[Peace-discuss] "To Help Palestine, Be Pro-Israel Too", from Ira Chernus

[C. G. Estabrook]

The success of the racist policies of the leaders of the Israeli state depends 
on US support.  Do you doubt that a phone call from Washington would produce an 
Israeli withdrawal from Gaza?  In fact, as the UN resolution shows, it's the 
only thing that will.  --CGE


Brussel wrote:
> There's abundant evidence* that Zionist leaders early on, including 
> Hertzl and Ben Gurion, realized that they had to get rid of the 
> Palestinians to construct a viable Jewish state. That there may have 
> been opposition by some in the Kibbutz movement does not change the over 
> all picture that Zionism is a root of the problem. That mindset is still 
> strong today. --mkb
> 
> * /Overcoming Zionism/ by Joel Kovel (Jewish).  Mazin Qumsiyeh's 
> /Sharing the Land of Canaan/. Also, see Chapter 4 of Noam Chomsky's 
> /Fateful Triangle/. 
> 
> On Jan 11, 2009, at 1:57 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> 
>> The essence of the problem is *the U.S. use, in aid of its SW Asian 
>> war, of a repressive state*, which justifies itself with the lie that 
>> it's "realizing the Zionist dream."
>>
>> The Zionist dream -- a haven for Jews in the Levant -- did not have to 
>> involve the establishment of a racist state.  In the kibbutz movement 
>> and elsewhere, even after 1948, there were Zionists who thought the 
>> goal should be a bi-national socialist state.  That was destroyed by 
>> US patronage after 1967.
>>
>> --CGE
>>
>> Brussel wrote:
>>> From the article by Chernus:
>>> It's [the policy he's advocating] the only one that can give Israel 
>>> peace and
>>> security and release the energies of its people*/ to realize the Zionist
>>> dream/*, to fulfill the highest aspirations of the Jewish people.  It 
>>> calls
>>> for the Jewish people to give up nothing that is truly their right 
>>> and due.
>>> I submit that "to realize the Zionist dream" is the essence of the 
>>> problem…
>>> This is a well intentioned article, but specious. It implies that the 
>>> furious
>>> protests taking place all over the world (and as reflected in UN 
>>> resolutions)
>>> condemning Israeli actions and policy are futile (for they are too 
>>> strident
>>> for the American government and media to accept); they do not raise
>>> consciousness of what has been happening. That is at best doubtful.
>>> --mkb
>>> On Jan 11, 2009, at 1:44 AM, Stuart Levy wrote:
>>>> Wanted to point out four notable articles that appeared this week. 
>>>> Here's
>>>> the first:
>>>> To Help Palestine, Be Pro-Israel Too by Ira Chernus [Prof. of Religious
>>>> Studies, UC Boulder] http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/06-13
>>>> Three viewpoints on the Gaza war fill the U.S. mass media: 
>>>> pro-Israel, anti-Israel, and neutral or even-handed.  All three are 
>>>> harmful to the
>>>> suffering people of Gaza. The one view that can help them is the one 
>>>> that
>>>> barely gets a hearing. It's pro-Palestine, pro-peace, AND pro-Israel.
>>>> [...]
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