Miko Peled: What He Doesn’t Say …
Miko Peled, author of The General’s Son – Journey of an Israeli in Palestine, gave a recorded talk in Seattle last month and it came to our desk with flying colors: “A Must Watch”, “Let the world know good Israeli Jews do exist!!!!”
And sure enough, many critical comments come from this Jewish Israeli, critical of his Jewish state. But interestingly, he refers to his state as the “Zionist state”, which always catches the ear of this writer. Neither Theodore Herzl nor Benjamin Netanyahu calls it the Zionist state. They call it the Jewish State, and so does the state itself in the 1948 Declaration of Establishment of the State of Israel. Is Mr. Peled giving Jews a pass? Why?
Does Mr. Peled support or reject Israel’s claimed right to exist as a Jewish state? We don’t know because he’s not telling; which, of course is VERY telling. Why do we have to guess? Is he a slave owner masquerading around in an abolitionist milieu, who only steers the conversation away from the dismantlement of slavery?
Although he discusses Palestinian Right of Return (ROR), he does not demand the full and immediate ROR as stipulated in UN Resolution 194. Watch the video again if you need to. Is he protecting his Jewish state by not making this demand? Again, we’re left in the dark.
What about Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish supremacist state? Does he even mention Jewish supremacism? Does he not understand White supremacism in South Africa and see the parallels? At a time when PM Netanyahu is demanding from Palestinians they recognize Israel’s “right” to exist as a Jewish state, Mr. Peled drops the ball when he should be clearly and loudly expressing his rejection of this racist superiority.
Where is his rejection of the racism that exists within his own Jewish community? Where is his Malcolm X-understanding that the racism that propels the Jewish state lies in the core of his tribe? We cannot see in this talk where he holds his Jewish community accountable for their unmistakable and unanimous support for the Jewish state.
Finally, why does he mention the “holocaust” at least six times in his presentation? Whose emotions is he trying to manipulate? Why doesn’t he explain the irrelevance of this six-year span of history to the goals of the Zionist conquistadores, who had a movement so mature that they convened the 1st World Zionist Organization meeting in Basil, Switzerland when Adolf Hitler was seven years old?
Zeitouna Ladies Exhibit a Tiny Schism
Two members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends were surprised to find that members of the political group Zeitouna were selected to be the Q&A panel to the movie Encounter Point last week. Readers will remember this Jewish-led group meets twice a month to have dinner and to share emotions along the lines of “you suffer, I suffer, let’s eat, and let’s certainly not talk about who’s actually causing the others’ suffering”.
The Palestinian women on the panel were quite firm in announcing that things in their homeland have gotten much worse in the last few years, and their Jewish sisters offered a lot of hand-wringing as accompaniment. “What to do?” their expressions said. When this writer suggested one-woman, one-vote for all in the territory “Israel” controls as a solution, he was reminded that Zeitouna is not a political group and what would their opinion be worth, anyway?
Our favorite Palestinian woman in the group, however, did offer that “reconciliation” – a defining description of Zeitouna, was not appropriate while the sins of “Israel” were ongoing and that the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of South Africa was formed only after the racist shell of Apartheid was broken. Good for her!
JWPF in the News
The Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, whose Director just won a seat on Ann Arbor’s City Council, has weighed in with a public letter to our group complaining about articles “circulated” by this author with “Making Monsters at Beth Israel” being singled out. Moreover, the ICPJ letter asks that we cease our nine-year-old vigils at Beth Israel. Was this request a payback for political support, as one commenter asks? We don’t know. We are, however, mindful of an almost identical request by the same organization was offered in the fall of 2005, with our response. Our response was never addressed, and we continue to feel these requests as hollow, and made only for public consumption. In the meantime, as explained in the article by Janet Miller, JWPF reports no plans to cease our vigils.
Comments?
Eight vigilers protesting
Illegitimate “Israel”
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
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