As if it was not enough that the pages of ‘Comment is Free’ featured last week an article by the noxious Antony Lerman essentially telling us that no Jews is no big deal, to drive the point home, the Guardian editors unleashed Dimi Reider from its arsenal of ‘useful idiots’ with an article entitled Mixed Messages on Jewish Marriage.
The pretext this time was an advertisement by the Jewish Agency that sought to stem the tide of Jewish assimilation. According to Reider, “[i]nstead of reaching out in dialogue, the ad attacks millions of people who decided to share their lives with a Jew.”
I saw the ad and frankly don’t see what all the fuss is about – its a well known fact that assimilation rates in the US (the largest diaspora community) stand at approximately 50% and its effects on Jewish continuity are devastating.
As Yaacov Lozowick aptly pointed out
“if you understand Hebrew you may agree that it doesn’t say much of what its detractors say it says. But that, of course, is standard: most reportage about Israel is non-factual, so why should this be any different?”
Anyway, the crux of the Dhimmi piece ends on this note which forms the thrust of his meandering article:
“It’s time for young Jews living abroad to proudly state that whether they are supportive or critical of Israel, they don’t have to be Israeli to be Jewish, and they don’t need Israel to tell them how to be Jewish. Moreover, it needs to be said – loud and clear – that while there is nothing wrong with seeking a partner who shares your heritage or faith, there is absolutely nothing wrong, and certainly nothing self-destructive, in marrying someone outside your community.”
Lets ponder on that for a moment. In essence what Reider is really saying is that Zionism should not form part of the Jewish identity, and if that was not destructive enough to the Jewish people, Jews should not shy away from assimilating into non-existence.
What is striking here is that most articles on CiF pick up one of those two themes but here, not missing a beat, we have both rolled into one: not only should the Jewish state disappear into non-existence but so should the Jewish people.
So what kind of reactions do you think there were in the comment thread to the Jewish Agency’s attempts to prevent assimilation?
Well there’s this from AzuraTheBlueDevil:
16 Sep 09, 4:53pm
It’s racism, pure and simple.
And then there is this from MilesSmiles:
16 Sep 09, 5:50pm
I would be happy for my son or daughter to marry a person of Jewish background, provided they were not expected to convert, but I’m told that many Jewish parents think this would be a disaster and even, in extreme cases, disown their children
That’s the dirty little secret. There’s a lot of racism there and it is never confronted.
LibertarianSW joins the fray with this gem:
16 Sep 09, 8:00pm
The Torah is clear: No marriage with Gentiles ……
And there’s this from RfSS (which is the only one deleted out of the collection above) (hat tip AKUS for posting on CiF Watch)
17 Sep 09, 2:06am
I’m getting sooo fed up with this whole jew-thing, day in, day out, always these jews.
Well RfSS may actually have a point. But who have we to blame? Ah well you need not look any further than the Dhimmi thread where you have, yes you guessed it, our flavor of the month good old Brian Whitaker trying desperately to prove that the Guardian is not obsessive about the Jooos by citing the following stats:
16 Sep 09, 6:02pm Cif Middle East article count:
Iraq 1,708
Israel 1,496
Iran 865
Afghanistan 654
Lebanon 285
Syria 236
Egypt 166
Saudi 93
Libya 57
There’s a Gaza section with 348 articles but as far as I can see most of them are tagged “Israel” too.
This is an absolutely staggering statistic – approximately one quarter of articles on the Middle East are about Israel according to Whitaker’s own self-admission. Yet Israel has a population that consitutes approximately 2% of the entire Middle East and is but one of 16 countries in that region, and this does not even factor in countries in the “Greater Middle East” such as Libya which Whitaker includes in his stats above.
Of course, as SergioBramsole notes “[t]his does not tell the whole story… Israel-related pieces on CiF get on average 200-300 “comments”, and 9 in 10 or thereabout have “negative” connotations.”
Well negative connotations is putting it rather mildly but I’m sure that if SergioBramsole had used stronger language, it would have certainly earned him a deletion.
