The Forward: Richard Spencer Might Be The Worst Person In America. But He’s Right About Israel

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The Forward, formerly The Jewish Daily Forward, is an American magazine published monthly in New York City for a Jewish-American audience. Now they published an article which sparked controversy among American Jews. The write-up defends the thesis that white nationalist Richard Spencer's description of Israel is accurate. Do you think the author has a point? Can you understand why some Jews feel the article is slanderous? Please avoid ant-semitism and trolling.

Richard Spencer Might Be The Worst Person In America. But He’s Right About Israel

The images of Nazis and white supremacists marching in the streets of Charlottesville with torches chanting “blood and soil” shook me to my core. But so did something else that happened this week. In the aftermath of these acts of blatant racism and anti-Semitism, one of the march’s leaders, Richard Spencer, was invited onto Israeli TV. His words were chilling, but not for the reason I expected. The Israeli TV host asked Spencer how he, a Jew, should feel about Spencer’s platform. What Spencer said was shocking:

“As an Israeli citizen, someone who understands your identity, who has a sense of nationhood and peoplehood and history and experience of the Jewish people, you should respect someone like me,” Spencer said. “I care about my people. I want us to have a secure homeland for us and ourselves, just like you want a secure homeland in Israel.” He told the Israeli host that he sees himself as “a white Zionist.”

This isn’t the first time Spencer has compared his disturbing white nationalist vision to the Zionist project. A few months ago, Spencer stunned a rabbi at an event in Texas when he said: “Do you really want radical inclusion into the State of Israel? And by that I mean radical inclusion. Maybe all of the Middle East could go move into Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Would you really want that?”

The rabbi didn’t have an answer and he’s not the only one. This is what’s so chilling about Spencer’s comparison of white supremacy to Israel – not its anti-Semitism but the kernel of truth at its core. Richard Spencer, whose racist views are rightfully abhorred by the majority of the Jewish community, is holding a mirror up to Zionism and the reflection isn’t pretty.

Now, of course, the comparison is not literally true. For starters, we Jews have a recent history in which we really could have used a country willing to stand up for us. That’s the historical rationale for establishing a Jewish state and that distinguishes us fundamentally from white nationalists. White nationalists in the U.S. are not facing any kind of discrimination whatsoever, despite their belief that they are. But still, there are ways in which Spencer’s description of Israel hits a little too close to home.

Looking at Israel today, we can see a state premised on the privileging of one group, and all too often perpetuating the erasure and displacement of another. We also see an obsession with demographics and the maintenance of an ethnic majority.

Then you have the demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, the state sanctioning of Jewish settlers who seize Palestinian homes in Hebron, and the policy of seizing the property of “present absentees” after Palestinians were displaced during the war to establish the state of Israel are just some examples.

Then there’s the discrimination faced by Palestinian citizens of Israel (who should ostensibly have the same rights as Jewish Israelis), Mizrahi and Ethiopian Jews, and African refugees seeking asylum.

Many of us see these policies as alarming violations of human and civil rights, indeed, of our Jewish values. And the proof is in the pudding: Richard Spencer sees this as inspiration for his white nationalist vision. But we don’t have to rely on Richard Spencer to tell us that there are other disturbing places of intersection. There is a disturbing alliance between Zionists and white nationalists in the White House these days, and it doesn’t come from nowhere. There is a shared bedrock of anxiety about demographics and racist and Islamophobic fear of “Arabs” that goes hand in hand with both worldviews.

And just like there are fascists marching the streets of America, there are fascists marching the streets of Israel beating up leftists. The alt-right are not the only ones being vile online, either. My friends report that they regularly receive death threats as a consequence of their activism. During the Israeli assault on Gaza in the summer of 2014, leftist Israeli friends who opposed the war reported being chased by fascist mobs on the streets of Jerusalem.

Even ex-prime minister Ehud Barak said this week that the events in Charlottesville reminded him of fascism in Israel. He cited the example of Lehava, an anti-miscegenation gang that frequently attacks Palestinians.

Let’s not let Richard Spencer be our mirror. Let’s work instead to challenge ethnic supremacy and right-wing violence, both here and in Israel. That means taking active steps to oppose Israel’s occupation, working for human and civil rights in Israel, and joining the movement for racial justice in the U.S. as full partners, and challenging the ways our own institutions uphold discrimination.

For too long, Jewish institutions have focused on branding advocates for Palestinian rights, and critics of the state of Israel and Zionism itself, as anti-Semitic – to the detriment of the fights against both antisemitism and racism. The reactionary response from Jewish institutions to the Movement for Black Lives platform is a prime example of how this misguided reaction to criticism of Israel has prevented American Jewish communities from working alongside Black organizers to challenge both anti-Jewish oppression and systematic anti-Black racism.

The most promising solution to anti-Semitism lies in building relationships and coalitions, recognizing how our freedoms are bound up together with those of people who have fewer rights than us, and having those difficult conversations when conflicts arise. It requires challenging the institutions that uphold supremacy, together.

That is the work, and that will, at times, require us to hold up that mirror to ourselves and to our communities. Let’s do it together.
http://forward.com/opinion/380384/r...rst-person-in-america-but-hes-right-about-is/
 
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Agree 100%
 
Now, of course, the comparison is not literally true. For starters, we Jews have a recent history in which we really could have used a country willing to stand up for us.

