Just who is misguided?
We young Jews won't back down, our numbers are growing, and we will win; Israel will change its cruel, self-destructive behavior.
By Matthew A. TaylorWhen North American Jews gathered in New Orleans for their annual General Assembly earlier this week, the mainstream Jewish establishment unveiled a new initiative to counteract the growing international condemnation of Israel's policies of occupation and land theft. The big plan: delegitimize the delegitimizers.
The Jewish Federations of North America announced at the conference that over the next three years they will invest $6 million to launch an "Israel Action Network." Based on speakers' comments at the GA, the strategy seems to be to tar and feather virtually anyone who supports any form of boycott, divestment or sanctions (BDS ) as a "delegitimizer" who is participating in an alleged plot to "destroy the State of Israel." Instead of spending millions to persuade Israel to change its path, the JFNA prefers to shoot the messengers.
Meanwhile, a few days before the assembly, the U.S.-based advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP ) convened a gathering of young Jews from the U.S. and Israel to explore difficult questions that the mainstream leadership seems eager to avoid, such as: How does the occupation delegitimize Israel? When Israel bulldozes Palestinian homes, uproots olive trees, and builds roads designated for settlers only, is that consistent with the Jewish value of respecting your neighbor?
This young group of Jewish activists seems to be an embodiment of Peter Beinart's recent essay in The New York Review of Books, which explored why Israel's oppressive policies cause young American Jews to feel alienated. "[Many American Jews have] imbibed some of the defining values of American Jewish political culture ... a skepticism about military force, a commitment to human rights ... They did not realize that they were supposed to shed those values when it came to Israel," Beinart wrote in his piece, "The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment."
Disaffected with the mainstream American leadership's "Israel: Right or wrong" attitude, the participants at JVP's gathering, the Young Jewish Leadership Institute, outlined a vision for engagement with the Israel/Palestine problem. "We won't be won over by free vacations and scholarship money. We won't buy the logic that slaughter means safety," the group wrote in its declaration, which is posted at youngjewishproud.org.
At a GA forum entitled "Confronting Israel's Delegitimizers," Julie Bernstein, of San Francisco's Jewish Community Relations Council, spoke about how to delegitimize the delegitimizers. "We need to make BDS the issue and not Israel," Bernstein said. "What's challenging is, we have [young Jews] on the front lines advocating for boycott, divestment and sanctions, who truly want peace, who want to help the Palestinians. They have good intentions, and they don't know that they are essentially pawns in this game of bringing Israel down."
On the contrary, the young Jewish progressives see BDS as a nonviolent strategy that can influence Israel to change its behavior, and bring about a just, equitable resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. They see themselves not as well-meaning idiots, as Bernstein implies, but as highly educated Jews who've personally witnessed the brutality of the occupation and feel a moral obligation to take action.
During the question-and-answer segment of the GA forum, UCLA law student Rachel Roberts expressed her outrage at Bernstein's remarks. "What you said about the young, conscientious Jews who have joined with their Palestinian peers to work on divestment campaigns is so unfair and condescending," Roberts said. Before she could say another word, a chorus of panelists and audience members interrupted and began hurling insults at her.
This dynamic of the older establishment patronizing and being condescending to the young was also palpable in Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to the GA on Monday. Before Netanyahu could even spit out the word "delegitimize," the first in a succession of five young Jews rose from her seat and unfurled a large white banner that read, "The loyalty oath delegitimizes Israel." Other protesters followed with "The siege of Gaza delegitimizes Israel" ... "Silencing dissent delegitimizes Israel."
Netanyahu had sharp words for the protesters. "Attempts by our enemies and their misguided fellow travelers to delegitimize the Jewish state must be countered," he said to thunderous applause.
I'm one of the five who was dragged out, clutching a sign that said, "The occupation delegitimizes Israel." When I envision Israel ending settlement expansion and living in equality with the Palestinians - while Netanyahu's government confiscates more Palestinian land and builds more settlements every single day - I wonder who is misguided?
The fifth and final protester, Rae Abileah, a Jewish American activist of Israeli descent, stood up and proclaimed: "The settlements betray Jewish values." Members of the crowd tackled her, shoved a towel in her mouth, and then chanted "Bibi, Bibi, Bibi" in unison.
Gandhi said, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." In the case of Israel and the tone-deaf American Jewish establishment, one could revise this statement to: First they ignore you, then they call you a self-hating Jew, then they call you a delegitimizer and fight you with $6 million.
What's next? We young Jews won't back down, our numbers are growing, and we will win. Israel will change its cruel, self-destructive behavior. We won't rest until Israelis and Palestinians live together in true equality, safety and mutual respect.
