From a Young, Jewish and Proud press release on the first "Occupy the Occupiers" protest:
A group of 10 young Jews with YJP: the young adult wing of Jewish Voice for Peace issued their new declaration "Occupy the Occupiers: a Jewish Call to Action" in novel form last night. Using the "human microphone" or "people's microphone" made famous by the Occupy Wall Street protests they interrupted a Birthright Israel Next-sponsored event. The event featured CEO Steven Pease, and was called "The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement," part of Birthright Israel's Next's "Wall St." series. Pease was addressing the question of "Why Jews are disproportionately high achievers?"
The young Jews used the human microphone, one person saying a short phrase and others repeating back, to read a site-specific version of their declaration which calls for young Jews to take similar actions wherever the "1%" of their own community gathers. The disruption will be broadcast on Occupy Wall Street's video stream. Afterwards, protesters stayed outside to continue reading their declaration and share stories of their experiences of what they saw as Birthright's dishonest presentations of Israel. Their numbers more than doubled as passers by joined them. Later that night, via twitter, Birthright Israel offered to "dialogue" with the protesters. Birthright Israel was previously the target of a Young, Jewish, and Proud spoof email offering a fictional "Birthright for All" trip that included Palestinians.
Noting the incongruity of inviting a CEO representing the "1%" while Occupy Wall Street rages a few miles away, participant Carolyn Klaasen noted "For weeks now, I have been proudly protesting at Occupy Wall Street with other Jews and celebrating Jewish holidays in Zuccotti Park. I feel that such actions are far more in line with Jewish tradition than this event, which lifted up as a model of ‘success’ people like illegal settlement builder Lev Leviev who profit from exploitation of others. That is part of the problem we’re protesting in the Occupy movement.”
Liza Behrendt, participant, adds "Birthright is a symptom of a larger structural problem in the Jewish institutional world in which our version of the 1%, a handful of wealthy donors including people like the Schustermans or Sheldon Adelson, is able to dictate the social and political agenda of the 99%. That's because Jewish institutions are so dependent on the 1% for funds.
In the case of Birthright, hundreds of millions of private and now Israeli public dollars are being spent on free propaganda trips for predominantly middle and upper class American Jews while urgent needs in the United States and Israel go unmet. At the same time, within the dominant Jewish institutions, like Hillel, critical thinking about israel is not only discouraged but actively suppressed."
Kiera Feldman, one of the 'Occupy the Occupiers' activists, sets the scene in a post for Waging Nonviolence:
I did my best to smell and look expensive, like someone who would normally come out on a Monday night to hear “venture capitalist and turn-around CEO Steven Pease,” author of a 622-page book called The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement. The program began with a complimentary light dinner, then the talk: “Why Jews are Disproportionately High Achievers.” This was the first in a series of Wall Street-oriented events hosted at Birthright Israel’s alumni headquarters, a loft on West 13th Street with exposed brick walls and tasteful track lighting.
Inside my free copy of The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement—Birthright, flush with the cash of Wall Street bajillionaires like Michael Steinhardt, is very big on free—I found tables with statistics: 21% of Ivy League students are Jews, 11% of senators, 40% of NBA team owners, 31% of Forbes’ 400, 24% of Fortune‘s “25 Most Powerful People in Business,” 72% of “25 Real Estate Fortunes Among Forbes 400,” 23% of all Nobel prizes, and on and on. In every arena you could think of, Pease extolled “disproportionate Jewish achievement.”
The last time I’d been in that loft was early 2010, for a pre-trip Birthright orientation. (I wrote about my subsequent trip in The Nation.) But this time, I came with ten young Jews—a minyan—to Occupy Birthright. To liberate Birthright by repurposing its space.
It turns out that the human microphone is a powerful disruptive tool. Last Thursday, for instance, teachers in Chicago rather awesomely Occupied Scott Walker. “Mic check!” they yelled, times two, and proceeded to shut down a fancy breakfast.
