American Jews on Jerusalem: We’ll Probably Never Go There, But Palestinians Can’t Share It!
By Mary Rizzo • Jul 20th, 2008 at 8:25 • Category: Analysis, Hasbara Deconstruction Site, Ideas and Projects, Israel, Newswire, Opinions and Letters, Palestine, Religion, Zionism
I’ve gotten a few “calls” for me to join the J Street lobby, and it is a mystery to me why anyone might think I would even want to (see their About page which I print below the article with my comments in red). I took a look and went straight to see their “settler and aliyah” platforms. I wouldn’t dare to even hope they have normal ideas on the ROR; but you have to start somewhere. Philip Weiss is able to summarise much better than I could that it’s just another hawk in dove’s clothing.
WRITTEN BY PHILIP WEISS
The new alternative Jewish lobby is proving its worth. Yesterday J Street released a detailed survey of American Jewish political opinion. J Street interprets this data in a favorable way to its own efforts, saying that overwhelmingly Jews vote Democratic, oppose Bush’s actions in the Middle East, and want a two-state solution– by 3 to 1. But you know me, I’m skeptical about progressive claims about Jewish opinion with respect to the Middle East, and I find support here. What the study shows is that when you get to brass tacks about Israel, American Jews are hawkish.
Yes, they have an unfavorable view of Joe Lieberman (by 48 to 37 favorable). Yes they will support Obama (but only 60-34 over McCain; bad news for Obama, who wants to get to 70 or 80). Yes they are for talking to Iran, not attacking it (Great!). Yes they are for an aggressive U.S. peacemaking role in the Middle East. Yes they call for sacrifices by Israel to achieve peace. Yes they disavow the neocons! Memo to Doug Feith: 13 percent of American Jews have a favorable view of neocons, 58 percent an unfavorable view, man you are in deep doo-doo. But under that is a hard core of hawkishness.
Consider these data points. By 60-28 Jews are more-likely-than-less likely to support a candidate who says that Israel is America’s greatest ally and we must let the world know that and we must never publicly disagree with Israel. When you make the statement more hawkish–America must do everything it can to protect Israel’s security, even if that means attacking Iran if it pursues nuclear weapons, and cutting off aid to Palestinians if their text books don’t recognize Israel, there is still a 48 more-likely to 41 less-likely split. Jews are tough when it comes to Israel! If a candidate were to say, Israel has repeatedly extended her hand to her enemies and been rejected year after year, and we must work with Israel to eliminate her enemies, Jews will love you– 65/23.
Oh and sadly, there is only one question in the survey expressing the mildest empathy for Palestinian suffering. J Street can’t really go there.
The same hawkishness shows up in attitudes about a peace deal. J Street didn’t really put this data out in its public statements, and I know why: they’re obdurate attitudes. Should Israel give up “most of the West Bank and dismantle many of the Israeli settlements” for a full peace–59/41 in favor. Well, that language is very weak–”Most of the West Bank”, “many of the settlements”–and still you have 41 percent against it! The same obduracy with respect to Jerusalem. Should Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem be “part of the new Palestinian state” –very vague language indeed, and no mention of the Old City–American Jews are against that 56 to 44 percent! Just what the far-more-conservative American Jewish Committee said in its survey a little while ago. The U.S. should tell Israel to “end settlement expansion.” Yes, 52. No, 48. No wonder Bush and Obama are afraid of their own shadows on the issue.
Oh, how many American Jews who express these hawkish attitudes have been to Israel? 42 percent. 3 out of 5 have never been.
The figures demonstrate the difficulty J Street is in. Even AIPAC gets favorable ratings here (by about 2 to 1) because it backs a hawkish program for Israel. So J Street can’t be too dovish. It will not get numbers. As I have written before, J Street is here to lobby the lobby. To put pressure on AIPAC from the left. Good for J Street! And J Street is trying to grow the differences with AIPAC, by hammering away in this survey on how much Jews dislike Rev. John Hagee of the Christian Zionists, AIPAC’s buddy.
Hagee is window dressing. The real issues are Jerusalem and the West Bank, and J Street reveals: obduracy. Compare those Jewish numbers to American attitudes generally. If all Americans knew, they’d be overwhelmingly against the settlements, and for an international Jerusalem. Which U.N. Partition called for in ‘47. These numbers show why J Street buttoned its lip when Obama shamelessly called for an undivided Jerusalem at AIPAC last month. J Street knows, Jews are behind Obama on that one.
