Posts Tagged ‘Israel’

Thanksgiving Thoughts Under the Fedora: Still no Apology, NFL Trumps the College Games, Their Call not Mine, Jokes not Told and the Week that Will Speak Volumes

Posted: November 23, 2023 by datechguy in economy, Israel, Israel vs Hamas, local issues, nfl, Sports, under the fedora
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It’s Thanksgiving day and because the Turkey is cooking and my wife is on full blast I did a quick Dunkin & McDonalds run so as not to dirty stuff for DaWife’s coffee or my breakfast.

I passed by St. Bernard’s football field and remembered the phony hate crime hoax from years ago that got national attention of the FBI & the Obama admin and caused the Lunenburg St. Bernard’s game to be cancelled that year. I covered the story here:

As I recall the town never got an apology from all those who called them a bunch of racists nor did the players who missed their Turkey game that year.

They never do.

Thanksgiving is a traditional day for football (as mentioned above). When I was young the TV would be filled with college games. Now the NFL has gone in a big way, not only just the Cowboys and the Lions who both host home games on Thanksgiving (and will therefore never face the other on Thanksgiving day) but a late game that is an A list matchup between the 49ers and the Seahawks. They have even added a black Friday game Dolphins at the Jets.

I guess they’re all in on Thanksgiving weekend and taking the business from the colleges and I guess it’s the right move. Make the money while you can now because nothing lasts forever.

As for me, well I guess it a good way to pass the time waiting for spring training

In a recent speech Tucker Carlson talked about trusting your gut. My gut says that the deal with Hamas that Israel has made for hostages is a bad idea.

But since it’s the Jews of Israel who are doing the fighting and dying and it’s the Jews of Israel whose woman and children are hostages and I’m just sitting at a keyboard in safety I think I’ll defer to the judgement of their leadership vs my own.

I’m old enough to remember when I could make a joke in public or online without worry that it wouldn’t give supporters of terror groups that want to kill jews idea.

Alas those days are gone so my excellent joke shall have to remain in house.

Finally today is going to be my last day off before Black Friday. During the Trump years this was flat out time for me. We ended up working 14 days in a row after Thanksgiving and six days a week all though Christmas and carried a ton of temps all thought that time.

Last year we had one busy week and it was so quiet that the Friday after black Friday was optional and all the extra temps were laid off within two weeks.

We had a busy week this week as one of our retailers had a pre-black friday sale but this week will say more about the truth of Biden economy than any talking head can.

First Amendment 101 in North Andover

Posted: November 17, 2023 by datechguy in opinion/news, internet/free speech
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Apparently there was a big fuss about North Andover flying the Palestinian Flag.

When I first heard about it my first thought was “oh brother here is the woke Democrat left in action.”

Then I actually read the story and it changed the picture for me.

Apparently the town (like Fitchburg) allows various flags to be flown if petitioned to do so. Earlier this month the flag of Israel was flown.

A group of Palestinian supporters petitioned to have their flag flown under the same rules. There was a rather contentions meeting over it and a lot of people were angry but in the end the request was lawful and the flag is flying now.

As a very public supporter of Israel actions in Gaza to destroy Hamas let’s cut to the chase.

This was not only the right decision but the smart decision.

It was the right decision because:

  • 1st Amendment rights are supposed to be allowed equally without playing favorites
  • the proper answer to speech someone opposes is more speech
  • the proper procedures and rules were followed
  • It is right because one should always support lawful methods of public expression
  • It is right because it supports the rule of law applied equally
  • The flag in question was not one of a recognized terrorist group.
  • It’s an important lesson in citizenship and civics, particularly for the young and new arrivals
  • It is just

And it is smart because

  • You should always support peaceful forms of expression of ideas
  • You can’t demand enforcement of laws against violent expression when you don’t apply them for peaceful one
  • People who are able to vent peacefully are less likely to cross a line later
  • You can’t expect people to respect your rights if you don’t respect theirs
  • If you don’t defend those rights when in power you won’t have them when you’re not
  • if you’re opinion is worth anything it should be able to stand up to the other guys opinion being expressed
  • the right thing is always the smart thing

I can certainly understand why some would object, frankly my own 1st instinct was against it but either you’re for the rule of law or you are not and this is lawful application of the 1st Amendment.

