The following op-ed was submitted by Joshua Niemtzow, Emory J Street U Outreach Chair, and written as a collaborative piece with the group’s members.
Image courtesy of Flickr: gnuckx
Imagine if someone asked you if you were “pro-America.” As an informed college student, you would probably respond in the affirmative, while acknowledging some of America’s flaws and your disagreement with certain policies. Hardly anyone would question your patriotism. But, when someone asks if you are “pro-Israel,” the question seems to demand a hard yes or no answer. Doesn’t this seem a bit a hypocritical? Loving your country and being critical of it are hardly mutually exclusive — Americans know this instinctively. When discussion focuses on Israel-Palestine issues, however, why is it that Americans insist on obtaining hardline binaries on political positions, from which dissent is treason?
Emory J Street U, one of the newest organizations on campus, refuses to accept this dichotomous premise. We, the members of Emory J Street U, are ardent progressive Zionists; our chapter consists of Jews and non-Jews alike, all of whom share a deep attachment to Israel and its people. Our members have family and friends in the country, and many have visited the land multiple times. We want to see Israel thrive as a secure Jewish and democratic state, and because of this vision, we have serious reservations about the current direction of the country that we hold dear.
We are committed to ending Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and are dismayed by the human rights abuses and poor living conditions of Palestinians living in the territories. These violations of both law and our own values put Israel’s security, longevity and national character at risk. We believe that the solution to this problem requires two democratic national homelands: one for the Jewish people and one for the Palestinian people. This two-state solution will require each side to make concessions to ultimately provide people with hope for much-deserved peace and security.
At the same time, we condemn the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement as divisive, ineffective and anti-Semitic in tone. We also disagree with the labeling of Israel as an apartheid state.
We are voices of moderation, seeking to be heard in the midst of a partisan bloodbath. Our mission is not to talk in circles around the conflict but rather to advocate for our government. We advocate for it to take an active and prudent role in solving the conflict. But first, we must be able to talk about Israel and Palestine as classmates and as equals.
For while both sides of the conflict have active supporters here at Emory, these groups’ passion and partisanship leads to bitter stalemates. Too often the two sides talk at each other instead of with each other. Last year’s Israel Apartheid Week brought this problem into sharp relief.
Emory Students for Justice in Palestine (ESJP) constructed a wall of information claiming that Israel is an apartheid state. Unfortunately, the response from the traditional “pro-Israel” camp was equally disappointing. The camp constructed a “Truth Wall” to refute the claims of ESJP. While the wall could have mentioned the problematic aspects of Israeli democracy in regards to Palestine and Palestinians, it claimed that Palestinians enjoy equal treatment under Israeli law, which is blatantly false. The repeated vandalism of ESJP’s Apartheid Wall further exposed the deep rifts in our community over this issue — rifts that cannot heal without open dialogue and mutual respect.
Similarly, this year, the Emory-Israel Public Affairs Committee (EIPAC)’s Day of Coexistence managed to disregard both Arab student groups and left-wing organizations in its planning and execution. This event, however hollowly pro-peace, proved contradictory and self-serving; it is easy to coexist with your allies, but much more difficult to coexist with those who do not share similar views. Regrettably, a member of ESJP responded to the event in an editorial, which failed to call EIPAC out on its obvious omission but rather rehashed ESJP’s common talking points.
Sadly, the Israel-Palestine conversation at Emory is still hardly a conversation at all. In their work, the groups on both sides simply rally their bases; neither attempt to forge a mutual, campus-wide understanding of the issues. They’re even less willing to tackle those issues head-on. We fear that this weeks’ events will be no different.
By forcing students into this false dichotomy of “pro-Israel” or “pro-Palestine,” we polarize our campus and lose sight of how to fix these issues. For many Emory students, supporting Israel means eating falafel and waving an Israeli flag. Rather than grappling with the tough questions surrounding what “pro-Israel” actually means, these students choose to bypass any sort of political engagement. On the other hand, being “pro-Palestine” is too often a mindless repetition of controversial buzzwords, lacking any mention of current policy or end goals. Both sides are screaming at each other in attempts to drown out the other’s voice, but instead they are only hurting themselves because they are drowning out the issues at hand.
