The Special Relationship

Beinart's Blind Spot

Peter Beinart contends that a gap is emerging between liberal American Jews and the state of Israel. If this is correct, the gap (as he does not write, but should) is very much to the discredit of those liberal American Jews.

Peter describes an Israel whose views toward Palestinians and Israel Arabs is hardening. The great omission from Beinart's essay is any attempt to explain why Israeli views toward Palestinians have hardened over the past 15 years. The hardening is presented as a completely free-standing phenomenon, one that has developed without much reference to external realities.

It's as if one tried to explain voter anger in 2010 without reference to the recession.

Yet Peter is likely correct that he describes the way some -- I trust not too many! -- American liberals and Jewish American liberals think about Israel. These liberals cannot understand why Israel would build a border fence, or invade Lebanon and Gaza, or lose interest in a peace deal with the Palestinians. They don't know enough or care enough about Israel's security predicaments to investigate the reasons for these Israeli actions. They are satisfied with the explanation that Israelis used to be nice people, but have now become not nice people.

Peter recommends that the Israelis should become nicer people in the future. What he again does not say -- but should -- is that the niceness he recommends puts Israeli lives at risk. We often hear the advice that Israel should take "risks for peace." Those risks are denominated in mangled bodies and shattered families. How many such risks should Israelis accept? Are 800 lives sufficient? That was the butcher's bill for the last bout of Israeli risk-taking.

Historically, American Jews have followed the rule that it was Israeli voters who should determine the policy of the Israeli state. We might doubt the wisdom of some of those decisions -- as many American Jews doubted the wisdom of the syndicalist socialism that governed the state's first 20 years -- but we recognized that the right to decide belonged to those who paid the price of decision. That was a good rule then. It remains a good rule now.

David Frum is a former speechwriter for U.S. President George W. Bush and the founder of the Frum Forum.

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JOHNRDKIDD

3:32 AM ET

May 22, 2010

ISRAEL's government challenged by Jewish critics in UK and US

The London Jewish Chronicle today reports signs of growing discontent, in the diaspora, of Israeli government policy, subsequent to prominent American Jewish figures calling for a compromise over the sovereignty of Jerusalem and a freeze on settlements. It quotes British Peace Now as saying there was 'increasing anxiety' over the direction of the government of Binyamin Netanyahu.

The US petition has said that the occupation and the (illegal) settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem are morally and politically wrong and feed the de-legitimisation process that Israel currently faces abroad.
These comments point to the start of a shift in the paradigm that has claimed Israel could do no wrong and that its human rights violations and military excesses were acceptable.

Jewish communities worldwide, in the US and elsewhere, are now increasingly rejecting the hard-line, right-wing policies of the Likud administration and this comes at a time when the international community is also questioning the validity of Israel's claimed 'nuclear ambiguity' that conceals a massive, secret nuclear weapons program.

This change in attitude amongst individual Jews, who are prepared to now stand-up and resist the legacy mindset of a weak and vulnerable Israel standing alone against the forces of an imaginary anti-Semitism, is overdue by at least three decades during which time the Zionist political movement has managed to exert an extraordinary influence over legislatures on both sides of the Atlantic.

The abhorrence and dismay of ordinary Jews at the killing of hundreds of civilians in Gaza just over a year ago, coupled with the fact that no one has yet been arrested for what was apparently a war crime, has crystallised the feelings of many, particularly on campus, that there is an inherent defect in Zionist thinking that defends only Jewish life at the expense of all others.

NICHOLAS WIBBERLEY

10:37 AM ET

Come, come

The indigenous inhabitants do not want to see the land divided into two states, which is a recipe for never-ending strife. They want one state where all, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and atheists, get along together under an umbrella of democracy.

GRATT

12:02 AM ET

May 23, 2010

Lizs, amen, but

I agree with many of your feelings but at this point it is my honest belief that it is not Americas place to "push" for a solution to a problem that both sides do not seem interested in sloving.

