Praise Arab Spring, Except for Anti-Semitism: Jeffrey Goldberg

[vminfla]

The bravery of the youth of Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Libya can’t be denied. It isn’t pepper spray that they’ve been facing. Nor can the idealism of the Arab Spring be denied. The people of the Middle East are finally awakening to the promise of liberty.

There is another truth, however, that shouldn’t be denied. The desire of Arabs to be free of their spiteful and pitiless dictators is sometimes expressed in grotesquely anti-Jewish terms.

On the surface this makes no sense: Arabs are rising up against Arabs, so what does this have to do with the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”? There has been a tendency in the Middle East to blame the general wretchedness of life on the hidden and malevolent hand of Israel, or more generally -- and more prejudicially -- on “the Jews,” but the Arab Spring’s approach at first seemed radically different. Tunisians, Egyptians, Syrians and Libyans were engaged in demonstrations against the actual causes of their day-to-day misery, rather than against Israel. In Tahrir Square, in the early days of the revolution, Israel seemed an afterthought.

But now in Cairo, and across the Arab Middle East, Israel and the Jews are serving once again as universal boogeymen. Once dictators used anti-Semitism to divert their citizens’ attention away from their own problems. Now expressions of the most ridiculous conspiracy theories seem to rise up organically.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-29/praise-arab-spring-except-for-anti-semitism-jeffrey-goldberg.html

[MADem]

1. The only thing I find surprising is that anyone would find this attitude surprising.

Arab Spring or no Arab Spring, there's a shitload of Jew-hatin' happening around the Middle East, North Africa and Southwest Asia. It predates the Arab spring by many, many years, and it will likely go on long after the Arab Spring is a distant memory.

They've been running that Egyptian miniseries "Protocols" program all over the region, dubbed or subtitled in some cases, forever, it seems. It's a staple, kind of like MIRACLE ON 34th STREET or A CHRISTMAS STORY in the US. People look forward to it, have parties to watch it--it's an "event."

I wish I could be more sanguine about a future Kumbayah moment between the Muslim sphere and the Jews of Israel, but I'm not holding my breath. I'd turn blue and keel over, because there's not going to be any "reconciliation" that doesn't involve a Third Party Overseer (like the US, with a checkbook, and a military) for some time to come.

[vminfla]

2. Systemic brainwashing

Protocols and school text books are used to indoctrinate the next generation in hate. Until the arab world abandons their hate, practical peace will not be achieved. no third parties need apply, the results will be the same - with or without external involvement.