Mondoweiss is a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective.
It has four principal aims:
- To publish important developments touching on Israel/Palestine, the American Jewish community and the shifting debate over US foreign policy in a timely fashion.
- To publish a diversity of voices to promote dialogue on these important issues.
- To foster the movement for greater fairness and justice for Palestinians in American foreign policy.
- To offer alternatives to pro-Zionist ideology as a basis for American Jewish identity.
This blog is co-edited by Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz. Weiss is 55 and lives in New York state. Horowitz is 38 and lives in New York City.
We maintain this blog because of 9/11, Iraq, Gaza, the Nakba, the struggling people of Israel and Palestine, and our Jewish background.
This site aims to build a diverse community, with posts from many authors. The views of these authors do not necessarily represent the views of Horowitz and Weiss.
Contact
General information and site issues: editors@mondoweiss.net
Submissions: submissions@mondoweiss.net
Allison Deger, Assistant Editor: allison@mondoweiss.net
Adam Horowitz, Co-Editor: adam@mondoweiss.net
Alex Kane, Staff Reporter: alex@mondoweiss.net
Annie Robbins, Writer-at-Large: annie@mondoweiss.net
Philip Weiss, Founder and Co-Editor: phil@mondoweiss.net
Mondoweiss c/o CERSC
attn: Anthony Arnove
45 Main Street
Suite 727
Brooklyn, NY 11201-1076
Donate
Mondoweiss is only able to continue with the support of its readers. The website is part of The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, a 501(c)(3) organization, and contributions to which are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.
You can make an online tax deductible donation here, or if contributing by mail, make your check payable to "CERSC - Mondoweiss" and send to CERSC, PO Box 180165, Chicago, IL 60618.
If you have any questions, or would like other donation options, please contact The Center for Economic Research and Social Change at (773) 583-7884.
This is my second post here. I left my first just a few minutes ago. I didn’t actually see the “about” page until a minute ago. So. I’m down. It’s noble. I don’t know any of you. Maybe some vague recollections which my ADD neatly dispatched. I have a few guesses the more I think about this. I hope I’m not conversing with people who scold for a profession. Professions have a way erecting walls of invulnerability for the professional. I will not waste (too much) time with proud people.
I read your 4 aims. I get it all but #4.
I don’t get it. I understand imagining all sorts of different hypothetical futures. (I am terrible with hypotheticals with an undefinable number of variables. As an intuitive but empathic mathematician by nature, permutations and combinations and chaos theory tend to overwhelm me and render me unable to make a “best” or even “locus of best” determination.)
So, how do you un-do Israel? I don’t see realism, I see academia and impossible immeasurables all over this discussion. (I have the feeling I’ve stepped into a hornets nest of pre-discussed assumptions and righteousness. Am I wrong? This is not something I talk about regularly.) Why WOULD you want to un-do Israel? Is America the Jews’ best long-term hope, and how do you know? (My family came here, both sides, between 1870 and 1890, pre-Ellis Island.) How can we quantitate or qualify answers that are anything but trendy or bowing to the zeitgeist of the moment?
And lastly, all politics being personal I tend not to see “aims” and “morals”, I see: Freud, Erikson, Freud, Freud, Freud, Erikson.
I too have much problems with their “About”; especially no. 3 AND no. 4. I am a Zionist through and through. If you don’t know what a Zionist is, or see Zionism as a negative, it is bases on Torah Chapter 15: 18 – 21.
“Why WOULD you want to un-do Israel?”
I would want to un-do it because it is evil.
Israel was evil in conception.
The idea was an ethnically based state, run for the benefit of a single ethnicity. This was wrong. It is always wrong for a state to privilege one ethnicity over others. The White Australia Policy was wrong when it staarted, and stayed wrong. The same is true of Zionism.
Israel was evil in creation.
Israel was created through abominable acts of mass murder, ethnic cleansing, destruction, and lies.
Israel is evil in conduct.
Israel has not ceased its ethnic cleansing, its persecution, its destructive wars, and its lies.
“Is America the Jews’ best long-term hope, and how do you know?”
Hope for what?
Okay. Got why you would want to undo it. Still, you went straight for the academic, the visceral. I don’t understand the nuts and bolts.
