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We received the following email message from an (apparently) Jewish "leftist" as follow-up to an earlier exchange. Left-wing, Right-wing, Chicken-wing, we think her message is a good example of the normative Jewish BLIND SPOT, across the Jewish political spectrum, and we'll deconstruct it. First, we let Ms. Johnson have her say. Then we break it down and illustrate its many falsehoods.
I'm a Leftist AND I Support Israel by Becky Johnson Dear Editors of the JTR, I am a leftist. My grandparents were Communists in Finland and I was raised to believe that our society should be structured so that everyone has a home, everyone has food to eat, medical care, and a proper education. I have marched in the streets against George W. Bush's war in Iraq. I have written against the racist scheduled execution of Kevin Cooper. I ghost-wrote the resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty that the Santa Cruz City Council passed with a 7 - 0 vote. I hosted the Free Radio Santa Cruz radio station in my backyard for a year and half. (www.freakradio.org) I covered the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in 2000, and was clubbed by a member of the LAPD. I filed a federal lawsuit against the LAPD for excessive force and won a substantial settlement. I have written several articles against police brutality. I support Food Not Bombs, and in my home town of Santa Cruz, I have been fighting for years to repeal the cruel anti-homeless Sleeping Ban which makes people criminals for the act of falling asleep between the hours of eleven PM and 8:30AM anywhere out of doors or in a vehicle within the City Limits. I have been writing for Street Spirit, a homeless newspaper published by the American Friends Service Committee since 1996. I am a member of the Green Party and in the last election I voted for Ralph Nader. And I support Israel. I know for the vast majority of people who post to your site, and presumably those who visit this site, my last statement sounds like a non-sequiter. How can a person like myself, who seems to adhere to the leftist positions on nearly every other issue, support Israel? I support Israel because Israel is deserving of support. Israel is situated on 0.1% of the land in the mideast, yet it is accused of making a "land grab." Israel gave back 94% of the land it took over fighting a defensive war in 1967. Israel gave up this land to make peace with Egypt. Israel wants peace. Israel has always wanted peace with its neighbors. Israel, unlike the United States, has no death penalty. Israel protects the rights of all people to worship their own religion freely. Israel supports gay and lesbian rights, completely unlike the 22 Arab/Muslim neighboring countries or the Palestinian Authority. When Israel had control of the West Bank between 1967 and 1993 (when the Oslo accords were signed), the quality of life for the average Palestinian increased dramatically. Israel brought in roads, electricity, and water systems to the West Bank, to the same areas where some on your website now accuse Israel of trying to steal their water from. Israel is the only Jewish Country in the world. Since Israel was formed in 1948, it has been attacked four times by its Arab neighbors joining forces to wage war. The lastest Intifada, which began 3 years ago has inflicted horrific damage on the Israeli civilian population. By contrast, the IDF has a strict policy to minimize civilian causalties whenever possible. Israel has the right to defend itself. Look at the death tolls of Palestinians and Israelis. If the IDF is shooting civilians, how come they only seem to hit men? Only 2.8% of the Palestinians killed were women while 25% of the Israeli dead are women. I do not believe the Palestinians want an independant state. They have been offered one many times, by Barak in 2000, and by George W. Bush in 2003 with his "Road Map". The Palestinians have responded with more violence. Arafat is corrupt and has literally made off with the countries treasury stored in Swiss Bank accounts while his people suffer in poverty. Israel is not to blame for this. Israel is NOT illegally occupying the West Bank. Israel took over this land in 1967 in a defensive war from Jordan who had seized the land in 1948. Resolution 242 by the UN granted Israel stewardship of the West Bank until a peace agreement could be reached. No such agreement has been possible but not because Israel was unwilling. In every case, it was the Palestinians who ended any possiblity of a peaceful solution. Some say Israel liberated Judea and Samaria from the Jordanian occupation. Israel is not an "apartheid state" and is not "stealing Palestinian land." The checkpoints are an attempt to stop the suicide bombers, and if they inconvenience the Palestinian people, they should blame the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. Israel is not to blame for this. Israel is only trying to save lives. My fellow leftists have bought the poor, downtrodden Palestinian myth hook, line and sinker. I think most are well-intentioned people, but they have been woefully mislead by many of the writers who post to the JTR. You can read some