Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, ... said, “There are manifestations in the movement of anti-Semitism, but they are not expressing or representing a larger view.”Foxman observed that polls show that 1 in 6 Americans think Jews have too much political and economic power: “So it’s not surprising that in a movement that deals with economic issues you’re going to get bigots that believe in this stereotype....."
October 22, 2011
"Jewish groups that have sensitive antennas for eruptions of bigotry have not criticized the protesters."
The NYT takes a look at whether there's anti-Semitism in Occupy Wall Street. The quote in the post title in the NYT characterization of the sounds of the absence of criticism. We get a specific quote from a representative of one Jewish group:
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Quite the contrast with the standard the media, particularly the NYT, applied to the Tea Party, isn't it?
Perhaps it is time to remind them of the vicious smear campaign they launched against Sarah Palin over the Arizona massacre.
The tiniest oblique expression of any kind of bigotry was supposed to indicate that the Tea Party advocated violence and terrorism.
The NYT embarassses itself again.
There is no unanimity among Jews about this. Believe me, my Jewish friends may not have abandoned their liberalism, but they are fed up with Obama and ready to break from the orthodoxy of aligning themselves with blacks out of habit.
It's nice to see the same media that slimed the Tea Party over imaginary racism fail to report on the ongoing antisemitism and daily crime associated with the Occupy (your city here) crowd.
But you can bet if the Tea party was spouting ANY anti-semitism, Mr. Foxman and a legion of other lefty sympathizers and enablers would be foaming at the mouth about those "Tea Party racists". F'n hypocrite
Broken antennas or they needed radar instead, but this stuff ain't exactly subtle.
They've already forgotten two words: "Never again."
Foxman observed that polls show that 1 in 6 Americans think Jews have too much political and economic power: “So it’s not surprising that in a movement that deals with economic issues you’re going to get bigots that believe in this stereotype....."
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If it is true, then is it bigoted?
As in, if 8 of 10 Americans believe that Muslims have too much involvement in terrorism and are causing MultiKulti to fail, does that by Foxman's criterion, make 80% of Americans Islamophobic bigots??
First they came for me, and I said nothing...
wv - borat ???
The mayor of our drowsy little southern town is Jewish. I have heard nothing from him about anti semites among the occupiers. Of course the Union army has been gone for a while, so he may not remember.
But Mel Gibson, he said, is "the portrait of an anti-Semite."
So, Cedarford, because 1 in 6 believe Jews have too much power, then it's true? Do you know that 50% of the population believes in UFO's? In any case, this is an unquantifiable value judgement. What, precisely, is "too much" power? Is there a bright line of "too much power" and do Jews cross the line sooner than gentiles? Trying to pursue your logic is like wading through waist-deep oatmeal.
Just got back from my 50th high school reunion in Pittsburgh. We had a lot of Jewish kids in the class. All became successful, some powerful. Each one earned it.
Thought experiment: Protesters hold signs outside Madison Square Garden that say: "Blacks have too much influence over pop culture and pro sports." Al Sharpton reacts how?
“There are manifestations in the movement of anti-Semitism, but they are not expressing or representing a larger view.”
-Hopeful Jewish guy, Berlin, 1933
Tyrone, the logic is clear to any without blinders on.
It is the matter of disproportionate representation in those placed in politics and in positions of wealth and influence. It is a frequently recurring question asked in history.
1. Peasants, merchants, and soldiers have often asked - does this small hereditary aristocracy we are under have too much control? And if so, is that control in the best interests of the broader society? Or is forceful change needed?
2. Did members of the carefully selected elites of the Soviet Communist Party, 3% of the population, have far too much control over the masses - their spots in school, promotions, what their wages were, where they lived?
3. Overseas Chinese, once 5% of the Indonesian population, gained control over commerce, food distribution, media, banks, and dominated the professions by the late 1950s, after centuries of hard work. They had disproportionate wealth and political influence. Native Indonesians realized Chinese dominance was very bad for the Indonesians and finally acted in 1965 after failing to get legislative change through institutions the Chinese had disproportionate influence in. It went badly for the Chinese.
The bias in the press is not that they tell you want to think but that they tell you want to think about. Or not think about.
In this case, don't think about any anti-semitism with this group.
Let's recall if you will Mr. Cedarford excoriating that "Jewish leftist" sociology professor for her radical left identity politics.
Fast forward and he's now blaming Jewish bankers for their actions.
Jewa are: left wing socialist academics, free market Wall Street financiers, Hollywood moguls, Bolshevik revolutionaries, capitalist blood suckers....
