… by Jonas E. Alexis
Mark Dankof, a former Lutheran pastor and political activist who believes that the Israelis were largely involved in the 9/11 attack, must have been proud of himself because he seemed to have won the anti-Semitism prize at the Jerusalem Post and the ADL. The ADL charges that Dankof has made
“anti-Semitic claims that Muslims and Christians are under threat by Zionists. When asked by the interviewer whether it’s likely the U.S. will reinvestigate the attacks, Dankof replies: ‘It is not going to happen because the people who perpetrated [9/11] are the same people who control the news media and have a disproportionate influence in American foreign policy through various think tanks and so forth, that are aligned with the nation of Israel.’
“Dankof also states that he agrees with the outspoken 9/11 conspiracy theorist Alan Sabrosky that ‘9/11 was an Israeli Mossad inside operation from start to finish — one hundred percent. Period.’ Dankof adds that if others look into 9/11, they will find that:
“‘Israel had the motive, they had the means, they had the opportunity, they had the money, they had the resources, they had the inside contacts and they had the people in the American media and the American government to cover it up for them after the fact.’”
The ADL also accused Jim W. Dean, Gordon Duff, and Kevin Barrett of anti-Semitism for saying things like:
“Zionist fingerprints all over US-led Iran sanctions…Strike on Gaza, Netanyahu’s swan song of rage…Killers of Americans run Romney campaign, US courts and media.”
I myself could not help but laugh a bit here because the ADL, as usual, was committing suicide. In 2013, the Times of Israel reported: “US Jewish groups support new Iran sanctions bill.”[1] In the same year, we were also told: “Jewish groups applaud passage of Iran oversight bill.”[2] In an article entitled “Jewish groups gird for ‘epic’ battle over Iran deal,” the Washington Post said by the middle of this month the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was spending between $20 to $40 “on advertising and campaigns in 30 to 40 states” to stop the Iran deal.[3]
The Times of Israel has recently entitled one of their articles “Kerry leaves Jewish leaders ‘concerned’ after ‘frank’ talks on Iran deal.”[4] The Blaze, the New York Post, and the Free Republic declared: “Secretary of State John Kerry Gets Into ‘Intense Exchange’ With Jewish Leaders Over Iran Nuclear Deal.”[5]
So, were Dean, Duff, and Barrett wrong in saying that “Zionist fingerprints all over US-led Iran sanctions”?
You may want to hold onto something before you read the title of the following article which was put out by the Times of Israel: “ADL, AIPAC worried by Iran deal; J Street set to push it.” Listen to this:
“American Jewish and pro-Israel groups turned their focus toward Capitol Hill Tuesday morning after waking to the long-anticipated announcement that an agreement had been signed between Iran and the P5+1 member states. A number of organization expressed concern over the deal, even as they offered muted congratulations to the Obama administration for its efforts in securing a negotiated agreement with Iran.
“Many of the major organizations representing the American Jewish community and Middle East policy positions are expected to begin a lobbying blitz over the next two months as Congress reviews the Iran deal…. The ADL expressed “serious concern about shortcomings” in the agreement.
“ADL National Chair Barry Curtiss-Lusher and National Director Abraham H. Foxman wrote in a statement that after a preliminary review, they ‘are deeply disappointed by the terms of the final deal with Iran announced today which seem to fall far short of the President’s objective of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear weapon state…’
“After listing concerns with the enforcibility of the deal, Curtiss-Lusher and Foxman turned their focus toward Congress, calling on legislators to ‘carefully scrutinize this agreement and weigh the concerns of non-proliferation experts, assess the national security implications for the US in light of Iran’s destabilizing and deadly meddling in conflicts throughout the region and consider the views of America’s allies and friends in the region.’”[6]
So, when will people at the ADL start growing up and acting like human beings? When will they start recognizing what is and is not anti-Semitism? I and others in particular have rejected the morally repugnant and intellectually contradictory claim that Jewish behavior is genetic.[7] As we have repeatedly pointed out, the issue has always been about morality and practical reason, not so-called good or bad DNA.
We are the ADL’s worse nightmare so far as they categorically reject the truth and its manifestation, namely, morality, practical reason, docility to the political order, etc. If “having a grasp of the truth is having a belief that matches the way things are,” as Plato put it,[8] then those who propose that Jewish behavior is genetic miss the mark and therefore do not have a framework that matches the way things really are.