Matthew A. Taylor (http://www.matthewtaylor.net ) is a Berkeley, California member of Jewish Voice for Peace.
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Calling for Peace is not a crime, war is
As someone who is middle-aged, Jewish, and proud - I am especially proud of you and the other 4 who stood up in that crowd. The legacy of Martin Buber, Judah Magnes, Henrietta Szold, and Albert Einstein lives on.
Matthew, it's so painfully obvious you're from Berkeley.
Well done indeed! Keep up the good work.
I am so happy about the young Jews who stood up and disrupted the speech of the horrible Netanyahu. I do interfaith work in the US, and like many Americans I am sickened by the constant monitoring and harassment carried out by the Israel Lobby, which operates like a thought police. Thanks God young Jews are finally rebelling against this nationalization of Judaism! Netanyahu and the Israel Lobby simply see every Jew as an extension of the Holy State. What a joke! Jews must stand against injustice, in Israel, and everywhere. To be a good Jew, you must be in an adversarial position with all states when they are wrong, and ESPECIALLY when they say they represent you! Of course, Israelis and Zionists are always talking about all the enemies they have. Do Israelis ever stop and think that perhaps their own behavior is WHY you have to many enemies? Do you expect the Middle East to love you when you start out by ethnically cleansing 750,000 Palestinians without one thought of compensation?? Long live Jewish Voice for Peace! At last, a group that we can follow, that can help us take down this horrible apparatus of apartheid and its thought police in the US that are using our tax dollars to hurt people!
These courageous young jews will never back down, there is a movement growing that cannot be stifled and this Canadian woman is backing it. End the occupation and release the Palestinian prisoners and the young Israeli prisoner as a humanitarian gesture for both sides. There is no "other" anymore.
Thank you for having a great vision for the Jews and the Palestinians and the humanity in general. I am proud of you because you have the courage to fight for what is right and moral. You are therefore on the side of God. Continue your crusade against evil. God will be with you in the lonely fight against oppression and injustice. I am sure you have a place in Heaven when we leave this world. God bless you.
When a leftist says, I used to say "am Yisroel chai" but then I saw the suffering of the Palestinians and I figured that "am Yisroel chai" should not contradict reaching a friendlier better relationship with the Palestinians, then that is one kind of leftist. But Matthew taylor strikes me as someone who never said "am yisroel chai". which is okay, not everyone comes from the same frame of mind, jews have had diverse experiences particularly in america. but his perspective and the person who began with "am yisroel chai" are two different perspectives.
Carry on God will put you through. I appriciate it thank you.
The occupation, the settlements, the siege of Gaza, and apartheid will not give us security. Recognizing that Palestinians are humans will and treating them equally will. Thank you Mathew.
Fellow travelers? Where, oh where, have I heard that "fellow travelers" used before? I just can't seem to rememb...Oh, yeah! Back during the Commie scares of the 1940s and 50s in the U.S. What was his name? Oh yeah, Senator Joe McCarthy. Do you remember the famous, "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?" And then there was the House Un-American Activities Committee. And the Hollywood blacklist of "suspected Communists" (a/k/a Jewish 'troublemakers') and their "fellow travelers". Clearly, Netanyahu has NO sense of decency. Absolutely none!
As a former supporter of Israel and a Christian-American I support my fellow young Jewish-Americans quest for peace. I am proud to call Matthew Taylor my fellow American. God Bless Ya'll.
I am with you - thank you for your courage.
BDS will work and it is heartening to see students involved in the campaign. We have a lot of work to do here in Canada with the Conservative government attempting to criminalize dissent of Israel under the guise of the new antisemitism, banning George Galloway from entering Canada, and calling the bombing of Lebanon a "measured response". Luckily PM Harper has jumped onto a sinking ship on this issue and we will hopefully be rid of him soon as we hope we will be rid of the occupation of Palestine. Excellent work Matthew and students!
Be strong, and your efforts will pay off in the long run. Many will try to stop you, but always know that you are in the right and they are in the wrong. We love you!!
Check out the author's website which will lead you to site (that he obviously supports) equating a bris with sexual mutilation and directing men on how to undo the procedure. He wants Jewish men to have their foreskins 'restored'. It makes me wonder just how Jewish he actually is and whether he can really be considered a friend of Israel or of the Jewish people anywhere.
Thank you so much for your bravery. We need more people like you in the public eye.
Congratulations to you and your colleagues for interrupting the lovefest for Bibi and contempt for international law and common decency. It's good to see such activisim and conscience in the younger generation of US Jews. You may not have changed too many minds in the auditorium, but you no doubt inspired many others outside to follow your example.