“Watch out for the microphone,” Steven Pease told me as I stepped over the cable, en route to the food table. He is a kindly gray-haired man, with a pair of glasses perched atop his head. “Aren’t Jews very accomplished at everything?” I goaded him on. “I thought we were the best at not tripping.” He smiled and answered, “Basketball, the Olympics—very good.” This man apparently cannot be satirized.
I wanted to know who these people sitting around me were, what kind of jobs they work, how they feel about the occupiers laying claim to public spaces and shaping them for their own purposes. But then my friend and co-interrupter Max interrupted my schmooze plans, pointing out the chapter in Pease’s tome devoted to glorifying Lev Leviev, the blood diamond billionaire and settlement construction impresario. Leviev was once a major Birthright donor.
Read her entire piece here.
Hahahaa!! YES!! Now we are getting somewhere……
Why Jews are disproportionately high achievers
1 in 4 Israeli Jewish kids lives in severe poverty. Why is the Jewish state so unequal? Is it linked to high achievement ?
ADAM ROCKS!
Yeah, he was impressive. So smart, tying in the historical fact of using Jews as scapegoats for the whole oppressive banking system–especially at this key moment in history where most Americans are now aware there is really something drastically wrong with ours, and it connects to EU, and around the world by top-down fallout, WB, IMF, etc. Both Tea Party and OWS have fingered Wall Street as a core cesspool in our land, and ever more folks are realizing neither major party will do anything about it except minor fringe reforms easily subject to work-arounds by the business grads and securities experts and lawyers spawned by our ivy league universities. We know, e.g., Goldman Sachs is a top big donor to all wannabe top political leaders showing some real potential. Imagine adding the disproportionate list of Jewish names big in the banking, finance, securities, and underwriting areas to that book of Jewish accomplishments. Or is it in that book?
I liked the flash mobs much more. They were a lot more funnier. What happened to them? This was like listening to Fran Drescher shouting for 10 minutes.
anti semite!!!!!
Thanks for identifying yourself but I already knew that.
hahaha!!! how dare you make fun of fran!
Im not anti-semitic – im just anti-eee. its not the semites fault your a clown
Semitic clowns. Is that the ones with tiny little hats on their forehead?
If Stephen King wrote a non-fiction novel about crazy people like that and eee…
No one would publish it!
It would be to scary…
We aren’t anti-Jew, eee.
We just don’t like YOU.
You, not Jews. Get that through your racist thick skull, ok?
You (nor hophmi, nor DBG/yonira, et. al. @MW) represent Jewishness to us. If you did, then we’d be antisemitic.
But what do you like much much much more than flash mobs?
Could it be:
Holy Jewish settler mobs?
I love flash mobs, too, but am equally enchanted by these beautiful young people and their “mic check” strategy. This action was terrific, and the video will touch the hearts of many thousands of other people.
(I am surprised you like flash mobs; here are two of my favorites. First, from Jewish Voice for Peace (“We Divest From Israel’s Occupation” performs a flashmob in Times Square):
link to youtube.com
and second, a BDS flashmob at a New Seasons grocery store in Portland, OR: link to youtube.com
eee, what does eee stand for out of curiosity? Is that like the Asus netbooks? eee pc?
Hah! That would fit eee to a tee. “Small, stripped to the minimum, just enough processing power to get you on the internet! But not enough to accomplish anything comprehensive.”
“The disruption will be broadcast on Occupy Wall Street’s video stream.” A good step to get the discussion going at OWS.
Good job guys and girls.
Brawo. And yes, Adam rocks:). Here is a song for him ( a combination of reggae and Polish highlander’s music)
link to youtube.com
It was funny to see the faces of some of those young people, listening, in a rows, to the brainwashing, corporate propaganda, when Adam and the other girls were shoutinng their phrases.
Some were like: “dugh”??
here is a fast/sloppy translation of the words in a.m. song.
“Even if you were left alone, don’t let them break you,
You need to take care of you honor ever day,
You don’t abuse the weaker ones, you do good deeds to people
You keep your Word , you govern justly.
ref. I will not bow to anybody, only play in Tatras (name of the mountains)
There is a tremendous power in the Truth
Earth, Sky will be with you -don’t be afraid
Honorable thing is not to steal,not to be a problem/burden
If you lose your honor, you conscience pays for it.
ref. I will not bow to anybody, only play in Tatras
The day will come that you have to give everything
This greatest treasure, just for one thing
One more time then, let’s just stand together, courageously
To change the world , one life is not enough.
