Saturday, March 26, 2011

They the Zionists have a gift for learning?

They say Zionists have a gift of learning. But judging by the actions of the right wing prime minister 'Bibi' Netenyahu & co's actions, you've to take that assumption with a grain of salt.
Is Israel, as 'Isaih' says, a light unto all nations? Hardly. Two recent events prove otherwise.
Everyone knows that America and America Jewry are pillars of support, at times seemingly unconditional, of the state of Israel. However, as the Israeli government encourages illegal land grab of Palestinian land on the occupied West Bank, as the UN Goldstone Report on 'Operation Cast Lead' put the pre emptive war against Hamas in Gaza, and as Israel turns more and more into itself and raises walls of self protection, let's call it a 'disaffection' among a younger generation of American Jews is growing more and more noticeable. During a Knesset debate the spot light of opprobrium shone on J Street, a pro Israel, pro peace, liberal leaning advocy group. J Street, a critical friend of Israel, poses as a counter weight to the very well heeled AIPAC [American Israeli Public Affairs Committee] which until J Street appeared on the scene three years ago, managed roughly handedly to push Israeli issues with US law makers and the mainstream media and carry out an active propaganda initiative aimed at the wider American public.
When Netenyahu was last in the US, he was AIPAC's guest speaker, calling for unconditional support of the Zionist state.
J Street, on the other hand, who question the 'ukase' of unconditional support of Israel, and oppose illegal settlements, and in fact, argued with president Obama's veto of the UN Security Council resolution to condemn Israel for its appetite for Palestinian land.
Needless to say, as the extreme right wing firms up its grip on the Israeli power structure, J Street is an anathema: it is not a Zionist organization, which means they are heretics to the ideas and ideals of Revisionist Zionism, and even Ben Gurion Zionism. It is a bleeding heart at best and traitorous at worst.
Jeremy Ben Ami, J Street's founder, came to defend his group. Netenyahu snubbed him. And outside of the dimishing voices of Israelis who want peace, he suffered the slings and arrows of the Knesset's lack of dialogue and discussion, but instead forcefully stormed in favour of Israeli's embrace of a Greater Israel, of an Israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan.
Ben Ami didn't shy away from a battle, but he did point out that the Zionist's elite's inability to learn is costing them the support of US Jews, especially those under 50. His warning might as well fallen on the sound baked stones of the Negev deserts.
As GuamDiary noted, withinside the White House a close but steamy debate is occurring, which assesses America's Israelocentric foreign policy and its impact on events in the Arab World, as Washington is fumbling around for a new way to 'reimpose' its role in that part of the world. Time is on J Street's side.
And then there's the opening of Julian Schnabel's 'Miral', a film based on Rula Jebreal's novel; it's a story of the Israeli Palestinian conflict as seen through the eyes of an orphaned girl. Schnabel is a Jew, which is cause of enough for raising hackles am American Jewry's organisations. His film lends dignity to an Israeli Arab, as it offers a differing perspective from the one AIPAC & co stuff down the American public's throat. In other words, Schnabel has betrayed his people; he's a turncoat, a heretic, and much worse, for, according to Zionist eschatology all Arabs are demons and devils and so on. And worse still, 'Miral's' distributor is the very Jewish Harvey Weinstein, and Schnabel's crew are made of Jews and Arabs and Indians and Americans.
So quick to buckle on sword, the AJC [American Jewish Committee] and the SWC [Simon Wiesthal Centre], with the full support of the state of Israel. And the charge of 'Miral' is anti Israel continue to resound. Where's the voice of Alan Dershowitz in this kyrielle of hysteria?
A reader of GuamDiary has alerted us to the two full page ad in the 25 March 2011 issue of the 'NYT' [New York Times], on one side an ad for 'Miral' and on the other a reprint of Danielle Berrin's article in 'The Jewish Journal' [www.jewishjournal.com]'Why is the American Jewish Committee Afraid of "Miral"?', which deserves reading.
The self anointed 'machers' of American Jewry knee jerk reaction mirros the Catholic Legion of Decency who vainly tried to marshal public opinion against, say, Godard's 'Je vous salue Marie'. It is like putting out honey for bees and ensuring a better gate than the critics review might allow.
Hyperbole notwithstanding, Zionists attempts to brand J Street or Julian Schnabel with the mark of Cain simply wont work. What sticks in their caw is allowing that Palestinians and Arabs are neighbours and have the same value as fellow humans and the dignity that is the proper of the human family. For this idea to triumph, the Zionists will have to go through a re education of received ideas and junk a proto fascist ideology.
So we ask the question again: have the Zionists a gift for learning? Where is the traditional display of irony, tolerance, or ambivaluence to counter the iron fisted bluntness and physicality of Zionist policy and Israel's immediate recourse to force?
Perhaps irony and tolerance and ambivalence thrive in the Diaspora whilst in Israel the dominating ideology is to look on Arabs as the enemy without a soupcon of doubt. Zionism has become, or perhaps it always carried the seed of the extremism we see among al Qaida or the Taliban or its 59 varieties in Pakistan?

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