Petition: Urge the United Church of Canada to Reject the Boycott of Israel

The United Church of Canada: Urge the United Church of Canada to reject the boycott of Israel

We ask that the United Church reject boycotts of Israel in any form, refuse to hold the world’s only Jewish state as solely responsible for ending the Israeli-Arab conflict, and instead support positive initiatives to advance peace, reconciliation, and prosperity in the Holy Land – for the benefit of both Palestinians and Israelis.

A Tip 'O the Kippa to Shirl in Oz.

Rockets

Mike L.

Palestinians fire total of 19 rockets at Israel in past 24 hours;

IAF strikes rocket squad, critically injuring one,

at least 4 Palestinians killed in past day;

Hamas claims responsibility for 10 launches.

And it goes on and on and on and on.

The west seems to think that Israel must put up with these attacks like Parisians put up with urban crime... as if it is just one of those things that people have to live with.

I do not think so.

One thing is certain, however, the progressive-left could not care less that Palestinians shoot Qassams and Katyushas into Israel on a daily basis. They basically seem to believe that the Jews of the Middle East deserve whatever violence comes their way.

And, yet, we still tend to support this movement. The pure stupidity of it is just mind-boggling.

From the comments:

James

I'm just an American from NH, USA, If Hamas fired weapon tipped rockets into my country, state or town I would most definitely take out (kill) ANYONE who was or supports Hamas. Iran would be target number one. Israelis should be conducting private ops (government and private) hunt and kill. I just don't understand why Israel puts up with this act of war. I feel terrible about this and wish there was something I could do to help.

Good for James!

Iran Aware

Had enough yet? At what point are you going to go in and clean out this nest? Your going to be blamed either way, so do what is right for your people's safety and go in and liquidate this issue before it spreads... They are only doing it cause they think they will be safe now with Egypts mess,.. Clean it out

There is some question if these attacks are related to the recent elections in Egypt. Who knows?

iCry

A sufficient response is one that makes them stop attacking Israel permanently. You know like the allies inflicted on Germany and Japan.

I couldn't agree more.

The Failures of Progressive-Left Zionism: The Moral Equivalency Canard

Mike L.

Progressive-left Jewish Zionists are failing the Jewish people.

If the first way in which progressive-left Zionism is failing is in its ostrich-like reluctance to acknowledge, and seriously discuss, the rise of the Jihad throughout the Muslim Middle East, and another way is through their justifying bigotry against their own people, yet another is in the fact that they always play defense.

It needs to be understood, however, that one major reason for these obvious failures of progressive-Zionist politics is due to what we might call the Moral Equivalency Canard. Over at CiF Watch, Adam Levick relates a story of a young Harvard graduate that he met at a Shabbat seder in Jersualem who intends "to organize a group of Israeli Jews to go to Afghanistan and offer local tribes and governments Israeli assistance in fostering their development."

One guest queried her on whether her plan included protection for her group of erstwhile volunteers from U.S. and NATO forces. Another asked if she had thought through the immense security risks for Jews working in a state which is 99% Muslim – one still terrorized by sadistic Taliban terrorism. (There is reported to be literally one Jew left in the country).

Our Shabbat guest turned to us and said something to the effect of “Muslims aren’t especially antisemitic”.

Other than perhaps an eye roll, I maintained my composure and tried to change the subject, asking our friend about her academic background: what expertise did she possess which would prepare her for such an ambitious diplomatic undertaking?

It turns out she studied intercultural relations at Harvard University

Levick wonders just how it is that so many on the western-left refuse to acknowledge Islamist intolerance? This is basically the very same question that we've been asking on Israel Thrives since we first started publishing in 2009. Just why is it that there are so many things relating to the Arab-Israel conflict that are entirely verboten for discussion, including the rise of radical Islam? We have a whole (and incomplete) list of items arranged on the right side of this screen that cannot be broached for discussion among progressives (and I say this as someone who came out of that movement) because they violate Politically Correct views. These include the centuries of Jewish dhimmitude under the savage boot of Islamic imperialism, the recent construction of Palestinian identity, Arab and Palestinian Koranically-based racism as the fundamental source of the conflict, and the ways in which contemporary progressive anti-Zionism serves as a cloak for gross anti-Semitism.

And on and on and on.

Levick offers the following explanation for the problem:

Western guilt: the post-colonial a priori (often arbitrary) determination of guilt and innocence, based on the West’s past (imperial) sins. Previously subjugated peoples seem never to lose their status as the “oppressed”.

Moral vanity: the desire of enlightened Westerners (often burdened with guilt derived from the dynamic above) to be seen as enlightened champions of those assigned as the the oppressed and downtrodden in the world.