I'm pretty sure several countries stood up to the Nazis.

That’s the historical rationale for establishing a Jewish state

No, it isn't. The zionist movement was born in 1897. The Balfour declaration was signed in 1917.
 
Pretty dumb article.

The writer is redefining Zionism to mean Jewish supremacy. That is not accurate.

The writer is right that Israel should do more to try to stop the far right assholes in Israel.
 
Pretty dumb article.

The writer is redefining Zionism to mean Jewish supremacy. That is not accurate.

The writer is right that Israel should do more to try to stop the far right assholes in Israel.

Zionism is ethno-nationalism. It is a parallel to white nationalism. Just a different group.
 
Pretty dumb article.

The writer is redefining Zionism to mean Jewish supremacy. That is not accurate.

The writer is right that Israel should do more to try to stop the far right assholes in Israel.
Agreed. The bait and switch is that blacks under white supremacist governments don't receive a full slate of civil rights. Arab citizens in Israel are. Arab Israelis probably have the strongest political franchise of any Arabs in the Middle East.
 
Well, if Spencer can spark this sort of self-reflection among people, perhaps he's not as useless as I've thought, after all.
 
Zionism is ethno-nationalism. It is a parallel to white nationalism. Just a different group.

This. Richard Spencer is more like a "white zionist", "white nationalist", as opposed to a white "supremacist".

From what I've seen, he is not even saying white people are superior to everyone else. He just rejects diversity and wants a white ethno-state ... like Israel is for Jews.
 
Agreed. The bait and switch is that blacks under white supremacist governments don't receive a full slate of civil rights. Arab citizens in Israel are. Arab Israelis probably have the strongest political franchise of any Arabs in the Middle East.
the muslim brotherhood used to
but democracy was bad so out they went.
 
This. Richard Spencer is like a "white zionist", "white nationalist". From what I've seen, he is not even saying white people are superior to everyone else. He just rejects diversity.

Yeah I don't know about Spenser, but nationalism does not automatically mean supremacist. It is typically more of a bias, but often contains a subset of radicals that could be considered supremacist. It's a general pattern.
 
All tribalism is shit.

Humans are tribal by nature.

As a child, you are more trusting of people that are in your family than those who are not. Why?? Because they are part of your tribe.

Having in-group preference is NATURAL. It's funny, white people have the WEAKEST in-group preference of ANY race ... 97% of blacks voted for Obama, for example ... yet, any time a white person shows a smidgen of in-group preference (which is human f**king nature), they are shouted down as being NAZIS. It's a joke!

Marxist lies.
 
In what way is nationalism not tribalism? I don't drink.

Nationalism is tribalism. But tribalism isn't a bad thing. Tribalism is natural human phenomena, it's part of what makes us human to group together with people that share familiar stuff with you.

Heck, even in the animal kingdom, animals of the same "tribe" group and stick together.

Look at London, it's a balkanised city. People of the same background naturally group together and form "balkanised" areas. North London has lots of Jews, West London has lots of Sikhs, east London has lots o Pakistani/Bangladeshis etc.
 
Agreed. The bait and switch is that blacks under white supremacist governments don't receive a full slate of civil rights. Arab citizens in Israel are. Arab Israelis probably have the strongest political franchise of any Arabs in the Middle East.

This is why i can't stand the reference to Israel as an apartheid state.
It's an analogy simplified to the point of irrelevance yet, somehow has been bought into by the masses and is repeated ad nauseum.
 
Where do people like this come from? I mean that Spencer guy talks about white supremacy he doesn't even look like an Aryan to me.
Definitely, have to see some Aryan certificate first.
And he happens to be a race traitor as well because he is married to a Slav anyway.

Spencer, Israeli and Palestinian terrorists all like talking shit about each other or kill each other.
When at the end of the day they would all be standing next to each other on a train to Auschwitz so they probably have more in common than they think. Instead of hating and killing each other they should be united in their inferiority.
 
Nationalism is tribalism. But tribalism isn't a bad thing. Tribalism is natural human phenomena, it's part of what makes us human to group together with people that share familiar stuff with you.

Yeah it is basically a universal group dynamic. Corporations try to build these sorts of cultures into their fabric to take advantage of it as well.
 
In what way is nationalism not tribalism? I don't drink.

Tribalism as a social system is generally a family based structure. A few extended families or clans band together. Over time it may grow to some extent, but extended familial relationships remain key.

Nationalism as a social system usually involves the uniting of disparate clouds based on share language and culture. While there is often, indeed almost always, a strong ethnic component, that is not defined by direct familial relations so much as very broad ethnic characteristics and again by culture.

Tribalism is generally marked by exclusivism. Nationalism, contrary to conventional wisdom, is much more inclusive. What nationalism does is break down a lot of petty distinctions, including tribalism specifically, so that much larger groups of people can be united.
 
I remember he said he cringed when he heard conservatives who brag about their disregard for the environment. And he supports a universal system of healthcare.
If only he could drop the white fetish and stop being such a provocative douchebag.
 
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