During his speech to the the AIPAC Policy Conference, Joe Biden told a story about meeting Golda Meir as a young senator in 1973. He said that he was worried about Israel's future at that time, but Meir comforted him by saying, "Senator don't worry. We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle, we have no place else to go."
Biden continued:
And it was for me, at that moment, her comments crystallized for me everything I'd learned at my father's table, and everything about the basic responsibility of the United States to be a partner in ensuring that there will always, always be a place for Jews of the world to go -- (applause) -- and that place always must be Israel. (Applause.) It's real. It's serious. It's compelling. It's the only certainty, the only certainty. (Applause.)
You can watch and read his entire remarks on the AIPAC website. Does this not strike you as odd? The Vice President of the United States telling a room full primarily of American Jews that Israel is Jews' only certain place of refuge? This was especially ironic as stories from the Holocaust reverberated throughout the conference, including the story of the St. Louis, an ocean liner full of Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany that was not allowed to dock in the US. Was Biden implying this scenario could happen again?
I know he wasn't, but the passage (and the thunderous applause it received) was a microcosm of the strange state of denial that the AIPAC conference took place in. The convention seemed to unfold in a suspended 1939-like atmosphere with the barbarians clamoring at the gate. This anxiety was in total contradiction to the success and power on display during the convention itself. The AIPAC conference both celebrated this power and access, while also warning it could disappear at any moment. Biden's remarks reinforced the belief seemingly pervasive in the crowd that this success is fleeting and we must stay on the offensive to protect it.
Biden was playing to the crowd, and their (I would say irrational) fear that another disaster is right around the corner for the Jewish people. Jewish success in the United States has shown that Jews did, and do, have somewhere else to go, and I'm incredibly thankful for it. But when the Jewish community, like the audience at AIPAC, is constantly steeped in the horrors of our darkest hour, it becomes more difficult to see the reality of our position more clearly. When everyone (Ahmadinejad, Hamas, etc.) is an embodiment of Hitler, then of course the only answer is to fight. But this way of looking at the world is not only divorced from reality, but a recipe for perpetual violence. As Avraham Burg has said in his wise book, the holocaust is over, we must rise from its ashes. Until we do, we are not protecting the next generation from harm, but only promising them a future of conflict. It's the only certainty.
What happened to all the comments on this thread?
If that's the way Jews of the world feel. Then they need to packs their bags and leave for Israel. But they never will. It's the non-Israeli Jews whose lobbying power keeps the cash and weapons flowing to Israel every year.
I think Israel's life expectancy is about that of the crusader states–max 200 years or so. But that's not the short run. The meme of imminent danger, always fueled by exploitation of the Shoah, is designed to blackmail Jews and gentiles into silencing their doubts and criticisms of Israel. The enemy is always at the gates, and if it is not, through suberfuge (the Lavon affair) or subsidy (early promotion of Hamas as a rival to Fatah), it will be conjured up.
" The Vice President of the United States telling a room full primarily of American Jews that Israel is Jews' only certain place of refuge?" It the drug talking. Can you imagine the rush he got through his whole body, a real bell ringer, when he told that story? Stories like that, saying completely ridiculous stuf like that, is Zionist crack. It's all about inducing that high.
"But this way of looking at the world is not only divorced from reality, but a recipe for perpetual violence." And there's really not enough of us for that. Sure, sure, I can whip any ten Gentiles with my secret IDF self-offense techniques, but still, the numbers just aren't there.
"there will always be a place for Jews of the world to go — and that place always must be Israel.' Can they bring their wives and children? As Marx (that's right Ed) , under somewhat different circumstances, said: "My daughter is half-Jewish, can she go into the pool up to her knees?"
Me too!
And ME!
really?
"Biden was playing to the crowd, and their (I would say irrational) fear that another disaster is right around the corner for the Jewish people. —-> Until we do, we are not protecting the next generation from harm, but only promising them a future of conflict. It's the only certainty." You nailed it. Especially the recipe for perpetual violence part. (Mooser, Adam's referring to what Israel's doing in Gaza, etc., and the numbers are there. They did it last Dec-Jan.)
Are we talking about the grass roots pitchforks as the ultimate outcome if things continue as is, those Citizen mentioned yesterday on a different thread–and got called stupid and anti-semitic for his troubles?
