Comments on: Next Year in Jerusalem, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Too–Nakba Recognition Group Tours U.S. http://mondoweiss.net/2008/03/next-year-in-je.html The War of Ideas in the Middle East Sun, 27 May 2012 21:50:14 +0000 hourly 1 By: jonathan ekman http://mondoweiss.net/2008/03/next-year-in-je.html/comment-page-1#comment-62292 jonathan ekman Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/03/31/next-year-in-je.html#comment-62292 <p>How many people are aware of the large<br /> sums of money donated to "anti-war" Obama<br /> by the not very pacifist and very Zionist<br /> Crown family?<br /> </p> How many people are aware of the large
sums of money donated to "anti-war" Obama
by the not very pacifist and very Zionist
Crown family?

]]> By: Rowan Berkeley http://mondoweiss.net/2008/03/next-year-in-je.html/comment-page-1#comment-62293 Rowan Berkeley Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/03/31/next-year-in-je.html#comment-62293 <p>"day by day my country's heart is opening to the humanity of Palestinians"</p> <p>-- that's a damn good point, phil. in this particular department you are doing sterling work.</p> "day by day my country's heart is opening to the humanity of Palestinians"

– that's a damn good point, phil. in this particular department you are doing sterling work.

]]> By: Jim Haygood http://mondoweiss.net/2008/03/next-year-in-je.html/comment-page-1#comment-62294 Jim Haygood Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/03/31/next-year-in-je.html#comment-62294 <p>.</p> <p>"Then on to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the guests of a Mennonite church."</p> <p>In thinking about the question of tribal identity, the Mennonite and Amish plain people, with their traditional sense of separateness, provide an interesting comparison to Jews in several respects:</p> <p>1. The plain people have not sought nationhood as zionists have, though they are increasingly alarmed at the intrusive demands of governments, and some have moved as far away as central and South America in their quest to be left alone.</p> <p>2. Unlike the Jewish passion for study, the plain people tend not to encourage formal education beyond the 8th grade.</p> <p>3. Though they favor frank exchanges with government officials as equals, the plain people don't seek participation in government or related "commanding heights" of the economy, such as finance. They are consistently anti-interventionist, while Jews who want U.S. support for Israel are perforce pro-interventionist.</p> <p>Which separateness strategy will be more successful in the long run? The Jewish approach has created more billionaires by far. But it's also a high-risk, high-profile, high-volatility strategy, vulnerable to sharp reversals of fortune in a way that the resolutely low-profile plain people are not.</p> .

"Then on to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the guests of a Mennonite church."

In thinking about the question of tribal identity, the Mennonite and Amish plain people, with their traditional sense of separateness, provide an interesting comparison to Jews in several respects:

1. The plain people have not sought nationhood as zionists have, though they are increasingly alarmed at the intrusive demands of governments, and some have moved as far away as central and South America in their quest to be left alone.

2. Unlike the Jewish passion for study, the plain people tend not to encourage formal education beyond the 8th grade.

3. Though they favor frank exchanges with government officials as equals, the plain people don't seek participation in government or related "commanding heights" of the economy, such as finance. They are consistently anti-interventionist, while Jews who want U.S. support for Israel are perforce pro-interventionist.

Which separateness strategy will be more successful in the long run? The Jewish approach has created more billionaires by far. But it's also a high-risk, high-profile, high-volatility strategy, vulnerable to sharp reversals of fortune in a way that the resolutely low-profile plain people are not.

]]> By: Michael Blaine http://mondoweiss.net/2008/03/next-year-in-je.html/comment-page-1#comment-62295 Michael Blaine Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/03/31/next-year-in-je.html#comment-62295 <p>"And day by day my country's heart is opening to the humanity of Palestinians."</p> <p>Not to throw cold water on the project, but in my home state of Minnesota there is hardly the faintest inkling of what the Palestinian experience is like.<br /> </p> "And day by day my country's heart is opening to the humanity of Palestinians."

Not to throw cold water on the project, but in my home state of Minnesota there is hardly the faintest inkling of what the Palestinian experience is like.

]]> By: the Sword of Gideon http://mondoweiss.net/2008/03/next-year-in-je.html/comment-page-1#comment-62296 the Sword of Gideon Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/03/31/next-year-in-je.html#comment-62296 <p>And what exactly would that be Michael, Jihad?</p> And what exactly would that be Michael, Jihad?