Although it may seem confusing, we say it proudly: we are pro-Israel and pro-Palestine. We envision a campus where we can have a dynamic discussion of the issues and current policy. If the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is viewed as one people against another people, one religion against another, no side will ever compromise. How can we expect a Jewish student to come out against the Israeli occupation? When a criticism of Israeli politics is equated with an attack on Jewish peoplehood, we deny ourselves the opportunity to thoroughly examine current policy. Conversely, Palestinian peoplehood cannot be equated with the actions of extremists in the West Bank and Gaza. On both sides, peoplehood and culture must be respected. Thus, J Street U commits to embracing and celebrating the cultures, histories and current achievements of both peoples. We choose to view the conflict not as one people against another people but as a political conflict with a political solution.
We advocate for the two-state solution. This means a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from beyond the Green Line. We also recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist and to defend itself. These ideas are not mutually exclusive, but in fact dependent on one another.
If you are interested in getting involved, feel free to contact us at EmoryJStreetU@gmail.com.
Today, the reach of influential
groups such as the JDL, and AIPAC go deep into the evangelical Churches
in America, their main power base. This money and power reaches into
mush of Oceania as well.The ‘Christian Right’ as it is called, along with the Christian Zionists, a term founded
by Pastor John Hagee, are now partnering with so-called Messianic Jews,
or what has been called the Hebrew Roots movement. This partnership is
both powerful and very dangerous; simply look at the constant drumbeats
for war by conservative U.S. politicians. This is why their is a
‘separation of Church and State.’ These are the theories in the “Left
Behind” series of books, which are a continuation of theories marketed
by Hal Lindsey in his novel, “The Late Great Planet Earth,” which was
simply a dramatized and narrative version of the commentaries contained
in the “Scofield Bible.” In a nutshell, they have moved the foretelling
of the Jewish/Roman War, foretold by the Apostle John, in which as many
as 1,000,000 Jews were slaughtered and culminating with the destruction
of the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D., into the future, where they say a
Jewish Temple will be rebuilt and another great slaughter will occur,
this time to all unbelievers, except for those miraculously ‘raptured,”
i.e. American and other Anglophile Christians who believe this
non-sense.
What most of the world, and especially Americans do
not know is that ZIONISM is based on the Jewish TALMUD and NOT the
Torah, which is considered the first 5 books of the Old Testament; i.e.
the Pentateuch. ZIONISM was written by Jewish scholars as a reaction or
counter to Christianity’s growth and influence. As you can clearly see
from the following TALMUD passages, long ago the Jewish people and their
Rabbis rejected the 10 Commandments that were handed down to Moses by
YHWH.
“If a Jew murders a ‘goy’ there will be no death penalty.” (Sanhedrin 57a)
“If a ‘goy’ (Gentile) hits a Jew he must be killed.” (Sanhedrin 58b)
“What a Jew steals from a ‘goy’ he may keep.” (Sanhedrin 57a)
“Jews may use subterfuges to circumvent a ‘goy.’” (Baba Kamma 113a)
“If a Jew finds an object lost by a ‘goy’ it does not have to be returned.” (Baba Mezia 24a)
“All children of the ‘goyim’ (Gentiles) are animals.” (Yebamoth 98a)
“Girls born of the ‘goyim’ are in a state of ‘niddah’ (menstrual uncleanness!) from birth.” (Abodah Zarah 36b)
Finally, observe the words that the TALMUD contains about Jesus Christ and his mother Mary: WARNING, OFFENSIVE.
“‘Yashu’ (derogatory for ‘Jesus’) is in H E L L being boiled in hot excrement.” (Gittin 57a)
“Yashu (Jesus) was sexually immoral and worshipped a brick.” (Sanhedrin 107b)
“Yashu (Jesus) was cut off from the Jewish people for his wickedness and refused to repent.” (Sotah 47a)
“She who was the descendant of princes and governors (the virgin Mary) played the harlot with carpenters.” (Sanhedrin 106a)
“Miriam (the virgin Mary) the hairdresser had s e x with many men.” (Shabbath 104b, Hebrew Edition only)
While Saudis repress all their people (other than the royal family whom have private $500 million dollar private airplanes)… and while Saudis execute gays, women and Shi’ites on trumped up charges… and while Saudis export Islamist hatred across the globe…we focus our angst on Israel – the only country in the Middle East where Palestinians have the right to vote and where Palestinians serve in Parliament -for deep down we are really just Brown Shirts pretending to be humanitarians.
