maybe we’re not the diaspora. maybe we’re from kazakhstan. maybe everyone’s a diaspora from africa. maybe our diaspora–the scattering of seeds, per webster–is european, global, american…
Shimon Peres sends out a Rosh Hashanah message to the Diaspora and says we have to remain the Israel lobby from now till the end of time. The dude is obviously worried that the ties are breaking down. He says peace is right around the corner.
It is vital to build with our brethren in the Diaspora ties based on solid foundations of partnership and education. Indeed, the role of Jewish education in the Diaspora cannot be overestimated. It serves as the very building-blocks of the bridges that connect the Jewish communities abroad and Israel. It serves as the terms of engagement between the young generation of Jewish youth and our nation and as the stepping stones to a greater awareness of the significance of Israel-Diaspora relations. It will serve to preserve our rich heritage and traditions.
The spirit of partnership must be enhanced in every area of Israel-Diaspora relations. We face dramatic challenges, which again underscore the necessity to stand united in moments of trial, responsible one for the other, as dictated by our Prophets. Indeed, a threat to the well-being of Jewish communities in the world equates a threat to Israel itself, and the fate of Diaspora Jewry is at the very core of Israel’s heart.
And in the Forward, Jay Michaelson says the relationship is ending. About time the Forward published some common sense from a liberal:
you know, a Southerner in the 1950s or an Afrikaner in the 1980s might say similar things. Yes, living within Green Line Israel, it’s possible to forget the Occupation… I’ve begun to second-guess even my own love of the place, wondering how much of it is built upon a foundation of deliberately constructed ignorance, a result of years of selective education. I sip my limonana, and five miles away a mother is harassed at a checkpoint. Which is reality and which fantasy? [the checkpoint, honeybunny!]
Finally, I think my love of Israel is fading because I feel personally implicated by its injustices, even though I have chosen to live in America and have relinquished my right to have any say over Israeli policy. (If only some of my countrymen would feel similarly.) On a recent trip to Berlin, I remarked to a friend that I felt more relaxed there than in Jerusalem. Part of it was that Berlin is a liberal city, and part of it was that I didn’t have to be frisked every time I walked into a cafe….
[Yes I still love Israel, but] on this side of the ocean, more and more of those who feel similarly have politics, agendas and overall experiences of Israel very different from mine. What they love is not what I love, and how they love is terrifying.
Poor Arabs with 22 countries.
Poor Palestinians with no states
This is not an article about Arabs and why one should or should not hate them.
We don’t write a blank check in advance and without interest to any arab country. They pay through the nose for all we give them, with interest.
Poor Arabs with 3 out of the 4 largest countries in Africa.
Ed, listen carefully to me, these arguments are patently stupid. They are about as valid as the Afrikaners arguments that if South Africans did not like the white regime they could move to Tutsi territory – after all, they are all black. Or like saying that in an Irish neighborhood it does not matter that I stole a mans home, because there are plenty of other Irish houses in the neighborhood.
You are a blatant racist, with not one leg to stand on – all of you’re posts are skewed nonsense. So, get you head out of Dershowitz’s ass, and start to think on your own. All you are doing is reflecting the “education” that Peres speaks of, it is completely specious.
Ed is not hear to listen. He’s here to spread cut-and-paste from hate sites and call people “liars” who tell the truth.
While he is useful as an example of the worst of Zionist apologetics, he disrupts discussion here.
Poor Israelis, with only the only superpower in the world to feed them whatever they want at the expense of the only superpower’s best interests.
Phil,
Your headline is odd.
How about: Divorcing Witty–even the Forward is thinking about it!
He’s changed it since this morning. This one is odd too though.
And so it is with the sadness that accompanies the end of any affair that I notice my love is starting to wane.
I would call that fitting. Look at the link, I guess that was the first title:
forward-writer-finally-breaks-the-news-the-israel-lobby-is-terrifying.html
The new is much better.
Poor Jews with Europe and North America.
BTW, those 22 Arab countries used to be just 1 Islamic country before your shlomo goyim British and French friends carved it up.
Turkey, with all their European intrigues.
Uhhhhhh, could it also be that Turkey is a European country?
They actually have a say in what goes on in Europe unlike some European khazars *cough, cough* who think that the indigenous people of West Asia should bow down to colonialist whims.
actually, disregard that last comment about turkey. I misunderstood what you said.
This is who Phil and the Foward wants Jews to support.
link to israelnationalnews.com
Damn! If Hassan had used a helicopter gunship he would have survived.
Oh well, I guess you go to war with the army you have, right Ed?
