Alex Kane, 20, of Marymount Manhattan College, in the Indypendent:
I believe Jewish identification with Israel has corrupted the Jewish soul. Jews went from being the oppressed outsiders of Europe to the abusers of the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine. A big part of being Jewish is to identify with the oppressed. I have come to acknowledge the connection between my Jewishness and my leftist politics, and concurrently my opposition to Israeli apartheid in all of historic Palestine, something that some older Jews can’t seem to do.
Family members invoke the Holocaust when discussions turn to Israel. The Palestinians had nothing to do with the Holocaust, I respond. That doesn’t win the argument with them always. But that must be the response to those who invoke the horror of the Holocaust and connect it with the founding of Israel.
But enough about me. I’m a privileged Jewish-American who has a comfortable life in New York. I feel somewhat uncomfortable writing about my personal history concerning Israel, because it’s not about me, and publishing an article on it may make it seem like this matters… On the other hand, my privilege is one way in which the struggle for Palestinian freedom will be won. It’s a sad commentary on the racism that informs discussions about Palestine when Jews who speak out against Israeli oppression get more attention than Palestinians. But I think when more Jews awake from their Zionist-induced slumber, the wheels of dismantling Israeli apartheid will turn faster.
The one-year anniversary of Operation Cast Lead is approaching. And I sit in my room brimming with excitement at the though of traveling to Gaza to march, with 1,000 activists from different countries around the world, for Palestinian justice and freedom. The illegal siege on Gaza makes my blood boil. Israel must not be allowed to continue their racist and thoroughly un-Jewish suffocation of the people of Gaza. Jewish people have a deep-rooted history of struggle against exclusion and identification with the oppressed, but we betray that history when we muzzle ourselves from critiquing the state that supposedly represents us when they continue to keep Gazans in an open-air prison.
“Jewish people have a deep-rooted history of struggle against exclusion and identification with the oppressed,”
No, we have a very shallow and very recent and apparently transitory history of flirtation with that struggle. But whatever gets you through the night, Alex.
That is what is so irritating about Jewish anti-Zionism. Even when we do something wrong, and the Jewish establishment (such as it is in all its self-appointed glory) throws all of its weight behind Zionism, that can’t, it just can’t be the real us. It must be something “thoroughly un-Jewish”. It’s a suspiciously self-defeating way of thinking, because he can’t face the facts about Zionism, except to invalidate it as “un-Jewish”
I wonder if Alex would say the Nazism is thoroughly un-German?
Judaism, and Jewishness must somehow always be exempted from the normal human flaws. They must be in “slumber”, they just can’t have the same tribal love of uncontested supremacy, as other people, nor the same use for bigotry, nor would they ever make death their best argument and their real-estate agent. Not Jews!
He’s got a lot to learn.
Mooser, for G-d’s sake, take on someone your own age, and then your deconstruction can be followed by us, all fans and connoisseurs of Mooserisms.
Alex Kane is 20 years old and standing up for what he believes in. His actions in one week will achieve more for Palestinians than our commentary here will achieve in decade.
Very well put, Eva. The question of Jewish values and the history of Jewish participation in progressive causes is a very complicated one. Mooser may or may not have some valuable contribution to make, but his battering Alex Kane on this issue is gratuitous and inappropriate. In any event, whether or not Jews have distinguished themselves from other identifiable ethnic groups in a commitment to human rights, no individual should rest on the laurels of others. Alex Kane’s invocation of a Jewish motivation to act is far less important than his decision to take that action. I’m not going to Gaza. Good for him.
Alex, pay no mind to Mooser. He can be a bit dogmatic at times. You are one of the few who is willing to cross the threshold from rhetoric to action, and for that you are to be commended. For what it’s worth, my prayers are with you and the other Gaza marchers, no less courageous than those fighting for racial equality a generation ago. I look forward to a post offering your impressions of the march.
I have to agree with you, Mooser. How old does a person have to be to understand about normal human flaws, group identity and identity politics? It would be great if group identity or group politics were meaningless, but when I come across Jews discussing their traditional commitment to human rights and the need to restore the position after Zionism has destroyed it, the discussion often just seems to me like a paean to some sort of Lost Cause of the fabled Jewish humanism or universalism. Clearly, group politics and group identity are not dead issues.
