Jews tend to vote overwhelming for Democratic candidates. In fact,
77% of Jews voted for John Kerry in 2004. Since this is a website dedicated to electing Democrats, and Jews tend to work to elect Democrats, I figure there are several Jews lurking out there. Just wanted to give you guys a quick welcome to Daily Kos, and explain to you and others how it feels to be a Jew who follows dKos closely.
This diary started as a comment I made
last night. At one point yesterday I brought my wife over and looked at the most recent 50 diaries, there were 7 that were bashing Israel, and then there were 2 others that were talking about the Middle East war in more balanced terms.
I wonder when are folks going to learn that Israel is like family to most Jews? Now, people in our families may eff up, and we're not shy about smacking them around in private, but when we're in public nobody talks smack about our family and we'll stick up for them. Plus, even if your brother/sister/cousin is wrong, nobody likes hearing about it constantly from everyone else.
There are many Jews here at dKos and the problem is that the recent anti-Israel diatribes are just making me sick, I don't know about anyone else. I don't know if it's just "the right wingnuts reflexively support Israel; the wingnuts are by definition always wrong; thus we must reflexively oppose Israel" or what. Why is it that there has to be a side that is wrong and a side that is right? Why does there have to always be a side that's "more wrong?" Why do people post body counts on both sides and say that Israel is more wrong than Hezbollah because more Lebanese civilians have died than Israeli civilians? If an innocent civilian's life has infinite value, have not both sides lost infinitely?
There have always been anti-Israel diaries but it's usually a couple per day if that and they're easy to ignore but now I find myself staying away from dKos for hours at a time (I know, I should get a life anyway) because I just don't want to get angry.
Today after seeing some comments that had great conspiracy theories about how Mossad faked the kidnappings of the soldiers just so they could bomb the snot out of Lebanon, I had to actually count the diaries. If you read the last 300 diaries you could see...
EDIT 7:56pm EDT Sunday - the below list of diaries are those that I found that were strictly critical of Israel - and one sided in that respect. The range of the criticism varies widely. I am not trying to suggest in any way that the diaries below are identical in nature. The only commonality was when I read them, I read them as being critical of Israel the country, Israel's policies, Israel's behavior in the war, etc. I clarified this in the comments below but it was suggested that I really wasn't clear here.End edit
or recommended diaries such as
Israel planned this war year(s) in advance and
How Israel is committing war crimes, or diaries asking whether
Is Israel just our puppet invading Lebanon because we told them to, or do the evil Jewish neo-con AIPAC folks control our foreign policy. Bottom line - if you're Jewish and sensitive, there are plenty of diaries that you should avoid.
Then there are diaries that blame both Hezbollah and Israel and say we should just cut off financial support to both sides... um, like how much are we supporting Hezbollah now so who is really going to get cut here?
If you dig far enough down though there are some reasonable diaries, diaries that honestly question both sides, or ask why can't we just all get along
And there are even Pro-Israel Diaries, and Diaries saying Democrats should support Israel - if you can find them.
So if you're counting (and I am) - in the last 300 diaries, there are 23 against Israel, 3 taking a middle position, and 2 pro-Israel. So bottom line Jews - if you want to come to dKos you have to have a very very thick skin.
Jewish Democrats are just like gay Republicans. Republicans love to have Gay folks' votes and support for all their right-wing policies, but when it comes to an issue near and dear to the hearts of many gays - the right to be treated as equals with the rest of society - the Republicans tell gays to kiss off and try to add hate to the constitution. I believe that Democrats appreciate Jewish support for Unions, women's rights, gay rights, minority rights, the environment, and just about every other issue important to Democrats. Jews are often at the forefront of fights to maintain separation of church and state, which helps try to stave off the religiofascists that are trying to take over. Senators Levin, Kohl, Feinstein, Boxer, Feingold, Wyden, and Schumer are reasonably well regarded (but please forgive us for Senators Specter and Coleman). (I didn't mention Lieberman... He's a disgrace and I apologize on his behalf since he's not man enough to do it himself).
