After a great deal of back and forth (and efforts by others on my behalf), the Daily Californian has finally published a response by me to a non-factual, defamatory letter to the editor attacking me in late May.

While I am pleased that the newspaper finally printed something, I feel it’s unfortunate (and evinces a bit of a double standard) that the editors would not publish the original letter I submitted, restricted the information I could include in my rebuttal, posted my letter at the bottom of three letters (they had published the defamatory letters at the top of the section), failed to promote my letter in the paper’s Twitter account (which they had done with the one accusing me), and continue to feature the defamatory letters – weeks after they were published – at the top of their Letters to the Editor page.

However, I’m glad that they finally published the following. Thanks to everyone who helped with this accomplishment!

Personal attacks are invalid, misinformed

In her letter “Anti-Israel ad breaks trust, propagates lies,” (May 21-27), Thyme Siegel angrily attacks me, apparently under the erroneous impression that I was responsible for an ad in The Daily Californian that she found infuriating.

Her letter berates the newspaper for the highly factual ad, stating: “… an especial red flag should have gone up in taking money from anti-Israel activists.  Alison Weir, whose organization If Americans Knew is mentioned in the ad, is a full-time hater of Israel, a task of constant malice.”

In reality, I am a former journalist with a history of opposing discrimination. I had known little about Israel-Palestine most of my life, tilting toward Israel in my sympathies. When a Palestinian uprising erupted in fall 2000, I grew curious and began to investigate it.

I was shocked as I read Internet reports from regional media, humanitarian agencies and eyewitnesses. These differed so markedly from U.S. news reports that I decided to go see the situation firsthand.

I traveled by myself throughout Gaza and the West Bank and saw entire neighborhoods in ruins from Israeli shelling, ancient orchards that had been razed, children who had been shot.

When I returned I began If Americans Knew to provide the facts on a tragic issue to which Americans are intimately connected through our $8 million per day to Israel.

For my work, I am regularly called names. Following a 2003 debate at Berkeley, I received a death threat. Nevertheless, I plan to continue my efforts to give Americans the facts — especially since we have the power to bring justice and peace. It is my dream that today’s college students will do this.

— Alison Weir
Council for the National Interest and If Americans Knew

(On the website version my name was originally omitted at the end of the letter. When some readers notified me of this, I contacted the newspaper and they corrected this typo the next day.)

Some people have sent me letters they had sent to the Daily Cal in response to published letters to the editor that contained false information on Israel-Palestine and that attacked If Americans Knew and me personally. (See more details here.)

A few were written before the Daily Cal refused to publish my own letter in response to the personal attacks against me, and some were written afterward to object to the Daily Cal’s deeply unethical conduct.

These excellent letters contain important factual information and thoughtful analysis. It’s a shame that the Daily Cal so far hasn’t printed any of them, since they would help to inform the newspaper’s readers on a critically important topic that is at the center of events affecting all Americans and millions of people in the Middlle East. They also discuss core principles of journalistic ethics, surely an important and relevant discussion.

Please read these and tell others of this situation.

Daily Californian Editors:

I am more than shocked, I am, frankly, angry, at your apparent refusal to publish a letter by Alison Weir that not only responds to a personal attack on her but distorts the truth about the origins of the 1967 Six-Day war, one of the most significant events of the 20th century which was initiated by Israel in the early morning hours of June 5, of that year, by bombing Egypt’s airfields and virtually wiping out its air force. It’s a fact easily checked.

As a student of the Middle East and as someone who has been a journalist for many years, cutting my newsprint teeth at the UCLA Daily Bruin, and who is more than familiar with the standards of professional journalism I find your decision indefensible. When someone is attacked in print . that person is entitled to respond in the same publication. It is as simple is that. Your decision, however, is consistent with a campaign initiated by the Zionist Organization of America, on the extreme right of the Jewish organizational spectrum, to use Title VI, a law designed to protect minorities against discrimination, to stifle legitimate criticism of the state of Israel and its crimes against the Palestinians on college campuses by defining it as anti-Semitism. Those who declare the truth and those who speak it to be anti-Semitic and try to silence them, as does the ZOA, are only courting trouble. Is that the sort of company you wish to keep?

Jeffrey Blankfort
UCLA l957

To the Editor

In the letters of May 21-27 Thyme S. Siegel and Vladimir Kaplan falsely state that in 1967 Israel was attacked by all its neighbors. Maybe the writers are too young to remember that Israel was the first to attack when they bombed the Egyptian Air Force as their planes sat wing to wing on the tarmac. As Egypt was the object of aggression, Arab countries with which Egypt had treaties were bound to come to their aid.

At the end of six days Israel held not only the West Bank and Gaza but the Golan Heights which they have annexed in violation of international law. Today, as represented on the last map, much of the West Bank is covered with Jewish-only settlements dividing the territory into smaller and smaller enclaves of Palestinians. Each and every settlement built in these Occupied Territories is also in violation of international law.

The writers take issue with some of the facts in the ad. There is no doubt that at the start of the Zionist project less than 5% of the population of Palestine was Jewish. As more and more Jews came into Palestine, pressure was put on European powers to divide up the land.  With justification the Palestinian Arabs felt that they did not want to give up the land on which they had lived for centuries. It has been well documented that while a number of Palestinians fled in fear of the fighting a larger number were ethnically cleansed, a fact that Israeli historians Ilan Pappe and Benny Morris have documented.

It would do well Siegel and Kaplan to do some research.

 – Jan Bauman, D
Daily Cal, 1951-1952

To the Editor of the Daily Californian:

 

The ad depicting the reality of Israeli theft of Palestinian Lands with accurate maps has generated 2 letters by Thyme S. Siegel and Vladimir Kaplan. The two writers engage in ad hominem attacks with charges of “anti-Semitism”, “lie”, “fabrication”, “manipulation” and even “destructive venom” then proceed to propagate myths that have long been discredited.  Perhaps the writers are confused and not aware that Israel itself called its attacks on Arab states in 1967 preemptive.  Preemptive means you attack first.   Perhaps they swallowed the fiction of Israeli victory through a “miracle”.  Perhaps they are not aware that several Israeli leaders admitted Israel’s premeditated attack.  The late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, said,  “In June l967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.” (New York Times, August 21, 1982.)  General Mattityahu Peled, a member of the Israel General Staff during the 1967 attack said: “To pretend that the Egyptian forces massed on our frontiers were in a position to threaten the existence of Israel constitutes an insult not only to the intelligence of anyone capable of analysing this sort of situation, but above all an insult to the Zahal [Israeli army].” [Ha’aretz, 19 March 1972.
]

 

The maps in the ad should not surprise anyone familiar with the  tragedy in Palestine.  Similar maps are  in Israeli government issued textbooks. A similar version is published by the authoritative Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD.org.)   I advise letter writers to examine the facts and educate themselves. 

 

Margaret Fouda,

Kensington

 

To the Editor:

Lest any reader be tempted to believe the hysterical, hateful and highly incorrect rant by Thyme Siegel, I suggest they read a reputable book to get the facts, such as The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine written by the renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappe.

Iran supplied bombs used by Gaza? What nonsense! We all know that it was Israel that dropped bombs on Gaza during the 2008-2009 assault, killing 1,400 people, of whom 300 were children. The illegal weapons used by Israel, such as the phosphorous that burned children to death, were paid for by us – the US tax payer.

Jane Jewell, San Rafael

My response to the letter “Ad illustrates essence of Anti-Semitism, lies by Mr Kaplan”:

The cry of “anti-Semitism”, when used to silence anyone who dares to criticise Israel, completely upstages the story of the little boy who kept crying “wolf”. I thought it had been knocked on the head a couple of years ago at UC Berkeley, during the divestment campaign against the Israeli Occupation, when one of the leaders of Jewish Voice for Peace pointed out that there were more Jewish supporters of the divestment campaign in the room than Jews opposing it. 

While the movement for justice for Palestine is made up of people from all walks of life, it contains a disproportionate number of Jews who are speaking out against Israeli Apartheid and taking the lead in bringing justice for Palestinians. To name just a few:

Ilan Pappe, Israeli author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine;

Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions;

Bekah Wolf, founder of the Palestine Solidarity Project;

Anna Baltzer, Jewish American author of Witness in Palestine;

and Rae Abileah, founder of Young Jewish and Proud, who speaks out against the Israeli government’s policies at every opportunity.

Yet supporters of the Apartheid State of Israel continue to try to play the ‘anti-Semite card’, despite the fact that its effectiveness in suppressing those speaking out for justice ended a long time ago, and it’s continued use is getting more and more comical.

 – Jane Jewell

In late May the Daily Californian, the UC Berkeley campus newspaper, published letters to the editor defaming If Americans Knew and me personally.

As soon as I became aware of these letters, online, I phoned the person responsible for the letters section, Jonathan Kuperberg, to ask if they had also been published in the print newspaper. I did not reach Kuperberg but left him a voicemail politely asking this question. Kuperberg did not return my call, but I have since learned that they were also in the print publication distributed all over the campus (and probably beyond).

I then wrote a letter to the editor (see below) and sent it to the Daily Cal early the next morning, May 30th. The following day, when I again had received no response, I re-sent the letter and copied other Daily Cal editors.

The managing editor sent a short reply email saying that the opinion editor (Kuperberg) would be considering my letter and told me that in the summer they only print letters once a week.

The Daily Cal has now printed the next week’s letters to the editor and did not include my letter. In fact, although I know personally of at least four additional letters sent to them on this topic, they printed none of them.

Meanwhile, oddly, the defamatory letter against me remains at the top of their letters section.

It doesn’t take an expert to know that such behavior is unconscionable. Newspaper ethics codes – and normal concepts of fairness – affirm the right of a person accused of wrongdoing to respond. The American Society of Newspaper Editors Statement of Principles, for example, decrees: “Persons publicly accused should be given the earliest opportunity to respond.”

