If the only impression you had of me came from the comments to a recent review of my book – What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife? – this is the picture you would have:
- I’m “a most virulent anti-Israel and anti-American blogger” who seeks to inspire anti-Semitic comments at progressive sites like Daily Kos and Tikkun.
- I suffer “from Stockholm Syndrome” for meeting with the Palestinian family of the man who perpetrated the 2002 Hebrew University bombing that injured my wife.
- I “spit on Israel,” am a “self-hating Jew” and “advocate for the destruction of Israel” due to my political critiques, stances and book.
These smears, made primarily by American Jews, appear in the Times of Israel, an English-language news site intended primarily for the American market. They are not novel in their target or approach. And this is precisely the issue: it has become normative in American political discourse for progressive Jews, such as myself, to be labeled as ‘anti-Semitic’ by more conservative Jews for recognizing the humanity and human rights of both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Now, if this post was about my feelings, I’d be engaging in nothing but self-indulgent navel gazing. However, this post’s intention is not to generate sympathy on my behalf. Rather, its intent is to explore an important dynamic that seriously affects political discourse in America.
See, the strategy behind such smears is clear and calculated: delegitimize political positions, and the people who hold them, by evoking an emotionally-powerful charge sure to make most people cringe. Anti-Semitism.
The ‘anti-Semite” smear has power, particularly in the American Jewish community, and holds sway in larger political discourses – so much so that members of Congress sometimes sound more right-wing in their opinions than most Israeli politicians in order to placate those who hold extremist views. (Remember Romney’s campaign-inspired claim in 2012 that President Obama threw Israel “under the bus” due to his Iran policies? It’s cut from the same cloth – an influential one.)
There have been several high-profile incidents recently in which American Jews have wrongly tried to smear others as anti-Semitic. One involved Sadia Saifuddin, who became the first Muslim student to serve on the University of California Board of Regents. Predictably, she was slandered as anti-Semitic for her critiques of Israel and her membership in Muslim student groups by those who wanted her removed. The incident prompted the L.A. Times to ask in an editorial, “Oh, for goodness’ sake, will this never stop?”
The answer, unfortunately, was “no.” For another high-profile case occurred just weeks ago, when the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women dis-invited Alice Walker to speak after a chorus of anti-Semitic claims. (The university, embarrassed at how easily it succumbed to such pressure and its failure to protect free speech, quickly re-invited Walker.)
Now, anti-Semitism remains a very real, exceedingly dangerous prejudice. However, the charge has been so overused by my fellow Jews that all it really amounts to anymore, in political discourse, is this: I am frightened by your politics and don’t agree with them.
And yet, the smear still holds sway. Particularly in the American Jewish community. Which is why those Jews commenting on a review of my book could, with a straight face, call someone like myself – a Jewish studies teacher, for goodness’ sake – anti-Semitic.
The more we, as progressives, pose the same question asked by the L.A. Times – “Will this never stop?” – the more attention will be called upon this phenomenon and those disingenuous attempts to stifle geo-political dialogue on Israel.
At a time in which the Obama administration (however flawed) is attempting to re-start peace talks, at a time in which John Kerry is investing much of his political capital on ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such questions are needed.
For without them, political discourse in America will never be balanced. Nor will America’s role in the region.
Follow David Harris-Gershon on Twitter @David_EHG
Jews are also regularly discriminating against other Jews for our lack of $$ and interest in climbing the materialist carousel. But they also 2. aren’t interested-at all- in helping us to get work or guide in small business-that activity can be farmed out to non-Jews, but they are 3. very active in proclaiming us trefe-crazy and would like to make business for themselves and $ in the examination-now-of more of our distress.
There is something wrong with both sides of the critique of Yisrael. Saw something recently on the internet-which i’d suspected: That the Jews in Iran-who have been there for about 2700 years-are surviving, and that the Persian state for all its flaws, is not imprisoning them murdering or torturing them, and that they are actually free to go their shul!
Very interesting and something that might be brought up. 2. American leftists too often are of the slightly privileged white middle class who are focused on their ‘ideas’, their liberalism comes not from what’s happened, or happening to them, but something they are dreaming up. 3. the younger-meaning
after 1940-and wealthy or fairly well off Jews, are doing something of the same-dreaming up something that their reality isn’t. The Holocaust was terrible. And there are those of us, born during the war, and the decade afterward, who felt that the Holocaust’s example was to make sure it didn’t happen again-for all peoples. The present culture of” if I don’t see it it doesn’t exist”, and an absence of looking at ourselves-Judaism/Jewishness emphasis on $, and from the bima, this we should look at. L’Shanah tovah, although i’m not personally going. (for the same reasons as your piece.)
i didn’t mean to say that American liberalism and leftism is all wrong. But when it’s not connected to one’s own personal reality, it gets out of whack.
