At the beginning of the year I visited Israel and came back and wrote a post, Israel's crisis. Last month I got back from my third trip to the country, and that sense is stronger. Israel is headed for the iceberg, as one Israeli friend put it. Its effort as a Jewish state to govern a population that is half-non-Jewish is unsustainable. Palestinians are everywhere oppressed in the occupied territories (and second-class citizens inside Israel). The awareness fills me with dread and a renewed commitment to the American conversation, and even feelings of blasted brotherhood with American Jews, who are the chief enablers of the oppression.
The most obvious thing about Israel and Palestine is that they are separate societies under one government’s control, and the worlds are starkly different. Israelis rush around in fancy cars, Mercedes SUVs and BMWs, and there are cranes all over West Jerusalem building towers, the Jews have plenty of opportunities (including to plop down implausible "art" on any street corner). Then cross into East Jerusalem and the people are humiliated and subject to incursion and arrest and the loss of houses and children. Resist those conditions, even protest them, and you can go to jail.
In Gaza the garbage burns in the streets a few miles from Israelis living suburban dreams. “There’s a stench in Gaza, and when I came into Israel it was so green, and I thought, yes who wouldn’t want to be living here instead?” a friend who works in the aid community in Gaza City told me.
That good Israeli quality of life is built on the backs of the Palestinians in several ways. Of course Israel carved its country out of Palestinian land. The Israeli use Palestinian land for cheap housing (the colonies), they get some cheap labor from the Palestinians. And they steal the Palestinians’ water. Traveling in that dry land, I thought about water all the time.
(that narrow green streak slanting up from lower right is the mighty Jordan River, drained before it gets to the Allenby Bridge). Israelis control the West Bank aquifers, under the land of the forever-projected Palestinian state, and suck as much of the water as they like, something like 80 percent of the water. Palestinian households are on rationed water and their farmers’ irrigation pipes are ripped out of the ground by settlers; and meantime you see black irrigation pipes snaking through the ostentatious gardens of Maale Adumim, the big settlement.
The whole scene really is that blatantly unfair. I read about this stuff in Seham’s digests all the time; but the shock for me was seeing it up close and realizing that Americans don’t get a fraction of the story. You are visiting a historic field of oppression, like the American south or South Africa, but the New York Times only occasionally talks about the occupation when it should be thundering forth about the conditions every day. On his visit to the States last spring, Ethan Bronner (who lives in an ethnically cleansed West Jerusalem neighborhood and whose son is in the Israeli army), told one questioner that he doesn't harp on the occupation because you get used to anything. Well, I’ve met many people who have been there a lot longer than Bronner, and they have never gotten used to the conditions. Of course they are Palestinians.
More about those two societies. My last night in East Jerusalem I had to get cash to pay my room bill. Well, there is only one ATM in East Jerusalem and it is closed at night, but of course there are dozens of ATMs in West Jerusalem, open at all times. There must be hundreds in Tel Aviv. And this really is the largest apparent truth about Israel and Palestine: One is a flourishing European-style economy and the other is small, fragmented, choked. This truth mocks the Israeli insistence that Hamas recognize Israel's right to exist before Israel negotiates with Hamas. As if the denial of Israel's right to exist could really wipe Israel away. It exists. Denying its existence is like an angry ant walking by a bank and shaking his fist at the glass tower and saying, you have no right to exist (as James North once put it). Khaled Meshal, the Hamas leader in Damascus, said words to this effect last May on Charlie Rose. Israel exists. Who can deny such a thing. Why should we have to recognize its existence, when we are being occupied, arrested, smashed and assassinated…
The conditions of Palestinian existence are often shocking. Every time I turned the corner I saw depredations on honorable people. Atta Jaber, his house destroyed five times by settlers who encircle him near Hebron; and who has come to his side? Only Rabbis for Human Rights and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. A disgrace. Or I met Jawad Siyam, in locked down Silwan on the night after a settlers' security guard killed a man in the village; and the sense of fear and oppression and helplessness and political powerlessness that pervaded the village made my heart hurt; Siyam feels completely abandoned by politicians. And note that when I posted about Siyam, Angela posted a comment saying that
last year [I accompanied Siyam] to The Hill, to the J Street Conference and to the UN in New York. We gave 40 congressional briefings and 20 UN Security Council member states’ briefings. Did any evicted family gain re-entry? No. Has Silwan settler violence stopped? No. Has Bethlehem regained its water or farmland or had its closure ended? You gotta be joking. And did any of the congregation of the Upper West Side’s Beit Yeshurun Synagogue to whom we spoke – the first time they’d ever met or heard from Palestinians of East Jerusalem – did any of them DO anything after hearing of the trials and tribulations that contribute to Israeli insecurity?
When his village was locked down, believe me, Siyam was not calling B’nai Jeshurun and J Street. This is the crux of the tragedy. American Jews have been informed about these conditions again and again-- by young Jews leaving birthright, by Jawad Siyam, by Breaking the Silence, by Elik Elhanan and Micha Kurz and Jeff Halper. And who is crying out, who is on the rooftops decrying these conditions? Only a few groups, Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews Say No and American Jews for a Just Peace spring to mind (and yes Americans for Peace Now is doing good work against the settlements).
The general U.S. Jewish position is like the Stanley Milgram experiment, the famous Yale study in which paid research subjects were instructed by a researcher to apply higher and higher levels of shock to someone on the other side of a curtain every time he got an answer wrong on a test. And with increasing levels of shock that other subject-- who wasn't really a subject but a confederate of the researcher-- howled louder and louder and passed out from pain. Still the students applied the shock. That is the American Jewish community. They hear the Palestinians screaming for 60 years but they have been told by an authority figure that the Palestinians deserve the shocks they are getting-- because they are resisters, because they are terrorists, because they are animals, because they are violent, because their women cover themselves, because they live off the land, because they want their houses back, because they don’t have gay rights, because they read the Koran, because they want to return to their homes, because they elected Hamas… on and on the instructor justifies it with lies and bullshit, still the community cranks the dial and ignores the screams.
Israelis are more aware of it than American Jews. Their consciences are crying out. The Gideon Levys and Assaf Sharons and Jonathan Pollacks are denouncing the situation—and there are even artists in the Israel Museum talking about it. And of course the world too is developing awareness about the horror even as the American Jewish community is blinding itself.
