My oped in Haaretz dropped today on the Netanyahu speech disruption. Check it out:
Netanyahu had sharp words for the protesters. "Attempts by our enemies and their misguided fellow travelers to delegitimize the Jewish state must be countered," he said to thunderous applause.
I'm one of the five who was dragged out, clutching a sign that said, "The occupation delegitimizes Israel." When I envision Israel ending settlement expansion and living in equality with the Palestinians - while Netanyahu's government confiscates more Palestinian land and builds more settlements every single day - I wonder who is misguided?
We young Jews won't back down, our numbers are growing, and we will win. Israel will change its cruel, self-destructive behavior. We won't rest until Israelis and Palestinians live together in true equality, safety and mutual respect.
Dear reader, please do me a favor... Click through and read the oped, then please post a comment on the Haaretz comment board. Really, please do it right now. Haaretz readers need to hear the voices of Mondoweiss readers. Thank you for your support!
I think you are the one that is vain, Matthew, doing exactly the same as you criticize, particularly in this case making yourself the cause celebre, rather than what you are communicating.
To condemn comments that identify your efforts as well-meaning and helpful, but still supportive of Israel and sympathetic to Israel is great to appeal to the converted, to throw the hail-Mary pass of BDS as a movement.
The fear that radical dissent is of willing idiots is real and rational. For you to personally take that gamble is your choice. To ask others, and to condemn others, for not making that choice, for acting as if there is some reality in the fear, is something less liberatory.
Liberal Zionists are accused of being “willing idiots” to right-wing Israel.
The sentiments of discomfort and objection to oppression is common between radicals and liberals. The sentiments of discomfort at willingness to cavalierly and maliciously condemn, radicals doing it, liberals reluctant, is not common but alienating.
In the 60′s, with Vietnam, there was a generational divide born of significantly different formative historical references, changing in a very short period of time (those born in 1940 experiencing the horror of Stalinist suppression and expansion globally, those born in 1950 experiencing the horror of anti-communist over-reaction and misapplication).
The reaction, the rejection, was NOT a good for American society. The criticism of Vietnam needed to happen, and assertively, as MANY parents of draft age children joined (Phil’s and my parents, personal family friends).
The great and unnatural division between generations, using the “movement” as the playing field didn’t need to happen, and harmed us.
The right-ward pendulum swing of the eighties and then the neo-conservative pendulum swing in reaction to 60′s/70′s excess, was a direct result.
Not a social change ultimately. Drama pretending to be substance.
What a peculiarly narrow view of the generational divide in the USA during the Vietnam Era Richard Witty has–anyone else notice this? And he follows this tidy squint with a summation that the reaction, the rejection, was NOT good for (all of) American society. What is the substance of his narrow drama? He has two keyholes for eyes?
Tunis for translating Witty’s incoherent word salad for us Citizen. I didn’t understand a word he said, and I’m usually pretty good at decoding his gibberish.
Pot, Kettle, Black Shingo, what does the capital of Tunisia have to do with anything?
Sorry that was a typo. I was posting from my Iphone while walking the dog.
Not a good idea.
Hey Witty,
Your comment at Haaretz has been given 4 thumbs down. Apprently your ability to communicate the message and persuade the other is woefully inadequate.
Shingo,
The RW laffer was this:
You drove from Oakland to New Orleans, and couldn’t justify that long trip if you didn’t do something dramatic ?!? Car trips (at a greatly reduced cost for a group over plane tickets at the last moment) are progenitors of drama? Calling Mooser….I can’t handle it.
Threat has NOT worked for dissent on this issue. Tell that to the Israeli government, Witty; that’s the correct recipient of this observation.
You should understand that many in that crowd will think of the action as a junior form of terrorism, a threat of terrorism.
That was not in the action itself, but in that it represents that someone with less laudable objectives could have gotten in, inside our safe setting.
It was like the bombing in 1964 in Saigon, a week after Johnson declared that South Vietnam was utterly secure. Not that yelling the slogans was violent, but that it was perceived as breaking under the security.