Here we go again, and again, and again, and again…. I no longer concern myself with those who would charge me with Jew hating or Israel bashing. These people will rarely change. Just as I no longer concern myself with the Jew hating and Israel bashing from the myopic segment of the “Pro” Palestinian left and right. Recognize that there are people of good-will and ill-will on both sides of this ongoing struggle, and it is a struggle.
For those of us that live here, in the US, the rational focus is to engage in discourse with committed, intelligent opponents on both sides of that divide that therefore provide the possibility of connecting no matter how remote. Since both have contributed to the evolution of the current “impasse,” the conversation must include both if there is ever to be a resolution short of mutual total destruction.
In furthering that goal, and as a left activist over many years (I am just shy of my 78th birthday), I have heard myself called many things, in some cases by both sides at the same time. Suffice it to say, my Grandfather built a home in the sand dunes of 1910 Tel Aviv, near the old souk, and my parents were married under the tree he planted in the front yard, fifteen years later. Only the accident of severe Malaria that forced my parents to leave soon after made me possible and a native born American. I know where I came from and honor all the parts of my heritage. I love all my peoples, though I will confess to more than occasional exasperation with all. But I refuse to stop trying.
Some listen more closely than others, but I hope that along the way some good will result from my efforts to reconcile what many now consider irreconcilable differences. Is divorce and separateness the only end? I believe not. But not only must I be willing to try and walk in my opponents shoes, they must also be willing to try and don mine. Sometimes the fit can be painful to all, and sometimes the “other’s” pain is a path to enlightenment and peace, shalom.
At this time of year may I wish all Shanah Tova tikatevu.
More lying, Gershon?
The reason that people think you are antisemitic is not because of anything you claim here. It is because of your open support for the antisemitic BDS movement. That’s it. This “I’m so innocent” act is so tiresome. Anyone who knows what the true goals of the BDS movement are knows that anyone who supports it is an antisemite, whether they are a “Jewish studies” teacher or not.
Once again, a pure ‘anti-Semitic’ smear for the purpose of delegitimizing and shutting down debate. Nothing more.
If one actually reads my “BDS” piece, one would easily understand three things: a) As a liberal Zionist, I believe in the two-State solution, b) I view the occupation and the settlement enterprise as not just tragic moral failings and the cause of much Palestinian suffering, but a threat to Israel itself, and c) I support the idea of sanctions to pressure Israel to move away from these policies. I don’t align with any official BDS movement, but instead support non-violent protest to change policies.
So much for that anti-Semitic claim. Here’s the post for anyone who would like to read it and judge for themselves: http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2012/07/09/today-im-coming-out-in-favor-of-bds-boycott-divestment-sanctions-against-israel/
You claim to believe in the Two State Solution but you know full well that BDS does not support this. If you support boycotts of Israel you are aligned with BDS, whether you admit to it or not.
You also endorse the views of Judith Butler who claims that Hamas is an ally as part of the “global left”, Yes that Hamas, the one that executes gays, bars women from participating in sports, tortures people in the streets, and routinely threatens genocide against Israel. This is who you see as an ally on the left, and yet you think you can claim here to be this innocent person who supports Israel and is not part of BDS. How brazen can the lies get?
Your act of presenting different faces and viewpoints depending on the audience, then claiming this persecution complex when people call you on it, is ridiculously transparent. That obfuscation might work on the gullible quasi-liberals and malicious Paultards at Daily Kos, but when you step out of there you’re entering the world of serious people who actually know about the Israeli-Arab conflict, the outside groups involved, and all of their agendas.
Too cute by half buddy, BDS is a program for the extermination of Israel. Your for BDS. Hence your against the existence of Israel. You can dress it up any way you want for your liberal friends but that’s the fact.
Troll!
Hateful Right Wing Flaming TROLL!
I see you are also one of those people who think that Alice Walker should have been invited to Michigan. Do you agree with her statements endorsing David Icke? Why do you think she is an appropriate person to engage in intellectual discourse after she revealed herself to be a supporter of Icke?
TROLL! FLAMING ULTRA RIGHT WING ULTRA ORTHODOX TROLL!
