Progressive Zionist Ralph Seliger, of Meretz, defends his defense of Joe Biden here. He quotes a JTA article saying that Biden has been critical of Israel:
the United States and Israel in their failure to support Mahmoud Abbas
in 2003, when he was the Palestinian Authority prime minister attempting to establish a power base to challenge then-President Yasser Arafat. …
"I've
had my shouting matches over 25 years, privately, in my office and in
the offices of prime ministers," Biden said in a March 2007 interview
with the Forward. "I've had disagreements. Israel's a democracy and
they make mistakes."
The lukewarm language Ralph cites reminds me of the party line that even
Dershowitz-style Zionists came up with a couple years ago: Israel is
not perfect. Well I'm sorry, I don't see the frontal assault on the settlements and the treatment of the Palestinians that I want. Ralph says I'm an anti-Israel blogger. It's true I am highly critical of Israel; I want the U.S. to change its relationship by 90 degrees and recognize the horrifying human rights abuses in Palestine. Ralph also says I'm working on a book that will attack progressive Zionists. I'm not sure what book I'm working on (though I've said I was working on some Jewish book, it's stalled; right now I'm writing a novel about WW2), but I know a lot of good progressive Zionists. I'm willing to disagree with them about Walt and Mearsheimer, the Israel-connection to the Iraq war, etc. But my litmus test is: Attack the occupation, smite it at hip and thigh, as Menachem Begin used to say. Biden's not smiting.
I had someone point out at another blog that Biden's "I am a Zionist" comment is as innocuous JFK's "I am a Berliner" (or "jelly donut" if you prefer).
I wish that were the case but I trust Phil when he says that condemning human rights abuses should be unequivocal rather than a nebulous, "nobody's perfect."
What would be the reaction if somebody said in the day, "I am a white South African supremacist?"
~
Finkelstein is the one writing the book on American Zionism.
Excuse me but this is bullshit. Either the writer or Biden is lying about his real attitude.
Biden, afterall, is the sponsor of the so-called "Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006" which branded the Palestinian leadership a terrorist organization when the political wing of Hamas, a terrorist organization, took over the Palestinian government. Although the Act claims to support the two-state solution, it's real focus is to block funds to the Palestinian government, weaken the Palestinian negotiating stand in the face of continuing to expand settlements. Everyone has gone to great lenghts to starve all the Palestine adms of any resources to work toward any kind of stability.
This will the first election I have done a write in vote…and the reason is just this type of thing…by both parties. When people ask me why I am not voing either dem or repub I tell them the reason is Israel and the jewish lobby.
I have to draw the line somewhere and so should everyone else.
I expect the same thing in Isr-Pal to continue under O-B and be drawn out for more decades until Israel occupies all of Palestine. If McCain is elected, fine by me, with his temper he is just as likely to bomb Israel as Iran or both if he is pissed off just right.
Maybe that's what Americans need to make them realize our WHOLE government needs changing, not just the WH resident.
I don't know the legislative history of the act you are referring, but I would bet that Biden participated in it only after Hamas declared that it would not apply the laws and agreements on the books initiated by the duly elected PA.
If so, then Hamas would have indicated that it was undertaking participation of governance of a state with lawful and peaceful transfer of authority, rather than a coup.
In Israel, Netanyahu for example continued the laws and agreements negotiated by Rabin and Peres. The parliament was the controlling entity, not the party.
Dear Phil,
I recall you saying or writing that you were working on a book about American Jews. If my memory is faulty, I apologize. But I don't apologize for criticizing your one-sided stance on Israel. Instead of displaying your self-righteous intolerance, you should be making common cause with us progressive Zionists in battling for an end to the occupation and for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Yeah come on, Phil, don't just say you're FOR a two-state solution… Come out and CONDEMN all of us one-staters as unrealistic, anti-Semites, and worse. That's what a progressive zionist would do.
I really think you're going to have to show more zio-zeal than that, that is if you want your blog to receive the institutional backing you're dreaming of.