Plaut Makes A Point

Haaretz reports that a group of “intellectuals” is calling on Netanyahu to fire all rabbis who signed the earlier call for Jews not to rent or sell property to Arabs in predominantly Jewish areas. Among the signers were Prof. Joseph Algassi (Tel Aviv University, philosophy), a leading proponent of the “One-State Solution” in which Israel will be obliterated and replaced by a Rwanda-style bi-national state with an Arab majority (see). Also signing was Prof. Haim Adler from the Hebrew University (education),
and Prof. Aliza Shenhar, the leftist head of the Galilee College (who was a Rector at Haifa University).

None of these same people called for firing leftwing anti-Zionist professors in Israel who call on people not to rent and sell property to Jews in East Jerusalem.

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Chomping Chomsky

In the headline above, it's Chomsky who is doing the chomping.

His entrance into Judea and Samaria banned, the Lede Blog of the NYTimes carried this bit of information:

In an interview with Deborah Solomon of The New York Times Magazine in 2003, Mr. Chomsky said, “I objected to the founding of Israel as a Jewish state. I don’t think a Jewish or Christian or Islamic state is a proper concept. I would object to the United States as a Christian state.” When Ms. Solomon pressed Mr. Chomsky on his opposition to Israel, saying, “Your father was a respected Hebraic scholar, and sometimes you sound like a self-hating Jew,” he replied:

It is a shame that critics of Israeli policies are seen as either anti-Semites or self-hating Jews. It’s grotesque. If an Italian criticized Italian policies, would he be seen as a self-hating Italian?

Even me, not really a world-class philosopher can see a fault in Chomsky's logic. If an Italian denied the existence of Italy, or its right to be established as a political framework for the Italian people (who could be of all religions), yes, he would be a self-hating Italian - just like Chomsky who objects to Israel's very founding is a self-hating Jew.


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Self-Hate

From a book review of Caleur du Sang, written in occupied France by Irene Nemirovsky who later perished in Auschwitz and only recently discovered:-

As in “Suite Française,” the fate of Jews in occupied France is not an issue in “Chaleur du Sang.” Rather, it is with the reissue — and new translations — of “David Golder,” Némirovsky’s first novel, that her attitude toward Jews has become the focus of heated debate.

Critics have noted that “David Golder” portrays a wealthy and embittered Jewish immigrant to Paris, that in the 1930s Némirovsky wrote short stories for some right-wing journals and that in 1940 she and her family converted to Catholicism (although this did not save her or her husband).

“Her supposed ‘self-hating’ has been more of an issue in the Anglo-Saxon world and Israel than here,” said Olivier Rubinstein, president of Éditions Denoël. “When Denise and I went to Israel for the publication of ‘Suite Française’ in Hebrew, there were virulent debates about her supposed anti-Semitism.

“I am not trying to hide aspects that are disagreeable,” he went on, “but I think the question is more complex. I think it was less anti-Semitism than the disdain that bourgeois Jews like Némirovsky had for immigrant shtetl Jews from Poland and Russia. And remember, we’re judging actions of 1938 with the post-Holocaust eyes of 2007.”

So, this topic (which I just recently touched on) of Jews managing to be our own worse enemies takes on forms that always seem to never benefit the despiser, the disliker and deprecator. But they never learn. Whether on the basis of differences of orign, of custom, of ideology and politics, thsi anathema of being identified too much as the Jew, as the nationalist, as the religious, it will always come back as a boomerang, to no one's advantage.

Another Self-Hating Bunch of Jews

If you go here, you can the opportunity to listen songs from a new musical including Song of the Secular Jews which starts off: I hate the Jews.

It seems some people think it's a delightful, hilarious and razor-sharp theatrical work of genius by Julien Nitzberg (libretto & direction) and Roger Neill (composer & musical direction).

Without getting too much into plot, The Beastly Bombing involves two separate terrorist teams, - two Timothy McVeigh-inspired white supremacists who arrive in New York to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge only to meet two Al Qaeda operatives who have arrived at the same place and time with the same plan. There are waltzes, mayhem, romance and more that follow in this musical skewering of the post 9/11 world. There's a power-mad president, his two drug-addled daughters and hilarity pretty much ensues from the get-go in a mad-cap, Gilbert-and-Sullivan-esque romp that has more smart things to say about 9/11 than a phalanx of self-important political bloggers.

And more detail:-

The musical begins on the Brooklyn Bridge with two white supremacists, molded after Timothy McVeigh, declaring their love for the U.S., but because they love the country oh-so-dearly, they must blow up the bridge to send a message to the Zionist puppet government. Then along come Abdul (Andrew Ableson) and Khalid (Russell Steinberg), two Al-Qaeda operatives who have also planned to blow up the bridge on the same day. I won't spoil who actually gets to the bridge, but you'd never believe it anyway.

Some people think that it's simply awful. Perhaps the idea could have worked if it weren't so poorly executed. The book and lyrics are attrocious and the plot becomes nonsensical beyond satire. The songs are plodding and repetative. A torturous evening.

Notice the tallitot:-



(Kippah tip: Sairy who wears a great hat)