How the corruption of Int'l human rights feeds terrorism...

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Orson, Jun 28, 2003.

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  1. Orson

    Orson New Member

    National Journal’s Jonathan Rauch weighs in on the growing corruption of so-called “human rights” groups by the virus of anti-Semitism. It’s world-wide and growing, and the immediate foreign policy danger for the US is in how this serves to protect the purveyors of terrorism from opposition, criticism, exposure, and their own people are further exploited.

    He writes: “It sabotages the core principle of civilization, namely that all humans are human. It teaches that no one need take responsibility or admit error as long as Jews are around. It foments instability and violence….” Where is the Left? Fomenting this, of course. Where is Tom Head? (As in “Who is John Galt?’)

    --Orson

    “Phyllis Kaminsky…recently returned from representing the United States as a delegate to the United Nations' 59th Human Rights Commission. Israel-bashing, she found, was so common as to be ‘part of the environment.’ Moreover, ‘it's almost like a straw man for attacking the West. You attack Jews who are supported by the West, instead of attacking the West directly.’ We Americans are all Jews now.

    “Local hate is more than bad enough, but the effects of anti-Semitism are global. Anti-Semitism props up tyrants, from Hitler to Saddam, by giving them the enemies they need. It sabotages the core principle of civilization, namely that all humans are human. It teaches that no one need take responsibility or admit error as long as Jews are around. It foments instability and violence, not only within borders but across them. Think of anti-Semitism as a kind of social virus that, like AIDS, works not by killing its victims directly, but by undermining their resistance to other ailments: despotism, irresponsibility, cruelty, mania.

    “Anti-Semitism is, in short, not a derivative nuisance but a fundamental foreign-policy problem in its own right…. What [ought to happen] would be for America and like-minded countries to meet the problem head-on -- say, by calling on the United Nations to launch a global offensive to eradicate anti-Semitism.

    “The United Nations? Am I kidding? For decades, the U.N., like a man with a gnawing brain disease, has been obsessed with Israel. In U.N. land, there are only two human-rights abusers, Israel and -- far behind, in feeble second place -- the whole rest of the planet. Israel comes in for denunciation after denunciation, resolution after resolution, while depredations in other countries are treated as unmentionable. Most of the world stands by as delegates speak of "Zionist Nazism" and accuse Israel of injecting Palestinian children with HIV. At the Human Rights Commission, America had to fight tooth and nail to include anti-Semitism in a declaration against religious intolerance. One resolution endorsed the legitimacy of resistance against ‘foreign occupation’ (read: Israel in the West Bank and Gaza) ‘by all available means’ (read: suicide bombing).

    “…. Seven decades after Hitler came to power, we still take anti-Semitism less seriously than it takes us.”
    http://nationaljournal.com/rauch.htm#
     
  2. Tom Head

    Tom Head New Member

    As I said in our previous discussion, I will not respond to antisemitism (one form of bigotry) with across-the-board hatred of "the Left" and "the Human Rights Movement" (another form of bigotry). I will also repeat myself by arguing, once again, that criticism of the Sharon administration (which is represented both within and outside of Israeli politics) is not necessarily criticism of the right of Israel to exist (which is usually antisemitic in character). Sharon is not an infallible god; he doesn't claim to be, and he shouldn't be treated like one. Criticism of Prime Minister Sharon's policies does not always constitute antisemitism, any more than criticism of President Mbeki's policies in South Africa would constitute anti-black racism.

    There is more to political discourse, as far as I'm concerned, than hatred of various identifiable groups of people. If that's all you're interested in, then I humbly ask you to keep my name out of this muck so that I'm not placed in a position where I have to respond to it.

    Thank you.


    Cheers,
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 28, 2003
  3. Tom Head

    Tom Head New Member

    I should add that my previous post is in no way a defense of the individual statements you're criticizing. Some of them do indicate that a number of individual human beings within the human rights movement may hold political beliefs that could be characterized as antisemitic, or are at least anti-U.S. or pro-Palestinian to such an extreme degree as to make Israel into an unfair target. This is not a new problem; remember the Eichmann-Argentina situation, and the resulting U.N. censure? But this does not indicate that the entire United Nations, or the entire human rights movement, or the Left, or the entire nation of France, could be reasonably characterized as antisemitic. You're using bigot's logic--finding objectionable individuals within a group, and then applying their objectionable characteristics to the entire group. As someone who theoretically cares about antisemitism (though the one time someone posted antisemitic myths here it was me, and not you, who responded), you should be more aware of how it works.


    Cheers,
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 28, 2003
  4. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member

    Bigotry is aside from political belief. I think you're seeing a certain amount of gloating over leftist bigotry for the fact of bigotry having been long termed a rightist trait.

    I don't believe there exists any political right as an opposite of political left but that is another matter.
     

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