In addition, letters containing factual errors should also be corrected.

My letter, and at least one other, should have been published. Last night I emailed the editors asking when they are going to print my letter. None has yet replied. I have now phoned the office and finally reached an editor in person. She said that staff members were talking about this and that Kuperberg would get back to me today. I thanked her and said I look forward to hearing from him.

I truly hope that this doesn’t turn into another Michigan Radio situation, in which the Ann Arbor NPR affiliate under director Steve Schram refused to run our announcement, refused to return email and phone calls, lied about their behavior to the public, and only finally aired our announcement over a year later following public pressure.

It would be nice if Kuperberg and the Daily Cal would simply do the right thing.

Below is my letter:

Commissioner pushes pro-Israel pro-war falsehoods 

To the Editor:

I was saddened that an ad about Israel-Palestine in the Daily Californian (now posted on our website) elicited vitriolic, nonfactual letters attacking me personally and our organization, If Americans Knew.

It is particularly troubling to see such a letter by a City of Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission member, Thyme Siegel (“Anti-Israel ad breaks trust, propagates lies,” May 21-27).

In her letter, Ms. Siegel claims that in 1967 Israel was “attacked by all its neighbors.” However, even Israel discarded this initial falsehood many years ago. In reality, Israel perpetrated a sneak attack on Egypt that wiped out most of the Egyptian Air Force on the ground, launching what is called the Six Day war. 

During that very rapid war of conquest, Israel also attacked a US Navy ship, killing or injuring 200+ Americans and destroying a $40 million ship (they eventually gave us $6 million compensation for the ship).

Even more disturbing than Ms. Siegel’s misrepresentation of history are her claims about Iran, in which she uses the same kind of inflammatory, inaccurate rhetoric that was used against Iraq, another perceived Israeli adversary.

Such mendacious rhetoric led to a tragic, unnecessary American war; the deaths of millions of Iraqi men, women, and children and thousands of Americans (many more left permanently maimed); and triggered a financial meltdown that cost multitudes of Americans their jobs, businesses, homes, and happiness.

It is time to expose and oppose the manipulation that has created war and misery for over 60 years. Americans give Israel over $8 million per day; we have the power to end the carnage. May this generation of college students be the ones to do it.

Sincerely,

Alison Weir

Executive Director, If Americans Knew, and President, Council for the National Interest

Update: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at 6:23AM

Last night I finally received a response from the Daily Cal:

Hi Alison,

We have decided not to publish your letter to the editor. Please direct any further questions to me or Stephanie Baer, our Editor and Chief and President (editor@dailycal.org), and not to any of the other editors.

Jonathan Kuperberg

It’s interesting that Kuperberg and Baer don’t wish the other editors involved. I would like to hope that some of them may have a sense of the extremely unethical stance their newspaper is taking and may not be happy about it.

I remember being a student editor many years ago on the Michigan Daily. It’s hard to believe that I would have gone along with such a blatant abuse of journalistic power. It would be wonderful if some of the staff would be  sufficiently ethical, fair-minded, and courageous to speak out about it.

I’ll now try to meet with the staff to discuss this situation. Having published a highly defamatory, personal attack against me, they at least have the obligation to meet with me and explain why they feel they are justified in refusing to publish my response.

Apart from the importance of the principles involved, I have strong connections to UC Berkeley. I used to have an office in Berkeley and have many friends there. All three of my children graduated from Berkeley (with honors!) and one received a Master’s degree from it. My former husband was on the faculty of its journalism school.

While the Daily Cal is a very small, largely student newspaper, it is significant in that it is one of the few ways to reach students and faculty at this major American university (Berkeley is often listed as the top public university in the country and rivals far more expensive places like Stanford, Harvard, and Yale in the excellence of its academics).

I’m reminded of the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) official awhile ago who proclaimed their plans for Berkeley – and beyond (watch video here). In reference to a divestment resolution on Israel that the majority of the UC Berkeley student senate had endorsed, AIPAC’S Director of Leadership Development Jonathan Kessler announced:

“How are we going to beat back the anti-Israel divestment resolution at Berkeley? We’re going to make certain that pro-Israel students take over the student government and reverse the vote. That is how AIPAC operates in our nation’s capitol. This is how AIPAC must operate on our nation’s campuses.”

How dangerous that this tiny, powerful special interest group is targeting our universities – and that this has been going on for so many years (see “Pressure on Campus: Interest groups successfully stifling academic discourse,” published 27 years ago).

More people need to learn about what’s going on and, in the parlance of Paul Findley’s seminal book, join those who dare to speak out about it. The soul of our country and millions of lives depend on it.

* * *

By the way, regarding the ad that was published:  While I’m extremely pleased that this excellent ad contained information and images from our website and cards, our organization can in no way take credit for the ad. If Americans Knew did not create it, place it, or sponsor it (although, given sufficient financial resources, we would be pleased to place and sponsor such ads in other newspapers in the future). As we stated in the post about the ad on our website, this was done by a Rhode Island based foundation, Justice First Foundation. The ad did not mention me.

Update: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at 11:52AM

A number of people have emailed me excellent letters they’ve sent the Daily Cal. So far, none have been published, so I’ll post them in a new section above.

I just sent the following message to the president of the White House Correspondents Association about their decision to refuse to allow Helen Thomas to purchase a table at their upcoming dinner. I hope others will contact them about this, also. (202-266-7453 phone; 202-266-7454 fax)

Dear Caren Bohan,

I hope you will reconsider your decision not to allow Helen Thomas to purchase a table at this year’s White House Correspondents Association’s Dinner. As you are aware, this will be the 50th anniversary of women journalists being allowed to attend this dinner – a breakthrough created by Helen Thomas.

Thomas wrote to your organization with a small, extremely appropriate request: “As the first woman president to preside over the WHCA, and one of a few women who were instrumental in successfully convincing President Kennedy to boycott the dinner, it is very important to me to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this monumental feat with my family and close friends this year.”

I have read that Secretary of the WHCA Julie Mason explained your denial of a table to Ms. Thomas’ because “it would be ‘logistically impossible’ to allow every past WHCA president to get their own table.”

However, as you and she are no doubt aware, this is not a request based on Thomas’ position as a past president of the WHCA; it is a request based on her unique, historical contribution.

In addition to breaking numerous barriers to women journalists, Thomas spent decades providing profoundly important reporting. It is for this reason that so many organizations honored her though the years with a multitude of awards, scholarships in her name, and honorary degrees — many of which have now been taken away through the vengeful, mean-spirited campaign waged against her by such Israel apologists as Ari Fleischer and Abraham Foxman (please see The Manufactured Controversy Over Former Senior White House Correspondent Helen Thomas.)

I feel there is little doubt that if Thomas had not offended Israel partisans, your organization would be particularly celebrating her at the upcoming dinner, not denying her small request.

Given Ms. Thomas’ age and health, this may be your organization’s last chance to honor her in person. Please reconsider your timid, highly inappropriate refusal to allow her to purchase a table – a truly minimal request.

Sincerely,
—
Alison Weir
President, Council for the National Interest
Executive Director, If Americans Knew

Ali Abunimah & Gilad Atzmon at the OK Corral

(reposted from DeLiberation)

by Roger Tucker
Saturday, March 24th, 2012

The recent open letter Granting No Quarter: A Call for the Disavowal of the Racism and Antisemitism of Gilad Atzmon, apparently written by Ali Abunimah, has come as a shock to many people, including yours truly. Not only have the Zionists colonized Palestine and subjected them to a permanent campaign of genocide, but as anyone who has been paying attention knows, they have colonized the Western democracies, turning them into obedient puppets. Now it appears that they have also colonized the Palestine Solidarity movement.

At the end of this essay are links to a number of responses supporting Atzmon and what he stands for. These cover the ground pretty well, but I’d like to add a critical look at the language used by Abunimah et al and some of the notions underlying such terminology. I’ll start with the title itself, which begins with the curious phrase “Granting No Quarter.” The phrase is familiar to anyone who has read books or seen films based on British naval warfare set in the 18th or early 19th centuries. – this is as extreme as it gets. This from a group of mostly Palestinian supporters of the Palestinian struggle against Israel in opposition to another such supporter. That is sufficiently mind-boggling in itself, but Ali Abunimah, and I would assume at least some of his fellow signatories, are also supporters of One Democratic State as the solution to the basic conflict in the Middle East, as is Atzmon. Some fundamental and portentous difference, beyond a mere dispute about strategy or tactics, must be responsible for such a total and uncompromising attack on a seemingly close ally. It allows for no debate, no compromise – no quarter offered or accepted.

Some observers have implied that Ali & Co. have actually gone over to the enemy, or may have been Zionist agents from day one, and that the Jewish members of these Solidarity groups are acting as their handlers. For the sake of argument, I’m going to assume that is not so, that they are perfectly sincere in considering themselves loyal to the Palestinian cause as they conceive it. Looking at the signatories of the Letter we find some successful academics, Abunimah and Massad being the most prominent. They have prospered as unofficially sanctioned spokesmen for the Palestinian cause in the US and have no incentive to rock the boat. If they presented any perceived danger to tribal Jewry, they would likely find themselves on the street, as has happened to a number of academics, many of them Jewish, who have dared to challenge the predominant Jewish narrative. This points to a simple motivation based on economic and professional self-interest, but I believe there’s more to it than that.

