Hamas War

Friday, December 24, 2010

Good News, Bad News, Good-Anti-Israel Bus Ads Rejected, Bad-They Were Proposed

Yes, thank G-d, one battle won.  The people of Seattle won't see anti-Israel ads on their buses.  But that's not the end of the story.  Jews around the world can't relax vigilance.  Our enemies are wealthy and clever and very determined.

One victory.

Most Jews, statistically, grew up in the United States, like I did, grew up with other Jews, whether religious or not.  We didn't feel all that isolated.

Considering that Jews are maybe 2.2% of the American population means that most Americans will never actually meet a Jew.  According to my quick count (on the chart you can access by clicking here) thirty-two 32 out of the fifty states have less than one percent Jews.  Even California has only 3.3%, and the surrounding states have even less.

Because so many Jews live near other Jews, they don't realize that the antipathy so many Americans (and ordinary people all over the world) feel towards anything Jewish and Israeli have nothing to do with us or anything a Jew ever did to them.  That's because they've never knowingly for sure met any Jews.

They don't know much history either, not American, World or the Middle-East.  That's why the Left has such fertile ground to work with on their anti-Israel campaigns.

We have a very, very, very long hard campaign ahead.

Shabbat Shalom U'Mevorach
Have a Peaceful and Blessed Sabbath

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's appalling that anyone would even consider an ad like that. You can bet your life if someone suggested something like that about Islam or Saudi Arabia they'd be tarred and feathered.

A few months ago I saw a swastika on a utility pole at a bus stop. It was at a busy intersection. Not a single person expressed any disgust or concern.

So I took a video and sent it to a local CBS affliate and they did a story on it and the graffiti was removed.

I stood in the rain, alone, the day after I saw it. I couldn't believe I was seeing one--offline. Not a picture.

Keliata

Batya said...

If anyone dared do anything like that to a Muslim country, they'd be running for their lives at best.

Keli, I'm glad that you reacted and got the swastika cleaned off.

Hadassa said...

Shalom!
Mr. Cohen of recent undercover satire fame, the comedian who pretended to be a journalist from Kazakhstan (I may have the country wrong) has a very interesting video clip from a bar in the America Mid-west. He starts a song with the lines, "In my country we have problem. The problem is with transport." No-one in the bar quite understands what his complaint is. The second verse starts "In my country we have problem. And the problem is the Jews." Everyone understands that, the bar manager is visibly shocked and doesn't know quite what to do. In the end she does nothing because everyone in the bar either sits quietly or joins in singing, "Let's take them by their horns and throw them in the well," complete with finger gestures on the head for horns. Rabbi Kahane, ztz"l said that every American rabbi should be required to go to bars to learn what most Americans really think of Jews.

Anonymous said...

It's hardly a victory ... they blamed the pro-Israel faction for elevating the discourse to the level where it could damage the transit system. Those dangerous American Jews at it again ...

Batya said...

Hadassa, good point.

a2, another example of "damned if we do and damned if we don't. They damn us no matter what we do, but we still have to stop the antisemites.