I think J Street is a great thing. It will move things, but it will take years. The most important data here in the end may be the age data. Jews are older than other segments of the population. 52 percent of respondents are 50 and older. Only 36 percent are under 44. It’s the young Jews I’m looking to, and J Street is too. Let those older Jews die off a little, and you may be surprised. Jerusalem may one day be internationalized. But don’t hold your breath. And before that happens, something else is going to happen: there will be open war in the American Jewish community over the meaning of Zionism. I’m counting on the kids.
About J Street:
J Street is the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement. (An activist group can’t be a political arm and. how can one be Pro-Israel and at the same time be pro-peace… unless we are talking about the biggest gatekeeping phrase of the century, or at least just another uninteresting sound bite).
J Street was founded (by folks who have lived in Israel and have very strong connections there) to promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli (from the Israeli perspective) and Palestinian-Israel conflicts (from the Israeli perspective) peacefully and diplomatically (by getting Israel what it wants). We support a new direction for American policy in the Middle East and a broad public and policy debate about the U.S. role in the region. (The new policy is just looking less belligerent when working to get Israel what it wants).
J Street represents Americans, primarily but not exclusively Jewish, (ahahahahahaha!) who support Israel and its desire for security as the Jewish homeland (now how original is that?), as well as the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state of their own (this has become a right? Whereas the internationally recognised right is actually about the status as refugees and a resolution to this status of being apolide and the duty of Israeli reparations) - two states living side-by-side in peace and security. We believe ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in the best interests of Israel, the United States, the Palestinians, and the region as a whole. (We all know, they believe the best interests of Israel are what counts, but they can’t say that, can they?)
J Street supports diplomatic solutions over military ones, including in Iran; (from their Iran page: “Current US Policy towards Iran consists of supporting sanctions and out-sourcing diplomacy, and publicly reserving the right to military action, with the intention of stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and Iranian interference in Iraq.
A belligerent and possibly nuclear Iran is a serious threat to regional stability, American troops stationed in Iraq, and to our ally Israel, but current US policy fails to adequately address the Iranian threat.’ Well, I don’t see that much difference. It is interference in the name of knowing what is the most convenient thing for us - Israel and the USA). multilateral over unilateral approaches to conflict resolution; and dialogue over confrontation with a wide range of countries and actors when conflicts do arise. For more on our policy positions, click here.
J Street will advocate forcefully in the policy process, in Congress, in the media, and in the Jewish community to make sure public officials and community leaders clearly see the depth and breadth of support for our views on Middle East policy among voters and supporters in their states and districts. (given the results of the survey, there should be no problem whatsoever, there is no difference between them and what we have already on the table). We seek to complement the work of existing organizations and individuals that share our agenda. In our lobbying and advocacy efforts, we will enlist individual supporters of other efforts as partners.
J Street is itself a 501(c)(4) organization and is part of the J Street family of organizations, which includes an independent, legally unconnected Political Action Committee, JStreetPAC.
Mary Rizzo is an art restorer, translator and writer living in Italy. Editor and co-founder of Palestine Think Tank, co-founder of Tlaxcala translations collective. Her personal blog is Peacepalestine.
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Hagee is more than “window dressing!”
Speaking as an American Christian of The Beatitudes [meaning I follow what Jesus TAUGHT, not any institution] and having sat in the audience of a Hagee Cult event, I testify, Hagee is a false prophet and master manipulator of the fears of right wing and fundamentalist Jews and Christians in the US.
Let us not forget, most Americans consider themselves Christian, even if they are clueless as to what JC was all about.
Indeed, we must start some where and exposing Hagee and WAKING UP his legions of mis-informed Christians and Jewish supporters who have been led by his neo-con Armageddon-based foreign-policy views is THE place to begin!
In America, “tons” of Christians have been led by the Armageddon-based foreign-policy views of John Hagee, a false prophet who has captivated a congregation of 18,000 in his Cornerstone Church and those who tune into his TV show to applaud the drum beat of a full-scale military assault on Iran.
A nuclear Iran would make the ‘Holy’ Land a less desirable home for Jewish settlers, even though Israel’s underground WMD facility in the Negev remains un-inspected-a fact ignored by the US Government.
Hagee is a ‘Christian’ Zionist who believes that the modern state of Israel is a divinely-ordained phenomenon and its establishment was essential to the Second Coming of Christ.
‘Christian’ Zionists adhere to a misunderstanding of God as a Real Estate broker.
