How anti-Semites protect themselves

[Scootaloo]

5. The entire article is a diversionary tactic, Mosby

it starts off with an actual antisemitic comment, by Sheikh Adel Bin Ahmad - flat-out holocaust denial. Alright, so far everyone's on the same page (except perhaps for the Sheikh, but I doubt he's a reader. Call it a hunch.)

Steve Apfel then tries some rhetorical judo, to take Ahmad's complaint, and use it to smear a whole list of people who are, - as this very article makes clear - quite right in pointing out that for some people, screaming "antisemitism!" is a reflexive, nonsensical defense.

He also thinks Louis Farrakhan founded the Nation of Islam. So right now, I can tell we're dealing with someone who wishes he had the intellectual weight of Daniel Pipes.

But notice the card they all play, the bad Jew card, depicting a crafty and loathsome character. The Jew, we’re led to believe, is intolerant, devious, cowardly, not very bright and short of facts. Denigrators of Israel, on the other hand, supposedly have truth on their side.

Note that nobody he quoted actually levied this accusation against Jews. With the exception of mr. Farrakhan, "the Jew" - Apfel's turn of phrase - is not mentioned, and even Farrakhan does not give the characterization to "the Jew" that Apfel describes. That is all coming from Steve Apfel, not anyone he's quoting. Israel is mentioned, but even a basic understanding of reality should be able to tell you that "Israel" does not equal "The Jews" - and anyone who believes otherwise is wading hip-deep in the sea of actual antisemitism.

So we’re presented with a new kind of Jew, quite different in make-up to the tribe known, indeed often despised, for its argumentative ways. Jews are nothing if not divisive. One might even say that God encrypted a hypercritical gene into His chosen people.

Really. Can we get a few Pollack jokes next?

“How to shut your critics up with a single word,” complained Fisk, all the while bent on shutting up his critics before they close on his trail of falsifications and frauds.

Of course we have by now realized that mr. Apfel is doing exactly what Fisk is accusing. he's swinging that word, "antisemite" around like a dead cat, trying hard to make people shut up. This probably isn't the best tactic to use to refute Robert Fisk's point, but the regular reader of "The Times of Israel" seems to be the sort of person who is easily confused, so I doubt they notice this.

They cry foul the moment someone tackles their records of Israel demonization and anti-Jewish bias.

I failed to see any tackling going on by mr. Apfel. perhaps that's because, like the average Israel Supporter, he's not in the field, or even in the stadium, he's the slob watching it all the day after on TiVo.

“Whatever I, or my Palestinians, are guilty of, I’ll make the Jews guilty of that same thing.”

Now here's the funny thing. Let's go back up to mr. Apfel's own, personally-derived characterization of "The Jews," a view one presumes to be shared by any who would feel obligated to repost the fellow's articles.

a crafty and loathsome character. The Jew, we’re led to believe, is intolerant, devious, cowardly, not very bright and short of facts.

Note of course, the irony; The only one in the article who is accusing someone of being "crafty and loathsome, intolerant, devious, cowardly, not very bright, and short of facts" Is Mr. Apfel.

Like I said, it's an attempt at rhetorical judo.

So was Clint Eastwood and his chair.

Clint's probably better at it.

Also, "my Palestinians"? What the fuck?

AND THAT IS HOW ANTI-SEMITES PLAY THE GAME

All-caps because that makes visual medium louder, I suppose.

Mr. Apfel's whole "thing" here is to accuse people of antisemitism, because those people point out that Israel supporters use the term reflexively as the centerpiece of whatever argument they try to make. In so doing, he's actually proving their claims for them.

And in the process, he gives that delightful characterization of "The Jews" which, along with the crux of his thesis - "Israel = Jews = Israel" - just cements my opinion that actual, real-life antisemitism is the cornerstone of most "Israel supporters."

I could also raise some questions about An Apartheid-era military man from Johannesburg who served as a District officer in Rhodesia, having a goddamned thing to say about Desmond Tutu... But, given the first comment on hte article, and considering who's presenting it to us here, I think I can spare myself the effort.