Every day or so, there's another diary that translates somehow to AIPAC is evil (sometimes they even have "An Agenda." Name me one PAC that does not have "an Agenda," and I'll show you a worthless PAC). AIPAC of course supports the neo-cons (actually, AIPAC supports Israel and the two are not necessarily related). Just because some neocons are Jewish it's not really fair to say that the Jews got us into this war (in Iraq) and could easily get us out (I'm speaking to you Rep. Jim Moran D-VA). Just because Clarence Thomas is black doesn't mean all blacks are against civil rights or freedom. Please don't lump us all in with the Wolfowitz's and Abramoffs of the world.
Yes, it is ok for other people to criticize Israel (just wish ya'll would ease up a bit) and no, criticism of Israel is not automatically anti-Semitic. However, much criticism does slip into "Jews are to blame" which is anti-Semitic, and even that criticism that is non-bigoted still hurts. Personally. Israel is not an apartheid state, no matter how many times you claim it is - because under Apartheid the black Africans had almost no rights, whereas in Israel Arab citizens do vote and elect many members to parliament each election. If you want to have a real deep debate, we certainly could get into whether or not a country should exist to protect (in essence) a certain favored religion. Clearly official state religions aren't an issue, just go to the Vatican, or Scandinavia, or any one of the Arab countries except Turkey. Should Israel have the right to exist as "a Jewish state?" Tough one - I admit - but in 1948 the world decided that the Jews deserved a state in no small part because of the holocaust. Saying that Israel should open up its borders and allow all Arabs to "return" and become yet another Jewish-minority country sometimes sounds like "the holocaust was 60-freaking years ago. Get over it already." It's not so easy to get over.
Does that mean that Israel is always right, mostly right, or even only sometimes right? No. All I'm trying to say is that to many (most) Jews, Israel is like family, and having your family get beaten up makes you angry. Angry enough to vote Republican? Well, 23% of Jews already do vote Republican, and then there is the Joe Lieberman wing of the party.
I don't know who is still reading this diary, but if you are, this is all that I would ask of you going forward:
Try to understand both sides. Try to put yourselves in their shoes. Did you know that Israel traded over 400 prisoners for 3 dead bodies of soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah several years ago - soldiers that were kidnapped while UN "peacekeepers" sat by and videotaped it rather than intervene. Did you know that culturally, Israel's position is that they will leave nobody behind - every Israel's life is of infinite value - because as soon as they say that it's not worth fighting for one person, that can easily slippery slope into 2, 5, 10, 100, or millions and who will stop the next Holcaust? Try to understand why the Palestinians support Hamas, that while they commit some atrocious attacks, they also have a very strong humanitarian bent and have literally been the main source of food, water, etc. at times? Try to understand Hezbollah and the situation in Lebanon and how convoluted the Lebanese constitution is with allocation of power to various religions and how Syria and Iran call many of the shots. Try not to be closed-minded - on either side. And take these words of Rabbi Michael Lerner to heart:
Who are Israel's friends and the friends of the Jewish people? Those who support this path toward peace and reconciliation. Who are its enemies? Those who encourage it to persist in the fantasy that it can "win" militarily or politically. Just as the objective enemies of America in the 1960s were those who egged it on to persist in the Vietnam war, and those who were its objective friends were those of its citizens who actively opposed that war, so similarly today the friends of the Jewish people are those who are doing everything possible to restrain it from cheerleadng for Israel's militarist adventures and refusal to treat the Palestinians as equally entitled to freedom and self-determination as the Jewish people.
Who are Palestine's friends? Those who encourage a path of non-violence and abandoning the fantasy that armed struggle combined with political isolation of Israel will lead to a good outcome for Palestinians. Who are its enemies? Those who preach ideas like "one state solution" or global economic boycott without offering the Jewish people a secure state in Palestine--paths that will never produce anything positive but continued resistance by Israel and world Jewry.
As for us in the Tikkun Community who are friends of both sides, our orientation is clear. Our goal is to speak truth to both the powerful in Israel and the powerless in Palestine, to tell them that their goals cannot be achieved without a radical reversal in the strategic directions they have been following. This truth will eventually be heard--the only question is whether it will be heard without another generation of Arabs and Israelis losing their lives. Because we care very much about the human suffering on both sides, we pray that this truth will be heard, and our strateges for a solution will be implemented. And we will do more than pray--we will also demonstrate against the governments of the U.S., Israel and Palestine till they all change their directions in the ways suggested here, we will organize and educate, and will take other non-violent stepts to get our message heard.