3/25/07

Jonathan Rosenbaum: Zion Denier

I bristle every time I read the palpably anti-Zionist screeds of one Jonathan Rosenbaum who writes for a pathetic hate-filled publication called "Cross-Currents".

Week after week, he and his compatriots negate the realities of our world. They write as if the powerful and beautiful State of Israel does not exist.

This is utterly idiotic.

I'm labeling Mr. Rosenbaum a Zion-Denier. He is worse than a Holocaust Denier. He denies the reality of the modern State of Israel. He writes as if it does not exist. He is worse than any Arab propagandist. He is a Jew who hates himself and his people.

Here is his latest crap.

It is time to embrace our abnormal existence.

The enduring, irrational, and protean nature of the hatred directed at us in all generations and all places is the greatest proof of that we have been singled out for a unique mission. The “miracle” of anti-Semitism is something that even non-religious Jews can grasp.

Rather than depressing us, we should view the rapid metamorphosis of anti-Zionism into the same old Jew-hatred as one of the clearest proofs of our chosenness, and, incidentally, of the world’s unconscious recognition of that fact. Not by accident does the UN Human Rights Commission occupy itself with no subject other than Israel, or every European paper seemingly devote two or three articles to Israel every day.

In any event, Israelis have no choice but to embrace their predicament. Alain Finkelkraut, speaking in Jerusalem Sunday night both as a Jew and as a defender of French civilization, dismissed as futile efforts to improve Israeli propaganda, for such efforts fail to comprehend the nature of the hatred.

The idee fixe of our age, according to Finkelkraut, is one that De Tocqueville associated with early American democracy: le passion de semblance, the quest for sameness. Europe’s vaunted cosmopolitanism is nothing more than an assertion of its own nullity, the denial of all differences between cultures and civilizations.

That is why European intellectuals reject the possibility of a clash of civilizations and cannot bring themselves to view Islamists as the enemy. The oft-made statement that the new Europe was born in Auschwitz is a profoundly dangerous one, Finkelkraut asserted, for it denies all history, all culture.

Against this homogenizing trend and post-national Europe, stands Israel and its claim to be both a democratic and Jewish national state. That claim enrages the Europeans in a way that Islamic theocracies and dictatorships do not. Just one more chapter in the Jew’s age-old assertion of his difference.

Contrary to the cosmopolitan quest for a world without borders, the Torah describes a world in which God created 70 different nations and assigned each its own place. And of those seventy nations, one was chosen and assigned the task of spreading the knowledge of Him.

It is that choice we will celebrate next week at the Seder. Now more than ever must we do so.

This man is both anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic. He has no shame. He denies the absolute power and achievement of the State of Israel and writes as if it was null and void.

Our existence as a Jewish people is both normalized and sanctified by the State of Israel. You choose to deny that. For shame.

I am compelled to stand and scream at him. At your Seder you will deny the reality and achievements of the State of Israel and all that it does to protect and to elevate the Jewish people among the nations of the world. May the Lord save us from you.

11 comments:

jack said...

where the hell,in this article do you see him deniying or ignoring zionism's achievements,or am i missing something?

Anonymous said...

Harry,
It doesn't matter whether or not R' Rosenblum wrote anything about Zion. All that matters to Tzvee is that R' Rosenblum is a successful Haredi writer.

Tzvee Zahavy said...

Harry and Bryce,

When JR says, "It is time to embrace our abnormal existence" and goes on from there to act as if the State does not exist, nothing could be clearer. He denies the Zionist State.

Tzvee Zahavy said...

Bryce,

The fact is that I do read his columns and find them to be revolting. Try reading them yourself. And ask how a person can live in such a fantasy world with such animosity towards the State of Israel.

jack said...

tzvee" rosenblum is writing about the irrational and pathalogical hatred of the world towards israel and the jews,absolutely nowhere in this artivle do you see any denigration against the stateplease get a life

jack said...

tzvee; if you want to read really revolting stuff,just read your freinds aticles in the 'haaretz'
the so called n.y times of israel

Tzvee Zahavy said...

Excuse me, but I am correct. JR says in the line before the excerpt I gave, "What we need, it seems to me, is an alternative post-Zionism. Rather than decrying the failure of Zionism to normalize the situation of the Jews, let us recognize that failure as the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy, “[I]t will not be! As for what you say, ‘We will be like the nations, like the families of the lands.” (Ezekiel 20:23)."

For JR to invoke religious texts to defend his screwy anti-Zionist worldview - that is sick.

Any sane and simple review of history since 1948 and surely since 1991, willsupport the claim that the State of Israel has utterly succeeded.

Agudath Israel continues to defame the State with religious slander. That is pitiful.

Anonymous said...

"Any sane and simple review of history since 1948 and surely since 1991, will support the claim that the State of Israel has utterly succeeded."

It's too bad that you're changing the subject. Rosenblum is talking about antisemitism in *particular*, and you're talking about success in *general*.

The paragraphs preceding the "what we need" paragraph are dealing with antisemitism (eg: "Iran’s president threatens to wipe Israel off the map. (E)very poll of Europeans overwhelmingly names Israel as the greatest threat to world peace.")
Are you denying these facts? Or just ignoring them? Or just ignoring what Rosenblum writes?

Tzvee Zahavy said...

i take the threats very seriously. but really you have to look at a fact now and then. let's take one statistic - jews killed by acts of anti-semitism including wars and terrorist attacks. from 1900-1948 over 6 million were killed. from 1948 to the present about 20,000 were killed. anyone who says that anti-semitism is on the rise is creating alarmist rhetoric to serve his own agenda. in this case the agenda is clear JR wants you to think that the state of israel has failed. it hasn't. jews are safer than ever before and more proud than ever before because of the state of israel. those are facts based on hard numbers and on the preponderance of evidence in the media of the world.

Anonymous said...

Recommended:
http://www.danielgordis.org/
Site/Site_Dispatches.asp R' Rosenblum refers to it in his article.

In it, Gordis differentiates between "Israel has failed to..." and "Zionism has failed to..." It's a crucial distinction that Tzvee missed , was pointed out to him, and missed again.

Tzvee Zahavy said...

see today