And, that the yelling occurred in five bursts, again hiding under the security, with the same methodology as 911 or other well-coordinated Al Quaida terror.
The information irritated people. They need the information so for them to be irritated is no big deal.
The disruption offended people. That is bordering on a big deal, certainly not the golden rule. I’ve been shouted down hundreds of times by leftists “defending free speech”.
The form of the disruption scared people. And, that is NOT effective dissent.
>> You should understand that many in that crowd will think of the action as a junior form of terrorism, a threat of terrorism. … The form of the disruption scared people.
So, unlike Israel’s PAST AND ONGOING oppressive and destructive actions – which are merely “disappointing” and “unhelpful” – a peaceful protest with banners is “a junior form of terrorism” that scares people.
Once again, the hypocrisy of “humanism” couldn’t be any more clear.
DON’T FEED THE HATE-MONGERING TROLL!!
RW
Others outside of “that crowd” who may not have much awareness of the growing movement against Israel’s racism and barbarity, but may feel strongly nonetheless, will perhaps be emboldened to speak out themselves, knowing now that they are not as alone as they thought. Discovering that there are groups organizing and protesting, trying to find ways to end the injustices of Israel. Their voices will join the chorus demanding change, demanding the end of theft and pillage, demonization of the Palestinian people, dispossession, murder etc. The MSM won’t be able to ignore the growing noise, they and the dual nationals in government won’t be able to control the discourse for much longer.
I’ll say.
This is classic troll behaviour. When they don’t get the response they want they ramp up the rhetoric: Now American jews engaged in a well-known form of non-violent protest are described as terrorists, and equivalences made between them and 911/Al Qaeda.
Phil Weiss ~ I continue to wonder why you put up with this ridiculous crap. It is clearly troll behaviour. My opinion of you is lessened. And I think it actively harms your good work here at MW.
“I’ve been shouted down hundreds of times by leftists “defending free speech”.”
Witty, speech is free, but time is limited, and so is people’s tolerance for nonsense and stupidity.
Demonstration is a communication.
If the purpose of demonstration is to appeal to the wider world, and not the audience in the room, then they got seen, hopefully for what they did, not what they would like to have been known as.
To many of the people in the room, the action communicated, “we are in danger”.
And, in that sense, the action was falsely labeled as a peace action. A statement, but not a communication.
Witty,
Your response is all out of proportion to the stimuli. Security needs inside a Marriott (or whatever) in downtown New Orleans during a tribal conference where dissidents’ voices were purposely excluded does not equate to the Vietnam War and bombing Saigon, or 911, or Al-Qaeda, under any level of discourse or argument.
>> To many of the people in the room, the action communicated, “we are in danger”.
To many (most? all?) Palestinians, the violent, military actions of Israel communicate “we are in danger”. But I have yet to see you come remotely close to labelling Israel’s actions terrorism (“junior” or otherwise).
Your hypocrisy is truly disgusting.
“‘If the purpose of demonstration is to appeal to the wider world, and not the audience in the room, then they got seen, hopefully for what they did, not what they would like to have been known as.”
If you’d bothered to read Matthe’s articles, you’d kwo that appeal to the wider world was the goal and the audience secondary.
Whay are you so lazy? Does everyone have to spell it out for you?
“To many of the people in the room, the action communicated, “we are in danger”.”
Really? So how many of them ran for cover?
“‘And, in that sense, the action was falsely labeled as a peace action. A statement, but not a communication.”‘
After just stating that demonstration is a communication.
You just went full circle Witty and contradicted yourself. Amazing feat of intellectual acrobatics.
Protest signs are always seen as a threat by some, support by others. Anything controversial involves hotheads sometimes. Police just do what they do, usually in silence; in such cases a group of protesters chanting at them seeks to inform the passerby or TV audience what those silent unifirm agents are enforcing by simply doing as they were told, their job. Witty strives mightily to build a tiger against BDS, a very traditional tactical organization the world over for a very long time now, but he brings forth a mouse.
Thumb up!
