Last month the executive director of the American Jewish Committee attacked Walt and Mearsheimer in a speech in Germany for the usual reasons. They’re not antisemitic or they’re antisemitic, they sure smell antisemitic, that whole thread. But here are some interesting statements from David Harris’s speech. He refuses to describe the Israeli occupation as an occupation. It is a "presence." And note that he doesn’t like the ‘49 armistice borders, the pre-67 borders. Israel won’t be safe in a sea of Arabs with those borders. The "Auschwitz borders," as Dershowitz called them.
This is noteworthy for an important reason. The AJC characterizes itself as liberal–or anyway, it has lately published a survey showing that American Jews are liberal politically and opposed the Iraq war, I think in an effort to rebut Walt and Mearsheimer, who said that neocons were serving Israel’s interests when they pushed the war. So the AJC forcefully separates American Jews from the neocons with respect to the Iraq war.
But where the AJC and the neocons are in bed with one another is the rationalization of the occupation and mistrust of the peace process. Neocons like Douglas Feith don’t believe it’s an occupation, and neither does Harris of the AJC. Feith is by family tradition a Democrat. Now he’s a neocon. The usual political distinctions go out the window when religion comes in the door; and the AJC and the neocons operate from the same fervent feeling: that Israel has a right to the West Bank, which Harris hints goes back 3000 years. The neocons are obviously more militaristic than most American Jews. But when you consider that the same AJC survey that says that Jews opposed the Iraq war says that 58 percent of them are against giving up parts of Jerusalem, you see the problem: Zionist/colonialist ideas are deeply engraved in American Jewry now. The neocons are the militant wing of that faction. But they gain cover, if not sustenance too, from the wider body…. Again I’d turn to M.J. Rosenberg’s assertion that a "seismic shift" is taking place in American Jewry right now; he believes that the left side of that faction is splitting off and opposing the Harrises and Feiths and demanding progress in the peace process and forget about biblical rights. We shall see…
Related posts:
- U.S. Occupation of Iraq Makes Israeli Occupation Look, er, Undemocratic
- A Little Hope: An Israeli Settler Speaks of the ‘Rights and Presence’ of Palestinians…
- Heads of State: American Jewish C’ttee President Discusses Iran Policy With Argentine President
- AJC’s Survey About Jewish Consciousness Is Backward
- Free Speech in America: At Harvard Hillel, Israeli Soldiers Accompany Visitors Thru Exhibit Opposing Occupation and Seek to Explain Exhibit Away
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Epaminondas you'll recall (or discover) is always one item behind in his proper treatment: how to carry home from market a cake, butter, a puppy, and bread. He learns each lesson well, but only after the fact. He then applies the lesson to the next task — for which it is wholly inappropriate. Just ask any Palestinian.
AJC Liberal?
Shouldn't the King Center return the American Liberties Medallion award given to Dr. King in 1965 for his advancement of the principles of human liberty by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), and join in solidarity with the Palestinian people suffering endlessly in Gaza? I think so.
http://homo-sapien-underground.blogspot.com/
An award of this type from this organization should be regarded as meaningless.
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Joshua Crawford -> are you comedian who is impersonating the Nazi Rudolph Hoess in the comments section? If so, please stop. Like your other failed attempts at humor, it's offensive and just not funny.
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Maybe when Dr King's family returns his fraudulent PhD.
"You see the problem: Zionist/colonialist ideas are deeply engraved in American Jewry now."
Indeed they are. Many references assert that after the 1967 war, once-prominent Jewish anti-zionism shrank to near invisibility, now to be found only among fringe groups such as Neturei Karta.
But zionism, despite its recent secular roots, is fundamentalist in character. Believing that 3,000-year-old scriptures confer the right to land title today is deeply fundamentalist.
That an overwhelming majority of Jews subscribe to zionist ideology is astonishing. Can you imagine a world in which 80% or 90% of Christians have turned pentecostal, prophesying in tongues on street corners and handling snakes to prove their divine protection? (Christians have certainly made their own gross fundamentalist errors, such as the ill-starred Crusades which are still resented in the muslim world.)
Judaism will endure. But one can't help thinking that its brief and catastrophic detour into zionism will be regarded by history as an horrific aberration. Now millions of lives are at risk in Israel, thanks to the false prophets of zionism who encouraged so many Jews with no recent roots in the region to settle there. One hopes the epic mistake will be resolved without bloodshed. But the intransigent stance of Israel, and its zionist supporters in the U.S., does not lend great hope at present.
