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Is Rabbi Lerner a Racist?
It is time for Tikkun to truly reflect whether it promotes values of supremacy and apartheid,
or values of universalist humanity. If you are not sure, read on... The articles speak for themselves.
or values of universalist humanity. If you are not sure, read on... The articles speak for themselves.
Lerner Michael Lerner continues his racist attack after Tikkun wrote the following about our great success in pushing the war back in the historical march of January
18th, mobilizing about three quarters of a million people, :
"... the Tikkun community have put forward is that the mobilizations have
been run by a group called ANSWER, itself dominated by a communist sect group which is filled with hate toward Israel and wishes to see it dismantled. It has used
anti-war demonstrations to demean Israel and to picture the war in Iraq as a war for Israeli interests. "
If this and the attacks in the New York Times were not enough, Rabbi Lerner decided to attack the peace movement, even while the war criminal Sharon is running
the apartheid state of Israel and the Bush administration pushes for war. It is time for Tikkun to truly reflect whether it promotes values of supremacy and apartheid,
or values of universalist humanity. If you are not sure, read on... The articles speak for themselves.
> > Progressive Rabbi Banned From Speaking at Peace
> > Rally Because of His
> > Pro-Israel Stance
> >
> >
> > Rabbi Michael Lerner can not speak at the peace
> > rally in San Francisco, February 16th. That was the
> > response given when various groups proposed Rabbi
> > Lerner, thinking it logical to have him speak since
> > he is one of the most prominent peace voices in the
> > Jewish world.
> > But Rabbi Lerner was blackballed and
> > banned by A.N.S.W.E.R., one of the four organizing
> > committees for the S.F. demonstration expected to
> > attract hundreds of thousands. The reason: Lerner
> > had been critical of the way that A.N.S.W.E.R. has
> > used the anti-war demonsrtations to put forward
> > anti-Israel propaganda.
> > Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine, is
> > himself an outspoken critic of Israeli policy. But
> > he is also a Zionist who believes in the State of
> > Israel and supported his son to serve in the Israeli
> > army in a combat union (the tzanchanim or
> > paratroopers). But Lerner and Tikkun magazine have
> > been equally critical of acts of terror by
> > Palestinians, and they have called for Palestinians
> > to follow a path of non-violence. In his 2003 book
> > Healing Israel/Palestine, Lerner calls for a
> > "progressive middle path" that is both pro-Israel
> > and pro-Palestine, and argues that the best
> > interests of each can only be achieved if the other
> > side also achieves its best interests.
> > Other coalitions supporting the rally ,
> > including the United For Peace and Justice and the
> > Not In Our Name, went along with the ban, arguing
> > that they had previously accepted as a condition for
> > participation in the demonstration the agreement
> > that if one of the groups vetoed a speaker that all
> > would have to go along. A.N.S.W.E.R. spokesperson,
> > speaking on the Brian Lehrer show of WNYC, said that
> > they would not agree to have a "pro-Israel" speaker
> > at their rally. Meanwhile, there are many in the
> > organized Jewish world who will not Lerner speak
> > because he is too critical of Israeli policy.
> > Beyt Tikkun synagogue, where Rabbi
> > Lerner serves as a rabbi in San Francisco, issued
> > the following statement: "Rabbi Lerner has urged us
> > to continue to support the demonstration for peace
> > on February 16th, and we will be there to show that
> > many Jews oppose this war. However, we do not
> > believe that had A.N.S.W.E.R. been criticized by a
> > major feminist or gay leader and then vetoed that
> > leader to speak at a demonstration that the other
> > coalition partners would go along with that. So why
> > should criticism of anti-Semitism and Israel-bashing
> > be treated differently? A.N.S.W.E.R. doesn't believe
> > that Israel has a right to exist. We are
> > enthusiastic supporters of Israel, even though
> > totally critical of its current policies. So why
> > should our voice of critique of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s
> > anti-Israel policy serve as a justification for
> > excluding our rabbi from speaking? This seems a
> > dangerous double-standard and conveys, probably
> > unintentionally, the message that somehow
> > anti-Semitism is not a significant issue for
> > anti-war protesters."
> > Rabbi Lerner said, "I'm honored that
> > some people wanted me to speak, and dismayed that
> > the specific reason I'm not allowed to speak is my
> > criticism of the anti-Israel bias of A.N.S.W.E.R.
> > But I believe that the message of peace is far more
> > pressing at the moment than the message of fighting
> > the anti-Semitism among some of the march's
> > organizers. "
> >
18th, mobilizing about three quarters of a million people, :
"... the Tikkun community have put forward is that the mobilizations have
been run by a group called ANSWER, itself dominated by a communist sect group which is filled with hate toward Israel and wishes to see it dismantled. It has used
anti-war demonstrations to demean Israel and to picture the war in Iraq as a war for Israeli interests. "
If this and the attacks in the New York Times were not enough, Rabbi Lerner decided to attack the peace movement, even while the war criminal Sharon is running
the apartheid state of Israel and the Bush administration pushes for war. It is time for Tikkun to truly reflect whether it promotes values of supremacy and apartheid,
or values of universalist humanity. If you are not sure, read on... The articles speak for themselves.
