Why Do the Leftists Hate the Jews?

Many objective observers have noticed the unholy alliance between the left and radical Islam. Superficially, it seems so odd as to be inexplicable. After all, so many of their beliefs are diametrically opposed. Leftists believe – or so they say – in equality for women; Islamists treat women like chattel. Leftists believe in complete sexual freedom; Islamists kill homosexuals by stoning them or collapsing walls upon them. Leftists are often agnostics or atheists; Islamists believe that we all must live under strict sharia law. It would be hard to imagine any stranger bedfellows.

Closer examination shows that there is one consistent thread that unites the leftists with the Islamists: vicious, irrational hatred of the Jews.

Former Boston Herald columnist Don Feder has written a thoughtful, though disturbing, piece for GrasstopsUSA.com which was also picked up by David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine. It is called "Seven Reasons for Leftist Anti-Semitism," and you can read the whole thing here or here. Here's how it starts:

Old joke: Walking down a street, a rabbi is accosted by an anti-Semite who tells him “The Jews are to blame for all of our problems.” The rabbi replies, “You’re absolutely right. It’s all the fault of the Jews – and the redheads.” Puzzled, the anti-Semite asks, “Why the redheads”? The rabbi responds, “Why the Jews”?

But for the left, anti-Semitism makes perfect sense – almost as much sense as socialized medicine. Except for Islam (with which it’s increasingly allied), the left has a near-monopoly on organized anti-Semitism.

Last week, that geriatric Jew-hater Jimmy Carter was in Gaza condemning the “devastation” wrought by Israel’s military incursion to stop Hamas rocket attacks. “The citizens of Gaza are treated more like animals than people,” the man who put the ayatollahs in charge of Iran intoned.

At the American International School in Gaza, damaged by Israeli bombs, Carter told citizens of Hamas-istan, “I have to hold back the tears when I see the deliberate destruction that has been wrecked against your people.” That Hamas deliberately located a missile battery near the school is irrelevant to our pathetic ex-president.

The author of “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” – who’s become the most prominent Western apologist for the Hitlerites of Hamas (“first of all, Hamas has to be accepted by the international community") – Carter has never shed a tear for the Israelis killed by Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza or those murdered or wounded by Palestinian suicide bombers over the past decade.

Next stop on Jimmy’s trail of tears – the S.S. cemetery in Bitburg, where he’ll weep for the devastation wrecked against the German people, who were treated like animals by the Allies in World War II.

For Carter, the political is also personal. In a 2006 story in the Jewish Forward, Carter was quoted telling senior aides prior to the 1980 election “If I get back in, I’m going to (expletive deleted) the Jews.”

Even though it's admittedly disturbing, I strongly recommend that you read all of Don Feder's important essay. You'll come away with an increased understanding of how the twisted brains of the committed leftists function to distort reality. However, the deeper mystery of what sort of malignant process it took to twist those brains in the first place – particularly in the case of the significant population of self-loathing Jews who dwell among the other strange denizens of the Left – remains unexplained.

Mark Steyn: "Israel Today, the West Tomorrow"

In "Israel Today, the West Tomorrow," an essay appearing in the May, 2009 issue of Commentary Magazine, Mark Steyn brings us up to date on the dramatic changes occurring in the nations of Western Europe, and even in Canada. Here's how he begins this very disturbing article:

On Holocaust Memorial Day 2008, a group of just under 100 people—Londoners and a few visitors —took a guided tour of the old Jewish East End. They visited, among other sites of interest, the birthplace of my old chum Lionel Bart, the author of Oliver! Three generations of schoolchildren have grown up singing Bart’s lyric:

     Consider yourself
     At ’ome!
     Consider yourself
     One of the family!

Those few dozen London Jews considered themselves at ’ome. But they weren’t. Not any more. The tour was abruptly terminated when the group was pelted with stones, thrown by “youths”—or to be slightly less evasive, in the current euphemism of Fleet Street, “Asian” youths. “If you go any further, you’ll die,” they shouted, in between the flying rubble.

It seems that in response to relentless pressure from the increasingly bold and aggressive practitioners of the Religion of Peace, governments all over Europe and Canada are caving in and allowing violent mobs to commit egregious acts of anti-semitism, assault, and destruction of property. He describes one such incident, boldly and proudly videotaped by the perpetrators themselves, in which a sizable mob dressed in identical green "Boycott Israel" t-shirts invaded and trashed a Carrefour superstore in France. You can see the video for yourself (dialogue is in French) – watch it and draw your own conclusions.



