For fear of the Jews
quote:
In short, the Holocaust has become a device for exempting Jews from normal human obligations. It has authorized them to bully and blackmail, to extort and oppress. This is all quite irrational, because even if six million Jews were murdered during World War II, it doesn’t follow that the survivors are entitled to commit the slightest injustice. If your father was stabbed in the street, that’s a pity, but it’s not an excuse for picking someone else’s pocket. In a peculiar way, the Holocaust story has promoted not only pity, but actual fear of the Jews. It has removed them from the universe of normal moral discourse. It has made them victims with nukes. It has made them even more dangerous than their enemies have always charged. It has given the world an Israel ruled by Ariel Sharon
There are huge problems with all of this Joe. In particullar you are not even specific about how the "Holocaust has become a device for exempting Jews from normal human obligations." As an example many Holocaust survivors have negatively critqued some Israeli action in the light of there own experieince. While I agree that the Holocaust does not justify injustice to others, I doubt that you will find many Jews who will say it does.
Some do, but to extend that to the point where it becomes a national/cultural/ethnic attribute is far fetched and bigoted.
As for the normal moral discourse many Zionists like Sharon have taken what is a very normal moral discourse based on national security, and fear of the other as a means of projecting imperial power, this is reprhensible, but in no way abnormal. It is in fact very normal. It is very much the discourse that the United States is engaged in today, the same moral discourse that drives the Russian occupation of Chechnya etc. To focus on it in such a way that it is exceptional is essentially racist.
All nationalism have there justifications. Zionism is simply one of many. Even in a distorted form Israel has in many ways tried taken to heart the lessons of the holocaust and apply them, although this has nothing to do with Likud or Sharon, but its past 'left-wing' rulers. The explicit enfranchisement of Arab-Israelis is an example of this, even though they are second class citizens in some ways, they endure no where near the opressioin experienced by black people under Apartheid. That said, this in no way excuses the Apartheid-like disenfranchisement of Palestinians on the WB and in Gaza city.
So you are right, Israel is a country of contradictions, but to somehow establish that, as a Jewish state it worse than any other nationalist-imperialist project and that that derives from its Jewishness is racist.
To suggest that the Holocaust is used as an excuse by all Jews to justify human rights abuse is deeply offensive.