A Day in the Life (I)
A female bicyclist cruises by our vigils, checks out our signs, and moves on, only to return a few minutes later. From my distant vantage point, I sense a slight commotion, and saunter over. The woman has turned our sign, “Israel: No Right to Exist” around and is attempting to defend her attempt at censorship. She is told “It’s free speech” by Vigiler G, and the biker retorts “This [sign] is beyond free speech.” Nice to know the boundaries…
A Day in the Life (II)
Same day, towards evening: My mate accepts an invitation to an outdoor party and I tag along. Now, I’ve been booted out of a number of bars in my day, but this evening marks the first time I was booted from a private party. The host – a hippie kinda guy I’ve seen on the dance floor of the local bar (where I wear my colors) many times – was told by some Jews at the party that they were offended by my car. Initially, he said my mate and I could stay, but the front license plate
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/License%20Plate%201.jpg
had to be removed, claiming it said “eliminate the Jews”. Mate tried to explain things to host (he’s primarily her friend) but he wasn’t listening, and claimed the plate was like waving a Confederate flag in front of blacks.
I was so shocked at his increasing upset and anger that I didn’t think to point out to him that the racism some see in the Confederate flag bears a great similarity to the overt racism in the Israeli flag, and is why the license plate negates it. Oh, well, hindsight’s 20-20.
Your Opinion Matters
Perhaps reacting emotionally to the above examples of Tribal-influenced silencing, I had a cartoon found on the internet printed on a sign. The cartoon is intended to convey the message of Jewish Power’s influence on US foreign policy. Internal discussions in JWPF have so far prevented its appearance at the vigil, two in favor, three against. We await your input; does the following enhance our attempt to address the general public or does it detract?
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/us%20fight%20for%20israel.jpg
Comments?
Aug 8: 7 vigilers
Aug 15: 7 vigilers
Aug. 22: 7 vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
How many Jews does it take to screw up a peace movement?
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August 25th, 2015 - 12:47 pm
though I understand and agree with the cartoon’s message about Jewish power, to me the image is a turn-off. I don’t like the stereo-type (racist) caricature of the Jew. nor that the Jew is holding a flag with with star of David as opposed to a flag of Israel.
but the insult by your party host is typical reaction reflrcting how Americans (and the world) have willfully coexisted with a translucent lie about what the Zionist project is about and the moral questions at its center: establishing an ethno-centric, Jew-supremacist state in all of Palestine. It’s racism pure and simple and should be canceled as your license plate suggests.
Michael Rabb, Boulder Colorado
August 25th, 2015 - 1:08 pm
Use the cartoon and make the flag as the flag of “The Antisemitic Apartheid Jewish State” and change the face of the person to the face of Sheldon Adelson or Haim Saban or Paul Wolfowitz or Robert Kagan…….you get the picture……..
August 25th, 2015 - 4:03 pm
i agree with the previous two posts. i incline toward against. one reason is the inaccuracy, a non sequitur(i tend to literalist positions) of linking us soldiers and israel, joining the us army and fighting for israel. us soldiers, as far as i’m aware, do not actually fight for israel. the us military personnel are not on the literal front lines of israel, while of course the us military generally is linked with israel. if the conflation were us congress and israel, then i’d buy in.
August 27th, 2015 - 12:33 am
Skip says: “us soldiers, as far as i’m aware, do not actually fight for israel …” Skip, US troops most certainly have been sent to war to fight for Israel. Exhibit A is the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
*“The Deadly Embrace” by James Petras
*“A War for Israel” by Jeffrey Blankfort
*“Whose War?” by Patrick J. Buchanan
*“The Israel Lobby” by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
*“The Men From JINSA and CSP” by Jason Vest
*“War on Iraq: Not oil but Israel” by Stephen J. Sniegoski
*“The war on Iraq: Conceived in Israel” by Stephen J. Sniegoski
*“Iraq: A War For Israel” by Mark Weber
*“The ‘JINSA Crowd’ and the Iraq War” by VFPDissident