Way to analyze the situtation in the appropriate historical context there Haygood. You're a regular historian.
Where did you say you got your degree from again?
Jewish Zionist liberals residing in America have two identities. The face they show in public is one of staunch advocacy of multiculturalism, secularism and inclusiveness; the face they show in private is their true face, their essence.
It is a face of bigotry, state authoritarianism and hypocrisy, and it emerges most clearly on the question of Israel, but in the past has shown itself through Jewish liberal support of Communism and its murderous brutality.
Phil takes Jewish Zionist liberals to task for their hypocrisy on the question of Israel, which draws protest and claims from Jewish liberals that they are adamantly opposed to Israel's methods, but dedicated to the concept of Jewish sovereignty in Israel. Nonsense.
Deep down, the majority of Jewish-American Zionists enjoy seeing brutality perpetrated against non-Jews, otherwise they would be doing more to oppose it the way many German-American and Italian-American Christians opposed fascist brutality in Europe by going to battle against Germany and Italy in WWII.
Phil is correct in his inferences; the passivity and half-heartedness that Jewish Zionist liberals bring to their "opposition" to Israel's brutality is an accurate reflection of their true nature: Smug, hypocritical, bigoted, duplicitous, cowardly.
And those are the "liberals." Multiply their moral corruption several fold, throw in a propensity for violence and sadism, and the result is Jewish Zionist conservatives, aka Neocons.
All in all, it’s not a very flattering picture of Jewish-American Zionists, nor their Christian Zionist and Judeophile collaborators. In fact, it's downright ugly.
Does one need to be a degreed historian to do research on history?
I suppose that means the only people who are allowed to have an opinion about a company's financial statements are accountants? The only ones allowed to have an opinion about stock prices are brokers?
Chris Moore. Chris More. Chris Moore.
Proud Anti-Semite.
We know, we know. Evil joos. Chris Moore here to save the world. It gets old Chris.
Hey Chris, when did you stop buggering Justin Raimondo? Or was it the other way around?
Not that there is anything wrong with it, I just like to picture you getting rounded up with all those Jews back in the 40s because you are a butt muncher and pole swallower.
Remind me what face you show the public; is it the same one you show Justin?
Good come back, "2funny". Unlike you gutless Zionists, I have never made an attempt to hide my identity. What's yours? Let me guess: latent homosexual projecting his fantasies onto others? Michael "Weiner" Savage? Or just one of his brain dead listeners. Grow up, punk.
james earl?…is that you David Horowitz?…The man has a National Holiday for Christ sake, isn't that enough for you campus watchers? It's time to let your bad experience with the Panthers go.
Oh, and I stopped sucking off Justin Raimondo more than 2 years ago. So piss off you jew bag asshole.
Chris Moore did not suck off Justin Raimando.
But I can't speak to his use of child pornography.
All in all, it’s not a very flattering picture of Chris Moore, nor Justin Raimondo. In fact, it's downright ugly.
"Unlike you gutless Zionists, I have never made an attempt to hide my identity."
That's why you use the name "Ed."?
Is that blog inhabited by HOMOSEXUALS and JEWS. How is that possible. Who is this Justin Raimondo and Chris MOORE.Do they engage in sexual deviancy with ED, for example. Are you a HOMOSEXUAL ED
(Methinks our Zionist friend is getting frustrated. Bear with it, they usually tire after a few days.)
Yes with any luck he will get overly excited and choke on his golden spoon.
Joshua Crawford is going to choke on Chris Moore's little spoon.
Maybe if we smear people who criticize Zionism, our little Jewish colonial fantasy and its annual $3,000,000,000 check from Uncle Sam will continue forever!
Oh cut it out Chris. You're not fooling anyone.
I was involved in an email discussion with a Hillel rabbi and he took issue with the fact that I felt that he used Hasbara propaganda techniques in his statements (he said it was obscene to compare the "murder of Jews" with Palestinian "suffering" as if part of their suffering did not involve their murder). Apparently in his mind (a so-called liberal Zionist), Hasbara is a more fanatical Zionist organization and has nothing to do with his views. This downplaying the Occupation as a "presence" fits the same mold.
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