more of my articles at a profoundly pro-Israel site called www.dafka.org I am a leftist. And I support Israel. If you knew all the facts, you would too. --- Becky Johnson The Jewish Tribal Review Response: I am a leftist. My grandparents were Communists in Finland You do not state whether or not you are Jewish. Given the intensity of your dedication to the apartheid cause of Israel, we'd say the chances that you're Jewish are 90+ percent. Otherwise, you would have to be married (or separated) from a Jewish partner who has succeeded in brainwashing you. But the smart money says you are Jewish: stereotypically so. Non-Jewish "leftists" have little tendency to share your hypocritical obsession with the immoral Jewish state. Yes. Jews have a long history of communism and have succeeded in killing a lot of people in history over it. and I was raised to believe that our society should be structured so that everyone has a home, everyone has food to eat, medical care, and a proper education. So why don't you apply these principles to the Palestinians? I have marched in the streets against George W. Bush's war in Iraq. I have written against the racist scheduled execution of Kevin Cooper. I ghost-wrote the resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty that the Santa Cruz City Council passed with a 7 - 0 vote. I hosted the Free Radio Santa Cruz radio station in my backyard for a year and half. (www.freakradio.org) I covered the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in 2000, and was clubbed by a member of the LAPD. I filed a federal lawsuit against the LAPD for excessive force and won a substantial settlement. I have written several articles against police brutality. Congratulations. But the true credential of your self-prescribed social conscience nobility will be when you are clubbed by the Israeli military for resisting Jewish racism. How many articles about Israeli "brutality" have you written? How many articles have you written about Jewish racism, or Israeli racism? How many articles about Jewish hypocrisy have you written? Why is resisting American authority figures singularly kosher, but resisting Jewish authoritarianism is a taboo for you? You seem to have an interest in "racism," yet you don't mention endemic Israeli racism or, for that matter, the Jewish version of the same thing. Shame on you. I support Food Not Bombs, and in my home town of Santa Cruz, How can you rationalize the grotesque dichotomy between this and your support of the brutal Israeli military, which has hundreds of nuclear weapons, a biological weapons arsenal, and routinely slaughters children and innocents? I have been fighting for years to repeal the cruel anti-homeless Sleeping Ban which makes people criminals for the act of falling asleep between the hours of eleven PM and 8:30AM anywhere out of doors or in a vehicle within the City Limits. How do you rationalize the absurd notion that you fight for "homeless" rights when the racist state of Israel (which you are an ACTIVIST for) has made millions of Palestinians homeless refugees? It is absurd and you should be ashamed of yourself. You are a hypocrite. And hypocrisy is a Jewish norm. I have been writing for Street Spirit, a homeless newspaper published by the American Friends Service Committee since 1996. I am a member of the Green Party and in the last election I voted for Ralph Nader. And I support Israel. Grotesque. And obscene. You should be ashamed of yourself. I know for the vast majority of people who post to your site, and presumably those who visit this site, my last statement sounds like a non-sequiter. No, it sounds like the usual Jewish self-delusion. The question must be always asked: is Jewish victimhood ideology implicitly evil and exploitive, or does the notion of "being Jewish" automatically encompass sleight-of-hand in the Jewish psyche to render the powerful illusorily dispossessed? In other words, poor rich Jews! The most sinister aspect of your presentation so far is that you mask your expressly Judeocentric racism with claims to good deeds for others. Your chauvinism, racism, and tribal ethnocentrism is masked by your self-delusion of "leftist" universalism, while your ideology, per Israel, underscores your deep, deep root to the exploitive Jewish Tribe. How can a person like myself, who seems to adhere to the leftist positions on nearly every other issue, support Israel? I support Israel because Israel is deserving of support. Israel is situated on 0.1% of the land in the mideast, yet it is accused of making a "land grab." Jews from around the world have sequentially invaded Palestine -- especially in the 20th century -- with the intent, always, of seizing it from them. If you declare that Israel is the automatic "land of the Jews," you are relying upon the Torah (Old Testament) foundation which has little to do with being a "leftist." It has to do with being a Jewish "Chosen People" racist, who were guaranteed land by their God via genocide against the Canaanites. A land of the Jews, from a secular standpoint, could just as well been part of Kenya or Uganda (and that was even considered by the early Zionist movement). But surely, as a "leftist," you recognize