Settle down there, Alice Walker. I know that you believe David Icke that giant lizard people secretly rule the world with the Illuminati, and you are sad that because of your batshit views the University of Michigan decided to disinvite you, but you should really take your meds and turn off the caps lock.
hello! What a wonderful dialogue and argument!! so that proves we are still Jews. What i’m saying is that there is something very wrong with murdering and marginalizing people there with the standard of the Holocaust. Non-Jews are not interested in this, Moving settlers into the West Bank and shooting people up there i consider to be very un-Jewish. You also have not responded to my other questions. There are Jews in the United States who need help-by other Jews, not non-Jews. There’s far too much emphasis on climbing the carousel to achieve success in the materialist world and being advisers to the throne. Judaism has successfully opened dialogue about women and LGBT. From what i’ve heard from friends who lived in Israel, they were shocked. they also said that Israel is-was-a mid-eastern country and culture and western culture was imported there, in a destructive manner. i heard this from my landlady also, who was a platoon commander in the Irgun. If we begin to see Yisrael as something like a homeland, maybe we can begin to look at anti-Semitism Jewishness and deal with it-have a real dialogue with those who have oppressed and murdered us for centuries. From what i;ve heard-even from Yael Dayan, in decades past, there was some understanding of Jews and Arab/Moslem?Christians living together, being of like mentality. Toda Toda for the dialogue!
postscript: not a policy statement. Personal feeling: do not want to go to services where “$ and support for Israel, because Israel is killing and imprisoning people who live there, taking their homes. Personally i feel sickened by this, doing this in the name of Judaism-as many people felt about the killing and policies of the United States during the Vietnam war. I can live okay without Israel, i’m not sure that either Israelis or the Palestinians can. It’s not an ‘idea’-it’s everyday reality for all of them.
2. While there’s a lot about Christianity that’s okay, the ideas of the Trinity are very foreign,as is the stuff about being saved by the blood sacrifice of Jesus for sins. i think we are all connected and we do things that are not right, that we should deal with, As much as i hear and am surrounded by the above Christian concepts-because i’m ostracized by today’s Judaism, it’s still nauseating and foreign.
3. Most probably both Israel and the United States have validity in perceiving Islamism as threatening. But any state run by a theocracy would be, to some extent. 4. The U.S. is becoming a secularized theocratic state in that much of the budget goes to non-profits, who are utterly only responsible to theoir paycheck, and not to the people they serve. There is more power in not only these non-profits,and the corporations, but a centralizing of power. Much of this looks to be carried out by the media. The awful racism is on the rise again. People seem to be paralyzed-and focused on individual ‘getting ahead’. Is disconnection and “It’s my Way or No Way”, Jewish, and/or is it responsible?.
I CAN LIVE OK Without YOU! RIGHT WING HATEFUL INTERNET BULLY!
LISTEN TO RECORDINGS BY TOSCANINI,MENUHIN,YOU MIGHT LEARN SOMETHING.
1 MENUHIN / 1 TOSCANINI, 1 LEONARD BERNSTEIN IS WORTH 500 OF YOU!!
and Israel is a very very small state, and i’ts very true that it’s surrounded by larger countries who either want to push it into the sea, or /and combination-refuse to recognize it, blot it all out of sight-tv, radio, etc. Why is ithis? When Jews have significantly, more than significantly cointributed to every country and civilization we’ve been in?
the posture of being a culture, people and religion, separate but tolerant of its host country should be looked at from both sides. Why is this threatening to the host country? ETC. If money-grubbing is objectionable, is having no land of one’s own objectionable? Every other nation, including American First Nations, claim some need for land of it’s own. Why is Jewish trade objectionable when NAFTA etc.was passed and is responsible for much ills coming from south of our border.
Why is there so much broadcast about the Muslim religio and culture on tv., radio, but not Judaism??
when Muslims, in the name of Islam are running around the world doing what they do? is it beccause Jews have achieved some material security and the Muslim world has not? Why or why not ? Are “The Jew”s to blame? Isn’t a mosaic-as the Canadians have-letting people keep their culture and identity while being Canadian, maybe more preferable than a leveling factor??
Questions possibly to entertain in forum on the contemporary anti-Semitism.
You seemed to have provoked a “cliché outbreak”, David. Though I am not at all surprised.
I laughed at your comment — so true.
