Tablet has a roundtable about the Israel lobby. All the voices are Jewish. The best commenter is Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Voice for Peace, though Noah Pollak of the Emergency Committee for Israel lets his guard down in a remarkable manner. It is remarkable that Tablet, a home to ultra-Zionists, is offering even this much truth about Israel to its readers. Vilkomerson:
I see the so-called pro-Israel lobby as trying its collective best to... [condemn] the people of Israel to endless military escalation, ugly ethno-nationalism, and constant warmongering, to say nothing of the system of permanent control, oppression, and dispossession it strives to maintain over the Palestinian people—all in the name of protecting Israel.
From the perspective of my Jewish values, too, I see the pro-Israel lobby doing much more harm than good. In all its component parts, it encourages Islamophobia, fundamentalist Christian apocalyptic anti-Semitism, and the elevation of power over justice. It does tremendous harm to the Jewish community in the United States when it equates criticism of a state’s actions to anti-Semitism, thus de-valuing actual anti-Semitism. And when the lobby pushes positions, as AIPAC is planning to do this week, such as exempting Israel from cuts while all kinds of crucial domestic programs are being downsized, it potentially harms all Americans.
Noah Pollak of the Emergency Committee for Israel directs his fire at liberals who are turning against Israel. He says the liberals should side with his Emergency Committee in the good fight. This is never going to happen. Even Eric Alterman, a committed Zionist, will side with liberal non-Zionists in the end rather than get into bed with Bill Kristol. The fact that Pollak devotes his space to this cause shows just how worried Zionists are about the left.
For the left grows ever more hostile to Israel, Pollak says; and pro-Israel liberals have too often picked
a fight with pro-Israel conservatives and groups like mine, the Emergency Committee for Israel, by claiming we are “politicizing” support for Israel or using it as a “wedge issue.”
They have it backwards. It is the self-styled progressives who have “politicized” support for Israel by seeking to move liberal opinion and Democratic Party policy in a hostile direction...
If the pro-Israel lobby is to thrive as a bipartisan political force, liberals must get their own house in order—and those who have the best prospect of encouraging liberalism’s better instincts aren’t conservatives, but fellow liberals, inside of whose camp the battle is being fought. In the coming years, we hope pro-Israel liberals come to terms with the problems in their own ranks and take up the fight against those who would turn the United States into an adversary of Israel. Despite the fact that they have done little to support conservatives who challenge the anti-Israel left, I am sure that conservatives, should pro-Israel liberals rise to the occasion, will not be shy about supporting them.
Thanks to Donna Nevel.
Speaking of JVP…….latest alert….click on the email thing and send a message.
Dear ___
Thousands of volunteer lobbyists are landing in Washington, D.C. this very minute for the annual convention of AIPAC, the powerful pro-war Israel lobby group that often acts like it owns Congress. *” “*
“But this year, I’m happy to report, we have a big surprise waiting for them!”
*As of this morning, plastered across the busiest Metro stations in D.C., there are 100 large back-lit ads with our message: “I am Jewish and proud – and AIPAC doesn’t speak for me.” *
*
Now we have just 48 hours to outnumber those thousands of AIPAC lobbyists with at least 20,000 pro-peace lobbyists-that means you!
*Click here now: link to jvp.org
[ link to salsa.democracyinaction.org ]*
You’ll be able to send an email AND call your Representative and the White House to tell them to say NO to AIPAC.
We think this brazen ad campaign – produced with Avaaz, the 19-million strong people-driven activist organization- is ground-breaking.
Now let’s overwhelm our Congressional representatives the same day they get inundated with AIPAC lobbyists who demand that Congress:
* Exempt aid to Israel from sequestration, despite the fact that Americans are bearing the burden of $85 billion in cuts.
* Guarantee US support for an Israeli strike on Iran, which would outsource decisions about the safety and security of the American people.
* Remain silent on settlement building in E1, enabling the Israeli government to drive a nail in the coffin of the peace process.
*We have just 48 hours to show that AIPAC represents a radical anti-peace minority. Click here now: **http://www.jvp.org/AIPAC*
AIPAC is the NRA of Middle East lobbies–they do not represent American Jews or voters. Let’s tell Congress and President Obama to send them packing.
Sincerely,
Cecilie Surasky, Deputy Director
P.S.: Just to be sure, on top of the 100 Metro ads, when members of Congress file into the AIPAC gala tonight, our 20-foot mobile truck will be there to greet them with the message see above. And when AIPAC lobbies on Capitol Hill, we’ll be there too.