And, finally, the focus of our discourse:

Moral equivalence and the rejection of “good and evil”: the faith that most, if not all, conflicts in the world are based on misunderstandings and that all cultures, nations, traditions, religions, are equal. One is no better than any other.

Progressives often tend to believe that the reason for Palestinian-Arab hostility toward Jews in the Middle East is because those Jews behave badly... and not just badly, but badly on the order of Nazi Germany "badly" or Apartheid South Africa "badly." If the Palestinians often teach their children to despise Jews, well, Israeli Jews often teach their children to despise Arabs. If the Palestinians shoot rockets into Israeli civilian areas, then it is also true that the Israelis "collectively punish" perfectly innocent Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Neither side is really "better" than the other and, in fact, the Israeli side, given its alleged strength, is probably worse than the Palestinian side. Progressives generally believe that Israel was born in the sin of "ethnic cleansing" and "the oppression of the indigenous population" and therefore the ongoing hostility against the Jews of the Middle East is a direct result of that behavior and of that "unholy" birth.

This is what I call the Moral Equivalency Canard and it is endemic on the progressive-left. Other examples include the notion that if the Palestinians engage in terrorism, Israel is, itself, a terrorist state. If Jews suffered the Shoah, the Palestinians suffered al-Nakba.

Yet another example of the trend is in the way that well-meaning progressives assume that reports of Arab-Muslim genocidal hostility towards Jews are overblown and therefore pointing out that hostility is actually a form of racism or "Islamophobia." They know that enlightened liberal westerners usually hold no such hatred towards Muslims and therefore assume that Middle Eastern Muslims, as a group, hold no such hatred toward Jews or the West. This is because they tend to believe that people everywhere are just as fair and rational as they compliment themselves as being and, therefore, the extent to which Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East hold the Jews in contempt it is because those Jews richly deserve that contempt.

Thus:

Address Hamas’ concerns, liberate them from the shackles of Israeli tyranny and, according to the theory my friend and so many in the Western left would subscribe to, they will transcend their animosity. There will be peace in our time.

This is the failure of the leftist intellectual establishment which my Shabbat interlocutor seems to share: the habit of mind which, a mere 66 years after the grotesque consequences of moral abdication in the face of an indescribable evil, rejects the very notion of immutable (indeed insatiable) Islamist Jew hatred.

What the progressive-left "narrative" fails to take into account, however, is history.

The Jews of the Middle East got their collective asses kicked by the Arabs from the 7th century until early in the 20th when they freed themselves from dhimmitude, in part through the Zionist movement. Century upon century throughout the Middle East, and throughout the entirety of the Muslim world, Jews were second and third class citizens living under conditions that often made the history of Jim Crow in the United States look like the very height of liberal enlightenment.

In some places and times it was better, and in some places and times it was worse, but we were always a "kept" and inferior people subject to draconian laws reflecting that status. To the extent that Arab-Muslims despise Jews it is not because of Jewish autonomy and self-defense on historically Jewish land. Jewish autonomy seriously irritates a precondition of Muslim anti-Jewish racism, but it is not its cause.  Zionism, as anyone who knows anything about the history of that movement can tell you, is not the cause of genocidal anti-Jewish racism, but a response to genocidal anti-Jewish racism.

As long as progressive-Zionists continue to blame Israel for its own persecution at the hands of our former masters, the more they will undermine the security and well-being of our brothers and sisters in Israel. As long as progressive-Zionists continue to blame conservative Jews or the Likud or the "settlers" or Yisrael Beiteinu (and that bad boy, Avigdor Lieberman) for Obama's ruination of the peace process, then the Palestinians, the Arabs, and their western-left allies will be more than happy to agree with that assessment, thus encouraging more violence against us.

It's time for fresh thinking on an old problem, and while that fresh thinking may not come from the conservative Jewish right, it definitely is not coming from the dhimmitudenous Jewish left.

That much is certain.

The Palestinian Authority Teaches Children Hatred of Jews

Mike L.

Host: "Lina, how did you participate in the exhibition [about teaching tools]?"

Lina: "I recited a poem."

Host: "A poem."

Co-host: "Lina opened the exhibition."

Lina: "When I was young, I was taught that Arabness is my honor...
and that our lands extend from one end to the other,
and that our wars were for the Al-Aqsa Mosque,
and that our enemy, Zion, is Satan with a tail..."

Well, that is some kind of "poem."

And, yet, the US government continues to fund this genocidal racism against us.

Of course, many western progressives would claim that what is expressed here is not hatred toward Jews, but merely hatred toward "Zionists."

