Larry Derfner and I began our debate about the future of Israel and Zionism at Israel Reconsidered several weeks ago. Just this week, we really got into it over Nakba and Right of Return. Frankly, I was surprised at how little Larry was willing to “give” on both subjects since I consider him to be one of the most forthright and progressive of Israel’s English language newspaper columnists. I got really exercised in my reply to him, Right of Return is ‘Right’ and a Right.
This is my first substantive foray into both of these subjects where I’ve put my thoughts down at length (never really did it here in this blog except in the comment threads). So I hope you’ll take a look especially at that post. You can access all the posts I’ve written at Israel Reconsidered here.
The latter blog is an experiment for both of us. We didn’t know how it would turn out. We have high regard for each other and usually agree politically. And frankly, I didn’t even know that Larry essentially rejects the Right of Return. When I read his last post it really brought me up short. That’s why my reply was so passionate and perhaps even vituperative. I’m eager for some readers here who haven’t weighed in on the comment threads there to do so. Until now, the preponderance has been of the liberal Zionist stripe, which I find sometimes limiting both intellectually and politically.
Naksa Day wounded protester dragged to safety (Nir Elias/Reuters)
Today and Nakba Day may go down in the recent history of the Israeli-Arab conflict as two days in which Israel massacred unarmed Arab civilians in cold blood thus meriting a war crime investigation. Approximately 600 Palestinian supporters massed today at Quneitra and Majdal Shams on Israel’s Golan border and attempted to repeat their earlier crossing of the border on Nakba Day a few weeks ago. They were met with three battalions of IDF soldiers, police and attack dogs. When the protesters were still on the Syrian side of the border, IDF snipers opened fire on those within 200 meters (600 feet). Arab children approached the fence as a group and they too were fired upon and wounded.
The IDF is claiming, as usual with no supporting evidence, that a demonstrator threw a Molotov cocktail which landed in a mine field and ignited a mine, which killed most of those who died. The video of the event should easily prove or disprove this claim.
Here is the typical lame, mealy-mouthed garbage that passes for IDF justification for its murderous behavior:
“Our firing was measured and cautious,” a senior Northern Command officer said. “We tried to avoid casualties, but at the same time, we’re not willing under any circumstances to allow them to damage the border [fence] or cross it.”
The use of live fire was justified, he added, because this is an international border, and “sovereignty must be upheld at any cost.”
Qalandia activists place their bodies between IDF 'skunk truck' and protesters in act of non-violent resistance (Ahmad al-Nimer)
Interesting that the officer mistakenly claims that this is an “international border,” which it isn’t. It is a disputed border with Israel clinging to territory it conquered and stole from Syria and which it refuses to return despite the fact that Syria has expressed multiple times its willingness to resolve all differences. Under international law, I believe a case can be made that Israel was not defending its own border, and that it was firing on the protesters from territory which once was Syrian and will again be as soon as Israeli leaders come to their senses and return it in exchange for long-term peace. How do you justify killing Syrians because they’re attempting to cross into territory that international law deems to be Syrian? I think Israel has stuck its fist into a hornet’s nest on this one.
Let’s be clear, given the previous massacre on Nakba Day, to kill another 22 demonstrators as Syria is claiming, while wounding hundreds more, is an out and out war crime. What’s more, there will ample video documentation of Israel’s slaughter by Syria TV. For those who may argue there simply was no other way, it must be noted that the Quneitra protest was quelled largely with non-lethal means.
Though the IDF succeeded in preventing a mass border crossing Sunday, officers voiced fears that Israel has lost the initiative
Gee d’ya think?
The slaughter at Majdal Shams is like déjà vu all over again. How many times have we seen the IDF repeat virtually the same bloody scenario (Lebanon 2006, Gaza 2009, Mavi Marmara, etc.)? It seems useless to remind the international community that repeating the same action which failed the first time (and all previous times it’s been attempted) is the definition of insanity. How long will the world allow this bloody insanity to continue before it puts its foot down and intervenes? For the love of God, vote for Palestinian statehood come September. And if Obama undermines this effort shame upon him. He presents no viable alternative. Does he want to go down in history as the American Nero, fiddling while Israel and the frontline states burn?
