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

[C. G. Estabrook]

There is unfortunately plenty of blame to go around, among the living and the 
dead. But right now there is one person most responsible for dogs' eating the 
corpses of Palestinian children: the one who has the power to stop it, and 
doesn't.  --CGE

Brussel wrote:
> There is no doubt that the U.S could stop what is going on now in Gaza. 
> That it could change the Zionist expansionist mind-set is something 
> else. There is also no doubt(?) that the U.S. could thwart the 
> colonialist policies of Israel. This, however, does not absolve Israel 
> from its criminality. There's plenty of blame on that score to go around.
> --mkb
> 
> 
> On Jan 11, 2009, at 4:31 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> 
>> 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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