They can do it all, can't they?
Anti-Semitism in defense of leftism is no vice.
"Kill the Jews" is really a spiritual phenomena. The left is wide open to what ever spiritual power they can draw from.
They work hard.
They study hard.
They are industrious.
They are successful.
Those damn Jews.
PS As a Jew, I have my own problems with so many of us being idiot leftists. It doesn't prevent me from knowing an anti-semite when I see one.
I'm still having trouble understanding what exactly the definition of a semite living in America today is.
is it...
1) based on Race?
2) based on nationality?
3) based on adherence to a particular religious belief?
4) based on the inexplicable ability to acquire large amounts of wealth?
They work hard.
They study hard.
They are industrious.
They are successful.
Those damn Jews.
You forgot the most important similarity for the anti-semites: they all think alike.
A thought from a Jew is, to them, a Jewish thought. An act by a Jew is, for them, a Jewish act.
The fact that Jewish Americans are disproportionately represented in finance or academia or Wall Street is meaningless unless one believes that their Jewishness tells us anything other than they are, well, Jewish.
Barney Frank is Jewish. William Kristol is Jewish.
Two men with fundamentally different political, economic and social views.
Their Jewishness is a ancillary quality and not the defining one.
It's 2011 and we still have to correct this nonsense.
Tank said...
They work hard.
They study hard.
They are industrious.
They are successful.
Those damn Jews.
======================
They work hard.
They study hard.
They are industrious.
They are successful.
Those damn overseas Chinese!
At one point, the Chinese dominated the power base, banks, media, and wealth allocation in Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, S Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia. But their interests and arrogant "if it is good for we Chinese who won on merit and networks..fine..fuck the natives" attitude lead the native people to end Chinese control of politics, the economies, banks, media. The Chinese were only 2-5% of the population. When the rest of the people became fed up, they were helpless to defend the "Chinese bossmen" positions.
Same as Jews, the Chinese became a rapacious minority that in SE Asia went in with an attitude they wanted it all, and were willing to work hard to take it.
Similar stories have played out in Fiji with the Indians, East Africa with the rapacious harder-working East ASians that sought to dominate power and wealth allocation in the post colonial period.
And the Euro colonial days were built on the premise that the white minority DESERVED all the wealth and power because they were the ones that naturally deserved all the fruits of native resources and labor because: The Euros work hard. The Euros study hard. The Euros are industrious. So the Euros should be successful and the bosses over the wogs, the kaffirs, the meztisos...
The Chinese have an explaination why they are resented in SE Asia and hated in Tibet, Taiwan where they would be ousted if the natives were powerful enough to do it...it is all a mysterious mental disease..the Chinese say. That leads natives to resent and envy their betters.
Cedar
For some reason you forgot to quote the last part of my comment.
PS As a Jew, I have my own problems with so many of us being idiot leftists. It doesn't prevent me from knowing an anti-semite when I see one.
Maybe hit too close to home.
They had a piece on one of the History Channels about the Jew the SS picked to administer the Lodz ghetto, who did everything he could to "work" with the "authorities", including packing up people for "resettlement".
As the Russians closed in, the last Jews there, including the ghetto admin, were all packed off to Auschwitz. When the train got there, his first question was, "What happens here?".
(facepalm)
Some people, against their interests, are so wedded to the Left, the same reaction is only now starting to take place.
You know, I remember wondering a while back before diversity became a common societal norm..."Why wouldn't some Jews be a little more cautious about identifying their differences and celebrating them?"
I also remembering a Bernhard Henri-Levy piece about the Jewish/Black connection on the Left (lauding it of course). I was skeptical, but upon reflection, both are often outgroups, put into a category/categories and were denied access to opportunity, many are Left, naturally, in some ways.
Good ol BHL
Foxman has a sensitive ear for anti-Semitism only if he can blame it on Republicans or evangelical Christians.
Otherwise he's stone-deaf.
Barney Frank is Jewish. William Kristol is Jewish.
Two men with fundamentally different political, economic and social views.
================
Not really. Both want money and power and influence over others, and are rapacious and unscrupulous in their pursuit of it.
Both are uberconnected Harvard Elites.
Barney's path to money and power was the Banking Committee. Kristol's as government insider, owner of neocon media organs, and punditry fees.
Any group displays profound differences within the makeup, character, and attitudes of individuals - as well as profound commonalities that define them as part of a group to start with.
