The Richmond, California City Council dabbles in foreign policy and Orwellian “virtue”-signaling
A California city has become the first in the US to pass a resolution condemning Israel — accusing the Jewish nation of committing “ethnic cleansing and collective punishment.”
The resolution passed by the Richmond City Council around 1 a.m. Wednesday states, in part, that Palestinians in Gaza “are currently facing a campaign of ethnic cleansing and collective punishment by the state of Israel.”
That “is considered a war crime under international law,” the resolution states.
It also calls for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the safe passage of substantial humanitarian aid to Gaza,” as well as an “end to Israeli apartheid and the occupation and blockade of Palestinian land by Israeli military forces.”
“The city of Richmond opposes all existing and future military aid to Israel,” it concludes, while attempting to express support for Jewish members of its community.
Seems to me that’s rather too delicate a needle to thread.
The meeting was apparently heated and contentious, and I wonder if the council’s vote is actually representative of the views of the majority of the population. My guess is that it’s not. I also wonder; why Richmond? It’s not a university town, nor does it seem to have a high proportion of Arab residents. Here is the roster of the council, and there is only one Middle Easterner, this woman.
Richmond is in the Bay area, but it’s certainly not one of the tony suburbs. It’s had a big crime problem for years, although that’s somewhat improved more recently. The population is predominantly Hispanic, but I’ve never connected that with support of the Arab countries on this issue, so I don’t think that provides a clue.
It’s not like anyone in power gives a hoot what the Richmond City Council thinks. But the passage of this resolution is an example of the cognitive and moral rot that’s set in, and it’s not surprising that this town is in bluer-than-blue California. It’s also not an accident that the language the council uses includes the pseudo-intellectual “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid” terms that obviously do not apply to the situation but which are favorites of the left. Israel’s citizenry is 20% Arab, for starters, and it’s the Arab states that do not have Jews anymore, and Hamas that explicitly calls for genocide of the Jews.
I could go on with reason after reason that such terms are absurd when used to condemn Israel, but it wouldn’t matter to those who spout them. This isn’t about logic; it’s about hate, and the hate is for Israel and the Jews.
[NOTE: I want to add the influence of none other than Jimmy Carter in the use of some of these buzzwords. Carter bears a fair amount of responsibility for the establishment of the mullahtocracy in Iran, but that hasn’t stopped him from being anti-Israel while trying to cloak his position in sanctimonious virtue-signaling. Back in 2006 he wrote a book entitled Palestine: Peace not Apartheid. What a guy:
Regarding the use of the word “Apartheid” in the title of his book, Carter has said:
“It’s not Israel. The book has nothing to do with what’s going on inside Israel which is a wonderful democracy, you know, where everyone has guaranteed equal rights and where, under the law, Arabs and Jews who are Israelis have the same privileges about Israel. That’s been most of the controversy because people assume it’s about Israel. It’s not.
“I’ve never alleged that the framework of apartheid existed within Israel at all, and that what does exist in the West Bank is based on trying to take Palestinian land and not on racism. So it was a very clear distinction.”
In remarks broadcast over radio, Carter claimed that Israel’s policies amounted to an apartheid worse than South Africa’s:
“When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the 200-or-so settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa.”
Fool and knave.]
And when that scorpion stings ’em in the backside… they’ll be so surprised but somehow feel they deserved it.
“This isn’t about logic; it’s about hate, and the hate is for Israel and the Jews.” Yes, indeed.
Rather than using the standard term “antisemitism”, this new period of persecution finds me being more direct or blunt and calling this out as “Jew hatred.”
It’s a better term to shame people who perhaps do or could think differently, and more congruently.
Thus, the Richmond city fathers and mothers are showing us “real Jew hatred.”
Anyone else disposed to my preferred plainspeak?
Israel really did carry out “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza strip. That was in 2005 when they forcibly removed all the Jews from the strip before handing control over to the Arabs.
bof:
Good point.
T J:
Yes, I think “anti-Semitism” can be used for a milder form. “Jew-hatred” is a more lethal form of the same animus.