You mean
“The sentiments of discomfort at willingness to cavalierly and maliciously condemn, radicals doing it, liberals reluctant, is not common but alienating.”
and
“significantly different formative historical references,”
are not masterly examples of pellucid English prose that would gain the admiration of Swift, Paine, Hazlitt, and Lamb?
There are now 52 comments at Haaretz; Witty stands supreme in getting the most thumbs down. Way, way more than anyone. If anyone needs to see himself as others see him, it’s Witty. Although he constantly argues for artful persuasion he has no skill there himself. Maybe he should think about the content of his messages.
citizen, he had 2 comments there. i liked the second one, very brief
Beware of stacked deck on comments
lol. poor witty! it’s him, the one lone critical voice amongst the massive encouraging support calling out to the audience to …beware.
I wish we had thumbs here.
3 now. He still keeps trying, keeps getting shot down.
“To condemn comments that identify your efforts as well-meaning and helpful, but still supportive of Israel and sympathetic to Israel is great to appeal to the converted, to throw the hail-Mary pass of BDS as a movement.”
What on frigging earth does this mean? What does it mean?
Matthew, fantastic op-ed. This could be the gamechanger many have been waiting for.
The cynics who ask “where is the Palestinian Gandhi?” do so, because they know all the charismatic leaders have been unlawfully jailed for years, and their peaceful dissent is accordingly suppressed.
Instead, leaders need to rise up from the American Jewish community to speak truth to power. (And J Street is NOT such a leader.)
Congratulations to you, Rae, Rebecca and JVP on becoming such voices. Godspeed.
Great op-ed. And wonderful that it was published and a few people (perhaps even the powerful) will read it and think about it. I’ve submitted a comment there.
Public assessment of Israel is a pendulum, high on the “approval” side just now, but due to BDS and due to Israel’s manic (or sociopathic) rush into excess and bland ignoring of all human-rights norms (done, apparently, as if rightful and without unawareness of or embarrassment because of the criminal nature of the acts), the pendulum will soon swing the other way. And pendulums do not stop in the middle until they’ve gone far to the other side.
Israel desperately needs a foot on the brakes, and its friends (I do not count myself as one but sense that you are one) must give it that message. Again and again. BDS is the traffic cop now chasing from afar but getting closer. “Delegitimizing the delegitimisers” is something akin to resisting arrest. Or akin to the drunk telling the cop, “I only had one beer,” and telling himself and others, “and I am not an alcoholic.”
Done. Keep up the good work
is something wrong with the ha’aretz comments section? the same six comments since i checked in hours ago.
Nothing wrong at Haaretz web page. The comments are moderated, so comments that are submitted can sit for a few hours before they run. I just checked and over 30 comments have appeared. Another thing you can do is vote for the comments you like by clicking on the little thumbs up icon. Thanks everyone for your supportive words!
Comments were running strongly in your favor when I looked last.
Yes very much so. Witty’s comments have attracted 4 thumbs down last time I checked.
Thanks, Mr.Taylor. Great article. I did go to the Israeli paper and post a comment as an American–I don’t know if they will publish it although I made sure I said nothing offensive or vulgar. I also gave a thumbs up to the 6 comments I was allowed to look at; perhaps that’s all there is right now. I noticed the thumbs up ratings were high, the thumbs down ratings, very low.
Here is a podcast of an interview Rae Abileah did with Antiwar.com
link to antiwar.com
Lots of references on Haaretz. How many from Mondoweiss? I saw four that mentioned Mondoweiss in some fashion.
Viral.
“Viral”
Yes Witty Viral, as in the message is geting out there.
It looks like all your advice abot how to communicate completely wrong. How lucky that we are all ingoring it!!
Matthew,
(1) Great op-ed. Powerful and clear.
(2) Felt like a manifesto on the door someone secured with a knife.
(3) I wonder how much of the $6 million will now have to be spent targeting young American Jews — the likes of you —to bring them back to the fold via social media. Look what you’re doing to the budget; that will be their next hasbara concoction: Look how you’re stealing from Israel’s resources.
