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R. Daneel Olivaw

(12,606 posts)
Sun Mar 29, 2015, 08:56 PM Mar 2015

Diaspora Jews, it's time to step up

http://972mag.com/diaspora-jews-its-time-to-step-up/104978/

The way the world is talking about the Israeli occupation is changing. Alongside that change, opportunity is knocking for those of us standing in opposition: calls for diaspora Jews to be present on the ground in Israel and Palestine are increasing. An important shift is beginning to take place — right now.

The writing is on the wall. Since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected, U.S. President Obama and his staff have been speaking differently about the once-incontrovertible two-state solution. One campus Hillel changed its name instead of changing it’s programming to adhere to Hillel International’s rules. If Not Now stormed onto the scene last summer in response to the violence in Gaza. Boycotts and BDS campaigns are sprouting up on campuses and at supermarkets all over the world.

That was on display for anyone to see last week in Washington D.C. The J Street conference, which brought together over 3,000 people, saw a series of fired up conversations that put shone a spotlight on the American-Jewish relationship with Israel. During a panel on liberal Zionism, Israeli journalist (and +972 blogger) Noam Sheizaf made a clear plea for a collective refocusing from “state solutions” to the urgency of ending the inequality that exists for millions under occupation, who lack freedom of movement or access to civilian courts.

Peter Beinart also took a step forward on stage, calling on young Jews from North America and around the world to stand physically in Israel and Palestine, and to take part in Palestinian non-violent resistance to the occupation.


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Diaspora Jews, it's time to step up (Original Post) R. Daneel Olivaw Mar 2015 OP
What rubbish !!! King_David Mar 2015 #1
Which part? Scootaloo Mar 2015 #2
how about all of it? It is Tuesday Mar 2015 #3
Every source is someone's propaganda. So, be specific. Scootaloo Mar 2015 #4
the part that expects ... Israeli Mar 2015 #6
I don't like that shit when it's directed at, for example, Muslims cali Mar 2015 #5
Message in a bottle ... Israeli Mar 2015 #7

Israeli

(4,132 posts)
6. the part that expects ...
Mon Mar 30, 2015, 09:48 AM
Mar 2015
There are important roles for people from all over the world, of various backgrounds, in organizing opposition to the occupation. Right now, at this very moment, there is a growing call for diaspora Jews to to find their way here and stand up for equality. It’s time to answer that call.

...Left wing Diaspora Jews to stand up Scoot .....too little ...too late .

Sheldon Adelson and the Diaspora Right won these elections , Bibi could not have done it without him/them and their money .

It is your country that is financing and backing the occupation Scoot.


 

cali

(114,904 posts)
5. I don't like that shit when it's directed at, for example, Muslims
Mon Mar 30, 2015, 05:18 AM
Mar 2015

and I don't like it anymore here.

Israeli

(4,132 posts)
7. Message in a bottle ...
Tue Mar 31, 2015, 04:17 AM
Mar 2015
Save Israel from its collective suicide, Obama

It is our moral duty and civil right to encourage the president to act against Israel's racist and anti-democratic regime.

I wish Barack Obama would get really upset with Benjamin Netanyahu. That’s my hope. For six years the American president has disappointed opponents of Israeli apartheid and occupation, and proponents of the two-state solution on the Palestinian side. For six years he’s basically supported the suicidal, self-destructive behavior of most Jews in Israel, led by Netanyahu.

For reasons about which there's no time to think and which have no point (since when has the feeling of discrimination in the periphery deserved to be a reason to justify ruling over another people?) – people are determined to sacrifice Israel in an ongoing religious-nationalist bloodbath, in what is becoming a binational state consisting of a democratic regime for the Jews and a separate regime for Palestinians that denies their civil rights.

While Obama allows this disaster to happen, a growing number among us have illusions of extending Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, boosting the Jewish fertility rate, bringing all the Jews on Earth here, and priming ourselves for the coming of the Messiah.

Are Obama’s eyes blinded to the point where he does not see that his unconditional support of Israel is responsible for creating the conditions that allow and even encourage growth of the apartheid and binational state here? Does he not understand that, without the financial, military and diplomatic assistance that he provides Israel, the settlement and occupation enterprise would collapse?

Does he not get that under his leadership, if he were to publicly harden his heart toward Netanyahu and Israel – Europe would follow his footsteps, and economic sanctions and boycotts would be speedily imposed on Israel, forcing its Jewish citizens to change their diplomatic outlook? Does he not know that if he would just stop providing spare parts for fighter jets, the feverish illusion would dissipate, and sanity would once again prevail among us?

What do most Israelis want? To go home in peace and be left alone. Hebron, Beit El and East Jerusalem just don’t interest them. They never set foot in those places. Obama can easily convince them to support the establishment of a Palestinian state. It’s his moral duty, but it apparently doesn’t interest him. While he resided in Chicago, he was a close friend of Palestinian-American intellectual and historian Rashid Khalidi. He knows exactly what damage is being caused to Palestinians because of American support for Israel.

It’s also the president's diplomatic duty to put pressure on Israel – but that is also apparently not important enough to him. Six years of nothing bear witness to this.

Obama’s motives don’t matter to us, those who refuse to reconcile with Israeli apartheid, to the point of reconsidering our devotion to a country that's losing its humanity. The main thing is that he take action. And if the trigger should be personal loathing for Netanyahu and the desire to punish him for his lies and intrigues – that is all the better. Revenge is the most power of motives.


We need not have any ethical objection to taking action against a regime that has lost its moral validity. We refuse to cooperate with the journey of self-destruction, the collective suicide. It is our moral duty and civil right to encourage Obama to act against the racist and anti-democratic Israeli regime. It’s an effective and legal protest.

If only he would listen to our voice and do something. It’s his last term. He doesn’t need Jewish donors again for an election campaign. American Jews who serve as a lobby for Netanyahu are contemptible colonialists who don’t even pay, like Israeli residents, the colonialist price they are funding. And if because of Obama they won’t support Hillary Clinton’s race for the presidency, we can hope that enough J Street supporters can be found among the American Jewish community.

Save us, Obama.


http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.649624
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