Reply #16: Sorry that I was not clear- being critical of Israel is not "anti-Semitic" [View All]

[papau]

My speculation at why DU - and other sites on the left - are saying things that I find not balanced was obviously not written as clearly as it should have been.

You are correct - most folks can separate their opinion of people and cultures from their opinion of nation state actions. It is of course not anti-Semitic to ask whether actions claimed to advance the Zionist cause also bring with them criticism of Israel.

But my "our social circle" comment goes back to when I first joined the ranks of senior management - and found that an anti-Jew attitude was expected of those at my rank - but expected to be hidden from staff - and always expected to be agreed to by the those under the CEO. Indeed I have been pissed for 20 years that an actuary named Zee at the Prudential who was extremely brilliant and in the early 1930's ran through difficult exams at incredible speed, only to be denied professional certification because he was "too young". When a couple of years later he was given responsibility for the core business (called the "debit" business) of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, being it's actuary for the next 30 plus years, he was notpromoted to VP, much less Senior VP or Exec VP - indeed he retired with out the full VP title. Shortly after some "don't give a damn we have little to lose" young executives in the 60's commented on this, the Pru still did not give him VP AND ACTUARY - instead they simply changed everyones title at his rank to being a VP COMMA title - the lower rank remaining but now in his case being "VP, Actuary". Later in other companies I saw the country club/social club blackballing - and the social conversation put downs that never ended - to the point I never went out socially with my "peers" other than fellow actuaries (a group based only on merit - exam passage - gets all types/faiths as members - which prevents dumps on people based on any claimed group characteristic).

The Jews and the Lebanese are first cousins - ? - heck - all those around the Med are first cousins. And while both Lebanon and Israel have a population that traces a majority of the members back to "Semitic" roots, I dislike the idea of a "family resemblance". I always hated the equivalent Italian concept of "one face-one race". It is easy to see that every possible "face" exists in every group of citizens. Yes, village inbreeding (most folks did not go more that 30 miles from the home village for a spouse prior to the last 200 years) produces similar features, but immigration and wars has produced a nice mix in every culture - and while that mix may be greater now, but it has existed for ages. But I agree with you that all people are "inherently good, and that to demonize an entire people is always wrong -whether it's demonizing Jews or Arabs".

I am sorry for your injury caused by some idiot claiming Zionist affiliation. I can only note that in my family the killing of 9 great great uncles (it was thankfully long long ago) by Ottoman imposed Arab functionaries is long forgotten, sort of, with everyone I associate with hanging out happily with everyone - especially those from around the Med. Indeed I swear there are as many non-Greek Eastern Med food outlets as there are Greek run places (but I still am a creature of my youth and flavors I discovered while young are the "right" flavors - no matter how much I may enjoy another villages cooking).

I agree the Christian faith is the origin of both anti-Semitism, and the reaction to anti-Semitism - Zionism. And indeed Jews being kicked to the curb and having extra taxes was better than being burned or expelled - as was done was done in Europe. But while the Arab world post the conversion from Christianity to Islam - which took many hundreds of years after being conquered by the armies of Islam - did tolerate non-Islam folks - it gave them - and still gives them - fewer rights. Indeed the extra tax under Shira, in my view, was a powerful force in getting from a few Islamic conquerers running a country to a majority of the population be Islamic (the rest of the way to near 100% Islamic was of course peer pressure). But I do agree fights amongst all peoples - including those who self describe themselves as Semitic - is a "contrived one, picked by bullies".

And my God do I agree that killing each other is the smokescreen by the rich and corporate put out to hide the fact that "5% of the world's population" have "80% of the world's wealth" - indeed my own studies it is more like 1% having 90%. While Arab killing Jew predates WW1, it was ruler versus peasant, and the ruler usually want a bit more land for the kids - I have not read about much Arab killing of Jews caused by their being Jews -prior to the 20th century. Indeed distraction from discussion of inherited wealth problem, and the rich folks enjoyment in seeing others die are reasons for most current conflicts - over and beyond the fact that war makes the rich much richer.

As to my post, I wanted complain about uneven treatment on the left of terrorist killings versus Israeli killingsm but I did not mean to leave the impression that I was calling all that want Israel to live closer to its moral code an "anti-Semitic".

Sorry about giving you that impression.