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A British Jew warns US Jewish orgs to heed rapidly-shifting world opinion

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Sheldon Adelson wearing Romney button in Hebrew, at King David Hotel Jerusalem, 2012
Sheldon Adelson wearing Romney button in Hebrew, at King David Hotel Jerusalem, 2012

We received the note below from a British Jew. I then had a conversation on the phone with him and he said he felt the urgent responsibility to communicate the world’s opinion of Israel to American Jews before public opinion in the U.S. shifts dramatically, led by the BDS movement. I’m honoring his wish to remain anonymous.

How do you describe the feeling that your life has been a lie? I think that the reason Jews are so reluctant to acknowledge what is clearly in front of them, is that shifting from ‘Israel is never wrong’ to ‘we have created a monster’ is such a terrifying realisation, self delusion is the easier path.

Please hold my hand. I need you to talk me ‘down from the ledge’ because as I finally see the horror in front of us, I am petrified. I’m reaching out because I don’t know what to do and I hope that by explaining to you, how scary shifting your position on Israel is, I can help us establish a process for other Jews. I need help.

Like Alcoholics Anonymous we need a place where Jews can safely process the ramifications of Israel. This is not a well written article, I’ve edited it many times, but please identify the confused structure, panic and paranoia as the experience all Jews go through when we realise what is in front of us.

I am sure there is a clever word for people like me (a play on birthright, birthrefusal?) who were raised pro-Israel and now see that the only logical position, any sane person can take is that the USA was complicit in Israeli crimes against humanity. How can any normal person not be pro-Palestinian? How can any American not be outraged at what they funded, supported and received hatred for?

I live in London in the UK, my father is Israeli and I was raised to support Israel. Pure hasbara. The atmosphere in Europe towards Israel was bad but is now toxic. If the USA shared the European view, the Jews would be deported out of Israel. Europe used to hate Jews because of anti-semitism, now they have a reason to hate us.

No sane person can support Israel. Any sane person can form a conclusion that the organized American Jewish community, that I admire and love so much, has blinded Americans, given tax money to Israel, and put a bullseye on their back.

My concern is not a reduction in support for Israel, but a vitriolic backlash from the American people, towards Israel, the Jews, the Adelsons of this world, AIPAC, etc. Support for Israel won’t go from 51% to 49%, it will fall off a cliff, with massive implications.

While we sit and dither, the BDS and internet movements have hit a nerve. Students and academics are the only people ‘the lobby’ can’t buy or intimidate. Telling young people no, only makes them more determined. No open debate can support Israel. This is an albatross and will haunt us forever. President Obama has set up Israel perfectly and even peace now won’t suppress future criticisms and revisions. Israel is a stain on America’s history.

While Jews communicate Israel in nuance, the public will say; we paid $100 billion for what? We vetoed war crimes for what? No way. Nothing is off limits. Nazi-esque reparations will be called for, investigations, sanctions, the truth is, I’m very scared.

The EU has already announced sanctions against the settlements. Either Israel agrees to peace now, right now, today, or world condemnation will follow. The message should be it’s already too late.

I apologise for what seems like a rambling, paranoid, overly personal article, but as I said, shifting positions on Israel is so hard and scary, there needs to be a bridge. Create the safe place today that says; Israel is moments away from International condemnation, an irreversible decline in its standing with the American public and pariah status, for Israel, Israelis and Jews.

You can’t legally argue every Israeli position. Human rights trumps emotional attachment. Israel screwed America is a better argument than Israel is sort of a democracy. Israel waged wars, but lost the big battles. American Jews, this is wrong, you will not win in the court of public opinion. Israel will lose, try to salvage something.

The urgency with which peace needs to happen cannot be over stressed. BDS is here. The truth is here.