Most groups in the area seem fine with the current status quo, while we might not be happy with that, we have no right to force a situation. In 78 Sadat and Begin both decided to sit down and make peace and only then was the US involved as a mediator.

We should wait until the same kind of situation happens again. Arm twisting and road maps will do nothing more than spark another intifada.

RUSRICK

11:24 AM ET

Loving israel

I loved Israel a lot more, before I found out that Israeli spies had been captured in the States. What kind of special relationship is that? Just as I can love Russia but dislike the government, I can love the idea and people of Israel but disdain Israel's governmental policies.

ZAFAR

6:54 AM ET

May 25, 2010

Offer

Liz, i wish there are people like you on both side of the fence. I believe politicians on either side are not intesrted to resolve the issue. Through your comments i first time read that Arafat was offered east Jeruslam too. I might be wrong but the details of that meeting reveals that this point was left to be discussed later and that was teh reason for Arafat refusal. Barak of cours eoffered the land as per your email. This was one good opportunity to resolve the conflict. They are all make fools of us, meetings direct or proxies are useless.

BETZ55

11:46 AM ET

J Thomas

Correct. Israeli leaders have rejected every Palestinian proposal for ceasefire or peace,blindly pursuing the Zionazi policy of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their homeland in collusion, and bias with the US for 60 years. The Camp David offer? It is no surprise this history was also rewritten to shed Palestinians in a negative light.

It should first be noted that Palestinians have conceded their claim to 78% of historical Palestine, and agreed to form a new state on the remaining 22%, which is comprised of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

• Israel proposed that 69 settlements, populated by 85% of West Bank settlers would be annexed by Israel. These settlements would reduce the Palestinian state by 10%, not to mention severely disrupt travel and daily life in the West Bank.
• Israel proposed “temporary control” of yet another 10% of land that housed the most extreme of settlers. Essentially this means that a foreign power would control the land of another sovereign nation.
• The remaining areas would be broken up by Israeli bypass roads and checkpoints, forcing Palestinians to live on bantustans or reservations (like South Africans or Native Americans), in a non-contiguous state.
• Palestinians were also expected to relinquish land considered most essential for trade and tourism.
• Israel would maintain very vital controls over Palestinian water, Palestinian borders, and Palestinian airspace.

Anyone in their right minds would not have accepted such a ridiculous proposal that would continue to force millions of people to live as slaves.

“We offered them everything and they refused” has long-since been discredited, and not just by the Palestinians.

But also, among others, by former Israeli Foreign Minister and negotiator at Camp David, Shlomo Ben Ami, who said: “if I were a Palestinian I would have rejected Camp David, as well”.

PSYDNEYH

5:05 PM ET

May 26, 2010

Imaginary anti-Semitism?

The Hamas charter proclaims:

The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say "Oh Muslim, oh servant of allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."

5:11 PM ET

Jerusalem and war crimes in Gaza

Jerusalem is part of Israel, and Jews live there as in other parts of Israel. There are no "settlements" in Jerusalem.

When Hamas violently overthrew Fatah oin Gaza, they murdered Palestinian civilians, their own people, including women and children and the elderly, tossing them from multi-story buildings. Who is investigating these crimes? Is using civilians as shields a crime?

FREESPEECHLOVER

10:51 PM ET

May 31, 2010

the problem

I'm Jewish, and this comment is why I prefer not to be involved with the organized Jewish community in the U.S. It's typical in its purchase, hook, line and sinker of Israeli hasbara without any demonstration that the writer has looked to see if there might be something Israel has left out. Arafat is NOT to blame for what Israel is doing today. Arafat's dead. Israel is a nuclear military power. Israel is occupying Palestinian land, not the other way around.

Arafat was not given all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Barak insisted on leaving some major settlement blocks in place, which would mean leaving the Israeli military in the Occupied Territories. This will not work, and it has nothing to do with Jews or Muslims, Israelis or Palestinians. It's commonsense.

