Must Gentiles respect Jews?

Are they guilty when they just hate us without committing any crime?

I asked an Israeli lawyer I’m close to.

Civil Western Law holds that everything is allowed unless it’s forbidden.

A society can choose to limit expressions of hatred because it’s suspected to lead to physical violence. But people are free to believe what they want.

The Law protects a person’s good name against harmful defamation, but spreading negative baseless stereotypes against groups is allowed as long as that doesn’t threaten or could lead to physical harming them.

Saying Jews are monsters and, therefore, should not be protected against people who hate them already seems to encourage threats and violence.

But a gray area may be when a person would opine that Jewish stores should be boycotted. It threatens the livelihood of many Jews, and that is physical violence, and it is against equality that is the basis of democracy. But this would only be forbidden if there is a law outlawing discrimination.

Freedom of Speech is a great good so you can voice practically any sentiment except for very specific things like slandering individuals.

Yet, voicing support for terrorist organizations or acts is regarded as a call to violence. It obviously depends on the circumstances. If you say, in the middle of a Muslim town, that all Jews are wicked, that might encourage violence. If you say it, in the center of Bnei Brak, they’ll call an ambulance.

Spreading supremacist notions, in the end, always leads to violence and murder. Western-democratic rule must outlaw discrimination to stop it.

This is different from my ideas about Radical Democracy.

I would forbid spreading negative ideas about oppressed groups. Negative stereotyping is a form of doing harm. Spreading lies would be illegal too, not only when it intends to defraud others. But who must decide what is not harmful thought? The same people (judges) who decide if you stole.

Just imagine what our world (and the news, politics) would look like when lying is outlawed. Politicians and lawyers would need to be retrained.

The argument that these judges are not democratically elected is rubbish. Neither are the physicians who need to decide on life and death questions.

Present democracies are based on equal liberties and rights, while my idea is built on parity, needs, and preventing or undoing harm because it cares.

The members of Israel’s Supreme Court are blamed for being left-wingers. They should be since they need to protect minorities against majorities.

A problem is that the owning class never agreed to this when it agreed to general voting. They need reassurance they’ll be even safer and happier.

I asked several Orthodox rabbis I’m close to.

Through the Laws Against Slander, Jewish Law clearly acknowledges that speaking badly about someone or groups hurts and can even kill.

There is a law that if a fellow Jew stands up to murder you, you kill him first if there is no other safe way to stop him. However, there must be direct preparation. Merely saying I hate those people is not enough.

These are laws between Jews. You can imagine what Jewish Law should be for Gentiles who say they hate us. Iran saying we’re going to wipe Israel off the map should be enough to stop them in any safe way possible, even before they start to build up their military. Then, there seems to be no difference between bad but ‘innocent’ thoughts and wicket plots.

Democratic Israel and the IDF are much milder than Jewish Law regarding Gentiles in and around Israel who express hatred for Jews. The former will keep all the civil and war laws even if the other side is not. But less and less so to the idiotic point, we would be sitting ducks ready to self-sacrifice.

When Israel was a kingdom, many Gentiles lived in the State. It had all kinds of punishments for a Gentile who spoke disrespectfully of Jews, like caning, fining, (expulsion?), all for deterrence and possibly to motivate a change in attitude. Today’s Judaism has nothing like that. Jewish Law predominantly deals with behavior between Jews or from Jew to Gentile.

4. To exterminate Amalek

All the Rabbis today agree we don’t know who is our eternal (!) archenemy under the world’s Peoples. All the Peoples got mixed. So they say: Amalek are those who behave like it. The Nazis were. Not the Germans. Chamas is. Not the Gazans. Chezbollah is. Etc. A distinction the ICJ did not make. They left it unclear if they see all Gazans as Chamas terrorists or all Chamas terrorists as civilians. But the civilized world does make the distinction.

There is no genocide in the Torah obligating us to destroy Amalek before it destroys us.

Our Sages also mentioned that we don’t need to exterminate Amalekites who repented! You can’t get it any better than the Orthodox-Jewish way.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1