> > Progressive Rabbi Banned From Speaking at Peace
> > Rally Because of His
> > Pro-Israel Stance
> >
> >
> > Rabbi Michael Lerner can not speak at the peace
> > rally in San Francisco, February 16th. That was the
> > response given when various groups proposed Rabbi
> > Lerner, thinking it logical to have him speak since
> > he is one of the most prominent peace voices in the
> > Jewish world.
> > But Rabbi Lerner was blackballed and
> > banned by A.N.S.W.E.R., one of the four organizing
> > committees for the S.F. demonstration expected to
> > attract hundreds of thousands. The reason: Lerner
> > had been critical of the way that A.N.S.W.E.R. has
> > used the anti-war demonsrtations to put forward
> > anti-Israel propaganda.
> > Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine, is
> > himself an outspoken critic of Israeli policy. But
> > he is also a Zionist who believes in the State of
> > Israel and supported his son to serve in the Israeli
> > army in a combat union (the tzanchanim or
> > paratroopers). But Lerner and Tikkun magazine have
> > been equally critical of acts of terror by
> > Palestinians, and they have called for Palestinians
> > to follow a path of non-violence. In his 2003 book
> > Healing Israel/Palestine, Lerner calls for a
> > "progressive middle path" that is both pro-Israel
> > and pro-Palestine, and argues that the best
> > interests of each can only be achieved if the other
> > side also achieves its best interests.
> > Other coalitions supporting the rally ,
> > including the United For Peace and Justice and the
> > Not In Our Name, went along with the ban, arguing
> > that they had previously accepted as a condition for
> > participation in the demonstration the agreement
> > that if one of the groups vetoed a speaker that all
> > would have to go along. A.N.S.W.E.R. spokesperson,
> > speaking on the Brian Lehrer show of WNYC, said that
> > they would not agree to have a "pro-Israel" speaker
> > at their rally. Meanwhile, there are many in the
> > organized Jewish world who will not Lerner speak
> > because he is too critical of Israeli policy.
> > Beyt Tikkun synagogue, where Rabbi
> > Lerner serves as a rabbi in San Francisco, issued
> > the following statement: "Rabbi Lerner has urged us
> > to continue to support the demonstration for peace
> > on February 16th, and we will be there to show that
> > many Jews oppose this war. However, we do not
> > believe that had A.N.S.W.E.R. been criticized by a
> > major feminist or gay leader and then vetoed that
> > leader to speak at a demonstration that the other
> > coalition partners would go along with that. So why
> > should criticism of anti-Semitism and Israel-bashing
> > be treated differently? A.N.S.W.E.R. doesn't believe
> > that Israel has a right to exist. We are
> > enthusiastic supporters of Israel, even though
> > totally critical of its current policies. So why
> > should our voice of critique of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s
> > anti-Israel policy serve as a justification for
> > excluding our rabbi from speaking? This seems a
> > dangerous double-standard and conveys, probably
> > unintentionally, the message that somehow
> > anti-Semitism is not a significant issue for
> > anti-war protesters."
> > Rabbi Lerner said, "I'm honored that
> > some people wanted me to speak, and dismayed that
> > the specific reason I'm not allowed to speak is my
> > criticism of the anti-Israel bias of A.N.S.W.E.R.
> > But I believe that the message of peace is far more
> > pressing at the moment than the message of fighting
> > the anti-Semitism among some of the march's
> > organizers. "
> >
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IMC Network
See what the two-state solution camp REALLY believes in? APARTHEID and a refusal to share the land of Palestine as equals with the indigenous people, the Palestinians.
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=385
What happens?
Go to the anti-war marches, yes. Of course. But seriously, what is evil about being both "pro-israeli and pro-palestinian"?
sf.indymedia has apparently censored the View Latest Comments listing of this article ( originally posted at http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/02/1572736.php ) If sf.indymedia has found the article slanderous or the information otherwise wrong, they should have posted their own comment saying so and/or specifying that they will not post slanderous, libelous or otherwise defamatory information. Please email sf.indymedia at imc-sf-editorial [at] indymedia.org and sf [at] indymedia.org if you are concerned about this apparent censorship.
RACIST ZIONIST QUOTES
by Joseph Anderson
"Zionism is nothing more than the belief that Jews as a people have the right to self-determination in their homeland, Israel." That's the PUBLIC RELATIONS DEFINITION of Zionism. Here are but a FEW racist Zionist quotes by Zionist founding pioneers:
All one has to do is to go read the statements of the Zionist pioneers about Palestine--they blatantly believed that they had a racially superior right to the land and their statements were definitely racist.