The FreePress, Michael Oren, “A War Against the Jews”: https://www.thefp.com/p/this-isnt-a-war-against-israel
rtwt
I confess I’ve always had a problem with the term “anti-Semitism”. Semite comes from Shem, one of Noah’s 3 sons, who gave rise to a lot of descendents forming different nations, (including Eber from whom we get the term Hebrew, even though as a forebear of Abraham he gave rise to a lot more than the Jews).
Even Websters defines Semite as “a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Semite
So an anti-Semite should be one who hates Arabs too, among other peoples.
I’m happy to go with “Jew-haters” to describe these people.
I looked at a map yesterday, and realized that Richmond is adjacent to Berzerkly. That might have something to do with this foolishness.
Would it help if people knew that the term “anti-semite” and derivatives was coined by a Jewhater in order to clothe in a pseudo-academic garb this otherwise disgusting injustice? Maybe!
“And when that scorpion stings ’em in the backside… they’ll be so surprised but somehow feel they deserved it.” John Guilfoyle
Bullseye! From such as these are the dhimmi made.
Via CFP, these haters filling Grand Central Station will fit right in with Richmond, Ca.: https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1718027480420798700
Has the history of Israel since 1948 been erased from these peoples’ minds?
Have they forgotten about Pallywood? Or did they ever know?
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4420584,00.html
Have they forgotten about the amount of aid Gaza receives each year?
https://apnews.com/article/business-middle-east-israel-foreign-aid-gaza-strip-611b2b90c3a211f21185d59f4fae6a90
Have these people asked why the Hamas government and Palestinians don’t try to build a country that can stand on its own two feet? Or what’s stopping them?
Basically, Hamas and the Palestinians live only to destroy Israel. It’s been their goal since they fled the war in 1948.
Do these Jew haters ever ask themselves why a country (I use that term loosely) that lives on the dole, and depends on Israel for its fresh water, electricity, food, and fuel would attack Israel? Do they have any chance, any at all, of winning a kinetic war? Nope. Their only chance is to hope that the world will tun against Israel and do what they have been unable to do – defeat Israel.
That Hamas (and Iran) planned and executed this attack tells me this: They believe that the U.S. will not stand behind Israel. That the worldwide anti-Israel protests will do their work for them. That world opinion can be shaped to help them destroy Israel.
IMO, Hamas (and Iran) made a big mistake. It’s going to be horrendous, but Hamas is going down. And if a Republican POTUS is elected in 2024 Iran’s mullahs will become harmless old men.
Richmond has been a very tough town for years. Along with Oakland, it was an accommodating petri dish for the Black Panthers back in ’60’s-’70’s. For all their political defects, however, Berkeley and Oakland are still reasonably safe to drive during the day. Richmond: ABSOLUTELY NO WAY. Also important to remember is that San Quentin is just a few miles from Richmond, providing a source of political gangsters for local operatives every time Newsom or the Ninth Circuit release another 10-15,000 oppressed.
HH is a parody or a fool. Takes all kinds.
om:
HH is the sock puppet of a recurrent troll here.
neo:
One of the worst variants it appeared. The other two comments seemed a bit odd.
@ junior – The residents of “Berzerkly” have had more than a few jibes tossed at them here and elsewhere lately, but Steven Hayward notes that the current opprobrium may be undeserved.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/10/on-scene-at-the-pro-hamas-campus-walkout.php
More observations follow, with videos.
Steve does not speculate here about why this uncommon stance was taken at such an unlikely (for today’s academic world) location.
The sick sock puppetry returns. Try ss or kkk next jj?
@ sdferr – I have one quibble with Oren’s outstanding, passionate post, which is that he cites the lamentable history of Roman and European Christendom’s virulent anti-Jewish persecutions as being a factor in the pro-Hamas reactions of the Western press, academia, politicians, and others.
I do not deny the terrible things that have happened because many Christian leaders blamed Jews collectively for killing Christ, thus supposedly condemning their descendants in perpetuity to “justified” retribution.
