I agree with Petras that Jewish peace groups haven’t done enough to move the community’s agenda leftward. But I profoundly disagree that these groups are “fringe” or have no impact on Congress. Two major AIPAC legislative initiatives were stalled by the nascent Jewish peace groups in Congress. True, groups like Peace Now, Brit Tzedek, & Israel Policy Forum are underfunded and outgunned in some ways. But the answer is not to kick them in the shins. The answer is to figure out how to do more.

Since Petras provides neither proof nor even anecdotal evidence that progressive Jews have stifiled criticism of Israel within the anti war movement, it’s hard to credit this accusation. But given the content of some of the comments here it’s easy to see that the left contains precisely those shrill, demonizing elements that many Jews would label as anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic.

Further, Petras has a profound lack of understanding of the makeup of the American Jewish community. Nearly half of American Jews are not affiliated. So to blame them for not pushing back against the rightward shift of the Israel lobby constellation of groups completely misses the point. Unaffiliated Jews have no interest in fighting this battle. If they did they would be affiliated. And these unaffiliated Jews are precisely those who are far more liberal than the trogdolytes who run the ADL, AIPAC, AJC, etc.

I’ve written a more detailed critique at my blog. The post is linked to this comment.

May I suggest as your humble servant, a less obtuse delivery for your valuable comments.

Given that all (or virtually, if not literally, all, allowing for that one Dem I might not know about) current (especially major) Democrat politicians — whether conservative or “liberal” — whether Hillary the hawk, Barak the backdoor warhawk, or even Barbara Lee the liberal-progressive (who has also taken her fealty trips to Israel to kneel, bend over and kiss ‘the Zionist ring’, and who had heartily congratulated the late *Ariel Sharon*, that “Great Man of Peace”, *TWICE* on his, then, election to Israel’s prime ministership) — FALL ALL OVER THEMSELVES and the Republicans in one-upping each other ON THEIR UNDYING SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL, what feat of mighty dissent is there in (according to the alleged statistics) the majority of the Jewish-American community supporting Democrat politicians?

The majority of Jewish Americans certainly didn’t support Israel lobby-targeted and ousted Earl Hilliard, of Alabama, or Cynthia McKinney (including the white lesbians she always supported), of Georgia –or, earlier, politically iconic white Democrats who were ousted by the lobby– who called for at least just a *smidgen* of justice, and at least a *semblance* of balance, in U.S. foreign policy for the Palestinian people. Rather, while there were always some morally courageous Jews who still supported Hilliard & McKinney, the majority of Jewish Americans who sent money to either side in Hilliard’s and McKinney’s last election campaigns sent, by far, MAJOR MONEY to, respectively, Hilliard’s or McKinney’s*come-from-nowhere*, *nobody* OPPONENT! — and, in America, money usually wins. Most of the Jewish “progressive” lecture circuit icons and pundits specifically *DENIED/EXCLUDED* any mention of the Israel lobby, but instead reinforced the Zionist propaganda cover story that Hilliard’s and McKinney’s loses had *primarily* to do with other (pundit’s cooked-upped, magnified and sometime racially stereotyped) reasons.

This is, as a cover story, like the leftist promulgated cover story that the U.S. went to war in Iraq over (just) oil — and at the behest of the ever eeevillle oil companies [who've *never* worked that way before in the Mideast]. Funny, though, that story *clearly* doesn’t fit for Iran (and we see that the imminent Iranian nukes and WWIII pretext was as phony as the Saddam WMD pretext that the neocons and Israel cooked-up and pushed).

However, former Iraq weapons inspector Scott Ritter had the GUTS to admit that the U.S. went to war in Iraq significantly for *ISRAEL* — and GUESS WHO(!!) first publicly asked him that question?…: moi! — and in the U.S. at the Israel lobby’s mightily pushing the war in Iraq as well as, they hope, in Iran too. For a helluva good page turner, see Jeffrey Blankfort’s “A War for Israel”, online. Note, in particular _”The Clean Break”_ paper reference within — the Jewish Zionist neocons’ and Israeli govt’s Mideast right-wing equivalent of the PNAC goal for the U.S..

And, speaking of “identity politics” and eternal “self-victimization”, why don’t those Jewish “progressives” and pundits who attack (and stand by and let others, like Todd Gitlin, constantly attack) African Americans as chronically engaging in that habit, ever look at themselves?

(Excellent points, Robert Wilson et al. Please note my comments re Chomsky –closet apologist and 5th column Zionist– under the equally excellent points in the DV article, “Palestine Park”, by J.A. Miller.)

Joseph Anderson

Berkeley

So, I do not know what to do about matzos, cannoli, or lutefisk.

BTW There’s a typo in the Dec 5 posting. I meant it to read :

“..Kim Petersen who happens to BE maniacally antisemitic…”

First time I’ve seen someone giving a hard time to our other editor for being Jewish.
Maybe Joshua will learn something important by it.
Maybe the lesson is similar to the one that Norm Finkelstein just had…
You can hang with antisemities, terror-lovers and rat bags of every description, and even try to become like them in hopes of being accepted.
But sooner or later you’re going to get called a “dirty Jew” no matter what you do.

“One of the most curious things to appear here lately was to see how Joshua Frank has been treated. Josh, who happens to be Jewish, shares editorial management here with Kim Petersen, who happens to maniacally antisemitic. One wonders how that partnership sustains itself.”

I’m sure I would have pointed out the irony of him being reviled for his Jewishness, or PERCEIVED Jewishness, which really amounts to much the same thing. In the name of human rights…of course!

FYI, link to an audio discussion on how the dominant discourse of feminist and gay rights activists in the West vis-a-vis the Rest has made things worse for those the former are supposedly interested in helping. (esp. worthwhile between minutes 41-53).

That’s a good one.

No kindly Mericans delivering food and water to Gaza.

Too busy figuring out how to protect Israel from virulent Muslim anti-Semitism caused by the space aliens in Joshua Frank’s back yard.

US bill to share ICBMs with Israel.
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/105895.html

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/105895.html