Here are but a FEW!!!:
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the 'Beasts,"' New Statesman, June 25,1982:
"[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."
David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff.
From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978:
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."
Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's Colonization Department.
From Israel: an Apartheid State by Uri Davis, p.5:
"Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them."
Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine, "Complete Diaries," June 12, 1895 entry.:
"Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."
Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg, head of the Kever Yossev Yeshiva (school of Talmud) in Nablus stated:
"The blood of the Jewish people is loved by the Lord; it is therefore redder and their life is preferable."
Yitzhak Ginsburg, "Five General Religious Duties Which Lie Behind the Act of the Saintly, Late Rabbi Baruch Goldstein, May his Blood be Avenged":
"The killing by a Jew of a non-Jew, i.e. a Palestinian, is considered essentially a good deed, and Jews should therefore have no compunction about it."
In 1923, radical Zionist Ze'ev Jabotinsky-- spiritual father of not only of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin but of Brooklyn Rabbi Meir Kahane-- wrote:
the "sole way" for Jews to deal with Arabs in Palestine was through "total avoidance of all attempts to arrive at a settlement"-which Jabotinsky euphemistically termed the "iron wall" approach. Not coincidentally, a picture of Jabotinsky graces Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's desk. Source: The Village Voice, "Death Wish in the Holy Land," Dec. 12, 2001.
The influential Israeli Rabbi Ovadia Yosef exclaimed during a sermon preceding the 2001 Passover holiday, :
"May the Holy Name visit retribution on the
Arab heads, and cause their seed to be lost, and annihilate them." He added: "It is forbidden to have pity on them. We must give them missiles with relish, annihilate them. Evil ones, damnable ones." -- Source: Ha'aretz April 12, 2001.
Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969:
"We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, ‘What is to be done with the Palestinian population?’ Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!'"
David Ben Gurion, quoted in The Jewish Paradox, by Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
1978, p. 99:
"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."
Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, 'Begin and the "Beasts"', New Statesman, 25 June 1982:
"We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return."
Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979. Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet:
"We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters."
David Goldman wrote:
"We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours."
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir's infamous quote:
"There is no such thing as a Palestinian."
Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998:
"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."
Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum":
"If I was an Arab leader I would never make [peace] with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country."
And finally:
Michael Ben-Yair, Attorney General of Israel, 1993-1996 (in Ha'aretz):
"The Intifada is the Palestinian's people's war of national liberation. We [Israel] enthusiastically chose to become a colonialist society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the Occupied Territories, engaging in theft and funding justification for all these activities.. we [Israel] established an apartheid regime."
Ehud Barak, on Israeli TV (date undetermined, but confirmed by former Israeli Knesset Member Marsha Friedman):
"If I were a Palestinian, I would be a terrorist."
(Speaking about Sharon's policies toward the Palestinians.)
Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel (date undetermined, in an Israeli cabinet meeting):
Don't worry, we [Israel] control the United States.
(In response to concerns raised by another cabinet member about Sharon's ["the butcher of Beirut"] invasion and brutality in the West Bank.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also see:
Zionism Ignores Plight of Palestinian People
http://www.dailycal.org/article.asp?id=10435
and
Zionist Claim to Israel: Modern-Day Apartheid
http://www.dailycal.org/article.asp?id=3508
I have criticized A.N.S.W.E.R. for their uncritical embrace of the genocidal beast Milosevic, as have thousands of others. Now they can all be banned from the podium as well?
I have criticized A.N.S.W.E.R. for their incredible embrace of Kim Jong Il's mad, cultish regime which starved millions while it feasted the leadership of the International Action Center, A.N.S.W.E.R.'s founders. Thousands have done the same. Now they can be banned from the podium?
Ask the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq, for example, what they think of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s unprincipled embrace of Saddam Hussein's regime. Will they be immediately banned from the podium?
This is just a craven caving-in to the most Stalinist politics imaginable. It is an attitude that has nothing to do with the real peace movement that exists today, and it has no real resonance among the masses of people who have attended the anti-war demonstrations, including those which were "organized" by A.N.S.W.E.R. itself. It is rather a recipe for failure and marginalization.
There is now a letter of protest circulating about Michael Lerner's banning that is signed by hundreds of people from Howard Zinn to Stew Albert to Ellen Carol DuBois. Are they now all banned from speaking at future demonstrations?
This is the real issue. And it is certainly amazing and disturbing, to say the least, that some seem to prefer to argue about "Zionism" in order to murder revolutionary democracy.
Well, Long live the Spanish Revolution! Long live the Hungarian Revolution! And long live the Iraqi Intifada of 1991! May we see more in our lifetime.