This picture showed up on FACEBOOK of a pro Israel demonstration in Bellevue . The picture was by the group Stand with US, a group I previously criticized for it stand with the Tea Party Republicans and evangelical lobby against the agreement with Iran. The result .. on the left, is that I was called a capo .. a collaborator. The coordinator, Robert Jacob, did ask us to cam down, but I can not take his request easily given the hatred spewed n that FACEBOOK page.
So, no Guy Alster, I am not a capo.
FACEBOOK:
Marty Cohen Mr schwarts, you are obviously anti israel, for whatever demented reason you may conjure. KNOW this, YOU WILL Get YOUR JUST rewards WHEN THE MOSHIACH cones.
Guy Alster Every time I encounter kapo style Jews like Stephen Schwartz I ask myself: why did my grandad had to go through the horrors of a Nazi deathcamp. Why didn’t his go through it. You are a disgrace. I’m ashamed to even think that we share the same religion.
Robert Jacobs stop it. You’re acting like my 12 year old. All three of us are Zionists, all three of us support Israel, but we will be the reason Jews and Israel fall – we cannot make assumptions about each other and we cannot trash each other. We’re just dividing and weakening ourselves. Stephen Schwartz, there were plenty of younger people there. What drives them away is this kind of division. Who’d want to be part of it. You are both good people. You disagree. Nobody is undercutting Israel. You don’t need to agree. But let’s make it all civil, okay?
MY RESPONSE:
Sorry Robert the pictures you chose celebrate the Israeli hate response to the bad things the
Palestinians do, not the efforts WE make toward peace.No antisemite is going to be less hate filled toward us because we show our hate toward our Arab siblings. Certainly signs like these will have NO good effect on Secretary Kerry’s mission as he tries to bring our two Semitic peoples toward some sort of pace.
Palestinians do, not the efforts WE make toward peace.No antisemite is going to be less hate filled toward us because we show our hate toward our Arab siblings. Certainly signs like these will have NO good effect on Secretary Kerry’s mission as he tries to bring our two Semitic peoples toward some sort of pace. So who were these signs aimed at? I think the audience is clear, the same crew who cheer on Donald Trump, Reverand Hagel, and Fox News ..the war hawks, evangelicals for Armageddon crew.
As for Guy Alster, as Robert Jacobs can tell you, I am engaged in a huge fight with my own siblings because they lack the Yiddishkeit to save the pictures our own father made in Buchenwald. Almost all my family died in the camps.
FWI, I grew up in an anitsemitic neighborhood not in Germany but here in our own USofA. I am a true veteran of both the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights Movement.
Growing up a fervent Jew, I have found that most of OUR community is all too willing to be “capos,” in the sense that few of us stand up for our rights .. and the rights of others. As proud as I am of the Mississippi Three, I have noted that few Americans even know their names, much less recognize such JEWISH heroes as Emma Lazarus, Samuel Gompers, or Capers Funnye. How many opf us know that Medecin sans Frontiers was founded by Jews?
What I have also noted is that I have had great difficlty finding support or succor when I have had ot deal with antisemtisim in my own career. In secondary school I was asked to join a society that excluded Niggers and Kikes. My Dad had to tell me what A Kike was. Before that, in grade school, the local nuns so incited my neighbors with the story of Jewish deicide that my classmates (some of whom later became friends) stoned me ..breaking my head. Later, here in Seattle, the schools would not let us register our children ..Havi and Hillel, as Jewish. The same Seattle Public Schyools tried to force our Daughter to sing Christmas carols ans humilate dher for spelling Hannuaks wiothout the “C.” . We got no support from the community but the schools, after we threatened to sue, decided our kids were “black.”
I even had my UW tenure threated when I explained to my Chair that I would not commit perjury to defend some UW actions. This man (a non practicing Jew) informed me that “Such honsety belongs in the synagogue.)
What I have noted among Jewish war hawks, is an amazing willingness to foment war where Israelis and Arabs die, while we live well here. I have also noted a very disturbing alliance between Jewish war hawks and some of the most repugnant parts of America .. our evznagelical hate filled Christian right and the fervent community of American Jews who want to solve the dilemna of Palestine with bullets coated in semitic blood.
So, no Guy Alster, I am not a capo.
Unconditional support for Israel is not a partisan issue when you are Jewish.
Personally, I am closer to the Democratic party on most issues, but completely Republican on others. However, the current administration, specifically Obama is biased against Israel and causing irreparable damage, not just to Israel, but to the fabric of the American society and its image in the world.
The media is helping set the tone for the misunderstanding of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, which is fueled by a combination of antisemitism by non-Jews, and “bleeding heart syndrome” of liberals (Jewish & non-Jews alike).
I think you fall in the second camp, which is even more tragic.
The signs are actually for you…
They are to tell you that it doesn’t matter right now what Israel does. Building a house for a Jewish family, no matter where in the world, is not an excuse for inciting violence, A knife wielding terrorist is not a victim, and leadership that calls for the annihilation of Israel is not a partner for peace, no matter what “painful sacrifices” Israel is willing to make.
Egypt was Israel’s enemy, but only AFTER president Sa’adat was willing to recognize Israel’s right to exist, did Israel sacrifice the Sini Peninsula to secure a peace treaty with Egypt…
Yehuda and Shomron are not occupied territories, they are territories under conflict. And conflicts can be resolved at a negotiations table – but NOT under the threat of a knife (or a suicide bomb, or a barrage of rockets at Israel’s civilians, or the point-blank execution of parents in front of their young children, on their way home from a Rosh Ha’Shanah dinner…)
Can you support that?
If so, you should have been at the rally, holding, if not one of those signs, than at least an Israeli flag, or even an American flag…
You should begn by learning a bit about the history. Egypt has no historical claim t the Sinai. When we gabe it “back” mthat was there fisrt “real claim.” Judea and Samaria were part of Jordan. We conquered the and occupied them. Unofrtunately the PLO and Jordan ahd a subsequent civil war an now Jordan does not want them ..that si why we are stuck with an occupation.
Guy Alster Stephen Schwartz, remove me and any reference to me immediately from you blogs. I don’t wish to be affiliated with you. Furthermore, given that you seem to be so fond of the Palestinians and their cause, I have a great organization for you to join: the JVP – Jewish Voice for Peace. Like you they are a bunch of self righteous “so-called” Jews. The reason I claim that they are so-called jews is because the only reason they maintain any connection with Judaism is so that they can continue spreading their Antisemitism (oh sorry I meant Anti Israel-ism) freely without being called out as such. So by all means, go join them in their protest to free the invented people referred to as the Palestinians from the brutal and horrible Israel which is the only country in the Middle East that actually gives them more rights than any other Arab/Muslim country in the world. The problem is that you’ve got your head stuck so high up your Arss, that you just cant see it. I guess that the inner view of your colon is blurring your vision.
Guy Alster Stephen Schwartz,No Jewish children are being driven by me away from any heritage. It is you who has turned your back on the Jewish heritage of solidarity in favor of false ideals regarding things that you are simply too ignorant about. You compare the civil rights movement in the US that fought rightfully to give black people civil rights, to the diabolical hatred movements against Israel, in which you take part of even if implicitly. People like you, who instead of standing proud and defending the Jewish state, prefer to suck up to the pro-Palestinian (or shall I say Anti Israeli) movements just so that you get extra points for being politically correct and god forbid marked as one sided. It is you and your kind that are causing Jewish kids to start doubting their own heritage. Unlike you, I served in the Israeli military, I lived in Israel the majority of my life while you sat here in your ivory tower preaching to everyone about “peace” and “justice”.