Roof would be lauded as a patriot and a hero. Let that sink in.
“It was from an adjacent settlement, Kiryat Arba, in 1994 that a settler from Brooklyn named Baruch Goldstein emerged, traveling with his Galil automatic rifle to the Ibrahimi Mosque and somehow getting through Israeli security before gunning down 29 Palestinians as they prayed. Survivors beat him to death. Today Goldstein is revered among some settlers. At his gravesite in Kiryat Arba, these words are inscribed: ‘He gave his soul for the people of Israel, the Torah, and the Land. His hands are clean and his heart good. …’ ”
The settlers and their supporters are the Israeli equivalent of the KKK – but unfortunately get strong government support and are above criticism in most Israeli social or political settings. It’s a messed up culture that fiercely protects some things, and people, even when 80% or more can see how sick they are.
I remember reading that Baruch Goldstein’s widow demanded a government investigation into how he was beaten to death, and prosecution of anyone they could identify involved in that, etc. Just a window into their mindset.
So yeah, good comparison.
BTW, from the title I thought this was going to be a story claiming that all Israelis were armed all the time and would stop any shooting like this. That isn’t actually true, but many people in the US (particularly at the ignorant end of the pro-gun side) believe it.
A group of young Jewish settlers suspected of torching the Catholic Church of the Multiplication, on the spot where Jesus is believed to have performed a Biblical miracle, have been released without charge. Israel has vowed to find the arsonists.
The church, located on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, was set ablaze early Thursday morning. Graffiti saying, “The false gods will be eliminated,” in Hebrew – a quote from a Jewish prayer – was also daubed on a wall. The church was marking the Biblical story of the Feeding of the 5,000, in which Jesus fed a crowd with five loaves and two fish, and has been rebuilt several times since the fifth century.
The building suffered extensive damage, with the roof partly collapsed and stone walls charred.
“In an area near the church, 16 youths were detained for investigation in order to check their involvement in the incident before dawn,” Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement. “All 16 were released, with no conditions attached, after being interviewed and giving statements.”
http://rt.com/news/268255-church-arson-israel-settler/
Persnickety, Israel is a society imbued with racism and a sense of genetic and moral superiority. A fact that unfortunately Americans are kept ignorant of. It is far worse than the Jim Crow south ever was. Nazi Germany is a more apt comparison.
Seems there is a crowd knocking Israel. But, my guess is you put the U.S. heads and shoulders above Israel. As such, it is obvious that the last 6 decades of of financial and military U.S. history seem to escaped your grey matter.
I won’t bother with the long and tedious details, as your emotional roadblocks wouldn’t let data be absorbed anyway. I have better ways to waste time.
@Zara, you said: “Persnickety, Israel is a society imbued with racism and a sense of genetic and moral superiority. A fact that unfortunately Americans are kept ignorant of. It is far worse than the Jim Crow south ever was. Nazi Germany is a more apt comparison.”
I’m going to disagree with all of those. People in Israel cover a WIDE range of beliefs and attitudes ranging from the Benetton type crowd (all colors are good and equal, ra ra ra) through to the crazed zealot killers you describe. It’s not monolithic. Unfortunately the crazed zealots have effective control over Israeli politics. I think you also have a rosy view of the Jim Crow south – an era that also had a range of views, but plenty of lynchings, and plenty of people who had unquestioned black/white racial views. Finally, Nazi Germany is another bad comparison because while the regime was extreme, many of the common folk, not members of the Nazi Party, were just casually racist or even indifferent. From what I’ve read the areas of Europe that were most widely and enthusiastically anti-Jew were Poland and some scattered points south in what we now call eastern Europe. Societies where everyone is uniformly and enthusiastically racist are rare, and the best examples are probably in SE Asia (today or any number of decades ago), with the Jim Crow south uncomfortably close behind.
@Kokoda: FOAD
Almost forgot, Japan from c. 1860-1945 is probably the single most racist society in our history books, and I don’t think it changed all that much from 1945 through the present day. White Americans are tolerated there, though not exactly welcomed. Other colors/nationalities are barely tolerated. Many Japanese have special hatred for Koreans and Chinese, which is painfully ironic since the Japanese people are closely related to both, and may well be direct descendants and relatives of the Koreans within historic times.
I’m all for Israel, contra Zarathustra, provided we can be racist too. No Jews in government, or central banking, or the media, or film making industries. They have a country of their own. American and European Jews should go there.
“The Talmud states that his (Jesus) punishment in hell is to be immersed in boiling excrement.”
Israel Shahak
Isn’t that charming?
Persnickety, every country is unique so there is never a perfect alignment. As for Israel, here are a couple of recent examples from the Gaza war of a year ago:
1) It has just been revealed that the Israeli bombing of a medical clinic, which killed half a dozen Palestinians (patients and medical staff), was performed to “increase morale” among the invading troops after one of their officers was killed. The government has maintained that Hamas militants were using it as a refuge.
2) Every night Israelis would go to the top of a nearby hill, drink beer, picnic and cheer every time a bomb exploded across the border.
Not all Israelis are racist assholes of course. Given recent voting, I would put the number at about half of the country.
Z: God in Zac 13:8 seems to have put it at 67%.
Archie says:
I’m all for Israel, contra Zarathustra, provided we can be racist too. No Jews in government, or central banking, or the media, or film making industries. They have a country of their own. American and European Jews should go there.
“The Talmud states that his (Jesus) punishment in hell is to be immersed in boiling excrement.”
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Collectivism is evil regardless of the motive. There are many Jews who oppose zionism for various reasons and are aghast at the treatment of the native people in Israel. Glen Greenwald for one, who wrote the book “Life and Loathing in Greater Israel.” There is also the excellent Jewish-run website, mondoweiss.net
Then there is the video of a meeting between then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and orthodox Jews in NYC, where they were embracing and kissing, because this particular sect of Judaism rejects Israel because they maintain that only the savior can create the state of Israel:
Collectivism is evil, Z? No, not exactly. I think that is simply an ideological point you’re making. The Amish are a collective no? How’s about the Indian tribes? There is nothing inherently wrong with those ideologies other than the fact that libertarianism, itself an ideology, is opposed to them. Pat Buchanan said as much long ago.
I am well aware of the diversity of opinion among Jews. Indeed, if you sequestered say 20 Jews and told them they had to come up with the ultimate Reuben sandwich definition, it would be a argumentative bloodbath, if not a real one. The ordeal would take six months, the rabbis would be consulted, civic and tax bodies notified, and the final document would be published at a length of 200 pages, with 200 pages of marginalia.
The end result would be a sandwich, regulated thoroughly, ten times higher in price and an object that would generate 1000’s of lawsuits and counter lawsuits. The Jews, if anything, generate economic activity. I am reminded of the poor WASP george plimpton who held an extravagant fireworks display in the 1970s I think (he was an explosives enthusiast) on Long Island, and an uninvited guest got singed with a spark on his shoulder. The man sued him for millions of dollars. Do you wanna guess which tribe he comes from?
Archie says:
Collectivism is evil, Z? No, not exactly. I think that is simply an ideological point you’re making. The Amish are a collective no? How’s about the Indian tribes? There is nothing inherently wrong with those ideologies other than the fact that libertarianism, itself an ideology, is opposed to them. Pat Buchanan said as much long ago.
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Yes, of course you are right. Collectivism, or communalism, can and has worked well on a local scale.
After the great reset, many of us will need it to survive, although I suspect it will evolve into a form of neo-feudalism.