As everyone already knows (I’m always late to report news, inspired by Eugene Roberts, who used to say that great stories don’t break, they ooze), Helen Thomas has withdrawn from the anti-AIPAC hoedown in Washington in late May. Jim Abourezk at Counterpunch says that she was pressured to withdraw.
I’m fencesitting on this. In an earlier post I said it was a tactical mistake to invite Thomas because it would alienate the center and Jewish groups. Though yes I essentially agree with her view of the Jewish importance in the establishment, I find it crude. My friend Gail Miller takes me to task:
It’s a disappointment to me that you have contributed to this. I’m surprised that you think making nice to centrists and the Jewish community is the way to make progress on these issues; it’s dirty work that leaves behind a pile that smells bad. You kind of try to backtrack in the body of the post but I think the damage done by her withdrawal because of concerns from within MoveOverAIPAC will be, at the end of the day, damaging to our movement.
Fair enough. Gail has a lot more political experience than I do. Though I’d (typically) seek to extract good news: in the rallying of Arab-Americans and leftwingers around Thomas, I see a solidification of the movement behind the awareness that conservative Jewish influence must be addressed — the lobby, which is coextensive with the Jewish leadership– and therefore the importance for Jews of reconstructing Jewish identity before Zionism eats the media completely.