‘Christian’ Zionists opposes land-for-peace negotiations and have no eyes to see or hearts that bleed for their Palestinian Christian sisters and brothers enduring under a 40+ year military occupation.
Many ‘Christian’ Zionists fail at the commission to love all, and they seek to convert the Jews to their narrow small god or see them left behind in a nuclear holocaust that they erroneously believe they will be raptured/lifted out of.
The White House has convened a series of off-the-record meetings about its policies in the Middle East with ‘Christians’ United for Israel (CUFI), Hagee’s demented dream which sees CUFI as “the Christian version of AIPAC,” referring to the pro-Israel group which is rated a close second to the National Rifle Association as the most powerful lobby in Washington.
Hagee has “endeared himself to key members of the Israeli right. [And] recently united America’s largest Christian Zionist congregations and some of the movement’s most prominent figures–including the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Gary Bauer and Rod Parsley, an Ohio preacher instrumental in launching Republican Ken Blackwell’s gubernatorial campaign–under the banner of CUFI, creating the first and only nationwide evangelical political organization dedicated to supporting Israel.” [2]
On November 6, 2007, I attended a Hagee cult event in Miami and heard him claim, “Israel was re-born by an act of God and Israel lives! The Jews have suffered great persecution and survived slavery and the Final Solution! God Jehovah will bury Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran! The flag of Israel will fly over the undivided Jerusalem and be the praise of all the earth! It’s 1938 again and the new Hitler is Ahmadinejad! Radical Islamisicts are threatening to develop nuclear weapons in order to destroy Israel and then the USA! But we are indivisible and we are both here forever!”
The oft repeated comment ascribed to President Ahmadinejad, that “Israel must be wiped off the map,” was addressed by Virginia Tilley, Professor of political science who wrote:
“In his October 2005 speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad never used the word “map” or the term “wiped off”. According to Farsi-language experts like Juan Cole and even right-wing services like MEMRI, what he actually said was “this regime that is occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.
“In this speech to an annual anti-Zionist conference, Mr. Ahmadinejad was being prophetic, not threatening. He was citing Imam Khomeini, who said this line in the 1980s (a period when Israel was actually selling arms to Iran, so apparently it was not viewed as so ghastly then). Mr. Ahmadinejad had just reminded his audience that the Shah’s regime, the Soviet Union, and Saddam Hussein had all seemed enormously powerful and immovable, yet the first two had vanished almost beyond recall and the third now languished in prison. So, too, the “occupying regime” in Jerusalem would someday be gone. His message was, in essence, “This too shall pass.” [3]
What Has Already Passed:
Following the War of 1967, Israel gained an increased portion of USA foreign aid and military budgets, becoming the ‘western pillar’ of the USA strategic alliance against Soviet incursion into the Middle East.
During this period AIPAC and other pro-Israeli lobby agencies began their ascent to power in shaping USA foreign policy. The Roman Catholic Church and mainline Protestant denominations began to develop a more balanced approach to the Middle East, bringing them closer to the international consensus on the Palestinian question. Pro-Israel organizations interpreted this shift as being Anti-Israel and in turn began to court the conservative Christians.
In 1977, when President Carter stated “The Palestinians deserve a right to their homeland,” the Christian fundamentalists and Israeli lobby responded with full page ads stating:
The time has come for evangelical Christians to affirm their belief in biblical prophecy and Israel’s divine right to the land…and affirm our belief in the Promised Land to the Jewish people.
The Reagan White House hosted a series of seminars from the Israeli lobby and Christian right. This was when Hal Lindsay, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority infiltrated the West Wing.
Falwell received a Lear Jet from the Israeli government for his personal travel and when Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear plant in 1981, Prime Minister Begin called Jerry Falwell -before he called Reagan- to ask him to explain to the Christian public the reasons for the bombings.
In 1996, Netanyahu and Likud ideology dominated Israeli policy and 17 evangelical USA pastors pledged their support of the illegal colonies in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and full support for a Jerusalem under sovereignty of Israel.
The Christian Zionists launched a PR campaign under the banner: “Christians Call for a United Jerusalem.” They ignored the fact that they were in conflict with American policy and the Oslo process as well as a direct attack on Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant unity with the Churches for Middle East Peace that called for a shared Jerusalem.
In 2006, Hagee wrote in the Pentecostal magazine Charisma, “The coming nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty.”