Racism
“Race is a classification system used to categorize humans into large and distinct populations or groups by heritable phenotypic characteristics, geographic ancestry, physical appearance, and ethnicity.” So begins the Wikipedia page on the subject. Race is a broad brush that covers just about any typology that attempts to divide humanity into distinct groups according to such criteria. All such attempts have very fuzzy edges. “Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term “racism” is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature (i.e., which harms particular groups of people).” The accusation of racism has typically been a characteristic of leftist critiques of systems that practice discrimination against members of relatively powerless minorities. The accusation of racism against Zionist Jews is a curious exception. This particular group is far from being powerless. More to the point, there has been an obvious racist component within Jewish culture from the very beginning. Just take a look at the Old Testament, let alone the blatant contempt for the “goyim” (non-Jews) found in the Talmud. The dehumanization of “the Other” is a very old and characteristically Jewish pattern. For tribal Jews and their allies, the “shabbas goyim,” to bandy about the term “racism” is hypocrisy of the highest order. (“The term shabbos goy refers to a non-Jew who performs duties that Jewish law forbids a Jew from performing on the Sabbath.” – wikipedia) What I am getting at is that Ali Abunimah et al are arguably shabbas goyim, non-Jewish elements of the currently dominant political force in the Western world that James Petras refers to as the Zionist Power Configuration (JPC).

Antisemitism
This term is the most powerful weapon in the tribal Jewish verbal armory. To be labeled antisemitic is akin to having been labeled a heretic by the Holy Roman Inquisition. It might not invite torture and burning at the stake, but they will set about ruining your life. It is purportedly a special case of racism, whereby the Jewish people are cast as the eternal victims of racial prejudice. I defer to a Jewish thinker on this subject:

“If this hostility, even aversion, had only been shown towards the Jews at one period and in one country, it would be easy to unravel the limited causes of this anger, but this race has been on the contrary an object of hatred to all the peoples among whom it has established itself. It must be therefore, since the enemies of the Jews belonged to the most diverse races, since they lived in countries very distant from each other, since they were ruled by very different laws, governed by opposite principles, since they had neither the same morals, nor the same customs, since they were animated by unlike dispositions which did not permit them to judge of anything in the same way, it must be therefore that the general cause of anti-Semitism has always resided in Israel itself and not in those who have fought against Israel.” ~ Statement regarding the expulsions of Jews, by noted Jewish author Bernard Lazare in “L’antisémitisme, son histoire et ses causes,”published in 1894.

As a number of people have pointed out, there is another problem with the use of the word antisemitism. “Semite” is a linguistic term denoting peoples who speak semitic languages. Israelis are not semites in spite of the fact that they speak Hebrew ((it’s an adopted language of far too recent a vintage). The Zionists who created Israel and still run it are descended from the Khazars, linguistically a “Turko-finnic” people. The vast majority of semites speak Arabic as their native language, making tribal Jewry, particularly the Israelis, the only people in the world who are truly “antisemitic” – and they are virulently antisemitic.

Colonialism
Abunimah invokes this term, specifically “settler-colonialism,” as characterizing the nature of the Zionist invasion of Palestine. They claim that Atzmon rejects this characterization. Actually, all he does is point out that settler-colonialism has traditionally referred to efforts of European powers to install a permanent presence of their nationals in countries they wish to control. In all such cases, except Israel, there is a mother country that the settlers can rely on to finance and support their efforts. This is different from the case of the Jewish State, in which that role has been played by world Jewry in the diaspora. It’s a non-issue, really, except that once again Abunimah is misusing language to make his argument.

Culture Race, as we mentioned above, is a clumsy, inaccurate and misleading way of looking at the distinguishing characteristics of people that we attempt to lump together in identifiable groups. There’s a much better way of separating out what Atzmon calls “collectives.” This is by looking at characteristic ways of thinking, speaking and behaving, which together pretty much determine who we are. These distinctions are cultural. And this is where the already shaky limb that Ali is clinging to breaks and he tumbles into complete nonsense. Ali doesn’t mention culture in his letter, but take a look at this, Ali Abunimah attacking Gilad Atzmon at the Stuttgart One State conference (Dec 2010. “Jewish Culture.. doesn’t explain anything at all.” This remark is not only absurd – it would be like saying that slavery had nothing to do with the Civil War, or that the playing of the pipes has nothing to do with their Celtic origin, or that the French drink wine merely as a matter of personal choice, etc. , etc. (one could make a parlor game out of this) – he is so intent on demonizing Atzmon that he abandons any shred of intellectual integrity. Perhaps he secretly believes in “Intelligent Design?”

The notion of race is based on genetic differences, which determine our physical being. Genetic evolution in the human race more or less ceased some 5,000 years ago. Culture, on the other hand, is memetic. Memes are patterns that we inherit from our environment, starting when we are children with our families and continuing as we get older to to the notions, norms and attitudes prevalent in our societies. Culture is far and away the most significant causal factor in how we manifest in the world. What makes memetic (cultural) evolution possible and far more rapid than through genetic mutations is that we have the ability to change our minds based on new information, or seeing things in a new way. To do so requires curiosity, an open mind and considerable humbleness. This is what the word “freedom” means in its fullest sense. Many people become rigid and inflexible in their views, including far too many academics. As Eric Hoffer, the great longshoreman philosopher put it in his book ‘The True Believer,’ “In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
”

Identity politics
This term, frequently used by Atzmon, is the crux of the matter. If you will indulge me, click on Us vs. Them: On the Meaning of Fascism. It is about identity politics and how this phenomenon tends to evolve into fascism. Atzmon is absolutely correct in making it central to his investigation. He stresses that it is intellectually dishonest to attempt to discuss Zionism and Israel without reference to “Jewishness.” Zionism was a specifically Jewish endeavor to create a Jewish state. What could be more obvious? If you leave out the “Jewish” part there isn’t much left, is there? The point is too obvious to belabor, but Abunimah attempts to do just that. Atzmon, in the grand tradition of intellectual inquiry, has committed himself to trying to understand the whole complex picture, which centers around the question of what “Jewish” and “Jewishness” mean. Abunimah cries foul and invokes the taboo that has been the mainstay of Zionist propaganda from day one. You can’t talk about “Jews.” You can’t talk about “Jewishness.” Otherwise you are “racist,” “antisemitic.” A circular, absurd argument. I guess it might upset somebody, most likely “The Wandering Guess Who.” (There is a very intriguing piece from an unlikely source, a recent issue of the New York Times. The author has some very intiguing things to say about tribal identities. Click on Forget the Money, Follow the Sacredness.)

I am Jewish, Atzmon is Jewish (whether he likes it or not – sorry, Gilad, but it’s a friendly dig), and so are many of his supporters. I don’t want anyone telling me that I can’t look at what that means. It is one of my fondest hopes that a great many Jews honestly consider the question “who am I?”. As long as the answer is “I’m a Jew, first and foremost” we are in for a lot more trouble. If the answer is “I’m first of all a human being and the rest is secondary” then there will be grounds for optimism. If enough Jews have the courage to look in the mirror and ask this fundamental question, we could easily solve the most pressing problem facing the world today, because, like it or not, tribal Jewry currently holds all the cards. Without at least the tacit support of most Jews they wouldn’t be able to play their game any longer.

Political Correctness We are now going to address what I believe to be the primary motivations behind Abunimah’s extraordinary attack on Atzmon. A number of political fashions arose out of postmodernism, such as multi-culturalism, radical feminism and gay and lesbian activism, for example. In all cases, these fashions endorse various flavors of identity politics, These particular ideas were actually pioneered within the 60’s counter-culture, but the postmodernist academics turned them upside down. Instead of being inspired by a sense of our common humanity, we were inundated by all sorts of identity politics, all with narratives that, under the new dispensation, couldn’t be challenged without confronting the enforcement arm of the new orthodoxy – political correctness. All of this grew out of the Marxist culture that had previously been the fashion on the Left, but needed a new intellectual basis after the reaction to the horrors of Stalinism and Maoism, and eventually the fall of the Soviet Union. Ergo, postmodernism and its progeny provided continuity and a new lease on life.

In keeping with the tradition of Marxism-Leninism, the neo-Marxists needed to instill monolithic party discipline. After all, there can be only one vanguard of the proletariat. The new ideology of identity politics developed the strategy of political correctness to enforce its monopoly over discourse. This is not confined to the groves of Academe – the ADL and similar Zionist institutions actively enforce the orthodoxy. And, just as an aside, Jews continued to make up a large proportion of both the party leadership and the party faithful, just as Bolshevism was largely a Jewish project. Although the thought police concern themselves with decrying any perceived denigration of a number of tribal groups, by other academics particularly, there is no question that the one and only Sacred Cow is the Jewish Tribe. Casting aspersions on black people, gays or women, for example, will get you a serious dressing down, but any reference to Jews or Jewishness that isn’t flattering might well cost you your livelihood, or worse.

To sum up, the attacks on Gilad Atzmon and Ken O’Keefe reveal an organized attempt to silence independent voices within the Palestinian support community. Many moons ago I was in the US Army. As it was peacetime, the only enemy in sight was the Army itself. We fought to a draw. There are many of us who don’t like to take orders, least of all from from the PC thought police. This an attempted political coup, actually, much like the successful efforts of the Bolsheviks (which means “majority,” although they were a small minority – quite Orwellian, actually) against the Mensheviks. But it isn’t going to work, because Atzmon and O’Keefe aren’t interested in power or being part of an organized movement. They are truly independent people taking a personal stand against a great evil, and they take their stand on behalf of all of suffering mankind, not just the Palestinians. Their efforts are prompted by the plight of the Palestinians, but like Gandhi, ML King and Mandela, they serve an even higher purpose, that of justice, wisdom, compassion and peace.

I would leave it there, but I want to make an appeal to Ali Abunimah et al to reconsider their views on this matter. When I got involved in One State advocacy more than ten years ago, I realized that we needed to operate under a big tent. After all, we are a small, relatively powerless group of people, up against the most powerful and ruthless fascist endeavor in history. At the very least, we need to accommodate one another even if some people have some views that rub us the wrong way. So I would like to invite Ali Abunimah, Joseph Massad, my friend Haidar Eid and all the others to check their guns at the door and rejoin the rest of us involved in the greatest struggle of our time.

