Israel Is Not America, America Is Not Israel-- Tell Chuck Schumer And Jane Harman

Ken, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer and I all went to the same high school, James Madison. There were some Italians in the neighborhood too but this was the Jewishest-- in a non-Hassidic sense-- part of Brooklyn back then. We were inculcated with the idea that Israel's security came first and foremost and America was as great as the amount of security (and cash) it provided Israel. In those days the Democratic Party was 100% pro-Israel and the Republican Party had a whiff of unsavory typically right-wing anti-Semitism around it. Just yesterday I was reading about how Nixon dealt with his collapsing economy in Rick Perlstein's stupendous history book, Nixonland and came across a transcript of him blaming "the Jews" for his woes, as he often did.

It was meat prices driving inflation, Nixon decided, big supermarkets who refused to pass lower cattle prices on to consumers. "Kick the chain stores," he said in early February... I think you will find that chain stores who generally control these prices nationwide are primarily dominated by Jewish interests. These boys, of course, have every right to make all the money they want, but they have a notorious reputation in the trade for conspiracy."

Yes, he was stark raving mad; but because he was a president surrounded by sycophants... well whatever he said became a kind of "truth," especially in the Republican Party. Jews in Brooklyn were wary of right-wing parties to begin with-- that whole kerfuffle in Germany was still fresh in everyone's mind-- and the Republicans were just a few degrees away from everyone's greatest fears.

But things have changed dramatically since then. The Party of the Robber Barons has had to degrade itself by cobbling together a Grand Know Nothing coalition that includes southern religious fanatics whose sad, miserable lives revolve around waiting on Jesus' return, something that will be triggered when Israeli tanks roll into Damascus or some such interpretation of the screaming voices in their heads. Zionism somehow coexists with anti-Semitism as tenets of American right-wing orthodoxy. And on the Democratic side, there is a growing awareness that Palestinians are human beings too. I think the last time I counted there were around half a dozen Democratic members of Congress who had come to that conclusion. None are from Brooklyn-- and that includes one Brooklyn congressman who went on to the Senate and is casting longing eyes at Harry Reid's job as Democratic Senate Leader.

I don't know if Schumer still believes the Israel uber alles crap we were taught as children but I do know he isn't taking any chances with his hometown base. He blasted Obama yesterday for not being suitably Zionist enough. Playing to an indoctrinated Jewish-American and Israeli-American listening audience on a fanatic religious radio show hosted by Nachum Segal, Schumer was all about poutrage for how tough the Obama Administration has been towards Israeli rightist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. How dare they look out for America's interests! Schumer:

"I told the President, I told Rahm Emanuel and others in the administration that I thought the policy they took to try to bring about negotiations is counter-productive, because when you give the Palestinians hope that the United States will do its negotiating for them, they are not going to sit down and talk. Palestinians don’t really believe in a state of Israel, they, unlike a majority of Israelis, who have come to the conclusion that they can live with a 2-state solution to be determined by the parties, the majority of Palestinians are still very reluctant, and they need to be pushed to get there. If the U.S. says certain things and takes certain stands the Palestinians say, “Why should we negotiate?” So that’s bad and that should change and we are working on changing it. But the other two are very good, according to both the Israeli government and the Israeli military and the U.S. government. But we should make that known, why don’t they? I asked them to do just that, I said we should make it public because it will, at least, give people, who are supportive of Israel, Jew and non-Jew alike, a little bit of solace... Hillary Clinton called up Netanyahu and talked very tough to him, and worse they made it pubic through this spokesperson, a guy named Crowley.

And Crowley said something I have never heard before, which is, the relationship of Israel and the United States depends on the pace of the negotiations. That is terrible. That is the dagger because the relationship is much deeper than the disagreements on negotiations, and most Americans-- Democrat, Republican, Jew, non-Jew-- would feel that. So I called up Rahm Emanuel and I called up the White House and I said, 'If you don’t retract that statement you are going to hear me publicly blast you on this.'”

Is Schumer an American Senator or an Israeli Knesset member-- or an Evangelical lunatic from South Carolina?

This is the 2nd time I know of that Schumer has publicly crossed the line when it came to zealously blaming his own government and colleagues in delicate matters of US-Israel-Palestine policy.

During the third of three major efforts of the George W. Bush administration to get the recess appointed US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton confirmed in the US Senate, Senator Schumer launched a passionate personal campaign to help Bolton succeed.

Schumer called many Democratic Senate colleagues and bluntly said, "A vote against John Bolton is a vote against Israel." ... Note to Senator Schumer: you have certainly unloaded a lot of blame on the White House today. I have done a quick lexis and Thomas search and have been unable to find a single instance in which you criticized the behavior of the Israeli government at any time on any issue.

I guess Schumer has chosen to lie down with some mighty strange dogs, but, like I said, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders also went to James Madison High. He has a far more equitable approach to how to achieve peace in the Middle East, one in the best interests of the U.S., as well as taking in the legitimate concerns of Israelis and Palestinians-- if not AIPAC and the Likud. Well, at least Schumer isn't spying for any foreign powers and stepping over the treason line, the way Jane Harman did.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Your Government Not at Work - Jane Harman Scandal
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

If you watched that video, you might be looking for a way to help replace Jane Harman with mainstream pro-America progressive Marcy Winograd. By all means-- be our guest!

Along similar lines, I got a letter this morning from J Street, an organization of American Jews not dedicated to expansionism and aggression.

A moving article in Haaretz this week by Carlo Strenger, entitled "Israel's leaders have forgotten Herzl's dream," challenged the "silent majority of liberal U.S. Jewry not to be afraid any longer to speak its mind."

Amen. We are not afraid.

And we won't be afraid even when enforcers like Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz try to intimidate our movement by attacking J Street in an article brimming with distortions and name-calling.

Dershowitz's article is a perfect example of what is wrong with the conversation in our community on Israel. Far too often J Street's opponents spend more time manufacturing what they wish J Street has said, rather than checking the facts and actually challenging the merits of our arguments.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street's Executive Director, fired back yesterday in the Huffington Post, calling out Dershowitz for his inability to mount any serious fact-based case to challenge J Street's assertions that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in the interests of Israel, the Palestinians, and the United States.

TPM took up the story as well-- and like DWT gets the Schumer connection. They point out the good news that almost no one takes Dershowitz seriously any more as another other than a raving propagandist.

The bad news is that the people who do take him seriously are filling my inbox (and maybe yours) with anonymous screeds about President Obama, the "selling out" of Israel, Iranians who would happily die in order to kill Jews, and the imminent loss of Jerusalem to Hamas.

...My guess is that [Dershowitz] despises J Street for precisely the reason younger Jews, members of Congress, frustrated Israelis, and the Obama administration welcome it. It represents a new kind of pro-Israel activism-- activism built on the premise that the best way Americans can help Israel achieve security is by using our influence to encourage our government to push hard for negotiations.

Dershowitz is old school (not in a good way). He thinks that Israel advocacy should be left to the organizations which, although nominally supportive of the two-state solution, would prefer the United States to advocate peace rhetorically but not do much of anything to make it happen.

He also would prefer that the White House, the media, and the Israeli government not engage with upstarts like J Street but rather stick with the tried-and-not-so-true leadership of the "American Israel..." this, and the "American Jewish..." that. The last thing he wants to see is a whole new generation of pro-Israel activists moving on up, especially if it is dedicated to ending a status quo that it considers bad for Israelis, Palestinians, and American interests.