Last June, the Jerusalem Post faulted Dankof for saying the following:
“It should not be ignored that the victories for abortion on demand and LGBT rights are reflective of the disproportionate influence of Jewish power, money, and activism in the United States.
“The key Jewish role played in the mainstreaming of abortion, LGBT, and pornography in the United States may be documented in Google search, especially in looking at the Frankfurt School and its Institute for Social Research.”[9]
What is really the news here? Didn’t the Jerusalem Post itself have an article last June entitled, “Jewish groups hail Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage nationwide”?[10] Why can’t writers and editors in the Jerusalem Post spend some time reading some of the heading articles in the Jewish Daily Forward and the Jewish Journal?[11] Is the Jewish Daily Forward anti-Semitic for entitling one of their articles: “Jews Overwhelmingly Back Gay Marriage: Poll”? How about this: “I’m an Orthodox Rabbi and I Celebrate Supreme Court’s Gay Marriage Ruling”? The ADL itself declares that it “has been a key partner in advancing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) rights.”
So, who is the Jerusalem Post trying to con into their worldview here?
Furthermore, do writers in the Jerusalem Post mean to tell us that they have never heard of Jewish scholars like Nathan Abrams and Josh Lambert, who get great accolades in Jewish circles and in academe for documenting that pornography is largely a Jewish town?[12] Have they never heard of other Jewish scholars such as Jay A. Gertzman and Edward J. Bristow, who say almost the same thing?[13] Edward pushed the historical argument further by saying that the Jewish involvement in pornography from the 1870s to the 1930s gave rise to Nazi Germany. If that is news to writers at the Jerusalem Post, then certainly they have heard of Joe Biden’s pronouncement. Biden said then:
“The truth is that Jewish heritage, Jewish culture, Jewish values are such an essential part of who we are that it’s fair to say that Jewish heritage is American heritage. No group has had such an outsized influence per capita as all of you standing before you, and all of those who went before me and all of those who went before you.
“You can’t talk about the civil rights movement in this country without talking about Jewish freedom riders and Jack Greenberg…You can’t talk about the women’s movement without talking about Betty Friedan.”[14]
Gay marriage, Biden added, was a good thing because the Dreadful Few in America changed that.
“Think behind of all that, I bet you 85 percent of those changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense, the influence is immense. And, I might add, it is all to the good.”[15]
If writers in the Jerusalem Post are still confused, then they ought to hear from Jonathan Paul Katz of the Jewish Daily Forward. In his article “Dear Israel, America Is Our Queer Jewish Homeland,” Katz said:
“When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage across the United States on Friday, I was quite happy…. the recent ruling, aided by three Jewish justices, gave me the words to say what I want to say. America is the Jewish and queer space we want to build…
“I do not think we need to look to Israel for our queer Jewish role models: they are in the United States, and the folks that continue to work hard for the betterment of queer people.
“America is the Jewish and queer space we want to build. People are welcome to think Israel is awesome, but fundamentally most of us see our queer Jewish futures in the U.S. Most of us want to be accepted and loved in the country that we call home, not in a faraway place we visit but will likely never move to.
“As Yitzchak Francus reminded us last month, the task is yet unfinished – and it is perhaps because of this that so many Jewish Americans have become attached to the idea of Israel as a queer paradise. But we have so much to gain in the country that we call home. So let’s keep building the queer, Jewish America we want.”[16]
If that is again news to the Jerusalem Post, perhaps they should spend some time watching some of Hollywood’s movies and see who is really pushing the gay agenda. Didn’t Steven Spielberg say that the NC-17 movie Blue is the Warmest Color was “magnificent”? Didn’t he applaud the leading actresses, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux, for the sexual scenes?[17] Even the New York Observer noted: “Apparently, Steven Spielberg and his jury go for hot girl-on-girl action.”[18]
In response to the ADL’s charge that Dankof is anti-Semitic for saying that Israel is probably involved in the 9/11 attack, perhaps the organization should also take their complaints Fox News, the demon which probably put that thought into Dankof’s mind:
After the 9/11 attack, the Washington Post reported that at least sixty Israelis were detained by the FBI; but no one dared prosecute them, lest they be accused of anti-Semitism.[19] By March 2002, it was estimated that the U.S. had arrested some two hundred Israelis in espionage investigations, some of whom “had used cover stories to gain access to sensitive government buildings and the homes of American officials”; others were disguised as art students.[20]
In 2003, the Sunday Herald stated that “five Israelis were seen filming as jet liners ploughed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.” The newspaper also claimed that
“Israeli intelligence had been shadowing the al-Qaeda hijackers as they moved from the Middle East through Europe and into America where they trained as pilots and prepared to suicide-bomb the symbolic heart of the United States. And the motive? To bind America in blood and mutual suffering to the Israeli cause.”[21]
The men filming the attack were eventually caught with their van:
“In the car was $4700 in cash, a couple of foreign passports and a pair of box cutters—the concealed Stanley Knife-type blades used by the 19 hijackers who’d flown jetliners into the World Trade Centre and Pentagon just hours before.