My parents' generation of ethnocentric American Jews loves Israel, and I need to come to terms with that in order to come out with my parents and their hidebound friends. In fact, I cannot go to Israel without admiring Zionism at some level. The ideology created a strong democracy for Jews, it gave shelter to the shattered culture of eastern Europe, it helped preserve a literary inheritance, it made a vibrant culture. I need to keep these achievements in mind if I’m going to speak to the Jewish community, which I aim to do, in blasted brotherhood. But that achievement was all for Jews, and at the expense of Palestinians. The great kibbutz movement that I was supposed to dance and sing about as a boy—no Palestinians need apply. Deir Yassin was a calculated effort to empty Jerusalem of Arabs. Zionism was all about nurturing Jews. And in that undying purified spirit they now have loyalty-oath fascists in the government and American Jews are knitting them scarves.
I have no doubt that the ruthlessly selfish political culture of Israel belongs to a different age. Young Americans, and young American Jews must make this clear. This militant racist society does not represent our values. And it doesn’t matter if it’s two states or twenty, unless Jews in power start to respect other peoples’ rights, we’re screwed. (Which is my secondary fear. That when the madness is exposed fully and plunges the United States into a worst mess or creates another explosion in the Middle East, Americans will wake up and blame the Jews.)
This is still a grass roots struggle. The political world is lost to fairness, corrupted by the traditional exercise by court Jews of gaining access to the powerful, the same thing Herzl did 110 years ago in the chambers of the Kaiser, the Sultan, and the Pope, waving bankers' money. As a realist I wanted to accept the two-state solution and wash my hands of the situation. But Obama could never address the simple demands of the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. And he stopped mentioning the occupation because Israel’s supporters don’t want him to, he can't say, Enough stealing of land and persecution, take down the walls around Bethlehem and Jerusalem (and Gilo, the settlement in the background below). 
When he calls on the Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel, without addressing the injustices that make Arabs enraged, they simply laugh at him. I heard people scoffing at Obama’s call for normalization when I was in Jordan. Everywhere Arabs say that Obama has betrayed his promises of Cairo.
I agree that the Middle East is a tough neighborhood that is dominated by authoritarian governments and riven by ethnic tension. That doesn't get Israel off the hook. It is oppressing half the population, on a racial basis, and American Jews are enabling the whole business. If we Jews have any desire to be a moral example to other people, as the tradition holds, we will accept our responsibility and power, throw ourselves into Palestinian solidarity work, listen to Palestinians describe their conditions, bear witness to those conditions, take on our elders, press boycott, shake Israelis from their lavish complacence, and help to build a society of fairness and equality that can lead the Middle East. The other way is just more darkness and screaming.
Thanks, Phil, for concentrating (in part) on WATER. I believe it is the crux of the problem: no Israeli government will be willing to give up the stolen water.
This quote stresses that Israel uses excessive water (to make the desert bloom and to create “suburban dreams” in the water-short middle east) but denies adequate water to Palestinians (so Gaza cannot flush out its sewage and West Bank folks have trouble farming).
Phil, thanks for a remarkably powerful essay.
Very well written, Phil. Obviously from the depths of your heart, which makes it really powerful.
My question is: so what about non-Jewish Americans? Your piece is largely written to/for the Jewish American community. I do feel that non-Jewish Americans have every reason and right to engage in this struggle because the occupation results in inhumane treatment of my fellow human beings, and it’s my tax dollars.
So where does the distinction lie between Jews and non-Jews when speaking about engaging the occupation? Do non-Jewish Americans have any role in changing Jewish American opinions? I tend to think so, just as people working against the occupation have a responsibility to change public opinion at large, whether those people be Jews or non-Jews. I am interested to hear others opinions about this.
My two cents for you samjnickels : I find this blog * sometimes too Jewish centric. I am fighting to defend the rights of the Palestinian people. I mean if I started talking to someone I’ver never met before about the situation there, my first question would probably be do you stand for basic Human rights for everyone not are you Jewish ? I would not ask because I wouldn’t care. And even if I was to ask, what would I do with the information ? speak in a different way ? Choose my words more carefully ? A crime is a crime. Justice must be done to the Palestinians. Anyone with a heart and a soul must act. We are all brothers and sisters, we are all made of stars.
* I would like to thank Phil and Adam for their great work. I am full of admiration for they do. Some contributors deserve credits too for their humour and/or the quality of their posting.
Plenty of non-Jews are in the justice for Palestine movement with more joining all the time. What’s important about a Jewish-American presence is that this will encourage those who may be reluctant to join-in for fear of being labeled either an antisemite or a self-hating Jew -”How could I be an antisemite when so many of my fellow protesters are Jewish?”
In a way I agree with you yourstruly, but in the meantime as opposed to what you said, as long as there aren’t many Jews we could rightfully be labelled as anti-semite. This also means that, for some reasons, Jews are to decide what’s right what’s not. No way !!
Always tell the truth, be a wo/man with principles and consciousness : those to whom religious/political beliefs come first will label you anyway …
I always say we are the Jews’ best friends because we can clearly tell the difference between Judaism / zionism / nationalism. On the day people start “blaming the Jews” as Phil fears, we’ll have a tough job making these distinctions clear.
Which means we’re in the same boat as the Palestinians. Couldn’t think of a more stimulating and safer place to be. After all, those elites that control us already know who we are, etc. etc. etc.; but so what, that’s the way it is, always has been, will be, until we get together and change things for the better. Justice for Palestine, that’ll do it . And while we’re en route, as the lion Aslan once said, “No need to talk about the past.” Not until, that is, it’s deciding time on what from the past best be preserved, what has to be dumped.
Good post.
I’m glad that you spoke of Israel and Palestine, and not assuming a single state, as I think that is the only possible political approach, short of the long political work to establish strong democratic parties in both Israel and Palestine.
I recommend that you take special, more than incidental care in your speaking, to literally only speak of what you observed and if you are to present conclusions that you’ve drawn, acknowledge them as your own conclusions and reasonings. Don’t escalate those conclusions to the status of facts or authority.
In speaking humbly and reservedly, you will be much more plausible. Intelligent skeptical people will conclude, “yes, I understand how he could draw that conclusion. I can trust his process.”
