, Harvard University Yiddish Professor Ruth Wisse has condemned ongoing attempts by international activists to set sail for Gaza, on what she calls a \u201ckill-the-Jews flotilla.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe purpose of the flotilla is to discredit the Israeli attempt to protect itself and to give Hamas a free hand amassing weapons to use against Israeli civilians.\u201d\u00a0 Wisse also forms a new type of \u2018Jewish solipsism,\u2019 saying \u201cIt should be called for what it is: a ‘kill-the-Jews flotilla. If it is called by its proper name, then it will be recognized for what it is.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHere is the Yiddish logic: label first,\u00a0then grasp accordingly. However, I would like to remind Wisse that as things stand in the Middle East, it is not the Flotilla peace activists\u00a0\u00a0or the democratically elected Hamas who kill. It is actually the Jewish State that is doing\u00a0the killing,\u00a0en masse, and \u00a0in the name of the Jewish people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Saviour of the West<\/h3>\n
But Israel is not just about Jewish interests, according to the Yiddish\u00a0 Professor, it has a far greater role. Israel is the \u201cfighting front line of what we used to call Western civilization, of the democratic free world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIt is nice to find a Yiddish professor being so openly \u2018nostalgic\u2019 about Western civilisation, \u00a0but I have to point out that Wisse is not familiar enough with the crucial philosophical distinction between Athens and Jerusalem: while Jerusalem stands for tribalism, chosen-ness and brutality,\u00a0 Athens represents the birth of the West, i.e. universalism, reason, Christianity\u00a0,\u00a0and ethical thinking (something that clearly is not reflected by the shameful behaviour of the\u00a0 Government in Athens this week).<\/span><\/p>\nWisse is either lying, misinformed, or deluding herself — Israel has nothing to do with Western thought or Western values; indeed, Israel and Jewish ideology are the total opposite of Western thought. At the most, Israel can, at times, be seen as an attempt to mimic aspects of Western thought and value systems. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMoreover, Israel is not a \u2018civilisation\u2019 \u00a0and it is also far from being an exemplary civilised society. \u00a0Israel \u00a0defines itself \u00a0as the Jewish State –and accordingly, Jews from Brooklyn enjoy rights that Palestinians from Jaffa, Lod, Acre, Ramle lack. For Israel to be a \u2018civilisation\u2019 then, it must first become a State Of Its Citizens. It must first accept the notion of civil law, and erase any traces of Jewish theocratic traits. \u00a0\u00a0Until that happens, Israel cannot be regarded as a civilisation, let alone ‘Western Civilisation’.<\/span> \u00a0<\/p>\nArab Spring<\/h3>\n
In discussing the Arab spring, Wisse says \u201cIf there’s one factor that I would keep my eye on in trying to assess whether the Arab world is moving forward toward democracy, toward internal reformation \u2013 or moving backward into greater repression\u2026\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\nLike the \u2018Progressive Jew\u2019, Wisse follows a trivial, binary structuralist model : she divides the world into \u2018progressive\u2019 and \u2018reactionary\u2019.\u00a0 Like the \u2018Progressive Jew\u2019, she somehow\u00a0locates herself and her brethren amongst ‘the chosen’ i.e. ‘the progressive’, those who \u2018move forward\u2019 .<\/span><\/p>\nClearly, Wisse, fails to acknowledge the obvious role of Islam in general, and in the current events in particular. \u00a0Islam is a call for justice and equality and it goes far beyond any judaeo-fied binary model. Islam actually integrates temporality — it looks forward while glimpsing backward, and vice-versa.<\/span><\/p>\nBut, make no mistake, Wisse also defines what moving \u2018forward\u2019\u00a0 may entail for the Arabs \u2013 \u201cthat one factor would be whether Arab leaders are able to accept the State of Israel without condition and without concern,\u201d said she. \u201cAs long as the Arab world uses Israel as a convenient excuse for not looking inward, for not undergoing its own reformation, for not undertaking its own improvements, those countries cannot improve.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSelf-Reflection<\/h3>\n
Isn\u2019t Wisse projecting here? In truth, isn\u2019t the time actually ripe for the Jewish scholars, Yiddish experts and Zionist leaders to look inward?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWisse represents, in fact, yet another \u00a0glimpse into Jewish identity politics, and the total lack of capacity to self -reflect. It would be far more helpful if the\u00a0 \u2018scholar\u2019 would stop her ranting for just a second, and ask herself\u00a0— how is it that Jews have consistently\u00a0been faced with firm opposition eventually,\u00a0wherever they go, and whatever they do?<\/span><\/p>\nRather than ‘blaming the Goyim’\u00a0time after time, it is surely about time for Jewish academics \u00a0and \u00a0scholars to\u00a0launch a true enterprise, driven by inward looking and genuine self-reflection.<\/span><\/p>\nRather than repeatedly suggesting \u2018what is wrong\u2019 with the Gentiles, again and again, they would surely be better advised to at least begin to consider the notion, once and for all, that something may actually be slightly problematic with Jewish ideology and culture itself.<\/span><\/p>\nSource\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harvard University Yiddish Professor Ruth Wisse’s condemnation of the Gaza flotilla reveals more than most Zionists will acknowledge. Gilad Atzmon explains <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29604"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29804,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29604\/revisions\/29804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}