Anshel Pfeffer in Haaretz says that cracks are forming in American Jewish identity, and his superannuated brothers and sisters here are worried about it:
Look at all of the passions expended recently over J Street. It all wasn’t only about determining the best way to secure Israel’s, future and about the legitimacy of the J Streeters calling upon the Obama administration to pressure Netanyahu. What really panicked so many establishment figures was the fact that the most significant joint endeavor of America’s Jews – six decades of unswerving support for the Israeli government of the day – could be questioned by a bunch of irreverent youngsters.
Notice the frank identification of the Israel lobby as unswerving and Jewish and tied to whatever gov’t there is in Israel. I know: an antisemitic canard. Our greatest achievement. And here I thought it was Seinfeld!
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And after all the tsuris – “Israelis didn’t really care.” That’s rich.
Anti-Zionism is a form of racism. I hope that the assimilated idealistic, the assimilated enlightened, consider that as well.
Criticism towards reform isn’t racism though.
Orwell is spinning in his grave. I hope you’re happy now.
What does Zionism mean, according to you, Richard?
Orwell is spinning in his grave. That reminds me. I have this new thingy I wish to market. It’s installed on top of a grave and connects all the way down to measure rotation speed and spin count. Imagine the possibilities. Beethoven should have one too, and then a competition for the longest spin, or the fastest. It would bring people back to visiting cemeteries too.
Measure? Put some coils and magnets down there. Ladies and gentlemen… we have our new green energy source! Converts B.S. from Witty into electricity.
Zionism is the movement for the self-government of the Jewish people as a distinct state, in the land of Israel/Palestine.
Too bad it’s racist to ethnically cleanse people out of their homes and not let them back. There’s some sort of cognitive dissonance thing going on here, or maybe a meeting of parallel universes, one in which Palestine was a land without a people for a people without a land, and the other one, ours, where this was pernicious nonsense.
Not that I’m replying to anyone in this thread, or wishing to interact with anyone here in particular. Just making an observation to pass time, maybe collapse the wave function, see which universe we each find ourselves in.
Self government of Jews and Jews alone? So it is racism, then, isn’t it, Witty? Their “own distinct state…” and what, the Palestinians have to settle for bantustans?
Witty? What makes Zionism different, fundamentally, from Nazism? What makes your fanatic belief in a state for the Jews any different than a fanatic belief in a state for the reinrassig?
Also apropos of nothing:
It occurs to me now that J Street’s greatest problem is that, seeking access to power and political expediency, it will end up tied to institutional structures that are antithetical to the resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Phil and Adam are not a political force at this stage, but they’re laying down the groundwork for new structures, to replace 19th century European nationalism with 21st century human rights and peaceful, sustainable development.
Clever Donald but a drink is still a drink, although I admit that the “anti-Zionism is racism” remark is an ice cold craft beer on a scorching afternoon. Get thee behind me Satan!
” but a drink is still a drink,”
Well, I fell off the wagon.
I’ll get back on.
And Zionism is not a form of racism. Go figure.
Zionism is murder.
Don’t argue, guys! Zionism is racism and murder!
If you define Zionism as the right of the Jewish people (which do self-identify as a distinct people historically, less in this generation except in Israel), the to deny-self governance on the basis of ethnicity is racism.
If it weren’t necessary to have a state following the 30’s and 40’s, then the issue wouldn’t have been raised, but it was necessary, and was responded by non-acceptance of Israel and by ethnically based repressions.
People voluntarily associate by very differing motives.
In an environment of acceptance and normalization, the gradual changes in consciousness of its citizens and composition will likely change. It is only in the environment of threat that any that hold conditional attitudes shift to fortress.
While many dissenters dismiss the concept of “Israel is Jewish like France is French”, the reality is that France is still French (as in French language and culture), but is different than solely French ethnically. Still a democracy, a changing one, but not by revolution.
The cruelty by Israel (and proposed cruelty by its enemies) should stop, but its existence as a Jewish haven with right of return offered should remain.
Again, the SAME confusion as to how you can be really any definitive association but have some boundaries and exclusions, is comparable to what is attributed to Zionism, and in that light the BEST that any self-governing entity can be, defined geographically or ethnically, is simultaneously its basis of identity AND democratic.
