Unsolicited advice from an Israeli visitor

[Violet_Crumble]

It will take quite some time before the liberals of Sydney and Melbourne are able to extricate the stone that Prof. Raphael Israeli of the Hebrew University tossed into the Australian well. The veteran orientalist, a guest of the Shalom Institute at the University of New South Wales, was quoted in an article in the Australian Jewish News, a weekly, as saying Australia should cap Muslim immigration He went on to warn Australians of being swamped by Indonesian immigrants.

According to Israeli, who didn't back down when he was approached by the national press, the experience of the West proves that when a Muslim minority becomes more than one-tenth of a country's population, it bodes ill. "When the Muslim population gets to a critical mass you have problems. That is a general rule, so if it applies everywhere it applies in Australia." Even though their numbers are still well below that in Australia, complained Israeli, "they are so vocal, and they make so much noise," that it's incumbent on the state to implement a "preventative policy" that will leave the Muslim citizens as a "marginal minority" before life becomes "untenable."

In a subsequent article, Israeli noted that he was surprised by the intensity of the responses to his comments. The Israeli ambassador to Australia, Naftali Tamir, also did not imagine in his day that his remarks to Haaretz in praise of the Israeli-Australian brotherhood of "the white race" over "slant-eyed" Asia would shock public opinion in the country where he was serving.

The astonishment of both the professor and the diplomat is characteristic of certain Israelis who believe, apparently, that the naive farmers of the outback will thirstily gulp down their perceptions. As poet Dahlia Ravikovitch wrote so wonderfully and ironically: "In the southern tip of the garden, where the sprinkler cannot reach, it's like Australia: dry, with dwarfish shrubs."

In this case, the Israeli sprinkler has hit a non-dwarfish thicket of sensitivities, some of them local and some of them common to the global garden. Let us begin with the harsh truth: Many Australians are prepared with all their hearts to agree with the Israeli professor, as are masses of French people and Britons. Professor Mark Baker of Monash University wrote in the Australian Jewish News that "Raphael Israeli can most certainly fill a book (he has written several) to exhibit the facts we most fear" regarding the approximately half a million Muslims living in Australia, who constitute about 2.5 percent of the population. The riots that broke out last summer in Sydney between "white" and Muslim youngsters also fanned the fears, as well as their popular sidekick, the sweeping generalization.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/835013.html

[bemildred]

1. Another guy with no clue ... nt

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Guys with no clue everywhere would love him...

He pretty much echoes the thinking of our current (and hopefully soon to be ex) PM...

[oberliner]

9. Be careful what you wish for

Did you see who was ahead in the most recent polling for Israeli PM?

[Divernan]

3. The Israeli ambassador to Australia refers to "slant-eyed orientals"?!?!?!

and is surprised that his comment would shock public opinion? He further refers to the "Israeli-Australian brotherhood of the white race". And a visiting Israeli professor says to cap Muslim immigration. Between the two of them, they are advocating a "white brotherhood" which should control the numbers of non-whites, Muslims and/or "slant-eyes" within a country's population.

So someone explain to me how these Israeli elites, whom would doubtless and rightfully be offended if they were referred to as "hook-noses", get the chutzpah to be so racist. Given the dreadful persecution they suffered under Hitler, their espousal of a white race/brotherhood is breath taking in its hypocracy. Pogo would say they have met the enemy and it is themselves.

Would they divide the world into white Christian/Jews in one political/geographic camp, and the majority of the world - Chinese, Indian, Muslims, Hindus, all non-whites into the other.

How hopes for peace in the Middle East have suffered under Bush's reign of terror!

[bemildred]

5. Racists and bigots are a dime a dozen.

It's like it's hardwired in the human brain or something. The amazing thing is that he was/is stupid and ignorant enough to say it for publication (IMHO). Even Bush isn't that stupid.

Pogo rules.

[Dhalgren]

4. With the experiences that so many Jews, world-wide, share as objects of white-supremacist hatred,

it is particularly dumbfounding to hear an Israeli official spout such clap-trap. This is the same kind of ideology that allows and promotes the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland and funnels money to repressive regimes around the world. Sooner or later the Jews as world citizens are going to have to separate themselves from the current Israeli regime and recognize that bigotry and racism is epidemic in the current government and power in Israel...

