Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

• ‘Hands at your side like a soldier,’ first-graders belt out ‘Hatikvah’ –at NY school with public funding

• Just who is General ‘All-out total war’ Eisenberg speaking for?

• Palestinian and Israeli leftwing groups sign on to J14 protest, opposing occupation

• Gabe Schivone and the new hyphenated-Jewish identity

• Arraf and Finkelstein rip ‘farce’ UN flotilla report on ‘Democracy Now’

• A Palestinian state would… heighten risk of nuclear war! (Haaretz column)

• Biting the hand that feeds them – West Bank settlers charged with ‘price tagging’ IDF base

‘Hands at your side like a soldier,’ first-graders belt out ‘Hatikvah’ –at NY school with public funding

Sep 07, 2011

Philip Weiss

Bear in mind that NY shut down the Arabic-language school in Brooklyn, the Kahlil Gibran academy. Well Nina Porzucki reports for PRI’s The World on the new Hebrew language academy charter school in Brooklyn– which is largely supported by public funds but as the Forward says, came about through the persistent efforts of Michael Steinhardt, who is pro-Israel. The Porzucki story begins with first-grade music hour at the school. (thanks to Rabbi Brian Walt)

[Teacher is heard saying]

“Hands at your side like a soldier…”

[Students begin to sing.]

Porzucki: It’s not just any song… it’s the Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem.

“There is absolutely no religion taught at the school,” says Sara Berman, the founder and board chair of the Hebrew Language Academy….

Berman is also the daughter of the Jewish philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, who sponsors programs connecting young American Jews with the state of Israel. But according to Berman, her school isn’t specifically about Israel or Jewish identity. It’s about learning a language with a long and rich cultural history.

“Hebrew is an interesting language because over the past century and a half there has been a revitalization of Hebrew,” says Berman. “It is both a classical language and today, certainly a completely modern spoken language.”

Hebrew may be a modern spoken language, but modern Hebrew is only spoken by about five million people worldwide.

Just who is General ‘All-out total war’ Eisenberg speaking for?

Sep 07, 2011

 Paul Mutter

Some strange comments about “all out total war” and the use of WMD, by IDF Major General Eyal Eisenberg, former commander of the Gaza Division during Operation Cast Lead and newly appointed Home Front Command Chief, seem to be throwing everyone in the Israeli defense establishment into a panic. Although Ynetreports that the remarks in a speech at the Institute for National Security Studies were approved by military censors beforehand, the defense establishment is moving quickly to denounce them and demand that the IDF rein in Eisenberg. Defense Minister Ehud Barakcaustically dismissed Eisenberg’s assessment, saying that “We don’t see a reason for any of our adversaries to initiate a broad, general campaign against Israel at this time.”

Much of what Eisenberg apparently said is not new and has been expressed before by Israeli officials: the Arab Spring is a catalyst for Israel’s encirclement by hostile Islamists; Egypt is facing total national collapse; Turkey needs to tone done its rhetoric over the flotilla;Hezbollah is further entrenching itself in Lebanon;Hamas and Iran are plotting their next moves against Israel.

There are two new items in the remarks, though, that triggered controversy. One is a bizarre allusion to Hamas possessing new weapons (rockets?): “we discovered a new weapon, and as result of this we instructed the public to hide under two roofs, rather than only one,” Eisenberg said. Eisenberg is being criticized for making this statement because officials claim that knowledge of the weapons is still classified. A more disconcerting remark was this:

“This [all] raises the likelihood of an all-out, total war, with the possibility of weapons of mass destruction being used.”

Further quotes from Eisenberg’s speech (via Ynet):

“It looks like the Arab Spring, but it can also be a radical Islamic winter.”

“In Lebanon, Hezbollah is growing stronger within government arms, but it has not lost its desire to harm Israel, and the ties with Turkey aren’t at their best.”

“Iran has not abandoned its nuclear program. The opposite it true; it continues full steam ahead.”

“In Egypt, the army is collapsing under the burden of regular security operations, and this is reflected in the loss of control in the Sinai and the turning of the border with Israel into a terror border, with the possibility that Sinai will fall under the control of an Islamic entity.”

