There are times that one must look at the American Jewish community and say that it is deeply troubled, and Monday night at Temple Emanu-El’s Skirball Center was one of those times. I was sitting in the lavish sanctuary of the Reform synagogue off Central Park, surely one of the richest temples in the world, surrounded by 500 other Jews almost all of them my age and older (old), and on the stage a famous Israeli leader was attacking President Obama’s Iran deal, criticizing American Jews for assimilating and abandoning the “Jewish future,” calling on rich American Jews to stop giving money to universities where the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is active, because just about any criticism of Israel is anti-semitic, and never saying the word Palestinian all night, let alone speaking of Palestinian conditions– and Natan Sharansky was repeatedly applauded. And at the end of the speech he got a standing ovation.
The biggest human rights concern all night was: Why can’t Reform Jewish women worship at the Western Wall in Jerusalem?
This is the state of the American Jewish establishment. It shows utter contempt for Palestinian human rights in a senior citizen prom of narcissism.
Sharansky demonstrated complete hypocrisy himself. The former human rights activist who was imprisoned for nine years by the Soviets and then allowed to emigrate to Israel in 1986, at age 38, spoke with glee of the “destruction” of the Soviet Union. Used the word twice. Then his host David Harris of the American Jewish Committee joined that glee when he said that Sharansky is “dancing on the grave” of the Soviet Union.
So a man who was persecuted by a system has the perfect ability in a New York temple to celebrate the “destruction” of that order.
But now Sharansky is the chair of the Jewish Agency, which promotes Jewish emigration to Israel and to the occupied territories, where these colonists take over Palestinian homes and lands; but when the Palestinians say they are persecuted by Israel and they want to end a regime of Jewish supremacy that is Zionism– well, they are in the view of Israelis, “part of a grand strategy to delegitimize Israel and ultimately to destroy the Jewish state.” But that destruction is anti-Semitic.
“This campaign of delegitimization, of singling Israel … that’s classical antisemitism,” Sharansky said.
It reminded me of the end of Orwell’s Animal Farm, when the pigs have turned into men and the men to pigs. This guy spent nine years in a Soviet prison as a persecuted minority and now he persecutes a minority (that may even be a majority) and has no compunction dismissing their complaints of persecution as anti-Semitism.
Again: there was not a word all night about Palestinian conditions. In a temple filled with 500 privileged Jews my age and older (i.e., we’re headed for the dustbin of history, and not a moment too soon).
Sharansky acknowledged that young American Jews are turning against Israel. Half the 40 demonstrators at an appearance he made at Brown University in January with Michael Douglas were Jewish. But these must be assimilating Jews! The head of the Jewish Agency gave a lecture against assimilation. He said that the whole time he fought for Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union, he insisted that those Jews should go anywhere they wanted, not just Israel; but Moshe Arens, an Israeli politician who had spent a lot of time in the U.S., said that if those Jews went to America they would assimilate. Moshe Arens said: “Let’s look historically. Jews in America are assimilating. Jews who come from Russia to America, They will all be assimilated. So all this struggle is not for continuing the future of the Jewish people. Guaranteeing the future of the Jewish people, they have to come to Israel.” And Sharansky disagreed. But now he thinks Arens is right, and he tells the Russian Jews in the U.S., they have a “special responsibility” not to assimilate.
(Because my grandfather who came out from Russia 115 years ago did such a shitty job of guaranteeing the Jewish future because he failed to warn me about shiksas enough).
Then a woman in the audience said what is Israel going to do to counter the anti-semitism of the BDS movement, and Sharansky said, Wait, this is an American problem, so this is your responsibility, as American Jews. He talked about the donors:
This is something that is having great influence on your children and grand children. It has to be at the center of attention of American Jews. I have to say that in many universities where BDS movement is strong, the major donors to these universities are respectable members of the Jewish community and not always they agree to use their influence on them. So it’s something to think about first of all, for American Jews.
You rich Jews have to turn the screws on the universities, or you won’t be respectable in the Jewish community anymore.
If you missed the point, David Harris of the American Jewish Committee then stepped in to explain the obligation of American Jews to be in Israel’s army.
In our estimation there are three fronts: the Israeli military and authorities fight on one front to defend Israel, the Israeli civilian population has become a second front because of the acts of terror, and the third front are places like the campuses around the world, and that has to be our front. And organizations like AJC and others are focusing specifically on that front, and everyone in this auditorium, it is our obligation first and foremost to insure that we successfully meet the challenges on that front.
