36 Comments
Everyone’s favorite Jewish affairs journal The Current just released its Spring issue, and the Zionist focus has us feeling like the most beleaguered of the Brady Bunch children.
The Current’s Editor-in-Chief feels the Columbia/Barnard Hillel needs to support Israel more.
Classical Zionism is so five minutes ago.
Inequality even in model Israeli towns.
Let’s just rock it out and relax.
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36 Comments
@Ideological Anti-Semitism I’m sick of these Leftists thinking that they can showcase a few token Jews like trained ponies and then feel empowered to spew whatever anti-Israel bullshit they think is warranted.
Criticizing individual Israeli policies (like the operation in Gaza) is legitimate, but calling for the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel is not. By the vociferousness of this debate, one would think that the Jews were trying to take of the entire Middle East – in reality, we are talking about a piece of land smaller than the state of New Jersey.
In 1947, the UN drew up a partition plan that would have created an Arab and a Jewish state in the holy land. The Jews accepted it while the Arabs rejected it and proceeded to invade Israel with 7 Arab armies (that’s a historical fact). The Arab countries could have absorbed the Palestinian refugees just like Israel absorbed the ~1 million Jewish refugees from the Arab world, but they didn’t, choosing instead to create the Palestinians as a permanent refugee population, in order to give nutjobs like the people on this comment page reasons to bash Israel.
Anti-semitism refers to denying Jews equal rights in a community. In the past, this occurred to individual Jews in individual communities, but now it is happening to the collective Jew (Israel), in the international community. I can’t think of any other state in the world that has its right to exist constantly called into question like Israel. Where are these left wing protesters when Sudan murders 400,000 of its own people? Where were they during the reign of the Taliban in Afghanistan (actually, many of them now support the Taliban).
And, as one last point, you can claim that Israel is occupying Arab land unjustly, but take a look out your fucking window and ask yourself what country you are in? If you are in the US, then guess what, you are guilty of the same crime, and by your logic, America has as little right to exist as Israel.
@I hope you aren’t a CU student. This post is so flawed and has holes you could drive a Mack truck through. If you are some jackass Zionist from a lesser school then I feel much better because one couldn’t expect much better from you anyways. However, if you are going to hold a CU diploma then you are an academic failure. Its not ideological anti-semitism. Its called Israel and its policies towards its neighborhood are a liability to the well being of the U.S., destroy good will towards my beloved country, and severely constrain our ability to maneuver in the international system. I am not saying Israel shoudn’t exist, I’m saying we need to cut it loose and let it fend for itself. If this happened it would soon realize that it can’t act in the manner it has over the past several decades. Its like having the friend that gets rip-roaring drunk at a party/bar and then gets surly and goes looking for a fight. I love ya man, but if you’re going to act like that you’re on your own and I’m not going to go down with you if you get your ass beat.
@pffft Current again shows itself to be the mouth piece of zionism and not simply the “journal of contemporary politics, culture, and jewish affairs” (there is a specific set of politics that are being described.
It’s obvious why Hillel didn’t support the zionist rally, they are inclusive and aren’t as naive as the editor of the current to think that all american jews support Israel in as blind a faith.
The people that run the current are the most counter-productive types of people. “we just want peace! but peace has to be on our terms and nobody elses, i don’t understand why you don’t get it!!”. Columbia Current- piece of shit magazine.
@umm did you actually read any of the articles in the latest issues, or just the editorial? Do I even need to ask that?
@Anonymous These non-Columbian hate posts are way less fun than the discussion of big D’s.
@some of us are on spring break. Why would people that do not go to Columbia read bwog?
@I think this guy really hopes that Columbia students are beyond this kind of bullshit. So do I, actually…
@Anonymous Then at least include Jewish boys. The bulk of the gay ones here meet so many standards of the upwardly-mobile Homosexual-American. Handsome Sephardi or Ashkenazi features, pride of education and studiousness, big ol’ D’s– fantastic.
@this is not a political debate. it’s the inability to empathize with human suffering. how can you side with a government that has placed a blockade on 4 million people? the israeli government is refusing them access to electricity, to roads, basic commodities… the people are living as refugees in their own homes.
@Anonymous You know… because of existential threats. Everyone everywhere being antisemitic. God’s chosen people. Derp de derp.