It's just this level of delusion in which I cannot participate. Too many Jews in the U.S. simply mime what they hear from their synagogue or their Jewish community center. No one questions the line that Israel is this symbol around which we must all gather like a tribe. No thanks.

5:58 AM ET

The Wood and the trees

No sane person relates to people one way or the other just because they are Jewish. One may dislike or love some Jews but the same is true of Scientologists and Seventh Day Adventists. Even the “bi-horned, fire breathing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, half man, half dragon with the tail of a scorpion” has nothing against Jews. His perennially misquoted “wiping” quote from Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Islamic Revolution, was not about Jews. What people do not like, Ahmadinejad included, is Zionism and specifically the Zionist regime in the Holy Land. Through a process of what one must assume to be deliberate and deceitful obfuscation, Judaism and Zionism have been bundled together, and all that is now gathering pace in the world, which naturally includes young American Jews, is the unravelling and separation of these back into their distinct parts. Judaism does not need Zionism to flourish, but the Zionist regime will pass away when the separation is complete. Pass away means disappear like the Macedonian Empire, the Roman Empire, the British Empire, the Pahlavi monarchy, and the Soviet Union. Commentators and others may follow this by looking at the trend over time or they may seek its progress through daily consultation of the runes. Either way it is inexorable. Ahmadinejad foresaw it in 2005 and crucifixion was too good for him.

LAL QILA

11:14 PM ET

Unravel the bundle of Judaism and Zionism = Israel unravels

Unravel the bundle of Judaism and Zionism and only religious Jews end up staying in Israel/Palestine and all the New Jews go back to where they came from.

The bundling of Judaism and Zionism/Colonisation Project is a necessary condition for Israel to exist in present state.

12:06 AM ET

LAL QILA= walking Godwin's law

seriously when was the last time you made a post that did not revolve around Israel or Jews.... you need a life.

JACOB BLUES

2:41 PM ET

May 24, 2010

Lal Qila's problem is that he can only view Jews as a descendent

of those wandering forebearers, who, rootless in the world, have no home, and were hatched from the ether of time and space.
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The idea that we really did come from somewhere, and that somewhere was Israel, vexes those Jew haters when we actually try to hang our hat.
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How dare "Those Jews" want to have a state of their own. It's that nefarious "Jewey conspiracy" to sneak in Zionism to the weight that those poor already burdened Jews must carry.
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But not to worry. Those like Nicholas and Ahmadinejad have a plan, sooner or later those evil Zionists will be split from the "Good" Jews, and either fade away, or be destroyed, and once again, all will be well . . . once the "Jew" learns his place in the world.

HUGH

10:36 AM ET

Makes great reading

I've really enjoyed the latest articles on FP by Israel lobby types bemoaning the way things are going. It's great to see them flapping around trying to make sense of the fact that the younger generation are waking up to what's going on. More from Frum and co. please.

SIR_MIXXALOT

10:15 AM ET

What Israeli Jews think of American Jews

http://www.counterpunch.org/aloni01082007.html

"In the past, the US Jewish community leaders were quite familiar with the meaning of those conventions. For some reason, however, they are convinced that Israel is allowed to contravene them. It's OK to kill civilians, women and children, old people and parents with their children, deliberately or otherwise without accepting any responsibility. It's permissible to rob people of their lands, destroy their crops, and cage them up like animals in the zoo. From now on, Israelis and International humanitarian organisations' volunteers are prohibited from assisting a woman in labour by taking her to the hospital. [Israeli human rights group] Yesh Din volunteers cannot take a robbed and beaten-up Palestinian to the police station to lodge a complaint. (Police stations are located at the heart of the settlements.) Is there anyone who believes that this is not Apartheid?

Jimmy Carter does not need me to defend his reputation that has been sullied by Israelophile community officials. The trouble is that their love of Israel distorts their judgment and blinds them from seeing what's in front of them. Israel is an occupying power that for 40 years has been oppressing an indigenous people, which is entitled to a sovereign and independent existence while living in peace with us. We should remember that we too used very violent terror against foreign rule because we wanted our own state. And the list of victims of terror is quite long and extensive.