I wonder how much of the $6 million will now have to be spent targeting young American Jews
Now this is ironic. The JF pledge $6 million to reach the public with Israel’s message, and five activists volunteers respond by spending $500 on gas and food and purchased the publicity that these jokers couldn’t reverse for $60 million.
Great job, Matthew. I put my two cents in. Comments were mostly favorable, except for one Richard Witty who cautioned against taking them too seriously.
Learning from terror strategy.
If you want to strike fear in your opponent, you will station a hundred people in the room, and coordinate two or three to speak simultaneiously on unpredictable but coordinated schedules.
If you want to communicate, and if you want to support the likelihood of open public forums in the future, you will hold signs silently and pass out leaflets.
Maybe I’m wrong.
Maybe this disruption is just what the world needs, that this is the messianic act, the tranformative act that yeilds universal righteousness on the planet, or even in just this one profound instant in this profound locale.
Maybe the world needs the assertion.
Maybe my accusation of threatening and reckless is off the mark.
Witty,
If you only knew how much more powerful your words were when you don’t adopt a defensive position, I think you’d find your life much easier.
RE: “our enemies and their misguided fellow travelers” – Netanyahu
MY COMMENT: Fellow travelers? Where, oh where, have I heard that “fellow travelers” used before? I just can’t seem to rememb…Oh, yeah! Back during the Commie scares of the 1940s and 50s here in the good, old U.S.A.
What was his name? Oh yeah, Senator Joe McCarthy. Do you remember the famous, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” And then there was the House Un-American Activities Committee. And the Hollywood blacklist of suspected Communists (a/k/a Jewish ‘troublemakers’) and their “fellow travelers”.
Clearly, Netanyahu has NO sense of decency. Absolutely none!
Nettie is well aware of the US history of the McCarthy era. His words are chosen very carefully to appeal to his target audience.
RE: “His words are chosen very carefully to appeal to his target audience.” – Citizen
MY REPLY: By “target audience” I assume you mean ‘knuckle draggers’ here in the good, ol’ US of A. But he certainly went from “it’s 1938 and Iran is Germany” to “it’s 1950 and the Commies are a comin’ ” in record time. But then, “everybody knows” that the Israelis invented the ‘time machine’. Oh yeah, and cherry tomatoes! And drip irrigation. And….
P.S. RE: “His words are chosen very carefully…” – Citizen
MY ANNOTATION: Chosen by Frank Luntz and/or Arthur J. Finkelstein, no doubt.
ARTHUR J. FINKELSTEIN – link to en.wikipedia.org
Thanks everyone for reading, commenting, and commenting on the Haaretz page. Your words are very encouraging! Even if I didn’t respond to your comments, rest assured I read every single on and this positive feedback is very nice to hear.
P.S.- I’m glad to see Mr. Witty, at the end there, shows some openness to the possibility that our action was necessary, effective, and helpful.
What would give me hope is an indication that you adopt a holistic form of political action, applying the term “all my relations” in all your relations.
I would like to see that your approach is measured, fresh in every decision, not driven at all (literally at all) by expectations of your audiences or by the expectations of loyalty to any movement.
Free and sensitive.
And, I wish you great success in effecting a transformation of Israeli policies and practices.
link to nytimes.com
If Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is willing to choose peace with the Palestinians, it’s not evident.
Politics Over Peace
Early in his most recent tenure, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, spent a lot of time trying to persuade President Obama and others that he was serious about making peace with the Palestinians. Only a hard-liner, like him, could pull it off. If only.
With the peace process crumbling, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Mr. Netanyahu for seven hours on Thursday. She went in insisting that she still believes that Mr. Netanyahu and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, are “very committed to a two-state solution.” There was no sign of a breakthrough.
Matthew Taylor,
I enjoyed reading your article. It tackles the subject honestly and with a clear understanding of the basic impediments. Kudos on a job well done. Thank you.
P.S. When addressing the injustices, keep in mind the Palestinians who were scattered to the four winds in 1948 and 1967 and who continue to live in refugee camps. Please give them a voice. They deserve to be heard.