While the mob stripped the store of every item with a connection to Israel and terrorized the shoppers, no one lifted a finger to stop them.

When (not if) such incidents begin to occur here in the US, our first line of defense is our local and state authorities. Most of them – certainly those here in Tennessee – are equal to the task. That's very fortunate, because if push comes to shove – as it already has in Great Britain and the countries of Western Europe – how likely is it that Barack Hussein Obama would take any action to stop them?

Mark's article is both urgent and important. Unfortunately, it's a harbinger of things to come in the US if we continue to follow along the same suicidal path as our British, Canadian, and European friends. It may well be too late for them. We still have a little time – but none to waste. From this point forward, we must begin to enforce our immigration laws in order to keep undesirable elements out of the country and deport those who already live among us. If we fail to do so, we will seal our own fate – and we will deserve it.

By all means go read the whole piece.

The Virus of Anti-Semitism

For a disturbing, depressing, but deadly accurate discussion of anti-Semitism in its latest guise, read Phyllis Chesler's op-ed Our Eternal Struggle, first published in The Jewish Press, then reprinted in Pajamas Media's Chesler Chronicles. Here's a snippet:

Who would ever have dreamed that Israel would be condemned for trying to defend its civilians? Or that Israel would reap hatred for exercising restraint in its treatment of Palestinian civilians? Or that Israel's terrorist enemies would be praised for hiding behind their own women and children or would themselves be counted as civilians (even as they fire rockets at Israel) because they craftily choose to dress as such?

Who would ever have imagined that such Big Lies would be championed by western intellectuals, academics, journalists, students - not a few of them Jews and even Israelis?

Orwell would laugh. Or cry.

Judging by the amount and vitriolic nature of the hate mail the piece has been generating, it has apparently struck a nerve among the Jew-haters (or "anti-Zionists," as they now prefer to style themselves). To find out why, go read the rest of it.

Empowering Our Enemies

Mona Charen, author of Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (and the Rest of Us), asks in her latest column Does Obama's Friendship with Khalidi Matter to Jews?

In addition to his close and long-standing friendship with Rashid and Mona Khalidi, Charen mentions two more of the close friends which Obama would rather his Jewish supporters didn't know about, Jeremiah Wright and Mazen Asbahi.

Others have pointed out that Obama's past and present advisors include such notorious pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli individuals as Robert Malley, Samantha Power, former Congressman David Bonior, retired Air Force General Merrill "Tony" McPeak, and Carter administration National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Can anyone not see a pattern here? Is it not true that a man may be judged by the company he keeps?

Why, then, is it likely that judging by their past voting records, approximately three-fourths of my co-religionists are going to vote for Obama in seven days? Won't they feel the least bit uncomfortable about elevating this unknown, inexperienced individual with his shady, mysterious past and his troubling associations to the most powerful position on earth? Can Jews really be that naïve and stupid?

I'm hoping the answer is No.

"Is America Really Going To Do This?"

Nashville blogger Kay Brooks highly recommends Melanie Phillips' latest contribution to the British Spectator in her post Getting down to brass tacks. Phillips, a brilliant author (most recent book: Londonistan) and essayist, asks in disbelief, Is America really going to do this?

Kay was particularly struck by these words

McCain believes in protecting and defending America as it is. Obama tells the world he is ashamed of America and wants to change it into something else. McCain stands for American exceptionalism, the belief that American values are superior to tyrannies. Obama stands for the expiation of America’s original sin in oppressing black people, the third world and the poor.

about which she commented "That's as succinctly worded a paragraph about the difference between these two men as I've read thus far."

Particularly for those with an interest in Israel and its fate, I'd recommend reading Melanie Phillips' entire essay. It will be well worth your time.

Churchill on the ROP

Old Salt's Winston Churchill quotation reminded me of something else he wrote during that same year concerning the Religion of Peace. His words seem uncannily prescient today.

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property‹either as a child, a wife, or a concubine‹must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science‹the science against which it had vainly struggled‹the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.

~~~~~ Winston Churchill, The River War, First Edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899; original out of print)