Big Think

You can’t always judge a man by the content of his t-shirt

College interns working with a peace and justice organization in Chicago are conducting public opinion surveys about public views of Israeli/Palestinian equality, US military aid to Israel, and Israeli settlements. Results will be published at the end of the summer, but yesterday’s experience at a downtown farmers’ market is worth sharing with Mondo readers. Setting: Farmers’ market at the Federal Plaza, Chicago. Lunch hour. Population represents a mix of race, gender, age… all folks looking to buy local, purchase a bouquet for the office, or grab a healthy snack for lunch. Action: Team of three set out to conduct the four question opinion survey, clipboards in hand. Lead question: “Do you believe Palestinians and Israelis should have equal rights?” Encounter: Thinking perhaps to start off with an easy target, Survey Team member approaches a young man in his 20’s wearing a Greenpeace t-shirt. Greenpeace guy has a clipboard too. Greenpeace is raising funds. “Do you want to save a polar bear?” common opening line of Greenpeace volunteer. Intern: "Hey, do you have time for a four question opinion survey?" Greenpeace: "Yes." Intern: “Do you believe Palestinians and Israelis should have equal rights?” Greenpeace: “No way.” Greenpeace makes a reference to Arabs being terrorists and then lifts up his t-shirt, showing a Israeli Defense Forces t-shirt underneath. Greenpeace says he was flying F16’s for the Israeli army for two years. Dropped a lot of bombs on Gaza. Didn’t always look to see where they landed. Flying is cool. Maybe some day I will fly a 747. Likely to return to be a pilot in Israel. Settlements need to stay. Land is ours. Only way to create peace over there is to drop an atomic bomb on the West Bank. I mean, we’ve been trying to make peace since 1948. Lessons learned: Skipped Greenpeace orientation session? Progressive except Palestine? Maybe not all those pilots feel remorse? Related posts:The Girl in the Coca-Cola-in-Arabic T-Shirt at the Neocon Rally (Fly in the Ointment!)Gathering Storm on West Bank: Italian Judge Struck, Yeshiva Settlers Fire Rocket at Palestinian VillageWhat Do Palestinians Want?

July 22, 2009, 12:42 PM

Israel expels ‘Nakba’ from schools (or did it just flee on its own?)

Reuters reports it. So does Israel Hayom: The Nakba is leaving the education system: Education Minister Gidon Saar decided yesterday to cancel the subject of the Nakba in the Arab sector.  The Nakba is the description used by the Palestinians for Israel’s victory in the War of Independence, and literally means “catastrophe. The topic was studied until today as part of the geography subject, after a decision made on the matter during the period of Limor Livnat, and was officially introduced into textbooks during the term of the previous education minister, Yuli Tamir.  “There is no reason for the official curriculum of the State of Israel to present the state’s establishment as a Holocaust or catastrophe,” Saar said yesterday.  “The education system is not supposed to contribute to processes of delegitimizing the state, which heighten the processes of extremism in the Arab sector.  In particular, there are no reasons to legitimize this concept for teaching eight-year olds.” Related posts:‘Will Israel provide the evidence that these schools were Hamas assets?’Gaza reignites spirit of ‘68– with 12 occupations at British schoolsColumbia profs blast their president’s silence on destruction of Gaza schools

July 22, 2009, 12:29 PM

IDF officers circulate Catholic-baiting pamphlet eerily reminiscent of ‘Protocols of Elders of Zion’

Sometimes it seems that Israel and the lobby have to recapitulate the entire history of Jewish suffering– but projected now on to the new Jews, the Arabs–so as to compensate for the tragedies Jews have experienced in the last century or two. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are of course a landmark of anti-Semitism, a Russian police forgery about Jewish power in the late 1800s. Kafka read it, and was terrified by it. Helped him write The Castle. Well now the Israeli Defense Forces are trying to keep up, according to Haaretz: The Pope and the cardinals of the Vatican help organize tours of Auschwitz for Hezbollah members to teach them how to wipe out Jews, according to a booklet being distributed to Israel Defense Forces soldiers. Officials encouraging the booklet’s distribution include senior officers, such as Lt. Col. Tamir Shalom, the commander of the Nahshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade. The booklet was published by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, in cooperation with the chief rabbi of Safed, Rabbi Shmuel Eliahu, and has been distributed for the past few months. The booklet, titled "On Either Side of the Border," purports to be the testimony of "a Hezbollah officer who spied for Israel." Help us. Someone help my people. We can’t do this alone. Related posts:Late Tanya Reinhart Reportedly Likened Lobby to ‘Protocols of Elders of Zion’‘The Protocols of the Elders of Saudi Arabia,’ by Joe LiebermanJon Stewart Calls AIPAC ‘Elders of Zion’