That’s a drop in the bucket compared to what those have done you support. Get some perspective!
Nuclear arms in the possession of extremist fundamentalist hands pose a danger to the whole of humanity …
Indeed, Mr. Peres, indeed.
We face dramatic challenges, which again underscore the necessity to stand united in moments of trial, responsible one for the other, as dictated by our Prophets.
So much for “teshuva”… ;-)
Yes, the war drums are beaten harder again, lately:
It should be no secret now that a massive political warfare campaign is underway that is intended to push the United States into war with Iran.
Can any sain Jew explain how you support these Arabs?
link to jpost.com
Poll: 84% of Palestinians back yeshiva attack
Mar 20, 2008
The vast majority of Palestinian Authority residents support the terror attack on Jerusalem’s Mercaz Harav Yeshiva that killed eight students earlier on March 6, according to a new poll cited in the New York Times on Wednesday.
SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World According to the survey, which was conducted among 1,270 Palestinians in the West Bank, 84 percent of those polled stood behind the shooting attack. In addition, 64% supported firing Kassam rockets at Negev towns.
“The anger that this poll is registering is about equal to that at the very height of the second intifada,” the paper quoted the pollster, Khalil Shikaki, as saying.
He added that he had never seen such a high level of support for an act of violence in all his 15 years of polling in Ramallah.
The survey also indicated that the majority of Palestinians would choose Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh (47%) over Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (46%) if elections were called now, and that three-quarters of Palestinians favored terminating negotiations between the Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The poll had a margin error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Still lower than the 94% of Israelis that supported the war on Gaza.
I’m a diaspora Indian and I have no more emotional attachment to India than I have to Venezuela. I wish it all the best, obviously, but I wish all states that, and I certainly wouldn’t dream of supporting the oppression of its own nationals or other nationals.
Ed,
I just wonder how many settlers wish to kill, burn, uproot, and steel palestinans land? <>
So keep repeating AIPAC talking point until you drop, the facts are that “Israel” is the new 21st century’s Pariah state!! But in my book, it’s always been one……
Ed_Frias, may i ask you a question? who are you trying to convince?
the damn is breaking and you are trying to hold back the flood with your middle finger.
These must be terrifying times for hard core Zionists.
jimby,these must be paranoid times for the Arabs.
Sep 15, 2009
‘Jews harvesting Algerian kids’ organs’
HAVIV RETTIG
link to jpost.com
Wow. Can your racism be any more blatant? It’s like being at a Birther rally except the guy who’s shouting doesn’t have a Southern accent.
Michaelson has walked away from Omelas, but a lot of the commenters on his article are still living the good life there and pretending there is no child locked in the basement.
One by one, all the decent Israelis are leaving the place to the fanatics because their eyes have opened to the truth: Israel is bad for the Jews.
That’s a too pessimistic and IMHO also a little dismissive of the sizeable, but active minority who are promoting justice and freedom for the Palestinians.
“We face dramatic challenges, which again underscore the necessity to stand united in moments of trial, responsible one for the other, as dictated by our Prophets,” quoth Shimon.
Huh? The Prophets I know were perfectly willing to sacrifice unity for the sake of justice. The Prophets I know would have acted like Richard Goldstone.
Schmuel, you raise a good objection. What is the Torah and Talmud if not testament
to people not wanting to be sheeple? I’m not a jew, but I see that. Why would a jew, or anyone want to salute any comic book fantasy?
Interestingly, Ehud Barak said today that Iran does NOT pose an existential threat to Israel. Things are moving fast.
September 17, 2009
Israel Defense Chief: Iran Not An Existential Threat
By REUTERS
Filed at 2:53 a.m. ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted on Thursday as saying he does not view Iran as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state, a view that would seem to depart from Israeli statements of the recent past.
Israel’s mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth daily quoted Barak, the head of Israel’s center-left Labour party, as saying “Iran does not constitute an existential threat against Israel.”
In response to a question about Tehran’s nuclear programme which Israel has said it sees as destined to produce atomic weapons that could put its existence at risk, Barak said in an interview with the paper:
“I am not among those who believe Iran is an existential issue for Israel.”
Barak said “Israel is strong, I don’t see anyone who could pose an existential threat,” although he did add that he viewed Iran as a challenge to the whole world.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly said they view Iran’s atomic development as a threat, pointing at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s calls for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map, and support for groups seeking Israel’s destruction.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely intended for energy production.
Western countries have sought to toughen sanctions against Iran, alongside efforts at dialogue by U.S. President Barack Obama, in an attempt to pressure Iran to halt its nuclear development.