I’m not sure what the actual purpose of posting this article is. Hopefully Alex doesn’t wind up shot, blown up or flattened by a bulldozer. If he really wants to fight Zionism and take some of the tarnish off the Jewsih community, he could start by fighting at home, and in the name of fellow Americans who have been harmed by Zionism’s supporters. I think that the tarnish on America’s image due to Zionism is of greater importance than stain on Jewishness.
Mooser, I think I see your point. Most people are conditioned with some portion of more or less nonsensical cultural or religious mythology when they are young. Part of growing up, for those who do grow up mentally and emotionally, is dealing with the disapointment and disillusion that comes with finding out the truth.
We all hope for success in the larger venture, and I think optimism is thoroughly justified, but it is the conscious choosing to fight that defines who we are individually. It is irrelevant whether the disappointing cultural illusions that spark a personal awakening are total nonsense, or only partial nonsense. Alex is choosing to fight the good fight, to help transform or build a Jewish cultural identity more consistent with ideals, bereft of pro-ethnic cleansing colonial Zionism. That is what matters. Good work, Alex.
Hello Alex Kane.
In every generation there is a small group of people that changes world for the better.
You have my respect.
Eva
And our best wishes for your upcoming march into Gaza.
YAY, ALEX KANE!
And…I gotta admit…I happen to agree with the Mondoweiss mascot, but not as criticism of Alex Kane.
Just what I need, advice from a 20 year old leftist idiot that has the world all figured out.
You may be older, Julian, but you can’t hold a candle to Alex. Even if I were a fellow Zionist, I would find most unimpressive your unoriginal repetition of hasbara talking points that you are unable to defend when challenged. In just this brief sentence, you criticize Alex for his date of birth, his supposedly “leftist” position as if that is some sort of meaningful dis, and the arrogance of his UNMADE assertion that he has the world all figured out. I can truly understand why you might want to contribute your perspective on this website, with the goal of reaching and perhaps persuading those who have different opinions from yours. But really, what is the point of this comment, or many others of yours? Why don’t you take the time to develop your own powers of analysis and reasoning so that you are roughly comparable to the 20-year-old you call an “idiot”? We’ll wait.
The best you’ve got to offer, Julian? You big brainy wordsmith, you? STFU.
Actually, that is probably just what you do need. Or at least one of the things that you’d need to begin your return to the human race.
So how is that search for WMDs in Iraq going, Julian?
Alex Kane’s awakening at an early age to the unfairness and injustice of the privilege Israel seeks to bestow upon him is surely a sign of hope for the future. Fortunately, he is accompanied by many in his generation. Good luck to him.
I second that. Alex Kane gives me hope.
I third that. Although Mooser’s historical perspective carries significant weight from
my readings–especially prior to the Enlightenment era. And, as Mooser’s analogy implies,
German culture had been a light to the world for a considerable period of time, before Germany became synonymous with Evil due to a dozen years of rule by
the Hitler regime.
Anyone sense irony?
Most have awakenings at young age. I did.
The question is to move the identification of wrongs, to proposals for what is right.
And, in that, Alex might find that he and Wondering Jew, and I and others, are allied. We all seek a healthy Palestine next to a moderate Israel, and that is different than the current.
I see the process as a reform process, an education process (not a demonizing one), while most that post here seem to regard the first step to “awakening” to be the naming of contempt, of enemy. I don’t see that as “awakening”, as in living fully, but only awakening from dreaming.
Its not enough politically or morally.
When in world history has there any deep and lasting reform sans any verbal demonization
of the oppressive status quo to be reformed? Fairly weak historical analogies and
all the tools of poetry have always been stock in trade of those who desire epic change–just listen to the debate going on now in the USA as to health reform–
and that’s merely a non-violent subject affecting domestic USA.
Stop pretending to be other people’s friends, Witty. We all see the knife you are carrying behind your back.
“Most have awakenings at young age. I did.”
So that’s what happened to the liver your mom was saving for dinner!