Candidate Bush once claimed his favorite philosopher was Jesus Christ, but President Bush hasn’t much in common with the Prince of Peace who warned that to be forgiven, one must forgive, to not judge the unbeliever and that one must love and bless one’s enemies; not bomb, occupy or torture any.
Before Emperor Constantine brought Christianity into the mainstream, all the early Church Fathers taught that Christians should not serve in the army but instead willingly suffer rather than inflict harm on any other.
St. Augustine was the first Church Father to corrupt the message of Jesus who promised that, “The Peacemakers shall be called the children of God”[Matthew 5:9] when he penned his Just War Theory.
Within 100 years after Constantine, the Empire required that all soldiers in the army must be baptized Christians and thus, Christianity was watered down as ritual trumped love and commitment to the teachings and philosophy of Jesus.
With the justification of war and violence supplied by Augustine’s Just War Theory, wrong became right and in today’s Orwellian world politicians who claim the way to peace is through war have been united with the very wrong ‘Christian’ right, and history repeats itself.
In 313 AD, Emperor Constantine legitimized Christianity and thus, those who had been considered rebels and outlaws began to enjoy political power and prestige. Jesus’ other name is The Prince of Peace, and with the marriage of church and state, his true teachings were reinterpreted. Church advocacy of warfare and the use of state sponsored violence corrupted what Christ was all about, which was:
WAKE UP! The Divine already indwells you and all others. Christ taught that to follow him requires that one must love ones enemies; one must forgive those who hate, curse and revile them, without a thought of payback.
Christ lived a life that proved evil can be opposed without being mirrored, and that the cycle of a “tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye”, will never bring peace and justice.
The term Christianity was not even coined until three decades after Christ walked the earth. Until the day of Paul, followers of Christ were called members of The Way; the way being in DOING what he taught!
Jesus, while never a Christian, was a social, justice, radical revolutionary Palestinian devout Jewish road warrior who rose up and challenged the job security of the Temple priests by teaching the people they did NOT need to pay them for ritual baths or sacrificing livestock to be OK with God; for God LOVED them just as they were: sinners, poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under Roman Military Occupation.
What got Jesus crucified was disturbing the status quo of the Roman Occupying Forces by teaching the subversive concept that Caesar only had power because God allowed it and that God preferred the humble sinner, the poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under Roman Occupation above the elite and arrogant.
When Jesus said: “Pick up your cross and follow me” everyone back then understood he was issuing a POLITICAL statement, for the main roads in Jerusalem were lined with crucified agitators, rebels, dissidents and any who disturbed the status quo of the Roman Occupying Forces.
OPS!
Here are the Footnotes and Sources:
2. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060814/new_christian_zionism/single
3. http://www.counterpunch.org/tilley08282006.html
Other Sources:
http://www.christianzionism.org
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=704&Itemid=180
The leadership of the American Jewish community has always been an obstacle to peace. The leadership thrives on the blood of both of Jews and Arabs and the spelling of blood means good business for the leadership, a way to raise lots of money and this money is used to buy and influence our Congress ( it does not take much to buy our Congress) but a $50 million annual budget goes a long way to buy influence in this town. Peace for Israel will put the Jewish leadership out of business. What can the leadership offer American Jews? Nothing. Since the days of Nixon, the US policy on the Middle east has been formulated and implemented by members of the American Jewish community and in that position they have formulated US policies that supported and made American partner in the Jewish Occupation, formulated and funded US policies toward settlements, toward the Wall, toward the Checkpoints… We must not under estimate such influence. if the American Jews decide tomorrow they want peace for Israel they will get members of Congress to support policies and fund peace for Israel The Palestinian leadership will be wise to first negotiate peace with American Jews then it can go back to Palestine and negotiate with Israel. Without the active, public support of the American Jewish community, there will never be peace. The American Jewish leadership thrive on the conflict in the Middle East and it is a business, big business. Peace for Israel will put the leadership out of business.
Jeff Halper is an American Israeli, Founder and coordinator of ICAHD who moved to Israel from Hibbing, Minnesota during the Vietnam War years.
When he told his grandmother he was leaving the states, she warned him, “Israel is no place for a nice Jewish boy.”
Jeff can no longer count the times he has been arrested for NONVIOLENT acts of civil disobedience against the occupation of Palestine and all of its evils, in particular, the destruction of Palestinian homes by Israel, who receive no compensation for their legally owned homes and land.
