'Anti-Semitism' as Jewish counter propaganda

'Anti-Semitism' as Jewish counter propaganda
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo Philstar: Updated January 15, 2009 12:00 AM

It was a classic rendition of evading the real issue and branding anyone who expresses critical views against Israeli policies as Anti-Semitic. We refer to the rejoinder of the Israeli Ambassador, Zvi A. Vapni, to your Chair Wrecker’s January 11 column (“Who are the real terrorists in the Holy Land”) which the STAR published yesterday.

The Israeli Ambassador wonders where to start in correcting the supposed errors in my column which slammed the Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Supposed to be among this Chair Wrecker’s errors, the Israeli Ambassador cited the Tevye quote from “Fiddler on the roof” and my having written that the Jews went to their death during the Nazi Holocaust as meek as lambs.

I wonder what the Israeli Ambassador is claiming as erroneous because both the Tevye quote and the meek Jews who went to their deaths during the Nazi Holocaust were factual.

The clincher is the Israeli Ambassador’s assertion that this Chair Wrecker erred by writing that the Old testament-based homeland claim of the Jews is considered by many history scholars as the wishful thinking of landless nomadic tribes.

No Mr. Ambassador, those claims by history scholars are not plainly ridiculous as you wrote in your rejoinder. What are plainly ridiculous are those Israeli claims that are based on the Old Testament. That cheap shot of yours may strike some points with those who have no grasp of history. The Old Testament is unreliable simply because it is loaded with myths, exaggerations, maybe even delusions of ‘prophets’ who have been affected by severe hunger in the desert.

For us who are Christians, it is quite glaring that the God that is talked about in the Old Testament is so different from the God that Jesus Christ introduced to mankind. Best exemplified by Christ’s parable of “The prodigal son” — the Christian God is a loving and forgiving God; totally the opposite of the God in the Old Testament that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Old Testament talked about an angel sent by God to slay the 600,000 Assyrians. Come again? Even the great Persian Empire never had that much armed force in one place, so where did the 600,000 Assyrians come from? How about the Walls of Jericho — did that really crumble from the effects of Israelites marching around the walls and blasting their trumpets? Or was that not myth making of what some scientists now think was the result of an earthquake?

How come it took so long for the Israelites to get to their so-called Promised Land after they left Egypt with Moses? Even at the slowest possible pace, any group of hikers can make it to Israel from Egypt in a month at the most. So why did the Israelites spend all those years in the wilderness with Moses? Maybe they did not really have a Promised Land to begin with.

Most interesting is the Israeli Ambassador’s attempt to brand this Chair Wrecker as “Anti-Semitic.” It is standard Jewish (Israeli) counter propaganda to brand any critic as “Anti-Semitic.” Even in the US, any public official or notable person who raises an issue that is not to Jewish or Israeli liking is branded as “Anti-Semitic.” The critic is projected to be in the league of Hitler, Heinrich, Himmler and all those Nazi criminals responsible for the Jewish genocide.

Is the Israeli Ambassador suggesting that all those media editorials and opinion articles that have spontaneously sprouted worldwide, condemning the Israeli carnage of innocent civilians in Gaza, are the mere products of “Anti-Semitism?”

The issue at hand is the Israeli war policy in Gaza. It is seen by most as overkill, by some in the academe and law profession as war crimes no less. Israel cannot begin to justify the high civilian casualties just because they have the right to defend themselves.

If we assume that the Israeli Gaza war policy is justified, then that would also justify the slaughter of over 100,000 civilian casualties here during the 1945 Battle of Manila.

Contrary to what the victors (the US) tried to project here (that the Manila civilian casualties were caused by Japanese atrocities), the truth is — majority of the civilian deaths were caused by US ‘friendly’ fire. In order to save on military casualties, the US opted to extensively bomb and shell the Ermita and Malate area just to destroy the small Japanese force defending Manila.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur adhered to the dictum that a good general does not win via bravado what can be won via strategy. MacArthur saved on combatants and in the process killed civilians.

That is why MacArthur is suspected of having pushed for a trial and death sentence for Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita, a trial which has since been denounced as a kangaroo court. The Japanese force that defended Manila did not report to Army Gen. Yamashita but to the Naval Command.

The issues this Chair Wrecker raised against the Israeli war policy in Gaza of “a hundred of your eyes for one Israeli eye and a thousand of your teeth for one Israeli tooth” is echoed by UN President Miguel d’Escoto.