We do limit ourselves to denying the [Palestinian] people human rights. We not only rob of them of their freedom, land and water. We apply collective punishment to millions of people and even, in revenge-driven frenzy, destroy the electricity supply for one and half million civilians. Let them "sit in the darkness" and "starve".

Employees cannot be paid their wages because Israel is holding 500 million shekels that belong to the Palestinians. And after all that we remain "pure as the driven snow". There are no moral blemishes on our actions. There is no racial separation. There is no Apartheid. It's an invention of the enemies of Israel. Hooray for our brothers and sisters in the US! Your devotion is very much appreciated. You have truly removed a nasty stain from us. Now there can be an extra spring in our step as we confidently abuse the Palestinian population, using the "most moral army in the world".

[Translated by Sol Salbe]

Shulamit Aloni is the former Education Minister of Israel. She has been awarded both the Israel Prize and the Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

See also:

http://non-intervention.com/288/america-first-never-for-u-s-media-or-politicians/

Little Satan's Nuclear Proliferation MEMOS by Shimon Peres

The memos and minutes that confirm Little Satan Jewish Israel’s nuclear stockpile; Documents reveal how Shimon Perez tried to sell South Africa’s apartheid government the bomb

This cover page of an ISSA (ISrael-South Africa agreement) meeting in Pretoria between Israeli and South African officials on 30 June 1975 establishes the presence of General RF Armstrong, who wrote the nuclear memo.

Minutes of third ISSA meeting, 30/6/1975

This document details the another ISSA meeting during which Botha says he needs the ‘right payload’ and Peres offers it in ‘three sizes’ (paragraph 10).

Minutes from further ISSA meeting

This is the cover page and two other pages from the secret military agreement between Israel and South Africa, signed by both Shimon Peres and Botha. Note on page two there is a clause that says the very existence of the agreement is secret. Both men have signed the agreement on page three.

Israel-South Africa agreement

This is the secret memo by South Africa’s military chief of staff, General RF Armstrong, asking for nukes on the Jericho missiles. It has been revealed before, but its context was not understood. We now know the memo was the direct result of the meeting between Botha and Peres, and the basis of Botha’s demand for nukes from Peres.

Declassified memo from General RF Armstrong

In this letter, dated 11 November 1974, Peres says Israel and the South African apartheid government share a “common hatred of injustice” and urges a “close identity of aspirations and interests”.

Letter from Shimon Peres, 11/11/1974

Source: http://lalqila.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/the-memos-and-minutes-that-confirm-little-satan-jewish-israels-nuclear-stockpile-documents-reveal-how-shimon-perez-tried-to-sell-south-africas-apartheid-government-the-bomb/

SHALOM FREEDMAN

9:26 AM ET

Why do so many envy and hate Israel?

The stupid and even evil hatred of Israel displayed by a number of posters here comes out of either ignorance or envy. One of the strangest developments in the past couple of decades is the way many in the West who claim to champion 'progressive values' actually have turned reality on its head, and accuse the only democracy in the Middle East of all the evils its enemies are guilty of. In every index of freedom and fairness one can think of Israel is light- years ahead of its adversaries. Yet Israel which perhaps long for peace more than any other nation, and has made so many sacrifices is condemned as warmonger.
The stupidity unfairness and evil in so many of the 'Left's relation to Israel puts them in the category of 'anti- Democrats' a category they share with their allies the Islamofascists.

COMPASSIONFORBOTHSIDES

4:24 PM ET

Israel is SUPPOSED to be light years ahead

I think this statement is quite telling: "In every index of freedom and fairness one can think of Israel is light- years ahead of its adversaries."

Why are they your adversaries and not your neighbors? This is the exact point that is being made, that it's simply "us vs them" in the reactionary world of right-wing Israeli politics (or Glenn Beck's TV show).