So, I would very much recommend that you entirely drop condemnation of journalists that don’t express politically correct positions. If you are going to criticize, go ahead, but every time you describe Friedman, or Goldberg as racist ideologs you diminish your argument and the likelihood that your audience will hear you.
The difference between the Trojan Horse of one-state dissolved in BDS and dissent limited to addressing only human rights issues, is stark.
It will always be brought up. You need clarity on that or even your witness will be dismissed.
You are a Jew and you were born and lived in your time. You were brought up and lived both the association and the values of a Jew. With your starting points, your construction, (not just the Jewish) the best that you can do is to do it well.
All my relations.
“I’m glad that you spoke of Israel and Palestine, and not assuming a single state, as I think that is the only possible political approach, short of the long political work to establish strong democratic parties in both Israel and Palestine.”
Trust you to completely ignore the plight of the Palestinians in favor of preserving your sacrosanct apartheid state.
The 2 state solution is dead. Netyenyahu is going to block it at every turn and by the time he leaves office, the single state outcome will be irreversible.
“Don’t escalate those conclusions to the status of facts or authority.”
Yes Witty, Phil should leave that to you. You just love assuming the role of the voice of humanity, speaking on behalf of all of the American, Israeli and Palestinian populations. You don;t want Phil stealing your thunder now do you?
“In speaking humbly and reservedly, you will be much more plausible.”
It’s a shame you don’t take your own advice.
“So, I would very much recommend that you entirely drop condemnation of journalists that don’t express politically correct positions.”
Didn’t you just post a condemnation of Helen Thomas over at Steven Walt’s blog?
link to walt.foreignpolicy.com
“The difference between the Trojan Horse of one-state dissolved in BDS and dissent limited to addressing only human rights issues, is stark.”
The difference between BDS and your theory about Trojan Horse of one-state is that one is real and the other is a paranoid conspiracy theory.
“You need clarity on that or even your witness will be dismissed.”
Perhaps you need to work on writing coherent sentences before lecturing to others about clarity.
“You are a Jew and you were born and lived in your time. You were brought up and lived both the association and the values of a Jew.”
Yes Phil, you;re a Jew, so remember your place. Don’t break ranks and don’t you dare exercise independent thought. You are obliged to sacrifice that as a consequence of your birthright.
One more thing Phil.
Because you’re a Jew, you are not allowed todescribe Friedman, or Goldberg as racist ideologs (even though they are), You diminish your argument and the likelihood that your Zionist audience will hear you.
Isn’t the current impasse with Israel Hamas’s refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Wouldn’t accepting that definition as a Jewish state relegate all non-Jews to a self-imposed second class of citizenship? The U.S. has a group that thinks of us as a Christian nation, but it isn’t law, and many of us would fight against the re-imposition of Puritanism. Personally, I admire the Puritans (un-PC), but their time has come and gone, and there’s no going back. The same goes for Greater Israel.
A minor correction to an earlier thread–people from Cleveland do not have an accent. The rest of the country, yes.
optimax: A slight error — it is people from Chicago who are without accent.
I’m sorry chaps, but you’re both completely mistaken! One has to speak the Queen’s English to be without accent.
That old ‘toff!
No, the Queen’s English is Olde English, from a bygone era – it’s the new world where English is spoken without accent, and not the formerly-Dutch new world…
You’re all wrong. Normative English is spoken with an Indian accent. The rest of us are hopelessly foreign.
Actually, it’s Canadians who accent-free, eh? :-)
(Yes, we say “eh”; no, we don’t say “aboot”.)
phil, this needs much wider distribution. send it to nyrb. i think it’s about time you got yourself on the road, visiting universities as a guest speaker. you have an important voice. come out here to the nay area and we’ll set you up w/some speaking engagements.
you are such an important asset to our community, our american community. and of course to your jewish community.
thanks for this incredible piece of journalism.
lol, naturally i meant the bay area!
Well, the Middle East is not a tough neighborhood due to any attributes inherent to the people of the region. That authoritarianism does not stem from culture, skin color, religion or language. It is simply the product of continued interference by outside forces.
When the concept of nation-states started gaining traction after the French Revolution, many ethnic groups sought to define their territory and establish a form of collective sovereignty, if you will.
While various countries around the world emerged in this post-revolution period, the Middle East was still under the control of colonial powers. In other words, the Middle East has yet to be left to its own devices so that the people of the region are able to choose for themselves their own governments, their own destiny. To illustrate that point, I’d like to draw your attention to this photo essay about Afghanistan which shows what outside forces, including both the former Soviet Union and the United States, have done to the once vibrant flourishing country.
So, it is true. The Middle East is a tough neighborhood, much in the same way lower Manhattan was on 9/11. I don’t think the employees who worked in the Twin Towers can be blamed for the broken windows and burnt vehicles of residents a block or two from the site. It wasn’t their doing.
great link.
In other words, the Middle East has yet to be left to its own devices so that the people of the region are able to choose for themselves their own governments, their own destiny.
totally. the most recent example of what’s happened to iraq since or invasion. no more mini skirts there, that’s for sure! seeing people in the the countries we want to exploit as anything other than backwards peasants and terrorists is bad of the pr campaign/war machine.
That’s right. Dehumanizing the Other makes it all the more easier for governments to invade, kill and maim. Once one ascribes another the “Enemy” label, that so-called foe becomes fair game.
and so it’s been at least since the pilgrims landed, not to mention what happened to natives elsewhere in the world.
of course yourstruly.
that’s an excellent point, Avi
Thank you, David.
This is really good Phil. Thank you so much. Especially the part about the shock treatment; I’m surprised I never that analogy before, because it’s so striking and perfectly suited to describe this. “Ignore the children dead in Gaza, ignore that the Palestinians can’t pray in Jerusalem. Keep turning the dial.”
Well said, Phil. The Milgram analogy is perfect.
agree. well done piece. Articles like this may resound with american zionists with some soul left for humanity. Likely not, but one may hope. :D
Well, there is only one ATM in East Jerusalem and it is closed at night, but of course there are dozens of ATMs in West Jerusalem, open at all times.
I remember this resonating with me as well on my first trip to East Jerusalem.
Getting to the ATM in East Jerusalem was a little adventure involving a nice long walk, asking kids on the streets for directions every couple blocks, and avoiding the IDF (as they had just severely beaten an African American tourist the first night I got to East Jerusalem).
