People will still believe anything...

This is not verbatim, merely my recollection a variety of similar texts I read in a Medieval history course.

Near the cathedral, I heard a voice screaming for help and I ran towards it. When I got there, no one was in sight, but I saw drops of blood leading away from the church. I followed them to the Jewish neighborhood. 

As I got closer to one home, I heard the screams again. Looking in a window, I saw Jews gathered around a table. A wafer, the flesh of our god, lay on the table. A bearded man with a long, hooked nose was repeatedly stabbing the wafer with a knife. Each time the knife pierced its flesh, the wafer cried out. 

This tale would might be laughable, except for the fact that hundreds of Jews were killed because people believed this falsehood.  

It is one thing to confront historical narratives that led to tragic consequences for certain groups. But we forget how deeply people believed that absurd accusation. We don't recognize that many of today's false charges are just as ridiculous and just as false. Today's new false charges include the buzzwords of this era, thrown about without with no consideration given to their possible accuracy or inaccuracy.

Without understanding history or the present day, how can we make the world better and achieve what we all want: a society that is free, tolerant, inclusive and compassionate.

Wikipedia's description of this image: "a 15th-century German woodcut of the host desecration by the Jews of Passau, 1477. The hosts are stolen and sold to the Jewish community, who pierce them in a ritual. When guards come to question the Jews, they (the Jews) attempt to burn the Hosts, but are unsuccessful, as the Hosts transform into an infant carried by angels. The Jews, now proven guilty, are arrested, beheaded, and tortured with hot pincers, the entire community is driven out with their feet bound and held to the fire, and the Christian who sold the hosts to the Jews is punished. At the end the Christians kneel and pray."

Justice Requires Truth

Colonialism is a bad word. So let's call Israel colonial. Even though it's not.

A recent post at Gods&Radicals quoted a book that referred to "Israeli colonialism." Does the author of the book or the person who posted the review of it know what colonialism is? Do either of them know the history of Jewish immigration to Israel or that there has been a continuous presence in the Land for 3,000 years? [Edit: The reviewer removed that quote from his post… so maybe he knows better now.]

Capitalism is a bad word. So let's point out that Israel is (partly) a capitalist country. So are many other countries.

Kibbutzim were the ideal for many decades. The ideal didn't work out ideally, so many kibbutzim have changed their social and economic structures.

Apartheid is a bad word. So let's call Israel an apartheid state. Even though it's not.

Can there be peace if people are not honest 

about their grievances and hopes? 

Can you honestly say that you hope for peace throughout the world if you are contributing to lies that promote hate and violence?

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A Black South African on Israel and Apartheid

I recently received this comment on another blog, after someone read a post of mine:

This blog post you link to is just a tirade that says if you stand in solidarity with Palestinians you are an anti-Semite. Because you say so. There is no real explanation, just that opposing the systems of occupation and apartheid somehow equates opposing the Jewish people. Is this the best you can do to justify the horrible acts of a capitalist racist state?

There's no way to communicate with someone who wants to believe things that aren't true.

However, since he brought it up, I thought I'd share this video. Kenneth Meshoe, a South African politician, argues that the allegation that Israel is an apartheid state "is so inaccurate it betrays the memory of those who suffered through a real apartheid."

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Two Capitols for Two States

Years ago, I had a bumper sticker on my car that read “Two Capitals for Two States.” Because if everyone would just share, then there would be peace, right?

Then, in 2000, Palestinian leaders turned down the opportunity to create a state with its capital in Jerusalem and 98% of the land they had claimed they wanted.

It was the first time that Israel had offered to divide its capital. But, I learned, it was the third time that Palestinian Arab leaders had refused to create a state.

So I finally started making an effort to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rather than just accepting the popular narrative. I realized that I’d accepted falsehoods without thinking, I was ashamed of myself.

And I ripped that bumper sticker off my car.

About that time, one of the tales Palestinian Arabs often recited was about the Arab town of Jenin. The narrative was that the Israeli Defense Forces had entered Jenin, slaughtered all the Arabs there, and buried them all—men, women, and children—in a mass grave. I learned that this was an invention repudiated even by the U.N., and when I visited Israel ten years later, the town of Jenin was still there and populated by Arabs.

The image I’d had of evil Israeli occupiers was a fiction. I had felt obliged, as a Jew, to do something about the supposed crimes of my people, so I had participated in organizations such as The Jewish Voice for Peace. Why hadn't I felt obliged, as a Jew, to determine that what I’d heard was true?