Israel is assumed to possess the only atomic arsenal in the Middle East.
(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Charles Dick)
So you mean it’s not 1939, and Ahmadinejad isn’t Hitler and Obama isn’t Chamberlain?! Or maybe Barak is really a self-hating Jew who wants to see his people destroyed. So why doesn’t Netanyahu sack him? But maybe Netanyahu is also a self-hating Jew! So why doesn’t Avigdor Lieberman call him out and resign from his quisling government? Oh my God! Maybe even Lieberman is a self-hating Jew!
Could this be curtains for Bibi? There must be some serious squirming goin’ on.
That’s the beauty of propaganda and hysterical hyperbole. No consistency necessary. Bibi will not give Barak’s statement a second thought, and Barak himself may say the very opposite tomorrow.
I’m afraid you’re right Shmuel.
He means that Israel is strong, and need not overreact.
Part of the statement might be to soften some fears that Hezbollah is starting to get pushy. It is in the middle of a power struggle in Lebanon, and asserts its street cred by confrontation.
A couple days ago, there was the first incident of a rocket fired from Hezbollah controlled areas in about six months, and some people worried that it may be connected with mutual saber-rattling relative to Iran.
Barak also faces a power struggle within the labor party, which has grown very weak in Israel over the last couple years. (But, its good that he is not saber-rattling for street credibility, but the oppossite. He’s sober for his credibility.)
In some ways Ed really is on topic.
All Jews are one big Jewish conspiracy. All true Jews must support the
fatherlandmotherland.This is where Ed steps in. It looks like Ed sees the world as a series of races – Jewish Race, Black Race, Arab Race, White Race – each in conflict. I hear him saying: it is unfortunate, but Arabs are the worst race. Ed does not have the tact of Shimon Peres. He does not understand his enemy and what they believe. [Why does he think I or any other person here supports any muslim state? Is it because he can not imagine people as equals and that I imagine people as equals is totally beyond what he can comprehend?] As such, he is more open about his beliefs. These beliefs do not appear to be any different than the beliefs of Shimon Peres. In fact, reading between the lines, they are the beliefs at the core of Shimon Peres’ message.
Note that Shimon Peres directly disenfranchises about 30% of the population of Israel with his opening remarks on peace:
Israel is not a country of its people. It is a country of Jews only.
Note that the word Palestinian did not cross his lips once. He is not interested in peace with the Palestinian people – he can’t even bring himself to mention them – they are less than human – they do not exist. Israel is for the Jewish race.
And when it comes to peace, this is what the hypocrit says:
The end message of Shimon Peres is violence and racial purity. Ed with his love of an ethinically pure Jewish state and the ultimate evils of the Palestinians – who do not exist as they come from Egypt or some other country is on the same page.
link to mondoweiss.net
I don’t know about you but I think someone forgot to mention to Peres that he might have died a few years ago. There are people who always seem to be in the background that they call a security force, I think they are undertakers…lol I mean just look at him (and the company he keeps) –
WALKING ZOMBIE
However what is more important is that his message stopped being relevant several years ago, so they should be archiving his papers in the round filing cabinet. Oh, I think there is a song that reflects the position of Peres, and it is headed to the same pile of extinct bones of those who wish to propagate the oppression of others to their own benefit –
SO YOU SAY ITS NOT ME, ITS NOT MY FAMILY
edwin, i think you have summed up Ed_Frias really well… he is a racist.. in order to understand ed frias is to be able to understand what it is like to be a racist where the jewish race is the superior race and that israel is for the jews only and on and on and on… thanks…
If defending yourself against Arab homicide bombers who target civilians is racism. Yes i’m a racist.
If speaking out against Palestinian Pal leaders who strap bombs on their children to kill Jews for 72 virgins. Yes I’m a racist.
If talking about the Arabs racist policy against the Kurds, Coptics, Black Christians of Sudan, Berbers and Chaldeans is racism. Yes i’m a racist.
Oh, I apologize Ed, you are the LYING racist (the two are always synonymous)….lol
So just how many Palestinian children are you willing to murder today in order to protect yourself from suicide attacks that ceased happening years ago, Ed?
ed frias – perhaps you’d like to list all the other reasons that you’re a racist… you have just scratched the surface here! tell us why israel is only for jews and how it isn’t racist….or perhaps you would like to articulate why israel is racist, but that it is justified….. take yer pick….
you epitomize a narrow fanatical view – the same one you are trying to get rid of in the other side…. can you see the problem with this approach? fanaticism breeds fanaticism and it has found a friend in you… you are an unhappy person – that much is obvious..