The Settlements Delegitimize Israel The Occupation Delegitimizes Israel The Siege of Gaza Delegitimizes Israel The Loyalty Oath Delegitimizes Israel Silencing Dissent Delegitimizes Israel
Yes Bibi, the settlers, those de-Arabizing Jerusalem and trying to extinguish the Palestinians are the true de-legitimizers of Israel.
A lot to be learned from our youth. Open-minded and wanting real peace, understanding that with peace comes compromise. These fine young people are role models toward a future. Lets only hope they can overcome the ultra-religious and their narrow-minded thinking that keeps us in the dark ages and spending all our energy and money on war rather than peace!
Are you planning to join the IDF? Are you planning on living in Sderot? Or all you plan to do is heckle other Jews in the US? Do you really believe you will make Israelis change their minds by what you are doing? So far, your actions indicate you are an outsider, not someone interested in working through Israeli democracy to bring change. We have the appropriate saying for your kind in the middle east: The dogs bark but the caravan trudges on.
The dogs bark but the Merkava tanks trudge on, and the US tax dollars stream through the skies overhead with their ever ready load of white phosphorus.
and Chuck Schumer when they are making aliyah, since they're so committed to Israel. Or is it that they know they can do more to support Netanyahu's policies sitting in the US government, placing the interests of a foreign power above their own country
The conflicts of our fathers are not ours! Together, we will marginalize the oppressors and hateful extremists and build our peaceful coexistence. We in Iran, you in Israel, together: the world. Tikun Olam, friends!
Phillip Weiss of the blog Mondoweiss is doing an heroic wowk of salvage in the face of Israel's own suicidal work of self-destruction implementing the policies Bibi advances. It simply won't work. The damn sleepy Christians of whom I a m one will wake up eventually, and then it will be damn bad for ":the Jews" (whoever the hell they really are), Please listen Israel before it is too late. Tom White, Odessa, Texas
for speaking the truth of a brutal occupation. Thank you. Despite the efforts of Bibi to trivialize death and pain and the efforts of his consul generals to downplay it as "distortion by the western media", (as if we were too ignorant to read Israeli newspapers like Haaretz), we are waking up. Like the stiffnecked people of Israel after they finally listened to the prophets, perhaps we as a people will perform an act of Teshuvah and take a step back from the edge of this abyss.
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." I agree. I believe we are now in the "fight you" phase. Todah for standing up and making this happen. Yoter todah for the moral clarity you express in your article were the foundations to your action. At first hearing the news, I realized that I had spent time with 4 of you who got dragged out. I reflected on how privileged and blessed I am to be where I am now. I wish there were more of this culture of dissent and respect for it in my Muslim tradition.
I'm glad we have some clear-sighted young Jews who can see a peaceful future. The current path leads to permanent war and self-destruction.
It doesn't matter how much propaganda, money, intimidation Zionists in denial throw at the problem. Justice and truth will prevail
Beware of Richard Witty. He's a hasbara bot.
Jewish Voices for Peace are valued allies. I love you guys. J Street won't be around much longer if JVP continues galloping ahead of them.
Congratulations. Your courage is moving, you are speaking a clear and necessary truth. Let it prevail.
I can only speak for my (non Jewish) self, but I suspect there are many, many non-Jews (like myself) who would like nothing better than to "support" Israel. But cannot in good conscience do so...until Israel stops depriving Palestinians of their full civil and human rights.
And many more Americans will no longer blindly support Israel once they find out what it has been doing for so long to the Palestinians; that's the point of BDS--break the mainstream media muzzle in the USA.
Thanks, Matthew--and to Rae, Matan, Emily, Hanna, and Antonia--for your eloquence in refusing to be "gagged." Thanks for working with Palestinians to create peace and justice for all in Palestine and Israel.
Thank-you one and all. There are two kinds of Jews in America: those who know who Uri Avnery is, and those who don't
The policies of Israel are indeed cruel to people who are not Jewish in Israel/Palestine. It is this cruelty and unequal treatment under the law, that is so abhorant and is making people ashamed and disgusted with Israel. Only right wing nationaists, like similar types in other nations, are pleased at causing misery to the "other". These young Jews represent the best in humanity, in contrast to right wing nationalist groups, who represent the worst aspects of humanity.
Bravo Mr. Taylor. The Israeli colonial settlements and Israel's discriminatory laws betray core Jewish, Christian, and American values.
Israel needs to listen to brave voices such as these. Israel is either based on justice or it is meaningless.
So, according to Israel's ruling clique, you are not even 'real' Jews. You criticize Israel for pushing non-Jews out of Judea and Samaria, and thus must be anti-Semites. You don't vote in Israeli elections, and Netanyahu has no use for you.
