Who could argue against these folk? They so obviously mean well and they do a good job.
So what's the problem?
Well as evidenced by the clip itself, there is no problem.
But what happens when someone questions the Holocaust, or speaks about the post WW2 injustices done to Germans, or supports the right of Palestinians to identify the American and Europdean Jewish leaderships (and all the Jews who support them) as an enemy, or wants to protest outside a synagogue in which Zionism is preached from the pulpit, or asks difficult questions about the real meaning of Jews-only activism.
How then would these good folk respond then? Perhaps it doesn't matter? You decide.
(See the afterword by Henry Herskovitz)
FROM HENRY HERSKOVITZ:
I think this video short starts where it ends up: with the young Hebrew speaking
fellow calling for a "one-person, one vote equal system"
I attended a New
York JATO meeting (it lasted a weekend) in 2004, and rather embarrassed the
young crowd by suggesting that our synagogue vigils (by then a year-and-a-half
old) should be expanded to include the many synagogues in Brooklyn. The idea was
shelved in a heartbeat, how could I hold ordinary Jews accountable?
Now
it's unfair to judge the Aussie-JATO folks with a memory of he NY-JATO folk, but
nothing I saw in this video - other than the young man's final squeak of a call
- convinces me that these Jews want anything more than to look good in their 15
minutes of fame.
Do they demand immediate Right of Return for
Palestinians?
Do they question the legitimacy of a Jewish
state?
Do they critically analyses the parts that Jews have played in
creating and maintaining a Jewish state?
Do they discuss Jewish
Supremacism? True they bring up South African analogies, but they know better
than to use the phrase "White supremacism", lest some ne'er do well like myself
bring up its counterpart in Palestine?
Are they demanding the
"Liberation" of Palestine?
At one time, my heart might have swelled for
these "brave" Jews speaking their mind. But that was before I found the
sunglasses. [Ref: They Live (movie)]
Now, when Jews talk about the
Holocaust - but only enough talk to give the whiff of some unexplained
unexplained horror - I want them to ask themselves why they were feared and
hated by a country which initiated a program of ethnic cleansing.
These
"brave" Jews should stop hiding behind a mythical "occupation" and get a pair of
sunglasses."
Hi Paul. Your observations and Henry's questions are very much on target.
ReplyDeleteThe rhetoric and public face of these all-Jewish 'anti-occupation' organizations remind me quite a bit of the numerous soft and fuzzy Zionist gatekeepers who dot the anti-war landscape here in the US.
They're dedicated to making a lot of humanistic noise, expressing moral outrage, proclaiming their Jewishness, and sustaining visible (but ineffective) anti-Israel organizations for all the world to see. But what's their real goal? End the occupation? Then...? Two States? Full sovereignty for Palestine? And what about Jerusalem and the Palestinian Right of Return? Then it get complicated.
Basically, I think their activism is part left wing pose and part p.r. for world Jewry. I suspect that many of these Jews don't want the world to see the supremacist underpinnings of Zionism or realize just how powerful Israel has become in Washington.
If Jews really want to end Israel's occupation, why do they form/join All-Jewish protest groups? Why are they turning their backs on nearly all of humanity? Even these Jewish peace-niks are hopelessly wedded to Jewish Apartheid; even their protests are segregated. What?--no gentiles around who are willing to heap scorn upon 'democratic Israel'? Keep looking.
Significantly, in America today there's a similar proliferation of all-kosher, anti-Zionist protest groups which, after some 25 years, have accomplished next to nothing as far as Palestine is concerned. Though Jews are famously effective in politics and lobbying, anti-occupation Jews have also failed miserably to end the occupation. I wonder why.
Have Jews who are critical of Israel really gone to war over Israel/Palestine with their Jewish cousins and rabbis and various members of local Jewish federations that we find all over US? I don't believe so. If that's the case, their ineffectiveness is staggering. And revealing.
Consider: if one's goal is to launch or join a movement with the purpose of reigning in Washington's unwavering subsidy of Israeli excess, why would one begin by restricting the movement's membership to Jews? After all, American Jews are Israel's most fanatical supporters. Soliciting only Jewish members for the purpose of undermining Zionism is clearly a losing proposition.
Might that be that their secret objective?
Indeed, if one sincerely wanted to combat Zionist influence in America, one would surely title the organization with a name (and admissions policy) that inspires the broadest appeal, not the narrowest. "Americans Against Israel" or "Humanity Against Zionism" come immediately to mind. Why impose ethnically-restrictive covenants on anti-Zionist activism? I smell deception.
Indeed, America urgently needs a broad, unified, inter-racial, cross-religious and grass-roots Zionist reform movement if we're ever going to put even a dent in the entrenched and hyper-powerful Zionist/Jewish lobby in Washington. Therefore, the 'Jews Only' designation on most of these groups is obviously designed to repel the vast majority of nascent anti-occupation activists.
This tells us point blank that these anti-occupation Jews are not actually interested in upsetting the pro-Zionist apple cart in Washington. They're mostly posing.
Mark,
DeleteThere's pretty well nothing in your comment with which I would disagree - except this: "Might that be that their secret objective?"
I don't think Jews (especially those allegedly "Jews of conscience') generally do have 'secret objectives'. If they did, they would be far less powerful than they are.
A key element of Jewish power is the ability of Jews to act without properly knowing why they are so acting. "The locusts attack in formation but they have no king"
Having said that, I'm becoming more and more convinced that, as things get more and more desperate for them, consciousness on the part of real Jewish supremacists like Alan Dershowitz and Abe Foxman, is growing. In effect, many who were culpably self-deluded are now becoming conscious liars