[henank]

6. Non PC but correct all the same

You are not going to like my reply because it's totally politically incorrect but I'm going to say it anyway. Please tell me why what the professor said is "clap-trap" just because it is not politically correct? Show us one country with a large Muslim immigrant sector which does not suffer from problems from those immigrants, whether it be their demand for Sharia law to be applied in that country, family honour violence against women, etc.

And none of this has the slightest connection with Israel or Palestinians.

Also, your comment ordering the Jews to dissociate themselves from Israel is pure antisemitism.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. I don't like yr reply because it's bigoted garbage that shouldn't emerge on a progressive forum...

Show us one country with a large Muslim immigrant sector which does not suffer from problems from those immigrants...

Yep, coz everyone knows that when large groups of immigrants that aren't Muslim have arrived in countries in the past, they always assimilate with no problems at all and it's only those pesky Muslims who have problems :sarcasm:

Also, your comment ordering the Jews to dissociate themselves from Israel is pure antisemitism.

Saying that people should distance themselves from the current Israeli govt is antisemitism?????

[henank]

8. I said you wouldn't like my answer

I told you you wouldn't like my answer. Yes, non-Muslim immigrants have largely ssuccessfully integrated into other societies. Look at the UK for an example. Hundreds of thousands of West Indians immigrated to England in the 60s and 70s, together with further hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis and other Asians from the Indian sub-continent. I'm not saying their integration went perfectly smoothly or that all is hunky dory now, but the problems were not because of the demands of the immigrants - who formed a minority of the population - on the host country. However with the influx of hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants, there are demands for all kinds of concessions from the British government and society which no other immigrant group has made. I don't think it is bigoted or racist to point this out.

My comment about Jews distancing themselves from the Israeli governemnt was addressed to Dhalgren who said: "Sooner or later the Jews as world citizens are going to have to separate themselves from the current Israeli regime and recognize that bigotry and racism is epidemic in the current government and power in Israel... Where is the rest of the sentence? What happens if the Jews don't dissociate themselves from Israel? There is a threat implied and I find it highly offensive, and yes, bordering on antisemitism.

You don't like my statement, well I don't like yours.

[scarletwoman]

11. The statement you quote says quite clearly the "current Israeli REGIME" -- that means the

current GOVERNMENT of Israel, not the country of Israel itself. You have persisted in both your posts to twist the meaning of that statement and substitute "Israel" for the actual reference to the Israeli REGIME. Your argument is therefore dishonest.

And, for your information, Pakistanis ARE Muslims -- Pakistan was established specifically to be a Muslim country when India was partitioned after Independence. Your citing of the relatively successful integration of Pakistani MUSLIMS quite obviously fails as a logical argument against Muslim immigration.

sw

[Scurrilous]

10. Professor in Muslim comments furore lashes out (Feb. 19, 2007)

<snip>

"A VISITING Jewish professor has lashed out at Australian Jewish leaders for their "shameful submission to Muslim thugs", saying his comments were less harsh than some by the Prime Minister and federal Treasurer.

Hebrew University professor Raphael Israeli, dropped from a proposed lecture tour after comments last week, said political correctness did not allow his remarks to be said, though, privately, all supported them.

He said Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello had said harsher things after "Muslim riots", but "someone elected to seize upon this opportunity now and sweep Australia into a storm in a teacup".

Professor Israeli, who will teach his six-week Islamic history course at the University of NSW, posted his version of the stoush* on a website.

On the Dhimmi Watch section of www.jihadwatch.org, he wrote: "The dhimmi-like Jewish leadership cancelled all activities, in a shameful submission to the Muslim thugs and under the false claims of a 'multicultural society' in Australia, which they know is not true."

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/professor-in-muslim-comments-furore-lashes-out/2007/02/18/1171733612567.html


*stoush

(Austral. or NZ slang) (v) to thrash or beat (a person); to fight
(n) fighting; a brawl or fight, a scrap

[UndertheOcean]

12. Racist Crap.

n/t