The heartland is educated. Here’s a great letter printed by the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle from members of a local peace group, Citizens for Justice in the Middle East, defending themselves from the newspaper’s slur of them for commemorating the Gaza slaughter:
a deplorable editorial Feb. 5 that comes perilously close to calling a local peace organization, Citizens for Justice in the Middle East, both anti-Semitic and criminal. The editorial was titled “Beyond the Pale.” Indeed.
CJME, since 2003, has advocated for a just peace between Israel and Palestine as an obvious benefit to Israel, Palestine, the entire Middle East and, of course, to our own United States. To do that, we have criticized Israel for its 43-year occupation of Palestine and its ongoing confiscation of Palestinian homes, farms and businesses. We have attempted to educate the public to “78/22”, meaning that (fair or not) Israel has been allotted 78 percent of historic Palestine, while Palestine gets 22 percent of the land where lemon, orange and olive trees have been grown for centuries by Arab Christians and Muslims. This arrangement is recognized by international law, as are the boundaries. Alas, the Israeli government wants the whole, as demonstrated by the nearly half-million settlers, illegal by international law, who build in Palestine and who, often at gunpoint, drive Palestinians from their homes. The settlers are supported by Israeli government subsidies and U.S. taxes ($7 to $10 million per day). Check Bob Simon’s “60 Minutes” report online for an excellent primer.
Unfortunately, because so few in the U.S. government will speak freely, the settlers have painted Israel into a corner. Those who consider themselves friends of Israel have done it no favors by funding settlements and by permitting the Israeli government to continually defy the United States and international law.
Citizens for Justice in the Middle East supports aid to Gaza because it’s the right thing to do. The U.S. government and others also send aid to Gaza, as do several groups led by Jews. For The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle to write a scathing article about an event commemorating victims of Operation Cast Lead (“Author of report urging opening to Hamas to visit KC area,” Feb. 5) and to depict Hamas as cartoonish thugs does little to forward the genuine need for discussions that include all parties, if peace is, indeed, the desired outcome. Israel itself is in talks with Hamas, though this is not widely reported.
Some readers may know that Hamas was nurtured and funded by Israel in order to create opposition to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Yet when eventually Hamas was elected as the government of Palestine, Israel turned Gaza into a penal colony, putting its 1.5 million citizens under siege. Medicine, food, clothing, building materials — all were restricted or disallowed entirely, causing deaths and malnutrition. This contravenes international law against collective punishment. Operation Cast Lead rained further catastrophe on men, women and children, as Judge Richard Goldstone reported recently. Judge Goldstone, a courageous Jew and a Zionist, was reluctant to take on the investigation, yet he did so — and found war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas. However, his report comes down much harder on Israel as the stronger power.
What has Israel become that it won’t allow Palestinian Fulbright Scholars out of Gaza to study? What has Israel become that it refuses medical travel even for children and their parents? What has Israel become that it denies hundreds of thousands of children food and medicine, clothing and fuel? What has Israel become that it puts families out on the street so that settlers can take over the house?
There is not a Jew in America who wouldn’t reach out to help a starving child, yet The Jewish Chronicle continues to roil its readers with articles that do nothing to embrace the tradition of Jewish progressive values towards all humanity. The Chronicle countenances no criticism of Israel at a time when the Israel that it professes to support is rapidly running out of options and needs its friends to offer realistic advice, not cartoon thugs.
Andrea Whitmore
Fairway, Kan.
Co-signers:
Matt Quinn, Lee’s Summit, Mo.
Jim Kenney, Lenexa, Kan.
Ginger Kenney, Lenexa, Kan.
It says a lot that the KCJC printed the letter. Good for them for being willing to open a dialogue.
On the flip side, sadly, I can attest to the fact that those of us in the heartland who are educated are in a definitive minority. Deep in this territory is where you’ll still find lots of people openly talking about how Obama is a “secret Muslim” and demanding to see his birth certificate for the Nth time.
As a consolation to all of us, cities in the Midwest tend to be veritable fortresses of civilization, considering. I can tell you right now that nowhere other than the biggest cities in any Midwestern state would you even find a Jewish (or Iranian, or even African American) focused publication.
Interestingly enough, Jon Stewart falls into the same category of people whom the author of the above letter criticizes. The criticism is well deserved too.
link to thedailyshow.com
I used to love Jon Stewart.
I can’t even look at this brown-noser anymore.
He’s joined the ‘keep America Dump’ campaign.
