All over the left and the blogosphere, Gaza is Guernica, a "turkey shoot," and "slaughter." Not on the Zionist left. Americans for Peace Now equivocates in the face of horror:
the past weeks, Israelis, Palestinians, and the world have once again
witnessed the unfolding of a serious and dangerous military escalation
between Israel and Hamas. APN
and its Israeli sister organization, Peace Now, have repeatedly
expressed solidarity with the residents of communities of southern Israel
Israel
has the right â indeed, the obligation â to take measures to bringthese attacks to a halt… However, simply escalating the violence is not
going to resolve the situation.
When the horror began, J Street made a pretty good statement condemning
Israel's attacks as contributing to the "cycle of violence." I heard that J Street came under incredible heat for its
brave statement. Well, here is J Street's latest, a retrenchment to equivocation:
Israel has a special place in each of our hearts. But we recognize that
neither Israelis nor Palestinians have a monopoly on right or wrong.
While
there is nothing "right" in raining rockets on Israeli families or
dispatching suicide bombers, there is nothing "right" in punishing a
million and a half already-suffering Gazans for the actions of the
extremists among them.
And there is nothing to be gained from debating which injustice is
greater or came first. What's needed now is immediate action to stop
the violence before it spirals out of control.
It's just a shade or two different from the belligerent line you get from Israel's leading "peacenik" authors. Haaretz:
Oz told Corriere della Sera that "Hamas is responsible" for the
outbreak of violence, but "the time has come to seek a cease-fire." … Yehoshua, who wrote in La Stampa, said he first related that even
before the fighting began, he had published an appeal to Gaza residents
urging them to end the violence.
Next he explained, "why the Israeli operation was necessary, but also how quickly it needs to end."
This all goes to prove the same old point. It is very difficult, nigh impossible, to be in a Jewish or Zionist communal organization and take a strong position against the destruction of Arab lives or for Arab human rights. It just won't happen. It's in the water. The Zionist progs refuse to divorce themselves from neoconservatives, even after the Iraq body count became monstrous. Dual loyalty proliferates, and Peace Now can't get ahead of its cousins in Israel. Cracks have formed, it's not the Lebanon '06 chorus. But when all is said and done, J Street is still lobbying the lobby, trying to move Zionist opinion left. I know, there are some brave exceptions. Jewish Voice for Peace is fabulous. Rabbi Brant Rosen is with Brit Tzedek, Dan Fleshler has worked with Peace Now, MJ Rosenberg works for IPF. All have been emphatic. But they're the exceptions that prove the rule.
