A good window on the paranoid mindset. Emma Silvers reports at JWeekly on the new ads in the Bay Area that call for ending military aid to Israel:
A spokesman for StandWithUs/S.F. Voice for Israel said the group will continue to speak out against “anti-Israel groups … trying to deceive the public through misleading ads.”
“Though their ads suggest they are in favor of ‘peace,’ their website explicitly calls for the elimination of the state of the Jewish people,” Dr. Mike Harris said on behalf of StandWithUs/S.F. Voice for Israel. “They actually oppose peace between a Jewish state of Israel and an Arab state of Palestine.”
Here are excerpts of the What-we-believe page from the website of those running the ads, BuildPeace.org. I have found no explicit call for anything's elimination (thanks to Annie):
We believe that peace is possible. We support policies that promote a genuine, lasting peace based on dignity, security, and equality for both Israelis and Palestinians.
We believe that U.S. policy has been an obstacle to peace. By offering unconditional, uncritical diplomatic support and tens of billions of dollars of military aid, our government has failed the interests of Israelis, Palestinians and our own national self-interest.
One-sided U.S. engagement has worsened and deepened the conflict by promoting the militarization of a conflict that cannot be solved by arming one side to the teeth. We believe that Israeli-Palestinian peace is our business as American citizens and taxpayers. Standing aside and doing nothing or “leaving it to the experts” doesn’t make us neutral, it makes us complicit in supporting policies that have brought decades of injustice and suffering.
The international perception of the U.S. as Israel’s financial backer and diplomatic shield have undermined America’s international standing and security in the world. We believe that military aid diverts tax money we need here at home. ...
Our billions in taxpayer-funded aid have perpetuated Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and the dispossession of the Palestinian people. Despite Israel’s repeated and ongoing failures to comply with U.S. policy statements, our “no strings attached” unconditional funding of Israel has continued uninterrupted.
We believe in open debate. Too frequently, critics of Israeli policy have been demonized and marginalized. It is a positive development that growing numbers of Americans (including American Jews) are defying intimidation and baseless accusations of anti-Semitism by Israeli advocacy organizations and demanding open discussion about the morality and legality of Israel’s actions and policies.
As with similar Israel-fanatic campaigns to silence dissent, this attack borders on libelous. Members of the Obama administration and Congress have made noises about criminalizing criticism of Israel. This is clearest in moves to identify _speech-acts_ supporting Palestinians as “material support for terrorism”.
This being the case, attacks like those of Mike Harris and “StandWithUs” should be treated as actionable.
“StandWithUs” — and by “us” they mean, racist, bigoted Zionists who love Israel more than the US, and would throw each and every American under the bus if it was in Israel’s interest — is a wingnut organization that claims to want “peace” pretends Israel and the US have the same values/interests, and then does everything to avoid it.
I truly believe ad campaigns like the one in SF is huge. Americans “support” Israel b/c they don’t know better. Why? Because they don’t hear or see the truth.
I hope these campaigns continue to spread across the US like wildfire. There was a point where pro-Zionist groups had enough power to pull ads like the one in SF quickly; now it seems like they are having more difficulty doing so. This is directly related to the BDS movement in my opinion.
Keep it up everyone….soon these criminals will be on the run, like all criminals.
the jweekly article is worth opening and reading in full. surprisingly, for the most part, it partly mirror’s henry’s article here. there are some very coincidental phrasing matches. hmmmm
the comments, as far as i got w/them..were horrific. but read the article. emma only dedicated the very end for a response from stand w/us.
paragraph 2 neglecdts to say that the 10s of bill9ons of dollars in military aid (BTW, wouldn’t 100′s of billions be truer) goes TO ISRAEL. Perhaps a typo: here or there.
As is typical, Stand With Us does not respond to the positions of those who place the ads, but with the rightwing Zionist spin it wants its audience to swallow. The coalition is explicit that their focus is on Human Rights and a Just Peace. This statement on its site shows diversity among its members on the subject of how many states, but unity on the issue of Human Rights:
Stand With Us would distort the inclusion of a perspective like that expressed by Bisharat to claim that one-state is the demand of the group as a whole. Even though the group would support two states in the context of a just peace, it does not endorse the Liberal Zionist formula, “Two States for Two Peoples” where the two peoples are defined as “Jewish” and “Arab,” because that implies that Palestinian Citizens of Israel do not have the right of full citizenship in Israel (It also implies that Palestinian Jews do not have the right of full citizenship in a Palestinian State, an assertion that is explicitly debunked in the PLO Charter).
There is no state of the Jewish people
Buildpeace.org doesn’t oppose “oppose peace between a Jewish state of Israel and an Arab state of Palestine”
Everybody who is sane should oppose the racist and dangerous idea of a “Jewish state” because the concept is incompatible with peace. Buildpeace is stating the obvious, that Israel’s own policies oppose the concept of a two-state solution so how can they be serious about peace? Even the ‘liberal’ Zionists like Witty and J-Street acknowledge this but somehow seem to think it is still possible. If math teacher decides one day he is going to take up painting and create a masterpiece, after 20 years of drawing garbage he probably isn’t going to create one.