Here is the forthcoming Tikkun magazine. The articles are not yet on-line. But isn't this curious. Here is what looks to be a great piece on Gaza by a meticulous moral scholar, Jerry Slater:
Sounds like I'd agree with Slater! But right under that is this:
A Response to Jerome Slater by DOUG LIEB.
No. The violence in Gaza is Hamas's fault.
Who's Lieb? An executive assistant at the American Jewish Committee, which is of course also running Paul Berman's claim that Hamas is as genocidal as the Nazis.
Hold on now. Tikkun is the Jewish left. It has provided shelter from the storm, on a night or two anyway, to anti-Zionist Jews. Why is it running this kind of stuff? Because communal Jewish life remains captured by Zionism and the Holocaust, that's why.
And next time you wonder why mainstream liberal Jewry remains hospitable to neoconservatism, indeed neoconservatism was suckled by the community, this is why. Neoconservatism can even hold forth at Tikkun.
Which is why the coalition that will change American policy cannot form inside the Jewish community. It must absolutely be multicultural, and include Jews.
P.S. Related: Here is Michael Warschawski saying that in the wake of Gaza's horror, leftwing Zionism (Meretz, Peace Now) has reached a deadend. To use a Lincoln word, we must find a new "combination."
"Why is it running this kind of stuff? Because communal Jewish life remains captured by Zionism and the Holocaust, that's why.
And next time you wonder why mainstream liberal Jewry remains hospitable to neoconservatism, indeed neoconservatism was suckled by the community, this is why. Neoconservatism can even hold forth at Tikkun.
Which is why the coalition that will change American policy cannot form inside the Jewish community. It must absolutely be multicultural, and include Jews"
As I have said a thousand times.
But of course when one of us multicultural others says it it is called anti semitic. The jewish community has a problem and is a problem in US politics and foreign policy..that's just a fact.
The question is what is going to be done about it and by whom? Will the jewish attitudes and demands on the US and the rest of us change of their own accord, I doubt it, it's too ingrained. That leaves Obama… if he can't step them down on Israel (maybe he can use some ten step program like AA, a policy and lobby a day at a time) and back them out of their delusions then it will get worse for them and the US.
I am pleasantly, pleasantly surprised. There are some brain cells remaining amongst the Left! :-)
But not many. Consider American, he doesn't even know how many steps are in his AA program.
The reason for the balance in the interpretation of the Gaza war is that the Israeli description contains a majority of reason.
The only element of the war that I contest is the extent, choice of targets after the initial strategic bombing campaign.
I do NOT contest the necessity for a military response to Hamas CHOOSING to reinitiate a state of war.
You've never here that I've noted engaged the question, "If I were the best motivated leader in the circumstances, what would I do?"
Noone needs the political opportunism of raging. We need PRACTICAL proposal and engagement, NOT political laziness pretending to be activism.
"Boycott"
I invited you to a series of events in Amherst, a couple at Hampshire College next week, including a pro-peace rally (meaning pro-Israel AND pro-Palestine).
You should come.
Exactly why would Weiss want to expose himself to his betters?
"The AIC method of action develops from the awareness that local struggle must be practically and analytically situated within the framework of the global justice struggle."
The far left has been spouting this crap forever. I remember supporters of the old Soviet Union using the same terms. They never wise up.
Phillip (I say, optimistically imagining Weiss might actually read his own comment section), I initially had the same reaction, but if you read Slater and then Lieb, you'll notice that Slater more than holds his own, even though Lieb is given the advantage of being able to reply to Slater without Slater replying to him.
I'm a Tikkun subscriber and I like Michael Lerner a lot. He seems to drive many lefties of my views a little nuts, but his magazine is great and his basic outlook is great–think of him as sort of like Richard Witty, except a Witty that would publish articles by Jerome Slater and Norman Finkelstein. (I can't actually recall if Finkelstein has been in Tikkun–I think so, but am not sure). Lerner allows people with opposing views to publish articles in his magazine. Slater is apparently a bit too critical of Zionism for Lerner's tastes, but he lets him in anyway. Lieb is too Zionist (in the worst way) for Lerner's taste, but he also gets a chance to express his views. I have to admire this, even if I thought the Lieb article was mostly drivel.