The reason Israel is "bashed" by so many human rights groups is because SINCE it is a democracy, SINCE it has "shared values" and SINCE it is a Western, "enlightened" nation, it is held to a higher standard. This is the same reason France is now under the microscope regarding their burqa ban, while very few of us would find the banning of mini-skirts in Tunisia to be surprising.

There is little use in condemning Omar Al-Bashir in Sudan for the 50th time, as nothing will change. We expect very little from his regime and we do not (at least publicly) support it.

HRW, Amnesty, and others know that SINCE Israel is a democracy, there IS a hope for change and for corrective measures. It is the fact that Israel is a champion of human rights and democracy, yet its current leadership has no problem saying "well compared to a totalitarian dictatorship, we're angels!" that gets people so up in arms.

If you study further, you will find that it is in fact Likud and her coalition that share more in common with Islamofascists than do left-wing Jews. Sensible, given that fascism lies on the right end of the spectrum, not on the left, sir.

It seems the "ends justify the means" when it comes to Israel's security. This is not dissimilar from what suicide bombers and their sympathizers think. Or most dictators.

Or Cheney.

ALOUD

9:12 AM ET

June 1, 2010

There is a catastrophe in this situation

The detachment of my age group of Jewish-Americans from Israel is a catastrophe. many have visited and done the Kibuttz thing, and come away disenchanted. One family rented an apartment in Jerusalem and saw the landlord purifying the rooms with salt as they were leaving...they were Reform Jews! The timing is the problem. Their parents have supported- even paid for- the Israel that was aggressively expanding into settlements, removing Arabs from the economic mainstream, and moving the wars onto foreign soil ( Lebanon mainly). They were promised that the land would be traded for peace...when there was someone to negotiate with. Now, when that promise has to be forcefully redeemed, the energy in the Jewish community is gone. Without middle aged Jewish engagement and activism there is no hope of the promise being kept. The heavy lifting demanded by Begin's Alia policy will have to be done by Russians, not Americans, and they are not interested. FM Lieberman wants more land, and fewer Arabs. American Jews need full engagement now, to redeem the work of the '60s and '70s paid for by their parents. Otherwise, the historic legacy of American participation will be that we enabled the wars, but failed to secure Israel's peaceful future through territorial compromise. Land for Peace.

9:35 AM ET

Old Question, already answered by Yaacov Kirshan

Back in the 1970's, The Israeli comic strip "Dry Bones" published one strip that read as follows:
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"Once again, Israel was threatened, and the world's Jews rallied to our side".
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"I tell you, if it weren't for us Jews, we Jews would be in real trouble".
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F1FAN

9:52 AM ET

I'm sick of this whole debate

Israel should be having this debate and we in the US should be debating why we give so much military and economic aid to a first world economy and why we aren't spending that money at home to fix our own broken situation.

2:17 PM ET

No F1fan, this has nothing to do with the US government

the question raised in the title was the relationship between American Jews and Israel(ies).
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Honestly, that's not really a question for a Foreign Policy magazine, but given what we've seen passes for intellectual rigor (an article on the deep foreign policy implications of a Lebanese American girl as the winner of Donald Trump's Miss USA, with of course, a fully gratouitious cheesecake photo, I'm hardly surprised by what we find here anymore.

3:23 PM ET

Steven Rosen: Hilarious!!!

"The New York Review of Books, largely a publication for disaffected Jews, generously offers a path for pro-Israel organizations to save themselves by joining the campaign to discredit Israel."

Seriously? The entire publication is for "disaffected" Jews?

Hmm, I wonder why they feel so disaffected, Steve? You are only reinforcing Beinart's thesis....

Your rebuttal of his point, after the obligatory slander and name calling, is, "we can' t be losing influence, look how much money and power we have now!"

Is that an indictment or a defense? I can't help but think of the parallels between the American Christian Right that hides behind issues like taxation to preach racism, and the Right-wing Israelis that hide behind the holocaust to preach racism.