While Abbas serves in his eleventh year of his four year term, and while Hamas rules with fear, repression and intimidation, while education under the Palestinian elected officials focuses on Mein Kampf-like messages, and while women killers and baby killers are glorified by the perverse and despicable Palestinians we focus our angst upon Israel – the only country in the Middle East where Palestinians are free to protest and are allowed the luxury of free speech -for we are really just Brown Shirts pretending to be humanitarians.
While Pakistanis ethnically cleanse that once entirely Hindu country of its few remaining Hindus we focus our angst on Israel – a country with a Palestinian Supreme Court member – for deep down we are really just Brown Shirts pretending to be humanitarians.
While Egyptians ethnically cleanse that country of its two thousand year old Coptic community we focus our angst on Israel – a country with a more diverse demographic profile than any Muslim country in the Middle East -for deep down we are just Brown Shirts masquerading as humanitarians.
While Islamists turn Nigeria into the next Sudan with gang-raping and child kidnapping and mass killings becoming commonplace we focus our angst on Israel – for we are hypocritical Muslim apologists -and deep down we are really just Brown Shirts pretending to be humanitarians.
While Sunnis insatiably kill Shi’ites, and Shi’ites endlessly kill Kurds, and while Kurds endlessly kill Sunnis and every variation of this blood-letting theme, we focus our angst on Israel – the only country in the world that has increased its green space – because we are just Brown Shirts pretending to be humanitarians.
While Yemenis turn that bread basket of the Arabian Peninsula into a place of starvation we focus our crocodile tears on Israel for deep down we are really just Brown Shirts pretending to be humanitarians.
While Islamists in Southern Thailand kill off over 5,000 Buddhists in the span of a few years we ignore their plight and turn our focus on Israel – a country that has contributed more medical and scientific advancements per capita of any country in the world – for we are today’s Brown Shirts, today’s Goebbels’ acolytes goose-stepping like a gaggle of mindless geese.
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.”
Abraham Lincoln
Your head is up your a**.
It is Islam that denies freedom to others. There is not one single Muslim country in the world that grants other complete individual freedoms. In fact the more Islamic (Sharia compliant) a Muslim country gets the fewer freedoms available for “others”.
Meanwhile in Israel Palestinians have all the freedoms Jews enjoy. Palestinians can enter any profession, any university, drive down any street (hopefully without purposely running over Jews), they can run for parliament and are often elected and serve in the parliament.
But, but, but…in Lebanon Palestinians are not allowed to vote or own land. In Jordan – the country that offers Palestinians more rights than any other Muslim country – the Palestinians are not afforded the same freedoms as they are in Israel.
Your understanding of Israel is that of someone who has studied propaganda, not of someone who knows the facts. You are like the Europeans leading up to WWII who believed everything and anything Hitler told them. And like them, no doubt, you will deny the fact that you believe in lies. Like them you will hold on tight to the lies because you are unable to accept new information. That is how Jew haters and Israeli haters are, i.e., close-minded people who take propaganda to heart while ignoring any and all facts that contradict their unfair and unreasonable hatred for a great country.
Regarding Christian missionaries, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren said, “The Christian churches that are active… should refrain from proselytizing.” He further stated, “I have no statistics on the size of the Messianic community, but I think certainly that the State of Israel wants the Jewish people to remain Jewish.” http://jewishisrael.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ambassador-oren-cautions
It is also common for Israel’s Ministry of Interior to detain individuals suspected of being Christian missionaries, and require such
persons to obtain bail, and then pledge to abstain from Christian missionary activity. In addition many have been refused entry into
the country. Israel has also cited Christian proselytism as a reason to deny student visas, work visas, religious visa extensions, and
permanent residency petitions. http://jewjewsjewish.org/Page_11_Evangelizing_Israel.html
Moreover, The Voice of the Martyrs, a non-profit, inter-denominational Christian organization dedicated to assisting the persecuted
Church worldwide, lists Israel as a country Hostile to Christianity. (Ibid.)
