The Meaning of an Olympic Snub

[question everything]

By Bret Stephens, WSJ

An Israeli heavyweight judoka named Or Sasson defeated an Egyptian opponent named Islam El Shehaby Friday in a first-round match at the Rio Olympics. The Egyptian refused to shake his opponent’s extended hand, earning boos from the crowd. Mr. Sasson went on to win a bronze medal.

If you want the short answer for why the Arab world is sliding into the abyss, look no further than this little incident. It did itself in chiefly through its long-abiding and all-consuming hatred of Israel, and of Jews.

(snip)

Yet the fact remains that over the past 70 years the Arab world got rid of its Jews, some 900,000 people, while holding on to its hatred of them. Over time the result proved fatal: a combination of lost human capital, ruinously expensive wars, misdirected ideological obsessions, and an intellectual life perverted by conspiracy theory and the perpetual search for scapegoats. The Arab world’s problems are a problem of the Arab mind, and the name for that problem is anti-Semitism.

As a historical phenomenon, this is not unique. In a 2005 essay in Commentary, historian Paul Johnson noted that wherever anti-Semitism took hold, social and political decline almost inevitably followed.

Spain expelled its Jews with the Alhambra Decree of 1492. The effect, Mr. Johnson noted, “was to deprive Spain (and its colonies) of a class already notable for the astute handling of finance.” In czarist Russia, anti-Semitic laws led to mass Jewish emigration as well as an “immense increase in administrative corruption produced by the system of restrictions.” Germany might well have won the race for an atomic bomb if Hitler hadn’t sent Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller into exile in the U.S.

(snip)

In his essay, Mr. Johnson called anti-Semitism a “highly infectious” disease capable of becoming “endemic in certain localities and societies,” and “by no means confined to weak, feeble or commonplace intellects.” Anti-Semitism may be irrational, but its potency, he noted, lies in transforming a personal and instinctive irrationalism into a political and systematic one. For the Jew-hater, every crime has the same culprit and every problem has the same solution.

Anti-Semitism makes the world seem easy. In doing so, it condemns the anti-Semite to a permanent darkness.

(snip)

The mistreatment and expulsion of Jews has served as a template for the persecution and displacement of other religious minorities: Christians, Yazidis, the Baha’ i. Hatred of Israel and Jews has also deprived the Arab world of both the resources and the example of its neighbor. Israel quietly supplies water to Jordan, helping to ease the burden of Syrian refugees, and quietly provides surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to Egypt to fight ISIS in the Sinai. But this is largely unknown among Arabs, for whom the only permissible image of Israel is an Israeli soldier in riot gear, abusing a Palestinian.

More..

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-meaning-of-an-olympic-snub-1471303698

[Behind the Aegis]

1. I said something similar to another Jewish poster here.

The acts were nothing but a microcosm of the Israeli-Arab conflict (let's stop pretending it is just about the Palestinians). The actions of the Lebanese, Saudis, and the Egyptian athletes (and coaches) were, in short, extensions of the acts of their governments and how they (the governments) view Israel and the Jews; yes, the Jews! Is this indicative of the Arab world as a whole? Probably not, but there is lots of hate toward Israel and the Jews, and to pretend there isn't is simply ignoring facts on the ground.

It was "amusing" watching people makes excuses and even having a few (censored) with the gall to compare them to civil rights activists. The gestures from those delegations were not acts of solidarity with the Palestinians; they were not comments on the past history of Israel; nor were they courageous acts of defiance. At best, they were acts of unsportsmanlike conduct, at worst, they are acts of anti-Semitism, anti-Israel bigotry being the "middle ground".

I watch as non-Jewish people 'splain to Jewish people what is and isn't anti-Semitism (including making up their own fucking definitions, usually to allow their actions and those of their ilk "free" from accusations of anti-Semitism); they mock the Holocaust and its impact on the Jewish nation (people, not Israel); they even joke about being anti-Semites and preemptively call things "anti-Semitic" in order to make anti-Semitism sound like a fantasy or something not real. We see comparisons of Jewish politicians to "vampires" and other blood-sucking vermin, and it is laughed off or we are told "so the fuck what?!" We see Jews accused of being more loyal to Israel, including those who support Clinton (don'tcha know that is why the Jews support Clinton). Holocaust deniers and denial sites are used as "proof"...and the list goes on and on.

In the grand scheme of life, this is nothing but a fly buzzing around your head, annoying, but not all that serious. However, one needs to take note of what is happening because the "buzzing fly" could be indicative of something much worse, like a corpse under your house.