How Not To Petition Your Government For A Redress of Grievances
They say that terrorism is the only means of remediation for those rendered desperate by a system which offers no justice. Hence the Hamas charter states, “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”
Last week I was horrified to see this image by Mike Flugennock adorning the sidebar on Infoshop:
When you lend your voice to this perspective — glorifying martyrdom and random acts of violence against civilians — you help create an atmosphere which makes things like Friday’s shooting in Seattle not only possible, but attractive.
According to a 2005 report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel” is a modern manifestation of antisemitism.
On December 12, 2005, Dror Feiler of European Jews for a Just Peace wrote on ZNet,
This is the flipside of a position, frequently expressed by Prime Minister Sharon and many Zionists, that refuses to make any distinction between the interests of Israel and those of Jews worldwide. Why it is permissible for them to make this elision but evidence of antisemitism when others do so is not clear. It might even be taken as evidence of double standards… In reality it is all too often Zionist rhetoric which fuses the notion of Israel’s interests with those of Jews worldwide and thus fuels what the EUMC identifies (other things being equal) as a potential indicator of antisemitism.
It is clear, by the merit of incidents such as this alone, that the fates of diaspora Jewish communities and Israel are inextricably linked. That, however, does not imply that individual Jews are responsible for the actions of the state of Israel. We are certainly made to feel responsible, by our families, our communities, and our leadership. We feel compelled to concern ourselves and to act. But individual Jews are not responsible for actions taken by the government of the state of Israel. Diaspora Jews cannot vote in Israeli elections, and it’s not much like the government respects which way the public votes anyhow. So disregarding our own bound hands and holding Jews — whether in Seattle or Sderot — responsible for what is going on in Lebanon and Gaza cannot possibly be justified.
But you’ll see. Some will line up to justify it.
Ari Halberstam died for your sins. And now so has some poor woman in Seattle.
Mazal tov.
Uhhhhh – you don’t really mean to say that the Palis had no recourse other than violence, do you?
That the internationally brokered – and funded – peace plan was an illusion?
That the actual Israeli withdrawals – which till this day have most Palis living free of Israeli “oppression” on a day-to-day basis – didn’t really happen?
That the repeated, internationally supervised elections in the PA didn’t happen?
Oh, that’s right – lefties never let the facts interfere with their ideological template, and the Palis have already been awarded the gold start of Victimhood by the international Left – so they can do no wrong.
shlomo ben-ami:
http://democracynow.org/finkelstein-benami.shtml
Today, it seems to me that the problem of anti-Semitism, when it happens, for example, in France, and synagogues are being attacked, etc., if this happens through the hands of Muslim youngsters in the suburbs of Paris, for me it is very difficult to define this as anti-Semitism. I can define it as hooliganism and manipulation of the conflict in the Middle East in order to perpetrate all kind of nasty acts against Jewish holy places, but this is not what we understand as anti-Semitism, which is a European malady, as it were. I think it was there always. It will continue to be there, but I am not in the business of counting how many incidents happen, because there is an institute in Tel Aviv University that will tell you how many incidents happen every year. I don’t believe also that the number of incidents, as such, is the reflection of whether or not anti-Semitism is growing. I believe that it is there, I believe it will stay there as a sub-cultural current in many European societies, but I’m not scandalized by anti-Semitism today.
only a guy like you, ben david, can read something and assess that it says precisely the opposite of what it actually says.
I’ve seen some of Flugennock’s work before, and this isn’t the first time he’s drawn something stupid and offensive. Before the World Economic Forum meetings in NYC in February 2002, he made a promotional poster that featured the ruins of the World Trade Center. When told how badly people would take it in a discussion on Indymedia, he got all defensive, arguing that he didn’t mean to mock 911 and that anyone who interpreted it that way was dumb.
This is worse, though, but I suspect that again he didn’t think and is now unwilling to hear how awful this piece is.
And Ben David, yeah. In addition to misinterpreting what Mobius wrote and using an offensive term “Palis,” I do have to chuckle at how a settler (which you’ve told us you are) can talk about the peace process,when seettlement expansion has violated peace treaties nearly since the day Oslo was signed.
Get real, Isreal and the US–as well as most nations have engaged in ‘terrorism’. However, is you have huge control in the media, in business, etc. then you can claim that your violence against civilians is ‘self-defense’. The frightened masses will fall into line.
Really the mindset that swept Nazi Germany, the glorification of militarism, racism, and agression is alive and well in Isreal and the US.
Terror is always a propaganda term to define violence you don’t support.
Orwell would be proud of you folks–Hitler would be envious–your great grandfathers would be puking on you. Moses would be shamed and Jesus would be crying.
What the F*$# is the Ari Haberstam reference supposed to mean? Who is the ‘you’ whose sins are responsible for his death? I don’t even know whether to be pissed off, as the statement seems to be non-sensical…