Until a few years ago, it seemed that the narrative of the Israeli-Arab conflict was determined mostly by Israel: there was the miraculous vote in the UN General Assembly recognizing the partition. Then the even more miraculous 1948 War of Independence, which established the State of Israel. Yes, there was the momentary setback of the 1956 Suez War, whose victorious territorial prize of the Sinai was wrenched from Israel’s hands by Pres. Dwight Eisenhower. But the Lord’s miracles continued in 1967 as Israel reunited the nation’s eternal capital, Jerusalem. The sparks of Messianic redemption were also sown by the return to our Biblical ancestral lands in places that came to be called by many in Israel, Judea and Samaria. Israel affirmed its rendez-vous with Jewish destiny by returning its sons and daughters to these Biblical holy places in Shechem and Hebron, where they became latter-day versions of the pioneers of the 1920s who “cleared the land and drained the swamps.”
There wasn’t much room in all this history, destiny, and messianic redemption for the narrative of the “loser.” Israelis, the most humane among them, could afford to acknowledge the sins that enabled the triumphs of Israel. These visionaries bucked the national consensus, but they were swimming upstream and against the prevailing winds. Over time, their voice became thinner and thinner until it was mostly snuffed out in the shouts of triumph from the Israeli nationalist camp.
But over the past decade or more, the tables have turned. With the onset of the Intifadas, Palestinians began to make a claim to a narrative of their own. It wasn’t just a story they proclaimed for themselves. They asked the rest of the world to acknowledge it as well. Slowly, ever so slowly, the world has turned from intense admiration of Israel’s achievements to recognition of the moral cost of those victories.
In the past 11 years, we have gone through two Intifadas, wars in Gaza in (2009) and Lebanon (2006). With each of these new developments in the Palestinian national struggle, Israel’s narrative receded and the Palestinian’s advanced.
Though the term Nakba has existed for decades, few outside the Arab world have been willing to acknowledge either it or the historical event it denotes. Until now. The historical truth of this tragedy can no longer be mitigated or denied as it has been for so long. Israel has tried to stick its finger in the dyke in order to suppress awareness. It was sung the praises of its own national myth attempting to drown out those who paid the price for Israel’s joy. But there is about the Nakba, what James Joyce called an “ineluctable modality of the visible,” something which can no longer be denied, a fundamental truth that has been repressed far too long.
Now, the tender shoots of the Arab Spring have burst forth. On Nakba Day last month, Palestinian supporters overwhelmed four Israeli borders demanding that the injustice of the Nakba be redressed. Tomorrow, many of these same protesters will do it again, this time to commemorate the Palestinian loss represented by the 1967 War. They’re calling it Naksa, the Setback. Perhaps slightly less tragic than Nakba, or Catastrophe. But the aggregation of these terms strengthens the sense of a wrong that cannot be denied.
News stories today indicate that Hezbollah has asked for protests on the Lebanese border be cancelled. So we don’t quite know what the dimensions of the event will be. But there is one thing of which you can be sure. The dimensions of this struggle will grow day by day, protest by protest. And as they do, Israel’s case will grow weaker and weaker.
The very notion of such a bribe is insulting both to Turkey and to the Israeli-Arab peace process. Can a nation be bought? Can peace be bought? For a mess of porridge? What does Obama take Turkey for? This is a proud nation that can’t be taken in by charades. Its leader, Pres. Erdogan is no fool. He ought to tell the U.S. and Israel that it knows what the price of peace is and when those two are ready to pay, then they have his phone number, as Secretary of State Baker said during the Bush administration, and should call. Until then, they should stop wasting everyone’s time with makeshift measures and blandishments like peace conferences. What good is such a meeting when Israel isn’t ready to deal?
As I wrote in my latest contribution to Truthout, a September date with destiny is looming for Palestine in the UN General Assembly. This is yet another incremental advance of the cause of Palestine and another nail in the coffin of the Occupation. From my reading of UN processes, the Security Council can delay but not deny Palestinian statehood. It’s only a matter of time. As Meir Dagan has been saying lately, time is not on Israel’s side. The longer it delays the worse the deal it will get.