No one has yet advanced any explanation for why Eisenberg’s pre-approved remarks are now being treated as those coming from a loose cannon. Despite a controversial record that includes playing a leading role in Operation Cast Lead — a role that makes him potentially guilty of war crimes — he has continually been entrusted with increasingly significant responsibilities by the IDF.

Palestinian and Israeli leftwing groups sign on to J14 protest, opposing occupation

Sep 07, 2011

Philip Weiss

Haggai Mattar reports at +972:

A large group of left-wing Palestinian and Israeli parties, unions and civil society groups has issued an unprecedented joint statement in support of the Israeli struggle for social justice. The group demands unity in the struggle against occupation and racism.

For the first time since the launch of J14 movement, and perhaps for the first time in regional history, official Palestinian parties and NGOs are showing their support for an Israeli civilian struggle for social justice and against capitalism. Alongside their general statement of support, signatories mentioned the influence Arab revolutions have had on the Israeli movement, and stressed the importance they see in the ground-breaking widespread cooperation between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel.

In addition, the signatories call upon J14 to connect their struggle with the one against the illegal settlements and the occupation, and to stop the Israeli government’s from attempting to sideline the struggle in the face of “outside security threats” such as the upcoming vote on recognition of Palestinian statehood at the UN on 20 September.

And here is the statement from the Palestinian Israeli groups. Excerpt:

We look forward to the liberation of all the region’s peoples from dictatorship, ruling tyranny and from all forms of national, social and economic oppression. …

We understand that one of the primary reasons for the social and economic distress of citizens in Israel, in addition to the capitalist economic policies, is the continuation of the occupation and excessive security budgets, which Israel’s government seeks to justify as needed for defending the security of the settlements on the one hand and the state borders on the other. We therefore believe that an end to the occupation and establishment of a fair and just peace are essential for a life of peace and welfare.

We welcome the participation and integration of the Palestinian population in Israel in the social protest. This is an important opportunity to present before various groups within Israeli society the distresses of the Palestinians and the injustices caused to them, so that these groups can take responsibility in the struggle against the marginalizing policies and ongoing discrimination against the Palestinians in Israel, for putting an ending to confiscation of lands and full equality, and an end to the occupation of the Palestinian lands that were occupied in 1967.

 

Gabe Schivone and the new hyphenated-Jewish identity

Sep 07, 2011

Sydney Levy

The Jerusalem Post recently charged that a human rights activist who participated in the siege-busting Gaza Flotilla was falsely claiming to be Jewish. Given the high stakes over criticism of Israeli policy and the Flotilla in particular, such unsubstantiated charges to discredit a young Jewish activist are not unexpected. And they aren’t surprising coming from the very paper that published the patently false allegation that participants in the flotilla boats to Gaza were bringing sulfur and were planning to kill Israeli soldiers.

Still, the accusation against the young activist, Gabe Schivone, has raised a good number of questions worth exploring. But first, let’s get the fact straight. It is true that there is simply no universally agreed upon definition of who is a Jew — the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry has been tested and strained over competing interpretations — but it must be clearly said that by any reasonable definition Gabe Schivone is Jewish.

To start with, he has a Jewish grandparent and lives a life inspired by Jewish traditions and values. This makes him Jewish enough for the Nazis (according to the Nuremberg Laws). It also earns him a ticket to fly in  free Birthright junket trip to Israel— a program that has been called “the most successful Zionist project in the Jewish world.” He would even be welcomed to Israel as a New Immigrant (according to Israel’s Law of Return).

Further, unlike nearly half of American Jews, Gabe is also an active participant in not one but two Jewish organizations— a radical Jewish community in Tucson, Arizona, and Jewish Voice for Peace. In other words, Gabe is in excellent company in his choices to honor his Jewish heritage and community and is fairly typical of new generations of Jews for whom intermarried parents are the norm. But instead of hearing the inevitable applause that greets graduates of Birthright or new immigrants to Israel, he must face charges of not being Jewish.

Why?

First, for the “Israel right-or-wrong” crowd, Jews like Gabe or me ( in my capacity as a staff member at Jewish Voice for Peace) who oppose Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians simply cannot be bona fide Jews. We hear this all the time. Yet, opposing the Israeli occupation and historical and ongoing oppression of Palestinians is a very Jewish act. The story of slavery and freedom that we recount each generation at the Passover table the Passover table is a central motif in Jewish tradition.