]]> By: Rowan Berkeley http://mondoweiss.net/2008/03/next-year-in-je.html/comment-page-1#comment-62297 Rowan Berkeley Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/03/31/next-year-in-je.html#comment-62297 <p>By the way, my own project - which so far no Jew appears to have grasped the value of - is to open the hearts of the anglophone world to the experience of jewish israeli youth, which I propose to report in its own words, concentrating mainly on the expression of distress, as found in the very lively punk scene.</p> <p>Unfortunately the so called jewish left displays its learned stupidity in this, as in all other respects, and insists on regarding me as an embittered failed convert, or something equally stupid, corny, insulting and irrelevant.</p> By the way, my own project – which so far no Jew appears to have grasped the value of – is to open the hearts of the anglophone world to the experience of jewish israeli youth, which I propose to report in its own words, concentrating mainly on the expression of distress, as found in the very lively punk scene.

Unfortunately the so called jewish left displays its learned stupidity in this, as in all other respects, and insists on regarding me as an embittered failed convert, or something equally stupid, corny, insulting and irrelevant.

]]> By: Rowan Berkeley http://mondoweiss.net/2008/03/next-year-in-je.html/comment-page-1#comment-62298 Rowan Berkeley Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/03/31/next-year-in-je.html#comment-62298 <p>After that, I have a more ambitious project, in which I want to explore the pasts of some of the older settlers, in search of memories of their psychedelic years, before they became religious. I have a theory about this, which is basically that Chabad has a sort of production-line approach to rehabilitating former acid-heads and turning them into religious zionist fantasists.</p> After that, I have a more ambitious project, in which I want to explore the pasts of some of the older settlers, in search of memories of their psychedelic years, before they became religious. I have a theory about this, which is basically that Chabad has a sort of production-line approach to rehabilitating former acid-heads and turning them into religious zionist fantasists.

]]> By: Rowan Berkeley http://mondoweiss.net/2008/03/next-year-in-je.html/comment-page-1#comment-62299 Rowan Berkeley Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/03/31/next-year-in-je.html#comment-62299 <p>Neither of the above will be possible if I am forced to go and flip hamburgers for a living instead of capitalising upon my laboriously and partially self-taught hebrew. I make no apologies for nagging about this, since my plans have very little to do with personal comfort and a great deal to do with averting WW3.</p> Neither of the above will be possible if I am forced to go and flip hamburgers for a living instead of capitalising upon my laboriously and partially self-taught hebrew. I make no apologies for nagging about this, since my plans have very little to do with personal comfort and a great deal to do with averting WW3.

]]> By: Rowan Berkeley http://mondoweiss.net/2008/03/next-year-in-je.html/comment-page-1#comment-62300 Rowan Berkeley Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/03/31/next-year-in-je.html#comment-62300 <p>While I am on a rant, let me draw attention to the extraordinarily humiliating fact, for US Jews, that to find serious analysis of the war (such as Gareth Porter's, for instance), you have to go to a source which still carries the poison pellets of Pat Buchanan : AntiWar.com.</p> While I am on a rant, let me draw attention to the extraordinarily humiliating fact, for US Jews, that to find serious analysis of the war (such as Gareth Porter's, for instance), you have to go to a source which still carries the poison pellets of Pat Buchanan : AntiWar.com.

]]> By: MM http://mondoweiss.net/2008/03/next-year-in-je.html/comment-page-1#comment-62301 MM Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/03/31/next-year-in-je.html#comment-62301 <p>Rowan, consider flipping burgers not in London, but in Tel Aviv. Yes, you'd be slaving over a hot grill, practically showering in burger grease daily while annoying teenagers told you what to do for them, but at least it'd be shlepn to some vestige of Hebrew fluency when you were through (after the burger grease blinded you in one eye, leaving HM Govt no choice but to reinstitute your compensation).</p> <p>And on converting, Rowan, you're more than welcome to join my tribe, the human tribe. Admittedly not very exclusive, that's also its selling point, according to the 82 year old Vietnamese door-to-door salesman who got me my membership a while ago.</p> <p>"We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness," Nhat Hanh said.</p> <p>"Your true home is in the here and the now. It is not limited by time, space, nationality, or race. Your true home is not an abstract idea. It is something you can touch and live in every moment."</p> <p>The only thing "chosen" about any human being was its mother. (And man did she look good that night!)</p> Rowan, consider flipping burgers not in London, but in Tel Aviv. Yes, you'd be slaving over a hot grill, practically showering in burger grease daily while annoying teenagers told you what to do for them, but at least it'd be shlepn to some vestige of Hebrew fluency when you were through (after the burger grease blinded you in one eye, leaving HM Govt no choice but to reinstitute your compensation).

And on converting, Rowan, you're more than welcome to join my tribe, the human tribe. Admittedly not very exclusive, that's also its selling point, according to the 82 year old Vietnamese door-to-door salesman who got me my membership a while ago.

"We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness," Nhat Hanh said.

"Your true home is in the here and the now. It is not limited by time, space, nationality, or race. Your true home is not an abstract idea. It is something you can touch and live in every moment."

The only thing "chosen" about any human being was its mother. (And man did she look good that night!)

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