Jews Forgive Glenn Beck...Film at 10!Isn't it time to maybe lighten up a tad? Everyone is tired of the Eternal Victim drumbeat.
There has been no black slavery in the YouEssofAY since the late 1860s. There have been no Nazi slaughters of Jews in over sixty years.
But, no, The ADL and other organisations spend their time, electronic antennae a-quiver, hoping to see or hear something, ANYTHING, that can be remotely seen as anti-Jewish hate speech, and then issue press releases and Threats of Reprisal.
They may not have learned as much from History as they ought.
Being a burr under society's saddle does not endear a group to that society, and tends to encourage fringe groups to take action. Sometimes fringe groups take center stage. If YOUR group is twitchy, or touchy, or just weird, then YOU may be the Star Trek red shirts when the Revolution comes. This has played out on the world stage time and again.
Mr. Foxman of the ADL, et al, Mr. Beck was not comparing Judaism with Islam. He was comparing The Reform tendency to Be Political with an Islamic group's tendency to Be Political.
You are smart enough to understand that. But, no, you have to play your Eternal Victim card, and savage a man who is a staunch supporter of the Jews. Whether one is a Zionist or not, your greatest fans and friends are evangelical-types. If you allow polemic to get in the way of that friendship and support, then you may not be as smart and clever as you think you are.
Another thing. Using "Nazi" as an historical comparison to stated practises and goals in no way diminishes the horror of the Holocaust. Knee-jerk "That's OUR victimhood! You can't use that word." attitudes DO in fact diminish it, cheapening it to an editorial page riposte. Between the madness that is in the world, and the victim card-playing of an entire people (or their self-anointed spokesmen) the oath of "Never Again!" becomes hollow whistling past the graveyard. Beck's point in using "Nazi" examples is not as a lame polemical barb, but rather is to show that the political and practical underpinnings of the German National Socialist party in the 1930s and 40s exist clearly and in abundance today, even in our current regime and its advisors. Beck provides ample historical and documentary evidence, using their own words. Perhaps your alarm should be better aimed at the current administration and its supporters.
Reform leaders also accepted Beck’s apology.
"I would welcome the opportunity to meet personally to introduce you more fully to the Reform Jewish Movement, to discuss the concerns about this incident and about the concerns that many of my colleagues (half of them Reform, half Orthodox, Conservative and Reconstructionist) expressed in the open letter to you regarding the repeated references to the Holocaust and Nazis, so that you may better understand the pain and confusion that language evokes," wrote Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism in a letter to Beck.
Beck's comment on Tuesday stemmed from an open letter to him on which almost all the signatories were non-Orthodox rabbis. They criticized him for repeatedly comparing those with whom he disagrees to Nazis.
"There are the Orthodox rabbis and there are the Reform rabbis. Reform rabbis are generally political in nature. It's almost like radicalized Islam in a way where it is just -- radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics," Beck said Tuesday.
Jewish Funds for Justice, a liberal group that calls for Beck's censure for his frequent use of Nazi comparisons on his program, said the apology was "welcome but incomplete."
"We reiterate our call on (Fox News chief) Rupert Murdoch to end Mr. Beck's tenure at Fox News…. Anything short of this reflects an unwillingness to take seriously the harm Mr. Beck causes to many in our community and beyond," the group said.
"Harm" "Pain" "Confusion". "They criticized him for repeatedly comparing those with whom he disagrees to Nazis. "
This is schoolyard bickering, and unworthy of the line that had Moses the Lawgiver as its head.
Ooooooh You said "Nazi". THAT'S HURTFUL!
Mr. Beck does not call people with whom he disagrees "Nazi". He refers to those who display doctrines and practises congruent with the National Socialists "Nazi". There is a difference, and you know it, unless of course you only hear what he says through his critics, and haven't actually
listened to what he says. He is issuing a warning of the cyclical nature of history, that if we do not learn from history, then we shall surely repeat it. You may do well to train your antennae onto that one
As the Dread Dormomoo said this morning, "If you act like a victim, you will be one.".
