Regardless of whether Purim was a silly myth or not, there was no "Israeli-Arab" conflict of the sort that you propose.
No, the interesting thing is that the majority of anti-Jewish sentiment, prior to the latter half of the Twentieth Century, came from WHITE CHRISTIANS IN EUROPE. Jews were protected in al-Andalus, they were protected in Jerusalem under the Muslims, they were protected by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and they were protected by the Shahs of Persia.
Jews lived in peace in Baghdad, and Basra, and Tehran, and Shiraz, and Damascus, and the cities of Morocco, and Jerusalem, and Granada.
Yes, they had to pay taxes as dhimmis. However, they weren't murdered on a regular basis the way they were in Europe. They weren't deported en masse like they were from Spain and England. They weren't burned and attacked like they were in Germany, and France, and Italy. They weren't systematically deprived of any means of working the land, attending institutions of higher education or advancing themselves like they were all over Europe. They weren't slaughtered in pogroms, they weren't killed in death camps and they weren't forced to live in ghettos or shtetls.
Up until the time that militant Zionist settlers arrived in British Mandate Palestine in the 20th Century, there was really virtually no Jew-Arab hostility, and there hadn't been since the establishment of Islam. Some issues can be raised about the last days of Muslim Spain and the Nineteenth Century in the Ottoman Empire, but the problem there is more one of a degeneration of public order generally.
As a result, the problem is, really, a new one.
No, the interesting thing is that the majority of anti-Jewish sentiment, prior to the latter half of the Twentieth Century, came from WHITE CHRISTIANS IN EUROPE. Jews were protected in al-Andalus, they were protected in Jerusalem under the Muslims, they were protected by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and they were protected by the Shahs of Persia.
Jews lived in peace in Baghdad, and Basra, and Tehran, and Shiraz, and Damascus, and the cities of Morocco, and Jerusalem, and Granada.
Yes, they had to pay taxes as dhimmis. However, they weren't murdered on a regular basis the way they were in Europe. They weren't deported en masse like they were from Spain and England. They weren't burned and attacked like they were in Germany, and France, and Italy. They weren't systematically deprived of any means of working the land, attending institutions of higher education or advancing themselves like they were all over Europe. They weren't slaughtered in pogroms, they weren't killed in death camps and they weren't forced to live in ghettos or shtetls.
Up until the time that militant Zionist settlers arrived in British Mandate Palestine in the 20th Century, there was really virtually no Jew-Arab hostility, and there hadn't been since the establishment of Islam. Some issues can be raised about the last days of Muslim Spain and the Nineteenth Century in the Ottoman Empire, but the problem there is more one of a degeneration of public order generally.
As a result, the problem is, really, a new one.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
Jacqueline Rose on the Dreyfus affair and related problems, in the LRB
06/06/2010 11:28:14 AM
- 1068 Views
*remains amused at the suggestion of the Dreyfus Affairs "pertinence" to "current" events*
06/06/2010 05:14:23 PM
- 787 Views
I agree in part and (strongly) disagree in part.
06/06/2010 05:40:26 PM
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"If it's an eternal struggle, how could there ever be a solution or a peace?"
06/06/2010 06:20:39 PM
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Purim may or may not refer to a historic event. Even if it does, Haman was not likely an Arab.
07/06/2010 12:00:05 AM
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I second your main point.
07/06/2010 12:09:42 AM
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I don't discount that there is Arab blood in many or even most "Arabs".
07/06/2010 12:18:32 AM
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The holiday is centuries old and real, regardless.
07/06/2010 12:28:59 AM
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You're still missing the major point here.
07/06/2010 12:44:08 AM
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That seems a rather limited view of history.
07/06/2010 01:10:11 AM
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I (coincidentally) stumbled across those infamous hadith passages about Jews the other day.
07/06/2010 09:41:39 AM
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So?
07/06/2010 10:50:49 PM
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are you claiming that people would pull some things out of holy text and ignore the rest?
08/06/2010 12:16:41 PM
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well, for me this just proves why we are not supposed to live among non-Jews
06/06/2010 11:39:45 PM
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couldn't get past the part where anyone who opposes Obama is a racist *NM*
08/06/2010 01:40:07 AM
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You hallucinated? *NM*
08/06/2010 08:39:37 AM
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No, that would've been one of the places where she should've shut up. *NM*
08/06/2010 08:58:11 AM
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No
08/06/2010 09:08:04 AM
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I think he's not talking about that bit, but about the very first paragraph.
08/06/2010 09:30:21 AM
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If there was more I didn't get far enough to hear it
08/06/2010 12:09:47 PM
- 627 Views
That's the problem with the speech - the large majority of what she had to say was worthwhile.
08/06/2010 01:15:39 PM
- 691 Views