A few years ago Eric Alterman called out Ruth Wisse for fostering dual loyalty with just such an argument at the Center for Jewish History: American Jewish students have to serve in Israel’s army on campus.
Now here comes a major Jewish leader — who opposed President Obama’s Iran deal proudly — saying that American Jews have to serve on the battlefront for Israel in the United States.
Do these people have any idea that they are fostering anti-Semitism? A wealthy Jewish audience of 500 gathers to talk about Israel, and their obligation to fight for Israel, and not a word is said about Palestinian conditions but people are wringing their hands about access to the Western Wall for American Jews, and the richest people in the crowd are exhorted to put pressure on universities through their donations to shut down free speech against Israel on campuses. From a guy who once called on American Jews to pressure the Soviet Union on behalf of Jews when he was in prison.
That was the one moving moment of the night. A little girl (I guess there was one young person) asked if Sharansky had gotten her mother’s letters when he was in prison, and everyone laughed, but Sharansky said it was a great question. He never got the letter, but the Soviet authorities did. And that American Jewish pressure kept him from dying during a hunger strike of 110 days; but a fellow prisoner died a year later because he wasn’t famous (I believe a reference to Anatoly Marchenko), and American Jews didn’t write a lot of letters to the Soviets.
There are thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prisons right now, fighting to end a system of ethnic discrimination against them. And a lot of young American Jews know this and are on their side. Some day we will dance on Zionism’s grave.
“But these must be assimilating Jews! The head of the Jewish Agency gave a lecture against assimilation.”
I must say, I was very, very angry when I became aware I was an American citizen since birth, and not a Jew who might, if I found the US was worthy, reward it with my assimilation and citizenship. Pretty goddam presumptuous if you ask me. A broch tsu Columbus!
I heard a rumor a while ago that they put him in charge of the Jewish Agency because that’s what you do with useless Zionist bureaucrats. Wasn’t he in charge of Israel Bonds at one time? Damn, but if you can get yourself on this Zionist Gravytrain you are set for life!
Sharanskij: (in effect): “The Jews are the (“the” and not “a”) Chosen People, and they were chosen not to be holy, not to behave well in the wider world, but to be insular (so don’t assimilate) and, from inside that insular world, to do evil to others (non-Jews).
And that is insufficient to demonstrate “chosenness”: it is also necessary (as we can see from the behavior) to mistreat each other: white Jews (ashkenazi) must/may despise brown Jews (mizrahi), and both must/may despise black Jews (Ethiopian) — or, if not despising, at least ill-treating and ungenerously treating those lower on this color-tested pecking order.
And here sit these doddering American Jews, assimilated to the last one, but eager to assert “belongingness” to a so-called Jewish nation and therefore willing to cheer this misanthrope as if he represented something honorable, something desirable, something holy.
And sitting dodderingly, they listen approvingly to the cruel nonsense — which their synagogue apparently approves of ! — that complaint by outsiders at the behavior of Israel is somehow antisemitic. Circle the wagons folks even if you don’t live in the wagons and haven’t done what the wagon-eers have done and continue to do.
Sort of reminds me of how, when I go to classical music concerts I often have to sit through one “modern” or “contemporary” piece as well as old favorites — because the powers that be dictate that concerts must include such pieces (which most of the audience usually find ugly and pointless).
If only they’d offer me an honorary membership, so I could turn it down!
“It reminded me of the end of Orwell’s Animal Farm, when the pigs have turned into men and the men to pigs.”
Yep. Sharansky – cognitive dissonance or has he completely transformed into a pig?
“It reminded me of the end of Orwell’s Animal Farm, when the pigs have turned into men and the men to pigs. This guy spent nine years in a Soviet prison as a persecuted minority and now he persecutes a minority (that may even be a majority) and has no compunction dismissing their complaints of persecution as anti-Semitism.”
Well said. It’s an all too common theme wrt Zionism and Israel.
This evil is being promoted and applauded in a synagogue? Racism, miscegenation, incitement~ lovely. “Israel’s army” growing beyond its already terrible reach is horrific to contemplate.
Why is it that Zionists never speak in the language of peace, anyway? How can there be an admiring audience for these people?
Any bets that they are fully behind the witch hunt of Breaking the Silence?