Holy cow did you nail it. Kudos, man.
We knew that. We can tell.
Every post Ed makes, the racist face of Zionism comes into clearer focus.
Yeah, he must be reading old copies of Goebbels’s Attack magazine, and Streicher’s
yellow rag–he just updates who’s the good guy and and who’s the bad guy.
Let me say, that if the divorce goes through, do not let it be on the basis of an equal property split…
I sip my limonana, and five miles away a mother is harassed at a checkpoint.
Powerful imagery.
[Yes I still love Israel, but] on this side of the ocean, more and more of those who feel similarly have politics, agendas and overall experiences of Israel very different from mine. What they love is not what I love, and how they love is terrifying.
They’re in love with an ideology.
History has shown us time and again just how dangerous such a love can be.
V, what do you mean? No equal property split? I think I know, but I rather hear from you first. Thanks.
If defending yourself against Jewish homicide bombers who target civilians is racism — no it’s not racism to defend yourself against Jewish homicide bombers. It is racism to claim that all Jews are homicide bombers, and it is racism to punish all Jews for the actions of some Jewish homicide bombers.
link to lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com
It is why the Egyptian expulsion of the Jews is wrong. Jewish Terrorism sponsored by Israel is no excuse. Jewish expulsion of Palestinians is not an excuse for tit-for-tat racism by Egypt – even with additional provocation.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Jewish expulsion was carried out from almost every European country. Contrary to that no other country expelled Jews. The Jewish communities were terrorized by the Zionist thugs by bombing Synagogues, burning Jewish shops and community centres. Most Jews, who lived in Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Algeria, ect. paniced and fled to the occupied Palestine. Many were given cash and land incentives – as offered to Iranian Jews (US$10,000 each) last year.
On the matter of “Divorcing Israel” – It seems that the first Muslim country which recognized Israel – and have been the most trusted ally of Israel – is showing some signs of divorcing Zionist-regime too.
link to rehmat1.wordpress.com
re israel attacking iran:
This is how I see it.
Until recently Israel played an excellent political game of not upsetting its supporters – Jews, Americans, and others. Terrorism was kept low key – everything carefully controlled. Israel is a totalitarian country – probably fascist is the correct term – but it is legitimized by American Jews who are politically liberal – to the tune of several billion a year.
Something changed. Perhaps a sense of entitlement or perhaps overconfidence at what they were getting away with: Ok we managed to arrange a massacre with our friends the Phalangists. Lets push the envelope a bit…
There was a big miscalculation with tying Zionism to the Republican party. Sure the Republican party shares a common ideology with Zionism. Cheney’s voting record looks like he supported Apartheid in S. Africa. It was completely reasonable to assume he would support it in Israel too. link to dir.salon.com
The problem wasn’t with the Republican party. The problem was with the left wing of the US. Small and mostly insignificant with the emphasis on mostly. Add this to the fact that WWII is becoming more and more distant every year. The left wing were forced to stare at the contradictions of support for Israel and opposition to Bush. Something had to give and it was support for Israel that gave. It f…… took long enough but never mind. The discontent moved centre ward for the same reasons. Jewish liberals – progressive except Palestine – were having their faces rubbed in their hypocrisy. Some of them woke up. The latest massacre in Gaza caused even more problems. My aunt – who has managed to be pro Israel for the last several decades in the face of her brother, sister, and nephews is wavering. The iron fist pro Republican strategy that Israel has adopted has disturbed the sleep of America’s Jews. It was a bold step to embrace the Republican party and hardline racism. Somethings got to give. It probably won’t be like Israel where the left wing – when faced with the contradiction of apartheid and its values chucked its values – leaving radicals like Anarchists against the wall as the left wing opposition and the supporters of equality and freedom.
This moves onto the next probable war: Iran. I predict lots of dead Iranians. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a certain number of Jews in Israel as well. Hopefully Iran won’t start a campaign of terrorism as part of the war. One thing that will occur is a further split between liberals and Israel. Israel is alienating its core supporters. It seems to have completely forgotten the importance lying to its base. The contract was: do what you want, just don’t disturb our sleep. War with Iran will further test its supporters – force them again and again to see the contradictions of progressive except Palestine force them to choose which side they are on – progressive or fascist. Israel may militarily win with Iran and discover that it is still possible to loose the war.
What happens when someone wins this argument?
Rehmat, I love how you avoid the real topic.
The tens of thousands of heroric Iranians who are today protesting against the mad Iranian dictator who kills and arrests anyone that criticizes this brutal Mullah regime.
link to news.yahoo.com
Thousands march in Iran opposition protests