By Ted Belman
Melanie Phillips spoke in Toronto this week about Five Essential Truths which included
1. The “smart” people–members of the “progressive” intelligentsia–are a huge problem.
2. A lot of the “dumb” people, –ignore and/or deplore, appear to be immune to the intelligentsia’s bad ideas.
3. The Leftists and the Islamists are in cahoots
4. No one can predict the future.
Here’s the fifth.
Israel stands at the centre of everything.
It is on the front line of the fight against the Islamic jihad. Its fight and the West’s fight are one and the same. But how to keep Israel alive and kicking when so many are intent on bringing it down–many of whom, sickeningly, are Jewish? (Phillips says she would never refer to these leftist Jews as being “self-loathing” because she’s never met a group of individuals who love themselves more.) Phillips says we have to rethink how we go about helping Israel, because our current approach–defending Israel from its critics by forcing people to “look at the facts” is “hopeless.” It puts us on the defensive, the wrong place to be because “we have nothing to defend.” It forces us to play the game on Israel’s enemies’ terms–something we should absolutely refuse to do.
A far more effective strategy, she says, would be to put our enemies on the defensive, to be “cool and forensic” as we point out their failings, their mendacity. To ask, say, “How can you justify pressuring Israel” when all these truly horrible things are occurring in Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, etc.? We, after all, have history and truth on our side while they (Israel and the West’s common enemies) do not.
How refreshing to finally hear someone speak sensibly on this subject. It seems that whenever an anti-Semitic event would occur somewhere in the world, one of our major Jewish organizations sends out a mass mailing saying, “Look what is happening. Send a donation.” As Israel Apartheid Week grew on Canadian campuses and anti-Semitic activities were increasing everywhere, I wrote to this organization two year ago to express my concerns, suggesting specifically that they had to go on the offensive, that we had to start speaking up about the horrors going on in other countries – the treatment of women, the hanging of homosexuals, the stoning of rape victims, etc., etc.
My point was that whatever these good Jewish organizations were doing (and they do some good work without a doubt) to defend us against anti-Semitism, they must be doing it wrong because from their own letters of appeal, things were getting worse, not better! I suggested holding Saudi Arabian Apartheid Week on campus and other similar events. We had to demonstrate that no matter how badly the Muslim student groups portrayed Israel, we had enough truth on our side to make the case that they were much worse.
NOT ONE SINGLE JEWISH ORGANIZATION HAD THE COURTESY TO EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE THE LETTER. EVEN AFTER SENDING THE LETTER A SECOND TIME THERE WAS STILL NO RESPSONSE.
The organization of events like Israel Apartheid Week is not being done by a few students with a couple of dollars. This has the backing of money and well funded organizations that go well beyond the limits of the students themselves. Our Jewish organizations have the resources: the money, the contact lists, the sources to organize everything that would be required: research, printing of pamphlets and signs, inviting speakers, etc.
WHY DO THEY CHOOSE TO REMAIN INEFFECTIVE AGAINST AN ONSLAUGHT THAT WE ARE CURRENTLY UNABLE TO COMBAT? This is not only shameful, it is downright dangerous. Thank you Melanie Phillips for saying what neededs to be said.
Right on. I opted for that strategy over a defensive driving course.
Agreed. A best defence is a good offence.