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  • arif 11:52 am on February 5, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, ,

    -excerpts:

    ..this is not a discussion of Dr Aafia’s guilt or innocence or the morality or justice of her detention. Instead, it is a dissection of the belief held by many Pakistanis and other Muslims that being a Jewish American automatically leads to bias against Muslims in general and Muslim Americans in particular.
    –
    even as Dr Aafia casts aspersions on the Jewish Americans that may have been present in her jury, it is Jewish Americans who are working at the request of her own brother to monitor the fairness of her trial and the condition of her mental state.

    Undoubtedly, many questions can be raised about the flawed mechanisms through which Dr Aafia and many others accused of terrorism have been treated by the US authorities.

    But this has little to do with being Jewish American. It is a myth that all Jewish Americans are against the two-state solution and to feel strongly against the community obscures Jewish American efforts to stand up for the rights of those detained in Guantanamo and Bagram.

    Dawn.com column by Rafia Zakaria

     

  • Shams al-Nahar 8:04 am on December 10, 2009 | 3 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, ,

    Ripple effect from Charles Johnson’s break with the right.

    We don’t believe in trickle-down economics anymore, but we do believe in trickle down hate. And violence and intimidation that is practiced against our government representatives could soon enough be practiced against us.

    Every Shabbos we pray for the government of the United States. As the third chapter of the Pirkei Avot notes: “Pray for the welfare of the government, for without fear of governmental authorities people would swallow each other alive.” A Tea Party rally is no place for a Jew. Whether you agree or disagree with his policies, Mr. Obama is the President of the United States and, if nothing else, he deserves to command the respect that we as citizens owe to that office.

    All of this truly makes us wonder where the Right wing has gone. Leaders like Sarah Palin, Joe Wilson, and Dick Cheney are more embarrassing than inspiring. The conservative movement, as Sam Tanenhaus writes in The New Republic, and like punk rock before it, is dead. This Chanukah we know what we want: a rebirth.
    We want the right to be Right.

     

  • aziz 9:12 am on October 9, 2009 | 4 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, , ,

    Daniel Larison finds Israeli distrust of Obama as “pro-Palestinian” mystifying. But also note that domestic US Jewish support for Obama leads all other groups. This I think highlights a widening opinion divide between the Israeli population and the Jewish diaspora which is, I think, significant and worthy of analysis. Perhaps Richard Silverstein can be induced to comment?

     

  • johnpi 10:47 pm on August 16, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, Birthright, , , ,

    A “docu-music-video” from Detroit MC Invincible for her song “People Not Places.”

    Adam Horowitz writes, “The video, like the song, is a powerful indictment of both the ongoing dispossession of the Palestinian people, and attempts to shield young American Jews from this reality through programs like Birthright.” Check it out.

     

  • johnpi 7:38 pm on August 1, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, Israeli left

    Israeli left begins to fight the settlers – in the US.

    Israeli peace organizations are taking the lead on a campaign that should really be coming from Jewish organizations in the US – cutting off the funding for the settlements coming from the US.

     

  • johnpi 2:29 pm on July 31, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, , ,

    Israeli violence against Iran: This is how war begins.

    There is a gradual process underway within Israeli military, intelligence and political circles which will lead to war with Iran. The war will either be Israeli or American in origin. I say war, because I believe that a series of attacks against Iran will set the stage for a long conflict between various sets of players in the west and Arab world. In effect, this will become a war.

    Such hostilities will not break out tomorrow or next week. The groundwork has not yet been laid for such an attack. That is why it is important to read the hasbara planted (and I mean this term deliberately) in Israeli and U.S. newspapers about the Iranian threat; why it is important to follow Congressional legislation introduced that would punish Iran just as the Bush administration instituted sanctions against Iraq before it invaded that country; why it is important to note the bellicose threats, rants and sloganeering coming from Israeli politicians, generals and their U.S. counterparts. This is how war begins.

    Richard goes on to talk about Israeli efforts to wage a perception management campaign against Iran, such as by having Israeli consular officials urge American Jewish communities locally to introduce Iran divestment initiatives, and urging US Jewish groups to hold conferences of various war hawks declaring Iran to be the greatest threat the world has ever known.