that if that had happened, local Africans of the area would surely by now have risen up against the Jewish colonists in their midst. If you take 0.1% of my land against my will, or that portion of my food, or anything, you are what is known as a thief. Are you insinuating that Jews have the right to seize 0.1% of the land (or 1%, or 10%, or 100%) anywhere they feel they can bomb the indigenous people into submission? Still further, why do you intrinsically ignore the basic human rights of the particular people living on that 0.1% of the land that was stolen? They didn't do anyone any harm. They just were just there, i.e., they existed and Jews like you don't want them to exist. Let's look at percentages in a more meaningful way: Jews stole 100% of the land of those who were robbed of their living space. It's as if you stole the house of one the homeless people you champion. Does it feel good? Does it give you moral satisfaction? The fact that you champion this is obscene. You should be ashamed of your racist and brutal allegiance to the corrupt Israel state. Israel gave back 94% of the land it took over fighting a defensive war in 1967. "Defensive war?" Israel is, by nature, an AGGRESSIVE state. It's primary mode of operation is to push Arabs OUT. Read your Benny Morris, among others. Morris (the Israeli historian) is, like you, both devoted to Israel (as a self-declared "Zionist") and calls himself a "Leftist." But "leftism" traditionally infers a broad-based universalistic humanism. Zionism, and support for Israel, is a vile form of racist, chauvinist nationalism. If you call yourself a "leftist," you should qualify it as a "Zionist Leftist." Arguably then, you are something akin to a "Zionist Fascist Leftist." Israel gave up this land to make peace with Egypt. Israel wants peace. Israel has always wanted peace with its neighbors. Israel wants "peace" in the same way a thief wants "peace" with the victim robbed. Israel wants client Arab states all around it. Witness what happened to Iraq. Witness what Israel wants done to Syria. Witness how Israel has treated Lebanon. Witness Israel's tentative plans to bomb (non-Arab) Iran. Israel also wants virtual Arab slaves to take care of the menial tasks of the Jewish state. It was always Palestinians who did the shit work, but once they started rebelling, the racist Jewish state has begun importing "foreign workers" from Thailand, Eastern Europe, Kenya, and other places to take orders from Jews (and with NO substantial rights). Foreign workers are treated like dogs, as are indigenous Arabs. In your support of Hellhole Israel, you defend this. Israel, unlike the United States, has no death penalty. Israel doesn't NEED a death penalty. A military state kills as a matter of course. It slaughters Palestinian children with impunity. It tortures people by the thousands (check out the Amnesty International reports, etc.) Its steady program of "targetted assasinations" (condemned by many in the world community) has something to do with a "death penalty," don't you think? But there's no charges. No trial. No nothing. If you suspect a few Arabs of organizing violence against Jewish violence, you apparently endorse Israeli policy in shooting a missile at them to kill everyone on the block. Witness the murder yesterday of Sheik Yassin, the old man in the wheelchair, as he was pushed out of a mosque in the concentration camp of Gaza. Where's he going to go? Arabs there are like fish in a bowl for Isaeli jets and helicopters. And, please, don't give me that lame Jewish whine that he was a "terrorist" and deserved to die. Palestinian "terrorism" is the liberation war of the impoverished oppressed. If the Palestinians had an army and they warred it out on the battlefield with Israeli troops, it would be more difficult to smear them as maniacal barbarians. (But, yes, Jews would do it.) Palestinian "suicide bombers" are an inevitable expression of the poor man's war. Tossing stones against jets, missiles, helicopters, and all isn't much of a fair fight. People do what they must in their struggle for justice. They sacrifice their lives for what they believe in. The same as Israeli oppressers. Why do want the Arab people to hobble around on all fours beneath the Jewish boot, mere sheep? If you and your beloved Klan, my dear, were treated like an animal, locked up in a giant concentration camp against the sea (like Gaza), despised and mistreated on a daily basis, tortured and killed, and with no hope for any sort of future for yourself, your family, and your community, I assure you that your perspective would be quite different. Think of it terms that will endear the Palestinian struggle to your cold, cold heart: the Warsaw ghetto. What if the entrapped Jews embarked upon a "suicide bombing" program against the Nazis? As you know and I know, you would endorse that as a legitimate struggle of the hopelessly dispossessed. Not only that Ms. Johnson. In another context, in a desperate one, you might well be one of the "suicide bombers." Israel protects the rights of all people to worship their own religion freely. That's absurd. It's a lie. It's obscene for you to say this. The civil administration of Israeli