Trebunie Tutki & Twinkle Brothers?
sweeeeet. you really know your way around!
I just love “weird” musical combinations:).
I adore folk music, especially in a somewhat “modernized” versions.
Such a nice alternative for a mind-numbing pop music.
Here is one for you :)
“Kayah and Bregovic “.
link to youtube.com
very cool. here’s the goran bregovic live in mexico city. the crowd is going wild!
I’m going wild for this band, Zakopower , especially the cute leader :).
His violin parts are excellent. When I watch it, I really miss my beautiful country.
Here is their version of a very popular in 70 ”s ,Hungarian song, ” the girl with a pearl hair”.
link to youtube.com
“Why Jews are Disproportionately High Achievers”
One of the primary reasons, of course, is because the most non-Israeli Jews don’t live in states which treat their minorities in the manner in which Israeli treats its minorities. No discussion which doesn’t start there isn’t worth having, frankly.
I don’t believe they were talking specifically about Israeli Jews.
There is very little evidence of high achievement in Israel. Even Max Brenner chocolate no longer calls itself “the world’s best from Israel”. It’s a contradiction.
True, Jewish supremacists don’t limit itself just to Israel.
“I don’t believe they were talking specifically about Israeli Jews.”
Neither was I. The point I was making is that this notion of Jewish “disproportionate” success is, in large part, the result of self-selection and making the measure of success those areas where certain Jewish (but not exclusively Jewish, by any means) cultural memes are beneficial to the achievement of those areas measured, while ignoring the larger cultural preconditions to that success.
In other words, if there are is something inherent in Jews which leads to success (which is what this Birthright moron was trying to say), then why weren’t German Jews in the 1930s, and Polish Jews in the 1940s successful? And why isn’t there a disproportionate number of Jewish NBA or MLB players?
Woody Tanaka, yes, that’s an important point, too often neglected.
once upon a time there were these ten young people from “jewish, young & proud” + one old fashioned mic
for them to change the narrative?
a few words, all it took
& that mic, what did it represent?
the instrument of change
with the occupy everywhere general assembly?
our* crucible for progress
*our, as in leaderless, yet everyone a leader
How exactly does this help the Palestinians? Will it make the people who attended this event more sympathetic to their cause?
it is fun to watch movements self destruct, but why do they think it will help their cause?
Will it make the people who attended this event more sympathetic to their cause?
it might wake somebody up. also the video has farther reach than those in the room. birthright is a racist militant endeavor. i’m not saying it has no redeeming value at all, but overall it’s not helpful.
“birthright is a racist militant endeavor”
That is hilarious. It shows how disconnected and extreme your position is.
This winter 22,000 Jewish young adults came to Israel with Birthright. Birthright is very helpful. It is a constructive action. But I guess all you understand are disruptive actions. Instead of trying to stop Birthright which is impossible, why don’t you organize to take Jews to the occupied territories and tell them your side of the story? Phil can lead these tours and they can even eat in the organic restaurant in Ramallah.
Eee, I did birthright long ago. But this past winter when living in occupied area A, I met 3 people who either just finished birthright or left in the middle in disgust at the hasbara. Private pool party at a hotel where a third of us were jewish? Yeah it was basically like birthright but we were with people who had a real birthright…. NATIVES. But good idea eee… I think birthright unplugged has been doing something for years…. but we need more Jews who don’t get scared by the lies and go to area A. Then birthright would start to play a constructive role, instead of a propaganda role.
eee, i think adam did organize a tour to take people to the occupied territories last spring.
It is a constructive action.
i think i acknowledged constructive action: i’m not saying it has no redeeming value at all.
;)
it’s all those soldierie thing a bouts. should i link to the video..it’s been recorded here in the past.
