“Indeed it is difficult for all other nations of the world to live in the presence of the Jews. It is irritating and most uncomfortable. The Jews embarrass the world as they have done things which are beyond the imaginable. They have become moral strangers since the day their forefather, Abraham, introduced the world to high ethical standards and to the fear of Heaven. They brought the world the Ten Commandments, which many nations prefer to defy. They violated the rules of history by staying alive, totally at odds with common sense and historical evidence. They outlived all their former enemies, including vast empires such as the Romans and the Greeks. They angered the world with their return to their homeland after 2000 years of exile and after the murder of six million of their brothers and sisters.

“They aggravated mankind by building, in the wink of an eye, a democratic State which others were not able to create in even hundreds of years. They built living monuments such as the duty to be holy and the privilege to serve one’s fellow men.

“They had their hands in every human progressive endeavor, whether in science, medicine, psychology or any other discipline, while totally out of proportion to their actual numbers. They gave the world the Bible and even their ’savior.’

“Jews taught the world not to accept the world as it is, but to transform it, yet only a few nations wanted to listen. Moreover, the Jews introduced the world to one God, yet only a minority wanted to draw the moral consequences. So the nations of the world realize that they would have been lost without the Jews… And while their subconscious tries to remind them of how much of Western civilization is framed in terms of concepts first articulated by the Jews, they do anything to suppress it.

“They deny that Jews remind them of a higher purpose of life and the need to be honorable, and do anything to escape its consequences. It is simply too much to handle for them, too embarrassing to admit, and above all, too difficult to live by.

“So the nations of the world decided once again to go out of ‘their’ way in order to find a stick to hit the Jews. The goal: to prove that Jews are as immoral and guilty of massacre and genocide as some of they themselves are.

“All this in order to hide and justify their own failure to even protest when six million Jews were brought to the slaughterhouses of Auschwitz and Dachau; so as to wipe out the moral conscience of which the Jews remind them, and they found a stick.

“Nothing could be more gratifying for them than to find the Jews in a struggle with another people (who are completely terrorized by their own leaders) against whom the Jews, against their best wishes, have to defend themselves in order to survive. With great satisfaction, the world allows and initiates the rewriting of history so as to fuel the rage of yet another people against the Jews. This in spite of the fact that the nations understand very well that peace between the parties could have come a long time ago, if only the Jews would have had a fair chance. Instead, they happily jumped on the wagon of hate so as to justify their jealousy of the Jews and their incompetence to deal with their own moral issues.

“When Jews look at the bizarre play taking place in The Hague, they can only smile as this artificial game once more proves how the world paradoxically admits the Jews uniqueness. It is in their need to undermine the Jews that they actually raise them.

“The study of history of Europe during the past centuries teaches us one uniform lesson: That the nations which received and in any way dealt fairly and mercifully with the Jew have prospered; and that the nations that have tortured and oppressed them have written out their own curse.”

———————-
I am writing this because I admire your site, and I recommended it to a Dylan-obsessed friend: a famous writer, and famous in particular as a left-liberal academic. Her response was much less temperate than mine, but you should realize that this is how your choice affects many people who would otherwise admire what you’ve done here: “Jeeezus, or should I say Jehovah — the Stockholm Dylanologist is blocking Israel and so proud of himself — fuck him.”

My sense is that Bob Dylan’s own response would be similar, frankly. It is in fact perverse to single out the greatest living Jewish poet for praise, while simultaneously singling out his homeland for damnation.

Comparisons with the SA apartheid boycott are inappropriate: that was directed against a ruling minority, not a nation itself.

I am impressed with your measured, open, and rational response. It was that that drove me to comment here (something I rarely do). You have succeeded in nurturing some worthwhile debate.

This is a truly creative way to raise debate over an issue which is so dire and acute. Both the israeli and the palestinian people deserve better than the current catastrophic situation created by far-right nationalists in the Israeli cabinet.

Of course, Hamas are, generally speaking, a bunch of religious fanatics, but that does NOT justify the way palestinians are being treated today!