I then had a second conversation with him on the phone. A London professional, he said he had opened his eyes on these issues when he saw that Avigdor Lieberman was reaching out to Russia, evidently for protection at the United Nations if Israel loses the U.S., and thought, Game over. American Jewish organizations are so completely disconnected from the world’s opinion of Israel they do not see the next phase of the conflict, which is upon us, right now. BDS has educated the next generation, and Palestinians will be going to the U.N. to seek rights, and then– “the light will be shined on the laundry.”

Stories will get out that no one can defend: Wait, a Jew and a non-Jew can’t get married in Israel? Wait, they’re building roads that Palestinians can’t drive on?

I have never been more panicked, he said. Europe is gone, the U.S. is reaching a tipping point, and he fears a “toxic” reaction in public opinion in the U.S. And Obama will not lift a finger, because Israel embarrassed him and when he gave Israel a last chance to “sweep things under the rug,” with a two-state solution, the three numbskulls, Lieberman, Bennett and Netanyahu, took a sledgehammer to it.

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The moment is fast approaching when Israeli Jews, if they do not accept a South Africa-type deal, will be faced with the fate of the pieds noirs European settlers in French Algeria. There is very little time left.

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I dont agree one bit. Truth is that IP conflict is dead, not many cares unfortunately.

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Thanks Phil. For sharing this and that Aslan video. Both are pitch perfect, imho.

Consensus, forgiveness, sharing form the path forward. I think that would address the concerns in both outlooks.

The “What Happens Next?” series here at MW also has much “reaching out” ideas in its articles.

Tough road ahead though. No question.

Pam Olsen just posted an MLK quote that illustrates the root PTB blame mentality:

Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr. https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2014/03/reminded-integrating-barnards.html/comment-page-1#comment-653722

All people, not only Jews, will have to courageous and resilient as this conflict moves into its “punishment of the innocent”* phase. The people that have been right and moral on this (no matter when they came to those realizations) are going to get blamed for causing all the problems. That may be a common bond which may help alleviate some of your contact’s angst.

New families. New tribes. …

Thanks again. I think you all are getting out in front of this. That alone is a good sign.

*These phase lists are meant as humor, but its very dark humor and they have a very strong ring of truth to them: http://www.pinetree.net/humor/projectphases.html

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Support for Israel won’t go from 51% to 49%, it will fall off a cliff, with massive implications.

Nonsense!

The chief engine of support for Israel is Evangelical Christians who are roughly 33% of the population. Their support for Israel is more dogged than Jewish Americans.

In real terms, America’s Sarah Palins are more Zionist than Adelson – not for the same reason as Jews are; but even more Zionist.

No other country in the world has such a large component of Evangelicals. Europe does not. They have Catholics and mainstream Protestants.

Fire-breathing Evangelicals are almost – not totally – unique to the Americas: The USA, Canada, Brazil, and yes: Chile. Click Here.

In Brazil, the locals say that when the Evangelicals hit 50%, Brazil’s foreign policy [towards Israel] will change. Brazil is expected to flip to Evangelical in about 10-15 years. They are already 1/4 of the population. A critical mass to push through a pro-Zionist policy.

Click Here

They have already started to change the Brazilian culture

Brazil’s fashion industry changes for Evangelicals

Okay! That girl may be a bit extreme, but it is changing the culture. Those Brazilian thongs on Ipanema may be fading into history.

The Americas are substantially different than Europe. In religion, the rise of a dissident Evangelical Christianity – not merely reformed, but on steroids – is changing the body politic. Israel has to hold out only one decade, and South America will start to flip, one nation at a time.

Some street demonstrations from various countries.

The protesters do not reflect government policy, not; but they are growing.

MEXICO SUPPORTS ISRAEL

CHILE SUPPORTS ISRAEL

ARGENTINA SUPPORTS ISRAEL

GUATEMALA SUPPORTS ISRAEL

PERU SUPPORTS ISRAEL

Those videos are made by an Argentine Catholic of Italian extractions

Marcelo100ARG

http://www.youtube.com/user/Marcelo100ARG

Yet, the Arabs are making a full court press in South America. The Palestinians in Chile are extraordinarily strong. But right now there is a massive Evangelical Revival in Latin America. Massive! These people are heavily Zionist.