Now if the city wants to change their rules on flags (consistent with our constitution of course) that’s up to them but the law need to be respected and enforced and the rights of citizens under that law MUST be respected.

Otherwise what’s the point of being American?

Update: A lot of people who generally agree with me disagree on this one but let me make one important point:

The Biden admin and the FBI not withstanding there actually isn’t a “I think those guys are a******s” exception to either the 1st amendment or the principle of equal application of the law.

What’s Anti-Semitic and What’s Not

Posted: November 15, 2023 by datechguy in culture
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Ok let me start this post by noting two things up front:

  1. I am an unabashed supporter of Israel’s response to what Hamas has done and am horrified that anyone believes that
    • Hamas’ attack on Oct 7th can be justified
    • That Oct 7th was a false flag (yes there are some of those)
  2. Looking back at History over the last 75 years I conclude that other than the Jews there are no people the Arab/Muslim world hates more than the Palestinians. Consider:
    • They have been used and exploited by the Arabs since the first day Israel existed
    • They have been used as a wedge both by the eastern bloc during the cold war by Arab states against the Jews ever since.
    • Their own leadership (and others) have used them as a cash cow to wealth & power while letting them stay poor.
    • Countries like Iran have used them as expendable in order to advance their agenda
    • In every Arab country they have settled in they are treated at best as 2nd class citizens at least when they’re not being slaughtered
    • Any one of them who would actually be willing to make peace would have the life expectancy of a Jew in Gaza with no IDF.

Frankly if I was raised a Palestinian I’d be damn angry too.

Ok so let’s cut to the chase of this post. The word “anti-Semitic” has been out there a lot lately and if people want it to avoid it becoming as meaningless as the left has made the word “racism” it’s important to use it correctly and acknowledge that there is a difference between something or someone being “anti-Semitic’ and something or someone being “wrong” about something.

To this end I have made a small but likely not complete list:

  • It is a legitimate opinion that Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct 7th attack is the wrong one. Holding that opinion doesn’t make one either a Jew hater or anti-Semitic. Now I myself think such an opinion is about as idiotic as the no cash bail business in US cities which reward bad behavior and create more of it, but that doesn’t make one anti-Semitic, it makes one, in my opinion a fool, but not anti-Semitic.
  • It is a legitimate thing to hold a march in favor of the Palestinians and rallies in support of same with speeches and signs both on campus and in large cities provided said marchers:
    • Obey local laws
    • Do not commit vandalism
    • Do not commit violence
    • Do not call for the extermination of Jews or the destruction of Israel

(If anyone sees the supports of the Palestinians manage these four things please let me know as that would be breaking news).

  • It is a perfectly legitimate opinion to argue that the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 was either a bad idea or caused more problems for the world then it solved. To argue that the Jews had no more right to a Jewish state in the land they were practically erased from 2000 years ago then the Aztecs have a claim to Mexico city because they had an empire there till the 1500’s is not anti-Semitic.

I don’t hold that opinion and one can no more predict an alternate past then one can predict the future. I can only note that for the Jewish people having a homeland in their ancestral lands has been a plus in terms of racial and cultural identity and given the horrors of the holocaust it has given them the power to ensure their survival as a race. That seems like a pretty strong case for the state of Israel, particularly when you consider how Arab Israeli’s have done, seemingly a lot better than those around them (at least those who don’t have oil).

That opinion btw crosses the line into antisemitism when it becomes an excuse to attempt to wipe out a firmly established internationally recognized state and slaughter the people in it.

