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| source: www.nytimes.com |
My good friend Vivian Shnaidman, author of Homicidal
Intent, posted a message on Facebook about anti-Semitism.
Vivian told an anecdote that occurred on an Ivy League
campus in the US. A Jewish woman was forced to answer for Israeli
"genocide" of Arab Muslims.
When I read this anecdote, I felt as if it could have
happened to me. On American campuses, I have been put on the spot and forced to
answer for Polish genocide against Jews. When I have tried to talk to the
people mouthing stereotypes – "You Poles are the world's worst
anti-Semites" – I generally discover that my accuser knows nothing of
Polish history, in the same way that Vivian's friend's accuser knew nothing of
Israel's history.
This is Political Correctness at work. Political
Correctness is, inter alia, a pecking order. It's a way of saying, "You
are Jewish [or Polish] and so you are lower than I. I will use virtue as a
means to put you down and to elevate myself."
Real virtue is not what is at stake. Fake, Politically
Correct virtue is what is at stake. Thus, pretend genocides – the pretend
Jewish genocide of Arab Muslims, and the pretend Polish Catholic genocide of
Jews – are used. Mind – I am not saying that the Holocaust never happened. It
did. It was a German, Nazi project. Not a Polish, Catholic one. Of course there
were Polish villains, but those villains are not representational of the Polish
nation or of Catholicism. They are not I, and I am not them.
Certainly I have never participated in a genocide, and
putting me on the spot at a university event, or putting a Jewish woman on the
spot at a university event, is not a real act of courage or virtue. It is one-ups-man-ship,
and that's what Political Correctness is really all about: I am better than
you.
Vivian's post is below:
***
I believe the current anti-Jewish, anti-Israel situation
is a result of mass propaganda and of the innate antisemitism of people of
non-Jewish descent that has pervaded history since time immemorial. Here is my
example.
Yesterday I heard about an incident at a faculty
"mixer" at our local Ivy League University. An Israeli acquaintance
of mine was invited, in the role of "attractive woman." (She reports
that the guest list included geniuses, millionaires, and attractive women, and
the seating was arranged in this order).
This woman was seated next to a[n] (I prefer
"a" but I am aware that some people do not pronounce the h) historian
(a professor - hence a "genius.")
That historian said to this Israeli woman, upon learning
she was Israeli: "How do you feel about the terrible genocide your country
is perpetrating against the Palestinians?"
This woman was shocked and essentially speechless. She
did not want to start a confrontation or draw attention to herself. The seating
plan was such that her husband (genius, but her genius) was seated elsewhere,
so she was all alone.
She mumbled something about getting his facts straight
and that there were no such thing as "Palestinians" before 1967, but
she was basically horrified that a HISTORIAN – someone with a coveted tenured
position at this world-famous university – was unaware of the history of the
little strip of land that in Biblical times through Roman times, and again in
modern times, we call "ISRAEL."
That historian was UNAWARE of the fact that the
Arabs/Muslims living in that area never had a self-government, never had a
political system, never had their own currency, and that genetic studies
indicate that many of them are actually of Turkish (Ottoman) descent.
That person was unaware of the first Aliyah, unaware that
Jews have always lived in Israel, unaware of the fact that the Arabs were
offered a separate state or to remain part of the new invented state of Jordan,
unaware that Jordan went to war with Israel in 1967 (along with Egypt, Syria,
and Lebanon) and LOST their territory fair and square. Unaware of all these
things – why – because the world hates and has always hated the Jews.
If we could map out anti-Jewish activity in Europe and
the middle east over the past 3000 years (and I'm sure someone has done this)
we would find that once a century something holocaust-like happens. The Nazis
were the first ones to have the technology to systematically exterminate Jews,
but think about today's technology – 70+ years more advanced. This is how it
starts – with invented history and blaming the Jews for things we have nothing
to do with.
One final anecdote (because I'm supposed to be writing
PSYCHIATRY FOR LAWYERS, not THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS): Right after Obama won the
first time in 2008, I was in court in my role of expert witness (nothing to do with
Jews or Muslims – a sex offender case). When I came in, everyone in the
courtroom was talking about how they were preparing their escape hatch from the
US just in case. One religious Jewish attorney was explaining how his wife was
Canadian so he was applying for a Canadian passport. The judge was talking
about retiring abroad and getting a new citizenship. One psychologist had an
Israeli passport.