“…What the Zionists refuse to acknowledge is that the place their mythology makes special for them, is also special to a lot of other folks based on other interpretations of the same myth and other forms of oral and written tradition as well…”

Clearly, not all Zionists manifest this refusal. The blanket assertion is false. You have tried to hold people to high standards of logical consistency and fact-based argument in this blog. I submit that Davidson deserves the same.

Also, the Zionist connection to Israel is not based solely on “mythology” but also on the reality of a continuous presence intermingled with periods of banishment, hostility, diaspora, etc. There are certainly many religious sorts who say that “it’s ours because God gave it to us.” But in total, the pro-Israel thrust rests on history and the UN partition. Not God.

Errors of commission and omission by Davidson.

Plus which, there is a reciprocal refusal by many on the other side. I do not want to drag you into the black hole of “reciprocity” and “why don’t you also…” again. That question has been asked and answered. I simply note that the issue seems to keep coming up.

“…Second, one can argue that just because other nations behave badly does not let the Israelis off the hook. After all, the Israelis now have the dubious distinction of running the longest post-WWII occupation in the world. There is no reason why boycott supporters should not start with the problem that has persisted longest and then work backwards…”

One can, and certainly SHOULD, argue that the misdeeds of others do not let Israel off the hook. We can agree that any pro-Israeli argument that “we can do it because they did it” is worthy of contempt.

But, the pro-Israel argument isn’t that Israel should be let off the hook because it is “no worse than some others”. Rather, the plea has been that the (seemingly) selective focus by the left on Israel is an illustration of why Israel feels that it does not have a fair world forum in which to operate. I am not actually making that argument myself at this time because it brings us back to the aforementioned black hole; I’m just correcting what I felt was an extremely sloppy characterization of the Zionist position by Davidson.

Also, while this may be the longest post-WWII occupation (I’ll assume it is for argument’s sake), I suspect that it’s not the longest post-WWII political injustice, generally; nor the most severe (depending on the definition and metric). Instead of starting at the front and working your way back, why not start at the top and work your way down?

But, whatever. It’s a person’s right to start wherever they want, as long as it’s an essentially decent starting place.

Which brings me back to you. You have said that you recognize bad behavior by both sides, yet feel that it is appropriate to use different tools for different situations. Therefore, Israel is boycotted and others are not. In your view, as I understand it, Israel is the party that is in power in the West Bank and Gaza, and so logically they must move first. If this is your view, then, while I don’t love it, it is sufficiently logically consistent for me and does not need to be defended. It rests on an specific assertion, but you’ve stated this assertion, and so anyone who wants to argue with you is free to evaluate your assertion and proceed from there.

Generally, things that are logically consistent are deemed to be free from bias. But, while you present your views in a consistent way, I cannot shake the feeling that there is a general bias in your posts and in Davidson’s article. I cannot get over the issue of selective focus. And that doesn’t make me a defender of everything Israel does. And it doesn’t make me incapable of criticizing Israel. And it doesn’t make me assume that you’re anti-semetic. It just makes me a little sad.

Israel is not perfect. No government or state is. But you are not boycotting the products of a state or a government. You are hypocritically guilty of the same type of “collective punishment” of people not involved with much less responsible for the policies that clearly bother many concerned for peace in the Middle East. Further you alienate the people most sympathetic to a political solution to the Palestinian issue. I have many Israeli friends. Most of them appreciate that the Palestinian people will reject violence only when they can replace it with hope, and therefore are supportive of a secure and responsible State of Palestine. I’ve yet to hear any Palestinian voices affirm the obverse. Perhaps they are afraid of reprisals from Hamas. I certainly would be if I were them. But even so, you betray a bias that exacerbates contempt for “the other” instead of helping to pave a road to peace.