Hi Beatrice, I would love to meet you! I am christian, but I get where you are coming from about the blood/human sacrifice ick factor. I personally do believe that Jesus came from God to save us, but I am pretty radical because I don’t think that blood atonements (human, animal or otherwise …ick ick ick) are required by a perfect God. I mean, serisously. Omnipotent, omniscient, all merciful and benevolent, but he wants some spilled blood for our sins? What a bunch of ancient hoodoo voodoo. Can’t we all just read the spiritual wisdom found in the words of the Bible and Torah (and not all the words are that great, let’s all fess up) and come together on what we clearly agree on…same with the Koran. I mean, if we could all do just that, and leave all the killing, smiting, destroying, out of the books and keep all the parts that are good, I honestly believe we would find the one true faith. It is all there. In all of our books. Maybe, then we can stop killing each other and stop claiming God is on our side. Argh.
Beatrice, as to why some people don’t think Israel should exist, it is mainly because it hadn’t existed for thousands of years. Judea was there for awhile longer. I think, the idea that we can go back so far and award land to its original inhabitants based on morality would collapse the world economy, for one thing. The exception has been made for Israel because of the Holocaust. Which is why I can see a justification for it happening. I also can see the point of the displaced Palestinians who didn’t agree with the idea and I get why they didn’t agree. If someone came to me today and said you now live under the rule of such and such a tribe and must follow the plans they have for your land and community, while I could see how it is moral to give a native American their rights back, I probably would fight it. I am an American living under my American government…I probably wouldn’t be open to a serious change like that.
Yana,
Israel was not created as a result of the Holocaust. It was a long process that got its start under Theodore Herzl. Palestinians were displaced as a result of war after they refused to accept partition.
I am not a Jew, but a former Catholic who grew up in a diverse city where I interacted with many Jews. I left Catholicism when I was 17 because it sucked the air out of me. I love all humans, even imperfect ones, and self-identify as a Humanist. I am so sick of Jews attacking one another over the Israel/Palestine situation. Some don’t listen (or read) even for a moment before they rant. Some of you are your own worst enemies!
I want peace in Israel, and I want the Palestinians to have a peaceful land to call their own, too. You are tribal cousins. You are all humans, you have children. Do you love them? Do you love all the children? Nobody OWNS the land of your forefathers. Fabricated governments and convenient, though temporary, alliances offered you the land to satisfy their own ulterior motives.
I think denigrating comments like Palestinians “barring women in sports or executing gays” are used to justify one’s small-mindedness, and are indicative of those who don’t know their history e.g. Americans have been responsible for similar violations on one another – and we even burned witches at the stake, not so long ago! Jews are not perfect models of living, nor am I.
Let us not be so harsh and judgmental, but tolerant and steadfast in our steady efforts to create a better world around us. Traditions, cultures and nations grow and change at their own pace – they are expressions of humans, not manufactured widgets.
Please, my Jewish friends – Stop this vitriol that passes between you. Listen to each other’s pain. My heart goes out to you even more than to David, for he has already achieved a higher place by learning to deeply forgive. It is the Davids of the world who are the builders, not the destroyers.
David, Yo catch a lot if heat from fellow Jews because you condemn Israel at every turn without turning towards the Palestinians and criticizing them. The conflict is every land not oppressor vs. the oppressed.
Icantmakeawordseperationbecausemycomputerisonthe-fritz.I-can-do-dashes.OK-the-onlything-Ican-offer-is-that-we-are-all-flawed-in-particular-we-can-readily-see-the-faults-of-others-whille-being-utterly-blind-to-our-own….Jesus-made-a-remark-about-this.I-think-charity-is-a-good-practice-though-often-difficult-I-concede.
Sid,
I know the story and history if the Zionist movement. Mr. Herzl had no more right to decide that Jews should have Israel back than a Mexican American has to decide that Mexico should have Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California back … less, as a matter of fact. Many Latvians wanted Latvia to have independence before they briefly obtained it prior to WWII. That wasn’t the beginning of Latvia the country. It was an idea. Ideas often never come to anything.
