Once again we witness Islamic madness taking to the streets of the Middle East upset that someone dared portray the lecherous pedophile, faux prophet Mohammad in a way that Islamists, including apparently Obama and Hillary Clinton, take exception with. Specific to that point is my following syndicated article that appeared June 8, 2004. I believe it is even more valid today than at the time I first wrote it–because while we have Obama and his Secretary of State running American taxpayer-funded ads on Islamic television apologizing to Islamists–they are not apologizing to Israel for their public dismissal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Recently, I wrote a column titled, “Peaceful religion is not spelled I-s-l-a-m.” And while I am not unfamiliar with comments from those who elevate Jed Clampett and Archie Bunker to the level of a Rhodes scholar – it was the unabridged visceral hatred of the comments I received that gave me pause.
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Recently, I wrote a column titled, “Peaceful religion is not spelled I-s-l-a-m.” And while I am not unfamiliar with comments from those who elevate Jed Clampett and Archie Bunker to the level of a Rhodes scholar – it was the unabridged visceral hatred of the comments I received that gave me pause.
You see, the negative letter-comments were not attacking me for factually addressing Islam, but rather for quoting from a Jewish scholar. Never mind that Professor Moshe Sharon is a scholar of impeccable credentials. Never mind that his work I quoted from was accurate. Not one piece of the KKK-type hate-mail I received questioned or attempted to dispute the accuracy of Sharon’s research. The negativity was solely because I had quoted a Jew.
It was with the aforementioned as a backdrop that I asked one of my closest friends (who happens to be Jewish) over an outdoor lunch at my favorite kosher deli – “Why do people hate Jews so much?”
It was with the aforementioned as a backdrop that I asked one of my closest friends (who happens to be Jewish) over an outdoor lunch at my favorite kosher deli – “Why do people hate Jews so much?”
His answer, “Because we are Jews,” had been too succinct to satisfy my inquiring mind. Long after our conversation, I found myself still wrestling with the reality of something so fundamentally devoid of reason. The hatred of Jews throughout the Muslim world I attributed to “consider the source,” but the animus toward American Jews by other Americans continued to plague me.
I thought of my close friends who now run the family business their grandparents and uncles started two generations ago. I reflected on how hard they worked. No extended vacations, no offshore accounts – just nose-to-the-grindstone hard work. They are just like nearly every other successful competent business person I know. Are they to be hated for their willingness to work hard?
Many of my Jewish friends and acquaintances either followed their parents into the family business or encouraged their children to follow them into family business. Should they be hated for that?
I considered their family life. I found nothing worthy of hatred there either. In fact, just the opposite – they were excellent parents and fathers. Accordingly, I ruled out parental involvement in their children’s academic and social pursuits as being a reason to hate them.
A Jew has never robbed me at gunpoint. I have never had my auto broken into or vandalized by a Jew. But I have had these things done to me by blacks. My apartment was broken into and robbed while in college, but not by a Jew – it was by my black neighbor’s brother who was strung out on heroin. Jews have never vandalized our home, but a Hispanic man and woman did many years ago. I have been called various forms of the “N” word by blacks, a high-school biology teacher and several high-school classmates – even by a Japanese college student at Drexel University – but never by a Jew.
As a teen, a white employer called me a “nigger” repeatedly; my Jewish employers always called me Mychal. While working my way through college at a service station in Maryland, a white customer not particularly appreciative of the way I defended myself offered, if his “granddaddy was still alive, he’d whip” me. Jews on he other hand – more than any other group – joined with blacks to end segregation and discrimination.
This is America, where all but Christians are encouraged to practice their faith openly and publicly – often to the exclusion of established laws – ergo it would be duplicitous to hate Jews for practicing their faith. I can and do disagree with many for not supporting conservative candidates, but their voting record is not reason to hate them.
Granted, there was a business associate from Long Island I had to watch closely – but he would have been dishonest snake even if he were Episcopalian. He is proof positive that there are rotten apples in every barrel. But still not proof that we should viscerally hate an entire group of fellow Americans.
Granted, there was a business associate from Long Island I had to watch closely – but he would have been dishonest snake even if he were Episcopalian. He is proof positive that there are rotten apples in every barrel. But still not proof that we should viscerally hate an entire group of fellow Americans.
Some may argue their loyalty is to Israel, but, before I say “So what,” let me point out another group’s fixation on Africa. Now: “So what?”
I have given painstaking thought to the question I have posed. And I’ve concluded there is no valid reason to hate a people who want what we all want.
So my question remains as basic as this piece is in its simplicity: Why do so many hate the Jews? I suspect for the same reason they hate blacks, whites, Mexicans, Toyotas and their relatives – because if they didn’t hate others, they would have to hate themselves.
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