Les Jones: Steyn's "Jews You Can Use"

November 15, 2003

Politics > Steyn's "Jews You Can Use"

Mark Steyn compares Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed and sacked ESPN writer Gregg Easterbrook and wonders which one is ditzier.

That's the great thing about the International Jewish Conspiracy: no Jews need be involved. One day, there will be only one Jew left on the whole planet. He'll be a Dean supporter who mangled his chad and accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan. But he'll still be controlling the Bush Administration. He'll be a non-observant, self-loathing Jew who doesn't find Jackie Mason funny. He'll be the principal fundraiser for Islamic Jihad. But everything will still be his fault.
That's how devious they are. "We cannot fight them through brawn alone," Dr Mahathir told his audience. "We must use our brains also." In fact, Dr Mahathir's comrades don't use "brawn" either, unless by "brawn" you mean a West Bank schoolgirl with a Tel Aviv bus ticket.

But, on balance, that makes marginally more sense than Gregg Easterbrook�s argument for The New Republic re Kill Bill. How loopy do you have to be to sit through 90 minutes of an Italian-American video-store nerd's hommage to Hong Kong movie actors celebrating their distinctive cultural heritage of slicing each others' limbs off and figure, "I think I'll go with the Jew angle."

Posted by lesjones

Comments

"Jew-wise, he�s still bonkers.And that�s the point to remember. It doesn�t quite put the soi-disant �Moderate Muslim� into the same category as the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, but it does suggest a certain modest level of expectation is advisable. Mahathir�s plan (we need to embrace modernity in order to achieve our final victory over the Jews) is an improvement on traditional Islamic thinking (we reject modernity because it�s a Jew racket)"

Etc, etc. Don't buy into this "moderate Muslim" BS. All Muslims (and Christian Arabs, too). ALL of them, are fanatical Nazis bent on exterminating all Jews, they all are congenitally incapable of reason or peace, blah blah blah.

Gee, call me a liberal pantywaist, but I'm not buying it. Apparently I'm not the only one, either:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42821-2003Nov14.html

Of course, I'm the worst kind of smarmy over-educated anti-semetic white wine drinking psuedo-intellecutual. And those are four irrelevant self-loathing Jews anyway, so feel free to ignore all of us. And feel free to ignore the former speaker of the Knesset, too, since he's obviously a self-loathing Jew as well:

http://www.iht.com/articles/108989.html

By the way, I know I'm dumb and everything,and Mark Steyn is clearly my intellectual superior, but what exactly does "soi-disant" mean?

Posted by: Steve at November 15, 2003

Help me out here. Malaysia isn't in the Middle East, and Israel isn't in any control of their land, so how does Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed figure the Jews (not Israel, but the Jews in general) are to blame for his country's problems? I'm not seeing the connection.

That's sort of the point of Steyn's article. There's very little connection between Jewish or Israeli actions and the fate of Muslims worldwide. Treating anti-Semitism as rational is insane.

From the WaPo article: "The four men said Israel should be prepared to initiate a peace process unilaterally rather than wait for the Palestinians to bring a halt to terrorism, which is Sharon's overriding prerequisite for negotiations."

Unilateral peace? Sounds like surrendering to terrorism to me.

I'm not crazy about some of the things Israel does, but I realize that they're at war for their very survival. That isn't an exaggeration. The PLO's charter calls for Israel's destruction. You can't negotiate your own existence.

Israel is the only nation in the Middle East with a democracy, and full rights for women. There are even Muslims who hold elected office in the Knesset.

In contrast, in Muslim Middle Eastern countries, Jews aren't allowed to vote or hold office, and women generally can't vote, hold office, or even drive a car. Not to mention forced clitoridectomies and Sharia.

The governments in Muslim countries consist variously of dictatorships, monarchies, theocracies, and kleptocracies. Your and my Western liberal values are infinitely better represented in Israel than in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, et al. I'd rather not be a Muslim in Israel. However, I'd rather be a Muslim in Israel than a Jew or a woman in a Muslim country.

Posted by: Les Jones at November 16, 2003

There are many self loathing Jews around, no point denying this fact. As Jews we are our own worst enemy. We bite the hands that feed us.

Posted by: Gary at June 16, 2005