Israel is aware of it, and making outreaches to them.

There is very little like this in post-Christian Europe.

So America – as well as Canada, and Latin America – will not go the way of Europe.

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Here’s an apropos comment I posted a few days ago on a different thread which shows I share the anonymous British Jew’s fears of what the future might bring for America’s Jews if they fail to get out in front on this issue. I was labeled an anti-Semite for my views:

https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2014/03/ululating-israelpalestine-conflict.html#comment-651882

Irishmoses says:
March 21, 2014 at 3:03 pm

“The intellectual labors are done, the activists are moving. The public square will increasingly belong to the warriors of both sides. And Vassar shows us clearly which side will win.”

Phil really stumbled onto something at the angry meeting he attended at Vassar College. Jews. even those who support BDS, are being identified as the problem and feel intimidated by the anger and stridency of those who oppose Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians. Phil himself felt that anger and was apparently intimidated enough to not participate and to leave immediately after the meeting. He saw the angry lack of patience for debate and the growing push for action by the unprivileged, the people of color, the non-Jews. His words above reflect his fear that the debate is ending and that the time for action and conflict is beginning.

The real question for me is when this intellectual debate ends and the battle lines are drawn how will the battle affect American Jews, just a tiny minority of our citizenry? If they are identified as supporters and enablers of an oppressive foreign regime to which their main loyalty lies, that would be a very dangerous development for American Jews. They could be identified as the problem and the underlying cause of whatever harm, perceived or real, that befalls this country because of Israel’s actions and corrupting influence on America’s governmental and public institutions. The charge might become not dual loyalty but disloyalty.

That’s a very scary prospect that should give American Jews pause. By failing to be out in front in opposing Israel and its US supporters on a very clear-cut human rights issue that is causing great harm to their own country, American Jews are potentially putting all their accomplishments, contributions, credibility and loyalty at stake. What happens if perceptions of Jewish privilege, Jewish influence, and Jewish power get attached to something truly nefarious like Jewish disloyalty to this country? Fairly or unfairly, those dots could be connected into a litany of charges, mostly unfair, that could be devastating to American Jews. Their visceral fear of a potential for a wave of antisemitism in this country could well become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Obviously “American Jews” are a diffuse and complicated group with a broad spectrum of opinions. Because of their success (and successful assimilation), they are no longer seen as a definable and threatening “other” group. But the Israel-Palestine issue has the potential for changing that perception and Phil’s experience at the Vassar meeting may reflect the beginnings of that change. Committed activists are tired of the talk and impatient with the intellectual pleadings of liberal Zionist Jews. They want action, not words, and they may be beginning to perceive Jews, even pro-BDS Jews, as part of the problem not the solution.

The comments about feeling uncomfortable and intimidated when Israel is questioned are illuminating. To the committed activists, Phil’s “outsiders of color”, Israel is the problem so there was no sympathy for claims of discomfort or intimidation by “privileged Jews”. Or, as Phil put it, citing Omar Bargouti, for people still in the middle, “If you need time to figure this out, just get out of the way.”

The sad irony in all of this is that American Jews have been the spearhead of civil rights in this country: workplace, racial, gender, sexual orientation, you name it. Yet, when it comes to Israel and Palestine, they have actively or passively enabled one of the worst and longest ongoing violation of human rights in modern times. Sure there are far worse examples in the world, but none of those have been promoted and enabled by an identifiable minority group of American citizens. Nor do any of those far worse regimes identify themselves as the homeland of the Jewish people, which, by definition, includes American Jews.

Zionism intentionally attached itself to the hip of American Jews and has successfully curried the loyalty of the vast majority and successfully encouraged them to use their political and financial influence to gain the support of our government for their cause. While there are valid emotional reasons for that attachment it comes with a price. It attaches American Jews to the actions and conduct of its oppressive regime. The question for American Jews is whether that emotional attachment is worth the moral price they are paying and the risk it poses to them.”

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