  • It is not anti-Semitic to argue that the Arabs who have been in the land that is now Israel were there for hundreds or even thousands of years and while there have been multiple empires ruling over them from the Romans to the Byzantines to the Ottomans to the Brits to even the Crusaders for a time that their attachment to the land is just as legitimate as anyone else.

This frankly is the strongest point in favor of the Palestinians and one that I believe is not resolvable without their consent because they can argue that the UN mandate was carried out without their consent. It’s basically an eminent domain case.

  • It is not anti-Semitic to note that because the Muslim Arabs in the middle east have a different culture than the west it is perfectly legitimate for them to look Israel in general and all of these thing in particular in a different light than a person with a western culture and a part of western civilization does. That in itself is no more anti-Semitic or evil then a Hindu in India circa 1845 looking at the British rule differently than the west did.

Now once that cultural difference becomes an excuse to slaughter Jews in their sleep or murder them with impunity then I would argue that not only does it become anti-Semitic but both the west in General and Israel in particular have the right, indeed the obligation to treat such actions in the same way that Sir Charles James Napier treated the practitioners of Suttee in India.

  • It is certainly not anti-semitic to call for a Palestinian state not named “Jordan” which was to be the original Arab state established by the UN mandate. In fact given the way the Palestinians have been treated by all the Arabs in the area a state separate from both Israel and the Arab states that surround it might be the only solution for them to get a fair shake, provided those in charge of such a state are not either kleptocrats who rob their own people blind or killers who want to use such a state as a staging ground for attempt to destroy Israel or both

If you can explain any way to avoid having such people in charge let me know.

  • Finally it is not anti-Semitic to deny the existence of the God of the Jews or consider the Jewish religion as bunk. In fact there are plenty of Jews who think this is the case (the old Joke goes “Jews are a people who believe in one God or less”) Now as a Christian in general and a Catholic in particular I say such a denial is not only bunk but a great danger to the soul but having that opinion is no more anti-Semitic then saying that Mohammad is no more a prophet of God than my older brothers are is anti Arab.

Well this is my list, if you want an easier guide to if someone is anti-Semitic or someone just holds a different opinion I have a really simple rule of thumb.

If someone is lying to your face about things like:

  • Jews are colonizers and were never in Israel
  • there was never a Jewish temple in the holy land
  • There are no hostages being held by Hamas
  • The Jews are committing genocide against the Palestinians

Odds are you won’t go too wrong thinking “anti-Semite” although given what I’ve seen of students today if you want to go with “ignorance” you likely aren’t doing bad either.

Finally the discloser bit. I’m not a Jew, I’ve never considered becoming Jewish and my only connections to Judaism are:

  • 1/8th of my nieces and nephews both from blood and marriage are married to Jews (both nephews who married Jewish women).
  • My Catholic faith is completely derivative of Judaism. My God is the Jewish God and I state that his son is the Messiah of the Jews. Or as I like to joke: The difference between Christians & Jews is:
    • Jews think we’ve jumped the gun
    • We think they’ve missed the boat.

So if you are Jewish and think I’m wrong about these evaluations of what is anti-Semitic and what isn’t feel free to leave your opinion in comments or write a post rebutting me at your site.

Rewriting History’s Unintended Consequences

Posted: November 10, 2023 by datechguy in culture, Israel, middle east, Uncategorized
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Lt Harry Welsh: [watching Dutch women being shorn of their hair] What did they do?

Van Kooijk: They slept with the Germans. They are lucky. The men who collaborated are being shot.

Band of Brothers Replacements 2001

One of the things we have seen a lot from the left in general and our Arab friends in particular is the re-writing of history when it comes to Israel and the Jews. This consists of both the rewriting of the ancient history of Jews in Israel to the rewriting of the events of Oct 7th last month.

This lie is not only designed to justify themselves but to avoid the uncomfortable truths. You see if the Jews have been in Judea since the days when Abraham was still called Abram and if they are not the oppressors that they claim then the Arabs have to see what they’re doing in the light of truth and then the decision to slaughter Jews in any way possible becomes not a righteous cause but a choice between good or evil and while many might well decide is it “good” claiming an religious imprimatur, other might see things as they are and repent, and we can’t have that.