I should make clear that I’m not talking about erasing the Israeli narrative or expecting Israelis to grovel at the feet of those they’ve injured. The Israeli narrative is still valid. All those achievements are laudable, something Israel and the Jewish people can be proud of. But not at the expense of Palestine. Not if Palestine must be denied. What the world demands is that there be two legitimate narratives neither of which eclipses or demeans the other. Two equal narratives. When Bibi Netanyahu or whoever is the Israeli PM at the time can do that, he knows Mahmoud Abbas’s phone number. He can call.
Those who protect Israel’s borders have grown quite jumpy in light of the Nakba Day penetrations of five Israeli borders. The control tower of the Haifa military air force base reported the possibility of enemy aircraft in the skies above the base. Several Israeli jets were scrambled and spent forty minutes scouring the air for any sign of the intruders. One pilot reported that on this clear night the thing that stood out the most in the sky was one of the stars of Cassiopaea:
One of the theories was that because the incident happened the night after Nakba Day, it placed the air command under added stress.
The pilots though, seem to have had a good laugh about the matter:
We treated this as a joke. At least it made us laugh a lot.
No word on how the guy who imagined Syria MIGs attacking Haifa felt.
Apologies to all you youngsters out there who don’t remember the hilarious comedy spoof of the 1970s starring Alan Arkin and an amazing cast, The Russians are Coming! The Russian are Coming! The plot revolved around a Russian submarine which runs aground on the New England coast, thus throwing the populace into a hysterical uproar, believing that the arrival of the sub presaged a Russian invasion of America.
Druze protesters breach the Israeli border
Of course the recent Nakba Day protests in which thousands of Palestinians and their supporters penetrated the Israeli border from territory of five frontline nations are no comedy, unless it’s one of the darkest kinds. The joy felt by the Druze on the Israeli side of the border when their brethren crossed a mine field and leapt over a fence to meet them, quickly turned to horror when the IDF mowed down four of their number though they were completely unarmed. Israel has faced no consequences for its heinous overreaction.
What I wanted to get at in the reference to the movie though is the vast divide between the average Israeli Jewish response to the border violation and the response of foreigners. For Israelis, these were looming hordes come to rape and pillage Israel. They had to be stopped by any means necessary including lethal violence. They had to be taught a lesson not to tinker with Israel lest they repeat these theatrics.
For the average foreign observer, the Israeli response was typically bellicose, aggressive and brutal. It showed the obtuseness of Israel both to the injustices it has perpetrated and to the perception of its behavior on the world stage. So in my film analogy, the Israelis were the hysterical New England residents believing their country was about the be overrun.
Returning to Nakba Day…what did Israel expect from its own counter-provocation? The demonstrations will now take on a continuing life of their own. The IDF responded in precisely the way the organizers of this protest would’ve expected. And now that Israel has drawn blood, the protesters have been in effect dared to take up the challenge. If the IDF had merely treated the border violations as a civil matter and turned the protesters away in a non-lethal manner, the protests would’ve likely petered out or taken a different form.
But now, Israel has thrown down the gauntlet. And one thing Israel may find is that the Arab world, in the aftermath of the democratic revolutions which convulsed Arab capitals from Tunis to Damascus, is in no mood to back down in the face of bullies. Israel may have the most powerful army in the Middle East, but what can it do against the possibility of tens of thousands or protesters piercing its borders? Can it afford to murder hundreds as has happened in Syria? Does it have enough political capital left in the international community to withstand the universal condemnation this would arouse? Not to mention calls for international criminal prosecution? Does Bibi think Barack will cheer him on as Bush did when Israel slaughtered over 1,000 Lebanese civilians in 2006?
Similarly, when Israel mowed down nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists on the Mavi Marmara, it provoked a series of such flotillas chugging to Gaza. Now, the Turkish foreign minister has warned Israel not to toy with Turkey by considering another military attack on a Turkish convoy planning to set sail for Gaza in June. This could set up some sort of armed confrontation between the two former allies. Isn’t it interesting how quickly relations and alliances shift in the Middle East?
