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

[Marlene Santoyo]

I do agree with Joan & am very glad she voiced this.  Yes there are some of
us who are Jewish and it seems that we are not being honest but looking for
other issues to divert us rather than responding to the quacking duck.

marlena




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


  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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