Keep up the good work Matthew! We Americans will not tolerate having our tax dollars spend on the illegal and morally unacceptable Israeli occupation of Palestine. It will take some time for the word to get out, but it is getting out, and once Americans see what they are supporting they will demand an end to the occupation, as many already have.
BDS has not caught on everywhere, but it is gaining as Israel blunders into worse and worse excesses. Apparently there are those, in Israel, who will not believe they have ANY rights unless they demonstrate, again and again, that they have ALL rights. Criminals think like that. And they think they cannot be caught. Public assessment of Israel is a pendulum. Presently it is high on the "approval" side. BDS is letting that pendulum fall, and when it finally swings, it will swing far to the "disapproval" side before it finally comes to rest "in between." Perhaps Israel's best tool for "going forward" is to "put a foot on the brakes." It's not too late to make peace. It's not too late to end the occupation and bring the settlers home.
Israel has expertly delegitimized itself, but Zionists will not succeed in delegitimizing supporters of Palestinian rights. The moral positions are too clear, the facts are too obtainable. They cannot be blurred or suppressed by $6 million or by $6 billion.
Free speech does not emerge from denying others free speech. Its hard to tell if your effort communicated to the world that saw, determination or obsession. Its hard to know if the message communicated, "there is another truth than what we believe" or "this confirms that they are out to get us". Because of the method, when other methods were possible. You drove from Oakland to New Orleans, and couldn't justify that long trip if you didn't do something dramatic. Threat has NOT worked for dissent on this issue. Its always made it worse for Palestinians. Your action conveyed the need for more security as a need, not that peace and humane treatment is necessary and possible.
Of course it was successfully communicated, which is why faux "liberals" like you are in such a panic over Matthew's efforts. You're fine with the message so long as no one hears it.
The content was one message. The statement that dissenters can hinder others' speech by disruption is another. The consequences of dissenting messages presented considerately is that they can be heard without fear. The consequences of dissenting messages conveyed disruptively or offensively, is that fear will be amplified. Its a repetition of the debate that has occurred for the 40 years that I've been reading about it. I think disruption is lazy dissent.
red herring is offered to us here. Form over substance. And you are wrong: BDS is a traditional tactic within a long and eventually effective tradition--just ask Jim Crow or apartheid S Africa. As to your lack of substance: What you recommend is another fifty years of the status quo, by which time there will be no Palestinian land at all.
Shocking that attendees of the GA attacked you in such a vicious and hateful manner.
pointed me to this article. Its a fantastic site for a reality based news on I/P
One can only admire the courage and moral clarity of Mr. Taylor and his colleagues. Let us hope that Netanyahu begins to realize that it is Israel's actions that threaten to delegitimate it, and nothing else.
listen to the LA 5, the five courageous young Jews who are not bamboozled by ceaseless hasbara, or continue Israel's racist, hateful policies and the rest of the world will come to associate hatefulness with Jewishness, and have a powerful example -Israel itself --to display on the evidence table.
the fight will go on
You people are our hope for a better future.
May it continue and grow. The bit about the young lady who got a towel shoved in her mouth -- this shows us the thuggish nature of the "Bibi, King of Israel" crowd. Some Jewish values on display there--NOT. That is how they treat fellow Jews; and we already know how they treat fellow Arabs. These people betray and bring shame to Judaism.
They are not for peace, they are anti-Israel and support Israel's enemies. This is the latest example of anti-ZIonist groups that come up, make noise for a few years and then disappear. Others were the American Concil for Judaism and Yozma-Breira. Peace will only come when groups like this stop intefering with Israel's interests.
"Peace will only come when groups like this stop intefering with Israel's interests." You've had 60 years to fix it. You didn't. Time for the grown-ups to tell you how it's done and take away your allowance.
JVP and groups like them give me hope, and I shall be proud to suppport them for as many years as it takes; they are not going to go away!
truth to power is inspiring; they are not going to disappear, and I for one am proud to support them.
By begging for our money. From our taxes and from our Shuels.
If we don't interfere wtih Israel as it perceives its interests the Palestinian people will remain "on a diet" until they weigh ten pounds each and have no more of their own land under their light feet.