society (marriage, divorce, funerals, etc.) is run by dictate of Orthodox Judaism. If a Jew wants to marry a Muslim, for example, its illegal and the pair must go to Cyprus to get married. If a Christian or Muslim wants to ride a bus on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday), they won't find one because Israeli bus service shuts down. HUNDREDS of mosques (and villages and cemeteries) have been obliterated since the founding of the Jewish state, towards erasing Arab history and replacing it with Jewish mythology. The inanely hypocritical "tolerance" factory, the Simon Wiesenthal Center even has its branch in Jerusalem built on top of a Muslim cemetery. Top Christian religious officials must be sanctioned by Israeli (i.e., Jewish) government authorities. A few years ago legislation was proposed by Members of Knesset (the Israeli parliament) to make it illegal for Christians to encourage others to join their faith. Israel supports gay and lesbian rights, completely unlike the 22 Arab/Muslim neighboring countries or the Palestinian Authority. Again, you are in error. Per "gay and lesbian rights," secular civil authority in the Jewish state is run by Orthodox Judaism. Look in the Code of Jewish Law to see what the Talmud says about gays. AND what to do to them. Spend some time in an Ultra-Orthodox (chassidic) community. There are plenty of them in the Jewish state. Hey. Go to Israel. Marry an Israeli. Then try and get a divorce from him without his permission. It won't happen. Why? Because Jewish Orthodoxy runs this realm of Israeli civil society. My dear, you'll find you're stuck to your rotten husband with a legal chain and you'll be thinking you're surrounded by the Taliban in the Jewish state. Read British Jewish author Lesley Hazelton's comments in her books about the oppression of Jewish women in Israel. Take a look at some of the domestic violence statistics we have posted at this web site. Read Andrea Dworkin's comments about the "Holocaust" pornography industry in the Jewish state. Ugly, ugly, ugly. When Israel had control of the West Bank between 1967 and 1993 (when the Oslo accords were signed), the quality of life for the average Palestinian increased dramatically. This is myth. You should be ashamed of yourself. But that's not all. Any "leftist" (or human being, for God's sake) worth his or her salt will recognize that people are entitled to their OWN notions about their "quality of life." You're spewing nonsense right out of Israeli Propaganda Central. By the same token, I guess we should forget Jewish opinion about World War II --following your logic, we should check the Nazi record books to determine how Jews were faring in Germany. Ask a Palestinian about their "quality of life" in apartheid Israel and the Occupied Territories. Guess what they'll say? Take off my chains. Why do imperial Jews always get to dictate their standard of happiness? Because Jews insist upon controlling the Palestinian people like cattle. The Israeli government has very clear dual standards in the allocation of funds and resources to Jews and Arabs in the Jewish state. Israeli sociologists have written plenty about it, for instance Sammy Smooha. The dual standards of money allocation for Jewish and Arab towns in Israel are well-documented. You can find some of this documentation at this web site. And sorry. If Jewish invasion and occupation affords an extra loaf once and the while at cost of my children getting murdered by Israeli troops and Jewish degradation of my identity on a daily basis, I choose that Jews go back to where they came from. In the views of many Palestinians, the brutal Israelis probably flew in on the backs of bats out of Hell. Israel brought in roads, electricity, and water systems to the West Bank, to the same areas where some on your website now accuse Israel of trying to steal their water from. What "accuse?" It is fact. Without Jews in the Occupied Territories, I assure you that "roads," "electricity," and "water systems" would exist. They just wouldn't be controlled by Jews to exploit and oppress Arabs. Modern Israel (the "holy land" for so many) is increasingly a giant garbage dump. Jewish pollution in the Military Industrial state is astounding, including the poisoning of what little water there is in the area. Israel is the only Jewish Country in the world. Not quite. You forget America. And a few others in the Western sphere. Also, I don't know of any other country so explicitly founded on racism (albeit disguised). ONLY JEWS (religious, atheist, or whatever) ALLOWED. Since Israel was formed in 1948, it has been attacked four times by its Arab neighbors joining forces to wage war. The lastest Intifada, which began 3 years ago has inflicted horrific damage on the Israeli civilian population. The Intifada is a revolt against oppression: Jewish oppression. Again, think of it in terms surely beloved to you: the Warsaw Ghetto. Gaza is a giant Warsaw Ghetto, as is the West Bank. All aspects of Arab life are controlled by Israeli Jews, by force. This has been going on for decades. The "horrific damage" to a "civilian population" honestly means the Palestinians. The racist Jewish state continues to destroy