Yes thank you to the nation institute for supporting Mondoweiss. Congratulations on the new partnership

people can’t divorce themselves from who they are or their origins nor should they. i’m all for embracing those origins and recognizing how who we are impacts and in many cases empowers us. let’s not find offense where there’s no imperative to be offended. i’m all over these threads and i’m not jewish and nothing about that introduction offends me in the least.

i wake up everyday grateful this site is here. so whether it is an american door or a jewish door i’m walking thru it makes no difference to me, the door is open and welcoming. let’s not quibble on this celebratory thread. we’re all mondoweiss!

The perspective at mondo in my view is quite plain: to day- after-day document Israeli atrocities towards Palestinians and to publish news, opinion, and dicussion that drive forward the goals of getting rid of the Occupation, and the Zionist Lobby in America.

I appreciate what you and eGuard are getting at: the sense of Jewish exceptionalism and entitlement that is seen every day on mondo and that drives righteous Jews and non-Jews wild.

But this demented perspective is not the perspective that Phil and Adam have chosen.

“While issues of religion and tribalism are certainly part of the I-P debate, I’ve always felt Mondoweiss was about truth and that one’s religion or tribe (or lack of) had no place in the debate. Perhaps I’m naïve, but I’ve always thought Mondoweiss was inclusive and non-tribal.”

I’ve also felt that Mondoweiss was (and remains) about truth. Unfortunately, the tribal (collective) mentality is a significant feature of being Jewish, in the sense that if one is a Jew, one should not criticize fellow Jews–a feature which figures prominently in the I-P debate. (Note that another aspect of the tribal mentality is that a Jew should refrain from actions that could subject the group to criticism by non-Jews–a feature that the Israeli desire for the lands of others has conveniently overridden.)

As you know, Phil and Adam have very courageously addressed both of these collective injunctions as have many others (Jews and non-Jews) here on Mondoweiss.

As have you, I have always felt that both Jews and non-Jews who seek a fair and just setttlement of the conflict are welcome here, and that both will be needed in large numbers to turn the tide.

I also agree that Mondoweiss’s mission is far more than merely to offer a “progressive Jewish” perspective and that to describe it as such could be seen as offensive by many Mondoweiss readers.

I suspect many Jews who participate might also find it insulting to have their intellectual contributions characterized (or minimized) as progressively Jewish, just as I would not want mine characterized (and thereby diminished) as progressively atheist, or progressively Irish-Catholic. I also don’t think that the many non-Jewish contributors to Mondoweiss, Muslim, Christian, Atheist and other, will take kindly to it being described as having a progressive Jewish perspective which comes across as exclusive. While issues of religion and tribalism are certainly part of the I-P debate, I’ve always felt Mondoweiss was about truth and that one’s religion or tribe (or lack of) had no place in the debate. Perhaps I’m naïve, but I’ve always thought Mondoweiss was inclusive and non-tribal.

In any case, congratulations, it sounds like a good fit. You might want to work on that site description though. It seems too exclusive and too tribal unless you see yourselves competing with Tablet, Jewish Daily Forward and +972 rather than part of the larger fray including Atlantic, Daily Beast, Salon, Politico, etc. I hope you have set your sights higher than that of another Jewish news outlet, as good as those other publications are. To win this war, your audience needs to be not just Jewish America, but Middle America which is at least 30 times larger.

for getting the word out?

for changing the world