Of all the stark differences between East and West Jerusalem like road quality, uncollected piled up garbage, human density, IDF foot patrols smashing and shoving every Palestinian in their way, the single ATM machine for hundreds of thousands of people struck me as incredibly bizarre.
If only as a reminder of the different economic realms that exist in this single city. Israeli policy has only forced Palestinians living in East Jerusalem to live an economic existence comparable to that of a developing country whereas only a few feet away you have people on a European standard of living.
That uppermost (first, top) photo is worth a hell of a lot more than a thousand words!
Indeed, to the extent that Jewish-Americans such as Phil Weiss can educate and inspire others to join the justice for Palestine movement, provided he has the time, energy & resources, by all means go for it. After all, how many times does a revolutionary get to be in the forefront of a movement for change that’s as mature and ripe as the struggle for justice in Palestine? What would be helpful for him to keep in mind is that the struggle for justice for Palestine is linked to all the other struggles for a free, just and open world, including but not limited to the those taking place here in America, in that, no matter where it takes place, invariably it’s between the one percent at the top and the rest of us peons on the bottom, and with fewer and fewer (the so-called middle-class) in-betweens. Which is to say that the struggle for a better world is the justice for Palestine struggle writ large..
Here’s something that Phil Weiss addressed that I have been stating here and on other blogs that boggles the mind. It has to do with “apathy”.
I believe that we in the universe are one and when the head or the heart or any part of the anatomy of humanity hurts, we should all be hurting with them at band together to relieve the pain of that limb or that organ of humanity, but here’s the irony that escapes me: Israel is enjoying one of the most prosperous times in its history. Israelis are going about their business, enjoying life, hosting festivals and concerts and carrying on with their obsessive land theft and building expansion indifferent to the millions who suffer from cruelty, bigotry, theft, dispossession, poverty, military oppression, alienation and deprivation of human and legal rights in general at their hands. Do they not feel the pain of that limb that they’re causing to die??
How on earth is that possible in today’s “civilized” evolved world??
Is there no justice nor legal consequence whatsoever for this barbaric and incredibly irresponsible, immoral, and yes criminal behavior?
And most importantly: WHY?? Why are they allowed to get away with this? Who else on this planet would not be condemned by the entire global community for carrying on this way?
How can anyone have the power to “delegitimize” a cause for justice to this extreme in today’s world? How??
We should all be answering these questions and proceed to denounce and condemn the concerted effort of manipulation, propaganda, negligence of duty to democratic values and aberration of the rule of law that led to this grave injustice.
Now, I understand why many South Africans think the Palestinians’ ordeal is worse than theirs was. At least they didn’t have the most powerful nation in the world being used as a tool to wage oppression against them!
Were this a time for a movement manifesto, how’a about considering kalithea’s?
Kathleen,
“here’s the irony that escapes me: Israel is enjoying one of the most prosperous times in its history. Israelis are going about their business, enjoying life”
Take a look at page 3 of this September 2010 report of A Taxpayer Receipt.
link to content.thirdway.org
Look at Foreign Aid. Israel (6 million people) gets half of US Foreign Aid. Or, rather, every taxpayer earning $34,140 and paying
$5,400 in federal income tax and FICA pays approximately $23/year to Israel. A US taxpayer pays more to Israel than he or she does each to:
• Internal Revenue Service
• Environmental Clean Up (EPA)
• The FBI
• Head Start
• Public Housing
• National Parks
• Drug Enforcement Agency
• Amtrak
• Smithsonian Museum
• Funding for the Arts
• Salaries and benefits for members of Congress
So, yeah, Israel is doing just hunky-dorey.
Not a “tough neighborhood” before 1948:
link to youtube.com
Those are very nice photos, munro. Thank you for the link.
I was recently sent photos taken in Palestine between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. They show the daily life of Palestinian families, both in the rural areas and cities, proud Palestinians, happy, serene. There are several beautiful family portraits, also.
The photos were found in a dusty box, stored in the basement of the US consulate in E. Jerusalem. Strange happenstance, eh?
Avi
Is it possible to have access to these photos..Are they hosted/posted somewhere? I’d be very very interested in posting them on my blog….
thankgodimatheist,
You bet. I will put up a few on Monday and will post a link.
So damn Beautiful! To the tune of Sayyed Darwish’s ‘Bint il Shalabiyyah’. One of my all time favorite pieces made popular by Fairuz..
Thanks so much Munro…
Indeed beautiful. Thank you.
link to youtube.com
Note the first comment:
“my God it remaind me my childhood. thank you. Free Palestine”
Yes Shmuel I’ve seen it, and it reminded me of comments posted on
Palestine remembered where photos of pre-1948 villages, towns and cities are posted. Some commenters recognise their houses, the school they attended etc. and break down literally….Heart wrenching..
Here Shmuel:
Oud master Munir Bashir’s interpretation of Bint il Shalabiyyah..
link to youtube.com
Thank you again TGIA. There’s also a beautiful version by Bustan Abraham.
I heard the piece a couple of years ago in Rome, played by two very talented but unassuming young Palestinian musicians (oud and qanoun) from the Edward Said Conservatory in Ramallah. Their playing – and especially this piece – literally brought me to tears. I was sitting there in the front row, with tears streaming down my face.
You’re welcome Shmuel..I was too shy to say yesterday that I was typing my comment eyes filled with irrepressible tears. All my childhood is in this piece..
thankgodimatheist :
Do you know this site, there is photos too, some old some new. If you know that allready, ignore this ;)
link to palestineremembered.com
Thanks mig..I’m often on that site and their archives are simply gargantuan. Although I’ve seen (and posted) hundreds already I’m always looking for documents I may have missed . Thanks for your suggestion……
sometimes i can get lost for hours on their archives. it is an extremely valuable site.
in all her majesty
beautiful images. Thanks.
The images remind me of Barcelona.
it’s no wonder Palestinians will never accept
a Jewish State.
Anna Baltzer speaks about how American non-Jews are terrified of being labeled anti-semites. Of course, Jews are afraid of being labeled self-hating Jews too but that is a different fear – not just in intensity. It seems to me easier to reassure well-meaning non-Jews than get Jews to speak out (but that may be because I am in the Jewish community).