There is something like that, it’s called Birthright Unplugged. What is so damn helpful about Birthright and its propaganda?
eee,
being the buffoon that you are, you did not address the criticism.
all you did was say blah blah birthright is great. ‘helpful’? helpful for who? constructive? constructive for who?
horrible rebuttal.
to win hearts & minds
not self-destruct
AM_A- “How exactly does this help the Palestinians? Will it make the people who attended this event more sympathetic to their cause?”
Hopefully by alerting the potential Birthright Jews that the whole Birthright program is basically an indoctrination program funded by elite American Zionists to recruit future American Jewish Zionist cadres to support the American Jewish power seeking Zionist collective. “Why Jews are Disproportionately High Achievers.” That is to say, why are Jews disproportionately powerful? No doubt there are many reasons, however, I have become convinced that Zionist organizational affinity and solidarity plays a significant role. A significant weakening of Zionist solidarity and Zionist power is probably essential to achieving a just peace in the Middle East.
“How exactly does this help the Palestinians?”
By helping to raise consciousness in the U.S. The more times that Americans are shown that it is NOT antisemitic to criticize Israel or to advocate for justice for the Palestinians, the less power Israel’s favorite card, the Antisemitic Card, has. This video will be watched by thousands.
“Mic check” is a great strategy, and this video is enchanting to watch! Bravo to these beautiful young people!
Bravo. That is wonderful.
I’d love to see an interview with Carolyn or Liza re OWS and I/P like the one ‘Daniel’ had the other day.
The topic of the talk is hilarious too…Jews discussing “Why Jews are Disproportionately High Achievers.” With statistics!!
Next week ” Why Muslims are Disproportionately Terrorists. With statistics!!
Following week Why Protecting your Racial stock through selective procreation is important. With statistics!!
Seeing Max Blumenthal pop up was like one of those Life’s little victories moments that Keef Knight does .
link to kchronicles.com
RE: “Lev Leviev, the blood diamond billionaire and settlement construction impresario. Leviev was once a major Birthright donor.”
MY COMMENT: Until a couple of years ago, Lev Leviev’s Africa-Israel Investments owned Anglo-Saxon Real Estate (one of Israel’s largest real estate firms)!
P.S. Hey white North Americans making Aliyah! Check out Anglo-Saxon Real Estate’s handy, dandy map of Israel (from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River) to see where in the Realm of Eretz Yisrael you would like to buy your dream home! Second homes, vacation homes, investment homes, and retirement homes are also available for qualified White buyers. Buy a house from a coloured seller (on your own), and then we’ll help you “flip it” to a white buyer for a HUGE PROFIT! Israel does apartheid right!™
Anglo – Saxon Netanya — link to anglonetanya.com
Apartments for Sale in throughout Israel – Anglo-Saxon’s billboard – link to anglo-saxon.co.il
Looking for an apartment or a house in throughout Israel? Anglo-Saxon Have A Foothold In Israel – http://www.anglo-saxon.co.il/en/?rg=5&OfficeID=71
What ugly souls these Young Jewish Proud activists have to disrupt a harmless gathering of Birthright people and to shove their ideology downs people’s throats.
Maybe some of you can explain the harm Birthright Israel causes by bringing young Jews to visit Israel, make friends, and maybe get laid?
I just don’t get this.
Harmless gathering of Birthright people?
The point is that the entire purpose behind the Birthright tours is to present an Israel that is lie.
Apparently the ‘lie’ is so transparent that Keira Feldman and her fellow travelers had no problem seeing through it.
Keira’s Birthright expose in the Nation suggests that the young tourist’s hormones are deliberately manipulated by their Birthright guides in order to suppress the tourists sense of justice and equality.
Diabolical? Yes?
proudzionist777,
Birthrate obviously advocates them getting laid without using protection. So they can be baby factories and offset that demographic threat. That’s what birthrate is all about. Witty approves because he thinks Jewish people should visit Israel before criticizing it. Too bad for him that many of the anti-Zionists already have.