In fact, and I say this as someone educated entirely in Jewish schools from kindergarten through graduate school, the act of standing up against these injustices which are hateful to us is not merely a Jewish act; it is rather an essential Jewish act. standing up against these injustices which are hateful to us is not merely a Jewish act; it is rather an essential Jewish act.

But listen to the language of the Jerusalem Post piece and how it understands anti-occupation Jews:“misguided Jews, manipulative Jews, malevolent Jews, and other Jews of assorted bad faith.” It is worth noting that these very juicy adjectives parallel those traditionally used by anti-Semites.

Secondly, Gabe defines himself as a Chicano Jew, and many Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern European descent, who make up the vast majority of Jews in the US, have no idea such a thing can exist. I know—I’m a Latino Jew myself. I was born in Latin America, my parents in Egypt, my grandparents in Turkey and Greece.

The fact is that Jews come in all forms and colors. If this has always been true, it is becoming more so with the new generation of American Jews, where over 40 percent of Jews  marry non-Jews. How will these families and the children born into them identify? Most likely with hyphenated identities, including, yes, Chicano Jews. If we want to even have a Jewish future, and I do, then it is up to us to welcome them. Sadly, in all too many cases, older generations are shutting the door, and that is, as my Ashkenazi Jewish friends say in Yiddish, a shandeh (shame). No wonder demographers are fretting about the diminishing number of young people who identify as Jews.

We Jews may become a disappearing tribe and Gabe’s story perfectly embodies two of the main causes for that disappearance. If we want to have a Jewish future, then the Jewish world must learn to embrace the younger generations who love Jewish community but who have a very different and even critical relationship to Israel, and they must learn to embrace and not run from hyphenated Jewish identities which may, like American identity, one day even be the norm.

At the end of the day, the definitions of who is a Jew are as varied as Jews are. Regardless of how one defines Jews — by religious halachic law or nationality or something else—one thing remains clear: some 25 percent of the participants in the Gaza Flotilla were Jewish. Their numbers, and the numbers of those of us who supported the flotilla are simply too big to pick off one at a time, try as they might.

We are Jewish, and we believe in freedom, equality, and justice for Palestinians and Israelis.

Arraf and Finkelstein rip ‘farce’ UN flotilla report on ‘Democracy Now’

Sep 07, 2011

annie

Excellent commentary and analysis  from Huwaida Arraf and Norm Finkelstein. Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales interview two giants in the  Democracy Now report: As Turkey Freezes Israel Ties, Critics Decry “Whitewashed” U.N. Report on Gaza Flotilla, Blockade. [partial transcript below]

AMY GOODMAN: But the fact that this report did find that Israel’s use of force was excessive and unreasonable, and the significance of Turkey expelling the Israeli ambassador?

HUWAIDA ARRAF: Definitely. Well, it’s kind of funny that Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador today after the release of this report, because the whole point of this report was to reach a political compromise and to repair the relation between Israel and Turkey. And we’re glad that Turkey has taken the position that it has taken. And in fact, Turkey’s foreign minister has said that it’s time that Israel paid a price. And it’s true, because Israel does not pay a price for any of its human rights violations. It continues to act with impunity. And even the fact that this report did say Israel acted using excessive force, it doesn’t—it doesn’t go enough to—money or paying compensation is not—is no kind of justice for the families or for the people that—for the victims of Israel’s actions. And that’s what we want to see. We want to see some kind of accountability. And that’s different from the U.N. report that was issued last September by the independent fact-finding mission, which recommended that human rights abusers be held accountable. And that’s what we’re waiting to see. So, this report, the Uribe-Palmer report, pays some lip service to the victims, but its main—again, its main goal, to repair relations, and we’re glad to see that Turkey is not falling for that.

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: I’d like to say—

JUAN GONZALEZ: Norman, if we can, we just have a little bit of time.

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Sure.

JUAN GONZALEZ: If you could just briefly talk about the implications of this report coming out now and the continuing schism between Turkey and Israel, as we head into the United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood.