As far as “Hope for what”? Well, I trace my ancestry through the book “The Unbroken Chain”. My mother is a genealogist. She has over 10,000 family members on computer. Not just the chain; more importantly, the family stories, the myths, the newspaper clippings, the gravestone rubbings, the surprising connections….the clues to the people that once were. The hopes of these people to one day produce me as the inheritor of the best of all that they are. I owe them something by my existence, and my son can someday choose whether to come to this same conclusion.
So asking me “Hope for what?”, this coming from someone who is capable of such moral clarity, has such an immoral, snarky twang to it that I don’t think I need to dignify with a answer. You either chill out with the stridency or we have no conversation. I think you know for what I hope.
Why did they bulldoze one of the oldest cemeteries in Jerusalem….? It seems like such an intentionally, deeply -wounding backward gesture….
For a country so fraught with ‘evil’ it has had extraordinary economic, artistic, and scientific success on the world stage, despite the huge financial burden on the country to sustain its military force. When the Palestinians decide to turn their hate into something constructive we might start getting somewhere. I remember how the green houses left behind by Israel after the evacuation of Gaza were smashed to pieces by the proponents of Hamas.
You’re not in Kansas anymore Dorothy.
Israel’s military is funded by the US to the tune of more than $3 billion dollars annually. The US bears the burden, not Israel.
Oh really? Please cite a reliable source that supports that statement.
The New York Times reported [article quoted at this blog] that settlers disassembled and even destroyed some of the greenhouses, that a small amount of looting did occur after Israel’s unilateral faux withdrawal in 2005 and then that the greenhouses that were left were quickly repaired and put back into use, by the end of 2005:
NYT: Gaza greenhouses herald economic harvest
The Goldstone Report reported on Israel’s widespread destruction of Gaza’s Greenhouses [my emphasis]:
1021. The Mission also reviewed satellite images showing significant destruction of greenhouses throughout Gaza. In total, it is estimated that over 30 hectares of greenhouses were demolished; 11.2 hectares were destroyed in Gaza City and 9.5 hectares in north Gaza. The Mission found that the large-scale and systematic destruction of greenhouses was not justified by any possible military objective.
…
1239. The destruction of land and greenhouses has an impact on the availability of fresh food in the Gaza Strip and, consequently, on the total supply of micronutrients to the population. Satellite imagery commissioned by the Mission shows that for the whole Gaza Strip an estimated 187 greenhouse complexes were either destroyed or severely damaged, representing approximately 30.2 hectares. Of all the destroyed greenhouses 68.6 per cent were in the Gaza and Gaza North Governorates; and 85.4 per cent were destroyed or damaged during the last week of the military operations. Satellite imagery also gives strong indications that tanks and/or heavy vehicles were likely to have been responsible for most of the damage.
The Gaza Greenhouses hasbara is very old and very unoriginal. Please try harder davidsc.
Oh yes, let’s amend that sentence of yours:
As a point in fact, not debate, Israel is probably economically self-sufficient enough that it doesn’t require any US government aid. (As a point open for debate, it might be wise to sever any US governmental aid.)
But for the sake of understanding, how large is Israel’s annual military budget?
You work with what you have…. Progress – means that the possibility exists to move forward, and when you proceed, you have HOPE. Changing the policies of HATE that have been (are!) the foundation of so many nations IS VITAL… We need to consider EVERYONE….we are all related… American Indians say, ‘all my relations’….. I say…. All my beloved relations.
Mikomikeyz,
You have a lot to catch up on here. ;-)
#4 is not about un-doing Israel. Try this on for size, which represents the thought prevalent at the time your ancestors came here:
link to home2.btconnect.com
My family came here, both sides, pre- Ellis Island. 1870-1890. I try my hardest to discuss, learn, measure. I am known to debate, but fight that desire with every fiber of my morning breakfast. I usually lose that fight. Polemics? Only when I have one foot out the door and never intend on continuing the discussion.
I have seen this before (not in some time). I’ve heard alternatives discussed as to what Israel could have been instead, like a secular state.
Still, most of my post is unaddressed. How old are most of the posters here? I already know most of the positions I’ve read here so far. I’m 49. I only wish I could transport some of the zeitgeist of the 1970′s regarding Israel to this board and watch the two eras duke it out.
The Zeitgeist of the 1970′s you refer to was inflated up there by propagandists; currently, we benefit from access to much more information not generally available back then. Get up to speed. That should please your ancestors.
