One of the simple truths of the American discourse is that by and large, gentile Americans will not speak out against the Israeli oppression of Palestinians without permission from Jews. Just a fact, having to do with the legacy of anti-semitism. I learned this years ago from my friend Rob Buchanan, who has spent more time in Palestine than I have, and whose understanding was far ahead of mine ("They're second-class citizens, Phil; you see it everywhere you go") but who said that I had a special responsibility to speak out. I saw that he was right.
There have been notable exceptions, of course. But once American Jews are seen to be openly criticizing Israel, then gentiles will start to speak their minds too. And by criticism I don't mean Careful Criticism, which sends a signal that This is an orthodox area, step on eggshells. I mean full-throated criticism of the sort that American leftists issued around other outrages. The segregationist South. South Africa. Slavery. Etc.
And this is what the American Zionists fear more than anything. That the doors will be broken down. That the Phil Weiss's of the world will cease to be marginal shady characters, but simply Americans who care deeply about human rights, wherever. This is why the American Jewish Committee was so vociferous in attacking anti-Zionist Jews 2 years ago, as antisemitic. It was trying to marginalize us.
Long buildup. Here is what I've been waiting for. Here is Jennifer Loewenstein, associate director of Middle East Studies at University of Wisconsin/Madison, who I'm assuming is Jewish, or half, writing (on Counterpunch) in both romantic and fiercely-analytic terms about Palestinian statelessness. Her analysis is dead on. But her rhetoric is soaring. And it opens the door...
The answer is because Israel has no intention of allowing a viable, sovereign Palestinian state on its borders. It had no intention of allowing it in 1948 when it grabbed 24 per cent more land than what it was allotted legally, if unfairly, by UN Resolution 181. It had no intention of allowing it throughout the massacres and ploys of the 1950s. It had no intention of allowing two states when it conquered the remaining 22 per cent of historic Palestine in 1967 and reinterpreted UN Security Council Resolution 248 to its own liking despite the overwhelming international consensus stating that Israel would receive full international recognition within secure and recognized borders if it withdrew from the lands it had only recently occupied.
"The answer is because Israel has no intention of allowing a viable, sovereign Palestinian state on its borders. "
An understandable, but INNACCURATE interpretation.
A hopeless one. One that stops making an effort in the name of "inevitability".
Wow, even more time in Palestine than you?!? You mean he stayed overnight at the Bethlehem Hilton?
Phil, all the 'American leftists' are zionists lite, and the few who go too far are banished. Not like you, you aren't either well enough informed or a good enough writer to matter, frankly, but people like Blankfort.
The short version of my answer to this "clarion call" is thanks, but no thanks. I need no permission of any jew to speak my mind, and I'll do very well without any jews around telling me what to do.
And that is what this Goy recommends to all the other untermenschen, my brothers and sisters everywhere: stay clear of the jews, don't believe their sudden pangs of conscience, criticism of Israel and opposition to zionism – they do this out of existential fear because of the worldwide reaction to the current atrocities against Palestinians, and when the pressure goes, so will their attitudes change again towards the supremacist "anything goes" and "what belongs to the goys was never theirs in first place", their morality will again exclude goys, people like phillip weiss will pontificate about the immorality of the few uppity goys decrying this.
What gives? Don't let them get away with murder. Keep up the pressure. Stay clear from them and their (few) true friends.
Which Goy?
Obviously post no. 2 above is from the imposter.
Jennifer Loewenstein wrote:
'Israel … more than doubled the number of illegal Jewish settlements on the ground in the West Bank and around East Jerusalem, annexing them as it built and continues to build a superstructure of bypass roads and highways over the remaining, severed cities and villages of earthly Palestine.'
These subsidized, exurban settler colonies are based on an economy that no longer exists. They make no more sense than subdivisions in the desert outside Las Vegas, which have lost 30 percent of their value in the past 12 months.
Not only can Israel not afford grandiose settler infrastructure anymore, but also it is a negative rate of return investment, a deadweight loss. Without Jewish billionaires to subsidize this insanity, it don't make sense no more. Thank you, Bernie Madoff.
Now Israel is aping the mistake of the noted Harvard economist George W. Bush, piling the burden of war atop an obsolete, atrophying economy.
It's unfortunate when bad policies are ended by the impersonal pressure of a contracting economy, rather than by the conscious decision of those responsible.
But at this stage, 'WHATEVER WORKS' is the watchword.
I hope Madoff takes the whole USA economy down–then, at last,
American folk would hone in on foreign aid to Israel, and the stupid war in Iraq.
Not being Jewish, I did bring Phil's blog to the attention of my Harvard College classmates ('59). I'm still reeling from the venomous responses to that audacity, leaving me feeling that gentiles speak out at their peril on the Apartheid issues (consider the widespread smearing of former President Carter). I do not know if Lee Whitnum is Jewish or not, but I admire her platform in the CT Democratic primary race last year, a platform that Phil brought to light and may be a notable instance of gentiles speaking out.
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Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego
Phil says that "by and large, gentile Americans will not speak out against the Israeli oppression of Palestinians without permission from Jews." I think that's true because they don't feel the pain yet. But I'm afraid that war in the Middle East may spiral out of control; Israel is playing with fire and we're all likely to get burned. What if a 3rd world war breaks out, one with nuclear weapons? How many people will die then: 50 million? 100 million? Will we need permission from anyone then to speak out and would people really speak with words or with more barbarity? This situation is rapidly getting out of hand and is not likely to end well, least of all for a small bellicose minority, no matter how many times people have seen "Schindler's List."
I have a Lebanese friend. He is disgusted with the free pass and cash that Israel has been given by American Jewry. However, he only tells me of his disgust with the proviso that I tell no one about his feelings. He is frightened of being labeled "antisemitic". I have to agree with him, but again, to silence an argument is not to win it. Well, we will see what we will see. History will be the judge.