As someone who blogs about Israel and Palestine almost daily, I elicit many reactions -- from left-wing supporters and hostile right-wing detractors.
Naturally the two groups don't agree on much of anything but sometimes supporters and detractors make the same mistake: they assume (or charge) that I am anti-Israel. To be fair, it is mostly the right-wing AIPAC types who make that assumption but occasionally my fellow opponents of the occupation make it as well.
Not long ago, I was on Al Jazeera and someone, I think from Damascus, called in to say how gratifying it was to see that there were "anti-Zionist Jews like Mr. Rosenberg" who are fighting to end the occupation.
I quickly corrected him. I told him that I was not anti-Israel. In fact, I am pro-Israel and if I wasn't, I doubt I would be involved so heavily in the fight for justice for the Palestinians.
Surprisingly, the caller said, "Even better. That means you can talk to other Jews to make them understand that being for Palestine does not make you anti-Israel."
And, of course, it doesn't.
To be honest, I exploit the fact that I am not anti-Israel whenever I appear on Arab media, making clear that I believe Israel has the absolute right to full security within the pre-'67 borders or whatever borders are ultimately agreed to in negotiations.
I do that because doing so helps to defuse the negative image many Arabs and some pro-Palestinian people here have about Jews.
Thanks to the pervasive influence of AIPAC and its satellites, they believe that virtually all Jews support the occupation, oppose Palestinian rights and even the rights of Muslims in the United States. By the same token, they believe that Jews who do support the Palestinian cause are either anti-Zionist, anti-Israel, or defectors from the Jewish people.
I see it as part of my mission to change that view which, I think, is both wrong and dangerous for Jews. While the right-wing Jewish organizations worry about a few anti-Semitic placards at "Occupy Wall Street," I worry that the perception that American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the United States will ultimately prove harmful to all Jews here. I also worry that the Muslim world will come to believe that American Jews are all supporters of the occupation and of zealots like the settlers and Binyamin Netanyahu.
Of course, why wouldn't they think that? They see AIPAC and its Congressional cutouts never, ever, deviating from the line laid down by Jerusalem while showing no such deference to an American president. They know that Israel is the only public policy issue in America on which the two parties stand in enforced unity, a unity dictated by the "pro-Israel" lobby and the donors it has at its disposal. They watched President Obama retreat from his pledge to be a Middle East "honest broker" when Netanyahu and AIPAC demanded total 100 percent fealty to Israel.
How are they to know that according to the most comprehensive poll of American Jews, precisely 3 percent cast their votes for president based on attitudes toward Israel while the rest make their choice based on American issues, just like their neighbors.
I have been deeply involved with Israel since 1968 when, as a teenager, I made my first of dozens of visits there. I know the country well. In recent years, I've traveled to Palestine as well, even serving as an official U.S. observer of the 2006 Palestinian national election.
A photograph of the Tel Aviv coast can make my heart beat a little faster. I love the Israel that Tel Aviv -- in particular, north Tel Aviv -- represents (secular, left-wing, gay-friendly, young, and hip). Yes, I know that Tel Aviv is not Israel and that people there are accused of living in a "bubble," partying while Gaza suffers an hour away. But how are they any different from people in Manhattan, Ann Arbor, or West LA? People living in countries that have essentially gone crazy live in bubbles to avoid going crazy themselves.
So, to put it simply, one of the major reasons I despise the occupation, the Netanyahu government, and the lobby (AIPAC) that sustains it through campaign donations to Congress, is because they threaten the existence of the Israel that Tel Aviv represents.
Of course, my love for the "good" Israel is not the only reason I am vehemently opposed to the occupation and its sustainers. I know many Palestinians and I have seen the occupation with my own eyes.
One can argue about whether or not the Gaza blockade is legal or illegal but not over the fact that Israel continuously violates the fundamental human rights of the Palestinians of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem). Nor over the fact that war crimes were committed during the 2009 war in Gaza, regardless of what Justice Goldstone says in his next Op-ed. Nor that the policy that inflicts "collective punishment" on the people of Gaza is wrong by any standard.
Nothing I wrote above is anti-Israel. On the contrary, it is precisely because I want Israel to exist in peace and security that I oppose the occupation (and, just as much, the insane idea of bombing Iran which could ultimately lead to the destruction of the entire Israeli state). No, it is the supporters of the occupation and of war with Iran who should defend themselves for advocating policies (and forcing them on the United States) which could destroy Israel, the country and the dream.
It is wrong to believe that those of us who oppose the policies of AIPAC and company are outliers. We aren't. We just aren't as loud as AIPAC, nor -- and more importantly -- do we have the cold cash to lavish on Members of Congress.
And maybe that's our fault.