Only when the Palestinian Arabs are willing to recognize and accept Israel - within secure mutually agreed upon borders, somewhere in the neighborhood - as the nation state of the Jewish people with equal rights for all her citizens will there be a real chance for peace. It is imperative. Israel is the Jewish State; that is her raison d'etre. The survival of Israel is about the survival of the Jewish people. Egypt and Jordan did not need to elaborate in their peace treaties with Israel. They are countries content within their own borders. They do not have the absurd yet resolute goal to "return" millions of "refugees" - unique in all the world by definition under the UN- to Israel. Palestinians have never shown their goal in the 'peace process' to be mutual acceptance of two states for two peoples living in peace. Rather it is to create another Arab state - ultimately from the river to the sea. From '48 to '67 and through to the present this effort continues and the results are reflected in what you see today on many levels. Israel is a legitimate state under far more scrutiny than any other anywhere in the world. The focus put upon her for fault is way out of proportion to warrant, and far too little is offered for her many virtues and positive contributions to the world. For Jews to lead an attempt at "BDS" under any circumstance is misguided, destructive, and certainly not progressive. You are drinking the Kool Aid of those who would gladly destroy your own people. If what you want is for your people in Israel to survive and live in peace with their neighbors, open your eyes and don't be so naive, there are better ways to go about it.
Nobody questions the legitimacy of the state of Israel. What is questioned is the legitimacy of that state's policies as they pertain to the Palestinian Israelis and those Palestinians on Palestinian land occupied by Israel. Post Nuremberg, no sovereign state can govern anyway it wants and where its footprint is. That's what it means today to be "a nation among nations." Israel has duties, not just rights. As an American taxpayer, I resent my own government's policy of rubber-stamping Israel right or wrong and funding it so enormously; BTW, I also resented my government's unilateral attack on Iraq, and I will protest any such attack on Iran. It is the duty of an informed American to protest bad US policy and that includes the immoral, unethical and illegal policy of the state the US gives most of its foreign aid to, which is Israel.
How can the Israeli Jews achieve peace with the Palestinians when their policies and acts are oppressive and devoid of morality? Unless the oppressive Jews will try to adopt the vision of young, enlightened Jews like Matthew Taylor, the Israeli will self destruct because God will not perpetuate injustice to be inflicted on His creations, be they Jews or Palestinians. You can't justify slaughter, land grabbing, demolitions of Palestinians houses and mosques, uprooting of olive trees, etc as necessary evil for your own safety. God will not condone such act. We should be thankful that there still are Jews like Taylor who cling to justice and morality. If not for them, humanity will view Jews as people devoid of morals who resort to devilish schemes to perpetuate hegemony and happiness in this temporary world.
Thank you for standing up for Jewish values because the Israeli government and AIPAC have almost tarnished for good, the Jewish legacy of supporting human rights for all.
... then the speakers must be telling an uncomfortable truth. Putting down dissent is tyranny, plain and simple. Netanyahu and all of Israel should be ashamed of themselves. They have corrupted everything that was ever good about Israel. Disgusting.
Thank you for an excellent article. Thank you for your committed stand for sanity and love. Free Palestine!
Great article. Great Protest. You give me hope.
Our youth absorb knowledge and truth. They do it more voraciously than we do for the very reason they were not a party to the past. The Internet makes all visible. We have imparted them with a passion for social justice, as we once were. They have not been impregnated with a nationalism that has been in denial. Their values truly derive from our Jewish values and perhaps are more clearly stated for that reason. Social justice is a higher value than a piece of land.
Young activists in order to move things might probably consider to be in Israel.
Young American activists, Jewish or not, may reasonably make a stand here in the USA; young American Jews do not need to go live in Israel to protest Israeli policy because Israel could not sustain its illegal and inhumane policy without the great financial and diplomatic aid the only superpower in the world gives it.
You stood up and disrupted a speech in a country where that's quite allowed. You could do the same thing in Israel. Now try it in and area under the rule of the PA or Hamas. There will always be people like you shouting about one thing or another, but in Israel people know better than to listen to those voices anymore. The cost has been way too high.
The cost has been too high for the Palestinians and for the US reputation and its taxpayers. Israel is a democracy only for its Jewish citizens.
Matthew, thank you for brave action. More and more Jews will catch courage from you and open the door to a real and honest debate on why the occupation and brutalization of the Palestinians must end.
Thanks for the op-ed and your courageous actions at Netanyahu's speech.
Bibi is using arguments that worked 10 years ago. Times have changed. The world is changing. It is time Israel grew up and joined the 21st Century.
Thank you for reading my oped, I look forward to hearing your comments!
...and thanks to you and your 'team'...
My personal response is thank you for your piece. Israelis are totally out of touch with America now days. Their government is not only arrogant and ruthless, it has been overwhelmed with hubris. That arrogance and hubris was the real subject of my comment to the article, and my thanks re my comment to you.
Should be proud as you continue being true to the teachings of Judaism. May God bless you and your compatriots.
And may their light spread fast...