Birthrate obviously advocates them getting laid without using protection
more lies, this might interest you:
link to jewlicious.com
Then again, it might not, since “unofficial guides” interest no one and the article says as much about the, ahem, gregarious nature of IDF soldiers.
there is nothing harmless about the birthright tours. simple it teaches them they have a natural right to another’s property
Natural right and rights provided by the San Remo Treaty of 1920.
Hasbara for Idiots, Chapter 34: The San Remo Treaty
>> Natural right and rights provided by the San Remo Treaty of 1920.
Good ol’ San Remo. It’s been a while. :-)
Natural right and rights provided by the San Remo Treaty of 1920.
Take it away, Hostage: link to mondoweiss.net
:-)
Hostage linked:
“The New York Times Company’s “Current History, Volume 13, 1921 reported:
‘It [San Remo] makes it clear that while the mandatary is expected to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” it is not the intention to create a “Jewish State,” as had been charged in certain quarters. (my brackets).
ProudZionist777 responds”
Check the quote from David Fromkin’s A Peace to End All Peace, page. 520,
‘In a private conversation at Balfour’s House in the summer of 1921, both Balfour and the Prime Minister contradicted him [Churchill] and told Churchill that “by the Declaration they always meant an eventual Jewish State.”
Fromkin cited to Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Companion Volume, Vol. 4, Part3: April 1921-November 1922, p. 1559.(Boston: Houghton Miffline, 1975)
Also, it was clear at the time that the term “national home” really meant a state. Back in 1917, three months after his declaration was issued, Lord Balfour confessed: “My personal hope is that the Jews will make good in Palestine and eventually found a Jewish state.” See,Ronald Sanders book, High Walls of Jerusalem, p.652.
Notwithstanding what the New York Times reported in 1921, as far as the United States government interpretation of “national home”, a U.S. intelligence recommendations drafted for President Wilson at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference reported that: “It will be the policy of the League of Nations to recognize Palestine as a Jewish State as soon as it is a Jewish state in fact.” See, J.C. Hurewitz (ed.),The Middle East and North Africa in World Politics: A Documentary Record, Vol.2, British-French Supremacy, 1914-1945 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979, p. 132-36.
Our resident Mondoweiss experts can demolish this David Fromkin/Martin Gilbert/San Remo argument like shooting fish in a barrel. Memo to Hasbara Central: Please send over people equipped with better arguments. Don’t you think Mondoweiss deserves to face your A Team?
Than send in the experts, for you are obviously not qualified.
wrongzionist777,
From the British White Paper of 1939 quoting THE COMMAND PAPER OF 1922:
Read the rest here: link to avalon.law.yale.edu
San Remo, one way or another, is irrelevant as far as any current legal or moral claims are concerned.
It is a colonial dividing of the spoils of WW1, that provides no basis of sovereignty (consent of the governed), nor any basis of title.
wrongzionist777,
You also need to read The Command Paper of 1922. It directly addresses the San Remo Treaty and it says you’re wrong. Dead wrong.
link to avalon.law.yale.edu
Colonial spoils after WW2, on the other hand, Witty’s all for that.
So the League of Nations sanctioned Mandates of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon didn’t confer sovereignty, or basis of title?
The Command Paper of 1922 (First White Paper) said, regarding, San Remo, that, ‘..the Jewish population of Palestine are concerned..’.
‘It is necessary, therefore, once more to affirm that these fears are unfounded, and that the [Balfour] Declaration, reaffirmed..at San Remo and again in the Treaty of Sevres, is not susceptible of change..’”
The First White Paper was rejected by the Arabs, who walked out on the London Conference
Dead wrong?
The UN resolution of 1947, and Israeli declaration of independence constructed Israeli sovereignty.
San Remo conferred the right of Great Britain to mandatory powers, only. It did not confer ANY subsequent sovereign right to Israel.
The UN resolution was a mandate that A) absolutely NO native Palestinians be ethnically cleansed and B) defined Israel borders, which Zionists not only vocally rejected, but rejected by terror and by force of arms.
By definition, the Israeli declaration of independence violates the UN mandate, Witty!
Actually, the UN Resolution was a proposal for splitting up the Mandate of Palestine. The Arabs rejected the proposal. The Jews accepted the proposal and used it a their basis to declare independence in May of 1948.