Jon Stewart was in all probability taken to the shed for the interview with Balzer and barghoutti – a cardinal crime in the annals of the media elders (and no need to write a new protocol here. The ultimate irony is that when it comes to MSM in the US, some seem intent on vindicating them old protocols – post-mortem, so to speak….funny if not so tragic). The hamas cartoon segment – which I found absolutely shocking, and utterly irrelevant, not to mention out of keeping with Jon’s show and usual targets, smacked of caving in while trying to minimize “collateral damage”. Forced to give a pound of flesh,Jon must have looked around for a target that could be portrayed as “bad guys” wth relative impunity, one that would cause the least backlash among his loyal viewers. That means he couldn’t touch a leftist-jewish target, or a leftist-israeli one, or a “mainstream” palestinian one, or any particular human involved in the conflict. A cartoon, made by an ‘entity” must have seen safe. What other reason would stewart have to pick hamas cartoons completely out of the blue when it’s not even news in the US even as other targets are dime a dozen? not only that but two of the cartoons seemed close to home – zealots settlers really do incite children to hate and despise arabs in general and palestinians in particular.
This Stewart segment reminded me of the way Israeli shows used to lampoon arafat with everything they got. arafat being neither young, nor very handsome, and not very articulate (at least in in English) was a convenient ruse for israelis to poke endless crude fun at, which they did in print and the air, with relish, and without a hint of good taste (yes, I know, what’s that?). In the same way, hamas and TV cartoons are a convenient punching bag used by hasbara abroad – something that can be used “safely” as a code of reminding people who the bad guys are, and why. Coincidentally, the day before the show I got one of those e-mails making the rounds that pocked fun at hamas, quoting something someone said years ago and mentioning cartoons. Struck me as kind of interesting timing.
Same idea goes for the ‘human shield’ argument. It’s a way to frame the Palestinians.
Same for bringing in Islam, associating Hamas with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, etc.
Easy punching bag in our political culture. A way to earn some points with the Establishment and an easy applause getter.
This paradigm will never get old. I’d love for Jon to do an entire week of Israel-Palestine stuff and invite dissident activists on. I’d love for him to be funny, while they talk about their first-hand experiences in the OT. It would be an interesting juxtaposition next to those stupid cartoons.
I just looked again at the second cartoon and while the first was bad, the second just seemed like fair commentary to me. Obviously many Israelis have racist attitudes towards Arabs and they get it somewhere. In fact, Stewart seems blissfully unaware that what he is doing (ridiculing Palestinians who use anti-semitic stereotypes) is exactly what the second cartoon is doing, with racist Israelis as the target. But apparently depicting Israelis as racists who teach hatred to their children is anti-semitic.
Danaa,
I thought the same, that he was put up to this to counter-balance his Baltzer interview. He acted really lame & campy in an attempt to show his contempt for his own crappy material.
That’s probably true, or I’d like to think so. Stewart is smart, much smarter than most of the journalists on TV (or anyway, if they are smart they are smart enough to conceal it). He’s got to be aware of how stupid and pandering that skit was.
I wonder if he’ll ever do a skit showing some embarrassingly racist Israelis? Max Blumenthal could probably help him out with some video.
…Blumenthol’s gone rogue. I don’t think he can step
anywhere near the gates of Zion or Comedy Central.
Blumenthal is too honest and has more integrity than Jon Stewart.
Being on TV, having a regular show, especially an entertainment show? That means you have to get people to LIKE you. Jon wants to be liked more than tell the truth flat-out.
Yeah, I was just daydreaming.
Chu, yes, I was had that in mind as well. Jon seemed uncomfortable to me, in a way that’s different from the made-up-for laughs discomfort he sometimes dons. There was a feel of something off kilter about the segment. Kind of a “here I go…let’s get this out of the way….happy now?…”. Comedians know about these things, one would assume.
I doubt we can imagine the whipping he got for Baltzer. At the time, it’s like i could hear the clicking tongues in the background – why does she have to be so pretty? such a nice jewish girl (!), just wait till she finds out what arabs are really like, maybe she just needs a proper jewish boy-friend………what’s gotten into Jon? yada, yada…
Danaa: Yeah, I know. It’s just like Obama when he went to Cairo. Zion was thinking, No He Didn’t! And I am sure he is paying for that to date. Joe Lieberman probably was the rotting fish he had to endure throughout the health care fiasco as a result of his Cairo speech. Payback’s a bitch.
BTW, another punishment for Stewart was that he had to have Johnny Yoo on his show and make nice hawking his book. Now if that’s not torture, I don’t know what is.
newt I was not surprised. That’s Stewart being himself.
But I do wonder what’s next in the gauntlet? mugging with palin and asking “serious” questions?
Wow… What a greaseball, but it’s not surprising. That was embarrassing for any person to watch. Not only was it not funny, but it was completely lame at best. I didn’t think it was possible for Stewart to reach a new low, but somehow he has.
Those signatures appear to be all non-Jewish. This is a great step forward, when ordinary Americans can dare to defy the Lobby without even the protection of Jewishness.
Did anyone read the comment below on the KCJW site (with the word propaganda misspelled)? Says it all..
“written by Rowland N Tumblin, February 12, 2010
What an unmitigated load of lies and propoganda. I don’t even know where to begin. This organization is nothing more than a front for anti-Israel Hamas, Iran, Syria and so many others. To believe them is to be held up through the mail.”
sounds like yonira
‘this is just Jew-bashing, anti-Israel propaganda!’
and then end scene