So Mr. Herzl may have started a movement to have the state od Israel recreated (though its boundaries come neither from religious nor historical roots), and one must actually believe that the Torah is actual history to begin with in order to believe that there ever was an actual self governing empire of Israel anyway to believe Israel was recreated at all and not just made up from fictitious religious texts (and I read a LOT of the archaeological findings on the subject so please don’t say there is any kind of absolute proof the Torah is remotely accurate as history), but Israel as a new independent state was an international decision which, if we are honest, probably never would have been made without WWII convincing people that the Jewish people ought to have a place of their own where they weren’t subject to government which might turn against them. The land was then given to the Jewish people without many of its inhabitants agreeing to it. That is a fact. I wouldn’t agree to my country being partitioned today. Or if I would, I can find you 100 against it for every one for it. The world made a decision without caring what ALL of the people living in what was then called Palestine and, SHOCKER, some people didn’t want to have a partition or move or be under a different government run by a religious group they didn’t want in charge. You might not like the truth, but that is the truth. Of course, you will find a nit picky flaw with something I have just stated and/or just claim I am wrong, but I am not. The history books are there. We can make up anything we like about it today, but land that wasn’t governed by the Jewish community was handed over to the Jewish community to the consternation and then rebellion of many of its inhabitants. Say whatever you will. That last senence is not only true, it was a predicted response to the entire arrangement at the time. And, it is an obviously predictable reaction from Palestinian Arabs. So obvious that arguing Palestinian Arabs (people who were Arabs living in the land then commonly known as Palestine…don’t start any nitpick argument about there “was no Palestine or Palestinians”) should have been expected to be ‘cool’ with an imposed partition is pretty nutty.
Let’s also not go down the argument road that some such leader of the Arabs who lived in what was commonly referred to as Palestine okayed the whole thing. Yeah, after a war ended and without consulting the people who lived in the region. Irrelevant to what people do. If Obama decided to give my state away as the right thing to do for the Native Americans, you know you’d need the military to impose that ruling … Nearly every man and woman would take up arms to fight against it – Even if the international community and everyone else in the U.S. voted on for it and said it was fair. Come on. Your version of truth lacks any reason or logic as to human response. That pretty much points to your version of truth being flawed. People behave predictably. Scientifically predictably. That is why we are so easily manipulated by the press, politicians and advertising. The Muslims living in the area to be partitioned (and their family and friends) reacted as predictably as you can get to partitioning they didn’t have any say about.
you obviously do not understand the history of Zionism nor the history of the region as evidenced by this very quote of yours
“Israel as a new independent state was an international decision”
The 1947 UN vote was for PARTITION of Palestine into 2 states, not just the creation of a Jewish state. The same partition plan was air in 1938 as result of the Peel Commission, so it was hardly an idea that emerged for the Holocaust. It always seem funny to me that that those who claim knowledge of the regional history of the Middle East.
It might be worth noting, the Palestinian mandated area included today’s modern state of Jordan. It was partitioned in 1922. In fact the whole region was carved into states that were once part of the borderless Ottoman Empire. That includes Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. There was never a “Palestine”. man of the Arabs that populated what became Palestine in fact migrated there as the economy improved.
The idea for a Jewish state did not emerge out if a void, as Jews have ties to the region for thousands of years.
I suggest you do a bit more reading about the history of Zionism
Yana, that is logic stated very clearly. But those whom you are addressing do not understand , nor agree with logic, nor are interested in it, because it tells the truth, and exposes them. Thanks for sharing your truthful common sense. Hope they will learn to be honest and forgo of their deep rooted hate to all others.
Why is it awful for Jews to have moved to Palestine? Plenty of people have moved to other countries in the 20th Century and Jews who moved to Palestine had nowhere else to go. Isn’t Arab refusal to accept non Arabs just like the refusal of some Americans to accept immigrants who aren’t like them?
That would be true, the difference is some came to Palestine with arms,tanks, and even plans, with the idea to dispossess the natives of their land ,homes and lively hood, other wise how do you think the Zionist plan would have worked ? Don’t disagree with me yet, read the Zionist history, Jewish/Israeli leaders memoirs , and even today’s Israeli historians. The intention from those who wanted to immigrate and inhabit Palestine, was not honorable nor good for the Palestinians. Maybe good for the persecuted Jews, but not the Palestinians. So, please if you wish to make a comparison, just pick out a real one ,based on facts, not Israeli Zionist fabrications to hide behind . The real intention is right there in front of your eyes. What more do you need?
All who replace argumentation with name-calling should be dismissed out of hand.
I’ll try this a different way: All who substitute name-calling for argumentation should be dismissed out of hand.
For example:
A: I believe X and Y.
B: You’re a [fill in the blank]!
Thanks Yana W. A worthy comment. Won’t change the minds of those trapped in the cul-de-sac of insecurity and fear, so do expect the same old, same old. It gets SO old. Anyway, I appreciate the way you have stated the case.
The reason that right-wing Zionists, religious nationalists and Likudniks generally are so terrified of BDS is that it’s working. Let’s all keep up the struggle to take down Israeli apartheid and its legacy of collective punishment, torture and murder . Whether two-state or one state comes out of the struggle is up to the parties–it may even end up in some different (possibly post-Zionist) configuration that we can’t even imagine now. The focus should be on human rights for Palestinians in Israel/Palestine, and support for progressive Jews in the public square here in the US. The screamers and right-wing haters in this discussion, and in these comments, are outing themselves—and since they have no solution except murder, they demonstrate better than we ever could the essential racism and neo-fascism of the Likud state.
