Friday, June 11, 2010

Helen and Dick's 'Operation Shylock'

Dick Smythe, who's sort of a Helen Thomas of Canadian radio (i.e. someone who's been around for eons and who's been allowed to blither away when he should have packed it in ages ago) has just come to Thomas's defence in his daily capsule commentary on AM640. The aptly-named Dick opines that "distinguished jounalist" Thomas is well within her rights to order Jews to get our of Israel and return to Poland, etc. because, according to him, even some Israelis agree with that idea. The problem, he says, is that "the Israel lobby" is so "powerful" that no one is allowed to express such opinions. He knows first hand how it works, because, some year back, he, too, ran afoul of this "lobby". (I think this is incident he means.)

Well, first off, Dick, any time someone talks about a powerful and insidious Jewish/Israeli "lobby,": it's often a pretty clear sign that that person is not a friend of Jewry and may, in fact, be an enemy. The "lobby" palaver is merely another version of the "Elders" palaver--Elders 2.0--and, since there is no insidiously powerful Jewish "lobby" working behind the scenes to control every frikkin' thing, those who push that idea are actually telling you a profound truth not about "the Jews" but about themselves. Here's proof: when other groups--Muslims, Sikhs, etc.--rebut criticisim directed at them, no one talks about a Muslim "lobby" or a Sikh "lobby". No, the "lobby" hobby horse is lobbed solely at the Jews, who are thereby hobbled by the charge.

Second: what neither Helen nor Dick nor Rosie nor the Pole who called Closet Conservative an "ignorant shmuck" fail to consider is that around half the Israeli population does not come from Europe. They are indigenous to the Middle East, where their ancestors had lived for many, many centuries, are were either unceremoniously expelled from these lands (Iraq, Egypt) with all their property confiscated, when Israel came into being, or had to be rescued (Yemen, Syria) when these countries refused to let them leave, preferring to keep them around to persecute and maintain in abject misery. Israel took them in--as in took in Europe's post-Holocaust Jews who had nowhere else to go. (Meanwhile, scores of decades later, Arab "refugees" languish in UN-perpetuated camps, because to have taken them in would have been to acknowledge that Israel is a permanent fixture, something that by-the-book Arabs/Muslims will never accept.)

Tell me, Helen, Dick and all the others who give a big thumbs-up to "cleansing" the Jews out of Israel: Where would you have these Dar al Islam Jews "go back" to?

Finally, if I didn't know any better, I might suspect that Helen and Dick have been reading Operation Shylock, the Philip Roth novel which floats the idea of resettling the Jews of Israel in Europe. However, I doubt either of them have heard of it, much less read it.

Update: An FYI for Dick Smythe--I don't belong to the official, super-secret Zionist Lobby (where does it meet?; is there an initiation fee?). I am, however, a member (the only member) of the super-secret Zionist Limerick Lobby. Here's its latest effort:

To unpack the Thomas/O'Donnell/Smythe spin
This is how I, for one, would begin:
To tell Jews "Juden, raus"
Of your "Zionist" house
Hands Herr Hitler a posthumous win.

5 comments:

paladin3001 said...

I just fired off an e-mail to AM640. The email I used was: martin.tan AT corusent DOT com

Time to reprogram my radio dials.

Oh, and their contact page is here if you want to drop other e-mails.

paladin3001 said...

My bad, I think I e-mailed the wrong person. Try gharris AT 640toronto DOT com.

paladin3001 said...

Quick response. Cut and paste follows:

Thanks for the email.

We just had Dick on air live to challenge him on this.

He is taking calls right now – feel free to join the discussion.

Gord

Xanthippa said...

Can I join your super-secret Zionist Limerick Lobby?

Is there an initiation fee?

scaramouche said...

I'm delighted to have you aboard, Xanthippa. And for you, I'll waive the fee.