The week Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president, I told him that I hoped that when he became president he would not ignore the views of Jews like me who want the U.S. to pressure Israel hard to end the occupation for Israel's sake and America's. (He has ignored us, of course).
He responded by cupping his hand on his ear and saying, "if you want me to hear you, speak louder. I hear from AIPAC (he specifically named the AIPAC leader in Chicago) every week." I told him that I'd gladly call him every week!
He repeated: Speak louder.
That is what I try to do. Maybe one day, my friends and I will drown out the self-serving noise (and money) machine that is AIPAC. It doesn't seem likely. But then, who would have imagined Occupy Wall Street?
Follow MJ Rosenberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mjayrosenberg
Daoud Kuttab: Nobel Winner Obama Owes the World Courageous Act for Peace
Robert Naiman: Mahmoud Abbas, the Jackie Robinson of Palestine
MJ Rosenberg: Even Tom Friedman Says It's the Lobby
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/23/israelis-largely-support-palestinian-state
It's amazing that people can be seen as more patriotic by supporting a war that has shown very little success. Also, considering the fact two other super powers, Great Britain and the former Soviet Union were unsuccessful in Afghanistan doesn't give me much hope about the U.S. being any different.
Everybody can say we need to reach a solution and end the occupation. Lets hear how you plan to do so if we take Olmerts peace offer, which the Palestinians didn't accept as a starting point. What more are you willing to offer them that Olmert did not already offer.
Lets say you are in charge of Israel what will your peace deal look like lets hear the details.
No, Israels critics are its friends and its its proponents are its adversaries?
George Orwell just called, he wants his manuscript back.
It is mindless support that Orwell was opposed to.
Just as today many people (falsely) believe that the global Islamic revolution poses no threat to their own comfortable lifestyles. They believe it can be appeased and by blaming the traditional scapegoat (the Hebrews) people are distracted enough to loose sight of the true threat to their freedoms, which, in reality, has nothing whatsoever to do with Israel and in fact, Israel is at the front lines of this conflict and is creating a barrier that prolongs our own survival as free humans.
My earlier comment was not only fair, it was precisely appropriate (for reasons both obvious and already stated). I have no problem with legitimate criticisms of Israel and do it myself from time-to-time. But there is a difference between legitimate criticism and anti-Semitic hyperbole. Anyone who thinks that all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic is off one one tangent. But equally, anyone who thinks that no criticism of the Jewish nation is anti-Jewish is (in so doing) quite possibly committing an act of anti-Semitism.
1 I believe that the British promised Palestine in 1915 as part of an Arab state.
2 I do not believe that the British had the moral or legal right to make the Balfour Declaration ignoring the wishes of the majority population.
For these and numerous other consideration if I had a vote prior to the establishment of Israel. My vote would be no. That does not make me anti-Jewish. It simply means that I believe that the Palestinians had a better case.
Once the egg is broken its almost impossible to put it back together. Further I doubt that there would be any chance of a one state solution. It would therefore seem that the only viable option for the Palestinians is the two state solution based on the pre-1967 borders. In this situation Idealism must give way to pragmatism.
However the longer that this process is dragged the more land that Israel accumulates, the greater are the chances of a one state solution. Israel would be wise to withdraw its objection to Palestinian recognition. Should this bid fail I believe that the only option that the Palestinians have left would be to dissolve the the Palestinian Authority seek Israeli citizenship and the right to vote.
Meanwhile, The Jewish state is getting more prosperous and powerful and Palestinains are getting weaker. And due to at time irrational mythology and belief in their own PR collectively and severally incapable of rational negotiations.
Arab, Jewish and Christian Israel want no part of the Palestinian disaster. Especially now with Hamas fanatics in charge of most of Palestinian population this is laughable non-starter.
Thousands of Arab Jerusalemites run screaming for Israeli citizenship anytime a rumor of Palestinain over emerges.
The choices for Palestinains are such:
1.Their own state with a capital in Ramallah. On the lands negotiated from Israels.
2. One state autonomous status with Jordanians, who are majority Palestinians any way.
3. Present quasi-state status with the land available to them getting gradually smaller.
Everything else, including return to bucolic farm( now the mega shopping mall) is stuff of fairy tales Palestinain leaders cynically feed their populations in order to stoke belligerence and recruit more canon fodder.
ISRAEL IS WRONG AND ACTING LIKE A BRUTAL BULLY. FAIR AND BALANCE ONLY WORKS IN PROPAGANDA...IN THE REAL WORLD WE WANT FACTS AND FACTS ARE DAMNING TO ISRAEL.
huh ? do you have any understanding of what propaganda is? seriously dude quit yelling and get an education or at least a dictionary.
But please lay off the CAPS.
And to Israel's detriment, you continue to not listen.