them, in all manners. By contrast, the IDF has a strict policy to minimize civilian causalties whenever possible. Horseshit. Read the documented material at this web site. Benny Morris' recent revelations in Haaretz (the Israeli journal) about the many massacres, rapes, and atrocities committed by Israeli troops should make satisfactory reading for you. The Atlantic Monthly author who noted that he had, in all his war travels, never seen children murdered "for sport" the way Israeli troops do it is also a memorable observation. Israel has the right to defend itself. As do the Palestinians. While Israel has tanks and jet bombers and nuclear bombs and biological weapons, the Palestinians have stones and home-made bombs. Saying "Israel has the right to defend itself" is like saying the rapist has a right to defend himself against punches from his victim. Look at the death tolls of Palestinians and Israelis. If the IDF is shooting civilians, how come they only seem to hit men? Only 2.8% of the Palestinians killed were women while 25% of the Israeli dead are women. What kind of logic is this? And where are your references to children? The Jewish army's carnage against Palestinian children? I do not believe the Palestinians want an independant state. Of course not. You are a propagandist. A propagandist has no interest in believing anything except a preformulated ideology. Your entire assertion here is your "belief" (i.e., faith (secular? "Fascist Leftist?") about racist Israel). Facts don't deter "belief," and certainly never Jewish dedication to other Jews. They have been offered one many times, by Barak in 2000, and by George W. Bush in 2003 with his "Road Map". The Palestinians have responded with more violence. Arafat is corrupt and has literally made off with the countries treasury stored in Swiss Bank accounts while his people suffer in poverty. Israel is not to blame for this. Israel is to blame for EVERYTHING. Not only is Israel "corrupt," but so is world Jewry that supports it. Apparently, including you, as a supporter. The Jewish pro-Israel Lobby runs U.S. foreign policy. The poor Palestinians are completely at the mercy of moral fraudsters like you. Israel is NOT illegally occupying the West Bank. Israel took over this land in 1967 in a defensive war from Jordan who had seized the land in 1948. Resolution 242 by the UN granted Israel stewardship of the West Bank until a peace agreement could be reached. No such agreement has been possible but not because Israel was unwilling. In every case, it was the Palestinians who ended any possiblity of a peaceful solution. Some say Israel liberated Judea and Samaria from the Jordanian occupation. The oppressed do not give a shit about "legalities." Those in power make "law" to accomodate their needs and interests. The Palestinians are treated like beasts by Jews. That's all anyone needs to understand about the origins of "terrorism." Israel is not an "apartheid state" and is not "stealing Palestinian land." The checkpoints are an attempt to stop the suicide bombers, and if they inconvenience the Palestinian people, they should blame the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. Israel is not to blame for this. Israel is only trying to save lives. Of course Jews are guilty of nothing, now, in the past, or in the future. Never. The Arabs are beasts. As are Christians. As are everyone else in the Jewish road to self-aggrandizement. This is the mantra of the self-obsessed Jewish band of "chosen people" racists who guarantee continued anti-Jewish hostility, as evidenced in their long troubled past and chosen destiny. My fellow leftists have bought the poor, downtrodden Palestinian myth hook, line and sinker. I think most are well-intentioned people, but they have been woefully mislead by many of the writers who post to the JTR. "The poor, downtrodden Jewish myth" is the CORE of Jewish identity and the ideological foundation of Israel. You are hypocrite and a moral coward. You can read some more of my articles at a profoundly pro-Israel site called www.dafka.org I am a leftist. And I support Israel. If you knew all the facts, you would too. Yours is self-delusion and legend. The "facts" are posted, with complete documentation, at this web site. You have no excuse to hide from them, except the enormous pull of incessant Judeocentrism and your own self-denial on this count. The "facts" are merely a click away. Quick! Run from the truth before basic human decency forces you to join the Palestinian cause: 1) Racist Israel Ms. Johnson, support for Israel is a modern Jewish moral sickness,
and it is extremely widespread in the neurotic Jewish community, a band
of bigots who incessantly perceives of itself as "victims,"
even as they exploit and oppress everyone within their reach. Your sordid
allegiance to apartheid Israel also means that you implicitly endorse
the following Israeli obscenities (merely the tip of the iceberg): (The above numbered list is an excerpt from WELCOME TO AMERISRAELISTAN, by Chad Powers). * Note: Ms. Johnson seems to define herself as a "Bahai."
But here below she speaks also of "my rabbi." A "Jewish
Bahai?" A Jewish convert to Bahaism? Posted March 22, 2004 |