All of us Jews who were aware of law and history and had
good educations (psychiatrists, psychologists, and lawyers) were well aware of
the fact that a guy who was raised Muslim until the age of 11 could not and
would not be a friend to the Jews or to Israel. The past six years I think have
borne this out. And for the Jews who have this fantasy that being anti-Israel
is not the same as being anti-Semitic, I will say only one thing: If you don't
think you're Jewish, ask your neighbors. Rant over.
***
By the way, I googled Vivian's claim about Turkish genes
and found this
And I am mindful that many Jews supported Obama, and
continue to support him.
So, Jews are the good guys in Polish-Jewish relations but the bad guys in Palestinian-Jewish relations.
ReplyDeleteLeftists often justify their political correctness construct in terms of power disparities. That is also why liberals tell us that there is no such thing as black racism, only white racism.
However, this leftist construct of power disparity is very much subjective and relative:
Imagine the power disparity of pre-WWII peasant Poles trying to open shops while in direct competition with Jews and their centuries of experience in commerce.
Imagine the power disparity of American Poles (mostly of peasant stock) trying to "get their message out" when in competition with American Jews and their centuries of experience (as traders) in influencing governments to do their bidding.
Finally, who cares about power disparity when it is Poles at the short end of the stick? Who shed any tears about the Big Powers turning Poland over to Communist subjugation after WWII?
Power disparities? I've never heard that one before. Thank You. I learned something new today.
DeleteEveryone loves the underdog? Is that how it works?
Well that explains a lot.
I always wondered why Poles are treated like that. I even had my own theory about demonisation of Poles by Americans.
So we had power? My illiterate peasant ancestors would be so happy, if they had known it.
Yes, side with the underdog--unless the underdog is a Pole.
DeleteBTW, this did not start with modern political correctness. Back in 1918, Poland was forced to adopt the so-called Minorities Treaty, which would have given expansive national rights to Jews. Poles balked at it, in part because the treaty would not force Germany to give its Polish minorities anywhere near the rights that the Jewish minority in Poland was supposedly entitled to.
Clearly, a double standard was involved even back then, and the underdog status of the Poles in Germany did not count.
Oh, yes. The Minorities Treaty. An epitome of hipocrisy. And a perfect example of what we in Poland call a "bear favor".
Deletehttp://pl.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bear%20favor
Was there any country in the West where Jews were allowed to be Jews, just Jews and nothing but Jews? Where they could freeze themselves in time in some shtetl? Of course not.
Western do-gooders would never tolerate such failures in their own countries.
I should have said this in the blog post.
ReplyDeleteI have seen what Vivian describes here.
When it comes to Jews being discussed within the context of anything Christian or Catholic or certainly Polish, The Christians / Catholics / Poles are evil evil evil and Jews are blameless helpless victims.
When it comes to Israel, Jews suddenly become all powerful Nazis and Muslims -- over a billion people -- become helpless victims of Jewish genocide.
This is how it works on college campuses among the PC.
If you have been reading me for a while, you know about a prof I had when I was a grad student who trashed Poland and championed Jews. In another setting, in the context of a discussion of Arab Muslims, suddenly Jews were the scum of the earth.
All very PC.
A victim in one moment, and a villain in another?
DeleteHere is how I understand this sudden change of opinion: cultural conditioning.
Poles are indigenous people in Poland. Jews originate from the Palestine. And Americans...well, it's "complicated".
People always take sides. There is no such thing like being neutral. And they side with those who are more "like them".
American world view (at least how I see it) is:
There are pilgrims from "Mayflower". And savage natives. Pilgrims bring civilisation. Savages...can kindly die from smallpox.
In Poland Jews were pilgrims. They could do no wrong.
In Israel they are natives. And suddeny they are the bad guys.
I will be grateful if someone proves me wrong.
Lukasz what do you mean by failures? I hope you don't mean that Shtetl Jews were failures. They were people just like the other people in Poland at the time.
ReplyDeleteDr Goska,
DeleteDo You think that my relatives in USA walk on streets dressed in polish folk costumes? They don't.
Do You think that they can't speak English? Or read and write in that language? They can.
When in Rome do as the Romans do.
As for those shtetl (hassidic) Jews- I don't deny them humanity.
I'm sure they were people. All of them. Good people even. Loved, loving.
But a lousy Poles.