Please offer proof the Zionist rejected the UN Resolution.
Over five hundred Palestinian villages had been ethnically cleansed by Zionist militants before Israeli independence was declared. That isn’t proof enough? How about the Zionist invasion of Jerusalem? The resolution stated that Jerusalem would become an international city. Clearly, you have always rejected that.
You can make whatever bogus claims that you want, but the fact is, even before Israelis declared independence they were already occupying land in the Palestinian partition.
If someone tells me, “I’m a vegan!” and I see them eating bacon, I can be pretty sure they are lying.
Anyway, the only reason Israel exists at all is because Truman unilaterally accepted Israel and dragged the rest of the UN along. You’ve always been a parasite of US imperialism, Zionist.
But don’t take my word for it, either!
David Ben-Gurion.
Menechim Begin. Oh, but have things changed over time?
Yitzak Shamir, and
Benjamin “9/11 was good for Israel!” Netanyahu.
Not big on words? How about pictures.
link to war-times.org
Number 2 is the partition itself, number 3 is what Israel did when they “accepted the partition.”
Do you want names of specific villages that were razed? Specific victims of Zionist terror? I got all that too.
I could give you evidence all day, and still not have enough time to show all of it.
The false Ben Gurion quote again? How wearisome.
False quote: ” We could not tolerate vast areas of Palestine that would not be colonized by us. We will expel the Arabs, the Arabs would have to go… If we have to use force, we will use force. The appropriate moment would come if not now, later…We wait for great revolutions to come. [Ben-Gurion Archives, the Correspondence Section, doc. 19-22]
Professor Efraim Karsh of King’s College in London devotes an entire chapter in his book, Fabricating Israeli History, to an examination of the letter and other written statements by Ben-Gurion used by revisionists to support their allegation that he supported expulsion. Karsh reviewed the hand-written original of the letter to Amos, not the digital archive that revisionist Ilan Pappe apparently rely upon.
Karsh writes that the one phrase cited as evidence of Ben-Gurion’s support for expulsion is at odds with the expressed intent of the rest of the paragraph and the letter as a whole. According to Karsh, Ben-Gurion inadvertently left out the Hebrew word for “not” before “expel” and this “has become a pointed weapon in the hands of future detractors, though only if the sentence is taken out of context and presented in a truncated form.”
After reading Karsh’s book, Benny Morris, who had originally contended that Ben-Gurion unequivocally supported forced expulsions, reconsidered his view and admitted that he should have examined the original letter rather than rely on a secondary source. In an otherwise critical review of Karsh’s book appearing in the Journal of Palestine Studies (Volume XXVII, Number 2, Winter, 1998), Morris wrote:
Had I gone to the original, I would have noticed that the quotation is problematic, as three lines had been crossed out (by Ben-Gurion or someone else, subsequently), vitally changing the meaning of the passage. The text (with the lines crossed out) reads: “We must expel Arabs and take their place…”(which is how Teveth quoted the passage). But if the crossed-out lines are deciphered and reintroduced, then Ben-Gurion’s stance becomes equivocal, rendering the passage:
And here is the factual quote:
“And then we will have to use force… without hesitation though only when we have no choice. We do not wish and do not need to expel Arabs and take their place…”
Chaos. Please don’t bother me with this tripe.
So Benny Morris pulled a Goldstone before Goldstone pulled a Goldstone.
You’ve made a weak argument against approximately 10% of what I posted. And that’s it? Anyway, the expulsions did actually happen. Or are you going to deny that too?
I will also note that it was ISRAELIS who fabricated the Ben-Gurion quote, even if that story is true.
