I had been looking forward to the CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) presentation to be held at our temple on October 17th. I guess I should have known better. The first speaker was Ari Alexenberg of the Israel Action Center of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston. A Temple member and knowledgeable and affable man, he started off by quoting Jose Maria Aznar:
“Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is upturned and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Whether we like it or not, our fate is inextricably intertwined.” (The Times, June 17, 2010)
This is not the exact same quote that he used, but they were words to that effect, also spoken by Aznar. I was pleased and surprised that anyone in this country would start off their speech by quoting a Spaniard. Spain is almost completely ignored in the US, for reasons I have still to figure out.
Alexenberg went on to explain that the 2001 conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, was the start of the “soft war” against Israel. It was a conference that rapidly turned into a hate-fest directed at Israel, where it was accused of genocide, of being an apartheid state and of crimes against humanity. And this was all before the current coalition government, which includes Yisrael Beteinu and Shas, came into power . It’s all in the choice of words, Alexenberg told us. The campaign to delegitimize Israel is stronger in the European Union, where Arabs, post-Zionist Jews and the political left wing are busy using a strategy that blurs the lines between legitimate criticism of Israel and outright attacks on Israel, questioning its right to exist.
Next Alexenberg mentioned Natan Sharansky’s 3 “D”s: Double-standards, Delegitimizing and Demonizing. The campaign to delegitimize Israel seriously limits its right to defend itself. Whenever it takes any action it has to be on the defensive right from the start.
The next speaker was Steven Stotsky, a senior research analyst with CAMERA and a man singularly lacking in charisma. After some technical difficulties with his laptop he presented us with a slideshow in which he highlighted the following, to name but a few.
On October 13th 2010 the Netanyahu government offered a freeze on all settlement building in return for recognition (by the Palestinians) of Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians’ answer was no.
The Arab countries around Israel occupy 5,000,000m2. Israel occupies 10,000m2. Stotsky told us that this fact is worth keeping in mind when “land for peace” is being discussed.
In 1967 the UN passed resolution 242 which calls Gaza and the West Bank “disputed” rather than “occupied” territories.
Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. It is denying the Jewish people a state of their own.
The UN Human Rights Council has passed more resolutions condemning Israel than all the other 191 countries combined. Apparently there is a standing item on the agenda that is Israel’s human rights violations.
The following Jews were named for their extreme views and strong efforts to delegitimize Israel: Richard Falk, Ilan Pappe, Neve Gordon and Norman Finkelstein.
Organizations to be avoided as anti-Semitic are: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Jewish Voice for Peace, International Solidarity Movement and Jews for Justice for Palestinians.
When Jeff Goldberg (I have always enjoyed his advice column in The Atlantic) was mentioned, his name was followed by “not a great friend to Israel.” I was surprised, although at this point maybe I shouldn’t have been. After all, Goldberg, for one, has come down hard on J Street after it is becoming less and less clear if they are really pro-Israel. And speaking of which, the last person Stotsky mentioned was Daniel Levy of J Street, who allegedly said that the founding of Israel was wrong.
The next speaker was Jerry White. I didn’t take a single note of his presentation because as soon as he started to talk I knew I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. Although I did not realize to what extent that would turn out to be true. He had a loud, strident manner of speaking and although he seemed amusing (if grating) at first, it soon became clear that he was arrogant and pompous. He told us that we have an insidious enemy in our midst, and that enemy is every liberal progressive “Jew” (his speech marks). He urged us to listen to Conservative talk radio and befriend Evangelical Christians (all of whom want us to return to Israel to bring about their Messiah's Second Coming, not because they care in the least about us). Then he told us to stay away from the New York Times and PBS and ended by calling left wing Jews “vermin.”
Now the funny thing is that I knew that his name was White and that he was originally from Canada, but it took going to his break out session to confront him for the penny to drop. And even then it took a while. He was sitting in the library with a small group of people, amongst them a familiar face.
“Lily!” I exclaimed. “How are you?”
“Oh hello” she answered. “Have you spoken to Karen lately?”
“Not very recently,” I answered.
“She’s pregnant.”
“Mazal tov!” I said, as inside it was beginning to dawn on me: this man who I had come to argue with was my good friend’s father-in-law. Oh well, I thought. I am not one to be shut up that easily.
I opened by saying: “You said that you’d be happy if people were angry with you when you had finished speaking. Well, be happy. I’m angry.”
He seemed more taken aback than anything else.
“Are you telling me that I cannot be a liberal progressive and a Jew?” I went on.
“No, you cannot,” he answered coolly. “You will have to relearn your Jewish values.”
“And who gave you the authority to decide who is a Jew?” I asked.
Someone else piped up at this moment and backed me up.
Before I had had enough of listening to his loud and deeply narrow-minded views, I asked him if he thought that Avigdor Lieberman might have something to do with Israel’s current unpopularity.
“Avigdor Lieberman is a great man,” He answered.
Lehitra’ot, Jerry.
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