When I was in Gaza, an Arab-American in one of our delegations told me that the Jewish identity piece of the puzzle was a "sideshow." I agreed with him at the time. The scale of the suffering and destruction, perpetrated with American tax dollars, is so monstrous that Jewish handwringing over what my brother's best friend who made aliyah is going to tell me at Passover seems so much indulgent distraction from the central political issue: end support for militant expansionist policies.
Then I heard Obama in Cairo — a speech aimed in good part at American Jews– and came home to the fact of the Israel lobby in American politics and the importance of breaking up the lobby's stranglehold so as to give Obama political cover to move the discussion forward. And I realized for the hundredth time that the Jewish identity stuff is a central part of the political struggle, for only by learning to ignore the political/social/religious messaging inside the Jewish community from your brother's best friend who made aliyah can we enable the most powerful political group in America on I/P policy (American Jews) to at last divide on a basic liberal issue, of equal rights.
Here is the great Rob Browne, at dailykos, offering other Jews a little identity politics so as to help them down the road [emphasis mine]:
As a religious person who
holds progressive views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I have
been subjected to polite and not-so-polite criticism from family
members, friends, neighbors, and leaders of religious communities.
With experience and focus, I have been able to withstand their
accusations of being naive, anti-semitic, anti-Israel, self-hating, and
a terrorist-lover. I don't mean to state that those names don't hurt,
of course they do. What I do mean is that those words, generally,
don't get me into pointless arguments, don't get me to doubt my
religious and political views, and, most importantly, don't get me to
stop advocating for a more just and equal resolution for the people of
Israel and Palestine.
There are many people I know, however, who struggle with the
negative reactions to their political and/or religious views within the
I/P conflict. This causes many of them to shy away from getting
involved in solving the problem. Through my posts, I hope to reach
those people who have struggles between what they were taught and what
they view with their own hearts and minds. It is my desire to educate
them about about the D.C. related aspects to the conflict and help find
a way to put their knowledge into constructive action.
It seems, to me, that many religious, political,
business, academic, and media leaders with less progressive views of
Israel and Palestine have been able to define religions and craft U.S.
Middle East policy ideas by framing them within such direct narratives
as the Holocaust, anti-semitism, radical Islam, Islamo-fascism, nuclear
war, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Adolph Hitler. By repeating these
emotional ideas in religious institutions, think tanks, the halls of
governments (local, state, and national), and the media, they have
successfully been able to convince many people that those ideas are
religiously, morally, and patriotically righteous. After fearfully
tapping into people's base feelings, they are able to get their
followers to passionately advocate for these policies and donate to
supportive candidates.
Since I view the policies of these groups to have been a failure in
obtaining a just peace, I work for the advancement of more progressive
I/P ideas.
