Philip has just mentioned one – MJ Rosenberg, who I agree is one of the more important elements in the sea-change that is beginning to happen. OK, so he's not an official spokesperson, but any Jew who gets up to clear his or her throat publicly in support of Palestine and against Israeli crimes is a spokesperson.

The bona fides of the official spokespeople can in any case be questioned; it is clear that most of the official organisations are about the interests of a small-ish subset of Jews in the US rather than a comprehensive representation.

And Rosenberg is not the Lone Ranger either; for me Philip's work, along with that of Tony Judt, Tony Karon, Norman Finkelstein etc is equally crucial at this time. You can have heavyweights like your Carters and Tutus and Walts and Mearsheimers scraping away at the coalface, but they could not break thru without the aid of courageous Jews prepared to wear a bit of flak for the greater good.

it brings to my mind the tom lantos remark to the europeans..when he told them that the europeans werent that outraged over the nazis during the holocaust…in response to their outrage over guantanamo cuba.

That Lantos, who is very representative of judaics who support israel and zionism unconditionally, would dare to accuse at the top of his voice the europeans in general for remaining silent while the jews of europe were being targeted, while very conveniently remaining silent and thus complicit to the plight of palestinians, who have suffered and continnue suffering the abuses of racial genocide, ethnic cleansing, and political oppression is cynical and immoral.
So if you take judaics as a whole, they, en masse believe that europe and christianity in general, were complicit through their silence for holocaust crimes but conveniently exclude themselves from accountability for the zionists crimes against palestinians from the late thirties until today, and all because israels ought to be unconditionally excused because of their history.

'So where is the real courage amongst spokespersons for American Jewry?'

i personally applaud and give kudos to the many jewish bloggers who bravely stand up to the injustices commited by zionism, and recognize the injustices commited against palestinians.

But the overall community of judaics remain oblivious to israels crimes, or zionisms history…they believe the myth, and will defend it with the accusatory anti semitic label for anyone who says israel is an apartheid oppressive state, or for anyone who says israel is the reason why america is hated so ferociously by the other nations of the middle east.

the myth of israel is like a spell from one of those fairy tales many of us watched as kids.
can the spell be broken?

For me, the times when I went on the street to support Palestinian rights, I was accompanied by chants or "Zionism is racism", which I DON'T believe, and don't want to be associated with directly or indirectly.

Better dead than living in our neighborhoods.

Methinks that if we start killing the Jews again, they may fight back this time.

This condition may also be observed where Schumer and Feinstein accept an Attorney General nominee who refuses to condemn waterboarding. The excuses they offer up for doing so are exceedingly lame. (Schumer)"However, Judge Mukasey, whose integrity and independence is respected even by those who oppose him, is far better than anyone could expect from this administration."

Does anyone really doubt that Schumer's tolerance for Mukasey is completely incumbent upon Mukasey's Jewishness?

If I buy a jar of pickles at the store, the contents are required to be labeled. Maybe it's time the American public gets the same with regard to political candidates and nominees so that the public might discern the true nature of their leadership?

It seems to me, at least at this point, the best hope for Zionism was the Martin Buber approach perhaps defended by some of the insights of Martin Van Creveld. But this view apparently is now (nuclear) dust in the wind. The reason Buber & Van Creveld now are anachronisms could be due, in part, to a shift from secular Zionism to religious Zionism — a transformation that has accelerated increasingly since 67 and, in fact, seems to have reached near critical mass.

Gorenberg is just fantastic in describing this transformation as are the Hasidic rabbis of Satmar, at least in my opinion. I find it both revealing and ironic that only in 2007 Akiva Eldar echoed in Haaretz (link to haaretz.com
the view expressed by Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld who decades ago stated:

"The Jews do not want, in any way, to take that which isn't theirs. And they certainly do not want to contest the rights of the other inhabitants to the places held by them which they regard with honor and consider holy. And in particular there is no foundation to the rumor that the Jews want to acquire the Temple Mount.”
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2007/11/03/read-desmond-tu.html#comment-68290 <p>Here's a big jar of pickles hinting at the nature of American leaders: The judge recently ruled Candy Rice and other former and present key leaders can be subpoened by the defense in the AIPAC spy case to show AIPAC's back channel is the normal way we conduct middle east policy. Should be interesting to read the Nutrition Facts on the jar's label commencing next January. Food for thought, at least if Bush doesn't blank the label.</p> Here's a big jar of pickles hinting at the nature of American leaders: The judge recently ruled Candy Rice and other former and present key leaders can be subpoened by the defense in the AIPAC spy case to show AIPAC's back channel is the normal way we conduct middle east policy. Should be interesting to read the Nutrition Facts on the jar's label commencing next January. Food for thought, at least if Bush doesn't blank the label.