I’m still giddy from spending an hour on our Zoom call last Friday talking to Noam Chomsky. Chomsky discussed the anti-Semitism he experienced as a child in Philadelphia (and later as a young scholar at Harvard); the experience that turned him against religion at age 10; how he felt, as a young Zionist activist, when Israel was created (he wasn’t happy); his needing a police escort to give lectures critical of Israel on American college campuses in the 1970s and 1980s; his disagreement with his friend Edward Said when Said called for a binational state in Israel-Palestine. Chomsky is now 92. And he was extraordinary.
To put majoritarian-elected politicians' feet to the fire is a waste of energy. The hope for Palestinians is for us, their allies in the US, to progressively degrade the social standing of our fellow pro-status quo Jews in America. Not only Aipac and Dershowitz, but orthodox groups, and families that support Israel directly. UJA, Jewish Federations, Chabad, the Bari Weiss crowd, they all need to become social pariahs in America. Not be to fight genocide in one's name is to enable genocide. Their feet to the fire, not politicians.
Interesting to see the decline in Republican rank/file support, but I’m not surprised to see the gap with Congress; the rank/file haven’t had reason to see Israel in geopolitical terms in a long time, but many in Congress still will, no?
I’m also not so sure a strong GOP showing translates to rock-ribbed support for Israel as we travel on, btw, especially since the GOP may find other, more autocratic proxies more to its liking and easier to deal with. In the evangelical imagination Israel is now more theme park and symbol than anything else, and there’s no reason that such an imagination can’t demand the impossible, go capricious, and invent new stories more in line with apocalyptic tastes.
Americans are Growing More Critical of Israel. Washington May Not Care.
To put majoritarian-elected politicians' feet to the fire is a waste of energy. The hope for Palestinians is for us, their allies in the US, to progressively degrade the social standing of our fellow pro-status quo Jews in America. Not only Aipac and Dershowitz, but orthodox groups, and families that support Israel directly. UJA, Jewish Federations, Chabad, the Bari Weiss crowd, they all need to become social pariahs in America. Not be to fight genocide in one's name is to enable genocide. Their feet to the fire, not politicians.
Interesting to see the decline in Republican rank/file support, but I’m not surprised to see the gap with Congress; the rank/file haven’t had reason to see Israel in geopolitical terms in a long time, but many in Congress still will, no?
I’m also not so sure a strong GOP showing translates to rock-ribbed support for Israel as we travel on, btw, especially since the GOP may find other, more autocratic proxies more to its liking and easier to deal with. In the evangelical imagination Israel is now more theme park and symbol than anything else, and there’s no reason that such an imagination can’t demand the impossible, go capricious, and invent new stories more in line with apocalyptic tastes.