dark night of the soul for another American Jew’s identity

Report on a rally for Israel in Washington, filed by non-Zio Brad Brooks-Rubin:

Today I saw hundreds of pre-teen and teenage kids cheering and
stomping at the talk of raining down vengeance on other people. What I
saw was person after person attempt to stand in front of and block the
view of my ever-so-incendiary sign that read “CEASE FIRE NOW” on one
side and “SUPPORTING WAR IS NOT REAL SUPPORT” on the other. Their means
of blocking the sign? Waving the Israeli flag in front of it.

No more powerful symbol have I ever been, wittingly or otherwise, a
part of: an Israeli flag used to blot out a sign simply calling for an
end to bloodshed, all bloodshed. And that’s what my community believes
and stands for now: whatever the Israeli government says obedience to
the Israeli flag means. Our values, our morality, our religion, our
tradition of independent thinking, our history of being the oppressed?
Well, they come second, or worse….

In 1994, an article in the Jewish Week
began “If Israel finds peace, American Jews may lose their identity.”
How true that remains. How did that happen? Can it ever be different?
Does anyone in the Jewish community even want it to? Maybe I was naive
all along to believe otherwise?

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Gaza, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics

{ 2 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. DLA says:

    from the Guardian:
    UNRWA's decision to pull out of Gaza, which includes halting aid shipments, comes after the driver of a UN aid truck was killed by tank fire, according to BBC News 24.

    The UN said the delivery had been coordinated with Israel, according to AP. The Israeli army has not commented on the incident.

    UN spokesman Richard Miron, told Reuters: "This underlines the fundamental insecurity inside Gaza at a time when we are trying to address the dire humanitarian needs of the population there."

  2. tim says:

    “If Israel finds peace, American Jews may lose their identity.” …

    But Jewish people in the USA have such a long and honourable history of Civil Rights activity. This history can be rediscovered and re-emphasised once the poison of Israel's link to the NeoCon project works through.

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