College interns working with a peace and justice organization in Chicago are conducting public opinion surveys about public views of Israeli/Palestinian equality, US military aid to Israel, and Israeli settlements. Results will be published at the end of the summer, but yesterday’s experience at a downtown farmers’ market is worth sharing with Mondo readers.
Setting: Farmers’ market at the Federal Plaza, Chicago. Lunch hour. Population represents a mix of race, gender, age… all folks looking to buy local, purchase a bouquet for the office, or grab a healthy snack for lunch.
Action: Team of three set out to conduct the four question opinion survey, clipboards in hand. Lead question: “Do you believe Palestinians and Israelis should have equal rights?”
Encounter: Thinking perhaps to start off with an easy target, Survey Team member approaches a young man in his 20’s wearing a Greenpeace t-shirt. Greenpeace guy has a clipboard too. Greenpeace is raising funds. “Do you want to save a polar bear?” common opening line of Greenpeace volunteer.
Intern: "Hey, do you have time for a four question opinion survey?"
Greenpeace: "Yes."
Intern: “Do you believe Palestinians and Israelis should have equal rights?”
Greenpeace: “No way.”
Greenpeace makes a reference to Arabs being terrorists and then lifts up his t-shirt, showing a Israeli Defense Forces t-shirt underneath. Greenpeace says he was flying F16’s for the Israeli army for two years. Dropped a lot of bombs on Gaza. Didn’t always look to see where they landed. Flying is cool. Maybe some day I will fly a 747. Likely to return to be a pilot in Israel. Settlements need to stay. Land is ours. Only way to create peace over there is to drop an atomic bomb on the West Bank. I mean, we’ve been trying to make peace since 1948.
Lessons learned: Skipped Greenpeace orientation session? Progressive except Palestine? Maybe not all those pilots feel remorse?
I like the new format BTW.
That is an incomplete question designed to produce a false result of support for the Palestinians.
I’ll take a bet, once they get their results, they will report it as people saying “Palestinians and Israelis should have equal rights in Israel”.
Should the French and Americans have equal rights? Most people would say “yes”.
Should the French and Americans have equal rights in America? Most people would say “no”, if they thought about it anyway, since they don’t think the French should get to vote in American elections.
Bad analogy there but if we follow it through then you are saying that in the case of the Israeli settlers in the West Bank they should not be given equal rights with the Palestinians there, since they are foreigners. Is that what you meant to say?
All French people born in the USA have equal rights.
All Arabs born in Israel or its occupied territories have rights secondary to any Jew
born in Israel or any Jew born anywhere in the world , and all Arabs born or transferred/pushed to the OT have virtually no rights at all in the OT as compared to any Jew anywhere. Period.
Any American Jew may vote in the USA and simultaneously in Israel as dual citizens.
Untrue. The Arab citizens of Israel have the same rights as the Jewish citizens. That last statement is also untrue. In order to become a dual citizen, you have to apply for it, fill out paperwork, and oh, yeah, serve 2 years in the IDF.
The Palestinians are not Israeli citizens, Israel doesn’t give them the same rights as it does citizens.
You are right about America, anyone (with rare exceptions) born in America is an American citizen. However, not all countries grant automatic citizenship to children born of foreign nationals.
BTW, territories are the lands (or near land seas) of a State. Do you consider the Palestinians a State? If not, whose territories are they?
Oh, I missed this the first time I read it. If you are correct about starting off with an easy target, their “poll” is worthless, quite apart from the biased question(s). The very act of “picked an easy target”, one who is likely to agree with their pre-chosen poll result, shows that they are going for propaganda, not objective information. They may have missed the mark on this particular guy, but selecting people on the basis that they look like the type of person who will agree with your pre-selected poll results is only for making a propaganda poll, not for taking a real poll.
I honestly don’t think it even matters if the poll is unscientific, since it’s highly likely most Israelis won’t give a shit about Palestinians no matter how the question is worded…
The non-Jewish Arab citizens of Israel do not have the same rights as the Jewish citizens of Israel. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
If they are Israeli Jews – then there is a high probability that they will support Israel.
In general, most people – including Israelis – are uninformed on this conflict. How many public debates have you seen where a Zionist ‘wins’? They have never had the facts on their side.
And just as an example – imagine the commentary of Jake/Eitan/Thom being implemented into a mainstream debate against someone such as Noam Chomsky. First off, such commentary would be taboo – even for our country which has been subjected to nearly a century of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic media.
You have to factor in the general intellectual laziness of the masses. It’s not just I-P. It’s everything.
Just check opinion polls during the 2004 election. Bush voters AND Kerry voters were uninformed but the Bush voters were much MORE uninformed. People do not elect a President based on substance.
They vote based on A) who is presented to them as a mainstream (safe) choice and B) who they *think* (image) will deal w/ domestic issues the best (by and large the majority).
A conflict like I-P – which is swamped in intellectual dishonesty and outright lies is very difficult to communicate w/ sincerity to the masses.
We – as a country – are against Arabs and Islam – who themselves are disorganized and relatively ‘new’ to the US. Meanwhile, the organized Jewish community has been here for much longer and is a part of the Establishment.
They can shape the discourse and act as gatekeepers.
It’s a constant uphill battle for Arabs and Muslims JUST to shatter the stereotypes and outright racist/bigotry conflations that they are subjected to as a norm.
Jews have an institutional advantage and a societal advantage. Arabs have neither. They have to work – meaning, living life as a ‘game’ and doing all the insane things the organized Jewish community does (like distributing ‘Hasbara’ handbooks which promote purely rhetorical strategies for the I-P debate).
Until then, expect the usual imperial racism and mentality.
I mean, look on YouTube and you’ll see tons of Jake in Jerusalem’s. These people are a dime a dozen. Bottom-feeders are worst and mediocre at best. They are not meant to be taken seriously but they comprise that force of intellectual dishonesty and outright lies that the Arabs and Muslim Americans have to work against. It’s a constant uphill battle.
LDLD bemoans the position of Jews in American and Western life and cries over ‘misunderstanding’ of the Islamic world.
LDLD forgets that Jews have in the past and continue to suffer from antisemitic discrimination – something that MondoLies is trying to promote at all costs.
That Jewish positions on cultural or political issues are accepted in the West is very much related to the West being “Judeo-Christian”. Western values (and most democratic values) are common to those 2 religions.
Islam is radically different. Killing one’s sister is a matter of HONOR in the Islamic world, but not in any other culture. Beheading human beings to appease one’s god is ACCEPTED in Islam but not in any other major religion. Promoting genocide is HOLY in Islam but generally viewed very negatively by everyone else.
If the Muslim world finds itself on the outside, perhaps Islamism is the problem. Don’t try and blame the Jews.
Unfortunately, blaming themselves doesn’t work. However, learning through history, blaming the Jews gets you friends, fortune, and a place of honor on this blog.
promoting genocide is israeli jews dragging diasporan jews down to hell with them
Killing one’s sister is also a matter of honor in the Hindu world as well. And killing people for money is accepted in the Judeo-Christian world (all of the various resource wars being conducted and/or supported by the governments of Western countries and Israel being case in point). Singling out the bad aspects of one religion and using those to spread hate while ignoring the equally bad aspects of other religious cultures, including your own, is a form of racism.
Where are the Mondoweiss t-shirts? They would sell if designed properly.
And can we have an open thread on the new format?
The prefered design would be obscene.