November 9, 2009
No surprise on the House’s support of Ros-Lehtinen/Berman resolution
For OpEdNews: by Susan Galleymore – Writer
rise-on-the-House-s-by-Susan-Galleymore-091105-464 .html
Oy vey! So, what’s new? Ros-Lehtinen/Berman resolution 867 passed: 344-36.
That it did so with such a wide margin is a bit surprising…certainly
craven…and shameful. After all, this nonbinding resolution merely
urged Obama and Clinton to oppose unequivocally any endorsement of the
Goldstone report. If ever there’s a time to placate the progressive
population – and lose very little in doing so – a nonbinding resolution
is it!
Given Congress’s, the Pentagon’s, and mainstream America’s ongoing and
uncritical support for Israel and its policies, what is new is
Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman was threatened enough by the
possibility of the House not backing H.R. 867 that he called on Judge
Goldstone to repudiate his report.
Said Abe to the Judge: `I have had great respect for you over the
years. Your work at the head of the South Africa Reconciliation
Commission and in helping to find a just solution to the Bosnian
conflict deserves the highest commendation….I know you to be a proud
Jew who serves on the Board of Trustees of Hebrew University and who
has a daughter living in Israel…[and] the Human Rights Council has
repeatedly demonstrated its bias against Israel…’
When has the House, or the Senate, ever let Foxman and his friends
down? This is the same Foxman who denies the Armenian genocide, who
believes that issue should be resolved between Turks and Armenians, and
who works behind the scenes to defeat a fair hearing about that
genocide in Congress.
Ironically, at a San Francisco Jewish Community Center for a recent
book event, Foxman said, `No one can dictate to you to use the word
that you want us to use. We will use the words that we feel comfortable
with.’
Accordingly, Foxman feels comfortable making thoughtful Jews feel
uncomfortable with words such as anti-Semite, self-hating Jew,
Israel-threatening Jew, Israel-bashing Jew, and so on.
Author and medical doctor Alice Rothchild grew up as a good American
Jewish girl and came of age to the dominant narrative of Israel as
heroic, courageous, standing bravely against all odds…. Since then,
believing what her eyes show her, she’s changed her views about the
situation. This effort to grow, learn, and change one’s mind based on
new information is essential to adulthood. But it landed Rothchild on
the Jewish S.H.I.T List, an alphabetized roll-call of more than seven
thousand so-called Self-Hating and/or Israel-Threatening Jews.
In a recent radio interview* I asked her about the moral underpinnings
of her work.
She said, `One big moral dilemma for me is how the American Jewish
community blindly supports everything the Israeli government does. My
question is, what is the role of US Jews and the United States in this
conflict? While it is difficult to paint American Jewry with one broad
brush stroke, for the most part mainstream American Jewry walks in line
with Israeli policy no matter what it does. It is very intolerant of
any critical dissent. That is bad for us…and it is bad for Israel.’
She continues, `I believe that if we American Jews see our brothers and
sisters in Israel doing things that we find morally indefensible, we
have to say something. If we don’t, it is bad for them…and it is bad
for us. Let’s face it, it doesn’t get any better than having a Zionist,
Jewish South African human rights lawyer like Goldstone reporting these
facts. For the Jewish community to come down so heavily on his report
makes me want to cry. For, if we don’t face up to what is in this
report, we as Jews and as Israelis are going to lose any moral
credibility in the world.’
Rothchild makes a compelling analogy. `Just as we in the United States
are made stronger by facing up to our history of slavery, the civil
rights struggle – all the things that we are ashamed of in our history
– Jews and Israelis need to do too.’
Rothchild concludes, `The US government sends Israel billions of
dollars of aid every year…and for what? There is a huge intermix of
the two military establishments. They try out our weapons, they do all
our dirty work… Once you start researching this stuff it is very
disturbing. It is a dangerous relationship and it raises difficult
moral questions for all of us.’
Apparently, it raises no moral question for 344 members of the US
House. Or Abe Foxman.
I imagine the day when that S.H.I.T. list becomes a roll call that
honors the people whose courage and steadfast morality helped turn the
tide in Israel/Palestine.
Meanwhile, Let’s see what Obama and Clinton do. I’m afraid there will
be no surprise there either.
Oy vey!
*Listen to the interview at Raising Sand Radio –
Bio
Susan Galleymore is the author of Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak
about War and Terror, in which she shares the stories of people in
Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and U.S. [Pluto Press 2009].
She is also the mother of a U.S. Army veteran, host and producer of
Stanford University’s KZSU Raising Sand Radio
(), a counselor on the GI Rights Hotline,
founder of MotherSpeak (), and itinerant artist
illustrating the effects of war in the Families of War Series. She
lived and worked in Israel from 1975 to 1977 where she also learned
Hebrew. Contact her at [email protected]=3B