It is up to progressives to emphasize the democratic, but not at the exclusion of identity.
Just for reference, my wife’s cousin successfully was granted Hungarian citizenship for his father’s Hungarian ancestry, though he has never been to Hungary, or speaks the language. (He’s Canadian, lives and works in the New York area, but is likely to move to Europe in a couple years.)
Also for reference, Palestine has never offered or agitated for the right of return of its Jewish residents. An ethnic screen, not honestly a geographic one.
Zionism is the ideology declaring the Jewish people have a right to seize the lands of another people by force, that the right of the Jewish people supersedes the rights of other, less important people.
Denying this is simply an expression of racism, and all the rest is blather.
Innaccurate.
There is form of Zionism, the prevalent one in the US, that enough is enough, that Zionism needs a home, not to expand.
The tragedy of the policies of AIPAC include though the idea of solidarity, of passively accepting the dictates of the vanguard (a very similar approach to what is expressed by solidarity here – “Who are we to criticize the decisions of the Palestinians fighting for their own safety and decency”)
J Street contrasts with that. It states we support Israel, but not passively, retaining our responsibility to productively criticize as a dear friend intervenes in a bad marriage, or an addiction.
Wrong. The racism of Zionism has nothing to do with expansion. It is the position that seizing the land of Palestine in the first place was the right of the Jewish people.
It is the position that the Jewish people had the right to turf the Palestinian people out of their own homes.
Even if Israel never throws another Palestinian family out of their house, it is still a racist ideology.
J Street contrasts with AIPAC, Witty?! Really? You spent your time leading up to the conference demanding the Phil Weiss and his crew form a line behind J Street, at one point exploiting your ties of family and friendship to try and demoralize him, and then you turn around and claim that J Street isn’t run the same way as AIPAC? Are you really blind to the blatant contradictions and hypocrisy that radiate from your very rhetoric?
“Anti-Zionism is a form of racism”
Yeah, Witty, you just keep trying to sell that. You’ll go far.
The “working definition of antisemitism” essentially says as much, in so many words.
http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/material/pub/AS/AS-WorkingDefinition-draft.pdf
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/102406.htm#_Toc174854638
Hollywood and popular culture are dictating the narrative as well. I saw an episode of Law and Order or one of those crime shows where the lunatic suspect was brought in and questioned and anti-Zionist literature was found in his apartment. There was of course no attempt to make a distinction between anti-Zionism and plain old anti-Jewish bigotry. I could only think to myself at the time that now much of the gullible American public will begin to equate anti-Zionism with radical white supremacist and hate groups, which is of course the intention of the writers and/or producers of the show.
A/n/t/i/-/Zionism is a form of racism.
If you abuse the Jewish children, Witty, they’ll just decide to stop being Jewish.
“Anti-Zionism is a form of racism.” Read from someone better educated than you, Witty. The American Council on Judaism article: Explaining the Long — and Largely Untold — History of Jewish Opposition to Zionism
http://www.acjna.org/acjna/articles_detail.aspx?id=502
Richard, you are calling the host of this blog, Phil, a racist. You have some nerve.
Oh, Hil. While the cat is away (pretending to be a global stateswoman whose opinion anyone in the Middle East gives a damn about), the mice will play.
U.S. State Department: Israel is not a tolerant society
*********************
The database also shows that, in more than 30 settlements, extensive construction of buildings and infrastructure (roads, schools, synagogues, yeshivas and even police
stations) has been carried out on private lands belonging to Palestinian West Bank residents.
Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement
As rich is the article’s concluding sentence: “American Jews are doing themselves a disservice by mistaking Israel’s problems for their own. ”
Six decades of putting Israel First as the USA’s prime directive. I’d say some key players have been habitually mistaking the blue and white for the red white and blue.
We all know who’s left holding the bag of fecal matter.
As rich is the article’s concluding sentence: “American Jews are doing themselves a disservice by mistaking Israel’s problems for their own. ”
Six decades of putting Israel First as the USA’s prime directive. I’d say some key players have been habitually mistaking the blue and white for the red white and blue.
We all know who’s left holding the bag of fecal matter.
significant endeavor? Open borders immigration has to be up there too.
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