I predict Bibi will fold in the face of the Turkish threat and these ships will reach Gaza. Israel tends to back down when it realizes its opponent is as strong as it is. Israel’s army and political leadership prefers to bully states and entities with weak military forces like Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. That’s why there hasn’t been an armed confrontation with Jordan since 1967. And conversely, it’s why it attacked the Mavi Marmara and forcibly prevents other unarmed ships from breaching the Gaza siege. If any of these ships had a military escort, the situation would be different.
With the UN General Assembly vote looming in September, Palestinian activists will test Israel to determine how it will react to such protests. If Israel continues to overreact and kills more activists and gets into a pissing match with Turkey, it will strengthen the movement for statehood. This will also take the wind out of the sails of the Obama administration in its effort to carry water for Israel by vetoing the resolution in the Security Council if it makes its way there.
“Something’s Happenin’ and Ya Don’t Know What It is, Do Mr. Netanyahu?”
Last week, Israeli intelligence sources trumpeted the notion that Israeli Palestinian citizens and their West Bank/Gaza counterparts might plot an uprising around Nakba Day that they hoped would turn into a sort of civil war or perhaps Third Intifada. There were banner headlines about how Israeli forces were preparing to meet every eventuality and would deal with sternly with troublemakers and that the citizenry, by which they meant the Jewish citizenry, had nothing to worry about.
As always seems to happen with these things and Israeli intelligence, they were shocked when it turned out that the Nakba Day protests took on a life of their own when a private settler security guard in an illegally occupied home in Beit Yonatan shot a 17-year-old boy, Malid Said Ayash, who died shortly thereafter. Thereafter, all hell seemed to break loose, but in ways that the intelligence establishment hadn’t at all predicted. Protests were held by the usual suspects in the usual places in villages along the Separation Wall. But Palestinians and their sympathizers also massed on three other borders which had rarely before seen such demonstrations. Thousands trampled the border fences underfoot in the Golan, in Gaza, and on Israel’s Lebanese border and broke through the barrier. All who did so were unarmed, though the IDF has planted false claims that some were armed.
The army responded to these civilian protestors in the only way it knows how, it killed them, and in fairly large numbers (close to 20 dead in various rallies at various locations).
Since the numbers of protests and what occurred is so large I thought it useful to compile a compendium in order to better wrap our minds around developments and understand their possible meaning. The main question is: is this a blip on the screen of anti-Occupation activism or is this an ever intensifying level of protest which should deeply worry those Israel’s who maintain the Occupation? Is this the beginning of a Third Intifada? Or an Israeli version of the Arab Spring sweeping through Arab capitals from Cairo to Damascus? Or is it a one-hit wonder, part of an annual rite of Nakba Day protests which rock the Palestinian community each year only to subside after a day or so?
Given the number of deaths and numbers of frontline states involved (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine) it seems to me this is a new chapter in the resistance. A bold non-violent stroke that almost predictably has been met by the type of massive violent crackdown used by Arab tyrants like Assad who is prepared to mow down his own citizens in their homes in order to preserve his power. I have written numerous times here in the past few months that Israel in using such murderous tactics is showing itself to be no better than the dictators, despite the fact that Israel claims it is a beacon of democracy in an otherwise bleak authoritarian Mideast landscape. Responses like this prove otherwise.
Nakba Day Facebook page
Israel is used to fighting wars on one front and with difficulty has fought wars on two fronts. But if these developments heat up and take on a life of their own, this would be a movement on multiple-fronts the likes of which the country has never seen. Not to mention that so far, at least, the unrest seems non-violent and unlike any previous war-time scenario Israel has faced. It’s almost like Israel is entering an entirely new scenario which is not war and something different than an Intifada. Perhaps it’s a regional Intifada, rather than a purely Palestinian one–though the Palestine issue is fueling the protests clearly. Israel has laughably blamed Iran for the protests claiming as usual with no evidence that the protests “bear the mark of Iran.” When you’d rather deflect attention from the fact that non-violent demonstrators are acting against what they perceive as an unjust, oppressive system imposed by Israel on Palestinians, what better way to do it than invoke the bogeyman: Iran?