How long, I wonder, are we going to continue to buy into the fiction that expressing hatred toward "Zionism" or "Zionists" is something other than expressing hatred toward Jews?

The dhimmitudenous may buy into it, but I will not.

A Tip 'O the Kippa to Palestinian Media Watch.

Israel Thrives Welcomes Jay in Philadelphia

Mike L.

I am pleased to announce that JayinPhiladelphia has joined Israel Thrives as one of our eminent front pagers. This came about when Jay suggested that I do some analysis of The Atlantic around the Arab-Israel conflict and I suggested that maybe he could do so and he has agreed. So, like our other front pagers, Doodad, Oldschooltwentysix, and Geoffff (of Bar and Grill fame), Jay will publish according to his will and we very much look forward to his contributions.

Israel Thrives is, of course, a part of the larger on-line pro-Israel community that includes well-trafficked blogs, such as Elder of Ziyon, as well as lower traffic joints such as, say, Richard Landes' The Augean Stables. Our primary goal... or perhaps it's just my primary goal... is to rethink the terms of discussion around the Long Arab War against the Jews due to the fact that the old Oslo assumptions are no longer operational and because Barack Obama has driven the final nails into the peace process coffin.

Acknowledging the demise of the Oslo "peace process" means thinking in new categories around old problems. Before we can think in new categories, however, we must forgo old terminologies so that we may replace them by terms more suitable to the current political moment. What's most important, given the fact that the Long Arag war against the Jews in the Middle East continues to this day, is in not using terminology that reflects Arab and Palestinian propaganda, but that better reflect the 4,000 year history of Jewish people on Jewish land in the Middle East. Thus, for one small example, the term "West Bank" may have seemed useful during the Oslo years because there was still hope for a negotiated conclusion of hostilities in which the Palestinians would agree to a state for themselves in peace next to Israel. However, given that the local Arabs absolutely refuse to end hostilities against the Jews through a two-state solution, it makes no sense to continue referring to Judea and Samaria as the "West Bank."

The term "West Bank" was originally created, or popularized, by the Jordanians when they swiped that land during Israel's War of Independence. The reason that they chose to call it the "West Bank" was to obliterate any Jewish historical claims which would be impossible to do if we continued to call Judea Judea. Because well-meaning liberal Jews were invested in the two-state solution, via a negotiated agreement, it became standard that Jews who wanted two states used "West Bank" while those who opposed the creation of a Palestinian state continued to use Judea and Samaria.

This is no longer the case because the entire premise of Oslo is no longer operational. Since Oslo has failed the terms used during Oslo need to be rethought and abandoned if necessary. These include outmoded terms such as "West Bank" or "East Jerusalem" or even "Israel-Palestine conflict." And while I still believe in two states for two peoples, I also recognize that it cannot come with Palestinian cooperation for the very simple reason that the Palestinians absolutely refuse any such cooperation and have done so for almost one hundred years. In fact, the Palestinians have refused to cooperate in the creation of their own state since long before they even emerged as a distinct nationality toward the end of the twentieth century.

At a certain point one must acknowledge the obvious and it is more than obvious that the Arabs, Palestinian or otherwise, have no intention of concluding hostilities against the Jews in the Middle East, nor have they any intention of creating a Palestinian state in peace next to the Jewish one.

My appeal, therefore, is simply to encourage people to rethink the basic terms of the conflict. Whether or not people continue to use a Jordanian term such as "West Bank" or an inaccurate term that encourages the partition of Jerusalem, such as the non-existent city known as "East Jerusalem," what counts is sloughing off the old assumptions in recognition that we are in a new political moment defined by the failure of the "peace process" that wore the name Oslo.

The conclusions that we draw, upon acknowledging the current situation, are entirely up to each and every one of us, but to continue under the Oslo Delusion is to sustain the conflict, and the status quo, indefinitely on into the future. I, of course, do not have all the answers. All I want is fresh thinking on an issue that is exceedingly important to all of us, left, right, and center.

It is in that spirit, a spirit of non-partisan, forward-looking open-mindedness, that I welcome Jay to Israel Thrives.