July 22, 2009, 12:04 PM

Frum is finally halfway transparent about his religious-nationalist claim for Israel

  The revelation in David Frum’s opening argument– in a debate with Dan Levy at the Economist over the US role re Israel/Palestine– is what a Bible-thumping religious-nationalist Frum is re Israel. His mother Barbara was the same way, as a Canadian broadcaster, I’m told, and the son says things in the Economist that he never said in An End to Evil, his manifesto for regime change in the Arab world, or in the speeches he slipped on to George W. Bush’s teleprompter: The aspiration for a Jewish homeland specifically in the Holy Land of the Bible is rooted not in persecution, but in a thousand years of Jewish political sovereignty, more than 3,000 years of spiritual and religious connection, and now more than 150 years of modern resettlement of the ancient land. This resettlement was legally recognised in the treaties and commitments that followed the first world war, not the second. Frum goes on to say that Jerusalem must be Jewish because you can’t trust the Muslims’ aspirations for Jerusalem after you read their religious texts. Obama’s error is "pledging American prestige to unachievable goals, miscalculating priorities." And what was the Iraq war that Frum pushed? What was the effect on American prestige? And did those plans flow from Frum’s belief that America’s role is to protect Israel’s "substantive security needs," as he says here? I guess so. Because those security needs entail colonization. Frum: Even supposing a Palestinian state were a pressing and desirable outcome from a US point of view, it is important to recognise that the most significant obstacles to such an outcome arise within the Palestinian national community. Settlements are the consequence of Arab and Palestinian intransigence, not the cause. Too bad he didn’t throw in Judea and Samaria while he was at it. Here Frum referred to the "Palestinian areas of Israel." I want more secular outrage. Remember how liberal Jews used to respond when fundamentalist Christians got their hands on the steering wheel? Related posts:Frum Performs Obsequies for McCain and Bush, But Not for Frum‘The Religious Left’ Warns Sec’y Rice, the Bible Promised Israel to the JewsNow That the Religious Right Is History, Let’s Talk About the Religious Left (Which Claims to be Secular)

July 22, 2009, 12:02 PM

Writer banned from ‘DailyKos’ after satirizing settlements

Is nothing Israeli not sacred? Writer Jane Stillwater was first warned by a DailyKos webmaster over alleged "anti-Semitism" and– after she sought to poll readers on the issue– was banned from blogging at DailyKos. Stillwater’s initial offense was posting a satirical piece on the program to get American Jews to move into illegal settlements in Israel. Excerpt: According to USA Today, "Nefesh B’Nefesh, a non-profit organization, provides grants of $3,000 to $10,000 as an incentive for Jews to move [to Israel]. Nefesh B’Nefesh, which means ‘Soul to Soul,’ also helps arrange housing, jobs and schools for immigrants’ children." "But what do I have to do to be eligible for all this wonderful subsidized housing?" you might ask. That’s easy. Just become Jewish. And apply. It’s your birthright. You’re in! "But if America is sponsoring a housing program that is available to only one religious group, isn’t that against our Constitution and civil rights? Doesn’t this program have to be available to ALL Americans to be legal? And doesn’t it go against the separation of church and state?" Nah. Not a problem. There are no churches involved. "But I heard that it was hard to convert to Judaism and that it takes years of study and that you’ve got to learn Hebrew and get circumcised…" Nope, that’s not an obstacle either. I recently talked with a visiting Israeli citizen and asked him just exactly what kind of bureaucratic hoops an American who had just been foreclosed upon would have to jump through in order to prove they were Jewish so that they could take advantage of all this free American-subsidized housing in Israel. "You don’t need to do anything," the visiting Israeli replied. "There are Russians and Ethiopians and indigenous peoples from the remote Andes of Peru who have been accepted into this program — people who are no more Jewish than, say, Madonna or Brad Pitt. All they had to do was to SAY that they’re Jewish. That alone got them in — with full access to assisted housing, pre-arranged employment opportunities and even free single-payer healthcare! They got the whole schmear. And so will you." Related posts:‘The American Left (Dailykos) Also Is Claimed by the Israel Lobby’Is this ‘natural growth’? American immigrants flood Israeli settlements, backed by the Israeli governmentNeocon Thinktank, and Bill Kristol, Share Close Connection to Settlements in Occupied Territories

July 22, 2009, 11:12 AM