Supporters of Atzmon have written a flurry of
responses to Abunimah’s letter. Here are links to some of them:

• Permission to examine “Jewishness,” by Rich Siegel | deLiberation
• Atzmon-Palestinian Infighting Reveals Underbelly of Gutless Duplicity, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today
• I’m So Glad We’ve Got Gilad, by Francis Clark-Lowe | deLiberation
• Why Hate Gilad Atzmon: “He’s WRONG!” (Or Is He?), by Kevin Barrett | VeteransToday
• Ali Abunimah and his Solidarity Career, by Paul Eisen | deLiberation
• Ali Abunimah attacking Gilad Atzmon at the Stuttgart One State conference (Dec 2010)
• Disavow with no mercy? Not in my name!, by Nahida the Exiled Palestinian, by Nahida The Exiled Palestinian
• Faint Heartedness, Political Correctness, and Peculiar Timing: The Attacks on Gilad
• Atzmon, by Richard Edmondson | Left-wing Christian
• Abunimah Boycotting and Censoring Gilad Atzmon? by Debbie Menon | My Catbird Seat
• More on the Atzmon Controversy, by Noel Ignatiev | PMP
• Engaging Gilad Atzmon: Interview by Prof. Norton Mezvinsky | YouTube
• Ali Baghdadi’s (Arab Journal, Chicago) responds to Abunimah & Co | Uprooted Palestinians
• A Call for the Disavowal of Splittism, by Kim Petersen | Dissident Voice
• Don’t Shun Gilad Atzmon, by Michael Rabb | CU-Divest
• “Disavowal” of Gilad Atzmon? The Truth be damned! by William A. Cook | VeteransToday
• Cynthia McKinney Interviews Gilad Atzmon about Israel, Zionism, and Jewish Identity Politics |YouTube
• The unfortunate division over Gilad Atzmon | AlisonWeir

Needless to say, Atzmon and O’Keefe have had something to say about it as well:

A Response to Ali Abunimah & Co., by Gilad Atzmon

Gilad wrote to his list:

It seems as if in spite of a very well orchestrated Jewish campaign, truth and justice prevailed, a lot thanks to you out there. There is a simple basic fact my detractors fail to grasp.I am not a politician, I do not seek power. I am an artist, I search for beauty and justice. And as it happens both are out there available for us.”

It appears that the same people who are trying to excommunicate Atzmon are also after Ken O’Keefe, which is really disgusting. There aren’t that many real heroes in this world, but O’Keefe is certainly one of them.

Thought Police within the so-called ‘Palestine Solidarity Movement’, by Ken O’Keefe

Disclaimer

Posted by Roger Tucker on March 24, 2012. Filed under Palestine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

23 Responses to Ali Abunimah & Gilad Atzmon at the OK Corral

1. 

   ariadna Log in to Reply

   March 24, 2012 at 4:46 pm

   The only comment I have is that this is an article worth framing and displaying on walls in as many places as possible.

   (and now…. the expected howlings and catcalls … 1, 2, 3, bowwaowauwww….miaouwauauauauaw)

2. 

   searching Log in to Reply

   March 24, 2012 at 6:15 pm

   Great article. Great picture, although it needs some clarification ( who is Ali , who is Gilad at the photo:).
   Yeap, the main message is , my dear decent ladies and gentelmen : Stop pointing guns at each other. The enemy loves it and enjoys it.
   Start pointing guns in one direction.
   We have a very powerful enemy to deal with.
   It is no joke ,but a very sad ,frightening reality.

   • 

     fool me once… Log in to Reply

     March 24, 2012 at 9:11 pm

     Gilad is the guy on the left, Kirk “dimple chin” Douglas. If you look closely, you can see his left hand playing an imaginary sax. Kirk, years later goes onto play Spartacus, leading the slaves in a massive revolt (*). He gets crucified at the end of that film.
     Hmmm, maybe that’s where Dr Mathis gets confused. When he tells Gilad to “get offa his cross”, he’s thinking Gilad is Jesus, when really Gilad was Spartacus all along.

     • 

       Gilad Atzmon Log in to Reply

       March 24, 2012 at 9:34 pm

       Not bad at all ,, between Spartacus and Jesus.. I actually prefer somewhere between John Coltrane and Dave Liebman..

     • 

       searching Log in to Reply

       March 24, 2012 at 9:51 pm

       )). Nice interpretation.
       I actually think that Gilad is more like a Saul ,later known as St.Paul from Tarsus. Saul was a wealthy, very well educated Jewish guy ( with a Roman citizenship), who was known for being very zelous in persecution of early Christians. One beautiful day , on the way to Damascus, Saul saw a bright light,boom, fell of the horse to the ground, was blind for a few days ,and to make a long story short, he turned his ways around.
       He changed his name to Paul. He converted, become one the greatest apostoles/missionaries ,spreading Christian message all around the Mediterranen.
       A fascinating, very interesting human being.
       Of course, Gilad is not like him, ( I would not call Gilad a saint ,although he does have a patience of a saint, dealing with all those attacks, threats, slanders and trolls) , but the conversion did took place in Gilad’s Life some beautiful day, and only he knows how it happened or what it triggered.

   • 

     Gilad Atzmon Log in to Reply

     March 24, 2012 at 9:30 pm

     I agree,, I have sent a few similar messages to Abunimah. so far no reply. I guess that he realises that he made a tactical mistake.

     • 

       solar Log in to Reply

       March 25, 2012 at 11:41 pm

       More likely, he thinks you’re a rather obvious anti-Semite no worthier of a reply than David Irving or David Duke would be.

       But then, David DuKKKe is one of your greatest fans, isn’t he.

3. 

   Jonathon Blakeley Log in to Reply

   March 24, 2012 at 11:34 pm

   Great Article. Its great that we are all deconstructing this fake racist smearing. Its is clearly being used to control people and the politics.

   • 

     Gilad Atzmon Log in to Reply

     March 25, 2012 at 12:30 am

     Indeed a great article. It points at the differences between Abunimah and myself. Tucker is incredible and it is so great to see him on deLiberation…

4. 

   who_me Log in to Reply

   March 25, 2012 at 3:48 am

   something i have not seem mentioned is the segregation in the 2 letters attacking atzmon. The 1st letter was signed mostly by jews, and written by a jew (i assume) and the 2nd was initially mostly signed by muslims and written by a muslim. why didn’t the 2 these 2 groups join together for these letters? why did they seperate themselves? are muslims not allowed to associate with jews in public? both of these letters were by the same group of people, all of whom are israeli agents of disruption, per se. it’s strange they do not want to be seen associating with each other.

   but maybe there is another reason these israeli quislings do not want to be seen associating together in these character attacks? like it would be too self incriminating and look like too much like an organised smear, as so many of zionist smears do? they want it to look like a natural thing, like it wasn’t organised. and here is where they screwed up. by segregating themselves into 2 ethnic groups writing different, but fully supporting letters, they showed their inherent bigotry. normal people don’t feel they have to separate themselves into cultural groupings when they do something or get together, bigoted groups insist upon separating the different groups. israeli aparheid is based upon extreme separation of groups. so was south african apartheid, an israeli close ally. and so was the american confederate south, who probably inspired both south african and israeli apartheids.

   so here we have people claiming to be progressive or leftists who have adopted the culture of apartheid. they mould their interactions with each other after those of apartheid israel, apartheid south africa and the jim crow american south. 3 similar cultural arrangements which are about as far from progressivism and leftism as one can get. not only do these quislings smear the opponents of israel for israel, they are culturally israeli. abunimah and the greenstains got it bassackwards, they are the colonials. israel’s colonials. they are perfect examples of why israel is the “mother country” and it’s outside supporters are the colonial settlers.

   the way these israeli agents give away their cultural identity aside, it was obvious from the beginning the letters are part of a typical organised zionist character smear and are literally identical in flavour and in style to every other israeli character smear. the letter signers may have thought what they are doing was a clever way to get an israeli opponent nullified, but in reality, what these quisling have done is expose themselves as israeli agents. and what is even more stupid, in their haste in climbing over each other to do israel’s bidding (or israel’s haste to waste them as future assets to attack a minor irritant), they exposed their game en mass. like a herd of sheep following their leader over a cliff.

   it’s unfortunate that not all of israel’s “progressive and leftist” assets didn’t sign these letter, then we’d have the whole network exposed for what they really are. i suppose a few of the more intelligent assets (100iq and higher, perhaps held back to avoid showing who they work for, or perhaps israel ordered some to abstain, to use as a credible reserve for another similar smear later, now that the currents signers are spoiled goods.

   • 

     who_me Log in to Reply

     March 25, 2012 at 3:57 am

     incidentally, the order in which the 2 letters were posted also reflects the hierarchy among these israeli assets. jews highest, muslims lowest. just like in israel. just like in every jewish run organisation that includes token goyim.

5. 

   American Log in to Reply

   March 25, 2012 at 4:50 am

   All I can say is ..”“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

   I was moved to ordered Gilad’s book by the hard time he was getting from the supposed liberal zionist at mondowiess.com who went nuclear him.
   Looks to me that a lot of people are afraid of having their myths busted up.
   I’m impressed by people who tell painful truths.
   Bravo.

While people are suffering in Israeli prisons and being killed in Gaza, it is sad to see time and energy expended in a campaign against Israeli author and saxophonist Gilad Atzmon. I respect and like people on both sides of this controversy and am troubled over this distracting and destructive (but, I hope, temporary) split.

I, of course, come down on the side of open discussion, even when the  subject matter is difficult or troubling – in fact, that’s probably when it’s most needed. I believe in such old fashioned but critical concepts as the free marketplace of ideas, and I oppose censorship and would-be “thought police” telling others what they may or may not do, even when those attempting to do this have created valuable work that I admire.

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, which sponsored a discussion with Atzmon, has posted the most recent letter against Atzmon, followed by Atzmon’s response here.

