[Peace-discuss] "Save Darfur": Evangelicals and Establishment Jews

[David Green]

When Presbyterians and others favored selective
disinvestment in companies doing business with Israel,
there was a law proposed the make that illegal. The ad
in the NYT proposed boycotting those who do business
with Sudan, so at least Jewish organizations have
recognized disinvestment as a valid tool. But that
only underlines that the whole campaign reeks of
political calculation rather than genuine
humanitarianism. That is consistent with Israel's
history of foreign relations as well as our own, which
now confine the efforts of Jewish organizations to
those crises that serve the goals of the powerful
first, the oppressed only if convenient, as the
contrast between Gaza and Darfur plainly shows.

David Green

--- "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:

> [An acquaintance writes in her always interesting
> blog 
> <montages.blogspot.com> about the dubious enthusiasm
> for Darfur. 
> Another writes this morning, "I note from today's
> Democracy Now! program 
> that the people of Darfur seem to be in dire need of
> food aid, 
> apparently donations have fallen way short of the
> need. Query: why talk 
> about military intervention when people are at risk
> of starving? Funny, 
> how Americans, both liberal AND Conservative, always
> seem to believe 
> military force is  the solution to a crisis." 
> --CGE]
> 
> 
> Friday, April 28, 2006
> 
> "Save Darfur": Evangelicals and Establishment Jews
> 
> It's embarrassing that America -- and the world --
> will be witnessing a 
> PRO-WAR rally for a third oil war in Washington,
> D.C. on April 30 (see 
> SaveDarfur.org) that is far more highly publicized
> than an anti-war one 
> (that appears to be poorly organized) in New York
> City on April 29, even 
> while Washington is still soldiering on in
> Afghanistan and Iraq and 
> gunning for sanctions or war on Iran.
> 
> Who is behind this astonishing pro-war rally in
> war-weary America? A 
> rag-tag coalition of evangelicals and establishment
> Jews (those whom the 
> corporate media designate as official leaders of
> Jewish communities):
> 
>      "Keeping the peace within the diverse Save
> Darfur Coalition has not 
> been easy. Tensions have arisen, in particular,
> between evangelical 
> Christians and immigrants from Darfur, whose
> population is almost 
> entirely Muslim and deeply suspicious of missionary
> activity.
> 
>      "Organizers rushed this week to invite two
> Darfurians to address 
> the rally after Sudanese immigrants objected that
> the original list of 
> speakers included eight Western Christians, seven
> Jews, four politicians 
> and assorted celebrities -- but no Muslims and no
> one from Darfur.
> 
>      "Some Darfur activists also have complained
> about the involvement 
> in the rally of a Kansas-based evangelical group,
> Sudan Sunrise.
> 
>      "Last week, after an inquiry from The
> Washington Post, Sudan 
> Sunrise changed its Web site to eliminate references
> to efforts to 
> convert the people of Darfur. Previously, it said it
> was engaged in "one 
> on one, lifestyle evangelism to Darfurian Muslims
> living in refugee 
> camps in eastern Chad" and appealed for money to
> "bring the kingdom of 
> God to an area of Sudan where the light of Jesus
> rarely shines."
> 
>      "Although it is not formally part of the Save
> Darfur Coalition, 
> Sudan Sunrise helped arrange buses and speakers, and
> it is co-hosting a 
> dinner for 600 people on the rally's eve."
> 
>      (Alan Cooperman, "Groups Plan Rally on Mall To
> Protest Darfur 
> Violence: Bush Administration Is Urged to Intervene
> in Sudan," 
> Washington Post, 27 April 2006: A21)
> 
> Wow, fascinating.
> 
>      "For this effort, the coalition has recruited
> major celebrities 
> like George Clooney and Elie Wiesel to speak to
> those assembled. Though 
> recent reports have indicated that the turnout might
> be lower than 
> expected, organizers, while refusing to give a
> concrete number, believe 
> it will be in "the tens of thousands."
> 
>      "Little known, however, is that the coalition,
> which has presented 
> itself as "an alliance of over 130 diverse
> faith-based, humanitarian, 
> and human rights organization" was actually begun