MRW, yes, of course. I'm just a little gob-smacked by Biden's mouth. He does have a real tendency to say unfortunate things. At least he has no problem telling the Jews where to go! I'm a wee bit stunned. I hope and trust Adam won't get a contact high.
Hey the last person to challenge the lobby like that was Secretary of the State Baker at an Aipac conference years ago. Really appreciated that Biden said stop the expansion of settlements. Although did not call them illegal and did not say dismantle…but at least he said something. Hell what else can Biden say. The WWII Holocaust has been turned into a "Holocaust Industry" Norman Finkelstein nails just how this has come about in his book "the Holocaust industry" I appreaciated that Biden was willing to go as far as he did
rykart, please stop talking about "filth." It isn't helpful.
"I appreaciated that Biden was willing to go as far as he did " At any rate, he's ready to send us far, far away, all the way to Israel! Thanks for nothing, you big schlemiel
I love how American "patriots" go all crazy about Obama and equating his "America is not at war with Islam" remarks at Turkey with terrorist appeasment but at the same time turn their backs on the biggest appeasement of all, the unconditional support for the state of Israel.
This is an important post, a comment I'd not seen in any other coverage of the conference. I wonder, did anyone else there besides Adam find Biden's comment odd?
"Are we talking about the grass roots pitchforks as the ultimate outcome if things " I'm not, but Biden sure seems to be. Maybe he knows something I don't. After all, nobody invites me to the AIPAC conference. And the idea that the "grass roots" (not the astro-turf?) is gonna rise up and pitchfork the Jews out of America is offensive both to Jews and all the Gentile Americans who love them! They didn't chuck out the African Americans, they're not gonna expel the Jews. Besides, how would they know who we are? By seeing who all the smartest, prettiest and most naturally sensuous Gentile girls are married too?
This rhetoric is horrifying to me, since this was precisely the attitude that gave the Zionists and the Nazis common ground. Jews are not Germans (and presumably not Americans either, if American Jews require a "place of refuge" that "must be Israel"). It immediately follows that they should be *encouraged* to go to *their* state, and get out of *ours*. Phil's reports of this conference makes AIPAC look like a bizzare time-warp. Is this really a 21st century meeting of a US lobby, or a WZO meeting in the mid-nineteen thirties?
1939-like atmosphere… I completely agree. There's this brooding sense of horror in the crowd, and things are pretty damn good for people here. Is Israel going to be erased in the future? Not likely. But they need to change their policy and attitudes of attaining a greater Israel. They've boxed themselves in, and the only ones that win elections are the ones claiming to expand the territory. They've already taken so much and owe those people retribution. – the Nakba is real event also. The Speakers also seem to imply that Israel was a result of the Holocaust and it was the only place for Jewish people to go after World War II. The idea of a Jewish homeland was born 40+ years prior to World War. [Was Uganda a better choice for the Homeland? Maybe Alaska (The Yiddish policemen's Union) ]
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/... The comments posted after this article are worth a read. I guess Biden and Kerry are the new enemies of Israel.
The idea of a Jewish homeland was born 40+ years prior to World War Much earlier than that. It's been a Christian preoccupation (no pun, hell yes, pun intended) for a long, long time.
Tony Karon would consider Biden's remark anti-semitic: My own understanding of Judaism makes the very term “Jewish State” an oxymoron — a nation state cannot almost by definition be based on the universal ethical imperatives at the heart of Judaism
"a nation state cannot almost by definition be based on the universal ethical imperatives at the heart of Judaism" Not a problem, for a Jew willing to read the Bible like a Christian. Just pretend that nothing has happened since God held the sun still for our military benefit, and Jews are still God's favored tribe. Just ignore all that pesky stuff about us failing to live up to the Commandments and the consequences.
And it is anti-Semitic, very. And I would bet the number of American Jews willing to risk forcible expulsion for Israel's sake is very,very small. Like I said, it's just the ziocaine talking, with Joe biden as the Shaman cumSchlimiel. And then everybody joins in a frantic tribal hora which devolves into an orgy. That's how we'll de-fuse that Palestinian demographic time bomb!
