Dr. Phyllis Chesler comments on the Madoff fraud,at Pajamas Media (originally published at Jewcy).
“Yes, of course, Madoff’s betrayal is unforgivable. He has gutted an entire generation of Jewish philanthropic wealth, destroyed trust within the Jewish philanthropic world but, far more important, impoverished widows, orphans, and the elderly and, in so doing, endangered and shamed the Jewish people at a time when we have many real, not merely neurotically imagined enemies.……..
In the Middle East, graft and nepotism make the wheels turn. Everyone is on the take. Beggars aren’t beggars, entire civil services are staffed by one or two clans. I could tell you a thing or two about corruption in southern Asia today, let’s say in Afghanistan, that would make Heller’s Catch-22 seem like child’s play. Everyone, from the President on down is on the take and opium is a most abundant and attractive cash crop. The Afghan drug lords are addicting, infecting, and murdering entire global populations with their poppies as are those who buy and sell the heroin. No one holds the Afghans accountable. But woe to the Jewish nation that has harbored, abetted, profited from, or has even been fleeced by Madoff, the greedmaster.”
My Comment
This is an interesting commentary from just after the Madoff story broke and it makes some good points.But I think it’s on shaky grounds in one or two other places..
I’m posting it today because I recently posted two pieces that some might see as critical of the Jewish people. Mind you, I don’t. I see criticism of Madoff or of US Israeli policy as simply criticism of a conman and of international criminality.
On the other hand, I also don’t think religion or ethnicity is irrelevant to that criticism, any more than religion or ethnicity was irrelevant to criticism of George Bush (hmmm…did I hear any voices raised to protest the attacks on fundamentalist Christianity, whites, Anglos, Wasps? No, I think not).
And is there any let up whatever in the criticism of Islam (Islamofascists), Muslim extremism, jihadis, violent Middle Easterners, etc. etc? None whatever. Doesn’t the color black get dragged into discussion of crime in the ghetto? Didn’t the phrase “Hindu extremism” pop up in discussions about Godhra?
It seems pretty natural to me that people would point out the religion or ethnicity of conmen, especially when the con men are relying on both to play their con game.