> exclusively as an 
> initiative of the American Jewish community.
> 
>      "And even now, days before the rally, that
> coalition is heavily 
> weighted with a politically and religiously diverse
> collection of local 
> and national Jewish groups.
> 
>      "A collection of local Jewish bodies, including
> the Jewish 
> Community Center in Manhattan, United Jewish
> Communities, UJA-Federation 
> of New York and the Jewish Council for Public
> Affairs, sponsored the 
> largest and most expensive ad for the rally, a
> full-page in The New York 
> Times on April 15.
> 
>      "Though there are other major religious
> organizations, like the 
> United States Conference on Catholic Bishops and the
> National 
> Association of Evangelicals, both of which have
> giant constituencies 
> that number in the millions, these groups have not
> done the kind of 
> extensive grassroots outreach that will produce
> numbers.
> 
>      "Instead, the Jewish Community Relations
> Council, a national 
> organization with local branches that coordinate
> communal activity all 
> over America, has put on a massive effort to bus
> people to Washington on 
> Sunday. Dozens of buses will be coming from
> Philadelphia and Cleveland. 
> Yeshiva University alone, in upper Manhattan, has
> chartered eight buses.
> 
>      "Besides the Jewish origins and character of
> the rally - a fact the 
> organizers consistently played down in conversations
> with The Jerusalem 
> Post - the other striking aspect of the coalition is
> the noted absence 
> of major African-American groups like the NAACP or
> the larger Africa 
> lobby groups like Africa Action. When asked to
> comment, representatives 
> of both groups insisted they were publicizing the
> rally but had not 
> become part of the coalition or signed the Unity
> Statement declaring 
> Save Darfur's objectives.
> 
>      "The coalition's roots go back to the spring of
> 2004 following a 
> genocide alert, the first ever of its kind, issued
> by the United States 
> Holocaust Museum. An emergency meeting was
> coordinated by the American 
> Jewish World Service, an organization that serves as
> a kind of Jewish 
> Peace Corps as well as an advocacy group for a
> variety of humanitarian 
> and human rights issues.
> 
>      "At the meeting, which was attended by numerous
> American Jewish 
> organizations and a few other religious groups, it
> was decided that a 
> coalition would be formed based on a statement of
> shared principles.
> 
>      "After a year of programming that involved
> raising awareness about 
> the genocide, the coalition came up with the idea
> for a rally in 
> Washington. Planning began in the fall of 2005.
> 
>      "David Rubenstein, the director or
> "coordinator," as he prefers it, 
> of the coalition says that, given that the groups
> who started the 
> coalition were Jewish, "it's not surprising that
> they had the numbers of 
> more Jewish organizations in their rolodexes."
> 
>      "He says that the Jewish community has been
> "extraordinarily 
> responsive and are really providing the building for
> this thing," and 
> yet he insists that the coalition has worked "very,
> very hard to be 
> inclusive, to make sure there are people beyond the
> usual suspects."
> 
>      "This is a sentiment echoed by Ruth Messinger,
> president of 
> American Jewish World Service and one-time Manhattan
> borough president 
> and Democratic mayoral candidate for New York City.
> The world service 
> and Messinger personally have been at the forefront
> of planning for the 
> rally. Much of the Jewish turnout has been a result
> of her lobbying efforts.
> 
>      . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> 
>      "The fact that the aggressors in Darfur are
> Arab Muslims - though 
> it should be said that the victims are also mostly
> Muslim - and are 
> supported by a regime in Khartoum that is backed by
> the Arab League has 
> made some people question the true motives of some
> of the Jewish 
> organizations involved in the rally."
> 
>      (Gal Beckerman, "US Jews Leading Darfur Rally
> Planning," Jerusalem 
> Post, 27 April 2006)
> 
> Should we laugh or should we cry?
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