In line with what was pointed out here the other day about the "official definition" of "antisemitism," Arundhati Roy cannot honestly be accused of it because, as the fascist-nationalist Modi government in India is bringing false charges against her criticism of her own as well as many other governments. As I never have, she is not treating Israel in any other way than she treats other countries. If the IHRA "official" definition is an honest one, she can't be accused of "antisemitism." Though I doubt anyone will honor that trifling ass-covering part of the "official definition" because it is a definition whose drafting and adoption counts on the media and most People as being too lazy, ignorant and stupid to notice such things. Neither will they notice, I guess, her obvious care to use the word "zionist" where so many others would dishonestly or ignorantly or malignantly say "Jewish."
She says in under four minutes what others I've listened to have taken an hour or two to say.
I would quibble with one thing she said, accusing the Zionists in Israel of believing they are "the chosen People." First, and most importantly, that often misunderstood idea is not an idea of biological supremacy and privilege as it is generally understood by the ignorant, now. The idea was, from the time of its beginning in the Mosaic books, rather, a radical moral responsibility based in the acceptance of the many Commandments of God laid down in those books. Repeatedly, over and over again, throughout Scripture, any idea of "chosenness" was tied not to privilege but to doing justice to everyone, including the least among the Children of Israel, INCLUDING THE ALIENS WHO WERE LIVING AMONG THEM. I have no doubt that the secular zionists include many "Jewish" supremacists among them and that, now, under the perversion of that ideology, I'd guess heavily influenced by 19th century Darwinian notions, there are allegedly religious racists who preach even the most extreme Jewish supremacy. For now, and I hope foever, that kind of thing is less common among Jews I've encountered than various other perverted racist-nationalist-supremacist ideologies are among Christians.
As a matter of setting up a nation-state, Zionism is a racist ideology that is dedicated to the exact opposite of a number of the Laws of Judaism, born out of late European-Russian 19th century proto-fascist nationalism, a particularly bad time for any political ideology to be developed. Ironically and instructively one of the most potent forces in the modern and most deadly manifestations of what the Jew-haters would give the sciency name for their nationalistic, exclusive hatred of Jewis, "antisemitism," included a reaction to zionism. I think it was probably a vicious circle, zionism being a reaction to antisemitism and, as zionism started becoming a mass movement, a further incitement to hatred of Jews. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a Czarist fabrication whose penning and publication followed close on a Russian zionist conference, was probably inspired by zionism. It became and remains a mainstream of Nazism and neo-Nazism and, I would hazard a guess, the emoting that substitutes for the thinking of many a "Christian zionist" who anticipates either the mass conversion of Jews or their death.
"Antisemitism" is a word that has been distorted out of any honest use so I will, from now on call what I mean "hatred of Jews" and those who hate Jews the fittingly jarring term "Jew-haters." All hatreds should be named by jarring terms, not pseudo-scientific ones. "Antisemitism" is a word that will increasingly be tied "officially" to the protection of even the worst crimes of the zionists in Israel.
The IHRA "official definition" and the campaign to get it inserted into the law of the United States and other countries is a transparent campaign to get governments to enforce a ban on the criticism of the Israeli government and the voters who put those governments in office from the most justifiable criticism. I would like to know in what other instance is a foreign government given such protection by any government apart from the allies of dictatorships. That should forevermore destroy the usefulness of the term. The intentions of he incoming Trump II regime to use the IHRA difinition to target free speech in the media and universities and elsewhere should make it and that campaign entirely disreputable.
"Zionism" is another word that is covered with massive layers of often dishonest or, at least, ignorant usage. Zionism as a Jewish phenomenon was and to a large extent still is mostly a secular and even atheist phenomenon. As Rabbi Yakkove Shapiro and others have pointed out. The fascist, Likud leadership has always been dominated of such. They may be biological supremacists but they are not, in themselves, a manifestation of that idea, they are nationalists. The bizarrely associated "Christian" zionist phenomeon is a perverted heresy of "evangelical Christianity" (talk about terms that have been damaged by dishonest use) which is tied intimately to white supremacy, hatred of Jews and the heresy of "Christian" nationalism. The combination of American zionists and such "Christian" zionists have distorted our government's policy to the point where very reluctantly agree with Arundhati Roy that the Biden Administration can honestly be accused of, at the least, war crimes for supporting the Israeli invasion, genocide and imminent annexation of Gaza. I say that noting that Joe Biden has been the best American president since at least LBJ and very arguably has been a far more skilled master politician than even Johnson was. His administration being caught up in Israeli politics was, for me, the very last straw in the Democratic tradition of unquestioning support of what the zionist government of Israel does.
I think a careful consideration of what Roy says AND HOW SHE SAYS IT is in order and I might transcribe it if I have time to. What she says about the genocide in Gaza is what is important, I'm just pointing out the above so that can be concentrated on.
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