Comments on: Poll: Israelis support discrimination against Arabs, embrace the term apartheid

By: SDK

SDK — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 03:57:41 +0000

@Kolumn9 re: dissing Americans, progressives, humanists, Unitarians and others.

I seem to recall a similar group of renegade Jews from Europe. They had crazy ideas about socialism and Jewish labor, about returning to Zion and building a new land, about leaving the oppression of Russia, Germany and Poland and creating a new political reality for a small group of people who had been kicked all over Europe like dogs.

Have you heard of those folks? They revived the Hebrew language? Founded the State of Israel?

American Jews may be lacking in the kashrut and shabbat departments but we’ve done a pretty damn good job of integrating Judaism with democracy. So, you know, if you ever have an interest in that topic, you might want to check in with us.

By: name

name — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 07:21:17 +0000

Historically, the men of African tribes scarred the faces of their baby boys to prevent neighboring tribes from stealing them to use against their maternal tribes in war.

By: Vicky

Vicky — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:37:24 +0000

Hannah Arendt was eminent and she has been quoted here before. This doesn’t make her views on segregation right, or mean that anybody who has ever quoted her on anything has to accept them. The arguments she gave against compulsory desegregation are flimsy, particularly the statement about it being unfair to expect children to fix problems that their parents couldn’t solve. This makes it sound as though racially segregated schools were just some unfortunate natural disaster or a particularly difficult Rubik’s cube instead of a problem that was actively engineered and maintained by people, as a means of black suppression. Racially segregated schools were a core part of that maintenance. It’s ugly full stop. Your own support for it doesn’t look any less ugly or become any more credible because you try to hide it behind Hannah Arendt’s name.

By: The Rusty

The Rusty — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 09:08:21 +0000

I imagine it feels the same for them as it feels for skinheads defending their position; they don’t even blink, because they “know” that their hatred is “right.”

By: The Trespasser

The Trespasser — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 22:00:21 +0000

This poll is not credible because: only about 120 people from each group was asked. It’s not enough by any standard.

However for you it’s not important. After all, truth is not what you are after.

By: Davey Wavey

Davey Wavey — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 19:45:17 +0000

Well, Dersh took money from MEK, an organization that has murdered Americans.

Because of his anti-Zionism, Carter can’t get funding, can’t attract money like Dersh can. I imagine he takes what he can get in order to pursue his Israel agenda, which is, in itself, morally-grounded and purposeful.

By: Aaron Gross

Aaron Gross — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:45:30 +0000

Coincidentally, as I was talking about Hannah Arendt (whom the eminent political theorist Piotr Berman dismisses here as an idiot), the Hannah Arendt Center just posted this blog entry discussing "Reflections on Little Rock." (Maybe it's not so coincidental, because the essay is still being vigorously discussed half a century after it's written.) There's also a link to this video talk comparing Arendt's "Reflections" to Gunnar Myrdal, who's being channeled by some of the commenters here, knowingly or unknowingly. I haven't watched the video talk yet.

By: Aaron Gross

Aaron Gross — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:37:58 +0000

Dunno if you were asking me, but what I’m defending is segregation in the social and private spheres. Which is not even a question among Jewish and Arab Israelis, only among busybodies in the West.

By: rsgengland

rsgengland — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:39:32 +0000

Gideon Levy used the poll and its results very selectively .
It is also very necessary to take into account his extreme anti-Israel bias
A lot of the questions in the poll were hypothetical , and required further questions to clarify them .
The questions never asked if Israel should , or should not , annex the West Bank . If they had the answers may very well have been different

By: Vicky

Vicky — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:10:20 +0000

At first you defended the results of this poll with the classic, “But they would do it too.” Then you denied the situation (“Things aren’t that bad and you’re slandering us”). Now it’s a short announcement from NIF, saying that the poll was conducted by an independent organisation that they have collaborated with on a few past projects, but not in this particular instance. What does that change, exactly? I get the impression that you’re clutching at any comfort blanket, however flimsy.