As I wrote in the first line of this post, there’s also another phenomenon stirring which Israel does not understand (Hebrew). Just as social networks helped organize protests and topple dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, and brought others to their knees in Libya, Yemen, and Syria, the Nakba events also show evidence of a sophisticated use of digital technology (Hebrew) to mobilize for political action. In the eyes of the Israeli media, these groups show signs of a dastardly conspiracy by anti-Israeli agitators to organize the events and by implication, attempt to topple the Israeli regime. While most of the rest of the world tends to see such organizing in the way it viewed the Facebook Revolution which was brought to life in Tahrir Square: as legitimate expression of grievances long-held and never addressed. The truth of digital revolutions is they only work where the slogans resonate with the populace and injustice festers. Israel would prefer to see all of this organizing as the work of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran, when the truth is that without the spark represented by Occupation there could be no conflagration.
Here are the protests I’ve researched (thanks for the assistance of Dena Shunra) beginning with those that involved deaths, moving to those in which demonstrators were wounded (with no deaths), and finally protests in which there was Israeli violence, but no dead or wounded:
In Majdal Shams (on Syria/Israel border), Ynet reports at least four Syrians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire when thousands crossed the border in the Golan Heights and headed to Majdal Shams. The area was declared “closed military zone”.
In Maround Al-Ras and Naqoura, Ynet reports, according to Lebanese Al-Mustakbal news network, six Lebanese demonstrators were killed and 60 wounded by Israeli military fire, or by Lebanese military fire, according to Israel. In these situations I’ve found that IDF claims, when contradicted by credible counter-claims, are usually wrong. Given that Israeli forces killed demonstrators on two other fronts today, claiming they didn’t use lethal fire on the Lebanese border seems to stretch credulity. Reuters says ten killed. Maan provides higher figures of 14 killed, 112 wounded.
In Gaza, one man was killed, (Reuters reports two dead) at least 45 wounded (including a journalist and many children) when Israeli army used a tank to shell demonstrators by the fence.
Nabi Salah: 25 Palestinian and/or Israeli peace activists & two Border Patrol soldiers wounded, 34 Palestinian and/or Israeli activists arrested
Al-Arob, Beyt Ummar, Bir Zeit, Annata: tear gas canisters shot at protesters. Israeli military claims that stones were thrown and tires burned.
Issawiya: approximately 60 Palestinian and/or Israeli activists arrested.
Bir’am: 9 arrested, unknown number wounded due to violence & mace according to Ran Cohen of PHR-Israel
Qalandia: 250 wounded, 40 seriously, 15 with a rubber-coated bullets, two from live fire. Also, from Hadas Ziv, Media Outreach coordinator for PHR-Israel: shooting at Kalandia. army goes into crowd, hits 2, and takes them on MDA ambulance into Israel. Dr. Moustafa Bargouthi from the Medical Relief told PHR Israel that there are 90 wounded, 10 seriously (head and abdominal from rubber bullets). Many are treated in Medical Relief field hospital. Recently they have started to use live fire. He also told us of mistaarvim (Border Police disguised as Palestinian activists who either provoke violence or arrest victims depending on circumstances) that are arresting demonstrators.
Leehee from Anarchists against the Wall notes another report from the scene: “I was among the medics from 12:30 till 13:30 and there were already dozens of injuries mostly light ones due to gas and rubber bullets.” she described how many ambulances come and go, evacuating around 50 people every half an hour. “At around 13:30 they [Israeli army] intensified the shooting, and at around 14:30 they started with live ammunition” – PHR-Israel report here.
Shuafat Refugee Camp, May 14th (but still relating to Nakba Day events): tear gas etc. in Shuafat. Palestinian paramedics are not allowed in.
Al Walaja: IDF Disrupts Nonviolent March–Prominent political analyst, author and professor, Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh was arrested along with two other Palestinians as they protested in the village of Al Walaja, near Bethlehem, on 15 May 2011. According to Dr. Qumsiyeh’s press release, the three were arrested while participating in a non-violent march of civil disobedience towards the Green Line. As of six o’clock on Sunday night, Dr. Qumsiyeh was still in detention at the Israeli military compound close to Rachel’s Tomb.
According to reports, Israeli forces bombarded the protest in Al Walaja with tear gas, forcing protesters to find refuge in the village’s houses. Five more were arrested after IDF soliders raided homes. According to the press release, three Palestinians, one Irish and another international were arrested from homes.
