Weird News from Israel
July 3rd, 2009You can tell it’s summer; with so many reporters at the beach or on furlough, we’re being glutted with oddball little stories, some coming from the Jewish state and its environs.
Tablet, the newish online Jewish publication, has this winner: Israel’s blockade of Gaza has kept the swine flu out of the overcrowded region (read it here).
Seems if people can’t come or go, the flu bug can’t, either.
I’m wondering: how long will it be before Israeli right wingers tell us this proves the blockade is actually humane - a kind of enlightened public health exercise by Israel? How long before the Palestinians figure out some way to recast this unexpected side benefit of the Israeli blockade as a sinister Zionist plot?
In another bizarre tale, former Rep. Cynthia McKinney visited Israel this week. Unfortunately for her, the accommodations were something less than the usual for VIP delegations. Instead, the former Georgia lawmaker, whose career was marked by repeated brushes with the Jewish community, was being hosted by Israeli penal authorities who, like Georgia voters a few years ago, were having a hard time getting rid of her.
Seems McKinney was on that boat that was trying to run the Israeli blockade to bring supplies into Gaza. McKinney pulled the same stunt back in December.
Israeli officials were busy this week trying to deport her, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported they were having a hard time because she was being – get this – uncooperative.
Imagine.
I thought about writing about the incident several days ago but was too busy yawning. I mean really, this is a politician who successfully vied last year to be the new Ralph Nader and lead the Green Party to yet another stunning electoral defeat. Talk about irrelevant.
But it’s summer, and we need stories.
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:43 am
I only take issue with James Besser’s remark saying, “If you’re a pro-Israel activist, chances are AIPAC’s words are gospel to you; if you’re not, it’s just another spoonful of alphabet soup.” The implication that to be actively pro-Israel demands adherence to AIPAC’s “gospel” is insulting to those of us who have had to put up way too long with the ganse machers who insist that any opinion to the left of Beit Podhoretz is that of a bad Jew. That said, the overall point of the piece is quite consistent with reality-based experience.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:17 am
Thank you for this article. As someone who lives in a Jewish town in Judea and Samaria, what some would call a “settlement” with the requisite negative connotation, your article has shown me what is probably the perspective of many Jewish Americans. Israeli Jews, however, have a much different view of your President.
We’re worried. We’re very worried. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad both wants to acquire nuclear weapons technology and repeatedly and earnestly declares his intention to “wipe Israel off the map”, we don’t dismiss this as mere posturing. He really wants to do it. Obama’s acquiescence to Iran in the form of a civilian nuclear program instead of outright and unequivocal condemnation of the radical theocracy’s mad race for The Bomb sent the message that he just doesn’t get it. The administration’s linkage between advancing the “Peace Process”, a euphemism for a Palestinian State west of the Jordan river, and dealing with Iran’s military nuclear program is a pathetic attempt to score a few good-guy points by pushing Israel into a corner. Iran will have nuclear capabilities in short order, threatening the Middle East and much of Europe; the negotiations on a Palestinian state have been ongoing for over 15 years with no reason to think they will conclude any time soon. Bad move.
Obama’s assertion that Israel rose on the ashes of the Holocaust is obscene. Perhaps if the international community had carried out its obligations in Palestine in 1922 there would have been no Holocaust.
On the issue of freezing building in settlements, even for “natural growth”, it is quite simply a red herring. The issue is not one of building, the issue is Obama trying to show the Arab world that he can dictate to Israel, that the “Israel lobby” is weakened and, by extension, so is the Jewish lobby in the US. You should take this to heart.
Bush bumbled. Obama omits.
Oh, as a “settler” I thank you for pointing out that some Jewish Americans have “sympathy for settlers”, but this is entirely unnecessary as no sympathy is needed. We’re fine, really we are. Using our legal mandate to the land (I know that many of your readers probably believe the repeated lies about “Occupation”, but if you can put rhetoric to the side it will take about 5 minutes of searching the Internet to realize that the Jewish State has clear legal title to the “West Bank”; I recommend that you begin with the work of the eminent Yale legal scholar Eugene Rostow and review former President Jimmy Carter’s recent remarks about Neve Daniel) we have built many thriving communities, each with its own character. One of the best things you can do for Jewish unity is urge the members of the “suburban reform shul in Chicago” to visit a settlement (sic) for a completely different, and perhaps opinion-changing, perspective.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:22 am
If you’re a fringe left, vaguely, if at all, Zionist Jew, chances are J-Street’s talking points are gospel to you - including the talking point that says in order to claw itself into some recognition, J-Street and it’s enablers need to demonize AIPAC into being the domain of right-wingers, Republicans, machers, old rich Jews etc…
Guess what? AIPAC is neither right nor left, and I’m a supporter ($36 this year) , though I’m lower-middle class, 26 year old Democrat in Boston. One need not be “right wing” to support Israel which is the whole point of AIPAC - despite the smears by it’s detractros.
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:13 pm
One of the problems is the use of the words “pro Israel”. Typilcally, it has meant “Israel right or wrong” or “we can’t criticize Israel”. I am glad that J Street and other organizations like Brit Tzedek have indicated that they are pro Israel - pro peace. Another definition - One person at a meeting attended said that pro Israel means that someone does not support Boycotts - so the CUFI group was OK - even though the CUFI group has supported the growth of settmements - one of the biggest barriers to mid East peace. I can’t consider the group “pro Israel”
As far as AIPAC’s neutrality, I remember reading about a speech “W” gave at AIPAC; “W” spoke only about Iraq and did not mention Israel - and was wildly cheered by the audience. Cheney was wildly cheered in 2005 by AIPAC. I have to agree with the classification of the AIPAC group as out of touch with most Jewish Americans (and Israelis for that matter).