On the main thrust of Phil’s piece, in my world, I do see the debate open up. I’m witnessing and enjoying unprecedented freedom to speak out on I/P in America, including Jewish America. Of course, the censorship and propaganda are still very much present and there is the inevitable – maddening – pushback. But increasingly, this has a desperate tone to it and it is coming from older people. Young American Jews’ disenfranchisement from Israel will only continue to grow, because they don’t know from anti-semitism and care even less about the Holocaust guilt narrative. Anyway, the mystique of Israel, works only in a vacuum. The hard news about Israeli racism is a turn-off. Of course, this is massively under-reported and not contextualized properly – but it’s getting through nontheless. In my experience, the negative information about the settlements right now is making an impact.
A report that says it all by Phil but saying American Jews are the chief enablers of the oppression is denying any sharing credit in that department to the Arabs tripping over each other to normalize relations with Israel. American Jews are not manning the gate at Rafah and American Jews are not twisting arms in Dubai to allow a settlements-builder to open stores there. The Saudis and Americans just agreed to a $60 billion deal that will undoubtedly have a cascading benefit to Israeli military and tech industries but without so much as a token carrot being thrown at the Palestinians for it; they probably didn’t think to ask. Same as what happened or didn’t happen when Israel, Egypt and Jordan signed the peace and got handsome perpetuities for it and the Palestinians that had been at the center of the conflict got half a million squatting settlers stealing more of their land and putting up more roadblocks and sieges.
Very true, Walid.
The Palestinians have the greatest power in the world against them and no one who will defend them. It’s ironic that the only group with the power to save them are US Jews.
Like you, potsherd, I believe that only American Jews can save the Palestinians.
I disagree with the sentiment “only”. American jews are vital, only they can de-claw AIPAC and co., but saving Palestine requires a global effort. It’s only when Israel feels truly isolated that it will understand that apartheid is not sustainable, and the groundwork is in place for a sane leader to emerge.
Only, in the sense that except for the U.S. & a few of its client states, the world already supports justice for Palestine. Yet Israel couldn’t care less. Why should it? What Israel needs, Israel gets, compliments of U.S. taxpayers. Which is why Jewish-American support is so vital, Without it AIPAC et al will have a big fall,
Thank you, Phil, for a great essay.
I believe that using precise language is a critical first step in breaking through the blanket denial that has for so long characterized the public discourse about this situation, which has been almost uniformly dominated by the “mythic” narrative of Israel as a “light unto nations” which realized the 3000 year-old yearning of a people for its ancestral home. The obfuscation of language, along with the virtual exclusion of Palestinian voices from the public discourse, has enabled the perpetuation of the conflict.
In line with this, I would humbly suggest that you rethink the term “occupation.” It is a complete misnomer for the situation that is presently being imposed upon the Palestinians. First, it suggests that the situation is limited to the “territories” of the West Bank and Gaza. It is not. The situation afflicts all Palestinians (and Jews ) on both sides of the green line and all those Palestinians scattered throughout the world who have been completely shut out from their homeland. So the term “occupation” is geographically very misleading. It is also misleading because it implies that the target of the action is the land. “The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza” — this suggests that the primary victim of the situation is the territory. But that is also incorrect. The primary victim here is the Palestinian people.
As well, the term “occupation” sounds relatively benign when compared with say, “colonialism” or “apartheid.” So which is going on in Palestine? Well, a team of international law experts in South Africa undertook a lengthy study asking just that question, and they concluded that Israel is BOTH a colonialist situation AND apartheid. I would excerpt at length here but it would make the post too long, and I need to learn first how to format a block quote cite so the print would indent and be rendered in smaller font. This is another indication that the term “occupation” is a whitewash.
So rather than “occupation,” I suggest we take a long, careful look at the following two terms: sociocide and genocide. Personally, I believe that what is being done to the Palestinians constitutes a genocide, and I am more than happy to provide supporting evidence around that conclusion. But I can understand that this will offend some people and cause them to flip out. So perhaps we can agree on the term “sociocide” or “cultural genocide,” a term originally coined by Raphael Lemkin.
Wikipedia:
Article 7 of a 1994 draft of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples uses the phrase “cultural genocide” but does not define what it means.[4] The complete article reads as follows:
Indigenous peoples have the collective and individual right not to be subjected to ethnocide and cultural genocide, including prevention of and redress for:
(a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities;
(b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources;
(c) Any form of population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of their rights;
(d) Any form of assimilation or integration by other cultures or ways of life imposed on them by legislative, administrative or other measures;
(e) Any form of propaganda directed against them.
In the actual Declaration, the term “cultural” was dropped but everything else remained the same. Thus, the items on the list were deemed sufficient to qualify as “genocide.”
Does anyone else think the term “occupation” is far too benign? Is anyone else interested in working together to coin a new name? In debating whether this is, indeed, a case of genocide? And if it is not genocide on the one hand nor merely occupation on the other, what is it?
As for whether non-Jews should be targeted – absolutely. It is a Moral Imperative for everyone to do whatever is in their power to stand up to this situation. As the South Africa report reminds us,
~Quote:
The realisation of self-determination and the prohibition on apartheid are peremptory norms of international law from which no derogation is permitted. Both express core values of international public policy and generate obligations for the international community as a whole.
These obligations adhere to individual States and the intergovernmental organisations through which they act collectively. Breaches of peremptory norms, which involve a gross or systematic failure by the responsible State to fulfil the obligations they impose, generate obligations for States and intergovernmental organisations of cooperation and abstention.
States and intergovernmental organisations must cooperate to end any and all serious breaches of peremptory norms. This obligation of cooperation imposed upon States may be pursued through intergovernmental organisations, such as the United Nations, should States decide that this is appropriate, but must also be pursued outside these organisations by way of
inter-State diplomacy. One possible mechanism is that States may invoke the international responsibility of Israel to call it to account for its violations of the peremptory prohibitions of colonialism and apartheid. All States have a legal interest in ensuring that no State breaches these norms and accordingly all States have the legal capacity to invoke Israel’s responsibility. Above all, however, all States and intergovernmental organisations have the duty to promote the Palestinian people’s exercise of its right of self-determination in order that it might freely determine its political status and economic policy.
The duty of abstention has two elements: States must not recognise as lawful situations created by serious breaches of peremptory norms nor render aid or assistance in maintaining that situation. In particular, States must not recognise Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem or its attempt to acquire territory in the West Bank through the consolidation of settlements, nor may they bolster the latter’s economic viability. Should any State fail to fulfil its duty of abstention, then it risks becoming complicit in Israel’s internationally wrongful acts and thus independently engaging its own responsibility, with all the legal consequences of reparation that this entails.
