David Shasha at 3 Quarks has analyzed the 92d Street Y's program of events on the Upper East Side of NY in the coming year and concluded that while a plethora of non-Jews are invited to speak on many subjects, no Arabs are included in the programs that address the Middle East. And the roster of progressive Jews–two:
There is precious little balance in terms of the Israel-Palestine
matter on the program for the season: Rabbi Michael Lerner (10/30) and
Gershom Gorenberg (2/5) appear to be the only critical voices that will
be heard in the series. Not a single Arab or Palestinian voice is to be
allowed into the discourse. From Right Wing ideologues like Bret
Stephens and Abe Foxman (3/24) to Ed Koch (10/30) to Cynthia Ozick
(10/29) to more moderate Zionists like Aaron David Miller (5/7) and a
panel on the new liberal lobbying group J Street (3/16), the basic idea
is to appear to be presenting a wide-range of ideas, but in reality
only affirmations of Israel will be presented. It is important to note
that Gorenberg will be presenting in a series on the media and Rabbi
Lerner will be part of a four-person panel where he will likely be the
only participant critical of Israel in any way. And by no means should
we think that Rabbi Lerner’s voice can truly represent a Palestinian
vision, even if it is sympathetic to that position.
Most importantly, the series will have two programs that deal with
the hysteria over Israel and the sense of embattlement that is a
central part of Zionist thinking at present. There will be (12/8) the
now-obligatory panel discussion of anti-Israel sentiment on college
campuses – a panel loaded with Right Wing ideologues including a member
of the U.S. Congress. There will be another panel called “Why Zionism
has Become a Dirty Word” (3/24) that will in effect be another
uncritical look at the current situation in the Middle East.
This is my favorite issue: the color bar even in liberal Jewish circles. Where is Jimmy Carter? Where are Walt and Mearsheimer? I'd note that Lerner is the only guy here who has endorsed Walt and Mearsheimer. (The usually-right Gorenberg has also attacked them.) Amazing that Abe Foxman and Ozick and Elie Wiesel, who didn't want gypsies in the Holocaust Memorial, are here. Where is David Zellnik? Tony Kushner? Joel Kovel? Alisa Solomon? Norman Finkelstein? You'd only have to give Norman subway fare–and get a world figure on your stage from Brooklyn.
Parochialists aplenty. Shasha says that Bret Stephens, a neocon at the WSJ who supported the Iraq war, is making two appearances at the 92d Street Y this year. Egad. Stephens is the guy who challenged Ian Buruma's right to write about Israel critically with this brilliant line: "Are you a Jew?" The sadness is that the 92d Street Y is offering a haven to neocons, and accepting similar limits on speech, in the greatest city in the woild. Shasha again:
any alternative perspective from the “other” side. I note here the
presence of two non-Arab Muslims on the schedule. Both Fareed Zakaria
(10/15) and Azar Nafisi (1/6), moderate Muslim secularists, have been
welcomed into the discourse as benign commentators who do not espouse
any views that would be deemed by mainstream Jews as controversial or
unacceptable. Finally, we must well-note the ubiquitous presence of the Ashkenazi
Arabic speaker Noah Feldman (9/11) who seems to “represent” Arabs for
the Jewish community (and even for the U.S. government as Feldman has
famously written the Iraqi constitution in the wake of the American-led
invasion).
It is of course a reflection on the 92d Street Y's community. Older Jews, even liberal Jews, aren't ready to hear from the Other re Israel.
New flash, Jewish institution with a mostly Jewish membership, of all ages by the way. Doesn't wish to engage in Phil Weiss type self flagellation. And come on, Norm Finkelstein. Why not David Irving, or the Iranisn UN ambassador. STOP THE PRESSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bill Pearlman: Is that you, calling yourself Sword of Gideon?
I'm shocked, what a scandal. the humanity loving, diversity pushing jewish community in america cannot really be that neanderthal can it.
another myth that needs demythifying.
LOL.
.
"The basic idea is to appear to be presenting a wide-range of ideas, but in reality only affirmations of Israel will be presented."
Ah ha! Ah ha! I'd always thought of the 92nd St. Y as a bastion of liberal inquiry. But now it gets outed by two out-of-the-box thinkers, David Shasha and Phil Weiss. Well done, gents!
Another "open-minded Boomer" myth blown to hell. That's OK … just gimme some truth, as John Lennon used to say.
Phil's incendiary reference to "the color bar even in liberal Jewish circles" is a brilliant extension of Jimmy Carter's apartheid metaphor. Ouch, that's gonna rub some nerves raw.
"The 92d Street Y is offering a haven to neocons … in the greatest city in the woild." Indeed. And 92nd Street's a long way north of 'toity-toid and toid.' LOL …
link to counterpunch.com
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The Life and Poems of Mahmoud Darwish
The Anger, the Longing, the Hope
By URI AVNERY
HE DID not want to be the National Poet. He did not want to be a political poet at all, but a lyrical one, a poet of love. But whenever he turned in this direction, the long arm of Palestinian fate dragged him back.
