On The Having of Cake (and the eating of it, too.)

Michael Lumish 11/01/2016 3 Comments 1,854 Views

“The Palestinian leadership on Wednesday demanded the Greek government act after two Arab passengers were expelled from an Israel-bound flight, saying the decision to remove the pair was “reminiscent” of apartheid.

Two Arab passengers with Israeli documents were forced off an Aegean Airlines flight before it set off from Athens to Tel Aviv on Sunday after Israeli Jews protested their presence.

After an initial complaint by passengers, the pair’s documents were checked again by Greek security but no issues were found. By that stage the protest had escalated, with dozens of passengers refusing to take their seats until the men were removed from the plane.”

I have always had a fondness for moral dilemmas and, make no mistake, this incident is not nearly so black and white as many people, most particularly the Palestinian Authority, would have you believe.

Most westerners would suggest that this is a case of straight-up anti-Palestinian racism on the part of the Jewish passengers, thus we get this pithy observation in the comments:

Matthew Shirlock · Stanmore College

Only a racist will support this

Of course, others will use this alleged “racism” as an excuse to indulge in antisemitism.

And, therefore, we get this:

Lee Trotsky · Harvard University

Racist Jews…how typical

Thus the Jewish people, who are among the very least “racist” people on the planet, get smeared with the broad brush of bigotry.

Southend Mutombo · Wayne State University

This is wrong in so many levels If it happened to a Jew he would of owned the airline since they are Palestinian nobody want to make a big deal about it shame on Jews

This is an interesting comment for a number of reasons. Mr. Mutombo, of venerable Wayne State University, believes that this incident reflects poorly on all Jews, everywhere. “Shame on Jews,” he writes.

Yes. Yes. This incident tells us that Jews, in general, are terrible people and, furthermore, because we are so crafty and greedy “If it happened to a Jew he would of owned the airline…”. {My emphasis.}

In the minds of the complaining passengers, however, their wariness of one of the Palestinian-Arabs is entirely justified:

An Israeli man who was among the passengers involved in the incident defended the the group’s actions on Wednesday, maintaining that the two Arab men were “scary” and that he and the other passengers believed they were terrorists.

The man, identified only by his first name, Nissim, told Army Radio that one of the two Arab passengers in particular “looked off and his body language was very threatening.”

“He had a penetrating and scary look,” Nissim said, claiming that a lot of other passengers were similarly spooked by the man.

I have two observations:

1) The Palestinian Authority glorifies the murderers of Jews and then charges Jews with “racism” or “apartheid” when Jewish people thereby become wary of angry Arabs on planes. This is unjust.

2) The western governments have admonished their people to be careful ever since 9/11. However, when their citizenry takes them up on that advice they are often lambasted as “racist.” This also unjust.

On The Having of Cake and Eating It, Too:

(The Hypocrisy of the Palestinian Authority)

The old cliche is that one cannot have one’s cake and eat it, too, which is precisely what the Palestinian Authority wants to indulge in. They want to train the coming generation to the joyous wonders of violent, genocidal antisemitism while claiming that Jewish reaction to such violent, genocidal antisemitism represents “racism” and “apartheid.”

And who wants “racism” and “apartheid”?

Everyone knows what you do to racist and apartheid states. You eliminate them. Just as Nazi Germany was taken down militarily, and apartheid South Africa was dismantled via the economic will of the international community, so Israel, too, must be shaken to its foundation until it crumbles and is replaced by yet another regressive, misogynistic, homophobic, antisemitic, theocratic, Muslim dictatorship.

Anything else, after all, would be unjust.

What I find most insidious about this tactic is that it is working exceedingly well among allegedly “anti-racist” western-progressives who – justified by that “anti-racism” – increasingly do not like Israel and therefore, inevitably, increasingly do not like Jews.

The truth of the matter is that if the hostile Arab majority throughout the Middle East did not teach their children that Jews are the sons and daughters of orangutans and swine, and that we deserve whatever beating that we get, these little incidents would not happen.

The Jews of the Middle East are in the midst of a “Stabbing Intifada” wherein young Palestinian-Arab men and women, boys and girls, think that stabbing random Jews on the streets of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv or Hebron, or running them down with their automobiles, is an act of piety in the eyes of Allah.

