I wonder why…
…the MSM scoured every Tea Party vigilantly for posters that exhibited any trace of racism and were disappointed to find almost none, and yet they seem to be mostly ignoring these seemingly commonplace anti-Semitic posters among the anti-Mubarak Egyptian demonstrators.
I think that was a rhetorical question.
[NOTE: See also this.]
Probably because everyone knows that the Egyptian people both pro and anti – Mubarak tend to be very anti-semetic? I mean, really, Neo, it’s not like pretty much every other article on this fails to mention Israel one way or the other. So it’s sort of like complaining about fish in water, and indeed, I would feel it was unfair if the MSM only focused on anti-jewish hate on one side without mentioning it for those on the other.
Meanwhile, in America, it’s considered a very bad thing to be racist or prejudiced, and, unlike Egypt, it can end someone’s poltical career, so of course both sides (but mostly liberals) use it as a weapon.
As for the TeaParty:
They disappoint me, because even though I feel some good can come from them insofar as they succeed in reforming the Republican party, I feel the honest average people in the movement don’t know just how screwed the nation really is. Thus we get a populist movement that isn’t really very populist in some ways, and even if they were to get everything they wanted (won’t happen, since the forces that corrupted the Dem and Repub parties are still very much ascendent) I feel they’d only take the country part of the way as to where it needs to go to have a chance of holding together in a few decades.
And yeah, screw the MSM : most of them did indeed hate on the Tea Party. On the other hand, progressives like those on Talk Left tend to get totally ignored by both the media and the political structure, and in some ways that is worse. The Tea Party can point to some accomplishments already. Most of the real progressive blogosphere regards the repeal of DADT as the first really progressive thing the Pres and congress have done.
That’s a real dog bites man story. Even French antisemitism is routine.
The MSM fails to note the anti-Semitic rhetoric coming from the likes of Code Pink, The Daily Kos, and everywhere hardcore leftists are found to congregate. Its not surprising they conveniently skip over the anti-Semitic rhetoric of the protesters in Egypt. Heck, Neo, they ignore the charters of Hamas and Hezbollah. Talk about turning a blind eye!
I realize your post was rhetorical and more than a bit tongue in cheek; yet this bias on the part of the MSM leads a large number of people who are content with superficial analysis and reporting to lack the barest clue of the situation’s possible consequences.
Brad says,
“I feel the honest average people in the movement don’t know just how screwed the nation is.”
From their words and deeds; I think we can conclude the entire Obama administration, at least 50% of congress, Ben Bernanke (this guy sits at the top of my list of the most dangerous officials in America), and 95% of all current and former graduates from Harvard and Yale should be included in your the list of people who don’t know just how screwed the nation is.
Brad says:
“So it’s sort of like complaining about fish in water. . . .”
That is the most absurd illogic I have ever heard.
So we should ignore the stoning of women and children because it’s legal in some countries; so we should ignore the hanging and beheading of gays because we know Islamists don’t like them anyway. After all, it’s like complaining about fish in water.
Sheesh!
T:
When something is taken as a given , it’s very easy to fail to report on it.
See HERE for example:
http://www.feministcritics.org/blog/2011/01/20/a-tale-of-two-atrocities-noh/
I’d like you to read that. I’d like you to notice JUST HOW EASY it is for ingrained prejudices to get overlooked in the shuffle of the news. In that case, it’s male victims.
In the present case it’s anti-jewish attitudes.
But honestly if they wanted to focus on anti -jewish attitudes among the Muslim Brotherhood or some of the people in the crowds, shouldn’t they mention the anti-jewish propaganda the Mubarak regime pacified the Egyptian people with?
At this point focusing on something that is like air or water in that country and applies to both sides is rather counterproductive until we know the direction of political change. I doubt any of the “negotiations” at this point have anything to do with Israel.
Stop calling them the MSM. Rather, they’re the MBM: Make Believe Media.
Suddenly, the problem comes into focus, doesn’t it?