After reading Karsh’s book, Benny Morris, who had originally contended that Ben-Gurion unequivocally supported forced expulsions, reconsidered his view
benny morris has reversed course so many times he’s yoyoed in and out and he’s a questionable reference. here’s wiki:
let’s assume morris said that after reading the book. whatever.
we’ve got one man writing a book, a man w/an agenda (ex research analyst for the Israel Defence Forces, please ). according to wiki : “Karsh believes that the tragedy of the Arabs in 1948 was exclusively of their own making.”
link to en.wikipedia.org
but hey, daniel pipes loves him and we all know what an impeccable reference he is/not
iow no impartiality. that’s not enough to debunk. you’re basically claiming someone intrusted w/ the UK archives committed a massive historical fraud against the archived evidence. where’s the scientific evidence confirming his allegations? you’re going to have to come up w/more than one guy with an ax to grind.
ciao
So the letter has been tampered with, yet it’s “real” meaning is obvious. I wonder what medium to the spirit world came back with THAT interpretation.
Ah, but dividing the spoils of WW2, which really, was no more than setting the world aright, is an entirely different matter!
So who needs San Remo, eh, Witty?
Your map, is crap.
At the end of 1947, Jews owned 1/3 of the privately held land and Arabs held the remaining 2/3.
At the end of 1947, most of the physical land of Palestine, something like 51%, was State owned land or unused scrublands or desert.
Try again.
Chaos said;
“Over five hundred Palestinian villages had been ethnically cleansed by Zionist militants before Israeli independence was declared”.
Wow. Five hundred villages BEFORE May 1948! And how many villages were ethnically cleansed after May 1948? How many Palestinian villages were cleansed in total?
And here’s another fun fact. There were over 6,600 Jewish war dead in Israel’s War of Independence. Who do you suppose killed them?
So basically you’re going to shoah deny the map data out of existence? Those maps prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Israel not only rejected but violated the UN partition lines. Address that instead of trying to distract from it. Nobody buys your racist, colonialist “Land without a people!” trope at this point.
Answer my questions and I’ll be happy to continue.
You said, “Over five hundred Palestinian villages had been ethnically cleansed by Zionist militants before Israeli independence was declared”
Now please tell me. How many villages were ethnically cleansed after May 1948? How many Palestinian villages were cleansed in total?
I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that anything Jewish terrorists did before May 1948 no longer mattered. That’s pretty handy. Where is that rule written, by the way?
As many as 15,000 native Middle Eastern people were killed, and unlike the Israeli casualties, most of them were civilians. Who killed more than twice as many and mostly civilians?
Sorry, but when it comes to Israel, you guys are the 1%, even though you do many times that in shrill yelling and carrying on. And unfortunately, you’re willing to try and censor the speech of those you disagree with.
This has got to be one of the lamest protest videos I’ve ever seen.
It’s also one of the most dishonest. You in no way represent 99% of the Jewish community. You don’t represent a majority. You don’t represent a large minority. Like always, you are a small community loud, shrill leftists, and most people look at you as a joke and your care for the Jewish people as a cynical lie.
Support for Israel in the Jewish community has nothing no more to do with the philanthropists who support programs like Birthright Israel than support for Palestine in the Arab community has to do with fascists in Saudi Arabia who put up money for the Palestinian cause.
I think it’s very telling that you have someone reading a script and sheep repeating it, particularly someone like Mendacious Max Blumenthal. On the other hand, perhaps we should try this technique at the next pro-Palestinian event, and have a back and forth reading of the Hamas charter, or clerical speeches from Palestinian state TV. Or some of the comments from Mondoweiss.
For the record, no guide on my Birthright trip told me that Palestinians raised their children to hate Jews. And for the record, no one told me I had to support settlements or hate Palestinians to love Israel. I know few who walked away from the experience with those views.
We are NOT the 1%.
The entire 1% vs. 99% parallel doesn’t apply to this conflict. People are much more informed about the economy because it directly affects them. Israel-Palestine does NOT directly affect them.
You can happily trumpet more intellectually dishonest one-liners precisely because the American public is not informed sufficiently enough on this conflict and because your side regularly censors the Palestinian voice.
You even censor a children’s exhibit. Or a book about a Palestinian child in Canada. Or a question on a test that includes Edward Said.
Your positions are unreasonable and hypocritical. Everything is within the parameters of Jewish nationalism. You make concessions of logic to these parameters by saying idiotically vague statements like: “Blah blah ignore the complexity of the situation Israel finds itself in.”