You’re dreaming if you think you ‘awakened” to the extent Alex Kane did, and you have some balls co-opting his position when it isn’t yours at all, as your yards of ink on this site will attest.
He is no more allied with you and WJ than I am to Jack The Ripper.
No, no MRW, their Jewish gene for fighting oppression and standing up for the persecuted is just “slumbering”. I’m sure Alex and Witty would find a lot of common ground.
For God’s sake, look at what Alex is saying: he wants to fix Israel, dismantle the apartheid, not the Jewish State. Cause that ol’ Jewish goodness is just hiding in there til he awakens it.
The fundamental idea of a religiously based state doesn’t seem to bother him, it should just be a nice state. He just wants to modify it a little.
BUT! We will follow Alex’s future career with close interest, huh? I can’t see him hanging on to these sophomoric ideas for very long once he goes to Gaza and confronts Israel from the other side.
tikkun olam alex..tikkun olam
bless you for making the journey.
Gosh, I didn’t mean to start an arguement! And of course Alex is a brave and good young man, and he has a lot to learn and he is making an attempt to learn it. A regular mensch, I’m sure.
But when Alex prattles on about “Jewish people have a deep-rooted history of struggle against exclusion and identification with the oppressed” he’s just repeating platitudes he has heard. Anybody want to give me examples of “the Jews” embracing the struggle for the excluded and dispossesed that weren’t Jews? And as I remember, in WW2 we in America didn’t even do that.
Look, no matter what happens, there are two things which always get my antlers quivering. One is when people say the Jews are any worse than anybody else. And the other, and in my opinion just as anti-Semitic, is when people say the Jews are any better than anybody else.
So please, tell me exactly what Alex is talking about, besides niavely confessing that the Jews invented Communism? Of course, at one time, wasn’t Phil Weiss going to do something to atone for that?
And Alex, my man, don’t fool yourself with that “slumbering” nonsense. They are fully awake, and if I were you, I wouldn’t turn my back on ‘em for a second.
Why can’t the Jews, just like anybody else in this world, as a result of being persecuted, or because they saw a chance to get something, have made some really crappy choices and done some shitty things. Or does persecution and Holacausts improve people, instead of brutalising them? In that case, let’s have another, and then we will be perfect!
I’m sorry, it’s very hard for me to accept the notion that the Jews have some secret resource of goodness that if only found and awakened from “slumber” (Alex, ziocaine may depress the vagus nerve, but it acts as a stimulant, not a narcotic.)
And besides, look how you paskudniks all ganged up on me! No goddam symapthy for the excluded and oppressed around here! Hah!
I expressed my undying love.
You will have to get in line behind Yonira!
LOL! (plus some extraneous characters to get past the filter)
I tend to stay away from discussions of Jewish identity to the extent that I can, seeing as I only have limited insight in that regard. I will say that I think you raise a good point, Mooser. Whatever happened to the notion of constructive criticism?
C4700, there is a time and a place for criticism, and I have two issues with Mooser’s timing and text. One, Mooser seemingly demands crystalline purity of motive, when he, by his own admission, has a multinational battle for ideological supremacy going on in his own head. Metaphorically speaking, that is. Two, this kid (no offense intended) has taken the courageous step of putting his ass on the line, days away from facing the enemy (and that is no hyperbole), and Mooser throws him on the couch and psychoanalyzes him. Maybe his understanding of Jewish history is flawed. Or maybe he is really going to Gaza to impress some girl. Maybe he’d rather spend winter break in Gaza than with his unbearable family. But fer f*cks sake, under Mooser’s standards, everyone would have to undergo a brain scan to determine the sincerity and purity of their intent.
Mooser doesn’t cut anyone any slack, least of all himself — if you haven’t noticed. That’s just the sort of person he is.
And honestly? Mr. Kane had damn well prepare himself for treatment that will be a hell of a lot worse than anything Mooser will put to him. Compared to what he’ll get from those with Zionist leanings? Mooser is being gentle.
And it doesn’t sound like you disagree that Mooser does have a point.