“There were also fresh pictures of the men standing with the smouldering wreckage of the Twin Towers in the background. One image showed a hand flicking a lighter in front of the devastated buildings, like a fan at a pop concert. The driver of the van then told the arresting officers: “We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem.”[22]
Their lawyer, Ram Horvitz, dismissed their actions as “stupid and ridiculous,” and Mark Regev of the Israeli embassy in Washington dismissed the allegations as “simply false.” Stating that something is false without providing evidence, however, does not resolve the allegation.
“The respected New York Jewish newspaper, The Forward, reported in March 2002, however, that it had received a briefing on the case of the five Israelis from a U.S. official who was regularly updated by law enforcement agencies.
“This is what he told The Forward: ‘The assessment was that Urban Moving Systems [of which the men were employees] was a front for the Mossad and operatives employed by it.’ Back in Israel, several of the men discussed what happened on an Israeli talk show.
“One of them made this remarkable comment: ‘The fact of the matter is we are coming from a country that experiences terror daily. Our purpose was to document the event.’ But how can you document an event unless you know it is going to happen?”[23]
Perhaps the ADL can help us with the following questions: Do they mean to tell us that we should ignore all this evidence and context clues as if nothing happened? Is Mark Dankof crazy or anti-Semitic for saying that the Israeli fingerprints are all over the 9/11 attack?
Perhaps Shai Franklin was right when he said in the Huffington Post in 2013:
“In our interconnected, postmodern world, ‘anti-Semitic’ has become synonymous with ‘morally indefensible,’ unworthy of rebuttal, able to swiftly kill careers and conversations. As with nuclear weapons, though, this power should be exercised sparingly and responsibly. Barely a day goes by without someone being branded ‘anti-Semitic’ or ‘borderline’ anti-Semitic for criticizing or condemning Israel or its supporters….
“The absence of clear or consistent “rules of the road” is a persistent barrier to open dialogue and conversation. It limits the meaning and effectiveness of efforts to counter the persistent manifestations of genuine anti-Semitism.”[24]
[1] Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, “US Jewish groups support new Iran sanctions bill,” Times of Israel, December 20, 2013.
[2] Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, “Jewish groups applaud passage of Iran oversight bill,” Times of Israel, May 8, 2015.
[3] Steven Mufson, “Jewish groups gird for ‘epic’ battle over Iran deal,” Washington Post, July 17, 2015.
[4] Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, “Kerry leaves Jewish leaders ‘concerned’ after ‘frank’ talks on Iran deal,” Times of Israel, July 24, 2015.
[5] Jason Howerton, “Secretary of State John Kerry Gets Into ‘Intense Exchange’ With Jewish Leaders Over Iran Nuclear Deal: Report,” The Blaze, July 24, 2015; Geoff Earle and Kevin Fasick, “Kerry has ‘intense exchange’ with Jewish leaders over Iran deal,” NY Post, July 24, 2015;
[6] Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, “ADL, AIPAC worried by Iran deal; J Street set to push it,” Times of Israel, July 15, 2015.
[7] One of my frustrations with people who believe that the “Jewish Question” is genetic is that they simply cannot follow reason and take this argument to its ultimate end. For the past three years or so, I have been looking for a serious person who can articulate this position logically and without falling into a trap, but it has been one big disappointment after another. To date, no one has seriously fleshed this idea out without falling into contradiction. Some of those people either do not really understand the issue or fail to follow their own ideology to its bitter end. To my surprise, I found that many of those people repeat a mantra from some scientists here and there and never examine the intellectual rigor of the mantra at all. What was even astonishing to me was that if other scientists rationally argue that the genetic position is inadequate and ultimately worthless, those same people either ignore those scientists or appeal to the genetic fallacy argument, which is to say that they discredit those scientists by ridiculing the scientists’ credentials. In the end, they never get to address the vital issues and hubristically declare that their view is the correct one.