To summarize: you prevail through the IGNORANCE and disinterest of the American public.
The people who do support you can be classified as anti-Arab racists/Islamophobes, neocons or the far-right, Christian Zionists, bought-and-paid-for-congressman, P.E.P who worry about their careers so they don’t say anything meaningfully critical, etc.
And in any serious debate, our best trounces your best. In fact, it happens every single day here.
The only thing a clown like you can do is WHINE. And your arguments, all of them, boil down to:
verb, noun, antisemitism.
Get lost twerp.
“Get lost twerp.”
Look, Hophmi bought a computer, and its browser is stuck on Mondoweiss. He hates it here, but it’s the only website he can get. Believe me, as soon as he learns how to find another website, he’ll be gone like a rocket.
Hophmi, the majority is not always right. For instance, 60% of Americans don’t believe in evolution.
Look, most people _know_ evolution is made up. In fact, it’s 60%. How are you going to argue with us all? You have just pointed to an obvious case of most people being right!
(joke)
Aww come on. mollistan. It’s gotta be less than 60%, right? I hope… You’re probably right… :(
Seriously though, the hardcore Christian Zionists are less than 20% of the country. There are still an awful lot who reject evolution but at least they don’t support a dispensationalist 19th century hoax like Darby’s rapture. I’m not a fan of evolution myself, I prefer ‘mutation’ as the proper term.
No, evolution ithe proper term. An awesome theory. The fact of evolution is so much more sublime than an bronze-age story that I actually feel sorry for people who chose to believe the myths in Genesis over perhaps the most well supported scientific theory of them all.
what does that matter mollistan? JVP is trying to paint themselves as the majority in the Jewish community where in reality they struggle to get 10 buffoons together to disrupt an event with 100s of ppl there. JVP is definitely the %1 when it comes to the Jewish community.
So most Jews do think they have a right to kill Arabs, DBG? You’re good at quoting polls, get me the poll on that one.
Was one of the LEAST lame protest videos I’ve seen. Was excellent. Keep up the great work!
thanks for the post – Kiera Feldman’s full article is one of the best things I’ve read in a long time! the provoked discussion is none too soon – everyone seems to agree that the 1% funds “Birthright” but that doesn’t mean that everyone attending it is 1%. it also doesn’t mean that high-achievers aren’t the ones who succeeded in breaking the blockade of Gaza in 2008 (and stayed to do so much more), or people like Cecilie Surasky, (and on and on), and certainly Kiera Feldman! unless you accept the 1% definition of achievement without a thought to what the 99% wants to achieve…
but the broader picture to some outside the Jewish community is the ominous ending to Feldman’s article when the police threaten the activists. does anyone doubt that the iron heel would think twice about crushing Jews along with Muslims if they are not in the 1%? the line is becoming clearer every day.
To use the word “birthright” for a state instead for a human (natural person) is very rich. It’s the Zionist who deny the Palestinians their birthrights until today, which is the right to self determination (state or state merger), human rights (right to return) or the right to citizenship (refugees).
From “Top Ten Myths about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” by Jeremy R. Hammond:
“4.) … Nations don’t have rights, people do. The proper framework for discussion is within that of the right of all peoples to self-determination. Seen in this, the proper framework, it is an elementary observation that it is not the Arabs which have denied Jews that right, but the Jews which have denied that right to the Arabs. The terminology of Israel’s “right to exist” is constantly employed to obfuscate that fact. …
Palestinians will never agree to the demand made of them by Israel and its main benefactor, the U.S., to recognize Israel’s “right to exist”. To do so is effectively to claim that Israel had a “right” to take Arab land, while Arabs had no right to their own land. It is effectively to claim that Israel had a “right” to ethnically cleanse Palestine, while Arabs had no right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in their own homes, on their own land.
The constant use of the term “right to exist” in discourse today serves one specific purpose: It is designed to obfuscate the reality that it is the Jews that have denied the Arab right to self-determination, and not vice versa, and to otherwise attempt to legitimize Israeli crimes against the Palestinians, both historical and contemporary.”
link to foreignpolicyjournal.com