tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4318375667051435937.post8357661514728267498..comments2023-08-25T16:13:51.356+01:00Comments on Martin In The Margins: John McCarthy: well-meaning but wrongMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608932251584881007noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4318375667051435937.post-45496964420780285972012-07-21T16:59:14.932+01:002012-07-21T16:59:14.932+01:00Perhaps you would read the book before dismissing ...Perhaps you would read the book before dismissing it.<br /><br />What is wrong with the phrase "Palestinian Arab Israeli citizen"? A family living in Haifa whose family have lived there continuously for hundreds of years are Palestinians and after 1948 are still Palestinians that happen to be citizens of Israel who make up about 20% of the population.<br />Israeli Arabs is a term created by the Israeli government. I see no reason why all citizens are equal regardless of their religion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4318375667051435937.post-81975863768590067342012-06-18T22:49:31.836+01:002012-06-18T22:49:31.836+01:00Thanks.Thanks.Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15608932251584881007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4318375667051435937.post-15436822640815732612012-06-18T22:45:41.099+01:002012-06-18T22:45:41.099+01:00http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/bo...http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-two-faces-of-amis-774978.htmlThe Contentious Centristhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07370528817706233156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4318375667051435937.post-24707949701429482872012-06-18T16:58:23.961+01:002012-06-18T16:58:23.961+01:00Thanks for the comment, Noga. I tend to agree. By ...Thanks for the comment, Noga. I tend to agree. By calling McCarthy 'well meaning', I suppose I was drawing attention to the current fashion among apparently nice, 'decent', liberal westerners for seeing the Palestinian Arabs as pure victims - a trend I want to analyse and attempt to explain at some point. By the way, do you have the reference for that Amis quote?Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15608932251584881007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4318375667051435937.post-6108813039821797532012-06-18T00:25:18.381+01:002012-06-18T00:25:18.381+01:00It sounds like there is nothing well-meaning in th...It sounds like there is nothing well-meaning in this program. It's the usual drivel, with the usual malicious characterization and total indifference to the suffering of Israeli Jews from Palestinian aggressive "resistance". There is no concern, for example, for the traumatized kids of Sderot. There can be no pity for a non-person, as far as he is concerned. And all Israelis are non-persons for the likes of him, in as much as he has internalized the hot and infinite hatred of the Arabs towards Israel. I suspect that the very intensity of this hatred is proof enough, in his eyes, for the horrible crime committed against the Palestinians by the establishment of Israel. Why else, he probably asks, in his innocent ignorance, why else would someone hate another to such an absolute and maximalist extent? Surely it must be deserved. <br /><br />It is as Martin Amis was saying:<br /> "I know it’s a great tradition of the British left to support Palestine, but when you come up against this question, you can feel the intelligence and balance leaving the hall with a shriek, and people getting into this endocrinal state about Israel. I just don’t understand it. The Jews have a much, much worse history than the Palestinians, and in living memory. But there’s just no impulse of sympathy for that . . . I know we’re supposed to be grown up about it and not fling around accusations of anti-Semitism, but I don’t see any other explanation. It’s a secularised anti-Semitism"The Contentious Centristhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07370528817706233156noreply@blogger.com