Pilgram, I bet that if you observed BDS to ye letter, you would not be able to turn your computer or purchase generic meds. You’d be surprised how many computer components were created i israel such a the Flash Drive.Next time you purchase affordable generic meds, make sure they are not manufactured by Teva, the largest generic drug maker in the world.
BDS is a failure because because of the ignorance of the BDS community.Good luck with that. Boycott tomatoes and oranges,. there will be just more for me.
Pilgrim,
At least you’re honest about the goals of BDS. You admit (happily) that it will lead to some “post-Zionist” configuration, most likely one state. Contrast that with this Harris-Gershon character, who upthread claims to simultaneously support Israel and BDS.
Both of you are hypocritical scum, but at least you are more honest than he.
Also, BDS is not working. In the decade since the “call” to BDS Israel’s economy has doubled and it has had the highest rate of growth of any developed country. Israel’s universities are even more world class than a decade ago, routinely being the only ones outside of North America, Europe, or Japan to make the top 100 list in world rankings. Israel has the third most companies listed on the NASDAQ of any country, and ignoramuses aren’t going to change that. BDS has had no effect, because in spite of being a tiny country surrounded by hostile barbarous neighbors, and in spite of the machinations of armchair antisemites all over the internet, Israel has thrived economically and culturally in the past decade.
Just to remind those whom are intentionally blinded by the great deeds of Israel, in your rationalization of the crimes that israel commits,you remind me of the builder who is building a house by breaking down, stealing, grabbing the material from his neighbor’s house, then bragging about how beautiful and strong his house is. What a very pathetic logic! Also just for your information, if it is true what you say, most of that Israeli economy is based on selling arms to dictatorships, and criminal thugs in the African content and other parts of the world.they’re 800+ arms dealers in Israel according to a report in one of the Israeli papers.Tell us what does that say about Israel? What so ironic, most of those arms are the surplus of theAmerican tax payers money that is sent to Israel. Go figure, and try to tel us some more. Don’t just be one sided in trying to cover up of Israel does no wrongs!
Umm, actually “most” of Israel’s economy is based on using human capital to create high value added products and services. There is also a healthy proportion of agriculture and tourism. Military activities and sales are less than 5% of Israel’s GDP. US aid is less than 2%.
But thanks for trying to play with the adults, Monir.
BDS is not making things better for the Palestinians. I am not sure how people think it is working. It is increasing enmity and making peace less likely. What positive things do people think BDS is bringing about?
To Mark Bernstein (way back at the first comment). As a Presbyterian (only speaking as an individual) I don’t think Jesus could have said it any better. To all you Israel Firsters, I’m glad you are here. You expose who you are. The truth is always good. There is WAY too much hate in America.
Jim I prefer you call us hook nosed Kikes. It just seems so much more honest than “Israel Firsters.” Masking your nasty anti Semitism does not seem to work well
“Israel firsters”?
“Israel firsters”? And here I thought that Tikkun at least put token effort into attempting to maintain the fiction that they were different than David Duke or Veterans Today. What’s next, a comment supporting segregated country clubs?
Dear David, I know its very hurtful to be described in such manners by any one, here in particular by people whom you consider to be your own. I have to mention to you for what it’s worth, that most of those who criticize you and slander your name(at least on this site) have done that on pure misguided emotional bases, and not on any subjective/objective bases, as they have not used any real arguments nor reasons to attack mostly your humane points of views and the compassionate way you see this Israeli Palestinian tragedy . If you have not noticed, most of them revert to call naming and fear based labels, that has been promoted, by mostly the Zionists, and the Israeli Hasbara , to keep the victims mentality in check for most Jews,easier for brainwashing,manipulation and control. This phenomena,unfortunately is wide spread among most hateful people toward the others ,whom they don’t share points of view with. Hang on my friend, humanity- which is being in danger for these last few decades,due to our American Israeli hegemony ,with some other militaristic minds who hunger for dominance and control, including some Arab leaders idiots-needs to be resurrected by the people for the people. There are quite a good numbers of Jews who dare to look in the mirror and respond accordingly . You, and others on this site, are some of them. Be proud of who you are and what you do. As another human, I am proud of your integrity and honesty on top of your humanity. Those others are blinded by the darkness of their hearts.