Brad,
“When something is taken as a given , it’s very easy to fail to report on it.”
And thus, you make neoneocon’s point which you initially criticized.
The only important thing about present Egypt regime is its peace treaty with Israel. To keep it US pays 2 bln dollars every year to both parties, but in terms of money saved it worth it. If Suez canal stop function, which will happen in case any large-scale military conflict between Egypt and Israel, economic consequencies will be tremendous. So overlook anti-Israel slogans in Egypt protests is a blunder of cosmic proportions: this is not an issue of moral or decorum, but of primary geopolitic importance.
T:
No, I don’t. With all due respect to Neo, she seems to only worry about why the media hasn’t tried to tar ONLY the protesters with the anti-semitic brush. I don’t know what she hopes to gain by that, really at this point. It might be relevant if a hard line anti-fewish secularist or cleric takes over, though, but that is an “if”. But focusing only on the protesters?That would not be fair, and would be partisan of the media. The media, for whatever reason is mostly avoiding direct mention of anti-semitism in Egypt at all. It’s not a total blackout though, and like I said they are mentioning Israel it seems every other story. Everybody knows the Jews and Arabs have problems.
Sergey:
It really is all about the oil in that region. There are simply no known “super large” oil fields anywhere else to be discovered in the world unless one counts things such as shale rock and the Canadian Tar Sands, both of which have lower energy return versus energy of extraction, cost more to produce, and pollute more than regular oil drilling. This is one of the only things our ridiculously large carrier fleet is really good for, and one of the only reasons, that if *I* was in charge, I’d still keep a permanent force of at least 6 aircraft carriers.
After 62 years of 24/7 hate propaganda the absence of anti-Jewish hate propaganda would be news.
I wonder why……the MSM scoured every Tea Party vigilantly for posters that exhibited any trace of racism and were disappointed to find almost none, and yet they seem to be mostly ignoring these seemingly commonplace anti-Semitic posters among the anti-Mubarak Egyptian demonstrators..?
The same way they ignored the “string him up” cries directed at Clarence Thomas at a recent “Common Cause” rally.
The same way that Obama is more upset about Rush’s rehtoric than about DinnerJacket’s bloody hands.
The only enemy is the right wing, and as such the only one worth criticizing
Here’s a link to the video Gringo mentioned. I was going to add it anyway before I saw his comment.
“Progressive” Rallyists Call for Lynching of Clarence Thomas
You would first need to put on your Therapist hat.
What would you call it when they scream anti Semite when Sara Palin correctly uses the term “Blood Libel” and Glenn Beck exposes George Soros, while defending the greatest Anti Jew Blood Libel specialists in the world.
I wonder if they too fell for the most insane blood libel I have ever heard…….the Mossad Trained Shark that was on orders to only attack Muslims and Egyptian tourists while giving the “evil Jooz” a pass.
The leftists in the Media share the same enemies with the Islamists. US.
Brad: no, I’m not talking about just the protesters. I’m talking about the fact that (a) the protesters are considered pro-democracy heroes; much of the talk about them is so glowing, but no one points out the prevalence of unrepentant, unapologetic anti-Semitic images among them, and (b) if it is so prevalent and so acceptable, what does this say about Egyptian society as a whole, and how acceptable and normal anti-Semitism is, and (c) what does this say about the whole argument that these societies are merely anti-Zionist rather than anti-Semitic, and (d) what does it say about how strong the support for the Muslim Brotherhood might be among the pro-democracy contingent.
Didn’t those Jews spit on members of the Congressional Black Caucus?
The 2nd Cairo image of Hosni seems to resemble Golda Meir. Is it just me?
The left of course considers anti-semitism to be not racist but commendable.
Stalin, Hitler, Arafat, Khomeini, were all their icons and all were anti-semites in the extreme, and so are most of them.
Are they being anti-semitic, or are they just decrying a perceived closeness of Mubarak to Israel? Remember that the Star of David symbols is prominently displayed on the Israeli flag, and so they could seize on it as a symbol of ‘Israel”, and not necessarily of all Jews everywhere.
