It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Cherniak Whines
Liberalblogger Jason Cherniak, who organizes purges of fellow Liberals who question Israeli Imperialism and its illegal occupation of the Palestine, is upset.....I'm sick of the insults
And then he goes on to say this.....
Not too long ago, I was defending Liberal Jews against a young man who said we should all leave the Liberal Party. In response to my comments, the head of the Blogging Dippers called me "anti-Semitic" because I said that it is not "normal" for Jews to spend all their time protesting Israel in a group such as Jewish Women Against the Occupation. This is the same person who once wrote "F--k the Jews" on his website. As far as I am concerned, the continued support of this man by the NDP and much of the blogging community is reprehensible. I have been trying to ignore his comments for a while now.
Now who is being insulting?
I also commented on Cherniaks post about defining JWAO as not being 'normal jews' quote unquote. He actually tones it down here. He called them 'nutbars'.
Which if anyone else had called them that Jason would have screamed 'anti-semitism'.
Somewhere along in this debate I also asked Jason if he considered the Refuseniks and Peace Movement in Israel as being nutbars also. To which I got no reply.
However it is important to note that opposition to Israeli Imperialism does exist in the homeland, even if the Israel lobby here disavows it. Israeli opposition to Lebanon War
Though he didn't take issue with my comment at the time he did and does with a similar comment at MyBlahg.
Firstly Robert from MyBlahg set up the Dippers aggregator, to call him the head, is to imply we all agree with Robert, and are all following the leader. It's an aggregator for those who identify with the NDP whether they are members of the party or not. Anyone could have set it up. Robert is just another contributor.
There are many blogs on the Dippers aggregator that are not official blogs of the NDP, ie. a constiuency blog or a candidate blog, and so the party has no say over them nor do they represent the party. I don't. Robert doesn't.
So demanding the party purge Robert, well thats a bit much, since I don't know if he is a member of the party. Anyways whether he is or not his blog is his, it is not the official blog of the NDP.
And it's not very liberal of Jason to demand we all drop association with Robert because of his post on F***k the Jews. It's a red herring as far as I am concerned. Besides I can disagree with him and defend his right to free speech. Something it appears neither Jason nor Kinsella apparently can, thus thrusting both of them to the right of all real progressives and classical liberals.
But it's typical of the Stalinist mentality that scurries throughout Jasons diatribes. Of course he has been successful in purging his party of dicontent. Even if it was misplaced. Hubert was vilified for the usual utterances
How proud he is, so now he demands others purge those whom he disagrees with. If one reads between the lines of the purge of poor Thomas Hubert, one sees that Jason was as upset over him being an ex-NDP'er as he was over the questionable comments made by Hubert that Jason decided were anti-semitic. You see Jason has no love for the NDP as a true blue Liberal.
One has to ask is Jason blogging as himself or as Communications Director for the Dion campaign? I remember when he blogged for the Martin Camp. So who does he speak for? In his confusion between being a blogger and being an official 'Liberal' blogger, he miscontrues others who blog and support poltical parties.
I do not speak for the NDP even though I am on the Dipper list. I am also on other blog aggregators as well. Ones blog affiliation does not construe that we accept all our fellow travelers. Nor should it construe party affiliation. Except i guess it does in Jasons case. All Liberalbloggers should be true blue Liberals, err red....and if not Jason who runs the Liberal aggregator purges them.....
Apparently he now takes issue with my comments on his opinion that the JWAO were nutbars.
Now I also have a bunch of people on the left-side of the spectrum who disagree with me, but they do so by calling me names. A surprisingly large number of them even insult my religious ethnicity. What is wrong with these people? Didn't their parent's teach them any manners?
I have manners and I never insulted his religious ethnicity. Can one have a religious ethnicity? One can be an ethnic Jew or a Religious Jew, they are not necessarily the same thing. And one can be an athiest Jew, many anarchist Jews were. Jews can be opposed to anti-semitism with out being a Zionist nationalist. However with the death of the anti-Zionist movement within the larger Jewish community in the post WWII diaspora in North America, the Zionist Nationalists dominate. And they use anti-semitism as an epithat to cover any criticism of their sacred state; Israel. But again not all Jews are Zionists.
Zionism is the last of the nineteenth century European nationalisms. Since there was no piece of territory where Jews could establish a homeland in Europe they were forced to look outside, mainly to Palestine because of the historical and religious connections. Early Zionists were largely secular and were opposed by the religious leaders since the latter believed the return to Zion should be only through divine intervention. Political action would usurp the divine prerogative. Since the establishment of the state of Israel most religious Jews have become Zionists though many religious Jews still oppose the state of Israel. Zionism has the failing of other ethnic nationalisms. Those in the homeland who do not share the ethnic paradigm become second class citizens. However, support for national liberation movements and self-determination and opposition to Zionism means national liberation and self-determination are only for gentiles.Anarchism and National Liberation
I said by Jason's standards his own words accusing the JWAO of being nutbars could be considered anti-semitic if uttered by anyone else. So depite his protestations let's be clear about one thing, Jason speaks not in defense of Jews but the State of Israel and its official ideology; Zionist Nationalism. That is a political position, and all politicial positions are open to being challenged. And such political debates and challenges should not be subjected to perjoratives or epithats like 'anti-semitism'. That's whats really insulting.
Ideologically, Zionism affirmed the Nazi belief that Jews were an alien race that could never be fully accepted and welcomed into European society. This was contrary to the Bundist attempt at Jewish emancipation and normalization, which proclaimed Jews full-fledged members of the nations in which they lived, and ergo, fully entitled to the same rights as all other citizens of those nations. This is very much the ideology underpinning the American Jewish experience: That we are fully American and not strangers in someone else’s house. The Zionists were all too eager to concur with Hitler that the Jews simply did not belong. (Interestingly, when Avraham Avienu declared, “I dwell among you but I am an alien,” he did not then conclude “And therefore I do not belong among you and should leave and form my own state.” He intentionally went to where he would be seen as alien so that he could employ his identity as an outsider to foster cultural criticism and provide a light unto the nations.) Zionism archive at Orthodox Anarchist
Also See:
Israel
Lebanon
Zionism
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