I’m not Jewish, but my Scots-Irish tribe has some things in common with the Israelites: they experienced a calculated oppression that forced a great number of them to flee the land of their ancestors, settle in a hostile country and eventually overpower the locals… igniting an ethnic hatred that has poisoned a disputed country for centuries.
I’m a Cracker, as in “you mother f*ucking white cracker.”
Crackers: the over-eating, truck driving, racist, meth-using, tea bagger, predominant ethnicity of the south-eastern portion of the United States, are what is left of the Celtic people offered land by their English masters in a place that was already occupied: Northern Ireland.
The Crackers have a distinguished history. After the English, put down their dreams of independence (with the first set of laws in European history to make a language and way of life illegal)* they participated in violently taking their ethnic and linguistic brethren’s spiritual homeland: Ulster, historic seat of Irish Kings… moving in and taking over.
After a few decades of oppressing people that might have been their cousins, and looking for more land; they emigrated to America where they became the tools of the English slave-owning gentry in the colonies.
Any one who watched Alex Haley’s ROOTS in the 70’s might have noticed the Scottish accent of the foreman whipping the rebellious slave Kunta Kinte until he accepted that his “real” name was Toby.
Some of them found religion-in fact they all did: Crackers are most of the doctor-killing anti-abortion fanatics of the far right.
Religion didn’t used to be a bad thing for Crackers. One of my Scots-Irish ancestors, William Henry Drury -a very religious Cracker- preached against slavery on the basis of the Bible and then backed up his words by volunteering for the Pennsylvania artillery battalion that fought off Confederate guerilla attacks against Washington DC.- he lost his foot.
However, lately the Crackers seem to have forgotten the love part of Jesus, preferring anger and paranoia as more exciting motivators… Oppressing Mexicans in need of a job… hey we’re down with that.
So what does this have to do with Anthony Weiner? Not much, except that I think that partly because of my criticizing of Crackerness, I’ve finally found a reason to disagree with him.
He and Chuck Schumer have decided that the President Obama is being to too hard on Benyamin Netanyahu on the issue of settlements.
Weiner said this about the way Obama has been treating the Prime Minister of Israel:
“The appropriate response was a shake of the head – not a temper tantrum…Israel is a sovereign nation and an ally, not a punching bag. Enough already.”
But lets acknowledge the fact that Netanyahu humiliated Joe Biden a few weeks ago with a poorly timed, jingoistic announcement of more East Jerusalem settlements. The White House would have to have been absolutely spineless not to take exception to that exchange.
Also, It’s kind of clear that new settlements are not the first steps on the road to peace. You have to try really, really hard to convince your self of the opposite point of view.
So I feel that Weiner and Schumer should mention the need to support Israel unconditionally, without publicly criticizing Obama for sticking up for his VP. Casting aspersions on the President’s loyalty to Israel because of the back and forth with Bibi, is wrong, and joining Crackers like Glenn Beck and Pat Buchanan in taking shots at the President… is just embarrassing.
*In 1746 to subdue the Scottish highlands, the English Parliament passed the Act of Proscription. It banned the wearing of traditional Scottish attire (i.e. kilts etc.) forbade speaking in Gaelic, outlawed Scottish music, dancing, or playing of bag pipes, which the Act said “emitted an aggressive and warlike sound.”
Finally it banned all Scots from “bearing arms.” Glenn Beck (Beck is a common Scottish surname) and his ilk use the resonance of this particular, aspect of the collective Scots-Irish ancestral memory to inflame Cracker passions about the right to use assault rifles to hunt deer.