This recent letter against Atzmon was preceeded by an earlier one, which was posted on this anonymous blog; interestingly, Palestinians seem to have made up an extremely small percentage of its signatories. My guess is that some of the people behind the first letter helped push for the recent attack, though perhaps I’m wrong.

Despite this campaign against Atzmon, many people, including Richard Falk, Samir Abed Rabo, and James Petras, have endorsed Atzmon’s book, calling it a “must-read,” and many others have spoken up in his defense.

A Palestinian activist sent out an email with the subject header: “Palestinian ‘activists’ stand on the side of Israel and AIPAC,” that reads:

Palestinian “academists / activists” stand on the side of Israel and AIPAC. Willingly or unwillingly, they distort Gilad Atzmon work and thought. They don’t seem to have ever listened to his lectures or read his book, “The Wandering Who?” Their vicious attack will not silence or convince this wonderful man to abandon his staunch and effective support of the Palestinian cause. The great musician, a former Israeli Jew, is a humanist and a Palestinian at heart. I am ashamed as a Palestinian. I am greatly honored to have him as a friend.

Rich Siegel has written about the attempted censorship in “Permission to examine ‘Jewishness’.

Kevin Barrett has discussed the situation in “Why Hate Gilad Atzmon?” and “Why Hate Gilad Atzmon Pt. 2: “He’s WRONG!” (Or Is He?)“

Oren Ben-Dor has opposed such attempted black-listing of Atzmon for years and in n 2008 wrote “The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon,”explaining why he opposed the campaign against Atzmon. He and a number of other prominent thinkers have refused to sign these letters.

There are numerous commentaries on the British website Deliberation.info, such as this, this, and this.

Below is Jeff Blankfort’s response, which has circulated widely in emails (with his permission) but that I don’t believe is yet posted anywhere. Philip Weiss banned Jeff from commenting on Mondoweiss awhile ago, despite Jeff’s important work on Palestine, which predated Weiss’s awakening by several decades.

I suspect whoever initiated the list, and it appears that it was Abumimah, was pressed to do so by the Jewish left equivalent of the mainstream Jewish machers who pressure local black leaders to denounce Louis Farrakhan whenever he makes an appearance and has the audacity to speak out Jews and the slave trade which, like Zionist-Nazi collaboration, is a classic Left taboo.

Most of the rest, with the exception of  Joseph Massad, probably signed on because he asked them do so. I would bet that none of them, some of whom are friends of mine, have read or even seen your book. Massad, it should be recalled was the Palestinian professor at Columbia who was targeted by The David Project and accused of harassing Jewish students. He showed that he had learned his lesson by being the very first person to write an article denouncing Mearsheimerand Walt for their LRB article on the Israel Lobby which was lauded and reprinted by Asad Abu Khalil who seems almost as concerned about antisemitism as Abe Foxman.

After I took Massad’s article apart, paragraph by paragraph, for Dissident Voice, Henry Herskovitz in Ann Arbor suggested that Massad debate me on the issue when he made a speaking appearance in Michigan. Massad declined, claiming that I was an “antisemite.” When I wrote to Massad, asking if he had made such a statement I received no reply which told me all I need to know about him. Abu Khalil would only debate me and Hatem Bazian, one of the signatories to the letter, if we stipulated that The Lobby was the only factor in determining US policy, which of course we wouldn’t.

It would be nice if there was such a statement denouncing those in the movement who dismiss the power of the Jewish establishment over US Middle East policy but then they would be subject to charges of “antisemism” themselves, which most of them seem to greatly fear. So it goes.

A partial list of those sponsoring Atzmon’s talks and his remaining events can be seen here.

I hope anyone who is interested will attend these events, and I hope that all of us will continue our urgent work to bring justice and peace. Today a boy in Gaza died from his wounds and Israeli jet fighters pounded Gaza City’s men, women, and children. We need to join together to expose and stop this carnage.

Update: Thursday, April 5, 2012 at 8:07AM

Following are three additional pieces on Atzmon. Anyone interested in this controversy should read them.

Cynthia McKinney Interviews Gilad Atzmon about Israel, Zionism, and Jewish Identity Politics

Cynthia McKinney: I had the great fortune to meet Gilad Atzmon IN PERSON in Atlanta!  He came, he spoke, he played.  It was marvelous.

I actually interviewed him for Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox radio program…

…..in the flesh, Gilad is charming and thought-provoking.  He said nothing that was offensive to me and nothing that I heard him say resembles what I read about him.

…..I know what it is like to be maligned.  For serious values to be twisted and chewed and mangled into distortions beyond recognition.  And although he would never admit it, I’m sure these attacks hurt him immensely.  I wish there were something I could do about that, but we all are so hurt.  Don’t retreat.  Hold my hand and we will walk with Gilad through this difficult time for us all.

An analysis on the attack against Atzmon, by Roger Tucker

…..Not only have the Zionists colonized Palestine and subjected them to a permanent campaign of genocide, but as anyone who has been paying attention knows, they have colonized the Western democracies, turning them into obedient puppets. Now it appears that they have also colonized the Palestine Solidarity movement. At the end of this essay are links to a number of responses supporting Atzmon and what he stands for……

In Defense of Gilad Atzmon By Jean Bricmont (originally published by CounterPunch)

…..Atzmon’s themes, the politics of identity and memory, are at the very heart of our contemporary social debates….

Update: Wednesday, October 2, 2013 at 5:56AM

A thoughtful, painfully compelling piece on the attacks against Gilad Atzmon: “Me, Gilad Atzmon and the ‘Truth’ – by Roy Bard, Sept. 26, 2013.

Update: Wednesday, October 2, 2013 at 7:06AM

I became curious about the organization Aish ever when I stumled across it while researching my piece on the Weider History Group’s censorship, and awhile ago I subscribed to the Aish feed.

Today I was amazed to read an article that I found astoundingly supremacist; yet, the author probably feels he is being wonderfully tolerant and sensitive.  In many ways I find it a very sad piece.

The article reveals an outlook that I feel very few non-Jews are aware of (until I began working on Israel-Palestine, I certainly had no have no ideas of this), but that Atzmon, Eisen, and Shamir take on. Perhaps that’s why there is such an effort to prevent people from reading their commentaries for themselves — and now some of these attackers are also attacking those who of us who have stood against the witch hunt, such as Richard Falk, Greta Berlin, Roy Bard, Mazin Qumsiyeh, The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, etc.

Below is the article from the Aish website that was proudly announced in its daily feed:

The Often Invisible Non-Jews

Acknowledging the gentiles who keep our synagogues running.

by Dr. Simon Yisrael Feuerman

Update: Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 2:43PM

I was looking into the upcoming Jerusalem Post conference about Israel, and stumbled across the following article. It’s interesting to see the Jewish Journal pondering the type of question that Atzmon takes on:

December 31, 2013

‘The Wolf’ and the Jewish problem

By Rob Eshman

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort in “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

“The Wolf of Wall Street” is nauseating, pornographic and soul-crushing — and you have to see it.

You have to see it, because you — meaning society, Jews, all of us as individuals — have to face the questions it raises about money, wealth and morality. 

Director Martin Scorsese is taking some heat for depicting Jordan Belfort as a likable rogue. Yes, Belfort lies, steals and snorts avalanches of coke off naked tushees, but he loves his dad, has a great run and, after all, he’s Leonardo DiCaprio.  A generation of young men will now flock to Wall Street aping Belfort, just as a generation of drug dealers took their cues from Al Pacino in “Scarface.”  

I don’t blame Scorsese. His genius is to examine society’s most grievous sins through its most colorful practitioners. True, he doesn’t show the effects of Belfort’s crimes on their victims — the families wrecked by financial loss and legal troubles, the people who fell for the cons and paid with their nest eggs. Then again, the movie is told entirely from Belfort’s point of view, and Scorsese and screenwriter Terence Winter probably assumed Belfort has never spent two seconds thinking about the human suffering he caused — unless it was his own.

[Related: DiCaprio defends ‘Wolf of Wall Street’]

But I do regret that Scorsese chose not to deal with the fact that Jordan Belfort is Jewish. Although some of the characters in “Wolf,” like Jonah Hill’s Donnie Azoff, are clearly portrayed as Jews, even to the point of wearing chai necklaces around their coke-frosted necks, Belfort, with his Anglo looks and Frenchy name, is left to be simply American. I get it: To do otherwise might give the movie a whiff of anti-Semitic caricature. Scorsese feels much safer depicting the Italian-ness of his violent mobsters than the Jewishness of his greedy con men.

But, just between us, let’s talk about Belfort-the-Jew — let’s go there. In the movie, you never really understand how someone so gifted can be so morally unmoored. But in his memoir, upon which the movie is based, whenever Belfort refers to his Jewish roots, the diagnosis becomes more apparent. 

He is a kid from Long Island. His dad, Max, grew up “in the old Jewish Bronx, in the smoldering economic ashes of the Great Depression.” Belfort didn’t grow up poor by any means, he just wasn’t rich enough. The hole in him wasn’t from poverty, but from desire for acceptance. The “blue-blooded WASPs,” Belfort writes, “viewed me as a young Jewish circus attraction.” 

Belfort had a chip on his shoulder the size of a polo pony, and so did everyone he recruited. They were, he writes, “the most savage young Jews anywhere on Long Island: the towns of Jericho and Syosset. It was from out of the very marrow of these two upper-middle-class Jewish ghettos that the bulk of my first hundred Strattonites had come….”

It’s not complicated, really. Poor little Jordan wanted to show those WASPs whose country clubs he couldn’t join that he was smarter, richer, better. What he failed to understand is that just about every Jew, every minority, shares the same impulses. But only a select few decide the only way to help themselves is to hurt others.   

Belfort, like Bernie Madoff, is an extreme example. These are guys who feel they have nothing, they are nothing, so they will do anything to acquire everything. They cross a pretty clear line and just keep going.