The original village of Al Walaja was expelled in 1948 and gradually resettled across the valley, near Beit Jala in the Bethlehem district. The march today planned to march from the newly settled Al Walaja to the village’s original lands, which is now forested with a nature reserve.”
East Jerusalem: two days ago in a demonstration outside Beit Yonatan, a neighborhood in which settlers have illegally dispossessed Palestinian residents, a private security guard killed Malid Said Ayash, 17, with a bullet to the chest. Subsequently, dozens of people wounded (in dozens of reports).
Non-lethal force, no one wounded:
Acco/Acre: Dozens of youths waved Palestinian flags & called for the right of return. Israeli police forces confiscated the flags and detained one of the youths for interrogation.
Tel Aviv: Left-wing activists protested in the evening in support of the Nakba Day protests, flew Palestinian flags & chanted anti-military slogans. Local residents threw eggs at them from nearby windows, right-wing counter-protesters changed “Am Yisrael Chai”.
Out of control truck driven by Palestinian with Israeli citizenship kills one man [Avi Morag, 28], wounds 17 others, and damages or destroys 15 cars. The driver accused of being a Nakba Day attack, although he claims that his truck blew a tire and went out of control. In response, Tel Aviv residents demonstrated, demanding “Death to the Arabs.”
Jordan: Jordanian forces prevent protesters from reaching Israeli border, 20 wounded (both police and demonstrators).
Ran Cohen, head of PHR-Israel (Physicians for Human Rights) reports that he saw no evidence of protesters being armed (countering Israeli army spin claiming that there had beeen shooting from among them) on twitter,
I wrote here that Larry Derfner, a columnist for the Jerusalem Post and I were launching a new blog in which we would debate the timely and timeless questions regarding Israel, it’s place in the world Jewish community and its place within the Middle East. The new blog is called Israel Reconsidered and we’ve each written our first post in what promises to be a challenging, ongoing debate about issues like Zionism, Nakba, Right of Return, Law of Return, Occupation, etc.
I hope you’ll bookmark the site and spread the word about our new endeavor.
UPDATE: The NY Times reports that Dr. Benno Schmidt, chair of the CUNY board of trustees, is moving to reinstate Tony Kushner’s honorary degree. In the story, Schmidt acknowledges that a wrong was done to Kushner, that the board made a “mistake of principle,” and that he’s trying to right it. Thank God for common sense and decency. The executive committee will meet on Monday in special session to deliberate on the matter and it is anticipated a grave injustice will be rectified. I presume Wiesenfeld isn’t a member of the executive committee and thus won’t be able to poison the well and the playwright’s candidacy, as he did before the entire board.
Jeffrey Goldberg, in the true spirit of “if you give a man enough rope, he’ll hang himself,” has a long, illuminating interview with Jeffrey Wiesenfeld in The Atlantic. Now that Tony Kushner has exposed as a lie the CUNY trustee’s charge that the playwright supports an Israel boycott, Wiesenfeld has only one of his original smears against Kushner up his sleeve: the Nakba as ethnic cleansing.
Almost all my readers know the facts that nearly 1-million Israeli Palestinians were expelled (mostly forcibly) from their homes inside Israel before, during and after the 1948 war. Most people know that the Israeli New Historians, including Benny Morris, in fact documented this act of ethnic cleansing. Without their intensive historical research into Israeli archival sources on the subject, the charge would only rest on the claims of the victims themselves, and thus be less solid than it is.
So in the spirit of giving everyone, including Jewish idiots, a fair deal, let’s listen to the bubbe meisehs that Wiesenfeld spins in his interview:
Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, the bomb-throwing CUNY trustee who has blocked John Jay College from awarding the playwright Tony Kushner an honorary degree, told me…that, as the child of Holocaust survivors, he has no choice but to call out Kushner for making the “blood-libel charge” that Israel has engaged in ethnic-cleansing.
“My mother would call Tony Kushner a kapo,” he said in a telephone conversation earlier this morning. “Kapos” were Jews who worked for the Germans in concentration camps. “If I’m confronted by anti-Semitism in my face, I’m going to call it out.” I asked him if he had any doubt Kushner was an anti-Semite. He said: “Anyone who accuses the Jews of ethnic-cleansing is participating in a blood libel, so yes, he’s a Jewish anti-Semite.”