In short, for States the legal consequences of Israel’s breach of the peremptory norms prohibiting colonialism and apartheid are clear. When faced with a serious breach of an obligation arising under a peremptory norm, all States have the duty not to recognise this situation as lawful and have the duty not to aid or assist the maintenance of this situation.
Further, all States must cooperate to bring this situation to an end. If a State fails to fulfil these duties, axiomatically it commits an internationally wrongful act. If a State aids or assists another State in maintaining that unlawful situation, knowing it to be unlawful, then it becomes complicit
in its commission and itself commits an internationally wrongful act.
States cannot evade these obligations through the act of combination. They cannot claim that the proper route for discharging these obligations is combined action through an intergovernmental organisation and that, if it fails to act, then their individual obligations of cooperation and abstention are extinguished. That is, States cannot evade their international
obligations by hiding behind the independent personality of an international organisation of which they are members….
I meant to include a link under Raphael Lemkin.
Also sorry for the messed up formatting above… hope you can make sense of it nonetheless. Still hoping for that edit function on this blog…
I will go ahead and insert a few quotes from the HSRC South Africa Report because they are important. Sorry for the long excerpts.
On colonialism, the report states (in part):
“Although international law provides no single decisive definition of colonialism, the terms of the Declaration on Colonialism indicate that a situation may be classified as colonial when the acts of a State have the cumulative outcome that it annexes or otherwise unlawfully retains control over territory and thus aims permanently to deny its indigenous population the exercise of its right to self-determination. Five issues, which are unlawful in themselves, taken together make it evident that Israel’s rule in the OPT has assumed such a colonial character: namely, violating the territorial integrity of occupied territory; depriving the population of occupied territory of the capacity for self-governance; integrating the economy of occupied territory into that of the occupant; breaching the principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources in relation to the occupied territory; and denying the population of occupied territory the right to freely to express, develop and practice its culture.
Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem is manifestly an act based on colonial intent. It is unlawful in itself, as annexation breaches the principle underpinning the law of occupation: that occupation is only a temporary situation that does not vest sovereignty in the Occupying Power. Annexation also breaches the legal prohibition on the acquisition of territory through the threat or use of force. This prohibition has peremptory status, as it is a corollary of the prohibition on the use of force in international relations enshrined in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. Israel’s acquisition of territory in the West Bank also starkly illustrates this intent: the construction of Jewish-only settlements within contiguous blocs of land that Palestinians cannot enter; a connecting road system between the settlements and the settlements and cities within the Green Line, the use of which is denied to Palestinians; and a Wall that separates Jewish and Palestinian populations while also dividing Palestinian communities from each other, with passage between Palestinian areas controlled by Israel. By thus partitioning contiguous blocs of Palestinian areas into cantons, Israel has violated the territorial integrity of the OPT in violation of the Declaration on Colonialism.
The physical control exercised over these areas is complemented by the administration that Israel exercises over the OPT, which prevents its protected population from freely exercising political authority over that territory. This determination is unaffected by the conclusion of the Oslo Accords and the creation of the Palestinian National Authority and Legislative Council….
In his report, Professor Dugard suggested that elements of the occupation resembled colonialism. This study demonstrates that the implementation of a colonial policy by Israel has not been piecemeal but is systematic and comprehensive, as the exercise of the Palestinian population’s right to self-determination has been frustrated in all of its principal modes of expression.”
On apartheid, the report states, in part:
“Israel’s practices in the OPT can be defined by the same three ‘pillars’ of apartheid. The first pillar derives from Israeli laws and policies that establish Jewish identity for purposes of law and afford a preferential legal status and material benefits to Jews over non-Jews. The product of this in the OPT is an institutionalised system that privileges Jewish settlers and discriminates against Palestinians on the basis of the inferior status afforded to non-Jews by Israel. At the root of this system are Israel’s citizenship laws, whereby group identity is the primary factor in determining questions involving the acquisition of Israeli citizenship. The 1950 Law of Return defines who is a Jew for purposes of the law and allows every Jew to immigrate to Israel or the OPT. The 1952 Citizenship Law then grants automatic citizenship to people who immigrate under the Law of Return, while erecting insurmountable obstacles to citizenship for Palestinian refugees. Israeli law conveying special standing to Jewish identity is then applied extraterritorially to extend preferential legal status and material privileges to Jewish settlers in the OPT and thus discriminate against Palestinians. The review of Israel’s practices under Article 2 of the Apartheid Convention provides abundant evidence of discrimination against Palestinians that flows from that inferior status, in realms such as the right to leave and return to one’s country, freedom of movement and residence, and access to land. The 2003 Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law banning Palestinian family unification is a further example of legislation that confers benefits to Jews over Palestinians and illustrates the adverse impact of having the status of Palestinian Arab. The disparity in how the two groups are treated by Israel is highlighted through the application of a harsher set of laws and different courts for Palestinians in the OPT than for Jewish settlers, as well as through the restrictions imposed by the permit and ID systems.
The second pillar is reflected in Israel’s grand policy to fragment the OPT for the purposes of segregation and domination. This policy is evidenced by Israel’s extensive appropriation of Palestinian land, which continues to shrink the territorial space available to Palestinians; the hermetic closure and isolation of the Gaza Strip from the rest of the OPT; the deliberate severing of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank; and the appropriation and construction policies serving to carve up the West Bank into an intricate and well-serviced network of connected settlements for Jewish-Israelis and an archipelago of besieged and noncontiguous enclaves for Palestinians. That these measures are intended to segregate the population along racial lines in violation of Article 2(d) of the Apartheid Convention is clear from the visible web of walls, separate roads, and checkpoints, and the invisible web of permit and ID systems, which combine to ensure that Palestinians remain confined to the reserves designated for them while Israeli Jews are prohibited from entering those reserves but enjoy freedom of movement throughout the rest of the Palestinian territory.