[ link to salsa.democracyinaction.org ]
RE: “You’ll be able to send an email AND call your Representative and the White House to tell them to say NO to AIPAC.” ~ JVP via American
MY REPLY: Done! And I made a modest donation to JVP.
Why would the AIPACeteers fight, now, to exempt Israel from the sequester EXCEPT to show that they favor POWER (forcing Israeli values over American values) over JUSTICE (all, including Israel, share in the American hard times).
Rebecca Vilkomerson is remarkable–a breath of fresh air, like Mondoweiss.
rebecca is a giant!!!!
As in, “does this dress make me look gigantic?” lol
“All the voices are Jewish”
I do think we have to recongize and give credit to that—even as we wish there more huge numbers of Jews were actively involved in opposing zionist Israel and the US-Isr scheme.
But the Jewish ones like JVP and Code Pink are definitely the ones “out there” and visible.
And even though we have elite non Jewish figures speaking out about the Lobby and Isr and some orgs like CNI–I can’t think of a non Jewish or gentile “grass roots” type org out ‘” in the trenches” like JVP.
I don’t know why this is because obviously there is a growing number of Americans opposed and critical of Israel and the Lobby—-except that a gentile or non Jewish led group that would get out and do demonstrations like JVP would probably be too easily cast as a anti semite movement—so I think a lot of gentiles join up with JVP and similar groups for that reason.
At both the Washington Post and the NY Times you will find Vilkomerson on their reviled lists which tells us what we already well know about both “news” papers.
I was amused reading Steven J. Rosen, the committed ex-AIPAC chief for spying on behalf of Israel(Israel Firster if there ever was one), slamming all opposition as a ‘disease’.
People like Rosen are diseased, if anything. I’m still shocked by the fact that he is actually employed by a think tank in Washington. Goes to show that a lot of people who didn’t get in trouble like him are actually sharing the same basic mindset as he has, by hiring him to a top job without blinking, despite it all.
As for ‘liberal’ Zionists, don’t be so sure. Alterman is going to turn out like Roger Cohen. Annie did a great job demolishing Cohen recently when he tries again and again to create a false equivalency between violent ethno-facists and peace-loving liberals.
A lot of people like that who call themselves ‘liberals’.
Ultimately, the fight will be settled in the broader American context, which will irk the Steven J. Rosens of the world no end. Fantastic.
” In all its component parts, it encourages Islamophobia,”
Sorry, but that’s complete bullshit. There is a hard-right in the lobby that is Islamophobic, just as there is a hard-left in the pro-Palestinian community is unarguably antisemitic. But the lobby as a whole is not Islamophobic, and the pro-Palestinian movement as a whole isn’t either.
It’s an old game to define political movements by their extremists. That cuts both ways.
that’s complete bullshit. There is a hard-right in the lobby that is Islamophobic…..But the lobby as a whole is not Islamophobic,
did you open the link. the heading of her segment? it is titled
“AIPAC Fosters Islamophobia and Elevates Power Over Justice”
why don’t you read it and then argue aipac is not islamophobic, she’s not talking about j street.
Hophmi, methinks you protest too much. Let me put this straight: the Zionist movement as a whole fosters Islamophobia. Islamophobia is ingrained in Zionism just like Islamophobia is ingrained in Hindutva. Just as anti-Westernism is ingrained in Islamism. The beginnings of these movements can be traced to the last two centuries are so.
Let’s stop pretending Zionism is a Biblical prophecy. It’s another petty, paranoid, non-special, fascist, gold calf-like, tribe-makes-right fundamentalist movement that comparatively gets way more respect than other fundamentalist movements.
for claiming that israel speaks for all jews
israel firsters are the real antisemites
because when the public awakens to the fact that america’s unconditional support for israel endangers not only our troops in afghanistan & elsewhere, but everyone here in the homeland, there’s gonna be some reckoning -
“hey, would you believe it? and since israel claims that it speaks for all jews, damn them, they’re to blame”
which means we either succeed in educating the public about palestine/israel & the treachery of israel firsters
with justice for palestine to follow
or face the consequences of a justifiably enraged public looking for scapegoats
and if bringing on the possibility of another holocaust isn’t antisemitic, what is?
Zionists should flee to the hugging arms and loving bosom of the Republican party. They can join the rest of the wackos and provide even more proof that America’s Republican party is a dumping ground for extremists. It’s a natural fit.
Emergency committee guy: “If the pro-Israel lobby is to thrive as a bipartisan political force,… ‘” There is no such thing! Antisemite! Excommunicate!