Sagepaper

I was referred by my friendly neighborhood accuser to the following site: http://www.antisemitism.org.il/antisemen.PDF This is a brochure with information on the dangers of Anti-Semitism, and how to fight it as an individual Ambassador for Israel. It's kind of a long read. My reaction below:

Sagepaper said...
I read the PDF brochure providing information about Anti-Semitism.

My life experience has been so very different from what was discussed in the brochure that I thought I was reading something from an alien planet. Perhaps I should tell you about my campus experiences when I was in college. I attended two different private Colleges: The American University in Washington, D.C., and Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Kentucky.

The American University, where I nearly finished a major in international Relations, was fondly nick-named Jew U., or Catholic U. Each group represented about one third of the population on campus. Anti-Semitism didn't stand a chance. Further, AU had the top-ranked School of International Service in the country. Number one! We were not taught a bunch of bunk about Israel.

I know why Israel holds the occupied territories. I view that through the cold lens of International Relations; you cannot win at the negotiating table what you have lost on the field of battle. If the Arabs wanted to keep those lands, they should not have lost a war against Israel. They should have restrained themselves, or assured their victory. I have no moral opinion about who belongs in those lands.

Cold.

I understand the unfairness and adversity Israel has faced. I appreciate its strategic value to the United States. I am well aware of our close cultural ties. English is widely spoken, and not infrequently with an American accent. I also, at one time, could list every U.N. Resolution it had violated.

Regarding my education at Thomas More, it was a small Catholic College with a rigorous Liberal Arts program. I was there on Pope John Paul II's watch. He was reaching out to other Christian sects, and then to other religions. Anti-Semitism was anti-thetical to his teachings, and was not to be found on campus among the Faculty or students.

It was a tiny school. The only prejudice problem we ran into was some uneasiness about two Iranian students after the Hostage Crisis. The priests told the students to embrace our fellow students, and to view them as individuals. We went to their dormroom and annoyed the heck out of them with our being nice. :-) They just wanted to play their electric guitars. (I learned the Arabic word for "amplifier!" it is "amplifier.")

I am unfamiliar with the details of your experience with Anti-Semitism. I can relate, however, to being a detested racial minority. The Navajo children at Fort Defiance were permitted by pre-school teachers to taunt, beat, and even stone two other White-eyes and me. (Well, okay. We were all little kids, so the stoning was scaled-down. The kids threw about one-inch pebbles, well, rocks.) They were not like the Apache.
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