The top ten countries for persecuting Christians over the
last year were ranked: North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran and Yemen, according to Open Doors USA, an organization that monitors and exposes Christian persecution around the globe. Particularly, the “2014 World Watch List”, a rather nuanced report, has highlighted these nations based on deep structures of persecution.
Take note that nine out of ten of these countries are Islamic.
Looks like Islam is on par with North Korea.
“Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.”
Moshe Dayan
Make no doubt about, the following quotes refer to the Palestinians as well as the Muslims these men encountered.
+++
Patriarch Cyrus of Alexandria on Islam
“I am afraid that God has sent these men to lay waste the world”.
Gregory Palamus of Thessalonica on Islam
“For these impious people, hated by God and infamous, boast of having got the better of the Romans by their love of God…they live by the bow, the sword and debauchery, finding pleasure in taking slaves, devoting themselves to murder, pillage, spoil and not only do they commit these crimes, but even – what an aberration – they believe that God approves of them. This is what I think of them, now that I know precisely about their way of life.”
++
Andre Servier on Islam
“Islam was not a torch, as has been claimed, but an extinguisher. Conceived in a barbarous brain for the use of a barbarous people, it was – and it remains – incapable of adapting itself to civilization. Wherever it has dominated, it has broken the impulse towards progress and checked the evolution of society.”
and he fought to keep Israel the one Jewish nation in the world
JNS.org – Ever since its founding in 2008, J Street, the liberal Jewish advocacy group, has expended a great deal of time and energy trying to convince American Jews that it is a credible and more ethical alternative to traditional pro-Israel organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
J Street believes, not unreasonably, that there is a constituency for its work among those American Jews who are generally supportive of Israel but queasy over certain of its policies, most obviously creating and sustaining Jewish communities in the West Bank. Nor is this an unprecedented insight: from the 1970s onwards, there were organizations like Breira (“Alternative”) and New Jewish Agenda which aimed to give voice to the same disquiet.
J Street, however, is much savvier than either of those earlier incarnations. Unlike its ideological predecessors, there are no rumors circulating of its imminent demise. For the foreseeable future, then, J Street will remain a part of American Jewry’s political landscape.
This reality is implicitly acknowledged in “The J Street Challenge,” a critical documentary film about the organization that has just been released by Americans for Peace and Tolerance, a Boston-based group run by the well-known anti-slavery activist Charles Jacobs. And it is a reality that, Jacobs and his co-producers insist, needs to be grappled with through honest debate and discussion.
The key question raised by the film is what it means to be “pro-Israel” not on a personal level, but within the context of the political lobbying and advocacy that swirls around American policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (or, as Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse more accurately terms it in her interview in the film, “the Arab conflict with Israel”). And when you examine J Street’s record, it becomes very hard to dispute Professor Alan Dershowitz’s assertion that the organization—despite its much-vaunted tagline—is “neither pro-Israel nor pro-peace.”
To begin with, there are J Street’s funders. As the film documents, ferocious critics of Israel like the hedge-fund billionaire George Soros and Genevieve Lynch, a board member of the pro-Iranian regime National Iranian-American Council, have donated significant sums to the organization. And although it says it is opposed to the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, J Street maintains close ties with those who advocate collaboration with the BDS movement in targeting West Bank settlements, like the writer Peter Beinart and the corporate lawyer Kathleen Peratis. This milieu is hardly conducive to J Street’s “pro-Israel” self-image.
Then there are J Street’s statements. As Dershowitz points out, you “rarely” hear J Street praising Israel. A far more familiar refrain consists of slamming Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as an obstacle to peace, or opposing tougher sanctions on the Iranian regime—positions that don’t raise an eyebrow when articulated by anti-Israel groups, but which sound rather discordant coming from a group that claims to support Israel.
