Rating: 
Summary: An eye opener for all to read!!
Review: This book has been a long time coming. These two authors have done there homework and are educating people around the world about Anti-Semitisem .
My heart felt thanks to them for caring enough to write about a most difficult subject.
Rating:
Summary: The Third Rail of American Politics
Review: This crisply written little book packs a big political wallop. Put together by the editors of the award-winning CounterPunch magazine, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, The Politics of Anti-Semitism explores one of the most contentious issues of our time: the conduct of Israel and the treatment of its critics, who are invariably slammed as anti-semites. There is no more toxic charge in our time--it is the fatal third rail of American politics. This short but explosive book shows how this kind of censorship works in the realms of politics, policy and the media. A staffer for a Republican senator details the power of the Israeli lobby in Washington and explains why it is impossible to criticize the excesses of the Israeli government on Capital Hill. Two former CIA officers illustrate how the Bush administration is permeated with policymakers and advisors who place Israel's interests above those of the US. In a heartbreaking essay, Jeffrey St. Clair recounts the tragic history of the USS Liberty, the American ship bombed and torpedoed by the Israeli Defense Forces in 1967, killing 36 and wounding 172 American sailors, and how the inquiry into the attack was covered up by the Johnson administration "so as not to embarrass Israel." Philosopher Michael Neumann explores the meaning of "anti-semitism" and Israeli journalist Uri Avnery shows how the rampages of the Sharon government have created real anti-semites in the Middle East. This powerful and smartly designed little book is a disturbing read. It is worth the price for many reasons, not the least of which is that it contains one of the last essays by Edward Said, a passionate call for peace, pluralism and justice in the Middle East.
Rating:
Summary: Just read it
Review: This facts listed in this book clearly illustrate the countless contridictions and complete hypocrisy of the state of Isreal. The biggest travesty is the level of fear of discussion and debate in this country of the Isreali-Palestian "situation." You can say "France Sucks" and receive a hearty pat on the back. Try saying "Isreal Sucks." The ADL will be on you like Bradley tanks on a Palestinian refugee camp.
The term "anti-semite" also gets plenty of attention in this book. The book demonstrates how this term has almost completely lost its meaning due to laborious overuse. It has almost become a compliment to anyone slapped with it who has the "chutzpah" to criticize Isreali's unilateral policies. A badge of honor, if you will.
It's become embarrassing to be an American living in a country which completely stifles debate with regards to Isreal. When did this happen? The book references a number of occasions where politicians made seemingly neutral comments about debating the Middle-Eastern issue only to commit political suicide. They were publicly dressed-down by colleagues from their own parties, then ousted by no-names with the help of AIPAC money.
This type of behavior should put a pit in the stomach of every American.
Rating: 
Summary: Totally unbalanced
Review: This is getting really old. Look, if you're going to discuss an issue as mind-bogglingly complex, and desperately important, as the Isreali-Palestinian issue, one should not blindly take sides and view this(or any)issue in black and white,"one side is Right and the other Wrong" terms. This book puts far too much blame on Isreal for the plight of the nationless Palestinians and ignores too much historical evidience that demonstates that this assertion is simply not the entire story. Villifying Isreal and the "Jewish Lobby," and conciously avoiding all other facts, as a means of addressing this problem is ridiculous, totally unfair, and quite misleading.
Rating: 
Summary: What exactly is anti-semitism?
Review: This writers in this strange collection set out to describe the "politics of anti-Semitism" without ever really defining anti-Semitism itself. Basically for these authors, unless you are goose-stepping through Germany, you are safe from the charge. However, under a more reasonable view of the oldest hatred, one quickly realizes that many of these authors have much to answer for. Anti-Semitism, the hatred and fear of Jews, is best described as the effort to place Jews under a separate set of categories than other people or, in the case of Israel, other nations. So when the UN and international bodies focus their wraith and condemnation exclusively on Israel, they can legitimately be accused of anti-Semitism, as can be seen in the fact that Israel alone among the nations is not allowed to sit on the Security Council at the UN or that in the second half of the 20th Century the only time the Geneva Convention has convened is to condemn the Jewish State. One other reviewer and several writers in this book assert that this is because Palestinians suffer the worst treatment of any people in the world. While such propaganda makes an excellent sound bite, it shows a disturbing disregard for the truth. The world over, including the Middle East, one can find people in conditions far more deplorable and government which exhibit remarkable brutality (Syria, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, China, Tibet, The Congo, etc). Why then do the condition of people in these nations receive so little regard, indeed, why is the world so unconcerned when Jews suffer at the hands of terrorists? These authors would have you believe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict receives scant attention. A brief look at the front page of most newspapers or search on Amazon will instantly prove the absurdity of that position. Indeed, the Israeli-Arab conflict and the plight of the Palestinians is one of the most written about subjects in the modern era. In the end, the author of these essays do not have as their goal truth, but a political agenda. For example it recently came out that Prof. Neumann, one of the authors, had recently engaged in a revealing e-mail debate about Israel and Judaism with the "webmaster" of an Internet site called Jewish Tribal Review (JTR). In the exchange, which JTR subsequently published, Neumann writes: "My sole concern is indeed to help the Palestinians, and I try to play for keeps. I am not interested in the truth, or justice, or understanding, or anything else, except so far as it serves that purpose." Prof. Neumann also wrote: "If an effective strategy means that some truths about the Jews don't come to light, I don't care. If an effective strategy means encouraging reasonable anti-Semitism, or reasonable hostility to Jews, I also don't care. If it means encouraging vicious, racist anti-Semitism, or the destruction of the state of Israel, I still don't care." To achieve Prof. Neumann's goal, these authors pull out the stop. Many of the charges they level against Israel boarder on the absurd. Others are old canards that have been disproven time and again. In several cases facts are simply made up or taken out of context. Israel's many efforts at peace goes ignored by these authors as their purpose is not to inform, but to defame. The suffering of the Palestinians who live in Arab states, now going on the fourth generation while being denied basic civil rights by their "hosts" and where they are kept in misery to serve political aims likewise is ignored by these authors. If they are unable to blame Israel and the Jews, it seems it is not worth writing about for these authors. These people protest that their commitment to the destruction of the world's only Jewish state, and their pathological focus on its every action is not anti-Semitism. If it is not, then one can only wonder what is the definition of anti-Semitism? Surely, several of these authors claim that a vast shadowy Jewish conspiracy controls the media and the American government must fit the bill.
Rating:
Summary: "News to me" --print that
Review: Useful collection of essays at high chili pepper rating on the issues of 'anti-semitism' and the nature of public criticism in light of that frequent charge. There is not all that much to read in this field that isn't panic-striken shifty eyed journalese, and the material from Counterpunch certainly deserves close reading. The left is the only group left with nothing to lose in pointing to obvious absurdities here. All the majors in Congress are cowering grovelers: The existence of the Jewish lobby is like the tales of sasquatches in the mainstream media, and the articles here contain solid evidence of sightings of this phantom. I was a bit shocked to see Congress compared to the Vichy government. C'mon guys, that's trespassing on treason. Somebody tell Ann Coulter. And the recount of the Liberty affair is genuinely mind-boggling. The later incident of the American government selling its own troops down the river ought to have been a turning point, but at such high levels of cynicism the Machiavellian hyena of both the American and Israeli govs went on without an eyeblink.
|