{After all, we welcome all sorts of heretics, infidels, and apostates.}

Keep BDS Out Of My Valley

geoffff


Many will know that I have an issue with the Tweed Echo, an openly aligned Australian Greens "independent" newspaper distributed in the Tweed Valley of northern NSW (where I live), with an internet  offshoot, that in the past has  had some difficulty masking the anti-Israel obsession that has come to characterise and define that side of Australian politics. Should there be any doubt about that you need only attempt to question the Greens on their policy on whether Israel has a right to exist.  They are agnostic. As shameful and disgusting as it is, Australia has a political party that refuses to acknowledge that the Jewish state is not only a legitimate expression of Jewish nationhood born of a hard fought national liberation movement but even refuses to accept that the country and the Jews have a right to be left in peace. The Australian Greens refuses to oppose war and open threats of genocide and instead apes the ugly rants of the rat bag nasty left and their Islamist and other fascist allies. I guess they figure there are more votes in it.

About a year ago I wrote a letter to this paper in response to some pretty cranky stuff they published even by the Australian Greens standards. Elsewhere I provided a preface:


A nasty Echo from the past


In the Tweed and Byron Shires there are a lot of Greens. They are everywhere. They are like blowflies at a Barcaldine barbeque. They even have their own newspaper, the Echo. It is the only openly politically aligned newspaper around. While one can respect their industry they show all the hallmarks of their party, including a marked intellectual cowardice. Like most Greens, they are right wing, to the point of reactionary, masquerading as progressives. They campaign against everything. Every now and then their campaigns spill over into something very ugly indeed.

The paper had published an openly antisemitic letter , just in time for the annual Byron Blues Fest. The usual grubby and odious muck. Here's an extract:

"No question of debating the issues, just a tirade of abuse and slander against those who feel strongly enough to take a stand for the human rights of the Palestinian people.
"This is the usual Zionist propaganda onslaught which sets out to crush and silence all opposition both within Israel and the shrinking West Bank and elsewhere in the world.
"The problem is not one of anti-Semitism but one of aggressive, nationalistic, expansionist Zionism. You do not have to be Jewish to be a Zionist. President Woodrow Wilson, a devout Presbyterian, was also a self-professed Zionist, so too is US Vice President Joe Biden. Zionists wrote the Balfour document."

At the time I let it pass. As you do. You would go mad if you tried to respond to this hateful filth every time it pops up.

Not content with the the paper decided to put on display its "non-anti-Semitic but anti- Zionist" credentials by publishing this choice little editorial titbit. I reproduce it in full.

"An Australian delegation will join the international Freedom Flotilla 2, which will set sail next month to break the blockade of Gaza and end Israel’s illegal collective punishment of the people of Gaza. The Australian contingent includes Sylvia Hale, former Greens member of the NSW Parliament, Vivienne Porzsolt of Jews Against the Occupation, Alex Whisson of Australians for Palestine, and youth worker Michael Coleman. The boats will carry humanitarian aid and medical supplies. Our experience with the pro-Israel lobby suggests that the delegation will be accused of anti-semitism, along with Backburner for reporting it."

Excuse me while I vomit.

So here is the letter I sent them.

Dear editor,

Your nasty little sneer about the "pro-Israel lobby", and your complaint about "accusations of antisemitism", pretty much sum up the main reason why your party, the Greens, has no place in mainstream Australian politics.

You complain about your "experience with the pro-Israel lobby". Given that you have never published anything that could be remotely described as "pro-Israel", it can only be that you never publish opinions that differ from yours or the "experience" you claim is very limited indeed. None at all. What is your problem? "They" can't be bothered with you? Who do you mean by this "lobby" anyway? Israel is solidly supported by every major political party in our country. As you would expect from a liberal democracy for the only liberal democracy in the Middle East and the only state there that provides and guarantees full political and civil rights for Arabs. Only some of your party's candidates and some of "One Nation"'s attack Israel so obsessively.Why? If by the "pro-Israel lobby", you mean Australian Jews, then say so. We need to know. About you. Not them.

Your complaint about allegations of antisemitism is absurd. I don't believe you. Some years ago I issued a challenge on Margo Kingston's Webdiary site, that would be famous in part of your paper's core market. Webdiary, I mean. The challenge was to produce a single example of someone serious, seriously suggesting that criticism of Israeli policy, or government, was of itself antisemitism. No takers. A few attempts but no cigars. Not one. It's been over five years now.
The opposite is the truth. It is impossible to defend Israel, and the democratic secular Zionist principles that underpin it, without being accused of racism. Sooner or later it always happens. Always. It is also true that much of the incessant attacks on Israel, especially from the political extremes, and from militant Islamism, is driven by antisemitism. This cannot be honestly denied. It is everywhere.

I said then how ubiquitous your whiny complaint was. "Anybody who criticises Israel risks being labelled an antisemite". Rubbish. A lie. Produce an example. Just one will do. This lie was intended to intimidate or pre-empt those who seek to defend Israel especially against its harshest critics. Nothing has changed.

