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PDF versionAnti-Semitic Stupidity
by Michael Sean Winters on Jul. 22, 2010
The website The American Catholic is always a little kookie. They have a bizarre post about the Klan and Progressivism that reads like cliff notes of a Glenn Beck special. But, they also have an article about U.S.-Israeli relations that includes this sentence: “Is the ultimate plan of the Israeli braintrust to find a rationale for one big war in order to ethnically cleanse most of the rest of the Palestinians into Jordan/Egypt/Lebanon et al?”
It is, arguably, the most repulsive sentence I have read all year. Suggesting that the Israeli government engages in ethnic cleansing is beyond the pale of kookie, and more than halfway to evil. While we have an obligation to call-out such outrageousness, there is no real arguing with someone who makes such a claim. As Barney Frank, that pro-Israel congressman said, better to argue with your dining room table.
I will share a story, however. Back in the early 1990s, I became very involved in both helping Bosnian refugees and in advocating for Western military intervention to stop the ethnic cleansing going on there. At the early rallies, it was always me, a Polish friend and members of local synagogues. That was it. If American Jews had not raised the alarm on behalf of the Muslims of Sarajevo, the alarm would not have been raised. I learned something powerful back then, that while everyone mouths the words “Never Forget” when they go to Auschwitz or Majdanek, it was Jews who actually did something to stop the ethnic cleansing.
The progressive hatred of the
The progressive hatred of the Jewish people and their embrace of the Muslim people is amazing to me. The Jewish people have endured centuries, nay millennia, of abuse, injury, persecution, oppression and slaughter, yet they have not lost their faith in a God who loves them and will always care for them.
Perhaps that is why the progressives hate them so. They cannot tolerate people who have faith in a power greater than the state. Perhaps if the Jewish people would become cynical and agnostic, the progressives would love them.
The anti-Israel blogs on
The anti-Israel blogs on "liberal" Catholic web sites are repulsive, too. Those by John Dear and Maureen Fiedler here and those by Peggy Steinfels on Commonweal are examples.
I'm not sure what exactly is
I'm not sure what exactly is kooky about pointing out that the KKK of the early 20th century had much in common ideologically with the Progressive movement. I know it doesn't fit your preconceived historical notions, but it has the misfortune (for you) of being true. What's odd about it is that you pair my post with one which you (I think accurately) assess as being borderline anti-Semitic. And the person who wrote it is someone who is a left-leaning (Progressive) Catholic. But yes, how odd to pair the KKK with the Progressive movement.
Progressive Christians
Progressive Christians embrace both Jews (many of whom are progressive) and Muslims.
Let me get this straight. You
Let me get this straight. You acknowledge that TAC's token progressive, Tim Shipe (a left-leaning Democrat), has a post that borders on the anti-semitic, but dismiss out of hand the possibility that a racist group like the Klan might have had progressive leanings?
I think there's a lot of
I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about the Progressive Movement. Good starting point:
http://www.progressiveliving.org/history/timeline/progressive_era/progre...
Winters is always talking about the "stupidity" of others. He should look in the mirror.
Mr. Winters is right about
Mr. Winters is right about Shipe's comments, but his comments about the Klan and Progressivism post are simply ridiculous. As a first order of business, comparing anyone to Glenn Beck should be reserved for circumstances in which the person in question is making laughably and obviously false claims about history and/or the current state of U.S. politics. It's not clear to me that anything in Zummo's post is inaccurate; the author has a phd in political science and is likely to be far more familiar with the development of political parties in the United States than Mr. Winters. Moreover, even if Mr. Winters is an expert on political theory and has a specific criticism of the post, he should state that objection for the benefit of his readers, rather than relying on a cheap guilt-by-association dodge. As it is, he appears to be rejecting historical facts on the grounds that they are uncongenial to his political pre-commitments.
The 20th century Klan was
The 20th century Klan was bi-partisan: http://www.iub.edu/~imaghist/for_teachers/mdrnprd/lstmp/Klan.html
The American Catholic is a
The American Catholic is a blog of nutcases and borderline fascists usually worth ignoring. Kudos, though, for pointing out how "kookie" (a timid description if you ask me) and "repulsive" (that's more like it) that blog is.
But please, Winters, pointing to THIS quote as that which drove you over the edge to point out their repulsiveness? And calling it "anti-semitic"? It is not anti-semitic to call Israeli policy for what it is.
You might also point out that most of the people who blog at that site take your support-Israel-at-all-costs approach, ignoring their crimes against humanity.
That Jews have been victims does not mean that Israel is incapable of victimizing others. Wake up.
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