12:44 PM ET

May 27, 2010

Watching Israel Delegitimize the U.S.

What’s behind the sudden crisis in Korea? Who benefits? – Watching Israel Delegitimize the U.S.

The United Nations has long been scheduled to review the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to consider the creation of a Middle East free of nuclear weapons. As the date approached, the world community experienced a well-timed torpedo attack on a South Korean warship, reportedly by a North Korean submarine.

In the midst of these negotiations, mainstream media has been flooding the national consciousness with power-of-association stories about Iran, its nuclear program and even its links to North Korea. Tehran, of course, was the third member in the trio of Bush-era Evil Doers.

News outlets controlled by Israeli-American Rupert Murdoch are particularly active, including Fox News and The Wall Street Journal.

Is it true that Tel Aviv transferred to Pyongyang a German-made submarine? If so, does that qualify as evil doing?

Read the full article here: http://lalqila.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/what%e2%80%99s-behind-the-sudden-crisis-in-korea-who-benefits-watching-israel-delegitimize-the-u-s/

DESIREE HANSON

11:31 AM ET

June 20, 2010

United States Israel's strongest and best ally

There is no doubt that the United States is currently Israel's strongest and best ally. The list of recent affirmations of the alliance, the "special relationship," and the "unshakable" and "unbreakable" bond is awesome. More broadly, the U.S.-Israel bond has strengths that go far beyond politicians and issues of the moment. Nothing on earth resembles this bilateral, "the most special" of special relationships and "the family relationship of international politics." xerox phaser solid ink Israel became "valuable" to the United States after the Six Day War because it had proven its ability to act independently. That made Israel useful to have as an ally. It also evoked the fear that without US "guidance" (control), Israel might act in opposition to US interests and "destabilize" the Middle East (meaning that Israel might threaten regimes that are friendly to the United States or anger the Arab states). The recent declarations and affirmations regarding the "unshakable bond" are, in reality, quite the opposite. They are sugar added to hide the taste of bitter medicine -- the sort of thing you say to an employee you are about to fire. phaser 8400n solid ink Each such declaration has been part of an announcement of policies that are bad news for Israel. They are not signs of a strong relationship, but rather signs of a relationship that has seen better days, but requires lip service. "The lady doth protest too much."

12:54 PM ET

The Arms Circus, Israel Keeping The World In Turmoil

Israel has made a laughing stock of America, robbing America blind while living off our welfare. Israel is the consumate “welfare Cadillac state.” They cash their ADC check while their kids rob banks, sell drugs and work to turn America into a hell on earth – The Arms Circus, Israel Keeping The World In Turmoil

Read the full article here: http://lalqila.wordpress.com/

12:03 AM ET

May 28, 2010

Wanted Posters of Stern Gang Terrorist then & Israeli "leaders"

Wanted Posters of Stern Gang Terrorist then & Israeli "leaders" now

Wanted Poster of the Palestine Police offering rewards for the capture of the Stern Gang terrorists:

1) Yaacov Levstein

2) Yitshak Shamir

3) Natan Friedman-Yelin

4) Yaacov Levi

5) Moshe Bar-Giora

6) Yehoshua Cohen

Israeli “leaders” / War Criminals and their Wanted Posters

I think the Jews should be ashamed of their self-aggrandisements.

See all the then and now posters here and smile that war criminals are incharge of (imagianry) god's chosen people: http://lalqila.wordpress.com/

8:45 AM ET

Excuses, excuses, all lame excuses.

The entire leadership of Jews before the Partition of Palestine and after The Catastrophe till the present day are bona fide war criminals.

Name one Jew leader who is not a bona fide war crimianal. I challenge you.