The question that gnaws at me is whether there’s something amiss in the vast gray area that leads right up to that line. Are the Belforts and Madoffs unnatural mutations, or are they inevitable outgrowths of attitudes that have taken root in our communities? We don’t, as a community, like to talk about money and wealth and how to acquire it and how to spend it. A Madoff affair happens — a crime that devastates thousands of people, businesses and philanthropies, many of them in the heart of the Jewish community — and we hardly speak about it anymore.  

These days, we are deep in the pit arguing over the American Studies Association’s (ASA) boycott of Israeli academics and whether Jewish students at Swarthmore College’s Hillel should open their doors to anti-Zionist speakers. We have devoted so many smart words and fiery sermons to these issues, you’d think the entire Jewish future depended upon them. Never mind that there are bridge clubs bigger than the ASA, and that the State of Israel, with its history, power and genius, may just survive the withering onslaught of a panel discussion in suburban Pennsylvania. The Jewish world never lacks for turbulent conversations. My only concern is whether they’re the right ones. Talking about Israel is easy — talking about money is uncomfortable.

But these are the conversations we need to be having. What’s the right way to make money? How much is enough? How much must we share, and with whom? We are blessed to be living at a time of unparalleled Jewish power and wealth, and it makes us so uneasy, we prefer to talk about everything but. We have benefited from an economic and political structure that is becoming less and less just. We are enjoying unprecedented wealth as millions struggle on minimum wages, facing hunger, unemployment, benefit cuts, homelessness. We look to our rabbis and institutions for guidance, but too many of them are afraid to upset the wealthy donors upon whom they are dependent. So we talk instead about Israel, about Swarthmore, and our communities become breeding grounds for the next Madoff, the next Belfort.

That’s not a movie. That’s a shame. 

Rob Eshman is publisher and editor-in-chief of TRIBE Media Corp./Jewish Journal. E-mail him at robe@jewishjournal.com. You can follow him on Twitter @foodaism.

H.R.347, the `Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011′ has just been passed. This makes it a federal offense, with imprisonment of at least up to one year, for any “unauthorized” person to enter or remain in a building — or the grounds — where the Secret Service is present or where there is an “an event designated as a special event of national significance.”

Since the Senate has already passed this, it is now a felony to have a demonstration near presidential candidates or a visiting head of state such as Benjamin Netanyahu. In fact, it is a felony to even be on the grounds where they are temporarily visiting, say at a campaign stop – even if you don’t yet know that this has now become an off-limits area.

By the way among events that have been “designated as a special event of national significance” are the Super Bowl and the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

The bill passed 388-to-3. Now it awaits Obama’s no doubt willing signature – just in time for the AIPAC convention, which starts this weekend.

I’m going to be on a panel on Saturday in conjunction with the Occupy AIPAC conference. The next day there will be protests against AIPAC buying our government — Obama and Romney are among those who will be pledging their allegiance to Israel.

If anyone strays too near the DC Convention Center, where this is being held, they will be subject to this new law if Obama has signed it by then. Perhaps this should be called the “Protect Netanyahu from Rae Abileah” bill.

The text of the bill is below. Below that is how our representatives voted.

For more discussion see: Goodbye, First Amendment: ‘Trespass Bill’ will make protest illegal and this compendium of articles.

H.R.347

One Hundred Twelfth Congress of the United States of America

AT THE SECOND SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,

the third day of January, two thousand and twelve

An Act

To correct and simplify the drafting of section 1752 (relating to restricted buildings or grounds) of title 18, United States Code.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011′.

SEC. 2. RESTRICTED BUILDING OR GROUNDS.

Section 1752 of title 18, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:

-`Sec. 1752. Restricted building or grounds

`(a) Whoever–

•  
  `(1) knowingly enters or remains in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do so;

•  
  `(2) knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions, engages in disorderly or disruptive conduct in, or within such proximity to, any restricted building or grounds when, or so that, such conduct, in fact, impedes or disrupts the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions;

•  
  `(3) knowingly, and with the intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions, obstructs or impedes ingress or egress to or from any restricted building or grounds; or

•  
  `(4) knowingly engages in any act of physical violence against any person or property in any restricted building or grounds;

or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).

`(b) The punishment for a violation of subsection (a) is–

•  
  `(1) a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or both, if–

•  
  •  
    `(A) the person, during and in relation to the offense, uses or carries a deadly or dangerous weapon or firearm; or

•  
  •  
    `(B) the offense results in significant bodily injury as defined by section 2118(e)(3); and

•  
  `(2) a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, in any other case.

`(c) In this section–

•  
  `(1) the term `restricted buildings or grounds’ means any posted, cordoned off, or otherwise restricted area–

•  
  •  
    `(A) of the White House or its grounds, or the Vice President’s official residence or its grounds;

•  
  •  
    `(B) of a building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting; or

•  
  •  
    `(C) of a building or grounds so restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance; and

•  
  `(2) the term `other person protected by the Secret Service’ means any person whom the United States Secret Service is authorized to protect under section 3056 of this title or by Presidential memorandum, when such person has not declined such protection.’.

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.

How our representatives voted:

VOTED NAY

Rep. Justin Amash [R, MI-3]

Rep. Paul Broun [R, GA-10]

Rep. Keith Ellison [D, MN-5]

VOTED AYE

Democrats Voting ‘Aye’

Rep. Gary Ackerman [D, NY-5]
Rep. Jason Altmire [D, PA-4]
Rep. Robert Andrews [D, NJ-1]
Rep. Joe Baca [D, CA-43]
Rep. Tammy Baldwin [D, WI-2]
Rep. John Barrow [D, GA-12]
Rep. Karen Bass [D, CA-33]
Rep. Xavier Becerra [D, CA-31]
Rep. Shelley Berkley [D, NV-1]
Rep. Howard Berman [D, CA-28]
Rep. Sanford Bishop [D, GA-2]
Rep. Timothy Bishop [D, NY-1]
Rep. Earl Blumenauer [D, OR-3]
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici [D, OR-1]
Rep. Dan Boren [D, OK-2]
Rep. Leonard Boswell [D, IA-3]
Rep. Robert Brady [D, PA-1]
Rep. Bruce Braley [D, IA-1]
Rep. George Butterfield [D, NC-1]
Rep. Lois Capps [D, CA-23]
Rep. Michael Capuano [D, MA-8]
Rep. Dennis Cardoza [D, CA-18]
Rep. John Carney [D, DE-0]
Rep. André Carson [D, IN-7]
Rep. Kathy Castor [D, FL-11]
Rep. Ben Chandler [D, KY-6]
Rep. Judy Chu [D, CA-32]
Rep. David Cicilline [D, RI-1]
Rep. Hansen Clarke [D, MI-13]
Rep. James Clyburn [D, SC-6]
Rep. Steve Cohen [D, TN-9]
Rep. Gerald Connolly [D, VA-11]
Rep. John Conyers [D, MI-14]
Rep. Jim Cooper [D, TN-5]
Rep. Jim Costa [D, CA-20]
Rep. Jerry Costello [D, IL-12]
Rep. Joe Courtney [D, CT-2]
Rep. Mark Critz [D, PA-12]
Rep. Joseph Crowley [D, NY-7]
Rep. Henry Cuellar [D, TX-28]
Rep. Elijah Cummings [D, MD-7]
Rep. Susan Davis [D, CA-53]
Rep. Danny Davis [D, IL-7]
Rep. Peter DeFazio [D, OR-4]
Rep. Diana DeGette [D, CO-1]
Rep. Rosa DeLauro [D, CT-3]
Rep. Ted Deutch [D, FL-19]
Rep. Norman Dicks [D, WA-6]
Rep. Lloyd Doggett [D, TX-25]
Rep. Joe Donnelly [D, IN-2]
Rep. Michael Doyle [D, PA-14]
Rep. Donna Edwards [D, MD-4]
Rep. Eliot Engel [D, NY-17]
Rep. Anna Eshoo [D, CA-14]
Rep. Sam Farr [D, CA-17]
Rep. Chaka Fattah [D, PA-2]
Rep. Barney Frank [D, MA-4]
Rep. Marcia Fudge [D, OH-11]
Rep. John Garamendi [D, CA-10]
Rep. Charles Gonzalez [D, TX-20]
Rep. Al Green [D, TX-9]
Rep. Raymond Green [D, TX-29]
Rep. Janice Hahn [D, CA-36]
Rep. Colleen Hanabusa [D, HI-1]
Rep. Alcee Hastings [D, FL-23]
Rep. Martin Heinrich [D, NM-1]
Rep. Brian Higgins [D, NY-27]
Rep. James Himes [D, CT-4]
Rep. Maurice Hinchey [D, NY-22]
Rep. Rubén Hinojosa [D, TX-15]
Rep. Kathleen Hochul [D, NY-26]
Rep. Tim Holden [D, PA-17]
Rep. Rush Holt [D, NJ-12]
Rep. Michael Honda [D, CA-15]
Rep. Steny Hoyer [D, MD-5]
Rep. Steve Israel [D, NY-2]
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee [D, TX-18]
Rep. Henry Johnson [D, GA-4]
Rep. Eddie Johnson [D, TX-30]
Rep. William Keating [D, MA-10]
Rep. Dale Kildee [D, MI-5]
Rep. Ronald Kind [D, WI-3]
Rep. Larry Kissell [D, NC-8]
Rep. Rick Larsen [D, WA-2]
Rep. John Larson [D, CT-1]
Rep. Sander Levin [D, MI-12]
Rep. John Lewis [D, GA-5]
Rep. Daniel Lipinski [D, IL-3]
Rep. David Loebsack [D, IA-2]
Rep. Zoe Lofgren [D, CA-16]
Rep. Nita Lowey [D, NY-18]
Rep. Ben Luján [D, NM-3]
Rep. Stephen Lynch [D, MA-9]
Rep. Carolyn Maloney [D, NY-14]
Rep. Edward Markey [D, MA-7]
Rep. Jim Matheson [D, UT-2]
Rep. Doris Matsui [D, CA-5]
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy [D, NY-4]
Rep. Betty McCollum [D, MN-4]
Rep. James McDermott [D, WA-7]
Rep. James McGovern [D, MA-3]
Rep. Mike McIntyre [D, NC-7]
Rep. Jerry McNerney [D, CA-11]
Rep. Gregory Meeks [D, NY-6]
Rep. Michael Michaud [D, ME-2]
Rep. Bradley Miller [D, NC-13]
Rep. George Miller [D, CA-7]
Rep. Gwen Moore [D, WI-4]
Rep. James Moran [D, VA-8]
Rep. Christopher Murphy [D, CT-5]
Rep. Jerrold Nadler [D, NY-8]
Rep. Grace Napolitano [D, CA-38]
Rep. Richard Neal [D, MA-2]
Rep. John Olver [D, MA-1]
Rep. William Owens [D, NY-23]
Rep. Frank Pallone [D, NJ-6]
Rep. Edward Pastor [D, AZ-4]
Rep. Nancy Pelosi [D, CA-8]
Rep. Ed Perlmutter [D, CO-7]
Rep. Gary Peters [D, MI-9]
Rep. Collin Peterson [D, MN-7]
Rep. Chellie Pingree [D, ME-1]
Rep. Jared Polis [D, CO-2]
Rep. David Price [D, NC-4]
Rep. Mike Quigley [D, IL-5]
Rep. Nick Rahall [D, WV-3]
Rep. Silvestre Reyes [D, TX-16]
Rep. Laura Richardson [D, CA-37]
Rep. Cedric Richmond [D, LA-2]
Rep. Mike Ross [D, AR-4]
Rep. Steven Rothman [D, NJ-9]
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard [D, CA-34]
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger [D, MD-2]
Rep. Timothy Ryan [D, OH-17]
Rep. Loretta Sanchez [D, CA-47]
Rep. Linda Sánchez [D, CA-39]
Rep. John Sarbanes [D, MD-3]
Rep. Janice Schakowsky [D, IL-9]
Rep. Adam Schiff [D, CA-29]
Rep. Kurt Schrader [D, OR-5]
Rep. Allyson Schwartz [D, PA-13]
Rep. Robert Scott [D, VA-3]
Rep. David Scott [D, GA-13]
Rep. José Serrano [D, NY-16]
Rep. Terri Sewell [D, AL-7]
Rep. Brad Sherman [D, CA-27]
Rep. Albio Sires [D, NJ-13]
Rep. Louise Slaughter [D, NY-28]
Rep. Betty Sutton [D, OH-13]
Rep. Bennie Thompson [D, MS-2]
Rep. Michael Thompson [D, CA-1]
Rep. Paul Tonko [D, NY-21]
Rep. Niki Tsongas [D, MA-5]
Rep. Christopher Van Hollen [D, MD-8]
Rep. Nydia Velázquez [D, NY-12]
Rep. Peter Visclosky [D, IN-1]
Rep. Timothy Walz [D, MN-1]
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D, FL-20]
Rep. Maxine Waters [D, CA-35]
Rep. Melvin Watt [D, NC-12]
Rep. Henry Waxman [D, CA-30]
Rep. Peter Welch [D, VT-0]
Rep. Frederica Wilson [D, FL-17]
Rep. John Yarmuth [D, KY-3]

