Gaza slaughter seems to have made some American Jews just turn off

I attended the talk with roughly 200 others, and two policemen. Also photographers of unknown origin. As might be expected, this woman told us how wonderful Israel is; its culture, its achievements in science and the arts. She also told the audience of the terrible hardships the Israelis have been living under due to all the rockets and terrorists attacks on them. She also said that Israel wanted a two-state solution wherein everybody would live in peace and security, that it was too bad that Israel had to defend itself, killing innocents who were shielding terrorists in their midst. Lots of crocodile tears. She said that Hamas was out to destroy Israel, and that therefore Israel would have nothing to do with them (She didn't quite say that they would all have to be annihilated, but that was the implication).

And so on, about the terrible dangers of a nuclear terrorist Iran, etc..

Of course, the audience was overwhelmingly receptive to this person and her message, but at least there were a few (young students?) from the Muslim community who attended and voiced their objections to her narrative. Comments after the formal talk were welcome, but after a comment there was invariably a long answering harangue and no possible followup. After expressing myself a bit, I left early.

But I am disappointed that no one else from AWARE and the progressive community showed up. At least I didn't notice them. Here was an opportunity to protest and show this character that we don't accept the lies, distortions and omissions of the Israeli propaganda mill. It could have happened…It could have been an opportunity to show that there are many who are outraged about Israeli behavior against the Palestinians—that we do not agree with our own administrations' support of Israeli actions and that we'll try to turn the tide of American support that has condoned if not encouraged that rogue state.

I went afterwards to see what was going on In Gregory Hall about the Crisis in Gaza, a talk by Eric Ruder. About 25 -30 were in the audience, and there was extended discussion after his talk. Ruder was very well informed and an excellent speaker. It was just too bad that his talk was in conflict with the Israeli talk; it had been planned well in advance.

It's interesting that the consul's strategy was to not directly address Gaza, at least at the start. Perhaps that's progress of a sort. You would think that Jewish politics here would be a little more open, but it's not. A long story, of course, but one that I've been involved with for 10 years, first as a congregant, then as an ex-congregant. At this point, my sense is that most Jews just stay away from any of the controversy. Perhaps that's progress too. We'll see. (P.S. I encouraged the activist community and Arab student community to attend the talk, but I couldn't myself for medical reasons.)