Hey Gershon, I hope it warms your heart to see that the person who supports you is the same person who upthread claimed that “most” of Israel’s economy is due to arms sales to Africans. Yes, this is the kind of intelligent, reality-based person who loves you. Haha.
Hay FIZZELES ….is this all they taught you -when Hasbara hired you- how to get a fake laugh from things that make you nervous? Can’t you just address the real issues without diverting to personal attacks, that are solely based on hate?Hate for every one that is not you? Israel spies on everything and every one.israel steals industrial and Technical information from its best friends. Imagine what it steals from its enemies? Is there some decent hard working Israelis? Yes, there are,And we are not talking about those. So, don’t hide behind them.People like you seem to discredit the other Israelis and the good work they do. So, go get a real job, and be productive, you and your likes are wasting our time. Don’t bother to answer.
Shalom Hello and Salaam Alaikum Monir! tried to find you in May,for continuing our talk.
I’ve come to agree with you, more on the feeling side than the intellectual-because i’m not an intellectual,nor even have a college degree.
I saw part of the documentary 5 broken cameras-couldn’t watch the whole thing, but will sometime-which sealed my feelings-opinions on the subject.
Palestinians and Israelis can’t live with the state of Israel. Families and children being shot up, mothers not knowing if their children are alive safe, it’s just horrible. Not to mention the land being taken. Also Jewish Israelis-they don’t know if their children will be coming home alive from the grocery or cafe. I hear that Israelis often have three children, believing that most likely one of them will be killed. All for Israel.
I can live without Israel. The Palestinians cannot, secondly the Jewish Israelis experience difficulty. On the “Ideas” level that my brothers are so passionately warring over-i agree with the Palestinian who says that a one state with both Palestinians and Jews, with no official religion and culture proclaimed. It remains that people are going to have to get along. I also agree-having been a near-juvenile delinquent and on the streets when i was 15, that abuse and cruelty, will ultimately get you what you’re looking for.I wasn’t violent, but i became very angry. I’m by nature the most passive person i know or have ever met, actually. But abuse and violence will ultimately get you what you’re looking for.
Shalom Have a good day Monir.
And Hello Yana,
i would love to meet you too. I used to play with some little Latvian girls Maija and Aija when i was about six, in grade school here, and remember going to Aija’s house once, and their family was having something like a buffet.
Hi Beatrice , thanks for the mutual support of nonviolent resolution to this tragic unjust continuous denial of a peaceful solution. There should be some changes happening in the truth coming out, justice implemented, and then maybe some peace. Please read the Bienart Expose, in the New York book review, you can catch the link on this site from up on the right. He is opening a much needed exposure to the Jewish community of the truth and the facts which are being intentionally denied and hidden from them by their so called leaders. I don’t know , where they are leading them, but according to what I have seen on this site and others ,and their comments, it looks like a very deceptive and dark place ,very ripe for victim hood and brain washing( you know which ones I am talking about ) that is why they defend Israel blindly,and they are slanderous in their language . It seems ,that is what they are capable of according to their job description as Hasbaraests! That is why they attack people who express any kindness or humanity toward the others. I guess humanity is foreign to them and their acts.
Nothing lie drawing up Jewish conspiracies. Juts and FYI. Monir, the Tikkun darling, has accused israel of igniting the Syrian civil war.
What is your proof ,bright one,that Israel did not, is not and will not and have not supported, attacked, and have a good of intentions toward Syria and the Syrian people? bombing Syria repeatedly ? Your lies about the abvious and foolish pretends are just adding insults to yourself,and your likes on this site.
Hello Monir
i think some of the attitude actually comes from the bima (the Jewish pulpit) or at least that it starts there, and others get involved. in it. I was studying the Holocaust when i was 15 and 16, in a Catholic foster home-long before American Jews were interested. It was then too dangerous a subject,for their discussion. I was in a Catholic foster home because the Jews-had decided not to bother with my family, they were too busy with their ‘ideas’. i had been on the streets-not doing much, mostly walking.
The intellect is very big stuff in Judaism-Jewishness. For many reasons-i think it started when people were in ghettos confined, and had no land of their own. So they developed business and the intellect. Jewish people also get attached very attached to their ideas. As if their idea is them.
In many ways i feel that the United States is th e’Promised Land’, for all American faults, sins etc. it’s been very good for Jews. People who are attached to the Holocaust-some of them may have relatives who were in it.
The other factor is that Israel, the state, needs to silence all dissent and do a publicity together with repression campaign in order to carry out its goals for the end of Palestine, Palestinians-(which is their goal and what they are doing). They have to obscure the truth, this is part of it.
