Sword with two sides - when their wrong-doings hit them back

[sonja_yu]

Ten years ago, fearing for own existence, the last Jews of Kosovo accepted what they've got served so they could maintain it somehow.
This is how they used to talk like:

http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/12192/jews-in-kosovo-city-share-fate-and-struggle-of-albanians/

Today, after realising they've come into the trap and there is no way out. After betraying the last hope and finding out that the existence over there for them is impossible, out of total despair, the absolutely same people, same families say this:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1203343701932&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

After they were spitting on everything, called Slobodan "Serb nationalist", rule on Kosovo "apartheid-like", compared the situation to the Holocaust and saying that the "irony of life" is that the GERMANS are "protecting" them now, this is what they've got!
Those Germans really had "protected" them so well that they are now hopeless over there.

Their only future is to leave, after the same ones they've spit on 10 years later, thinking that it would "set them free".

[Spectator]

Interesting read, Sonja. Things that describe personal experience are always interesting. How did you manage to find both these articles and put them together? You seem to do a lot of research!

Jewish community of Prizren is highly assimilated with Albanians. Even their president Votim Demiri, who is the main figure of these articles, is married to Albanian/Turkish woman (and hence his son is not Jewish, even though he wants to learn Hebrew and visit Israel). They speak Albanian, they don't have a synagogue, etc. Therefore it would be too harsh to say they "spit" on Serbs (if you mean they betrayed Serbs). They are Albanians by mentality, and they behave as Albanians. They view things from Albanian perspective. You cannot demand from them more than from regular Albanians. By the way, Serbian-speaking Jews of Kosovo solidarize with the Serbs and look at the things from Serbian perpective.

This is the tragedy of Jewish people in exile. The most Jews who live in exile look at the world politics as the other citizens of the countries they live in.  But as the relations between the countries are not always ideal, the Jewish Diaspora as a whole cannot be nice to everyone. Even American Jews are not an exception - the first article is published in the American media (JWeekly) and its positions are typically disgustingly anti-Serbian, as are the majority of US media.

Only in our own nation-state we can (more or less) look at the things from true Jewish perspective. And easily understand that it is the Serbs who should we support. By the way, you second source - Jerusalem Post - is the Israeli media and you can see that its position is much more balanced.

[sonja_yu]

Interesting read, Sonja. Things that describe personal experience are always interesting. How did you manage to find both these articles and put them together? You seem to do a lot of research!

Yeah, but it was actually quite easy. I just had to realise that the same people appear in both.

Jewish community of Prizren is highly assimilated with Albanians. Even their president Votim Demiri, who is the main figure of these articles, is married to Albanian/Turkish woman (and hence his son is not Jewish, even though he wants to learn Hebrew and visit Israel). They speak Albanian, they don't have a synagogue, etc. Therefore it would be too harsh to say they "spit" on Serbs (if you mean they betrayed Serbs). They are Albanians by mentality, and they behave as Albanians. They view things from Albanian perspective. You cannot demand from them more than from regular Albanians. By the way, Serbian-speaking Jews of Kosovo solidarize with the Serbs and look at the things from Serbian perpective.

Yes, even one my friend whom I showed this said "'Demiri's father, for example, is Albanian, and his wife is "something between Albanian and Turkish.' should i be astonished?"

I don't say they spit on the Serbs because of that, but because of that stuff used in the first article describing the Serbs:

called Slobodan "Serb nationalist", rule on Kosovo "apartheid-like", compared the situation to the Holocaust and saying that the "irony of life" is that the GERMANS are "protecting"

Heh, since there are some 50 of them and they will be gone in the next generation, he is hardly any "president" after all.

This is the tragedy of Jewish people in exile. The most Jews who live in exile look at the world politics as the other citizens of the countries they live in.  But as the relations between the countries are not always ideal, the Jewish Diaspora as a whole cannot be nice to everyone. Even American Jews are not an exception - the first article is published in the American media (JWeekly) and its positions are typically disgustingly anti-Serbian, as are the majority of US media.

I can agree about American Jews, with some exceptions, of course, like Chaim.

Only in our own nation-state we can (more or less) look at the things from true Jewish perspective. And easily understand that it is the Serbs who should we support. By the way, you second source - Jerusalem Post - is the Israeli media and you can see that its position is much more balanced.

Thanks for appointing that about the origins of the sources, although the same people are interviewed, this, indeed makes sense.