Matt Dorf of Rabinowitz/Dorf communications informs me I got the #s wrong on how many young Jews go to Israel free every year.
Your piece on Ali Abunimah’s talk includes a mention of our client
birthright israel: “Indeed, he said, the birthright program, which gives
a free trip to Israel to young Jews, only gets 2-3,000 recruits a year.”While I’m sure he said that, birthright in fact takes 20,000 a year (17k
from the U.S.) and has thousands of more applicants each year that they
can’t afford to send.Birthright has taken more than 110,000 participants since its inception
6 years ago.
Thanks, Matt.
And while I’m in the correction business, let me say that a few weeks back a smart correspondent who will go unnamed busted me for saying that there’s never been a book about the Israel lobby. Well there’s former Congressman Paul Findley’s book of some years back, They Dare to Speak Out.
Live and learn.
Check the correct box:
Weiss is bad journalist.
Weiss is a liar.
Ali Abunimah is a liar.
All of the above.
"live and learn"- is this the motto of the Observer editorial staff?
"busted me for saying"
This implies that your false reporting is intentional.
Taglit-birthright israel operates on a belief that it is every Jewish person's birthright to visit Israel. To date, 110,000 young adults from 51 countries have traveled to Israel for the first time on Taglit-birthright israel trips.
http://www.birthrightisrael.com/bin/en.jsp?enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=Zone&enZone=AboutUs
there is another book called "jewish power" I can't remember the author.
OT-
http://talismangate.blogspot.com/
^BLOG by current iraqi national congress member. yep they're still around. old chalabi's gang
My kid went on Birthright. He went over a pro-Israel Jewish teenager from the suburbs. He came back completely indifferent to Israel, at best. He said the whole trip was a rightwing indoctrination session. It was so bad that on his trip, the group leader apologized for taking the kids to the spot where Rabin was assassinated, saying Rabin was a bad Jew. I'm sorry I sent the kid. I'm even more sorry that Birthright is just a Likud/Bibi front. My kid actually referred to his fellow Birthrighters as "Hitler Youth." He was joking but you get the point. Worth noting. Lots of kids come back turned off by the rightwing Israel they are exposed to. Jewish kids are too smart to accept indoctrination. Well, the smart ones are. The dummies just go along.
"Jewish kids are too smart to accept indoctrination"
– all that tells me is that, if I want to indoctrinate you, I shall have to start off by flattering your intelligence.
My daughter had same experience with Birthright. Racist indoctrination. She hated every minute. She didn't hate Israel though. She met some dovish types (while on her own after the trip) and said they exposed her to the good Israel. But Birthright was all nationalist and religious zealotry. Stupid idea anyway. Subsidizing rich kids trips to Israel. Most of the kids go simply because it's a freebie.
Also, they meet zero Palestinians. Although they do see Arabs making up their rooms in the hotel.
Birthright isn't Hitler Youth. It is just AIPAC. AIPAC Youth tend to be dumb and fanatical but they don't wear uniforms.
Why didn't you take your kids to Israel yourselves?
Why should they meet Palestinians, they were in Israel?
Jeff Cohen, your son sounds like a future Phil Weiss.
Thanks to Jeff Cohen, Linda Gold, and their perceptive offspring. People like these will change America's misguided policy toward Israel. And thanks to Phil Weiss for a perceptive, endlessly interesting blog on one of the important subjects of our time. Joseph
thanks to alan dorff's comments, to remind us how Israelis handle reality – with eyes closed and 6billion in the hand from the U.S.
On the subject of books about the Israel lobby: in addition to Findley's 'They Dare to Speak Out' (now in its 3rd ed.), there's also his earlier 'Deliberate Deceptions' (1993).
And James Petras's new book on the subject has just come out: 'The Power of Israel in the United States.'
http://www.amazon.com/Power-Israel-United-States/dp/0932863515/sr=8-1/qid=1165173285/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7126659-8832733?ie=UTF8&s=books
And of course there is the Mearsheimer/Walt work due next year.