Actually it is kind of ironic that Israel now wants Mubarak to stay, because (according to reports I’ve read), it has been Mubarak who has been a prime sponsor of anti-semitism. Like all dictators, Mubarak needed to point to an external “enemy” to deflect criticism of his own failings, and anti-semitism came in handy for him. Natan Sharansky, in the Wall Street Journal op-ed, says very clearly that Israelis should embrace the anti-Mubarak protests.
Right, I’m supposed to believe that the majority of the movement to depose Mubarak are not next interested in finishing off Israel? I hope I am never naive…
“ac·qui·es·cence ( k w – s ns). n. 1. Passive assent or agreement without protest. 2. The state of being acquiescent. …”
Perfected democrat: Well, what do you make of Natan Sharansky’s op-ed piece?
I think it’s time to start ignoring Brad. He has been hijacking the comments section lately with his tendentious, insincere, sophistic posts.
Caroline Glick had a scorching editorial on this very subject; see the latest “Jewish World Review.”
She points out with her usual laserlike moral clarity that the Israelis aren’t excited about the Egyptian revolt because they’re all stone Jew-haters. That the mideast peace mess is all down to the moslems’ hatred of the Jews, and by extension Israel, and not the reverse.
Preaching to the choir, I know. But some of the most savage detractors of Israel are themselves Jewish. Kinda like some of the most vicious America-haters are themselves (notionally, at least) Americans.
Human nature never ceases to flabbergast me.
Click for Glick:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0211/glick020411.php3
It’s a hopeful prognosis, at least one can’t be suspicious of Sharansky’s motive. Fundamentalist moslems are culpably ruthless. There is nothing more important to every loyal moslem than their notion of religion, culture and responsibility. Submission, to sharia, is incumbent to its integrity; which implicitly, means they are tantamount to zombies; not soldiers, generically, who may have some vestige of personal discretion. When moslems collaborated with the nazis, they showed themselves to be pathological fools. After the nazis were finished with the Jews, they would continue to use the arabs only until they had no more use for them. One would have to be retarded to not recognize that inconvenient truth; digression about it would certainly be redundant, protest would be lame, ie oil, Fuhrer, oil, Fuhrer, oil…. A controlling majority acquiesced in Mubarak for over three decades. Saddam mass murdered, tortured, thieved and committed environmental atrocities (Greenpeace conspicuously docile) unchallenged by the left and most of the moslem world for several decades. The exception was Iran (a whole other discussion of course); not Chinese Communists, not Russians, not American liberals, definitely not Code Pink and company; what repulsive hypocrites.
The return by the remnant of Jews, the rebirth of Israel through the crucible of a 2000 year diaspora in a generally hostile world climaxed with the holocaust, coming from the camps straight to – this time at least – a fighting chance to (again) only survive in continuous war, again vastly outnumbered, against the same implacable enemies. WWII ended for everyone but Israel. The totalitarians, left or moslem, have to understand that their shame engendered dishonesty will not go unchallenged, until they can only prevail thru demographics. In the mean time…
HobMender I just read the Sharansky article (thanks for the lead). I read parts of his books (after the first chapters they are mainly fluff) and was struck by his analyses. The man is a genius and unlike most pundits should be taken seriously.
Someone who is also in the know is Fouad Ajami of John Hopkins. He attributes both the Tunisian and Egyptian revolts directly to Bush’s installation of a democracy in Iraq. (I still think not enough credit is being the internet).
Neo:
With the sole exception of your D, I’d say A through C don’t matter. Why? Because Egypt can’t directly hurt Israel anymore without MAD.
That being said, of course it’s reprehensible, but if we wanted to play that card, we’d have to explain why we spent 30 years not making a big deal about it when the government of Egypt used Israel as a scapegoat.
As for D, that depends on whether the Eqyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood comes to power, and just how ideological it is.
