The other day a member of my extended family sent out the email at the bottom of this post to every other member of the family: "It's our land, by Benjamin Netanyahu."
I was shocked. I sent a note back on the spot to all the other members of the family saying I had traced my genetics to Kazakhstan so I wanted to move back there, but I needed numbers.
I regret being flip. I wished I'd been direct and sincere, and said that it was racialist theories like this that stand in the way of there ever being peace in the holy land, or for the country I love, the United States.
I'm still shocked because I didn't think anyone in my family would take this stuff seriously, but they do. My family are liberal Democrats, and scientists. There were a bunch of scientists on the list that the email came from originally, to my family.
The racial politics of the email underscore a big theme of mine: that neoconservatives weren't outliers in the Jewish community. They are a wing, yes, but they are not seen as extreme. The neocon interventionists of the last 15 years represent strong parochial, ethnocentric Zionist attitudes inside the American Jewish community. That's why when the neocons plotted the Iraq war and lo and behold it came to pass (thru a variety of circumstances) the liberal Jewish community never really turned on them. They blamed Bush. That was the single-gunman theory of the Iraq war.
Long before Iraq and Gaza exposed the vicious character of parochialism in my own community, I was uncomfortable with these attitudes inside the Jewish community. They played a part in my marrying out. After the Holocaust, we were all implicated in the question, Is it good for the Jews? I understand how it happened; but the consequences were tragic. Norman Mailer was eloquent on this theme: Hitler's bitterest posthumous achievement was to flood Jewish life with "cheap religious patriotism" and the sole concern, Is it good for the Jews? He said this in an interview with The American Conservative, and thereby anticipated the moment that this magazine started by Pat Buchanan would take the high ground in American life on the Gaza slaughter.
Because alas, my shocking email came from the soul of Jewish life, from the besieged, dehumanized, belligerent, and victimized soul that Israeli sociologists have lately described. There are many reasons I married my wife, but one reason is that these attitudes were suffocating to me; and there was not a scintilla of them in her background, and I wanted that fresh breeze. I know that I am only part of a larger trend; and yet I feel grateful for the relief my wife's culture brought me on this score, like landing on a beach.
62 percent of Jews under 35 are marrying out in part because parochialism is driving them out. I don't want the end of the Jews. I grew up loving my Jewishness and these days I am finding plenty company in Jewish life for my humanitarian beliefs. I want to play a part in reforming attitudes formed by the Holocaust. Because, if you read this email ascribed to Netanyahu, you will understand how dangerous they are.
(Phil Weiss)
It's our land…By: Benjamin Netanyahu
Apparently, Benjamin Netanyahu gave an interview and was asked about Israel 's occupation of Arab lands.
His response was "It's our land". The reporter (CNN or the like) was stunned – read below "It's our land…" It's important information since we don't get fair and accurate reporting from the media and facts tend to get lost in the jumble of daily events.
"Crash Course on the Arab Israeli Conflict."
Here are overlooked facts in the current &n bsp; Middle East situation.
These were compiled by a Christian university professor:
BRIEF FACTS ON THE ISRAELI CONFLICT TODAY…. ( It takes just 1.5 minutes to read!!!! )
It makes sense and it's not slanted. Jew and non-Jew — it doesn't matter.
1. Nationhood and Jerusalem . Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, Two thousand years before the rise of Islam.
2. Arab refugee s in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel .
3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BCE, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.
4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 CE lasted no more than 22 years.
5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem , they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.
6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures.Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.
7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem . Mohammed never came to Jerusalem .
8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem . Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem .
9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: in 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leaveIsrael by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews . Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.
10 The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.
11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.
12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own 20 people's lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel , a country no larger than the state of New Jersey .
13. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: the Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.
14. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel . Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them.
15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.
16. The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel .
17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel .
18. The UN was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians.
19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives .
20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
These are incredible times. We have to ask what our role should be. What will we tell our grandchildren about we did when there was a turning point in Jewish destiny, an opportunity to make a difference?
START NOW- Send this to 18 other people you know and ask them to send it to eighteen others, Jew and non-Jew–it doesn't really matter.
