against batterers, incestuous fathers, and a host of other not-so-lovely characters. Most recently, complaints from a public library computer in Oklahoma were lodged against me with the FBI. Among other things, I was accused of conspiring to bomb Muslim holy sites (!). After talking to the agent in charge, he finally suggested that, given what I’m writing, (I sent him to my blog and website), that I might be wise to keep his number handy. I have taken his advice…Continue reading on Chesler Chronicles >>

Madoff the Jew: The Media’s Hypocritical Obsession With the Fraudster’s Faith

Most Jews do not recognize themselves in what Madoff did; they still expect to be judged on their own merits. I doubt this will happen. I think Jews will be judged as if we are all guilty, whether or not we are innocent or poor, and whether or not we fight for justice for Palestinians or for justice for murdered Chabadniks in Mumbai. Here’s one reason why.

For days now, I have been following the media coverage of the Madoff scandal. I could not help but note that the New York Times kept emphasizing that he is Jewish and moved in monied, Jewish circles; not once, but time and again, in the same article, and in article after article. ‘Tis true, alas, ’tis true, the rogue is a Jew: But how exactly is Madoff’s religion more relevant than Rod Blagojevich’s religion? The Times has not described Blagojevich (or Kenneth Lay of Enron) as “Christians,” nor do they describe the Arab or south Asian Muslim terrorists as “Muslims.”

As I’ve previously noted, the Times goes out of its way to describe terrorists who are ethnic Arab Muslims and south Asian Muslims as “gunmen,” “attackers,” “fighters,” (never as terrorists), and they rarely use the word “Arab” or “Muslim” to characterize the perpetrators of a deadly rogue action. However, the paper of record will use the word “Muslim” to describe an aggrieved victim who has alleged “Islamophobia” or “racism.”

Continue reading on Jewcy >>

The Jews Are All On Trial With Bernard Madoff

I attended a fairly large Bar Mitzva this past Shabbos. Hundreds of Jewish writers, editors, rabbis, scholars, lawyers, therapists, deans, foundation heads and opinion-makers were gathered together-none of whom seemed especially worried about the Madoff scandal. One intellectual said that “in the past, things had been a lot worse for the Jews.” The Director of a philanthropic foundation pointed out that “many non-Jews have also been responsible for financial cons and that non-Jews have also been victimized by Madoff.”

Few saw the Madoff scandal as necessarily a “Jewish” problem. They were mainly progressives, thinkers, sophisticated. They did not behave in such ways and they viewed themselves as the true Princes of Israel. If anyone was worried or ashamed, it didn’t show. I doubt that anyone at this Bar Mitzva had invested or lost money with Madoff. It was not that kind of crowd. But, it was Shabbos, we were at a simcha, and obliged to make merry. People were not supposed to be on worry-duty. And yet, a degree of slow-motion complacency, even denial, characterized the affect of those with whom I’d raised the subject. They did not seem to understand that we’ll all be on trial with Madoff, the innocent as well as the guilty, those who are poor, and those who are rich and greedy for more, those Jews who fight for justice for Palestinians and those Jews who fight for justice for religious settlers.

Currently in London, there is a display of cartoons at the Political Cartoon Gallery in London which focuses on Israel and the Jews in Arab and Western media. Many of the specific tortures that Saddam Hussein visited upon his own people and that Palestinian terrorist leaders have visited upon their Christian and Muslim populations, are now depicted as something that Israelis do to Palestinians…Continue reading on Chesler Chronicles >>