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Well, actually, many Israelis worried that this would be Pyrrhic victory for the Israeli government, because being so stubborn about refusing to make an apology—there are two of consecutive words that just don’t translate into Hebrew. The two words, consecutive words, are “excuse me.” They can’t comprehend that. And the Israeli—many Israeli officials were saying, “Make the apology, because we need Turkey. Turkey is our—has historically been our strongest ally in the Muslim world. Things are now turbulent with our other main ally in the Arab world, Egypt. Make the apology, and move on.” But there were members of the Netanyahu government—in particular, Mr. Lieberman, the foreign minister, and his party—who refused, because they said if they made the apology, Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, would run with it and would embarrass the Israelis, and Israelis would be humiliated. But they didn’t think it was a wise move. And actually, I don’t think it is, either. Losing the military relationship with Turkey, suspension of diplomatic relations, and now you know Turkey, when the state issue—statehood issue comes up in September, they are going to be in the forefront now, because Erdogan has been humiliated by this report. It was a complete spit in the face of the Turks, what this report said.

So I think, from a moral point of view, it was a disgrace. But from a political point of view, it will probably end up helping the Palestinians. You have to remember the whole point of the report. It described the killing of the nine members of the—on the—passengers on the Mavi Marmara. You know the phrase they used? It was a “major irritant” to diplomatic relations. Killing nine people is an “irritant.” And they said, “We have to get over this irritant, so that Israel and Turkey can restore diplomatic relations.” That’s their moral level.

Fair use prevents us from publishing more of thetranscript but it’s hot! Finkelstein rips the report, says he was “dumbfounded……because it was so shocking, so morally debased” and Arraf shines clear and rational as always. Don’t miss them both dress down Uribe ( “extrajudicial killings and assassinations” “complete disdain for human rights defenders”) . Naturally I recommend watching the interview in its entirety.

(Hat tip commenters Kathleen and Pabelmont)

A Palestinian state would… heighten risk of nuclear war! (Haaretz column)

Sep 07, 2011

Philip Weiss

A truly crazy piece in Haaretz says that the Palestinian statehood initiative could result in nuclear war. I can’t even follow the logic, but you can read the piece, by Louis Rene Beres. Let’s be clear. This kind of nuttiness happened all over India and Pakistan around Partition, with ethnic cleansing and nuclear threat and unending skirmishes. So I understand the paranoia. But the claim that the U.S. should be on Israel’s side through all this? Nuts.

Any Palestinian state would have an obviously injurious impact on U.S. strategic interests, as well as on Israel’s sheer physical survival….

Taking the presumed Israeli Bomb out of the “basement,” could enhance Israel’s overall security for a while; but over time, ending “deliberate ambiguity” could also heighten the chances of nuclear weapons use.

With a Palestinian state in place, a nuclear war could arrive in Israel not only as a “bolt-from-the-blue” surprise missile attack, but also as a result, intended or inadvertent, of escalation. If an enemy state were to begin with “only” conventional and/or biological attacks upon Israel, Jerusalem might respond, sooner or later, with fully nuclear reprisals.

Biting the hand that feeds them – West Bank settlers charged with ‘price tagging’ IDF base

Sep 07, 2011

Paul Mutter

Haaretz:

“Israeli settlers in the West Bank vandalized an Israel Defense Forces base on Wednesday, carrying out a “price tag” operation against the army for the first time since adopting the policy in recent years”

“Unknown perpetrators infiltrated a base in the Binyamin region and snuck their way to a mechanics workshop on site, where they slashed the tires and cut the cables of 12 army vehicles.”

“The vandals sprayed the word “price tag” on the walls, as well as other graffiti referring to the three illegal homesdemolished by the IDF in the outpost of Migron on Monday.”

This is the second price tag incident this week in the Occupied Territories, following an act of arson against a mosque near Nablus earlier in the week. Ostensibly, the tactic is a form of retaliation against percieved Palestinian threats to the settlers, but, for the most part, the acts of vandalism, arson and assault that constitute “price tagging” follow unpopular Israeli government actions in the West Bank, such as the demolition of settler homes built without proper permits and construction halts (which are sometimes the result of legal challenges brough forward by human rights groups).

This first-of-its-kind “price tagging” comes at an time when the IDF is arming and training settlers in the Occupied Territories to prepare for possible Palestinian demonstrations in response to the Palestinian Authority’s UN recognition bid. The IDF fully expects the demonstrations to turn into “mass disorder,” while Palestinian leaders assert that they are nonviolent protest marches.