Upper West Siders Forget to Think Jewish
Latest update: February 4th, 2013
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The crowd at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema on the upper west side is mainly Jewish and liberal—ultra-liberal. They behave as if they are superior to all “oustjuden,” the illiterate, superstitious, unwashed Eastern European Jews–and therefore, in their sleek leather boots and fashionable coats they are, surely, finally, safe. At least, safer. After millennia of persecution, here are Jews who are not self-hating, not even opportunist, just Jews who feel secure as long as they feel superior to other Jews. The “outsjuden today are the Zionists, the “settlers,” the “right wing.”
Psychologically, this means that they deserve to survive. They are the “good” Jews. Assimilated, exquisitely moral, the first to find imperfections in their co-religionists.
The line swells, people smile, conversations erupt.
“I am surprised those Zionists are not outside protesting,” says one woman.
“They’ll be here for the later showing, believe me” says another.
A man chimes in: “You have no idea how fanatic they can be. I know.”
His listeners nod approvingly.
And still, these safe-and-liberal Jews push and shove and behave like Jews do on a line, at the Jewish Film Festival or at the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv. This I find funny and slightly endearing.
The film, “The Gatekeepers” directed by Dror Moreh, will cause Israel great harm, great damage. Even if each of the six former heads of the Shin Bet had the right to say what he said; even if the filmmaker had the right to direct just such a film—with messianic hopes of his own that his film will jump-start the Oslo Accords and influence the destiny of the Israelis and the Palestinians; even if more than half of what each former Shin Bet director has to say is true, either technically or factually or philosophically or metaphorically—the filmmaker has an agenda; he is following a lethal narrative script against the Jewish state.
For example, we mainly see Israeli soldiers in full battle gear, rounding up their unarmed, barefoot, blindfolded and handcuffed Arab cousins. Or, we see Israelis commanding targeted assassination drone attacks from safe distances with horrendous collateral damage. We do not see Palestinian terrorists knifing Israeli infants to death or stoning young Israeli boys to death in a cave, or blowing Israeli civilians and tourists up on buses.
Yes, we do see the bloody, heartless carnage of some bus bombings but we do not see the handlers sending their targeted “marks” off to do the bloody deed and thereby ascend to Paradise. Yes, we do see some quick shots of a Palestinian suicide video and of marching, face-masked Jihadists, but no one is ever tied to a particular attack upon Israeli civilians.
Only the Israelis are tied, over and over again, to a handful of specific (and alleged) military and “terrorist” attacks of their own.
Even if the scenes of the right-wing anti-Rabin protests and the alleged “settler” plot to blow up the Al Aqsa mosque are real, as in they really took place—the filmmaker does not manipulate the emotions of his audience by showing us, from within, the Palestinians building their bombs, indoctrinating the next generations, vowing to annihilate Israel and the Jews, torturing dissenters and “collaborators.”
We see Palestinians mainly as pitiful victims. We do not see Gilad Shalit in captivity. We have no fictionalized recreation of Kobi Mandel being stoned to death in a cave or of Israeli mothers and infants being murdered while they sleep. We have no footage of the rockets landing in southern Israel and the terrified children with only seconds to get to a bomb shelter—now traumatized for life. We do not see how 24 Israeli soldiers were massacred, one by one, in Jenin, as they went in on foot in order to avoid international censure for daring to dismantle the bomb-making apparatuses in Jenin.
Yes, we see some scenes of fiery Palestinian rock throwing and some of the awful bus bombings of both the first and second Intifadas. But, Mr. Moreh is no moreh.
He does not talk to the Shin Bet’s counterpart heads of Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian Authority, or Hezb’ollah, etc. He has his six retired Israeli directors tell us that the Palestinians are ready for peace, that in private meetings they have said so, and that the Israeli government is blind, stubborn, refuses to listen—to the peaceful Palestinians and to their Shin Bet commanders. Can this be true?
tell a friendAbout the Author: Dr. Phyllis Chesler is Professor Emerita of Psychology and the author of fourteen books, including Women and Madness (1972), Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman (2002) and The New Anti-Semitism (2003). Her articles are archived at www.phyllis-chesler.com
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these upper west siders really don't get that when they say Israel, they mean Jews. when they say Jews, it means them. the first ones in the ovens.
these upper west siders really don't get that when they say Israel, they mean Jews. when they say Jews, it means them. the first ones in the ovens.
We are superior. It is us who send our sons and daughters to make aliya and fight for Israel. It is us who think about both our countries America and Israel and live with our heads out of the sand. We are not all liberals but concerned people who live in the 21st century and don't find it necessary to wear clothes that the Gentiles wore hundreds of years ago. And it is we who are not abusing the govrnments grnerasity by abusing it. I am sick of seeing all these Brooklyn women in their very expensive sheitels and fur coats paying for groceries with food stamps. Don't throw stones if you live in a glass house!
It's shocking that people of intelligence can ignore the historical facts. I think we should all begin to condemn the occupation – that of Non-Jews occupying Judea and Samaria. Turn this phrase around and get people thinking about truth.
Almost all the delegitimization of Israel comes from Israel itself, the jews hater quote Ha'aretz and shin bet chiefs, Tzipi Livni and OLmert like undisputable sources of absolute truth.
Almost all the delegitimization of Israel comes from Israel itself, the jews hater quote Ha'aretz and shin bet chiefs, Tzipi Livni and OLmert like undisputable sources of absolute truth.
The phenomenon of which this article speaks to is very complex and I think a book could be written about it.
Many issues are raised here. Why are American Jews comfortable here. What are the expectations of the world about Jews. Why are they held to a higher standard?
Is it because Judaism promotes an idea that humanity will get better through Judaism?
I agree with much of this article that the movie is primarily one sided and therefore.
a propagandistic half truth.
But it is also important not to de-humanize your enemy.
Israeli self-defense is absolutely necessary but not all Palestinians are terrorists or evil, sometimes they are just in the way of a needed military strike, and sometimes they are the innocent victims.
How sad to remember how helpful Chesler's 1972 book was to women of my generation, and to see the madness revealed in writings such as this review. And one would think she might be able to spell "Ostjuden."
How sad to remember how helpful Chesler's 1972 book was to women of my generation, and to see the madness revealed in writings such as this review. And one would think she might be able to spell "Ostjuden."
How sad to remember how helpful Chesler's 1972 book was to women of my generation, and to see the madness revealed in writings such as this review. And one would think she might be able to spell "Ostjuden."