The situation in Gaza can be summed up in a sentence. Israel has the stark choice of either attempting a military blockade or simply allowing Hamas to become as lethally armed as Hezbollah. Gaza is an Iranian colony ruled by a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood. Their grievance with Israel has nothing at all to do with "occupation". Gaza is not "occupied". Their grievance has everything to do with the fact that Israel is free, liberal and democratic and, above all, with the fact that Israel is the Jewish state. They say so again and again.

Nor do I accept that for you this is about the "Palestinians". The old hard left that now control your party in this state does not give a rat's arse about the Palestinians. They never have and they have been around for a long time. If they gave a damn at all they would be hollering from the rooftops for the liberation of these tragic people from the death grip of Hamas. For them, this is not about the Palestinians at all. Even less is it about the millions of people from Tunisia to Syria and beyond right now risking their lives in a desperate brave struggle for some of those freedoms that Israeli Arabs enjoy as of right and have for decades. For the old hard left, this is about something else entirely.

It is an outrage that your party sought to impose BDS sanctions on Israel, as part of a global campaign aimed at the destruction of the Jewish state, almost as soon as it took effective control of a Sydney council. I can think of no clearer example of abuse of elected office at local government level. I will be publicly asking Greens candidates, especially any standing for re-election in the Tweed Shire, precisely what her position on BDS is. I will do this in an open detailed letter that I will copy you and other local press. If the Greens want this argument then I for one will be happy to oblige.

 And what happened? You know what happened. The Echo declined to publish the letter. This is how  they demonstrate their commitment to free speech and debate.

But today, almost exactly one year later, they did publish this letter.

SPEAKING IN DEFENCE

Ex-Israeli Defence Force platoon commander and now psychotherapist, Avigail Abarbanel, is the editor of Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists. She was due to be part of a panel at the Limmud Oz Jewish cultural festival, Monash University, during the long weekend, but the event was cancelled without explanation. The Limmud Oz Board have been accused of political censorship.

Byron Bay’s reputation as a centre for free speech and debate, and as a vigorous supporter for writers through the Writers’ Festival, will welcome Avigail to the Community Centre on 23 January at noon where she will speak to her book. Entry is by gold coin donation.

Gareth Smith, Byron Bay

and check out this comment they also published!

Ron says June 15, 2012 at 1:10 pm

Yes, I heard about Avigail’s problem with censorship at Monash on one of Philip Adams’ radio shows this week. She and her colleague explained themselves very well, to Adams’ obvious discomfort. He’s a notorious supporter of Zionism, having an apostate daughter living in Israel, although he pretends to be ‘open minded’ about the Middle East.

Catch it on ABC RN archives

A huh. Well I too am passionate advocate of free speech and debate so I posted this comment.

geoffff says June 15, 2012 at 2:28 pm

It is a serious disgrace to Australian democracy that we harbour so many haters of Israel and the Jews; especially it seems around Byron Bay masquerading as a “centre of free speech and debate”. Try telling the truth. The last thing you want is free speech and debate.

I have no idea who Avigail Arabanel is but you can be certain that if she had anything worthwhile to say she could have said it in Israel. Israel is the centre of free speech and debate in the Middle East. Israel is the only centre of free speech and debate in the Middle East. Why did she have to come to the other side of the planet to say it?

By my count there were 159 presenters at the Limmud Oz 2012 festival of Jewish culture and learning last weekend.

http://www.limmudoz.com.au/presenters/

Who knows how many were , in your words, “due to be part of a panel discussion?”. Hundreds? Over a thousand? Look for yourself.

http://www.limmudoz.com.au/

I have no idea why Avigail was “cancelled without explanation” from one of the hundreds of panels that must have been convened during the festival. Anyone who has had anything to do with the organisation of this sort of event, such as the Byron Writers’ Festival for example, will know this is unavoidable but I know one thing for certain .

Your paper has shown not the slightest bit of interest in anything that the other hundreds of speakers at Limmud Oz 2012 have had to say and you can be sure that not one of them will be invited to speak at the Byron Bay Community Centre, irrespective of the date.

Please do not lecture Israel and the Jews about free speech and debate. I don’t think you quite understand the concept.

Geoffff’s Joint, Bar and Grill.

http://geofffff.blogspot.com.au/

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

So how has this centre of free speech and debate handled my latest post?

We don't know yet. My comment is still "awaiting moderation."

We'll see. Who knows? This may be the first time ever the Australian Greens and their supporters have ever allowed a contrary opinion to their anti-Israel blather to b published. Anyone prepared to lay odds?

I will let you know. 

Cross posted Geoffff's Joint, Bar and Grill