PHILIP GIRALDI
\nThe Unz Review<\/p>\n
Regular visitors to this site will be aware that I frequently write about the massive propaganda campaign being run by supporters of Israel to conceal the damage done by the Jewish state to actual United States\u2019 interests. One of the more interesting aspects of that effort is the bowdlerization of language to extirpate some words that might have anti-Semitic overtones and to twist the meaning of others in such a fashion as to deprive them of any meaning. Providing loans at usurious rates of interest used to be regularly referred to \u201cShylocking\u201d even in legal circles, named after the Shakespearean character in the Merchant of Venice. It is an obvious word just waiting around to be censored and has consequently disappeared from use.<\/span><\/p>\n Recently, those obvious expressions denoting ethnicity have been joined by\u00a0a whole lot of words<\/a>\u00a0condemned by the American Jewish Committee that are a lot more subtle like \u201cclannish,\u201d \u201ccosmopolitan\u201d and \u201cglobalist.\u201d The AJC defines the alleged anti-Semitic expression \u201cdual loyalty\u201d as \u201c\u2026a bigoted trope used to cast Jews as the \u2018other.\u2019 For example, it becomes antisemitic when an American Jew\u2019s connection to Israel is scrutinized to the point of questioning his or her trustworthiness or loyalty to the United States. By accusing Jews of being disloyal citizens whose true allegiance is to Israel or a hidden Jewish agenda (see globalist), anti-Semites sow distrust and spread harmful ideas\u2014like the belief that Jews are a traitorous \u2018fifth column\u2019 undermining our country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The AJC\u2019s definition of \u201cdual loyalty\u201d would perhaps bemuse President George Washington whose Farewell Address included \u201c\u2026nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest\u2026 So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n If it seems that the First President was predicting the current subservient condition of the United States vis-\u00e0-vis Israel, I will leave that judgement up to the reader. More recently, Jewish pressure groups who seek to benefit Israel exclusively have been aided and abetted by the so-called U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman to suppress the use of words that cast Israel in a bad light. Most contentious is the elimination of the word \u201coccupation\u201d in State Department reporting to describe the wholesale illegal Israeli seizure of land in Palestine. The \u201coccupied territories\u201d held by Israel for over fifty years are now described as \u201cdisputed\u201d while Jewish settlements on Palestinian land once routinely described as illegal are now legal. Friedman has expressed his approval of those \u201cdisputed\u201d bits being scheduled for \u201cannexation\u201d after July 1st<\/sup>. Perhaps he will come up with a new word to replace annex, possibly something like \u201crestore\u201d or \u201creunite.\u201d Or \u201cfulfilling biblical prophecy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Words are important because how they are used and their context shapes the understanding of the reader or listener. In the United States there has been a concerted effort to equate any criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism while simultaneously making anti-Semitism a hate crime and thereby converting what one might perceive as exercise of a First Amendment right into a felony. This is largely being done as part of the plan to create a legal basis to suppress the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). Twenty-seven states have now passed laws criminalizing or otherwise punishing criticism of Israel, to include requirements to sign documents declaring opposition to boycotts of the Jewish state if one wants a government job or other benefits. Donald Trump has also signed\u00a0an executive order<\/a>to combat what he calls discrimination against Jews and Israel at universities and there are several bills working their way through Congress that can criminalize BDS in particular, incorporating prison time and punitive fines.<\/span><\/p>\n But when it comes to protecting Israel in speech and in writing, no one outdoes the totally cowed Europeans. It is a criminal offense to challenge the many shaky details of the standard holocaust narrative in France, Germany and Britain and now the wordsmiths are hard at work to broaden what is unacceptable in speaking or writing.<\/span><\/p>\n A truly bizarre story comes from England, once upon a time the mother of parliamentary democracy and a model for those who cherished free speech. One recalls that recently Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was ousted after a sustained effort headed by the country\u2019s Chief Rabbi marshalling what one might reasonably call Britain\u2019s \u201cIsrael Lobby.\u201d It was claimed that Corbyn was an anti-Semite because he believed in the human rights of the Palestinian people and had also attended several pro-Palestinian events. Since the departure of Corbyn, there has been a major effort by the totally subdued Labourites\u00a0to purge the party<\/a>\u00a0of all traces of anti-Semitism to include criticism of Israel and any expressions of sympathy for the Palestinians.<\/span><\/p>\n The new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has apparently learned how to behave from the Corbyn experience. He has been crawling on his belly to Jewish interests ever since he took over and has even submitted to the counseling provided by the government\u2019s \u201cIndependent Adviser on Antisemitism,\u201d a special interests office not too dissimilar to the abomination at the U.S. State Department where Elan Carr is the Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating anti-Semitism.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.unz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Zionism2-600x314.jpg\")
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