The UN President said last December 27: “The behavior by Israel in bombarding Gaza is simply the commission of wanton aggression by a very powerful state against a territory that it illegally occupies.”

Rejoinder to W. Esposo's Jan. 11 column
Philstar: Updated January 14, 2009 12:00 AM

Reading through the article of Mr. William Esposo (“Who are the real terrorists in the Holy Land?” dated January 11, 2009), one wonders where to start in correcting its errors. Is it with the quote of Mahatma Gandhi in the heading of the article that he puts in the mouth of Tevye from “Fiddler on the Roof” ? Or maybe one should start with his claim, based mostly on sheer ignorance, that during the holocaust, Jews marched to their death “like sheep meekly marching to the slaughter house”. Perhaps one should start with the most amazing claim made by Mr. Esposo, that the Old Testament of the Bible “is mostly the wishful thinking of landless nomadic tribes”. Out of respect to your readers, I would assume that you know those claims to be plainly ridiculous.

Mr. Esposo, like others, is entitled to his own opinion on the conflict in the Middle East. Even in Democratic Israel today, we debate different issues openly and with mutual respect. His lack of knowledge and strong prejudice, though, make the whole discussion somewhat pointless. If he would open the most basic history book about Modern Middle East, he would find out that the creation of the State of Israel was not “a land grab” but a UN resolution taken on the 29th of November 1947 which got the majority support of countries around the world, among them the Philippines. The tragedy of course is the unwillingness of the Arab countries to accept the partition, approved by this UN resolution, and the Palestinian state that could have been born there and then, never came into being. Mr. Esposo would find it interesting to know that during the years between 1948 and 1967 the two Arab countries that controlled the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Jordan and Egypt), never dreamed of creating a Palestinian state in these territories. Mr. Esposo should also be reminded of some facts. Such as the fact that in our fight for Independence, we never targeted women and children, we never used suicide bombers. We never hijacked civilian airliners. We never exploded mosques or terrorized villages and towns with rockets. After reading that, he might be less confused about the difference between terrorists and freedom fighters.

What makes Mr. Esposo’s article especially infuriating is his touch of old fashion hate called anti-Semitism. It’s been a while since we read in reputable newspapers the age old story about how Jews controlled the world. In one of the dark corners of the 19th century, a book was written called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion which presented this hateful and shameful claim. This book and the people who follow its thinking led to the creation of modern anti-Semitic ideology which with other things brought about the Nazi ideology and the Jewish holocaust. This was always the tactic used against us by people who refused to accept our legitimate right — whether they were 19th century anti-Semites, 20th century Nazis or 21st century extreme Islamic terrorists.

In fighting against Hamas in Gaza we are doing what any government would do in face of a brutal onslaught against its civilian population. Hamas is doing its best to hide amongst civilians and launch its rockets from within heavily populated area. If civilians are being killed their blood is on the hands of Hamas leaders that are hidden comfortably in bunkers or in Damascus. As we showed in the past we would negotiate with anyone who recognize us and leave the path of terror, but we will not negotiate away our civilian security.

Being an open and democratic society, we understand that some would not agree with us, but it would be wise if they would base their opinion on real knowledge rather than back them up with old fashioned racial hatred toward the Jewish people. — ZVI A. VAPNI, Ambassador, Embassy of Israel, Manila, Philippines

Who are the real terrorists in the Holy Land?
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo Philstar: Updated January 11, 2009 12:00 AM

I believe it was the “Fiddler on the roof” character of Rev Tevye who commented that the Jewish adherence to the doctrine of “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” will lead the whole world to be blind and toothless.

Like us and other nationals, the Jews are also a people with glaring contradictions. All people — no different from individuals — have their good and dark sides.

In the case of the Jews, their docile and sheep-like willingness to march to the Nazi gas chambers contrasted with the intransigence and belligerence of the Jews in the Middle East these past decades. If the 6 million or so Jews that the Nazis murdered during World War II resisted like the defenders of Masada, the Nazis might have reconsidered and abandoned the Jewish genocide.

During the Nazi Holocaust in Europe, there was only one attempt by the Jews to put up a fight. Other than that, they went to their death like sheep meekly marching to the slaughter house.