Goddamit, marc b, have you seen his picture? He’s twenty, has a full head of wavy hair, bright eyes, all his teeth, and is full of energy and ideas, intelligence and ideals! What’s to like?
Well, there you go again Chaos4700, explaining in a few short sentences what I garbled in tens of paragraphs. Thanks!
But I think it would not be amiss (Alex better watch out for the IDF, they never miss!) for us to peruse the thoughts of another medieval Jew who struggled with issues of oppression and violence:
“In Sherwood Forest
There dwelt a knight
Who was known
As the righteous Sir Greenbaum
And many dragons
Had felt the might
Of the smite
Of the righteous Sir Greenbaum
I chanced upon him one morn
When he’d recently rescued a maiden fair
Why, why art thou so forlorn
Sir Greenbaum, is thy heart heavy laden?
Said he, “Forsooth
‘Tis a sorry plight
That engendered my attitude bluish”
Said he, “I don’t wanna be a knight
That’s no job for a boy who is Jewish”
All day with the mighty sword
And the mighty steed and the mighty lance
All day with that heavy shield
And a pair of aluminum pants
All day with the slaying and slewing
And smiting and smoting like Robin Hood
Oh, wouldst I could kick the habit
And give up smoting for good
And so he said to the other knights,
“You may have my possessions and my goods
For I am moving to Shaker Heights
Where I’ve got some connections in dry goods
Farewell to the dragon’s paw
And the other swashbuckling games and sports
I’ll work for my father in law
When I marry Miss Guinevere Schwartz”
If you expect Alex to get his story straight before he takes a step, his grandkids will have committed him to the nursing home having never done a g-ddamn thing. My point is this: He’s volunteered to go off to war, so buy him a cigar and a couple of shots, get him a lap dance, slap him on the back, wish him well, and we can all commiserate and console him when he later learns that the world is not exactly as he saw it on December 22, 2009.
that was meant to be a reply to Chaos, not Mooser’s sonnet.
Not mine, not at all, I wish! It is the work of the great Talmudic exegisist and Torah scholar Allan Sherman.
Sing it to the tune of “Greensleeves”.
I got one word for you, marc b: remember J-Street?
I know, I know. But J-Street is an organized group of persons with substantial experience in the world of politics and politicking, who are, in my opinion, intentionally undermining a largely grass roots movement to effect change. Alex appears to be a sincere young man, not the individual equivalent of the J-Street wolf in sheep’s clothing. And if I’m wrong, well, big deal. The jokes on me.
Let’s hope that Mondoweiss follows Alex, anyway, the full article (there’s more at the link than the excerpt here) says that Alex will be Twittering and Blogging through the trip.
It’ll be very interesting and enlightening to follow the development of his thoughts through the trip and after his return.
May God bless and especially, protect, everyone on the trip.
In the full article at the link, Alex invokes the names of individuals ” like Emma Goldman or Michael Schwerner”, as his inspirations.
And gee, without a central authority and authorised scripture and doctrine, isn’t Judaism pretty damn fungible?
Or have we been fighters for oppressed humanity for thousands years, than we just slipped a little when we heard Palestine might be open for development?
But don’t worry I’ll go to the Old Testament, and read about the struggle of the ancient Jews to free the other tribes around them from oppression. Wait a minute, all I see is exaltations of Jewish military victories, smiting these people, slaughtering these people.
It’s pretty plain to me: The Jews, just like anybody else, have a hard time giving up smoting for good!
Of course, if Alex is talking about individual Jews, or groups of like-minded people who happen to be Jewish looking out for the oppressed and justice and all that, he’s got me down, and the referee is counting. There’s no doubt about individuals who happen to be Jewish in some way supporting those things, and if he wants to look to them for inspiration, he could do no better.
You know, Jews like Albert Schweitzer, sacrificing their all for the natives.
And if he isn’t Jewish, he should change his name! Doing good under false pretences does no good at all.
And gosh, now that I think of it, isn’t the idea that “the Jewish people” (WETF that is, BTW) have a special reservoir of goodness one of the central ideas of Zionism?
I am always just as suspicious of Jewish chauvinism as I am of anti-Semitism.