'Engage' says no to boycotting Israel (Howard Jacobson)

[smrndoff]

I love the story about Oswald Mosley and Howard's Dad going out to punch him.

I love even more the lack of irony. Since, as we all know, if Howard's father had been a Palestinian man out to punch the IDF commander who was smashing up his house with bulldozers, Howard would have grown up without a father.

Yes, lack of irony is a very telling thing.

[givinitsome]

@smrndoff

Correcting your Pavlovian response: Mosley was a fascist. Yet you seem oblivious to the fact that in the Middle East, it was the Arabs who sided with Hitler in WWII. It was the Arab leader of Jerusalem, a friend of Hitler, that wanted to annihilate the Jews living in Arab lands.

Today there are videos here of Palestinian children praising Hitler and advocating a continuation of Hitler's policies. Yet to you, a Jew defending Jews is the equivalent of a fascist.

Fascism, ironically.

[PatrickWhite85]

Another Jew that is obsessed with, and cannot refrain from continually mentioning, his own Jewishness. In short: a self-righteous bore with a victim complex.

[number94]

I listened to this but I disagree. Three years since this meeting was held and Israel has just got worse. I would not buy South African goods or services under Apartheid and I would not buy Israeli good or services today.

[soovey1]

@number94 Then I hpe your computer hasn't Israeli soft- or hardware in it, and that you don't use a mobile phone. I hope you won't get sick and need drugs or procedures developed and trialled in Israel. You should make a living will NOW

[number94]

@soovey1 Of course it is not possible to exclude everything that is made in Israel but I do my best. By the way, some of the worst, most vicious, Zionists are not Jewish at all but born again Christians who support the status quo for their own reasons. Similarly many of Israel's harshest critics are Jews. So lets not be racist here.

[willwak]

I look forward with great eagerness to the day when a jew will finally stand up and openly admit that his chosen people were and are responsible for a horrific genocide of Russian people under the jewish inspired and financed Bolshevik revolution.

I would like to hear the nasty, bitter parasitic Jacobson admit that just once in his life.

[archdeaconj]

@willwak Many, many Jews have stood up and cried out in protest against Isreali attrocities. Jacobson has referred to them, on many occasions, as 'self-hating Jews' Those non-Jews who protest against Israeli attrocities, he calls anti-Semites.

[soovey1]

@archdeaconj No he doesn't, ignoramus. And what atrocities are any worse than those perpetrated by Hamas in Gaza against its own people you dummy?

[archdeaconj]

@soovey1 Yes, I'm afraid he does. I used to read his column in the Independent (a UK newspaper) every Saturday. I read this loathsome specimen of inhumanity because of the many examples of ad hominem attacks that his writing affords, among which is this insidious tactic of calling people who protest against Israel 'anti-Semitic', and Jews who do so, 'self-hating'. I was interested - and still am - in linguistic techniques of manipulation and Jacobson's writings were a rich seam to mine.

[archdeaconj]

@soovey1 For an example of Jacobson equating criticism of Israel with anti-semitism, see, for example, 'Lets' see the Criticism of Israel for What it Really Is' by Howard Jacobson (Independent, 18 February, 2009). Apology for calling me an 'ignoramus', please.

[archdeaconj]

@soovey1 Here's Jacobson writing in the Independent: "I mean the hatred of Israel expressed on our streets, campuses, in our newspapers... I am not allowed to subscribe any of this to anti-Semitism. It is, I am assured, criticism of Israel pure and simple...'. He goes on to opine, of course, that it is indeed criticism of Israel. I thought I would actually quote from Jacobson, in view of your 'no he doesn't, ignoramus' remark.

[archdeaconj]

@soovey1 A good reply to a Jacobson rant: '[Jacobson] thinks any Jew who is anti-Zionist is automatically self'-hating. He doesn't allow for the possibility of someone being perfectly comfortable being Jewish, and also being anti-Zionist. Do I feel ashamed to be Jewish. It's an odd question - it's like asking whether I feel ashamed to be a man, or ashamed to be white. It's something that I was born as, and can't change...' Ben Abuyah.

[archdeaconj]

@soovey1 "No, no, of course it is not anti-Semitic to be a critic of Israel. Please be as critical as you like." says Jacobson, "but it is a false syllogism which goes Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic (Independent, 8 June 97). To call someone an ignoramus simply because they do not know something or are wrong on some point is simply rude, but when they are CORRECT in what they say it is deeply unjust.

[soovey1]

@willwak Your medication is either not working or wearing off. You should see your psychiatrist.

[Valelacerte]

Having known Howard Jacobson, this only confirms what a repugnant little shit he is. For years there was no mention of his Jewish heritage. Then, as mortality and a slim bank account (and a fat, bullying wife) weighed on his sense of entitlement, he cashed in what little integrity he had for a kippah and a career as a bullshitting apologist.

Israelis are wiping out the Palestinian race and stealing their land and property, but Jacobson is upset about academic freedom; boo-fucking-hoo.

[petersz98]

Jacobson should read the Goldstone Report, can't accuse him of being anti-semitic!

[archdeaconj]

Oh how I agree! Jacobson likes to use linguistic techniques of persuasion in his columns, particularly the veiled ad hominem attack in one form or another. His favourite is to call critics of Israeli foreign policy, 'anti-Semites'. Of course, you can't call Jews who criticise Israel that, so he calls them 'self-hating Jews'. I have often wondered why the Independent, of all newspapers, pay him to write these vile pieces.

[soovey1]

@Valelacerte he may well think the same of you! I know I do

[Valelacerte]

@soovey1 Hmmm, kind of similar to your other post, but just more boring and infantile, which is quite an achievement. Well done!

[soovey1]

@Valelacerte Wiping out Palestinians??? The birth rate is GROWING you ass!

I wonder whether Howard remembers you? Jealousy can poison you know

[Valelacerte]

@soovey1 So, an alleged increased Palestinian birth rate absolves Israel for their grotesquely disproportionate military aggression against Palestine, for their theft of Palestinian land and resources, for their blocking of essential supplies, for their complacence to law and world condemnation, for the multitude of armed checkpoints imprisoning Palestinians, for the families that can never leave their houses for fear of Israeli settlers and snipers?

Would he remember me? yes; jealousy? no.

[buster27]

I say no to murdering children,

really the united states is done with

that zionist country,

it is about gagging them,

it's what israel does to their own neighbor with a wall,

[soovey1]

@buster27 I think you need more medication or to leave the ISM

[marwaeldeib]

So cheap!!!

[1966BOBBY]

You don't hate yourself as much as you hate the Palestinians.

[Allenn100]

He used to do some brilliant TV documentaries back in the 90s. Controversial, confrontational and humourous.

Be great if Howard did more of those.

[shadrach90]

Totally agree.

[jameshanley39]

we need more howard jacobson on youtube.

be good to see a conversation between him and stephen fry!

[straightchris]

Mahmoud Abbas is Holocaust denier yet Israel supports him instead Hamas who, incidentally, Israel supported after the signing of the Oslo accords; is that anti-Semitic?

[straightchris]

I'm disappointed that Howard makes this cheap about shot Jewish self-loathing it's getting hackneyed.

His argument against the boycott is persuasive yet Howard makes accusations of psychobabble with psychobabble.

Why doesn't he criticize Ilan Pappe directly? Then we can have an exchange.

[nukmike]

Humorous, intelligent and thought-provoking.

[Beaman80]

I thoroughly agree.

[historicrecord]

Brilliant speech !