Those teachings were always unrighteous and wrong.
However, I strongly doubt that any of the claimed rationales for those abhorrent beliefs animates today’s anti-Jewish Muslims or Western Leftists, especially the atheists.
Very few, if any, Christian churches hold them as doctrine any more, and some never did (individuals must answer for themselves).
RTWT anyway.
It’s important.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2001/04/did-the-jews-kill-jesus.html
https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html
“True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.”
https://www.gci.org/articles/did-the-jews-kill-jesus/
Grace Communion International
“The Jewish crowd did accept responsibility for the death of Jesus (Matthew 27:25), but there is no reason for us to accept the validity of their claim. They never had the authority to condemn their own children, and we must not act as if they did.”
https://www.deseret.com/2023/10/11/23911456/israel-hamas-american-christians-jews-evangelicals
However, I could be wrong about there being few or no anti-Jewish churches.
https://www.thenewneo.com/2023/10/27/you-know-that-hospital-that-supposedly-was-hit-by-israeli-fire-but-it-was-actually-a-palestinian-rocket-gone-awry/
Even so, the long statement Kate linked makes no reference to the historic doctrinal positions Oren rightly condemned.
I used to live in Richmond. The population ranges from extremely poor to pretty damned wealthy. There’s horrendous crime in some parts. Most of it is just working class.
Why did the city council decide to do that? Because no one pays attention to who they vote for. I think most people walk into voting booths and might as well roll dice. And the people who are most into running for office in places like that tend to be leftists — they know that a lot of voters don’t care and that is the easiest place to get elected.
sdferr, per your link on Michael Oren, “And who will be astonished when Diaspora Jews in increasing numbers say they feel more secure in embattled Israel than on the streets of London, Paris, or New York? …The war between Hamas and Israel, involving the largest and cruelest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, is a war against Jews everywhere.”
I suspect his point will lead to increased aliyah and the regathering of Jews in Israel. Hmmm.
Thanks for the citation, AesopFan, and you are right. I am not familiar with any Christian denomination of any size which teaches that Jews today are responsible for the mob outside Pilate’s palace two millennia ago. And clearly Pilate ordered the crucifixion, carried out by Roman soldiers.
However, leftist Christian groups, which includes now pretty much all of the old Protestant mainstream, have anti-Israel sentiments which come out of liberation theology and critical theory. They entirely accept the Palestinian propaganda re-writing of the history of the area. Any Lutherans here? The ELCA’s Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth Eaton, issued a statement which decried the “egregious acts of Hamas” but says “at the same time the ELCA denounces the indiscriminate retaliation of Israel against the Palestinian people, both Christian and Muslim…We must also call a thing a thing. The power exerted against all Palestinian people — through the occupation, the expansion of settlements and the escalating violence — must be called out as a root cause of what we are witnessing.”
https://elca.org/News-and-Events/8207?_ga=2.130849999.1594872155.1698495254-922958515.1698071780
Episcopalians on the whole don’t seem worth all the candle, that Henry Tudor put in the work for, but the Lutherans are intent on flooding the country with Moslem immigrants,
miguel, I think the Episcopal Church also has a “resettlement ministry” dealing with illegal immigrants. You know the federal government pays churches to do this. Business is business.
https://revolver.news/2023/10/this-is-so-fishy-and-darren-beattie-is-all-over-it/
Leo Strauss, Hillel Foundation at University of Chicago, Feb. 4, 1962: Why We Remain Jews, Part 1 of 2 (Lecture, 1:19:30)
Why We Remain Jews, Part 2 of 2 (Question period/discussion, 1:06:05)
I can’t understand why any high profile person in or out of government would publicly support extrajudicial killing lest some loon acts on “you first MF”.
It appears that a not insignificant fraction of the worlds population is ok with lying, cheating, stealing and murder as long as they get what they want.
It’s as if these clowns didn’t track what happened in the virtue-signaling “sanctuary” cities.