You realize you just dismissed me in saying “get up to speed”, when what you were addressing was a fantasy, an impossibility? I understand and empathize with your flip, dismissive, reductive response. Only someone who feels they haven’t been heard would respond so. Fair enough. I am not interested in combativeness, solely conversation. Your logic suggests that we know more now about what transpired in pre- and post-1948 then did the actual participants in the events of pre- and post-1948. Possibly, through forensics and legal paperwork. Although, having seen property battles with neighbors, I know how legality and morality often don’t correlate. And such forensics have a tough time re-creating the emotionally fleshy stories which aren’t contained in “information”. My guess is that 99.9% of the millions upon millions of individual stories surrounding that period of time have never been put on paper, and have either died with the participant or been told with the embellishment and polish of time to future generations. So, considering that far more of the participants in the pre- and post-1948 period were still alive in the 1970′s than today to recall events, I still think my imagined boxing match would be fascinating. PS I don’t think my ancestors would appreciate their stories and emotional lives reduced and dismissed as “propaganda”.
MRW,
I’ll add one more thing: I have family living in what is now Israel for 150 years. History: Napoleon almost created a Jewish State. Never happened. That would have been-what?-1800? Not a political statement, just history.
Mmmm, know any people who still take pride in the Stars & Bars? Everybody has a family tree. Get up to speed. This will honor your ancestors.
Yes. everybody has a family tree. I posted a bit of information for MRW about my family’s history, and about general history.
As far as getting “up to speed’, I like my speed just fine, and I’m sure my ancestors, as best I’ve been able to know them, would approve.
Is to seemingly viscerally dismiss, reduce and command those you imagine disagree with you on a message board your general quick default response? I don’t know you, so I don’t know in what context to take your response. This may be something you already know, but I’ll take a shot anyway: you might consider that there are less abusive emotional strategies should you have children. (Or do you have children?)
PS Your “snapshot of thought” in 1919 shows how zeitgeist changes. I know that Henry Morgenthau became a financial adviser to Israel. There is content in this fact which makes sense to consider on numerous levels.
Excuse the change of subject, but could you folks post somewhere on the site instructions on how to change one’s login password for this site? I can’t remember the arbitrary string of characters that was emailed to me as my password when I signed up, and I assume others might have the same problem.
If I’m just being dense and missing the obvious, the moderators should feel free to delete this and send me a private email instead.
I would also love to know if there is a way to choose a password!
To log into your profile and change your password:
- Go into any thread and click “Reply”.
- You’ll get prompted to log in. Log in.
- Right above the dialogue box for your comment, you’ll see your userid and the “Logout” option. Click on your userid and that will take you to your profile page.
- Change your password there.
Another change of subject.
I think the article highlighted below is well worth putting up on mondo, but I can’t think of a thread where it would fit. It does speak to our concerns about Christian Zionists — but there is more to it than that.
“The Rapture didn’t come, but don’t worry, the world is still boiling”
By Joshua Kahn Russell | May 23, 2011
link to rabble.ca
Joshua Kahn Russell is an organizer working to bridge movements for environmental sanity and racial justice. He is a strategy and non-violent direct action trainer with the Ruckus Society.
Here’s his second para, re American Christian Zionists.
“I was among many progressives making fun of the rapture all day Saturday, but ultimately the joke might be on us. When it comes to global warming and climate chaos, the script is a bit too familiar.
According to a recent poll, 44% of Americans believe increased severity of “natural” disasters is “evidence of biblical end times.” That’s nearly half the people in the most powerful country on Earth. 38% believe God uses Nature to dispense justice. It’s an important poll that climate change activists and sensible people everywhere should take seriously.”
Thank you, Phil and Adam.
The four principal aims are just right. I’m particularly pleased to see #4.
Philip and Adam, thank you guys for organizing and voicing the truth about Middle East. I was extremely sick and tired hearing Zionist Propaganda from Major networks like CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, NPR etc all doing Zionist propaganda. NPR was not like that years ago, they changed since 7 years. Zionists took over NPR as well.
I’m trying to make a donation – it worked last time but this time the system won’t have me unless I enter a US state and postcode. Any way through the barrier? – Martin
How do I repair my subscription service? I can no longer get email notifications of follow up comments, nor can I subscribe without commenting.
Help!! Thanks, Pat Montague alias patm