Maybe it was that sorry episode of their contemporary history that compels the Jews today to resort anew to what the Old Testament prescribed as “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” However, as seen in the recent Gaza overkill — the Jews (Israelis) have really exceeded themselves. From being the David in the Middle East fighting the Arab Goliaths surrounding them, the Israelis have been acting like the Goliath trying to bully the Palestinian David.

There is no denying the Israelis their right to defend their communities from Palestinian rocket attacks. However, what the Israelis are doing lately is hurting innocent civilians more than the combatants. The Israelis have become worse terrorists than the Palestinians they brand as terrorists.

As a result, Israel reaped large scale world condemnation and only the US has stood by the Jewish State. Perhaps, the Israelis do not place much value on keeping its underdog image. Perhaps, they now feel confident that can stand alone after having reached the level of being the fifth most powerful military force in the world.

Taken in its historical perspective, the Palestinians are doing to the Israelis what the Jews (before the founding of the modern Israeli State) did to the Palestinians in order to get most of what is now Israel. This modern day land grab happened with the collusion of the US and UK just as the US and UK now remain aloof to the atrocities of the Israelis against the Palestinians.

Of course, this partiality of the US and UK for the Zionists is not simply due to the so-called Judeo-Christian heritage. In the old Europe, the English were among those who also persecuted the Jews. In the US, up to the 1960s, Jews were just considered a rung higher in the social order to Blacks (now called African-Americans). It became natural for Jews then to affiliate with the Equal Rights Movement of the Blacks.

American high regard for the Jews came from the many global achievers who happen to be Jews and — more than that — for the financial and media muscle that the Jews developed. Jewish physicists developed the Atom Bomb, some of them pirated from Nazi labs at the end of World War II.

The Jews controlled the diamond trade, banking system and Hollywood. Check out the most influential people in the Federal Reserve and you’ll likely find them to be Jews. Goldwyn, Mayer, Spielberg — go through the Hollywood social registry and you will easily recognize the Jewish names running this industry that has a tremendous influence on hearts and minds in America and those other countries that patronize Hollywood movies. Note how US presidential candidates have had to kowtow to the powerful Jews — a reflection of Jewish political clout.

Just how many movies or television dramas have you seen that placed the Arabs in a better and fairer light? The Jews (Israelis) were always the oppressed in these productions with the Arabs being typecast as the extremists, anarchists and the mad bombers.

The truth is there are extremists on both sides. Israeli extremists were responsible for the 1995 assassination of former Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and that was because Rabin was moving the peace process forward. The Israeli extremists did not want to grant the Palestinians the necessary concessions that both sides must extend in order to arrive at a lasting peace.

When the Jews were establishing the modern State of Israel, when they were the terrorists that they label the Palestinians today, they used to fancy themselves as patriots. Now that the Palestinians are doing what they did, the Palestinians are not called patriots but terrorists.

However, if you’re a man who reads and bothers to research, you will discover that such is a lopsided picture that was drawn by a largely biased Hollywood and US media that were Jewish influenced. The recent conflict in Gaza and the casualty list on both sides prove just who the big bully is.

If you’re a man who reads, you will discover that the Jewish claim to their so-called 2,000 year old homeland was mainly Old Testament-based and not necessarily historically backed. Much of what is written in the Old Testament, many history scholars dispute — a lot of them concluding that these were mostly the wishful thinking of landless nomadic tribes.

No less than UN President Miguel d’Escoto said this in his December 27, 2008 statement. He said: “The behavior by Israel in bombarding Gaza is simply the commission of wanton aggression by a very powerful state against a territory that it illegally occupies.”

The UN President named the following Israeli violations:

“Collective punishment — the entire 1.5 million people who live in the crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants.

Targeting civilians — the air strikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most densely populated area of the Middle East.

Disproportionate military response — the air strikes have not only destroyed every police and security office of Gaza’s elected government, but have killed and injured hundreds of civilians; at least one strike reportedly hit groups of students attempting to find transportation home from the university.”

If we accept for the sake of argument that the Jews occupied 2,000 years ago this Israel that they have claimed — that will serve as a precedent that would upset the world order. That bit of Jewish logic if applied to all countries will displace many Americans, Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders who will have to return the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to their original natives.

How can the world community accept a 2,000-year-old Jewish claim and disregard claims that date back only 200 to 400 years ago, where clearer historical facts of original occupation can be presented?

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Chair Wrecker website: www.chairwrecker.com