Whether the confinement of Palestinians to certain reserves or enclaves within the OPT is analogous to South African ‘grand apartheid’ in the further sense that Israel intends Palestinian rights ultimately to be met by the creation of a State in parts of the OPT whose rationale is based on racial segregation engages political questions beyond the scope and method of this study. Within the scope of this study is that, much as the same restrictions functioned in apartheid South Africa, the policy of geographic fragmentation has the effect of crushing Palestinian socioeconomic life, securing Palestinian vulnerability to Israeli economic dominance, and of enforcing a rigid segregation of Palestinian and Jewish populations. The fragmentation of the territorial integrity of a self-determination unit for the purposes of racial segregation and domination is prohibited by international law.
The third pillar upon which Israel’s system of apartheid in the OPT rests is its ‘security’ laws and policies. The extrajudicial killing, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of Palestinians, as described under the rubric of Article 2(a) of the Apartheid Convention, are all justified by Israel on the pretext of security. These policies are State-sanctioned, often approved by the Israeli judicial system, and supported by an oppressive code of military laws and a system of improperly constituted military courts. Additionally, this study finds that Israel’s invocation of ‘security’ to validate sweeping restrictions on Palestinian freedom of opinion, expression, assembly, association and movement appears to mask an underlying intent to suppress dissent to its system of domination, and thereby maintain control over Palestinians as a group. This study does not contend that Israel’s claims about security are by definition lacking in merit, but rather that Israel’s invocation of ‘security’ to validate severe policies and disproportionate practices toward the Palestinians is operating principally to validate suppression of Palestinian opposition to a system of domination by one racial group over another.
Thus, while the individual practices listed in the Apartheid Convention do not in themselves define apartheid, these practices do not occur in the OPT in a vacuum, but are integrated and complementary elements of an inst-tutionalised and oppressive system of Israeli domination and oppression over Palestinians as a group: that is, a system of apartheid….”
A house of cards piled high on the suffering of others will fall apart to make room for a home founded on the pillars of justice. Nothing less should prevail with the truth in one hand and justice in the other.
nice one kalithea. this comment section is one of the best ever.
If I’m allowed the space to state the following at the risk of pissing someone off; thank you. I’ve been needing to shout this from some rooftop for quite some time now.
This line from another blogger triggered this need to empty my soul, but my post is directed mostly at Jews.:
“We are all brothers and sisters, we are all made of stars.”
I related most to your post, “weareallmadeofstars”. I too feel that justice and humanity transcend religious affiliation, history, experience, race, blood ties and every other attachment and a world where individuals put all those first becomes a cruel and lonely place.
What’s troubling about this struggle that unites us is how many Jews twist the truth and turn back the clock to make themselves appear the victims, and use the Holocaust as an excuse to evade responsibility trying to convince the world that they’re supporting Israel’s actions because they’re perpetual victims at risk using their special status to manipulate public opinion. Some remain silent because they’re reluctant to criticize Israel and the actions of other Jews because of this affiliation. It’s precisely this complicity that makes me angry and frustrated and other people angry.
Our loyalty, support and compassion must rise above all ties. We are human first and foremost and then we are Black, Caucasian or Oriental, Jewish, Muslim or Christian, etc. and finally American, European or whatever defines us individually. It is our obligation as human beings to defend first and foremost the oppressed, the sick and the defenseless NO MATTER WHAT and in doing so we must forget who we are and where we come from if it becomes an obstacle to our human integrity.
This is a special case, UNFORTUNATELY. Palestinians have no voice and very little credibility is offered to them because of the bigotry in our society and especially among American Jews and Christian Fundamentalists against Muslims, and the bias in American society on behalf of Israel. This frustrates me to no end, because while other causes like Darfur are legitimate causes, here many Jews, Israel’s proxies and Fundamentalist Christians have delegitimized this cause in the perception of the masses and to make matters worse most Jewish American politicians side unconditionally with Israel with total disregard for their humanity, their conscience and justice, and these are mostly on the Democratic side! Meanwhile, the Republican side is totally Israel blind-sighted by their self-interest.
So, this case is different. We must count on Jews who are above and beyond Jewish, compassionate human beings to render this cause legitimate because unfortunately ONLY THEY CAN DO IT! It shouldn’t be that way! There is injustice in this fact too! Those of us who are not Jewish and are of any denomination should be able to have our voices heard and respected without being shut down and labeled an anti-Semite! I would like to rise up with others to shake our fists at Israel and those who render us powerless to demand that that they stop this brutality at once, without being labeled kooks and haters. Therein, lies the injustice. Why must we depend on Jews to get somewhere in this struggle? In a just world; that should never happen! We shouldn’t have to wait for any denomination’s approval or involvement to carry a cause forward to the attention of the world.
But at the same time, thank God there are good people who rise above their affiliation and denominational ties to decry inhumanity and injustice and believe me, this, gives me hope even if I find it unjust that the rest of us were held back from making this right and it’s only since Jews have come out and condemned this occupation and oppression that this movement for justice for Palestinians is FINALLY moving forward. And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but thank God Operation Cast Lead opened their eyes, because that’s when many came out of the woodwork! But why did it have to take a devastating tragedy like that with children being burned alive in front of our eyes to wake up their humanity!
Still even after that, it’s frustrating to see that so many Jews will only listen to other Jews instead of listening to the voice of their conscience when they hear someone who is not Jewish decry such injustice and they just dismiss or reject them.
I’m being brutally honest. I believe in my heart that this world has not evolved one iota when the rest of us are held back in our struggle for justice and only now that Jews have joined our ranks in this fight do we finally get a voice and MEANWHILE Palestinians have suffered for decades.
I have a difficult time reconciling this, because like you I believe when it comes to our humanity we are all equal, we are all the same, we are all one, and we are of the universe first and foremost, and we owe loyalty to no one else in our background or history if it stops us from heeding our conscience and fulfilling our true destiny as human beings which is to look out for those who are defenseless and who have no voice. Not even a monumental tragedy like a Holocaust should blind someone from the suffering of another human being, (Wiesel, this is especially for you, even if my message will be lost in space!).
So I’m grateful to those Jews who rose above their community ties and experience and took up this cause, but I’m angry that this cause wasn’t worthy enough of attention until they did so. Why did it take so long and why are the rest of us not good enough to be heard, or to be taken seriously when we’ve been decrying this injustice for years now?
No cause for justice should ever be delegitimized the way the Palestinian one was BY A CONCERTED EFFORT (Jews’ protected status, Israeli propaganda, mainstream media and manipulation of U.S. power). No one should ever have that much power to be able to do this and it should be considered not only a dangerous precedent, but a crime against humanity to use so much power and influence (as in manipulating the most powerful nation on earth through lobbies and proxies) and status to delegitimize a cause for justice.