The United States is now resurrecting its terrible racism and capitalist exploitation, and publicity campaign to go along with it brainwashing, control of the media silencing, etc. i’m sure you’ll get the parallels.
i began reading the Beinart piece this morning and will continue in a couple of hours.
Masach El Cher, salaam alaikum
the other factor, and Rabbi Lerner talks about-and perhaps some of the non-Jews here are either not aware of, haven’t studied, nor think important at all in this situation is that
the murder and targeting of people taking their land away disregard for their children destroying their homes, is not Jewish, is not Torah. Saying that we were there two thousand years ago, and it is our land there fore we have the divine right for such behavior, is not Jewish. Much of Judaism evolved during the two thousand years that we were in diaspora all over the world. And much of the beauty and the pain, and dealing with pain, evolved during that time. Throwing that culture and learning away, and that compassion for all, and justice, is not “what is to be done”, for the new year. I don’t believe that everything that this murderous movement has hatched.is kosher.and although not a scholar at all, that there was much more openess thirty years ago.
Jews’ interest in ‘advisers’,to the throne and $$ is questionable. Even that Wollfowitz being critical of the situation, and also silenced says something!!
LShanah tovah.
“And this is precisely the issue: it has become normative in American political discourse for progressive Jews, such as myself, to be labeled as ‘anti-Semitic’ by more conservative Jews for recognizing the humanity and human rights of both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
That is an attack on Jews who support Israel. It claims we don’t recognize the humanity and rights of people on both sides. It is as false as calling all people who complain about Israel anti-Semitic. There are people born into every group who don’t think much of many people in that group and oppose them on some points. I am not sure how to describe them.
Hello Mr. Marshak and Gut Yontif
you probably know, in some part, that i’m not attacking you at all. also if you’ve read some of my other posts in this-and some other discussions. 1. i’m not an intellectual. 2. the change for me was seeing a documentary on pbs television made by a father of four, in the West Bank. Actually i couldn’t watch the whole thing. What i saw was enough. i’ve heard both sides for years-actually-actively since the early 1980’s, and was probably the most right-wing you’d say of the Jewish people involved. it’s taken me a long time to come to this-and this is a personal feeling, not a policy statement-that i feel that for both sides, the threat of their children being murdered, or for the Palestinians for their home to be demolished, to live in that kind of fear and entrapment, for the Israelis, that a son or daughter might be taken, or blown up going to the grocery store-No. That’s just what i feel on that side.
On the other side-the religious side-i feel, but also there is much fact-that there is much more emphasis in the United States on the support of Israel, rather than a deeper and everyday understanding and living of Judaism. Yes, there is much concern for “the rules”., etc., a la Chabad given out by twenty five year olds as the the experts, but there’s not much thought/attention, besides Rabbi Lerner here as to what and how we live, how we are with one another, and with the world also.
Most of my interactions in the last twenty years or so has been with what you would call ‘the lower class, the underclass, the born agains, the white working class’, etc. And among these people there’s a lot of 1. resentment against Jews and Israel, to the point of seeing Mein Kampf being toted about on the bus, etc. 2. The born-agains-but not counting the black people i’ve met-but the white people-are hostile to Judaism, actually, while they say they ‘love Jews’., the whole thing is very sick, and there’s a whole lot of it. thirty years ago i think there was more understanding and more openess in America.
The other thing as i repeatedly point out, which is ignored-consistently-is that Jewish Americans seem to need to repeat some errors of the past in being too focused on $ and also parading it, also not doing enough for Jews who are not able, or who are poor, or who are shoved aside. The state of Israel, and also argueing about it, is more important than being a mentsch.
” Jewish Americans seem to need to repeat some errors of the past in being too focused on $ and also parading it, also not doing enough for Jews who are not able, or who are poor, or who are shoved aside.”
That is definitely not fair. There are Jews who are like that just as there are members of every other group who are like that. But most Jews are not like that.
I think prizing intelligence is a very good thing. Sure having a good heart is tremendously important. But we will solve the pressing problems of our day if we solve them at all by using our intellects and finding a way to work with people who strongly disagree with us.
You’re an anti Semitic whacko. Tikkun seems to attract ilk like you.
Isn’t it ironic? We Jews are about to enter Yom Kippur, where we (hopefully) freely admit our collective and individual shortcomings as deeply and as sincerely as we are able.
Yet, if we admit that we, as Israel, have done injustice (a major “shortcoming”) to the Palestinians we would be vilified by many of our fellow Jews.