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In Reply to: Re: Anti-Israel does not equal anti-semitic posted by Joseph on August 01, 2003 at 09:26:41:
I agree with the point that anti-Israel does not equal anti-semitic, but to maybe finish Joseph's thought, it is true that anti-semitism and anti-Israel sentiments in Family members (and hence in ex-members) are tightly bound together, and this is no accident.
To validate his hatred for the Jews, his siding with Hitler, his denial of the Holocaust, all Berg cited for "proof" was to point to the present-day oppression by the state of Israel of the Palestinian people. Since there was nothing more than his blab to convince people that the Jews were in a conspiracy to take over the world or had faked WW2 and the Death Camps, his strongest "proof" that that Jews were evil enough to create Hitler and kill themselves in WW2 was to point to the news about the present state of affairs in the Mideast. And since Family members agreed (and I still agree) that the state of Israel is guilty of injustices and oppression against the Palestinians, by inference Berg felt he had proved that everything else he said about them must also be true.
In fact, whenever accused of being anti-semitic by his horrible pro-Hitler statments, denial of the Holocaust, etc. Berg would very quickly lapse into that defense -- saying "We're not anti-semitic, but we're anti Zionist." It was so slippery and such an easy slide into an alternate position. Typical political maneuvering. In fact, I've always nearly marvelled that for a group that prided itself as being THE main bearers of Truth in the world, that they are so darn chicken-liver about letting their truth beliefs about the Jewish people be known.
To finish my thought: just because the government of the State of Israel is unjust and oppressive, does NOT mean that the Holocaust was faked, that Hitler was right, etc. etc. etc. The Jewish people HAVE suffered horrendeous injustices in the recent past as the timeline at the end of the article demonstrates, and it is to their shame now that they would turn from being the victim to the oppressor. My sympathies for their sufferings during the Holocaust do not allow me to excuse present actions in Israel, and vice versa.
But Berg's mind always had to paint things ultra-simple, black and white.
