Is Jewish leadership getting nervous? It should be.

This writer attended a press conference this week at a Dearborn Heights (Michigan) mosque, which was to show solidarity with the Muslim community against Islamophobia in the face of alleged racist comments by presidential candidates, notably Donald Trump’s.

Had the religious leaders in attendance listened to what their colleagues were actually saying, they might have realized that the racism they were proudly denouncing was exactly the same racism exhibited by the Jewish state’s treatment of Palestinians. Of all the racisms denounced – and there was JWPF’s open critic Dawud Walid (Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations) dredging up “anti-semitism” for his handlers to witness – Zionism didn’t get mentioned.

Hello, Muslim and Christian friends: Zionism is a form of racism that has led to decades of suffering and righteous resentment among Muslims.

Consider some of the comments made at that conference:

“America needs to do more to take care of the Syrian refugees.” … What about the plight of Palestinian refugees exiled from their homes by force for the last 67 years and denied [u/l]to this day to return to them by Israel and its supporters? Why don’t the pastors and imams include that group of refugees in their calls for justice?

“America is proud of its inclusion and diversity; indeed, it’s part of our American values.” … No mention that Israel is a Jewish state, where exclusivity reigns. Israel by self-definition excludes from equal standing the very members of the religions – Christianity and Islam – represented at this press conference. How could the pastors and imams present have looked at this obvious violation of human rights, then looked the other way?

One pastor said “Being human takes all of us together” and we agree. But certainly Israeli Jews (and many American Jews) don’t believe that. Otherwise, Israel would be a state that welcomes, rather than denies – and is violently hostile to – the six million Palestinians under its control.

“Trump violates American separation of church and state when he singles out a religion for persecution.” … Israel, on the other hand, is as un-American as a state can be. It conjoins church and state, rather than separates the two. This conflation is one of the core reasons JWPF was formed: We have long challenged Beth Israel as “a political institution as well as a house of worship”.

And another pastor said “All people are equal in the sight of God.” Was Rabbi Daniel Schwartz – present in this group of respected clergy – getting a bit nervous at the pastor’s words? Did he think for a moment of the story of a little boy and a naked emperor? How would he countenance the word “equal” with the dissonance of “chosen”?

And who remembers the made-for-the-average-American video “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” given away to voters prior to the 2008 Presidential election? That video epitomizes the term Islamophobia and was produced by Aish Hatorah, the “leading Jewish content website” for the last fifteen years.

Jewish organizations like Aish Hatorah and powerful Jewish leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu have no trouble identifying a “radical Islam”, but do Christian and Muslim leaders utter the phrase “radical Judaism” when describing the violent and continuing Jewish Zionist takeover of Arab lands? Not a peep. What could have served as a timely wake-up call to Christians and Muslims, these leaders of their respective communities let their worshippers down. Fighting for racial equality while turning a blind eye in the presence of overt Jewish racism serves no group and is certainly not a way to promote justice.

Comments?

Six vigilers
America First, NOT Israel
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
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