…”Ethnic-cleansing is a blood libel. You’ve crossed the line if you’ve said that. It’s Darfur, Bosnia, Nazi Germany. If you say the Jewish people engaged in ethnic cleansing, then you put them in the class of the Nazis.”
…”The Jews never did this on a systematic basis. The Jews don’t plan genocide. If there was ethnic-cleansing, how come there are more than a million Arab citizens of Israel today?”
At the end of the interview, Wiesenfeld graciously offers to support Tony Kushner’s honorary degree if he would come before the board (a right that was not accorded to him before Wiesenfeld slashed and burned his candidacy for the degree in the first place) and apologize for all the bad, bad things he’s said about Israel in the past. Imagine, it’s CUNY’s board that should be apologizing to Kushner for their stupidity, but Wiesenfeld somehow gets it all backwards.
If I were Mike Bloomberg and Andy Cuomo I’d be saying right about now in a paraphrase of Henry II: “Will someone not rid me of this troublesome knucklehead.”
In a separate Times interview, Wiesenfeld makes even more damaging claims that Palestinians are not human because they “worship death.” Being the Jewish ignoramus that he is, he’s unaware of the holy martyrdoms throughout Jewish history beginning with Masada, the Roman executions of the Rabbi Akiva and the nine other saintly rabbis, the deaths of tens of thousands during the Crusades which were likened to the sacrifice of Isaac and clearly seen in terms of martyrdom, followed by the deaths of Jews on the auto da fe during the Spanish Inquisition. In the Israeli context, Michael Dorfman reminded me on Facebook, that Josef Trumpeldor apocryphally said before his own martyrdom at Tel Hai: “it is good to die for one’s country.” To this day, IDF ceremonies for new recruits canonize the Masada martyrdom with the slogan: “Masada will not fall again.” Baruch Kimmerling has written definitively on the cult of martyrdom in the latter-day Israeli context.
I have an unwritten rule of thumb in dealing with the ahistorical nonsense spewed by people like Wiesenfeld: whatever smears they level against the Palestinians are vices that also characterize Jews. In other words, no one is solely guilty here. We all have sins and weaknessnesses. It is the hubris that your side is all good and the other side is all bad that gets us into profound trouble when dealing with complex historical claims of both Israelis and Palestinians. Instead of hubris, what we really and desperately need is humility. The concept that we may not know everything, that our enemy may have a legitimate claim we weren’t aware of. And that we may be able to convince him or her of a legitimate claim we may have as well.
This is the problem when you give an ignoramus power. He uses it to bully those who are smarter, better read, more articulate and more learned than he. His actions thus pollute the political discourse in a community because they aren’t based on real ideas, but rather on half-baked notions having little to do with reality.
Let’s take the idea that his mother, a Holocaust survivor, would call Kushner a “Kapo.” Without knowing his mother, I’m willing to bet that as a survivor she would do nothing of the sort. She, unlike her son, likely met real Kapos and knew the horror of what they did and the genuine suffering they caused. She likely would never call someone a Kapo for merely being a critic of Israeli policies. I have met many Holocaust survivors and I have never heard a single one use the term in any other way than to refer to that specific historical period. The notion of exploiting it in a contemporary context having nothing to do with the Holocaust comes from the pro-Israel far-right and the Kahanist crowd, which has always been obsessed with linking Israel to the Holocaust and claiming that those who oppose Israel will cause a new Holocaust.
So Wiesenfeld is exploiting the sacred imagery of the Holocaust and Jewish suffering in a contemporary context in which it does not belong. He abuses the term “Kapo” to score cheap political points against those who legitimately raise their voices out of concern that Israel’s policies are taking it down the wrong road. There is a term in Hebrew for what Wiesenfeld is: am ha’aretz. An ignorant, ahistorical, Kahanist, lying boor.
If this troubles you half as much as it does me, go to Jerry Haber’s blog and post a version of his letter to the CUNY trustees, whose e mail addresses he provides.
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Those who protect Israel’s borders have 
Apologies to all you youngsters out there who don’t remember the hilarious comedy spoof of the 1970s starring Alan Arkin and an amazing cast, 
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