The Little Zionist

http://www.jonathanfreedland.com/articles/archives/000329.html

Banal senseless fluff from Jonathan Freedland. My favourite bits:

“their desire to have what we Jews yearned for so long, a homeland of our own where we might govern ourselves — is nothing more than a collective plot to deny Jewish suffering. So those Palestinians living under curfew and hemmed in by checkpoints aren’t angry about this hardship or desperate to throw off a 40-year occupation.” This ancient people is indeed desperate to throw off the shackles of the Zionist oppression and return to its natural state as a self-governing, politically distinct entity.

“They snap up copies of her book Londonistan, in which Britain — a rotting, decayed island awash with amorality — is on the brink of an Islamist takeover.” ‘Look at crazy old Mel’, says Freedland incisively.

“London is not the Warsaw ghetto, that Europe is not an inferno and that there is no need for the big US bodies to come to Anglo-Jewry’s rescue.” This country is indeed a fantastic place to be Jewish, just as tolerant as America.

“They have also had to explain that the US method of doing business — offering heavy financial help to pro-Israel MPs, for example — would not play well here.” The Jews are rich people who use their money to garner political support. This is bad.

I really struggle to believe that Freedland could happily publish this banal article under his own name. How can he not find it humiliating that people are reading his dull dull dull rubbish?

Blade and I had just docked in Bilbao, having come to the end of a hideous 36-hour ordeal on board a large, lower-class ferry. I was hanging around the reception desk of the vessel wearing Blade’s Israeli Airforce hoody, and trying to look offensive, when I noticed a man whom I assumed to be northerner, wearing some nylon shorts. We disembarked without showing anyone our passports, and with the Liverpudlian following us. The northerner then offered us a lift with him and his brother, whose parents have moved to Spain, and to whom they were driving. They dropped us outside our five-star hotel. I left Blade’s 2003 rowing jacket in the car. I was more upset about this than he. So in the car we conversed on various matters. Blade told the nice men that he wanted to be a teacher in order not to make them feel bad about their relative stupidity. I told them that I did French, and English, thinking this to be a rather inoffensive combination as would be studied by asinine girls from the north. Blade later told me I was wrong on this point. The younger of the brothers said that he was in the army fighting in Afghanistan, and this pleased me very much. I said that my cousin was also there shooting the savage Taleban, and we bonded. He spotted my hoody, and asked me if I was in the Israeli airforce (this was before I had told him about my studying French and English). I said that no I was not, and that I had the hoody because I had bought it as a souvenir, and because the Israeli Airforce is the best in the world. His only point of contention was the superiority of the British in this area. This, again, pleased me very much. We made a few small jokes about F16s and mohemmedans, and, again, bonded. This was a very heartening conversation. These people have not been perverted by the scourge of moral relativism, because they do not know what it is. They prefer to talk about aeroplanes and guns than Edward Said. They are excluded from the post-al-aqsa tide of anti-semitism, that I shall very originally observe, has swept along islamo-facsists as well as ‘intellectuals’. This is very good, and I entered my Bilbao hotel happy.

Blade and I have entertained. I will relate the menu before he does.

Halal milk bottle sweets.

American ‘natural’ Cheetos (only for thelittlezionist).

Lychee puddings (only for Ru).

Jelly Beans.

Yeo’s chrysantheme juice with vodka.

White wine left over from Cambridge Limmud 2006.

Publix root beer with rum.

Tamarind chink drink with rum.

Marks and Spencer’s Alpho mango cocktail mixer with water and vodka.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKZEo6d-ypc&mode=related&search=

http://downloads.gamezone.com/demosfiles/t1848.htm

http://www.mobygames.com/game/janes-combat-simulations-israeli-air-force

I am downloading the demo now. Very exciting.

I’ve just been sent this link. Thank God we still control the rest of the media.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Zionist

Alan Dershowitz is speaking at SOAS on Wednesday the 8th as part of his European Tour for Democracy II, Zionism is not Racism: The Case for Israel.

All the details are here

Even though Christmas is now over, Amazon have still not delivered the present that I most wanted. It is T. S. Eliot himself reading the Wasteland on CD, and I need it because I have no means of getting my taped versions (of Alec Guinness’ doing the same) onto my ipod.
I used to love this poem. I knew practically the whole thing word for word. I read Dante, Conrad, Chrétien de Troyes and bits of my Bible solely because I thought they’d give me a better understanding of this poem, which I convinced myself was the most important and interesting thing I could ever possibly read. I developed a naïve idea of its transcendental qualities and read about the transcendental and literature and art.
Now I sit around reading about the Iranians’ latest anti-Israel comments, or how we should be dealing with terrorism, or where we went wrong dealing with all our Arab immigrants. I never thought I would have any interest in any of this real world stuff. I am slightly shocked that I believe there is a point in, for example, trying to give the Arabs a bit of liberal democracy*. I’ve always been disgusted with politics and have completely avoided it. Now I’ve become convinced that there is a moral imperative to defend certain values. Perhaps I have simply transferred my naïve affection from Eliot to Israel, which I think embodies those values, and provides an admirable model of liberal democracy – a better model than ours and America’s at least. I suppose I’ll come to understand better as I learn more about the country, and about Jewish history and things. There does seem something special about Israel; I only know a little about it so far, but it seems to have achieved amazing things against the odds. Maybe it just looks good surrounded by all those Arab states.

*See above…

Welcome to my blog. I am a small Zionist, and will be using my webpage to share my (wholly original) thoughts on Israel, Zionism, and these Jews. Since you’re probably already wondering if (or suspecting that) I am Jewish, I’ll tell you that I’m not. I’ve found that any positive interest in Israel consistently provokes this question from Jews and gentiles alike. To support Israel, you must be Jewish; surely there could be no other reason for supporting such a corrupt, racist, colonialist state. I suppose the attitude expressed by the asking of this question - and the incredulity shown when I answer in the negative - pretty well expresses the view that to support Israel one must be biased (and therefore dishonest or wrong). i.e. one must be Jewish.

I suppose, looking at the asker more favourably, in statistical terms, it’s an utterly logical question; moderate, secular Zionism seems to be a mainstay of contemporary diaspora Jewish thought, whereas the rest of us seem to be staunchly pro-Palestinian. Or at least anti-Zionist. Surely, then, it is this minority - these Jews brought up on a diet of Zionist youth groups and Israel tours, who are prejudiced, and unable to see reason. Or perhaps it is the majority which is wrong. This is what my small Zionist blog will begin by considering: is it the thoughts of the Zionist Jew, or the gentile that have been perverted from reason by prejudice?