From today's Wall Street Journal:
"Last Saturday, at a university-sponsored event ... a group of former students launched a research fund in honor of Martin Peretz, a former teacher in the program and the longtime editor in chief of the New Republic. After the event adjourned, the afternoon turned ugly as police had to protect Mr. Peretz while he walked across campus surrounded by a mob of screaming students."What was Marty's sin? Peretz said:
"Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. And among those Muslims led by the Imam Rauf [of the proposed Cordoba House mosque] there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood. So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse."
Can we debate this? What was the response?
... Stephen Walt of the Kennedy School of Government, who co-authored a book, "The Israel Lobby," which argues that a conspiracy skews American policy in the Middle East in favor of Israel. Mr. Walt's blog on the web site of Foreign Policy magazine offers readers a series of Mr. Peretz's statements "displaying hatred and contempt for Muslims, Arabs, and other minorities."Read the rest here.
9 comments:
It's all too often about "exposing hate" in order to preempt a discussion about policy and strategy, never mind whether or not whether it is true or not, or how true.
Almost the whole PC world is now a student of Alinksy. And the nation is weaker for it.
"William Burroughs, the novelist and poet, in a wry moment wrote – “After one look at this planet, any visitor from outer space would say – “I want to see the manager.”
I found the quote in a sermon delivered by Rabbi Schlomo Lewis of Atlanta and posted online at A Sermon @ MaggiesNotebook.
EHR KUMT
First Day of Rosh Hashanah 2010
"I thought long and I thought hard on whether to deliver the sermon I am about to share. We all wish to bounce happily out of shul on the High Holidays, filled with warm fuzzies, ready to gobble up our brisket, our honey cakes and our kugel. We want to be shaken and stirred – but not too much. We want to be guilt-schlepped – but not too much. We want to be provoked but not too much. We want to be transformed but not too much.
I get it, but as a rabbi I have a compelling obligation, a responsibility to articulate what is in my heart and what I passionately believe must be said and must be heard. And so, I am guided not by what is easy to say but by what is painful to express. I am guided not by the frivolous but by the serious. I am guided not by delicacy but by urgency.
We are at war. We are at war with an enemy as savage, as voracious, as heartless as the Nazis but one wouldn’t know it from our behavior. During WWII we didn’t refer to storm troopers as freedom fighters. We didn’t call the Gestapo, militants. We didn’t see the attacks on our Merchant Marine as acts by rogue sailors. We did not justify the Nazis rise to power as our fault. We did not grovel before the Nazis, thumping our hearts and confessing to abusing and mistreating and humiliating the German people. We did not apologize for Dresden, nor for The Battle of the Bulge, nor for El Alamein, nor for D-Day.
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continued from above:
"Evil – ultimate, irreconcilable, evil threatened us and Roosevelt and Churchill had moral clarity and an exquisite understanding of what was at stake. It was not just the Sudetenland, not just Tubruk, not just Vienna, not just Casablanca. It was the entire planet. Read history and be shocked at how frighteningly close Hitler came to creating a Pax Germana on every continent.
Not all Germans were Nazis – most were decent, most were revolted by the Third Reich, most were good citizens hoisting a beer, earning a living and tucking in their children at night. But, too many looked away, too many cried out in lame defense – I didn’t know.” Too many were silent. Guilt absolutely falls upon those who committed the atrocities, but responsibility and guilt falls upon those who did nothing as well. Fault was not just with the goose steppers but with those who pulled the curtains shut, said and did nothing.
In WWII we won because we got it. We understood who the enemy was and we knew that the end had to be unconditional and absolute. We did not stumble around worrying about offending the Nazis. We did not measure every word so as not to upset our foe. We built planes and tanks and battleships and went to war to win….. to rid the world of malevolence.
We are at war… yet too many stubbornly and foolishly don’t put the pieces together and refuse to identify the evil doers. We are circumspect and disgracefully politically correct. Let me mince no words in saying that from Fort Hood to Bali, from Times Square to London, from Madrid to Mumbai, from 9/11 to Gaza, the murderers, the barbarians are radical Islamists.
To camouflage their identity is sedition. To excuse their deeds is contemptible. To mask their intentions is unconscionable." . . . . ."Our parents and grandparents saw the swastika and recoiled, understood the threat and destroyed the Nazis. We see the banner of Radical Islam and can do no less.
A rabbi was once asked by his students….
“Rebbi. Why are your sermons so stern?” Replied the rabbi, “If a house is on fire and we chose not to wake up our children, for fear of disturbing their sleep, would that be love?” Kinderlach, ‘di hoyz brent.’ Children our house is on fire and I must arouse you from your slumber.” . . .
Democracies don’t always win.
Tyrannies don’t always lose.
My friends – the world is on fire and we must awake from our slumber. “EHR KUMT.”
the entire sermon can be read at the link
Anon,
Thank you. This Rabbi gets it. Perhaps no one better than Jews get it?
Tonight, 20/20 will be doing a puff piece on pisslam. Amanpisspour will also be doing a puff piece on Sunday. Someone please watch these and report? My day has been hard, and I know that I will not be able to stomach watching either show.
It's difficult watching so much disinformation given with such confidence and even self-righteousness. And you know that's what we'll see on 20/20. I recorded it. I'll watch it when I feel I can do it without putting my foot through the TV.
Good sermon from the Rabbi, Anonymous.
Thanks for that.
Jason,
The thing that is shocking in your post is that, somehow, the media took a conversation Peretz started on Islam and turned it immediately into a conversation LED BY STEPHEN WALT on Israel!!!
WTF?
What does one have to do with the other?
Israel has nothing to do with the way Islam is? Except for the fact that Israel is smack dab in the middle of a bunch of Muslim countries, Islam has no connection to Islam whatsoever.
In 2000 I personally watched as the senior producers at 20/20 shut down, without explanation, an expose on a cult-related child molestor and pimp of children to prominent politicians. As a cult investigator with personal knowledge of this case, I had met with the segment producer and provided information. One week before the segment was about to air, the segment producer wound up in the hospital with a serious undiagnosed illness. The subject of the segment was known to have numerous Friends in High Places and the last thing they wanted was his "services" being exposed.
I wouldn't use 20/20 for bathroom tissue. They are cowards and they are owned by anyone who cares to threaten them with a big enough stick.
So now they are whoring for Islam? Well, they do seem to have a soft spot for powerful men who like to screw little children.
The Rabbi hit it on the head.
War is not pretty. It took a lot of blood to defeat the Nazi's. It took two nukes to defeat Japan. World War I wasn't won by arm wrestling or playing rock, paper, scissors.
Vietnam was lost because the pc police were finding their stones. Make love not war they said. Do they think those who wish to turn us into martyrs will change their mind, if we just "love" them?
Thank you for posting the rabbi's speech anonymous.
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