[WCUSP] Apartheid as our frame? Dems Repudiate Carter Book

[JoanWDrake at aol.com]

Over the past twenty years or more I have concluded that there is no way of 
framing the issues posed by Israel's 60-year long military occupation of 
Palestine that will be acceptable to the US Jewish community. So I see little 
difference in mincing words or being expansive when trying to reason with or appeal 
to Jews in the US on this issue; I don't believe our choice of vocabulary 
words will make much difference in being heard and responded to in a reasoned 
discussion. Reason does not work -- international human rights conventions and the 
Geneva Accords have no impact on Israeli policy -- words of the victims have 
no impact and the facts on the ground have no impact on the wall of silence 
and steadfast denial that American Jewry has built around Israel's total 
debasement of the Palestinian community and its people. Golda Meir denied the very 
existence of Palestine and Palestinians -- and today's generation follows in 
that vein by denying Israel's vicious policies of extermination and control. 
While there are notable exceptions in our community, such as Libby and Odile and 
their Israeli counterparts, they are few and far between and they do not speak 
for the mainstream -- and their attempts to point a way to peace and stability 
in the region is appreciated more in activist circles than within their own 
community. I know that they experience the same frustrations that those of us 
working on the issue have experienced. The knee jerk response to Carter's book 
title by Democratic Party office holders is quite understandable -- you don't 
serve in Congress unless you are in line with AIPAC policy -- the politicians 
who have spoken out on the matter clearly want to hold on to their jobs. I 
really think the current debate is not very enlightening or helpful -- call it 
what you like, but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a 
duck...?
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