For the past three months or so, I have written at least seven articles pointing out what the genetic theorists need to address in order to make a serious point and why the issue is not as easy as they think it is, but this has been a big disappointment again. It is so sad that when those people move on to address irrelevant topics instead of focusing their attention on the actual issue. I remember one man emailing me and saying that the issue is genetic because it is quite old. My response was, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Both Christianity and Islam have been around for centuries, but you wouldn’t say that Christians or Muslims have some kind of genetic predispositions which allow them to embrace their beliefs, would you?” He never responded back.
I am still waiting for a person who really understands the metaphysical issues and take them to their logical end. I really hope that those people will one day stop disappointing or amusing me with their illogical leaps and internal contradictions. I simply have no patience with contradictions whatever.
[8] Plato, The Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 116.
[9] “Lutheran pastor says Jews to blame for destroying Christian values after US approves gay marriage,” Jerusalem Post, June 28, 2015.
[10] “Jewish groups hail Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage nationwide,” Jerusalem Post, June 26, 2015.
[11] “Jews Overwhelmingly Back Gay Marriage: Poll,” Jewish Daily Forward, April 23, 2015; “I’m an Orthodox Rabbi and I Celebrate Supreme Court’s Gay Marriage Ruling,” Jewish Daily Forward, June 29, 2015; “Ron Kampeas, “Jewish Groups (Mostly) Celebrate SCOTUS Gay Marriage Decision”Jewish Daily Forward, June 26, 2015; Rabbi Eliyahu Fink, “I believe in Torah, halachah and equality,” Jewish Journal, June 30, 2015; see also Jane Eisner, “The Morning After Iran Deal Drama Ends,” Forward, July 28, 2015.
[12] See for example Nathan Abrams, “Triple Exthnics,” Jewish Quarterly, Number 196, Winter 2004; The New Jew in Film: Exploring Jewishness in Judaism and Contemporary Cinema (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2012); Josh Lambert, Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2013).
[13] Jay A. Gertzman, Smuthhounds and Bookleggers: The Trade in Erotica, 1920-1940 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002); Edward J. Bristow, Prostitution and Prejudice: Jewish Fight Against White Slavery, 1870-1939 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982).
[14] Jennifer Epstein, “Biden: ‘Jewish Heritage Is American Heritage,’” Politico, May 21, 2013.
[15] Ibid; see also Rachel Weiner, “Biden: Jewish leaders helped gay marriage succeed,” Washington Post, March 22, 2013; Adam Edelman, “Vice President Biden: Jewish leaders, pop culture drove gay marriage acceptance,” NY Daily News, May 22, 2013.
[16] Jonathan Paul Katz, “Dear Israel, America Is Our Queer Jewish Homeland,” Forward, June 29, 2015.
[17] Manohla Dargis, “Story of Young Woman’s Awakening Is Top Winner,” NY Times, May 26, 2013.
[18] Stephen Garrett, “Lesbian Romance Blue Is the Warmest Color for Palme d’Or,” Observer, May 27, 2013; see also Mike LaSalle, “’Blue Is the Warmest Color’ review: a masterpiece,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 16, 2014; Geoffrey MacNab, “Blue Is the Warmest Colour review: ‘A searingly frank and intimate account,’” Independent, November 21, 2013.
[19] John Mintz, “60 Israelis on Tourist Visas Detained Since Sept. 11,” Washington Post, November 23, 2001.
[20] Ben Fenton, “US Arrested 200 Israelis in Spying Investigation,” Daily Telegraph, March 7, 2002.
[21] Mark Mackay, “Five Israelis were Filming as Jet Liners Ploughed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001,” Sunday Herald, November 2, 2003.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Shai Franklin, “Israel’s Overplayed ‘Anti-Semitism’ Card,” Huffington Post, May 8, 2013.
Jonas E. Alexis has degrees in mathematics and philosophy. He studied education at the graduate level. His main interests include U.S. foreign policy, the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the history of ideas. He is the author of the new book Zionism vs. the West: How Talmudic Ideology is Undermining Western Culture. He teaches mathematics in South Korea.
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