It doesn't prevent me from knowing an anti-semite when I see one.
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I want to roll back the Han Chinese from their political and economic dominance of Mongolia, N Korea, Tibet, Burma.
Does that also make me an "anti-Chinese bigot"??
PS - That poll that says 1 of 6 Americans believe Jews have too much influence over critical sectors of America is likely higher than 1 in 6. People will not say what they believe to a pollster if they fear their views will be condemned. A well known behavior that pollsters know from polls on other controversial matters. Like a large city will have a poll that says 70% of blacks think the liberal white opponent to a black mayor with scandal is a good man and would make a good replacement mayor...then vote 90% for the black guy in the Democrat Primary.
Overseas, sans fear of condemnation as an "anti-Semite" - the number that believe Jews have too much control over American finances, foreign policy, and politics ranges from 35-45% in Europe up to 75-85% in places like Japan, Africa, and the more "moderate" Muslim countries.
The antennas of Jewish groups are far more sensitive to bigotry on the right than to far louder noises on the left. Poor famished souls, they hunger to find evidence of anti-semitism in the words of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. Bachmann mispronounced chutzpah. Leftists understand that this was how Hitler started....I'd bet dollars to donuts that if some enterprising journalist sought out the Rev. Wright's solutions to Israel's border disputes, such solutions would not solidify Jewish support for Obama.......Prior to Castro's arrival, there were 25,000 Jews in Cuba. They were well educated, well off, and productive. It didn't take long for most of them to leave. Yet membership of most of the Venceremos Brigades in America were disproportionately Jewish......Jews, whatever their achievements in physics, don't always know how to add up two and two. In Stalin's show trials, all the defendants, save one, were Jewish. Tell me of the Jewish intellectual of that era who smelled a rat. Stalin was less anti-semitic than Hitler and, indeed, the Czar. Therefore, Uncle Joe was A-OK in Lillian Hellman's book.
Don't get me wrong. I think Jewish contributions to medicine, physics, and stand up comedy are far more importand and revelatory of their true character than their demented politics. Guys like Einstein don't come along every day. A society that exiles or marginalizes such men will not prosper. I don't think Oppenheimer's moral and political vision was greater than Truman's, but he was much better at designing bombs.
Abe Foxman is an idiot. He doesn't view ethnic cleansing in the mideast to be a problem for Jews, but thinks conservative Christians in the US are the Jews biggest threat.
Cedarfords problem isn't the anti-semitism. It's the overall racism; how he equates voluntary actions of non-Jews in not being the heavy hitters in finance or whatever to defacto discrimination by Jews who actively work together to keep Goyim from success, which is complete bullshit.
That 1 in 6 see Jews as a problem speaks more to ignorant bigotry and simplemended idiocy of 17% of the population than to what actual Jews are doing or not doing.
Jews don't keep anybody down in America. Stupid people keep themselves down and then blame others who they have never met for their stupidity and bad choices. OWS guys blame Wall Street and bankers. Guys like Cedorford blame Jews. Same mental deficiencies, different targets.
Mariner hit it on the head. Socialists/Democraps can say anything vile about Jews, but they will get a free pass (unless they're a conservative democrap in which case the lamestream media equates them with evil rethuglicans and applies the same vilification rules). But let a republican/conservative utter even the most equivocal comment about Jews or Israel and the lamestream media comes down like a ton of bricks. Exhibit A-Rev. Wright who gets a free pass; Exhibit B-Pat Buchanan who gets skewered for his opinions.
What strikes me as the ultimate in naivete is the supposition that the American Jewish community (of which I am a member) could ever work in an orchestrated fashion in any group larger than a nuclear family. Unfortunately, the study ethic drilled into us at an early age coupled with good genetics produces educated professionals, who at least until now have been successful in western societies. Jewish people have an incredible diversity of opinions and will argue them to the death. Those who resent their success are just showing envy.
P.S I am conservative, think abortion is a no-no, and have yet to figure out why American Jews are so liberal. In Israel, the conservative/liberal breakdown is the same as in the US as a whole.
...and have yet to figure out why American Jews are so liberal.
Not a Jew here, so just surmising, but I really think it's because a lot of Jew's see the chattering class as an idealized sort of 'high society' to which they (a little too desperately) want to belong.
My understanding is that, in times past, Jews had a tough time reconciling the fact that, despite all their success in business, they were never very welcome in the glitzier high-society circles. That stung, and led a lot of them to go against their better nature and start saying, "Hey, me too!" and chasing will-o-the-wisps.
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