Republicans Voting ‘Aye’

Rep. Sandy Adams [R, FL-24]
Rep. Robert Aderholt [R, AL-4]
Rep. Rodney Alexander [R, LA-5]
Rep. Steve Austria [R, OH-7]
Rep. Michele Bachmann [R, MN-6]
Rep. Spencer Bachus [R, AL-6]
Rep. Lou Barletta [R, PA-11]
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett [R, MD-6]
Rep. Joe Barton [R, TX-6]
Rep. Charles Bass [R, NH-2]
Rep. Dan Benishek [R, MI-1]
Rep. Rick Berg [R, ND-0]
Rep. Judy Biggert [R, IL-13]
Rep. Gus Bilirakis [R, FL-9]
Rep. Rob Bishop [R, UT-1]
Rep. Diane Black [R, TN-6]
Rep. Marsha Blackburn [R, TN-7]
Rep. Jo Bonner [R, AL-1]
Rep. Mary Bono Mack [R, CA-45]
Rep. Charles Boustany [R, LA-7]
Rep. Kevin Brady [R, TX-8]
Rep. Mo Brooks [R, AL-5]
Rep. Vern Buchanan [R, FL-13]
Rep. Larry Bucshon [R, IN-8]
Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle [R, NY-25]
Rep. Michael Burgess [R, TX-26]
Rep. Dan Burton [R, IN-5]
Rep. Ken Calvert [R, CA-44]
Rep. David Camp [R, MI-4]
Rep. Francisco Canseco [R, TX-23]
Rep. Eric Cantor [R, VA-7]
Rep. Shelley Capito [R, WV-2]
Rep. John Carter [R, TX-31]
Rep. Bill Cassidy [R, LA-6]
Rep. Steven Chabot [R, OH-1]
Rep. Jason Chaffetz [R, UT-3]
Rep. Howard Coble [R, NC-6]
Rep. Mike Coffman [R, CO-6]
Rep. Tom Cole [R, OK-4]
Rep. Michael Conaway [R, TX-11]
Rep. Chip Cravaack [R, MN-8]
Rep. Rick Crawford [R, AR-1]
Rep. Ander Crenshaw [R, FL-4]
Rep. Geoff Davis [R, KY-4]
Rep. Jeff Denham [R, CA-19]
Rep. Charles Dent [R, PA-15]
Rep. Scott DesJarlais [R, TN-4]
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart [R, FL-21]
Rep. Bob Dold [R, IL-10]
Rep. David Dreier [R, CA-26]
Rep. Sean Duffy [R, WI-7]
Rep. Jeff Duncan [R, SC-3]
Rep. John Duncan [R, TN-2]
Rep. Renee Ellmers [R, NC-2]
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson [R, MO-8]
Rep. Blake Farenthold [R, TX-27]
Rep. Stephen Fincher [R, TN-8]
Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick [R, PA-8]
Rep. Jeff Flake [R, AZ-6]
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann [R, TN-3]
Rep. John Fleming [R, LA-4]
Rep. Bill Flores [R, TX-17]
Rep. Randy Forbes [R, VA-4]
Rep. Jeffrey Fortenberry [R, NE-1]
Rep. Virginia Foxx [R, NC-5]
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen [R, NJ-11]
Rep. Elton Gallegly [R, CA-24]
Rep. Cory Gardner [R, CO-4]
Rep. Scott Garrett [R, NJ-5]
Rep. Jim Gerlach [R, PA-6]
Rep. Bob Gibbs [R, OH-18]
Rep. Chris Gibson [R, NY-20]
Rep. John Gingrey [R, GA-11]
Rep. Louis Gohmert [R, TX-1]
Rep. Robert Goodlatte [R, VA-6]
Rep. Paul Gosar [R, AZ-1]
Rep. Trey Gowdy [R, SC-4]
Rep. Kay Granger [R, TX-12]
Rep. Tom Graves [R, GA-9]
Rep. Samuel Graves [R, MO-6]
Rep. Tim Griffin [R, AR-2]
Rep. Morgan Griffith [R, VA-9]
Rep. Michael Grimm [R, NY-13]
Rep. Frank Guinta [R, NH-1]
Rep. Brett Guthrie [R, KY-2]
Rep. Ralph Hall [R, TX-4]
Rep. Richard Hanna [R, NY-24]
Rep. Gregg Harper [R, MS-3]
Rep. Andy Harris [R, MD-1]
Rep. Vicky Hartzler [R, MO-4]
Rep. Doc Hastings [R, WA-4]
Rep. Nan Hayworth [R, NY-19]
Rep. Joe Heck [R, NV-3]
Rep. Jeb Hensarling [R, TX-5]
Rep. Walter Herger [R, CA-2]
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler [R, WA-3]
Rep. Tim Huelskamp [R, KS-1]
Rep. Bill Huizenga [R, MI-2]
Rep. Randy Hultgren [R, IL-14]
Rep. Duncan Hunter [R, CA-52]
Rep. Robert Hurt [R, VA-5]
Rep. Darrell Issa [R, CA-49]
Rep. Lynn Jenkins [R, KS-2]
Rep. Samuel Johnson [R, TX-3]
Rep. Bill Johnson [R, OH-6]
Rep. Walter Jones [R, NC-3]
Rep. Jim Jordan [R, OH-4]
Rep. Mike Kelly [R, PA-3]
Rep. Peter King [R, NY-3]
Rep. Steve King [R, IA-5]
Rep. Adam Kinzinger [R, IL-11]
Rep. John Kline [R, MN-2]
Rep. Raúl Labrador [R, ID-1]
Rep. Doug Lamborn [R, CO-5]
Rep. Leonard Lance [R, NJ-7]
Rep. James Lankford [R, OK-5]
Rep. Thomas Latham [R, IA-4]
Rep. Steven LaTourette [R, OH-14]
Rep. Robert Latta [R, OH-5]
Rep. Jerry Lewis [R, CA-41]
Rep. Frank LoBiondo [R, NJ-2]
Rep. Billy Long [R, MO-7]
Rep. Frank Lucas [R, OK-3]
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer [R, MO-9]
Rep. Cynthia Lummis [R, WY-0]
Rep. Daniel Lungren [R, CA-3]
Rep. Connie Mack [R, FL-14]
Rep. Donald Manzullo [R, IL-16]
Rep. Kevin McCarthy [R, CA-22]
Rep. Michael McCaul [R, TX-10]
Rep. Tom McClintock [R, CA-4]
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter [R, MI-11]
Rep. Patrick McHenry [R, NC-10]
Rep. Howard McKeon [R, CA-25]
Rep. David McKinley [R, WV-1]
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers [R, WA-5]
Rep. Patrick Meehan [R, PA-7]
Rep. John Mica [R, FL-7]
Rep. Candice Miller [R, MI-10]
Rep. Jeff Miller [R, FL-1]
Rep. Gary Miller [R, CA-42]
Rep. Mick Mulvaney [R, SC-5]
Rep. Tim Murphy [R, PA-18]
Rep. Sue Myrick [R, NC-9]
Rep. Randy Neugebauer [R, TX-19]
Rep. Kristi Noem [R, SD-0]
Rep. Richard Nugent [R, FL-5]
Rep. Devin Nunes [R, CA-21]
Rep. Alan Nunnelee [R, MS-1]
Rep. Pete Olson [R, TX-22]
Rep. Steven Palazzo [R, MS-4]
Rep. Erik Paulsen [R, MN-3]
Rep. Steven Pearce [R, NM-2]
Rep. Mike Pence [R, IN-6]
Rep. Thomas Petri [R, WI-6]
Rep. Joseph Pitts [R, PA-16]
Rep. Ted Poe [R, TX-2]
Rep. Mike Pompeo [R, KS-4]
Rep. Bill Posey [R, FL-15]
Rep. Tom Price [R, GA-6]
Rep. Ben Quayle [R, AZ-3]
Rep. Tom Reed [R, NY-29]
Rep. Dennis Rehberg [R, MT-0]
Rep. Dave Reichert [R, WA-8]
Rep. Jim Renacci [R, OH-16]
Rep. Reid Ribble [R, WI-8]
Rep. Scott Rigell [R, VA-2]
Rep. David Rivera [R, FL-25]
Rep. Martha Roby [R, AL-2]
Rep. Phil Roe [R, TN-1]
Rep. Harold Rogers [R, KY-5]
Rep. Michael Rogers [R, AL-3]
Rep. Michael Rogers [R, MI-8]
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher [R, CA-46]
Rep. Todd Rokita [R, IN-4]
Rep. Thomas Rooney [R, FL-16]
Rep. Peter Roskam [R, IL-6]
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R, FL-18]
Rep. Dennis Ross [R, FL-12]
Rep. Edward Royce [R, CA-40]
Rep. Jon Runyan [R, NJ-3]
Rep. Paul Ryan [R, WI-1]
Rep. Steve Scalise [R, LA-1]
Rep. Robert Schilling [R, IL-17]
Rep. Jean Schmidt [R, OH-2]
Rep. Aaron Schock [R, IL-18]
Rep. David Schweikert [R, AZ-5]
Rep. Tim Scott [R, SC-1]
Rep. Austin Scott [R, GA-8]
Rep. James Sensenbrenner [R, WI-5]
Rep. Peter Sessions [R, TX-32]
Rep. John Shimkus [R, IL-19]
Rep. William Shuster [R, PA-9]
Rep. Michael Simpson [R, ID-2]
Rep. Adrian Smith [R, NE-3]
Rep. Lamar Smith [R, TX-21]
Rep. Christopher Smith [R, NJ-4]
Rep. Steve Southerland [R, FL-2]
Rep. Clifford Stearns [R, FL-6]
Rep. Steve Stivers [R, OH-15]
Rep. Marlin Stutzman [R, IN-3]
Rep. John Sullivan [R, OK-1]
Rep. Lee Terry [R, NE-2]
Rep. Glenn Thompson [R, PA-5]
Rep. Patrick Tiberi [R, OH-12]
Rep. Scott Tipton [R, CO-3]
Rep. Robert Turner [R, NY-9]
Rep. Michael Turner [R, OH-3]
Rep. Frederick Upton [R, MI-6]
Rep. Timothy Walberg [R, MI-7]
Rep. Greg Walden [R, OR-2]
Rep. Joe Walsh [R, IL-8]
Rep. Daniel Webster [R, FL-8]
Rep. Allen West [R, FL-22]
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland [R, GA-3]
Rep. Edward Whitfield [R, KY-1]
Rep. Addison Wilson [R, SC-2]
Rep. Rob Wittman [R, VA-1]
Rep. Frank Wolf [R, VA-10]
Rep. Steve Womack [R, AR-3]
Rep. Rob Woodall [R, GA-7]
Rep. Kevin Yoder [R, KS-3]
Rep. Bill Young [R, FL-10]
Rep. Todd Young [R, IN-9]