I will miss the valuable content of this site, but nonetheless I will not be back until your misguided efforts are rescinded. I cannot in good conscious offer even the appearance of tacit support or approval of someone who creates obstacles to peace, all in the name of promoting peace. I wish you the opportunity to visit Israel and Palestine, and to see where thousands of rockets landed in the southern communities before Cast Lead was initiated; I wish for you to see the tunnels that smugglers have used to bring weapons—not butter, but just guns–into Gaza; to see how many Fatah supporters in Gaza are denied access to the tons of clearly non-military and non-dual usage goods that made it into the Strip via Israel each and every day of the blockade because they are not Hamas. I wish you the chance to see where the peace community actually does exist throughout Israel. In the meantime, I will find my Bob elsewhere.

as far as I remember Israel has already been down that road:
- Israel pulled out of Gaza, Gaza violence (rockets to south of Israel) only got worse. looks like the northern Ireland model does not work for the middle east.
- International community…are you serious? do you really think the UN will ask politely to stop firing rockets and Hamas will comply?
- go to war against military units & not against civilians, unfortunately (and I think you know this judging by your knowledge of the conflict) these military units are operating as civilians and out of civilian homes and institutes.
Complying with the suggested “code of ethics” basically deprives Israel of any right to self defense (was that the intention?).

also since you clearly acknowledge the numerous conflicts and wrongdoings around the world, could you share the reason you chose to fight this one?

i love this site and will continue to use and appreciate it…very much…i want everyone to have that open to them, regardless of what their politicos do

so i went to find a quote to support what i was trying to say, and see the lyrics to neighbourhood bully have been taken down?

wow…maybe i need to look at myself if that’s where i go for a quote

or maybe someone needs to take a better look at things

dylanchords inches one step closer towards foxnews…not close, but closer…fucking swell

Therefore, I must conclude that you are ant-semitic. Maybe not in the ‘Jews kill christian kids to make Matzos’ way, you just apply ’special’ standards when judging behaviour by jews and then ‘punish’ them when they don’t comply.

Both my parents are from European countries and had to live with this kind of treament by ‘non-antisemics’ like you.

Boycotting Israel ( only ) and saying your actions are not directed towrds jews is really ridicullos. Do yourself a favor and remove that comment from your boycott page. who are you kidding ( yourself maybe ? )

I want to build on your story about the bully and the kid.
However there is a bit of a back-story you’ve left out.
A generation ago, the bullies father was just a little kid looking for a nice sandbox in the playground. All of a sudden, every bully in school beat up on him and wanted to kill him by dunking his head in the toilet until he drowns. Somehow he managed to survive.
Now the weak kid had children and they are not weak.
And the children of the bullies are weak, but they have a memory of being strong and they want that power to wedgie and swerlie the new kid again…

Now, it’s afternoon recess and you came to see what’s going on…maybe you’re the school inspector…or some kind of parent run safety group…You see the “bullies” beating up the “weaker” kids. So you ban the bullies from using your website.
The problem is you weren’t paying attention during first recess when the “weak” kids built rockets and fired at the bullies.
and you don’t pay attention when the weak kids strap bombs to themselves and blow up the bully’s families…

Metaphors are fun, aren’t they?

I was talking to my fiend who made a great point – we all want to side with the underdog. It’s a visceral response. No-one wants like to see a stronger person picking on a weaker person. But sometimes that underdog is just an asshole and when the bully leaves him alone, he’s just going to stab him in the back laughing like a lunatic.

The point is that being an underdog does not provide a moral high ground or warrant support if their actions as an underdog are still wrong.

Moving on, what do you think about woman’s rights or Gay/Lesbian rights in Arab countries?
How about another hypothetical. So Israel goes back to the pre 6-day war borders, Gaza is run by a militant and terrorist group that has fundamentalist interpretations of Islam. IF (he says very very sarcastically) it turns out that the humanitarian crisis for women, gay and lesbians, or people of other religions comes through, like it has in other Arab countries, are you going to fight for their rights?

I know…I know, you have to pick your battles, and decided that fighting Israel, is the battle you picked…BUT, it’s pretty much the same people you’re fighting for…right? Half the Palestinian population…
Anyway, I was just wondering…

Thank you for reading this.