On The Having of Cake and Eating It, Too, Two:

(The Hypocrisy of Western Authorities)

Ever since Osama and friends kicked off the current round of Jihad on that fine September morning in lower Manhattan over ten years ago, the western governments have told their people to be wary and to report anything amiss. The airlines constantly tell us to alert authorities to any suspicious-looking packages, boxes or bags in their terminals.

I recently flew from San Francisco to Richmond, Virginia. When I passed through security, I went through the usual rigmarole of taking off shoes and storing them in a grey bin and removing laptop from bag and shaving gear and so forth for inspection. I removed my belt so as not to set off an alarm and allowed myself to be xrayed in one of those crazy little booths with my hands above my head.

Normally at this point they pass me right through and Laurie gets nabbed for special inspection. I can be on line wearing my Osama bin Laden t-shirt and Che Guevara baseball cap, while smoking crack-cocaine, but inevitably Laurie gets yanked off the line. This time they yanked me for special attention and the officer ran a probe of some sort over the palms of both of my hands.

I said, “What is the purpose of this procedure, officer?”

He said, “To detect bomb making residue on your hands.”

Okey-dokey.

But the point is that you cannot scare the hell out of a population in order to justify the procedures that we all go through in airports and then turn around and claim that people who feel threatened for understandable reasons are loathsome “racists.”

When 14 year old Ahmed Mohamed walked into his high school with a briefcase going “tick-tick-tick-tick” what would anyone expect? Nonetheless, suddenly everyone seemed to swing off their banana peels, screeching to the gods about racism.

I am sorry, but they cannot have it both ways.

The PA cannot incite genocidal hatred toward Jews and then complain when Jewish people are wary of glowering Arabs on planes headed to Israel from Europe.

Further, the western governments cannot instill fear and loathing into their people, request that they respond to apparent threats, and then accuse them of racism for responding to those apparent threats.

Originally posted at ISRAEL THRIVES

3 comments

Jodie Goldberg
11/01/2016 at 8:18 AM

It is a changing world unfortunately. I traveled to the Caribbean and was body patted, my luggage was gone through and I truly felt singled out, but I really wasn’t being singled out. We cannot be careful enough and airlines must do everything they can for the safety of their passengers, air pilots and stewards/stewardesses. It is not a pleasant price to pay but this problem did not rise out of the blue and is is something we are going to continue to have to deal with unless the world somehow miraculously changes.
Larry Langman
11/01/2016 at 5:18 PM

I hope every reader of JDU reads this not once but twice and really thinks about this, on the surface, simple situation.

And as Michael points out it happens to us often. In Michael’s case it is to a traveling companion called “Laurie”…..it happens to me. I cannot pass through an airport in Australia without being checked over. I can well understand the feelings of those passengers and it would appear that the two individuals concerned understood those sentiments as well. It seemed as though the airline handled it well. As Jodie notes that’s the world we live in. Michael is right to draw our attention to what gave rise to the concern of the passengers:- You cannot preach terror and then complain when people act terrorised.

We hear of similar situations often, we are subject to the searches and the checks and say “Well that’s the way it is”……..So it is important that we note this “new normal”.

Michael and Jodie rightly ask…..”Is that really the way it has to be?” Is this really the “new normal”. I think not. We should rightly do all in our power to ensure that terrorism and the response to terrorism to not become normative in our world.
- Michael Lumish
  12/01/2016 at 2:28 AM
  
  Jodie and Larry,
  
  thank you for the kind words.
  
  I think that terror, and our responses to terrorism, are, in fact, becoming the new normal.
  
  In Israel, of course, it has been “normal” since before the creation the state. In fact, one might say that it became normal as far back as the 7th century.
  
  Europe is going to be subject to the constant drip, drip, drip of terror attacks and the US and Australia are up next.
  
  What never fails to astonish me, however, is that our left-leaning friends and neighbors simply cannot bring themselves to honestly address the question of political Islam, or Islamic terrorism, because they think that doing so is “racist.”
  
  I think that not doing so is just plain dumb.