    Richare also proposes a solution:

    Let’s leave aside the sheer lunacy of the thinking behind this plan and state in no uncertain terms that all progressives must unalterably oppose sanctions against Iran. Even if we believe that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, we must oppose sanctions because it is Israel’s road to war. We must not allow Israel to hijack the west on behalf of this insane military adventure. We must say “No.” We’ve tried eight years of military adventurism in the Middle East and it didn’t work.

     

  • johnpi 10:12 am on July 20, 2009 | 3 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, , , , ,

    Pamphlet distributed to IDF troops says ‘the Vatican is teaching Hezbollah how to kill Jews.’

    (More …)

     

  • johnpi 8:30 am on June 19, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, , ,

    Richard Silverstein sends out notice that “Max Blumenthal’s video, Feel the Hate in Jerusalem, has been banned by YouTube (where it was viewed hundreds of thousands of times) after a campaign by right-wing Jews who believe it promotes anti-Semitism.

    I hope you’ll circulate this message and my post to your own friends, colleagues, and co-workers. We need a viral campaign to get YouTube to reconsider their foolish, anti-free-expression decision to ban this important piece of media education on the issues of Jewish racism.”

    Here’s Max Blumenthal responding to the campaign against the video:

    it is clear there is an active campaign by right-wing Jewish elements to suppress the video by filing a flood of complaints with Youtube. At the same time these elements have attempted to paint me as a self-hating Jew determined to foment anti-Semitism.

    Here’s a link to Richard’s report.

    Here’s an alternative link to another hosting service that has the video.

    You can send a letter to youtube here.

    Update: A commenter at Richard’s blog says someone has reuploaded the video and it has not been taken down yet.

     

  • johnpi 5:54 am on June 10, 2009 | 3 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, , , ,

    Video responses to Max Blumenthal’s video here and here (there is profanity in the first one).

    (Via Mondoweiss)

     

  • johnpi 12:34 pm on June 8, 2009 | 3 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, , ,

    A video of young American Jews in Israel spouting off with violent, threatening, racist language against Obama, Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, was censored by the Huffington Post according to the video producer, claiming that it had ‘no news value.’

    (More …)

     

  • johnpi 8:42 pm on June 6, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, ,

    Max Blumenthal catches some Jewish American youth in Israel on the eve of Obama’s Cairo speech in all their amazing beer-sodden glory on video (link below).

    Here’s a description:

    Max and I went on to the streets of Jerusalem at ten o’clock on a Wednesday to ascertain the feelings of the young population about Obama’s upcoming speech in Cairo. As is often the case, the streets of central Jerusalem were not filled with native Israelis but American Jews. Doubtlessly anyone who has visited Jerusalem has encountered the droves of American Jewish kids that are sent to Israel to study for a period of time from Teaneck or Westchester. We asked people a simple question, “What do you think of Obama and Israel?” Most of the people that we talked to were dual American Israeli citizens. The answers in this video reflect the education and worrisome perspectives that many American Jews harbor towards Israeli politics. The sense of entitlement that the American Jewish community has when it comes to Israeli policy is on full raw display in the words of these young adults.

    The word cloud for this might include the words “nigger,” “white power,” “watermelon,” “fuck Obama,” “deserves to get shot,” “He’s a Muslim for sure,” “Trust me I’m a political science major” followed by “Who’s Netanyahu?”

    Video link here.

     

  • richard 3:19 am on January 16, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, anti-war protest,

    American Jews denounce Gaza massacre.  Verso Books, publisher of A Time to Speak Out, Jerry Haber of Magnes Zionist and I have created a statement of protest by American Jews against Israel’s war against Gaza.  Please urge any Jewish Americans you know to consider signing it.  Our goal is for it to be published in The Nation.

    Signatures should be e mailed to this address.

     

  • aziz 10:22 am on July 18, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Jews, ,

    JStreet has released the results of their poll of the American Jewish community towards foreign policy in the Middle East.

    Richard Silverstein of Tikkun Olam looks at the data and concludes that support for the Israel Lobby is shallow amongst American jews – bad news for AIPAC.

     

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