In that regard, much of the J Street documentary studies why the organization’s analysis of Israel’s situation is wrong. Its emphasis on Israel’s land policies in the West Bank, its tin ear when it comes to Palestinian and Arab incitement, its embrace of a strategy that would result in the U.S. pushing Israel to make decisions contrary to its basic security interests—these moral and strategic errors are all familiar to anyone who has followed the debate about J Street’s contribution.
More enlightening is the film’s examination of why J Street exercises such an attraction to a particular kind of American Jew. Many of the interviewees argue persuasively that affiliation with J Street is more of a lifestyle choice than a political statement, in that it allows liberal Jews to equate their identity with their fealty to the “progressive” values they see Israel as betraying.
But is that how the J Streeters themselves view it? Since no J Street representative appears in the film, it’s hard to say for sure. According to the end credits, Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s executive director, “declined” to be interviewed, which left the producers with no option but to use existing footage of Ben-Ami speaking to other audiences. J Street told me that Ben-Ami was not interviewed because he was not available at the time the producers suggested. Either way, the absence of a direct interview with Ben-Ami, in which he answers the points raised by J Street’s critics, slightly blunts the film’s impact.
The most heartening aspect of the film consists of young, pro-Israel activists eloquently expressing why they distrust J Street. Through their words, the viewer gets an insight into the courage and intelligence required to defend Israel on campus these days. Indeed, one of them, Samantha Mandeles, who currently works as campus coordinator for media watchdog Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), is so impressive that I found myself wondering whether she’ll apply for the post-Abe Foxman national director’s job at the Anti-Defamation League—she certainly deserves serious consideration. In any case, seeing and hearing the next generation of genuinely pro-Israel Jewish leaders is reason enough to give “The J Street Challenge” an hour of your time.
A BIBLICAL CASE AGAINST ISRAEL:
“But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. “And his house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?” Kings 9:6-8.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 31:31-32.
“Therefore behold, I will surely forget you and cast you away from My presence, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers. “I will put an everlasting reproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten.” Jeremiah 23:39.
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” Micah 5:2.
“And when He [Jesus] had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” Luke 22:19-20.
“By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.” Hebrews 8:13.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! “Behold your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'” Luke 13:34-35.
no case period, especially for the eradication, scripture predicted the return of Israel, the muslims follow the devil, they aren’t on the right path.
I have no great love for Muslims or the Arab people. I am simply saying that Christians have to separate themselves from all this Israel-centric geo-politics. However, now when we gather for Church or something, there are these voices from the peanut gallery saying “Israel, remember Israel, it’s in the Bible, we are in your Bible, oh we love Jesus too, but we call him Yeshua, see we aren’t like the Muslims, we are just like you, remember Israel, bless Israel and be blessed, send for your CD’s on how to bless Israel, yes sir ree, Bless Israel.” You get the idea.
Victory for BDS as SodaStream’s last Palestinian workers lose their jobsOp-ed:
The liberal-minded beverage firm used to employ hundreds of locals until anti-Israel boycott pressure forced the closure of its West Bank factory. And now the final 75 Palestinian staffers have been fired. Viva Palestinan!
BY DAVID HOROVITZ February 29, 2016, 4:41 pm
Israel isn’t ‘occupying’ anything. Until this group of rightwing fascists can stop using such bigoted boilerplates like ‘occupied’ (which implies that Jews are a filth that should be confined and concentrated into very small areas decided by gentiles), we can’t have an honest discussion.
The jews are in fact occupying the are of the world that was called Palestine for many many years.
Incorrect. The Jews are indigenous and legal land owners. The Bosnian/Jordianian/Egyptian bogus ‘refugees’ are squatting on Israel’s legally owned land.
Glad I could educate you Jack.
A lot of J Street people support BDS, so J Street is truly a Trojan Horse
funny thing, I never hear of the term “Judeaphobia” but constantly hear of “Islamophbia” even though Jews are the number one target of religious hate crimes in America by 300pct over Muslims.
idiot is not a zionist but hates Jews being free to breath
First of all the jews abandoned Palestine until Hitler convinced them that it wasn’t a bad place after all. I equate the Israel situation to I’m going to leave my house for a period of time, then the people I bought my house from move back in. After another period of time I decide I want my house back. hmm..
Trump 2016!