@yawn Let’s return to discussing Jewish girls
@well I don’t think you are using this word correctly.
@What? Inconceivable!
@Anonymous ‘Derp’? Or ‘existential’? Both seem fine.
@curious So I take it that you empathized with the Iraqis in Iraqi Freedom (perhaps I don’t have to ask on this one) and Desert Fox (you probably weren’t very eloquent during Desert Storm), and during the decade long, sanctions regime enforced by the Bush and Clinton administrations? I take it that you also empathized with the Serbs during the NATO bombing raids?
@Once upon a time, the comments on this website in matters pertaining to the middle east used to be of a decidedly liberal nature, rampant anti-Israel sentiment aside. Now unabashed bigotry is the new fashion. One could not distinguish this particular thread, for example, from any thread in any news forum frequented by irate, decidedly unintelligent, middle-American idiots. Take the threads initiated by Jack Cafferty’s comments at cnn’s website for example. Hardly distinguishable from the above.
@Anonymous jewish girls are hot. big perky tits and nice asses. plus in my experience they like giving head and cuddling after and are smart and usually have a good sense of humor. also it doesnt hurt that their daddys are rich. means you gotta pay for less shit.
@And that's The Word.
@Really To each their own, but I would challenge you on the words “hot” and “perky.” Hot on the basis that Jewish girls tend to be cute, not hot (I’m actually a bigger fan of cute). Perky? Not at all from my experiences. Yes, I think Jewish girls tend to be ‘ample’ but they aren’t magically perky at all. Just a caveat before I get the flamestrike called down on me, but I am Jewish so…
@Anonymous point well taken. i suppose cute is more accurate. however i will challenge you on perky. also nothing against orthodox girls, but the ‘regular’ jewish girls on campus just have like this aura about them. they always clean up nice and seem to give a shit about how they look which is a welcome surprise in a sea of sweatpants. maybe its that im from long island and miss home (i’m also jewish), but it seems that jewish girls, their tits, and their perfectly round asses have found their way to columbia.
@should've gone to barnard this is so wrong (as in disturbing, not necessarily as in false) that it’s actually enjoyable.
@BWOG! We’ve talked about my separation anxiety in the past. Please don’t ever abandon me again like you did these past few days. I love you enough that I won’t judge you if you’re not changing very often over break (none of us are…it’s vacation!) But you have to at least show face, Bwog. Please. Never again.
@3 points 1. The Gaza War was detrimental to US policy abroad. Whatever goodwill America had gained in the Middle East and the Muslim world at large with the election of Obama was lost because of its refusal to condemn Israel’s actions.
The brutality of Israel’s actions in Gaza (whatever justifications you might have for it) can only serve to radicalize the Muslim population, and in that sense the war made America less safe.
This is the reality that American Jews seem to blissfully ignore – that Israel’s actions are often counter-productive to America’s agenda, but they are allowed to go unchecked because of unethical influence like that of AIPAC. I would like to see at least an acknowledgment of this reality from the Jewish community, instead of feeding me the usual bullshit propaganda about sharing the same ideological values and therefore jerking each other off unconditionally. If America is trying to promote moderation, freedom of speech/the press, respect for the Geneva conventions and international treaties, its support of Israel (and in particular the recent war) damages its credibility severely.
2. Do most supporters of the Gaza war truly believe that there wasn’t at least some political motivation to it? It was instigated during the last days of the Bush presidency and soon before the Israeli elections. Surely you must acknowledge that any arguments of the morality of that war are at least slightly motivated by political opportunism?
3. To #6: No one supports the lobbies you cited. Who actually likes the influence of the Oil lobby? I’m glad you accept that AIPAC is on the same plane as them. And well done – Saudi Arabia, Libya and Sudan? Are they the only countries who spoke out against Israel? In a similar vein, nice of you to claim that because poster 1 is a dick, that all opponents of Israel’s actions do so because they hate jews. If the level of discourse in the US about the Palestinian question was half as balanced and nuanced as it is in Israel itself, it would be a welcome change.