I was angry that no one at my synagogue had tried to set me straight. No one had even expressed offense that a JVP bumper sticker was in the shul’s parking lot two or more times each week.

I was angrier with Palestinians. How could I make sense of the conflict when I couldn’t trust them to be truthful? How can people achieve peace if they don't honestly discuss their grievances?

Clearly there was (and still is) injustice: children taught to blow themselves up in order to kill Israelis, conflicts resulting in the deaths of Arabs and Israelis, and nothing done to prevent hatred and fear from growing.

With a fictional narrative promoted even by the “balanced and unbiased media,” where can we learn the truth? Why did the Palestinian Arabs turn down opportunities to create a state in 1937, 1947, 1948, 1967, 2000, and 2008?

If you’ve only listened to the popular narrative, don't be afraid to read pro-Israel information for a change. All of us should try to learn facts from the perspective of both sides. How else can we find a route to peace?

Unfortunately, I'm still wondering where to find truth from the Arab perspective. Arabs say they want land and peace, but Israel's “land for peace” policy has not been successful. After its neighbors attacked Israel (three times) and lost, Israel gained land that it offered to return in exchange for treaties. Only Egypt regained land, the Sinai, by simply acknowledging that Israel exists. Simple.

Yet world opinion still vilifies Israel and Israel alone.

While visiting Olympia, Washington recently, I saw a mural on Capitol Way that includes the images of two women. The word “Peace” is painted next to the woman in red, green, and black. The other woman, in blue and white, is tattooed with the words, “I will not occupy.” The mural not-so-subtly puts all the blame for the conflict on Israelis.

What is it that’s occupied? Gaza? Judah? Samaria? Arab towns in Israel? The Golan?

There are no troops in Gaza. (Hence, rockets being fired on Israel.) When Jewish settlers began to build-- legally-- in Judah and Samaria during peace negotiations, the IDF demolished their buildings. And the few times I traveled through Arab-Israeli towns, I saw no Israeli soldiers or even road blocks.

How about the Golan Heights? Israel acquired that land defending itself from Syria and offered to return it in exchange for a peace treaty. Unlike Egypt, Syria refused to sign a peace treaty. It was years before Israel accepted that it would have to administer the area. The Golan Heights represents Syrian intransigence. Some people call it “occupied territory.” I call it northern Israel. 

Judah and Samaria, renamed "The West Bank" when Jordan conquered the territory in 1948, are the Jewish heartland, but Arabs live there. 

The political spectrum in Israel is enormous, but there seem to be cycles of hope and cynicism among all Israelis. One famous singer, who had been a peace activist in the 1970s, said, “There is no one to make peace with.” Arafat had killed the moderate Palestinian Arabs who had been willing to make peace. Today, Hamas uses violence to keep Palestinians in line; it randomly accuses people of aiding Israel and executes them publicly.

Irshad Manji once noted that while she knows Israelis who argue for the Palestinians, she has never met a Palestinian who argues for Israelis. She describes the disappointment she felt when visiting a Palestinian writer who dared not express himself frankly about peace while in the same room as Palestinian leaders.

It might be possible to validly criticize Israelis and Palestinians. Unfortunately, you’ll only hear criticisms of Israel and they are often false. You have to know who is speaking and what his agenda is. Opposition to Israel is rarely about peace; it is mostly inspired by the hatred of Jews, not by facts.

That may be one reason why peace initiatives have not succeeded. There can be no peace without truth.

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So You Think That You’re Not Antisemitic

Part I: Anti-semitism-lite. (Scholars call it “normal anti-semitism.” Normal.)

Here are just a few examples.

• One man told me that "the Jews" were the source of his former sexism.
• A complete stranger told me to be more spiritual—Christianity had taught him that Jews only engage in ossified ritual.
• One co-worker thought it was funny to strut around speaking fake German and to shout “Heil Hitler.”
• My boss showed me her prayer book. “Since my prayer book is in Hebrew and English, you should worship Jesus.”
• A friend urged me to read an "important" book. It focuses on how the "Rothschild Zionists" are controlling human behavior from a secret base on the moon.
• One blogger dismissed my fears of anti-semitism because only black people and the very poor are suffering today.
  

Jews do face racism and bigotry, but not “just like” everyone else. Can you compare the oppression and murder of Native Americans to the oppression and murder of African Americans? Can you see a future in which there will be no hatred of Christians in Central Africa, Armenians in Turkey, Yazidis in the Middle East, or minorities in Eastern Europe? I cannot see a future in which anti-semitism won’t continue to infect every mind.

