Talking to a wall is not dialog: trying to talk to the American Jewish World
IN NEWS, NOKOMIS, PHILLIPS/POWDERHORN, RIVERSIDE / BY ASHLEY PEDERSON / ON
SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 AT 12:50 PM /
BY ED FELIEN
On Wednesday, Aug. 27, Mordecai Specktor published an editorial in the American
Jewish World that accused me of anti-Semitism. I wrote a response and told
him, I have always published Jewish Community Relations Council responses to my
editorials regarding the actions of the Israeli government in the past 10 years
even when their responses were completely extraneous to the points I discussed
in my article, and I expect the American Jewish World to publish my response in
its entirety in their next publication.
He refused to publish this response:
Anti-Semitism makes a comeback
BY ED FELIEN
You begin your history of anti-Semitism in Minnesota by mentioning the 1938
gubernatorial campaign. You neglect to inform your readers that the campaign
was between the left-wing Farmer-Laborite candidate Elmer Benson and the Boy
Wonder Republican candidate, Harold Stassen. It was Stassens campaign that
published crude caricatures of Jews re-writing school textbooks according to
instructions from Moscow. You owe it to your readers to provide context for
your history.
You say, Perhaps Felien thinks that Philistines is similar to Palestinians, so
go for it. Actually, most people who have studied the matter do believe that
the name Palestinians is an early variant of Philistines.
In a television program I said Israel is dominated by Ashkenazi, or
Europeanized Jews. You say that actually Sephardic Jews are the majority. I
quite agree, but they did not create the modern state of Israel. They are not
in control of the government or the economy. Of the 120 seats in the Knesset,
Sephardic Jews probably hold only six.
My screed, as you call it, was seven verses from the Torah. How can the Torah
be anti-Semitic? In the verses the prophets call on the Israelites to slay
their enemiesmen, women and childrenwithout mercy. I agree that I am arguing
that this barbaric and Jewish supremacist ideology underpins Zionism. But I am
not saying this ideology underpins Judaism, nor, for that matter, the
legitimacy of the state of Israel.
You say, Felien would have his readers believe that the present state of
Israeli-Palestinian relations goes back to biblical times. Are you saying that
Israel does not lay its claim to Judea based on the Torah? Are you saying
there is no political party that claims biblical justification for the state of
Israel? Wikipedia: Religious Jews believe that Eretz Yisrael (the Land of
Israel) was promised to the ancient Israelites by God and the right of the Jews
to the land is permanent and inalienable. Do you really believe that The
Jewish Home, Shas and United Torah Judaism political parties are not basing
their political ideology on the biblical verses I cited? These religious
Zionists control 30 seats, one-fourth of the members of the Knesset.
Hassan Jabareen, director of Adalah, a legal center for Arab rights in Israel,
said in The New York Times, Calls to Kill all Arabs! used to be confined to
extremist groups but today, you hear it everywhere. In the past when people
said racist things, we found that many officials denounced that. This time we
found silence. There is tolerance of this extremist rhetoric by the present
government, including by Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu, who recently made
a very unacceptable comment that there is a moral gap between Jews and Arabs.
To believe another group is morally inferior to your own is racist, and, since
Arabs (like Jews) are Semites, it is anti-Semitic.
And what about Avigdor Lieberman, foreign minister in the Israeli government
and the head of the Russian settler party that is driving Palestinians out of
the West Bank? He wants an Israel without Arabs, or, if they stay, they must
sign a loyalty oath to a Jewish state. He is a Semite-hating Semite.
Look in the mirror, my friend. It just might be that you are the anti-Semite.
Mr. Specktor refused to publish my response. He wrote the following:
I dont buy Eds semantic ploy about the Arabs being Semites, so Im an
anti-Semite. The commonly understood meaning of anti-Semitism is hostility to
or prejudice against Jews. Google it.
If you Google Semite, this is what you get from Wikipedia: Today, the word
Semite may be used to refer to any member of any of a number of peoples of
ancient Southwestern Asia descent including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews
(Jews), Arabs, and their descendants.
Specktor continues: Generally, theres nothing edifying in Eds response. I dont
think it merits publication in the AJW. We dont need to provide Ed with a
platform for his malign and tendentious Torah commentary, and his ill-informed
views on Middle East affairs.
Rather than discuss the points in my article, Specktor simply insults me and
calls me names. It reminds me of the old sketch from Saturday Night Live when
Dan Ackroyd began his rebuttal to Jane Curtin by saying, Jane, you ignorant
slut!
And, Ed seems to be impervious to the facts and reasoned arguments.
No, Mr. Specktor, it seems to me it is you and the JCRC who are impervious.
You prove it by refusing to discuss the ideas and by resorting to insults and
slander. Once again, Mr. Specktor, look in the mirror, you might just see a
portrait of intolerance.
Ed Felien
<email obscured>
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