Every Jew feels by his guts that in some sense he/she in opposition to the whole world moral order. It is not easy to bear this understanding, so it is no wonder that some Jews try to escape this by distancing from their Jewishness in one way or other and internalising common view of gentiles. Essentially, this is Stockholm syndrom. For leftists this is to some extent mandated by ideological acceptance of One World worldview, which can not accept reality of nationhood, ethnicities and inherent differencies between human races and cultures, their non-equivalence in moral terms.
To have democracy, a nation must have functioning civil society first. I can not imagine how this is achievable without common trust outside one’s extended family. An Arab saying states: “I with my brothers against my cousins, I with my cousins against my neigbours, I with my neigbours against everybody else”. This tribalist psychology is the root cause of dysfunction of Arab society, and there is no political remedy against this malady. A deep societal transformation is needed before any transition to democracy can be possible in Arab world.
Nathan Sharansky, in my view, is somewhat delusional. He project his Jewish psychology on others and simply ignores profound differencies between Judeo-Christian moral and tribalist moral of those who are outside the moral world of Judaism and Christianity.
There is an unusually honest and sober analysis of Egypt situation in Daily Beast:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-04/egypt-protests-obamas-flip-flop-naive-media-on-extremists-and-more-fears/
Mubarak? Seems a view forming now is “better a devil you know, than a devil you don’t know.”
I believe the notion that if Islam would leave Israel alone, this would stop.
Free peoples, free trade around the world. Boy, I’m a dreamer, eh?
Brad:
With the sole exception of your D, I’d say A through C don’t matter. Why? Because Egypt can’t directly hurt Israel anymore without MAD
Egypt shares a border with Gaza. While there has been smuggling of rockets into Gaza over the years through tunnels between Egypt and Gaza, there has been SOME effort on the part of the Egyptian government to stop the flow. Evidence for the above is at least two fold: 1) some tunnels have been destroyed and 2) the rockets are smuggled through tunnels, not brought in overland.
With a wink wink nod nod government in place in Egypt, rockets will be openly imported en masse from Egypt into Gaza. The government of Egypt could be completely disarmed, but with the open importation of rockets et al from Egypt into Gaza, sooner or later there will be a conflagration in the Middle East.
As such, the attitudes towards Israel and Jews of those in power in the Egyptian government are very important: all A) through D).
Gringo:
Would not you agree that any direct participation or even guilty knowledge of such things would amount to an open declaration of war? It’s one thing to give ideological support (or even food for purely humanitarian aid) to the Palestinians, it’s another to openly or even covertly arm them.
“Would not you agree that any direct participation or even guilty knowledge of such things would amount to an open declaration of war? ”
I don’t think it will be hidden.
If Mubarak hangs on to power he may engage in more overt belligerence towards Israel to appease the masses.
Sergey,
Thanks for that link. It was a thoughtful and informed piece. Gelb mentioned rights that the protesters seek, and it struck me that no one ever mentions rights in connection with personal responsibility. If you want the right to have a say in government, then you have a responsibilty to say something constructive. If you want to get rid of government corruption, you have to stop being corrupt yourself.
“it struck me that no one ever mentions rights in connection with personal responsibility.”
Bingo, expat. “Rights” without responsibility are merely license. This applies not only in Egypt but here at home where people love to drone on about “rights” but responsibility doesn’t seem to be so popular. One of the reasons I parted with the Democrat party and the left was that for them the only people who were required to take responsibility for anything were their political opponents.
To expand on my last comment a bit: terrorists, criminals, drug addicts – someone “made” them do it. Usually Sarah Palin.
This absolutisation of rights is already present in the very notion of “human rights”. Every right historically aquired through concomitant rising the plank of public decency, personal responsibility and moral conscience is somehow declared as something everyone “must have”, however backward, primitive and irresponsible he is. But actualy building open democratic society is a very ambitious project, a lot of human capital is needed for its success. Obscurantist traditional societies simply do not generate enough of human capital, so they can not afford democracy. The same for inner city ghettos: poverty there is not the cause, but rather the effect of societal dysfunction.