This should never, ever happen again!
Thank you kalithea…
Bronner’s comment about getting “used” to the occupation reminds me of a line from the TV show Frazier – I don’t make the rules, I only enjoy them. Much easier when you don’t suffer the consequences.
Thanks Phil. It is indeed shocking, and it’s incomprehensible how our Rabbis and other leaders can condone this and solicit it’s continuation.
On his visit to the States last spring, Ethan Bronner (who lives in an ethnically cleansed West Jerusalem neighborhood and whose son is in the Israeli army), told one questioner that he doesn’t harp on the occupation because you get used to anything.
at least bronner’s honest about his lack of integrity as a journalist. he’s got that going for him, if nothing else.
I doubt if Bronner is being honest there, in any case i disagree. The common reason to give the occupation a pass is because you accept most of it – for security reasons – and only aknowledge the excesses, the fringe, the extremists. It’s easy to condemn the extremists, it only underscores your moderate and sensible position in the middle of the spectrum. If the extremists wouldn’t exist they’d have to invent them.
i was trying to make a joke, tuyzen, i just happened to leave out the funny bits. bronner is 100% integrity-free.
this is the 4th time i’ve read your incredible post phil, i keep coming back to it.
You are visiting a historic field of oppression, like the American south or South Africa, but the New York Times only occasionally talks about the occupation when it should be thundering forth about the conditions every day.
i so much had this feeling while i was there that i was witnessing history. something else you said in the burdus post, about Ayed Morrar being ‘astonishing’…more politically sophisticated than just about anyone you have ever met….. a testament to the nobility of the human spirit.
the psychological landscape as well as the physical just takes one’s breath away and tho the imposition on both those landscapes seems all invasive these beings arise like exotic flowers. the more they are poisoned and uprooted and violated in every imaginable way the more they thrive and adapt. there’s a refinement of spirit/being there like nothing i’ve experienced elsewhere.
Phil, your Jewish ethno-centrism might be forgivable if it wasn’t so pathetically goddam phony. Would you kindly tell me, as another Jew, exactly what what it is? It doesn’t seem to extend to studying and learning the religion, it doesn’t extend to language, it doesn’t extend to marriage, it doesn’t extend to children, so what the hell is it.
Sure seems to me when you worry about “coming out” you are mostly concerned about somebody changing their will in revenge.
Mostly I sense a guy who thinks not being able to have your cake and eat it too is the biggest problem he has to face.
I thought of what you’re saying also. It seems it’s a big part of his identity and he would like to understand and reconcile this Jewish thing that has kept him believing in the superiority claim.
In the least, his upbringing doesn’t associate you with a common barn animal. :D
Sure seems to me when you worry about “coming out” you are mostly concerned about somebody changing their will in revenge.
where did that come from mooser? it is a rather revealing thought. perhaps it tells us more about you than phil. or maybe there’s something i just don’t know.
“Deir Yassin was a calculated effort to empty Jerusalem of Arabs. ”
You slipped this in. Deir Yassin was conducted by the Irgun, as an opportunistic part of an operation to connect the 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem to the 100,000 Jews in Tel Aviv. It was analagous to the West Bank and Gaza, but without the civil war.
“And in that undying purified spirit they now have loyalty-oath fascists in the government and American Jews are knitting them scarves.”
The effort for independance and viability is a DIFFERENT effort than for Greater Israel (long and short-term), as the effort for Palestinian state is a different effort than for Greater Palestine (long and short-term).
“The political world is lost to fairness, corrupted by the traditional exercise by court Jews of gaining access to the powerful, the same thing Herzl did 110 years ago in the chambers of the Kaiser, the Sultan, and the Pope, waving bankers’ money.”
This is a horrid inference. Herzl’s effort was an example of “by any means necessary”, including what was comfortable and familiar and what was unfamiliar (ever start a business?). “Court Jews”. Sometimes you enrage me. You will NEVER reach a critical mass of ears of your parents or your own generation by that language and the generalization that accompanies.
“And it doesn’t matter if it’s two states or twenty, unless Jews in power start to respect other peoples’ rights, we’re screwed. ”
THIS is accurate.
You will not accomplish taking down the wall by dismissal or any repetition of the militant ideologies. It will take witness and persuasion, NOT polemic.
The militant approach, even when it adopts “non-violent” means, nakedly displays its cues to your audience.
The militant and the persuasive are oil and water. The urge to propagandize is NOT a technology necessary to accomplish an end. It is inevitably a distraction from any just ends.
That character of propaganda does not change with the right or wrong side.
If you want to succeed….
” Deir Yassin was conducted by the Irgun, as an opportunistic part of an operation to connect the 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem to the 100,000 Jews in Tel Aviv. It was analagous to the West Bank and Gaza, but without the civil war”
Nice bit of Wittitstory. It’s a pitty you nev er read a book on the subject and bothered to educate yourself.
Deir Yassin was a prelude to the ethnic cleasing of Palestine. It 3was intended to create sifficient fear among teh Palestinians that they would be forced to flee for fear fo the same treatment.
I guess the Ziocaine addiction wouldn;t allow yourself to utter the word “massacre”.
“The effort for independance and viability is a DIFFERENT effort than for Greater Israel”
False. From day 1, there has NEVER been any difference between independance and viability and the effort than for Greater Israel.
Stop lying.
”This is a horrid inference.
A horrid but accurate one. Herzl’s effort was an example of “by any means necessary”, whcih specifically included pland to drive the Palestinin population from Palestine.
“You will NEVER reach a critical mass of ears of your parents or your own generation by that language and the generalization that accompanies.”
How wouldyou know Witty? It’s not as if you have a blog that anyone reads.
“”‘You will not accomplish taking down the wall by dismissal or any repetition of the militant ideologies. It will take witness and persuasion, NOT polemic.”‘
Again, if you had a blog that anyone visited, you might have some credibility. As it turns out, your blgo is a failure so you don’t.
“‘The militant approach, even when it adopts “non-violent” means, nakedly displays its cues to your audience.”‘
You’re just jealous because you don’t have one.
“If you want to succeed….”
Failures such as you shouldnt be giving motivational speeches Witty.