You may be unable to see that anti-semitism is all around you, but pay attention to how you feel; do you enjoy hating Jews?

You can find the full calorie version of anti-semitism in Europe today. Do you know many Jews have been attacked or murdered in France during the last twelve months? Do you care? On the sole occasion that international media covered an attack in France, the reporter stated that since Muslims can eat kosher food, too, the murder of four Jews in a kosher market was not an expression of anti-semitism. (More about that term, in a future post.)

Jews are leaving France, many to live in the south of Israel, which is regularly targeted by rockets from Gaza. Why might they be moving? Perhaps because “normal” anti-semitism in France is once again growing deadly. In the United States, people want to believe that Jews are safe here. Mostly, they are the same people who say that African Americans should be grateful for all they have.

The politically correct way to be loudly anti-semitic today is to “criticize” Israel. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews; you're talking anti-semitism.” Don't respect that statement simply because MLK, Jr. said it; think about it. If you are willing to accept lies about Israel, is it any different than accepting lies about Jews?

Defamation campaigns on college campuses in the United States have been threatening Jewish students for decades. In the summer of 2003, walking around the UC Berkeley campus carrying a Hebrew textbook was terrifying!

I can't blame people for believing what the media tells them, or fails to tell them, until I discover (once again) that they will cover their ears and howl when I ask them to recognize when "information" is false.

If you are willing to make the smallest effort, you can learn factual history—and yes, it does include events like the deportation from Lydda, but Israeli children know about Lydda while most Americans would be stunned if they read just one page of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

If you feel you can't trust anything Jews say, read what others have to say about the Palestinian narrative. You can learn about Pallywood here.

One blogger posted about a fictional massacre of Palestinians by Israelis. Apparently, someone set him straight, because the next day he posted that the massacre hadn’t happened. One truthful post, but he did not did not seem to regret spreading a lie and hasn't bothered to locate more reliable sources of information. Since everyone else lies about Jews and Israel, why shouldn’t he? (Since then, he has deleted both posts.)

Some people pretend to care about Palestinians. Do they also care about other people who are suffering great atrocities? All over the world. Today.

Some people pretend to care about peace. Do they take time to learn about facts that might allow them to comprehend or to help solve the situation? Do they protest wars in other regions? Or do they just rant and rave about "the Jews?"

Some people, whose ancestors really did steal native lands, seem to feel superior when they accuse Israelis of stealing land and deny that Israelis have a right to live in their homes. Should I explain about Jewish presence in the land for thousands of years or how Zionists went to great lengths to purchase land? Should I tell you the percentage of Israeli citizens who are Arab or how many Arabs are members of the Israeli parliament? Should I point out that there has been no genocide of Arabs? No! You can look it up. But most likely, you'll just say that I'm lying, because well, you can't trust a Jew.

While some claim that people in Gaza are starving, luxury hotels are built and Hamas fires rockets at Israel. Like the PLO before it, Hamas fires rockets from homes and mosques and hospitals, endangering its civilians.

Israel, worried about world opinion, rarely responds to "minor" attacks. When Israel does respond, the IDF drops flyers, warning civilians that there will be an attack. Hamas, of course, does not let civilians leave; dead civilians are a good PR opportunity. See this article about human shields, and this one about media coverage. And also this one about outright lies.

When people in Gaza are killed, the world screams about Jewish crimes, but the world does not care when Jewish or Arab Israelis are threatened or killed. (Yes, there are Arab Israelis. Many.)

Some people insist that Israel should not “retaliate,” i.e., defend its people. When asked about Hitler, Gandhi said that the Jews should let themselves be killed. That is still the "spiritual" person’s answer: let your people die.

How would you like to be told that? Let your people die.


Upcoming posts: 

• Why former Christians have a special hatred of Jews 
• Pallywood and fauxtography 
• James Carroll 
• How Germans responded after the Shoah
• Pretending to be Jewish 

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Addemdum: October 2015 HlMG Assessment of the 2014 Gaza Conflict 
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Demonstration at Hebrew University

This picture shows two demonstrations at Hebrew University in Jerusalem on November 15.

Both Arabs and Jews attend Israel's universities. Can you picture a non-violent demonstration like this in Syria or Egypt-- or Gaza? I can't.

The media is mostly ignoring the situation. People should see what has happened in Israel and Gaza. If you can bear it, here is a link to a few pictures.