It has been a while since I posted a diary on the DK. Though, I still lurk and lend the occasional recommend, as I did to your diary, and while I agree with the overall goal of DK, to elect Democrats, as a left winger, I don't really feel at home here. So I devote my attention elsewhere.
I remember, long ago, when I posted my diaries here, you were always a supporter of my words and I have never forgotten. Your healthcare diaries are unparalleled.
But when I read your beautiful diary, and your feelings that there was a prevailing anti-Israel sentiment and all Jews were being painted with that broad brush, I found I had to write to you.
First, if you didn't already know, and I hope this does not make you regret your previous support, I don't believe Israel has any inherent "right" to exist based upon the promises contained in the Torah. It's a whole other discussion, and not for here, but I don't buy into a 2,000+ year right of return.
But the fact Israel has returned is truth; reality; and anyone who promotes a turning back of the clock is not reality based.
I side with the Palestinians always. I forgive their atrocities, as many forgive the atrocities of others. I certainly do not condone the murder of innocents, but from the Palestinian point of view, I understand the tragic frustration.
I offer up the foregoing information as context.
And now to my point.
It is a critical, fatal and terrible mistake to equate Jews with the government of Israel. I would say the vast majority of Jews are zionists, with a little z. And, I have to believe, there are many Jews who are Zionists with a capital Z. And unbelievable as it may seem, there are Jews who are not Zionists at all, capital or otherwise.
I would define zionists with a small z as those who believe in the "right" of a Jewish homeland in the ancient land of Israel. These small z zionists are also willing to negotiate what the boundaries of this land are, given history, the passing of time and political reality on the ground.
Zionists with a capital Z tend toward entitlement of the whole enchilada; Eretz Israel, as promised by YHVH and encompassing the land between the Nile and the Euphrates. So negotiating about borders, pre-1967 or otherwise is a non-starter, or at least not the first choice.
And some Jews believe, according to the Talmud, that before the Jews re-enter the Holy Land certain conditions need to be met and they haven't been met yet.
And of course, yada, yada, yada, you don't even have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, per your diary.
In my opinion, the current government of Israel is in the thrall of big Z Zionists. In my mind these are of the same mindset of Bill Kristol/Dick Cheney Neo-Cons. They are a danger to their people and to the world.
To suggest all Jews are Neo-Conservatives, and that's what people are doing when they paint all Jews in the camp of Israeli policies is, as we like to say over at My Left Wing, Total.Fucking.Bullshit.
Jews are as much a part of America as Irish, Italians, African Americans, Asian and my ethnicity - white trash.
With my last name, I have also felt bigotry at time from idiots as well as Jews who try to give me the secret Jewish handshake passed down from the elders of Zion (that's a joke people.) There is a bigotry against Jews by some in the population and it mustn't be denied.
And it distresses me more than you can imagine that someone like you, an angel from God, could feel America, as prejudiced, brainwashed and propagandized as it is, would ever become like Hitler's Germany.
On the other hand, can it really be denied that unless progressive people of conscience wrest away power from clueless, cynical, crazy, Bush worshipping Republicans that we aren't drifting toward fascism? Or running headlong, depending upon your liberal gene.
There is a danger and that breaks my heart.
But I guess, what I want to say from "the left" is, you'll never have to worry, no matter how much I (and others like me) rant and rave about Israeli atrocity, as I (we) see it, that it has anything to do with Jews as a religion, culture or people.
It is with big Z Zionism that I have a problem. And I do fear our own neo-conservative government is misguided in its blanket approval of everything Israel. We have lost any semblance of an "honest broker" in whatever "peace process" may be left in tatters, IMO.
I say as a raging anti-Zionist, you should never be made to feel an unwelcome guest in America (or anywhere). And I feel shamed that you do.
The conflict between Jews, Christians and Muslims makes God seem very small somehow.
And it is people like you, who make God seem, well, like God.
Peace -
g.