@Anyway, in response to the suggestion that there was a political dimension to the Gaza war, I believe I am inclined to concur. A dovish government which had long avoided a military response to the continuing slide toward anarchy in the Gaza strip decided, when faced with imminent elections and the news of a marked increase in the range and lethality of paramilitary rocket fire, to do something about it. It was long overdue, and therefore unprovoked and unfairly aggressive in the forgetful minds of the war-weary cosmopolitan intelligentsia, but not unjustified.
@dear dear bwog, epic fail for you WHY THE HELL were you down this entire week? I couldn’t get my bwog fix and now I’ve fathered three children
@dear bwog http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/11293
@and ASU also
@..... http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSLJ974036
@#1 has a point It is fucked up that a group like AIPAC is allowed to exist and have so much power. The notion that there should be a lobby (Israeli or otherwise) advocating for the interests of another country is totally fucked. The truth is, many Israel-advocates have yet to face up to a difficult question: if you had to choose between America’s interests and Israel’s interests, which would you choose? Wars like the recent one in Gaza only harmed America’s standing in the world, yet was vigorously advocated for by the Jewish community here.
@Not Really 1) There are tons of groups that support other countries. Have you seen the Mexican flags draped over alma mater? Is anyone questioning whether Mexicans are loyal to the United States? I think these McCarthyite tests of loyalty are absurd, and especially absurd if they aren’t applied to every group on campus equally.
2)I agree that lobbies are, in general, sort of fucked up, but they’re also sort of useful because politicians can’t actually learn everything about every issue on their own.
That said, I think it’s incredibly wrong and unfair to single out AIPAC over all other lobbies and say that they have *so* much power. Do you have any idea how powerful the oil lobby is? Have you seen the pictures of Bush with the Saudi Royal Family? How about the agriculture lobby? The farm bill is corrupt beyond belief. I don’t think you can say that AIPAC is somehow controlling US foreign policy any more than are the Saudis or the Chinese. It’s absolutely insane how much hate is shoveled towards Israel, and as evidenced by poster 1, a huge part of Israel’s detractors are just in it because they really, really hate Jews.
Furthermore, the Gaza war was ENTIRELY justified so excuse me if I don’t give a flying fuck what Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya think about the US. This is not an issue of AIPAC controlling America, but of common sense and decency prevailing. You fire rockets into a country, you get carpet-bombed, end of story.
Anyways, I’m done
@Anonymous You’re kind of abominable.
@What I don't get Supporters of the Gaza war always cite the “what country would stand idly by while rockets are launched against it” question to shore up their position. It’s a fair question, and of course, no country would stand for that, and it’s ample casus belli.
The problem is that if you’re interested in things getting better, you have to think beyond the next few weeks. What is the long-term benefit to Israel from the Gaza war? Nothing. In fact, the long-term harm is massive. The war easily produced thousands more Palestinians willing to die fighting Israel. And that helps no one.
The point is that even if you have justification for war, war is not always the best option.
@Proportion? “It’s absolutely insane how much hate is shoveled towards Israel, and as evidenced by poster 1, a huge part of Israel’s detractors are just in it because they really, really hate Jews.”
That isn’t remotely close to what #1 said. Accusations of antisemitism no longer have meaning since they are stuck on anyone who questions Israel. Please stop hatemongering.
@Surfin' UWS I feel like I should be offended by this picture.
I’m not but I should be.
Someone will be, that’s for sure.
@Fuck Zionists If you care so fucking much about Israel then move there. Please stop trying constrain the foreign policy of my beloved country with the whims of a place you have only been to on your dog and pony show “Birth Right” trip. If you are an American then the concerns of America should come first. If you want to be Israeli then more power to you, but please move there. It is utter bullshit that we allow people to retain their American citizenship after serving in the military under another flag. We do this for no one else except Israel and it needs to stop.
@Fuck you, asshole Ahh, the true face of “Anti-Zionism” reveals itself yet again. If I’d accuse you of anti-Semitism (something which I almost never do), I know you’d immediately scream that anti-Israel does not mean anti-Jew, but in your “Birth Right” comment you clearly equate the two.
And for the record, you’re full of shit regarding the IDF + US Citizenship special treatment. I looked it up. http://www.richw.org/dualcit/faq.html
Oh, and lastly, Birthright isn’t a dog and pony show. It’s an awesome trip, and Israel’s an awesome country.