Monday, July 31, 2017

Why Stand With Us does not stand with us (Updated)

Michael Lumish

There are pro-Israel and pro-Jewish groups that I appreciate, like the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and there are fake pro-Israel / pro-Jewish groups like J-Street that I despise.

Stand With Us (SWU) is both genuinely pro-Israel and pro-Jewish and I've generally appreciated their middle-of-the-road, bland stance because like milk it goes down easier for non-Jews and for Jews who don't really give a shit.

If Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a racist anti-Zionist organization and J-Street is really about supporting Democrats and the ZOA is about supporting Israel while taking off the gloves - my preferred stance - SWU is about reasonableness.

They do not want to offend anyone. They have no particular desire to upset Muslims. They want to extend a warm hand of friendship to Christians and to everyone else who will do likewise. I find this potentially admirable and hopefully useful in terms of Jewish outreach.

So, although I find SWU impassionate, I also acknowledge their potential utility precisely because they are middle-of-the-road.

What I failed to understand, however, was just why SWU refused to help with the Reem's controversy? As anyone who reads my material knows there have been a few tiny "protests" - if that word is even appropriate - for a couple of aging Jews with signs joining hands with a single friendly non-Jew.

What amazed me at the time was the turn-out that Reem Assil was able to get through her anti-Zionist connections to confront us in front of her vile, genocidally-inclined, establishment. In the last "protest" there were many more of them than there were of us. I thought that it was pretty impressive that such a small number of Jewish people could create such an intense backlash!

The mural of Rasmea Odeh is the equivalent of a mural celebrating the lynching of black people.

It would be as if she put up a mural celebrating the 2009 New Year's Eve shooting of Oscar Grant on the BART platform that looks down upon Reem's.

What it says to cognizant Jewish people stopping in for a snack - coming or going from the Fruitvale BART Station in Oakland - is "we want you dead."

Is it not obvious that celebrating the murderer of two Jewish college students is the same as calling for the murder of Jewish people, in general?

What I failed to understand, however, is why the local SWU refused to stand with us.

I received an email not so long ago from a prominent member who sought to explain to me why SWU is weak.

What I was told is this:

1) there are few Jewish people willing to protest anything anti-Jewish to begin with.

2) they have a policy against any such activities on the Sabbath.

3) there are significant public relations concerns for the organization if people behave badly.

And

4) if they tell unknown people when this is going to be the other side will catch wind, as well.

That's it.

Make of it what you will.

UPDATE:

I received this response from the SWU NW chapter:
Our Bay Area director is aware of your position, Michael.  There is nothing further that my region will do on this matter.  Please do not post derogatory comments on our Facebook page, as it does nothing to help our cause.  We are working hard to support Israel here in our region.  Thank you.

24 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I find myself tending toward the latter.

      I will write my little book and then I am done.

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    2. What will your little book be about, and with what will you be done.

      Delete
  2. Verses of Violence in The Koran:
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIUnQ7mv0Y0

    20 Violent Koran verses:
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm-SmSu-HVI

    *** QUOTES FROM THE KORAN ABOUT INFIDELS ***

    Koran, chapter 8, paragraph 12:
    “Your Lord inspired the angels with the message:
    I will terrorize the unbelievers. Therefore smite them on their necks and every joint and incapacitate them. Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes.”

    Koran, chapter 8, paragraph 39:
    “So fight them [the infidels] until there is no more fitnah [disbelief of non-Muslims] and all [people in the world] submit to the religion of Allah alone.”

    Koran, chapter 8, paragraph 59:
    “The infidels [non-Muslims] should not think that they can get away from us. Prepare against them whatever weapons you can muster, so that you may terrorize them. They are your enemy and Allah’s enemy.”

    Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 5:
    “Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.”

    Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 29:
    “Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax [jizya] in submission.”

    Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 123:
    “Fight the unbelievers around you, and let them find harshness in you.”