“Israel action threatens to close down rights group and ‘chill’ free speech
…The case, which will be heard in court next week, is being brought by the Israeli government, which is demanding that Breaking the Silence identify anonymous serving military personnel who have given it testimony relating to alleged crimes in the 2014 Gaza war. The group says this is likely to deter future potential testifiers coming forward.
The move follows months of attacks on the group by leading politicians as well as rightwing activists – including attempted infiltrations by figures posing as sympathisers and a public accusation of “treason” by the country’s defence minister.
Breaking the Silence staff and its legal team say the legal moves not only pose a threat to the group but also threaten to “chill” both free speech and human rights activism in Israel.
Lawyer Michael Sfard said: “It is a judgment day for Breaking the Silence, and its continued ability to work. But I think it is also pivotal moment for Israeli civil society.”…
…The court case is the latest chapter in what appears to be an increasingly vigorous campaign to limit the activities of, or silence, Breaking the Silence and other groups including B’Tselem.
That began in earnest in December when Israel’s defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon, said Breaking the Silence would be banned from activities on Israeli military bases – although it does little work on them. A few days later, the far-right education minister, Naftali Bennett, made a similar statement regarding banning the group in the education system.
More sinister, claims the group, have been attempts to infiltrate it and provide false testimonies to discredit it, while it says there have been multiple efforts to hack into its database.
A bill that opponents say targets Israeli human rights groups critical of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians has also won initial approval in parliament with the support of rightwing parties. …”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/18/israel-action-threatens-rights-group-free-speech-breaking-silence-soliers
Yet, nothing is done about this miscreant/inciter:
“How an Incendiary Rapper Became a Symbol for Israel’s Angry Far Right
The Shadow is tapping into a rightward shift in Israel, and has gained a following among frustrated, anti-Arab citizens with his provocative calls to action.
…The hundreds that showed up alongside Eliasi – many of them shouting “Death to the Arabs” – attacked the left-wingers at the rally with clubs, beating them and sending at least one person to the hospital. No charges were filed.
‘An opportunist’
“He’s an opportunist – because he’s not really someone who would be making headlines for music,” says Ami Pedahzur, a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, who researches the radical right wing in Israel. “He is tapping into a well-documented rightward shift that has taken place in the country.”
“In the past, there would be condemnation across the board if a soldier committed a point-blank execution, as is the case with Azaria,” adds Pedahzur. “But today, we don’t hear condemnation from the right. The Shadow is more a symptom of the times than a problem.”
“I don’t think he is on the fringe,” agrees Dani Filc, a professor in Ben-Gurion University’s department of politics and government, who has done research on the populist radical right in Israel. “He is expressing, in a more rhetorically violent way, the things considered mainstream by the right-wing political establishment today.”
“The way he speaks about both Arabs and leftists has long been legitimized by the three main right-wing parties in Israel: Likud, Habayit Hayehudi and Yisrael Beiteinu,” says Filc. “The difference is mainly in the vulgarity of his expression and, of course, the phenomenon of social media.”
Eliasi basically makes the same point the academics do: “The right wing always wants to show it is enlightened. They don’t like being called baboons, so they throw me to the wolves. That way they can be like: ‘We are legitimate right wing. But he is an extremist,” he said during the Army Radio interview about being disinvited to the rally last month. “But I am not going to soften my talk. I tell it like it is,” he says.
Frequently hateful
“The Shadow’s Facebook page is, consistently, one the places where we find the highest incidents of hate speech,” says Anat Rosilio, who runs the “hate speech index” compiled by the Berl Katznelson Foundation, an organization that promotes democracy education.
Using a bank of some 200 hateful words or phrases – from “Nazi,” to “retard,” to “Death to Arabs” – and armed with a powerful computer program, the index combs through Hebrew-language Twitter feeds, Facebook posts and feedback pages on news sites, and maps cases of incitement and hate speech that are polluting the web. The program can scan over half-a-million online texts a day, Rosilio explains, and it can break down not only what is being posted, but who is being targeted: from Arabs and leftists, to right-wingers and settlers, to asylum seekers and members of local LGBT and ultra-Orthodox communities.
“It’s crazy,” Rosilio says about the amount of incitement found on the Shadow’s Facebook page, primarily in the comments section. “The numbers we find there compete with numbers we see on far, far larger platforms – like on Ynet,” she adds, referring to Israel’s most widely read news portal. …”
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/.premium-1.720041?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
This is today’s snapshot of ‘Israel’.