Put simply it’s more comfortable living with history’s re-write than dealing with the uncomfortable realities of history

But while this rewrite of history is the Arab dilemma, our response to this and unwillingness to deal with it properly comes from a re-write of our own. A rewrite accidently illustrated by these words from of all people Nathan Sharansky:

Sharansky, an Israeli human rights activist who spent years in a Soviet gulag, said schools such as Harvard and Yale have become bastions of support for terrorism—a big difference from World War II, when the vast majority of the Western world opposed the Nazi regime.

“All the world was against the Nazi regime, and nobody was sorry with [it] being destroyed,” said Sharansky during a discussion with the Jewish Institute for National Security of America on Wednesday. “Today, the legitimacy for the regimes like Hamas is coming from Oxford, from Harvard, from Yale, from Penn, from all these centers.”

Emphasis mine

In a lot of books, movies etc these are the words of the west not only about how World War 2 was fought but what people thought of the Nazis and of the extermination of the Jews.

It’s not.

Before the start of World War 2 the Nazi regime was much admired by many in the west. Time made Hitler their man of the year. There were big fans of both Hitler and Mussolini in the US in both academic and political circles not to mention among the many German and Italian American communities (as a rule the Sicilians didn’t care for Il Duce as he cracked down on the Mafia but that’s another story…).

In fact I remember watching one of the Charlie Chan Movies: Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937) where his oldest son qualifies for the US Olympic swimming team for the 1936 Berlin Olympics and on the trip there is a mystery involving a murder and a stolen device made for the US Military. In the Germany Chan teams with a German police inspector Inspector Strasser to find the murderer and recover the equipment. All throughout this movie you see lines like this when Chan beats the steamship to Germany and he along with Inspector Strasser meet the ship :

Inspector Strasser: Exactly! You see Mr. Chan, German methods are very thorough.

Charlie Chan: Have greatest admiration for well known efficiency

And as there are a series of thefts, assaults’ and more there is a line constantly repeated by the inspector:

Inspector Strasser: It’s impossible! Things like this can not happen in Berlin!

In the images actually taken from the film of the Olympics there are crowds of people giving the Nazi salute as the Olympic torch is brought in and the flame lit with no thought at all that it might be controversial to moviegoers worldwide and of course the German police arrive just in time to save the day.

As for Antisemitism it was prevalent in a portion of the population, many of them elite in what would become the allied countries as well as in Germany.

When war with Germany came first to the UK and then the US (which interned plenty of Germans and Italians as well as Japanese but that gets little press as it doesn’t serve the left’s narrative) suddenly admiration of the Axis was no longer chic (In fact in the US the left embraced the Nazis after the non aggression pact with Soviets and didn’t reject them until Hitler invaded Russia) and once the horrors of the death camps was not only exposed but were shown to troops en masse and to dignitaries so they could not be denied, open antisemitism was unthinkable.

Thus came the mutually beneficial myth that all were united against the Axis as it gave cover to many whose real opinions and sympathies might have been an embarrassment and it not only allowed a sense of unity to take place but allowed international stances against many of the horrors that had been common to humanity for thousands of years to be advanced and codified into international law at a time when those who might have objected were not only be isolated in their defense but might want the financial aid of the very rich proudly Christian US who along with Canada and Australia (both still highly Christian and proud of it) who were advancing these ideas.

And thus came the myth of the unity against the Nazis and against the horrors and evils they advanced.

And because of this myth many who held these views needed a release for them, and thus came the alliance of the anti-Semites with the Marxists and the Arabs who didn’t want any part of the Jews.

That’s the real secret here. The antisemitism was always there, but because of the comfortable illusion of unity people let it be.

I’m sure they thought it was a good idea at the time, but we’re paying for it now.

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