    Koran, chapter 61, paragraph 9:
    "He it is who has sent His Messenger (Mohammed) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islam) to make it victorious over all religions even though the infidels may resist."
    _________________________________________
    How to Convict the New York Times
    of Unfair Bias Against Israel:


    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-how-to-convict-new-york-times.html
    _________________________________________
    Why Israel’s 1967 Borders are Undefendable:

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/03/guest-post-why-1967-borders-are-suicide.html
    _________________________________________
    Ancient Roman historians connected Jews with the Land of Israel:

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/02/guest-post-josephus-vs-muslim-liars.html
    _________________________________________

    ReplyDelete
  3. Four hundred thousand Jews in the SF Bay Area.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't know there were that many. When I moved there, there were maybe half a dozen, i.e., that identified as Jews. I get the feeling that number hasn't changed much. As you know, my upbringing was quite secular, but I never shy away from my jewish identity, even though most people wouldn't know.
      I had a friend for a while when I started Berkeley. Born and bred on the Peninsula, his father taught at SF State. I remember talking to him one day about things Jewish, and he told me that he didn't really "identify with that," and quite adamantly. I told him not to worry, and that with a pumim like his there are plenty of antisemites who are quite willing to do the identification for him.
      He met a German girl and moved to Munich. I'm sure he spouts enough anti-Israel slogans to keep people off his back - for now.

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    2. An old Soviet joke:
      Two Jews meet and one tells another that a pogrom is coming.
      Second Jew: I'm not worried, my passport says I'm Russian.
      First Jew: they will hit you on your face, not your passport.



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    3. Four hundred thousand PROGRESSIVE Jews in SF Bay Area.

      Delete
    4. I'm pretty sure that a lot of them are just kids or apolitical.

      Delete
  4. Mike -

    Welcome to our world. Cassandra wailing into the wilderness.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. I have a Cassandra Complex. I blame my mother.

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  5. 1) there a[re] few Jewish people willing to protest anything anti-Jewish to begin with.

    More than sad. Tragic and dangerous. And again it proves that the Zionists were right.
    So what is SWU doing to support Israel in your region? (Maybe they have a better plan? What is it?)
    Did you post derogatory comments on their Facebook page?

    Bay Area anti-Israel agitators are scuzzballs. Eventually they'll reap the jihad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They're good people. They're just chickenshit.

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    2. Yes.

      The people that I stood with... the few of us... were brave as hell. Each and every one. It was just strange to see all these bodies defending Reem's as if they expected us to charge it.

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    3. Yes, it was brave, a small group standing up to some real bigots.
      I find the comparison Reem made of Odeh, the Jew killer, to Malcolm X, rather than more appropriately the kkk, stunning. And people are so stunningly ignorant and indoctrinated with false pseudohistories and science that isn't, totalitarianism is in the air. The good ship liberal democracy is in a whole heap o'trouble.

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    4. Well, they were brave. I wasn't brave because I can still run like hell! :O)

      Delete
  6. Until lions have their own historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.

    - Igbo proverb

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  7. Too many are very comfortable in their progressivism and too afraid to lose their standing in the community to make waves.

    How many would actually know who Odeh is if you asked, let alone basic facts about the conflict. And they pretend not to know what Palestinians do for fun. They're very quick to cast moral judgment, however, with contrary opinions.

    Still, it's sad that there isn't enough wherewithal to effectively address this locally.

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  8. I thought it was very interesting the way that they had people shadow me. At one point I walked up to some guy who was standing directly in front of me and then tried to move around him but he shifted his position to block my path.

    I said to the guy, "I'm just trying to determine if you are responding to my movements." But he did not say anything so I moved in the other direction to get around him and then he moved again to place himself directly in front of me.

    And then I said something like, "Ah, so you really are trying to prevent my freedom of movement."

    So, I gave him a bottle of water because it was rather warm that day.

    And then there was this sort-of lesbian JVP type there also acting as a guard.

    She seemed very nice, but very misguided.

    She wouldn't take a bottle of water from me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Antifa has been training to smash you, bigots.

      Delete
    2. Don't worry. They'll be somewhat destructive for a while. Like radical groups from the '60's they'll get around to destroying themselves.

      Delete
    3. Oh, fuck, I love those old stories of the Weathermen blowing themselves up because some genius thought that combining lysergic acid with bomb-making was a good idea!

      I love this stuff!

      I don't know if that actually happened, but they definitely blew the crap out of themselves, anyway.

      One night Dustin Hoffman returned home and found his apartment building was blown out because of some idiot with the Weathermen.

      Delete