11:51 PM ET

May 30, 2010

94% of Israelis supported the 2009 genocidal assault on Gaza

Israel has become an ultimate merciless evil; It locks the indigenous population of the land in concentration camps; It existentially threatens the entire region with its nuclear arsenal; It indeed looks as if the Jewish state gave up on the possibility to become a nation amongst nations; It gave up on humanism; 94% of Israelis supported the 2009 genocidal assault on Gaza - Israeli Apartheid for Dummies, supported by America and Europe - Hebrew Culture for Dummies by Gilad Atzmon

Read the complete article here: http://lalqila.wordpress.com/

10:46 PM ET

maybe generational but not entirely

I'm sorry, but I'm not a generation X or Y, and I'm Jewish and extremely alienated from the organized Jewish community in the U.S. mainly because anyone with half a brain can see what Israel has become today. Literally. It's a rogue state. And I want nothing to do with it. Nothing to do with the non-stop cry of victimhood, when in fact it is the Israeli military that is the aggressor--this is what they offer as "pr," re: the Gaza flotilla. Self defense. And they honestly expect Jews to believe this, just because we're Jews. Well, I don't forget I have a brain just because I'm Jewish. Increasingly, this is what Israel and its organized supporters demand. And as someone with a brain, an intellect, and a conscience, I cannot support Israeli actions.

Clinging to images of the dead, and circling the wagons as a way to deal with our history is not functional in the 21st century.

9:53 AM ET

you have a responsibility

to close the deal. If you fail to force a return of the water and land that your community helped to confiscate, you will loose the whole shoot'in match. Without your pressure and help the entire episode (60 years) will just stink to high heaven. How about- as a start- writing to the CEO of Intel Corp ( Paul Otellini) asking that Intel recruit Arab engineers and managers for their facilities in Israel. This is a policy the company has in Malaysia ( Bhumiputra)...what about Israel? Racism is an easy target....let's get going! Intermarriage is a critical tool for pacification and reconciliation..let's encourage intermixing. This is an historical moment...otherwise you will leave an off-key version of Fiddler on the Roof as your legacy.

12:24 PM ET

yes I know

Aloud, I am aware of what you're saying. I am a longstanding supporter of Palestinian rights, and have stuck my neck out time and time again for them. I am not a Zionist, not a supporter of separate but equal, do not believe in ethnocracy, etc. I'm a U.S. citizen who actually takes seriously American values. And I agree with you about intermarriage. I think it's stupid to pressure people to marry within their faith. Very anachronistic, 19th century, etc.

11:32 AM ET

Israel has become a Lunatic State

Israel has become a Lunatic State; Can a Lunatic State be trusted with 200 to 300 nuclear weapons – Norman Finkelstein on Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla

Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB_CKL5h2_8

Norman Finkelstein’s website:

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/

His new book:

This Time We Went Too Far – Truth and Consequence of the Gaza Invasion

http://lalqila.wordpress.com/

12:28 PM ET

AIPAC lite

Jeremy, the tide would in fact turn, not be "turning," if J-Street would stop trying to be AIPAC lite. Here are Jews all over the world condemning the Israeli military's behavior yesterday, and what does J-Street do? Demonstrate that even "liberal" Jewish Americans bring up the rearguard globally. We do not need another "pro-Israeli" lobby. We need to get Israel out of the Occupied Territories before it becomes more of a pariah and injures American interests more than it has. It's time for organizations like J-Street to become more political adult like, cut the apron strings to mama, and take stands that are not just tepid versions of Big Daddy.

SADRI

2:39 AM ET

June 9, 2010

No allience

The Israelis do not want a rift with the US, so these facts I mentioned are not brought up. For what is worth, the US is all Israel has got, but that support is far more diluted than most Americans know. But I would love someone to show me a treaty of alliance with ISrael if they can. The US calls everyone "an ally" these days. It's like the term "buddy" or "pal." It has no meaning except to get politicians some support from some quarters. Israel is on its own, as Jews always have been when push comes to shove.Health Videos

Foreign Policy Magazine

Inside National Security

The Special Relationship

Foreign Policy gathered eight prominent figures in the Jewish community to discuss Peter Beinart's recent essay, and whether the ties that bond American Jews to Israel remain strong.

MAY 21, 2010

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