He wrote: AN ISRAELI JEW IN GAZA:
A STATEMENT BY JEFF HALPER
In another few days, I will sail on one of the Free Gaza movement boats from Cyprus to Gaza. The mission is to break the Israeli siege, an absolutely illegal siege which has plunged a million and a half Palestinians into wretched conditions: imprisoned in their own homes, exposed to extreme military violence, deprived of the basic necessities of life, stripped of their most fundamental human rights and dignity. The siege violates the most fundamental principle of international law: the inadmissibility of harming civilian populations. Our voyage also exposes Israel’s attempt to absolve itself of responsibility for what is happening in Gaza. Israel’s claim that there is no Occupation, or that the Occupation ended with “disengagement,” is patently false. Occupation is defined in international law as having effective control over a territory. If Israel intercepts our boats, it is clear that it is the Occupying Power exercising effective control over Gaza. Nor has the siege anything to do with “security.” Like other elements of the Occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where Israel has also besieged cities, towns, villages and whole regions, the siege on Gaza is fundamentally political. It is intended to isolate the democratically-elected government of Palestine and break its power to resist Israeli attempts to impose an apartheid regime over the entire country.
This is why I, an Israeli Jew, felt compelled to join this voyage to break the siege. As a person who seeks a just peace with the Palestinians, who understands (despite what our politicians tell us) that they are not our enemies but rather people seeking precisely what we sought and fought for - national self-determination I cannot stand idly aside. I can no more passively witness my government’s destruction of another people than I can watch the Occupation destroy the moral fabric of my own country. To do so would violate my commitment to human rights, the very essence of prophetic Jewish religion, culture and morals, without which Israel is no longer Jewish but an empty, if powerful, Sparta.
Israel has, of course, legitimate security concerns, and Palestinian attacks against civilian populations in Sderot and other Israeli communities bordering on Gaza cannot be condoned. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel, as an Occupying Power, has the right to monitor the movement of arms to Gaza as a matter of “immediate military necessity.” As activists committed to resisting the siege non-violently, I have no objection to the Israeli navy boarding our boats and searching for weapons. But only that. Because Israel has no right to besiege a civilian population, it has no legal right to prevent us, private persons sailing solely in international and Palestinian waters, from reaching Gaza - particularly since Israel has declared that it no longer occupies it. Once the Israeli navy is convinced we pose no security threat, then, we thoroughly expect it to permit us to continue our peaceful and lawful journey into Gaza port.
Ordinary people have often played key roles in history, particularly in situations like this where governments shirk their responsibilities. My voyage to Gaza is a statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people in their time of suffering, but it also conveys a message to my fellow citizens.
First, despite what our political leaders say, there is a political solution to the conflict, there are partners for peace. The very fact that I, an Israeli Jew, will be welcomed by Palestinian Gazans makes that very point. My presence in Gaza also affirms that any resolution of the conflict must include all the peoples of the country, Palestinian and Israeli alike. I am therefore using whatever credibility my actions lend me to call on my government to renew genuine peace negotiations based on the Prisoners Document accepted by all Palestinian factions, including Hamas. The release of all political prisoners held by Israel, including Hamas government ministers and parliamentary members, in return for the repatriation of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, would dramatically transform the political landscape by providing the trust and good-will essential to any peace process.
Second, the Palestinians are not our enemies. In fact, I urge my fellow Israeli Jews to disassociate from the dead-end politics of our failed political leaders by declaring, in concert with Israeli and Palestinian peace-makers: We refuse to be enemies. Only that assertion of popular will can signal our government that we are fed up with being manipulated by those profiting from the Occupation.
And third, as the infinitely stronger party in the conflict and the only Occupying Power, we Israelis must accept responsibility for our failed and oppressive policies. Only we can end the conflict.
In the Israeli conception, Zionism was intended to return to the Jews control over their own destiny. Do not let us be held hostage to politicians who endanger the future of our society. Join with us end the siege of Gaza, and with it the Occupation in its entirety. Let us, the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, declare to our leaders: we demand a just and lasting peace in this tortured Holy Land.
(Jeff Halper, the head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, was a nominee for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. He can be reached at jeff@icahd.org. )
I was in a thread over at Jewlicious defending Dr. Norman Finkelstein and one of the posters commented thusly; he was glad that Jews controlled the region, and had the exclusive “right of return,” kept the Arabs displaced, that Israel continued to recieve much foreign aid money and political support, was never going to make aliyah himself, and was glad that he could do his part to make sure all of the above continued to annoy the goyim.
At least his honesty was refreshing, if not his hypocrisy and lack of ethics.