Isn't Biden in this speech sort of implying that Jews do not belong in America? When he says that the "place in the world for Jews to go to will always be Palestine" does he not thereby repeat the old anti-semitic phrase that Jews are not "real citizens" and don't really belong – including all the stuff that this implies: that "jews cannot be trusted", that "they should go 'home'", that they are "not loyal" etc. Zionism and anti-semitism: two sides of the same coin, that claims that Jews do not belong in "christian states" – not only a racist, but also an essentially anti-democratic statement. Biden wants to be a zionist but thereby he's also an anti-semite. If "the place for the Jews of the world to go to" is by definition somewhere else – not here – then that statement seems to me to spread the seeds of racism, and is NOT expressing respect or concern for Jews in general. Combating antisemitism includes combating zionism – the idea that Jews cannot be full citizens.
I now see that many others made the same point :)
Biden, Gaffe Machine, Strikes Again. That's two in two days.
The idea to return to Israel was born hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
Gasp! The paranoid right-wing crazies were right all along! Barack HUSSEIN Abdullah Ahmed Salim Obama really WAS planning to kill all American Jews! Biden's Freudian slip indicated that we should all make aliyah ASAP! There is no place for a Jew in Amerika!
Thanks a lot, Joe! Like I want to live somewhere that Jews are not safe.
"…we are not protecting the next generation from harm, but only promising them a future of conflict. It's the only certainty." Let's emulate the most successful of Republican tactics: repeat this until it's gained widespread acceptance.
WOW. Even if a third of Israelis are they type of zionists that B.BarNavi is like then all the Barak husseins abldullah ahmed Salim Obamas inside Israel had better be on the look out—Zionists are the new Nazis. You are really helping your cause by being so vehemently ugly so openly. Didn't your mamma teach you: not in front of the goys?
And finally we get to the point! And the answer is: Yes, you can bring your wife and children under the Law of Return, and they won't even have to come on their knees. In fact, even your childrens' children are eligible under the Law of Return, and they don't even have to speak Yiddish or eat lox and bagels on Sunday.
I think, Seleema, that this post was meant as satire. And cheap satire it is. (Bears all the marks of our friend "Joachim".)
And I would bet the number of American Jews willing to risk forcible expulsion for Israel's sake is very,very small. Why would this idea even occur to you? Tell you what. Maybe we can have the Knesset pass a special amendment to the Law of Return enabling any American Jew who wants to to declare, irrevocably, that they renounce their right to seek refuge in Israel. Would that make you feel better bubbeleh?
This debate was hashed out endlessly between zionists and anti-zionists in the latter couple decades of the 19th Century, especially regarding the notion of dual-citizenship. It has never been resolved. Biden has declared publicly he is a zionist, and he has a long political history of being pro-Israel to the hilt. "Next year in Jerusalem."
No problem, go live in a trailer camp. Who'd think of looking for you there? This is, after all, not the OCT of Israel.
oops, she means OT of Israel.
What do you expect? Phil is hostile to Israel and organizations that support Israel. His goal is to destroy Israel and imprison innocent people like Rosen and Weissman because they stand in the way of his goals.
The desirability, maybe not "necessity", of Israel to me is self-evident. That Biden affirms that is a good.
Golda Meir, brought up totally sheltered, protected by goy Americans, ends up as the ugly head of Israel; from her zionist throne she tell us, not to worry about humanity because no Palestinians ever existed. Now, there's a prom queen. If you think about it, she's as racist as Hitler, and not as handsome in her comparative heyday, not did she ever fight on any combat front line to earn her position. Now there's a plot for a new Carrie horror movie. Except it's not a movie–Carrie is the average American awake. Guess who Israel is?
The potato-faced Senator Lieberman & his wife? Oh, yes, we all know how much he cares about Joe Six Pack. You know, the one who is supporting Israel right or wrong and dying for it? The Liebermans wouldn't let their girls or boys within a football field length of cannonfodder US goys…
SundnceStudios, Truthsetufree, JES50, Joachim, Thors – I wouldn't be talking about faces and looks if I were you!
JESsie, making Aliyah is a lot like driving a truck. Ifr that's what you want to do, I won't stand in your way. Be my guest. Write us from TelAviv, I don't accept mail from illegal settlements.
tateleh I already made aliyah – nearly 25 years ago. (And don't worry, I'm well within the Green Line.)
Yeah, Richard, you keep a bag packed and are ready to flee at a moment's notice, huh. And of course, with such danger to Jews, who would ever get married or buy property? Richard, do you do Cossack drills once a week and go over your escape plan?
I don't think Biden meant to do anything other than support Israel. Unfortunately for Biden, he's about as well-spoken as Bush II.