by Alyssa Goldstein on May 5, 2012
A few days ago, liberal Zionist poster-child Peter Beinart came to Bard to give a talk. I haven’t read Beinart’s book, though I do follow his website Open Zion. I’ll be straight-up about the fact that I’m not a fan of liberal Zionism, and I didn’t expect to agree with just about anything Beinart said. However, given his recent popularity, I guess I did expect something a little more. . . impressive. He spoke for only half an hour, with only a slightly longer time at the end for questions. Nevertheless, for someone who spoke underwhelmingly for a short time, he did manage to leave me boiling with anger. I suppose that’s a sort of accomplishment.
Beinart started rolling out the gold right from the start, saying that diaspora Jews would find it difficult to maintain their Jewish identity without Israel’s revival of Hebrew as a living language. Not only did I fail to see the connection, but this also seemed rather insulting to diaspora Jewish identity in the past and present, as if Yiddish and Judaeo-Spanish and every other Jewish language never counted. [click to continue…]
by Lawrence Bush on May 3, 2012
The Irgun used trucks, British uniforms, and a large bomb to break out 28 Jewish prisoners from the British prison in Acre (Acco) on this date in 1947. Four captured Irgun “terrorists” had been hanged there by the British on April 19th. The assault on the highly secure fortress involved 34 guerrilla fighters, of whom three were killed (along with six escaping prisoners) and five were captured, three of whom were then executed by the British. To prevent these executions, the Irgun kidnapped two British sergeants; when the Irgun men were hung, so were the British. Palestine’s Jewish Agency called the break “an irresponsible suicidal act.” Irgun commander Menachem Begin called it an act of heroism. In the commotion of the attack, 182 Arab prisoners also escaped. The action took place on the day the UN General Assembly convened to discuss the Palestine issue, which eventually led to Resolution 181, the UN Partition Plan.
“The attack . . . has been seen here as a serious blow to British prestige . . . Military circles described the attack as a strategic masterpiece.” —Haaretz
by Alyssa Goldstein on March 18, 2012
Gilad Atzmon
A few days ago, the U.S. Palestinian Community network published a letter signed by a number of prominent Palestinian authors, intellectuals and activists (including Ali Abunimah, Nadia Hijab, and Omar Barghouti) calling for the disavowal of Gilad Atzmon for his anti-semitism. The letter states that
Atzmon’s politics rest on one main overriding assertion that serves as springboard for vicious attacks on anyone who disagrees with his obsession with “Jewishness.” He claims that all Jewish politics is “tribal,” and essentially, Zionist. Zionism, to Atzmon, is not a settler-colonial project, but a trans-historical “Jewish” one, part and parcel of defining one’s self as a Jew. Therefore, he claims, one cannot self-describe as a Jew and also do work in solidarity with Palestine, because to identify as a Jew is to be a Zionist. We could not disagree more. Indeed, we believe Atzmon’s argument is itself Zionist because it agrees with the ideology of Zionism and Israel that the only way to be a Jew is to be a Zionist.
. . . We reaffirm that there is no room…for any attacks on our Jewish allies, Jews, or Judaism; nor denying the Holocaust; nor allying in any way shape or form with any conspiracy theories, far-right, orientalist, and racist arguments, associations and entities. Challenging Zionism, including the illegitimate power of institutions that support the oppression of Palestinians, and the illegitimate use of Jewish identities to protect and legitimize oppression, must never become an attack on Jewish identities, nor the demeaning and denial of Jewish histories in all their diversity.
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by Lawrence Bush on February 28, 2012
Lehi (“Fighters for the Freedom of Israel”), also known as the Stern Gang, the most radical Zionist militia in Palestine, bombed the military cars of the Cairo-Haifa train on this date in the leap year of 1948, killing 28 British soldiers and wounding 35. They would repeat the deed on March 31, this time killing 40 civilians, mostly Arabs. Lehi was also responsible for the assassination of United Nations mediator Count Folke Bernadotte and (with the Irgun) for the April, 1948 Deir Yassin massacre, including more than 100 Palestinian Arabs, including women and children, were killed.
“Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat. Rather, terrorism had a great part to play in our war against the occupier.” —Yitzhak Shamir
A few days ago, liberal Zionist poster-child Peter Beinart came to Bard to give a talk. I haven’t read Beinart’s book, though I do follow his website Open Zion. I’ll be straight-up about the fact that I’m not a fan of liberal Zionism, and I didn’t expect to agree with just about anything Beinart said. However, given his recent popularity, I guess I did expect something a little more. . . impressive. He spoke for only half an hour, with only a slightly longer time at the end for questions. Nevertheless, for someone who spoke underwhelmingly for a short time, he did manage to leave me boiling with anger. I suppose that’s a sort of accomplishment.
