> I too oppose Anti-Semite-baiting, having been on the receiving end of it a
> few times myself. I see where Yoshie's going with her critique, and I
> agree that there's a lot of domestic political posturing over Darfur, and
> that a US military intervention would doubtless make matters worse. I
> think that Yoshie muddied the waters a bit by using a term like
> "Establishment Jews," which has an awkward if not rancid ring to it. The
> case against another war is strong enough. Why employ terms that are
> guaranteed to divert attention from the main point?
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Fair enough. I understand you were making a tactical point.
There's another point which is often overlooked in these discussions, which is also tactical in nature - profoundly so - and that is the need to encourage the mass of liberal US Jewry to openly break with its "Establishment" which is well to the right of it on Iraq, Iran, Palestine, and other Middle East issues and, by extension, on support for the Bush admininstration and its right wing base in the Republican party. Jewish liberals continue to accept their established leadership, even if only tacitly in some cases, because of a residual sentimental attachment to Israel and the still fresh historic memory of the Holocaust, but that support is increasingly shaky. How do you further encourage this evelopment - one which would have significant implications for US Mideast policy - except by drawing attention to the Jewish-American leadership and its organized lobby on behalf of Israel in alliance with the most reactionary forces in American society?
It's to be expected the "Establishment Jews" and the "Israel lobby" which doesn't want the attention will do everything it can to turn the spotlight off, but my sense is that many North American Jews, by virtue of their politics, don't have great difficulty digesting the critique and are worried that the shadowy existence of the lobby, it's support of the widening war in the Middle East, and the hysterical witch-hunting of alleged "anti-semites" by their leaders is actually contributing to, rather than discouraging, intolerance towards their community in the US. To remain silent about these issues, then, is to precisely serve the agenda of the current Jewish-American leadership and of the US ruling establishment as a whole..