I am not qualified to judge his poems or to assess his greatness as a poet. Leading experts on the Arabic language are still bitterly quarreling among themselves about the meaning of his poems, their nuances and layers, images and allusions. He was a master of classical Arabic, and equally at home with Western and Israeli poetry. Many believe that he was the greatest Arab poet, and one of the greatest poets of our time.
His poetry enabled him to do what no one had succeeded in doing by other means: to unite all the parts of the fractured and fragmented Palestinian people – in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, in Israel, in the refugee camps and throughout the Diaspora. He belonged to all of them. The refugees could identify with him because he was a refugee, Israel's Palestinian citizens could identify with him because he was one of them, and so could the inhabitants of the occupied Palestinian territories, because he was a fighter against the occupation.
The whole concept of a Jewish people is a lie with which ethnic Ashkenazim indoctrinate themselves.
I point out in Jacob Lassner and Nadia Abu el-Haj that even in historic Poland there was no single identifiable Jewish people because individuals associated with Judaism belonged to two very different often hostile ethnic groups.
So is it really surprising that Zionist Ashkenazim have created a whole cottage industry devoted to misrepresenting the history and politics of Arabs or non-Ashkenazi Jews?
OK, I've experienced this from Chicago to Delaware to Urbana-Champaign, hoping for a liberal Jewish community that wasn't dead set against thoughtful dissent. It doesn't exist, OK, maybe Art Waskow in Philly. What we call "Israel Studies" at the U of Illinois is only about Jewish Israelis, racist to the core. But who can see through these blinders? Jewish institutions and establishments need a frontal assault that calls a racist spade for what it is. Stop waiting for the Messiah at the YMCA.
And when I said Jewish Israelis, I meant Jewish Zionist Israelis, Yosef Gorny and Yossi Klein Halevi, not Ilan Pappe or Jeff Halper. And the programs attract only Jews, mostly from the community, no academics other than those cross fertilized with the local establishment. It's like waiting for the Democrats. Just stop.
"Bill Pearlman: Is that you, calling yourself Sword of Gideon?"
It is. His grammar (or usual lack thereof) gives him away.
So, David, now that you've put on your symbolic kaffiyeh and demonstrated how much you hate Jews and Israel do you feel better. Do your pals think more of you?
.
"The programs attract only Jews … It's like waiting for the Democrats. Just stop."
Five decades wasted. Free your mind!
Carry on, bruthuh …
Here is the thing. Not all Jews hate being Jewish, nor do they hate Israel. Why should a ymha host people like Finkelstein, Solomon, Kovel, or for that matter Phil Weiss. Who despise the very core of its existence. If Phil or Finkelstein had their way there would be no Israel and the entire Jewish people would cease to exist. Why should a Jewish institution go along with that. Serious question.
You want a definition of anti-semitism? It is holding Jews or Jewish organizations to standards that other peoples or their organizations never get held to – and doing so with a straight face. There is certainly no Arab and/or Muslim organization I know of that would have a panel as self-critical as the one that will be sponsored by the Y. Nor can I think of other ethnic groups or religions that would host folks who are as self critical (or maybe a tad self-hating – oh that's not right – shame on me!) as those you suggest be invited. This is an anti-semetic notion – unless you can tell me how the Jews here are behaving worse than anyone else!
"So is it really surprising that Zionist Ashkenazim have created a whole cottage industry devoted to misrepresenting the history and politics of Arabs or non-Ashkenazi Jews?"–Joachim Martillo
Seems like their "cottage industry" deals in misrepresentation on a far larger scale–and never stops for an instant, for example, the facts and spin concerning the crisis right now in Georgia. According to this article by one Hesham Tillawi, PhD
the connection between “Israeli Jews” and “Georgian Jews” may be very much in play regarding the motivation for Georgia’s initial activity against S. Ossetia – an 800-year-old revenge for the Russians’ historic defeat of the Khazars? A few snippets from the article:
"It took 800 years for the Khazar Jews to meet again, after going through Russia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Palestine before they joined forces, again, with their brethren in Georgia against their old arch enemy, the Russ. What took place on August 8, 2008 in South Ossetia proves two points: first, that the Khazar Jews never forgot the war of 965 AD and their defeat by the Russians and (2) today’s “Jews” in “Israel” have no historical claim to the land of Palestine."
__________
"In addition to the many government officials in Georgia who are ‘Jewish‘ in one way or another is one man in particular, Davit Kezerashvili who holds the position of Defense Minister and who just so happens also to hold Israeli citizenship. Interestingly, his last name happens to be ‘Kezerashvili’ which translates in the Georgian language to ‘child-of-the-Kezer(khazar)’."
http://heshamtillawi.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/georgia-israel’s-home-sweet-home/
"If Phil or Finkelstein had their way there would be no Israel and the entire Jewish people would cease to exist. Why should a Jewish institution go along with that. Serious question."
Cripes, Pearlman – you are one incredibly stupid man.
I can't even imagine how you get yourself out the door in the morning. Jeez….
Once I get your wife off of me it isn't a problem.