ABSTAINED:

Republicans Voting ‘Abstain’

Rep. Todd Akin [R, MO-2]
Rep. Mark Amodei [R, NV-2]
Rep. Brian Bilbray [R, CA-50]
Rep. John Campbell [R, CA-48]
Rep. John Culberson [R, TX-7]
Rep. Trent Franks [R, AZ-2]
Rep. Timothy Johnson [R, IL-15]
Rep. Jack Kingston [R, GA-1]
Rep. Jeff Landry [R, LA-3]
Rep. Kenny Marchant [R, TX-24]
Rep. Thomas Marino [R, PA-10]
Rep. Ronald Paul [R, TX-14]
Rep. Todd Platts [R, PA-19]
Rep. William Thornberry [R, TX-13]
Rep. Donald Young [R, AK-0]

Democrats Voting ‘Abstain’

I’m at a stopover on my way to Houston, where I’m speaking at the Baker Institute tomorrow night at 7pm (see below for details). I’ve just noticed that there is a long article about this event at the Jewish Herald-Voice, “Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast’s Jewish Community Newspaper Since 1908.”

It’s filled with the usual offensive nonsense, mostly drawn from the ADL’s defamation of me. The point, of course, is to scare people away from coming to my talk. Hopefully, however, it will pique people’s interest and help to publicize it.

That would be good, since the Baker Institute seems to be doing nothing to promote it. In fact, there’s not even any mention of it on their website, and is on none of their events calendars, even though local people have been trying to get it posted for several days.

The Jewish Herald-Voice article claims that a student allegedly finds my views “appalling” and “reprehensible,” but doesn’t name the student nor report what specifically in the many facts about Israel-Palestine I have reported that are so “appalling.” 

Quite likely, if this anonymous student really does exist, s/he is either (1) an Israel partisan or (2) has not actually read my articles for him or herself.

I remember once being interviewed by an NPR host who claimed that I sometimes used “anti-Semitic imagery.” I asked him what specifically he could possibly be referring to. He, of course, couldn’t answer; this had been fed to him by someone else — somewhat embarrassing for an interviewer. Needless to say, this didn’t air.

On the other hand, the Jewish Herald may have gotten it wrong and the student was actually referring to Israeli actions, which are frequently both appalling and reprehensible. 

UPDATE:

I’ve just gotten off the phone with another person from the Baker Institute and was told that the lack of a listing on the website is because the event is not being held in the institute itself and does not have webcast capabilities. Such events they don’t list. I’m not sure how or why that location was chosen.

Odder still, according to the Jewish Herald report, after my event was already scheduled, the Baker Institute Student Forum then “worked with the Consulate General of Israel” to schedule an Israeli spokesperson to give a talk the day after mine. That event is being held in the institute itself and has webcasting capability. 

EVENT DETAILS: 

“Israel-Palestine: Beyond the Headlines” — lecture by Alison Weir

February 9, 7pm — Sewall Hall Room 307.

It is building 65 on this map: http://www.rice.edu/maps/colormap.pdf. Parking is available in Founder’s Court visitor lot which is directly across from the building.

For information: contact@ifamericansknew.org / 202.631.4060

Hosted by the Baker Institute Student Forum James Baker Institute for Public Policy/Rice University 

I just saw this action alert. I hope a huge number of people will phone and take action. It would be nice if we could save at least one life.

Khader has a wife and two small daughters. Another baby is on the way. I hope they can grow up with a father.

WHAT: Peaceful Silent Demonstration in solidarity with political prisoner Khader Adnan who has been on Huger Strike in Israeli Prison for 53 days. http://bit.ly/w5qjBf

Israel National News reports that a young Jewish teenager fell in love with an Arab, converted to Islam, and decided to marry him, running away from home to do so. The parents, horrified, called the police, and after weeks of searching, located her.

While many parents would quite likely be concerned at a young daughter running off, there is another dimenstion to this story.

It turns out that Israel has something called the “Lehava anti-assimilation organization.” The Israel News article reports that this organization was in constant contact with the family, and will now “guide the family on how to treat their daughter.” The paper quotes its announcement:

“The organization will continue treating the young woman and help her return to the Jewish people. The organization welcomes the activities of the police and calls on the authorities to handle this phenomenon. We will continue to fight for the return of the daughters of Israel to the people of Israel.

The article reports that the stunned mother bemoaned the fact that “Girls here are exposed to minorities daily, on the way to school and back… It definitely can happen to anyone. My daughter was perfectly normal, full of joie de vivre, surrounded by friends. My daughter was a victim.”

She went on to say:

“Unfortunately, there is no immunity to almost anyone. In my worst nightmares I never dreamed it would happen to us.”

The article reports that a deputy mayor from a nearby village announced with concern that a growing number of Jewish girls are moving into Arab villages, a claim that the paper reports was confirmed by “Israel’s pro-Jewish Identity NGO Yad L’Achim.”

A related article tells of yet another organization, “The Family Lobby,” which responded to the deputy mayor’s report by claiming:

“The painful phenomenon of Jewish girls who cross over into Arab society is the direct result of the weakening of the family unit and the deterioration of the status of fathers in the Jewish family in recent decades – due to the activity of militant feminist women’s groups.’”

An observer might be forgiven for wondering whether the phenomenon is perhaps connected to something more basic: the self-destructive nature of a colonial system built on ruthless militarism and subjugation of others, an artificially manufactured society whose much-vaunted kibbutz system involved separating children from parents and parents from children – in considerable contrast to the Middle Eastern extended-family culture it sought to displace… but that still exists next door.