Want to Debate?

Please link to the following 1-minute harangue authored by University of Michigan Professor Victor Lieberman and observe how he employs three hasbara techniques in an attempt to disrupt our peaceful vigils. First, he tries to divert our mission from holding Zionist Jews accountable for their support of Israeli crimes by bringing up a second issue. When that fails, he launches into a purely ad hominem attack, and ends by challenging this author to a debate.

This rat-a-tat delivery, filled with deception, works well for Victor, and he appears confident in his offer to debate. What, however, happens when it is he who receives, rather than initiates, the challenge to debate? Remembering JWPF’s guest speaker on May 28, here’s the email from Dr. Kevin Barrett to the good professor:

Hello Victor,

I recently did a book talk in Ann Arbor and met Henry Herskovitz and his friends, who said you would be an interesting radio show guest.

So I’m writing to invite you to join me to discuss the issues you raise in the letter to Marcia Federbush appended below. We could pre-record at a time of your convenience between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern, or do a live show any Friday beginning June 12th from 8 to 9 pm Eastern.

Heads up: I’m an American Muslim, my Ph.D. is in Arabic (Islamic Studies focus) and my views on Zionism are in line with those of most Muslims.

Thank you for considering this, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Professor Lieberman, the debate challenger:

Dear Kevin,

Thanks for the invitation, but I have not the slightest interest in joining you. I would like to know. however, who provided you a copy of my letter to Marcia Federbush.

Kevin’s (appropriate) rejoinder:

Dear Victor,

I have a double agent planted inside your Mossad-sayanim network who was kind enough to provide me with samples of your correspondence.

If you ever develop enough courage to defend your views in a discussion or debate, please do let me know.

Comments?

June 6: 7 vigilers
June 13: 6 vigilers
Remember the USS Liberty
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Walking on our Fighting Side

When Jewish Voice for Peace sent a letter to our respected friend, supporter and principled investigative journalist Alison Weir refusing to work with her, they are, in the words of Merle Haggard, “walking on the fightin’ side of me”. Certainly, Alison can fight her own battles, and she does so in her reply, but JVP exposes its true tribal roots, its “third category Jewishness”, and its Zionist ingathering by writing such a letter. If Gilad Atzmon is correct in his definition of Zionism as a “Jewish tribal preservation project” then the shoe fits, and JVP is unmasked as the fifth columnists they are. Paraphrasing the words of the late Helen Thomas, these Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine liberation”, because they’re playing for the other team.

On the slight chance that we’re wrong about JVP’s hidden Zionist agenda, let’s put the question to JVP leadership and individual JVP members: Do you support Israel’s claimed right to exist as a Jewish state? Yes or No … Up or Down … no Ruebner-like equivocating … which side are you on, really?

Will Ann Arbor Jews Vie for Censorship Title?

Long-in-the-tooth readers will remember the Soprano-esque letter by Physician Barry Gross in 2004 where he reminded the Mayor of Ann Arbor and his City Council that “The time when your silence [on our peaceful vigils] was acceptable is long past. The 470 family units in our congregation virtually all live in Ann Arbor. We are avid voters. We are watching closely for your response”. The “response” was that these deserters of the US Constitution, threw that Constitution under the bus and issued a resolution “condemn[ing]” our weekly, non-violent exercise of our First Amendment rights.

Now comes Professor Victor Lieberman, aka “the spitter”, who pens a late letter to the editor of the Ann Arbor Observer, requesting that he cancel the ad promoting our vigils*. Claiming that our group “is composed of hard-core anti-Semites”, he asks the editor “I see no principled difference between this group and the Ku Klux Klan. Would you allow the KKK to recruit members in The Observer?”

Be careful what you wish for, Victor. Do you really want to introduce a group promoting White supremacism into the discussion, when it’s your own group – Beth Israel Congregation – which promotes Jewish supremacism in Palestine? The battle between which Jewish Zionist has the most political sway – Lieberman or Gross – might well be determined this fall, when JWPF plans to run a second ad in the Observer. Do stay tuned.

Kevin Barrett Produces Sleepless Nights in Ann Arbor

JWPF was privileged to host Kevin Barrett this week, who spoke to twenty folks from southeast Michigan. He talked about false flag operations from the provoked and staged bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Gulf of Tonkin attack to the assassination of JFK, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 9/11 attacks on NYC and Washington, and the recent “French 9/11”, the false flag attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris. Kevin coated just about everything this writer thought he knew with a heavy blanket of doubt, and from the reports we’ve gathered from other listeners, I was not the only one.

Good for you, Kevin. Keep stirring things up and opening the eyes of those still willing to attempt to separate wheat from chaff.

Email From a Close Friend

Vigil Supporter H writes:

Ehu’d they elect this time?

Netanotheryahoo, I hope.

Comments?
* ad appears on p. 79 of June edition
May 23: 8 vigilers
May 30: 8 vigilers
New York Times, Dec. 1914, “consider the plight of more than 6,000,000 Jews who live within the war zone”
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Kevin Barrett to promote new book in Ann Arbor

This writer, along with JWPF and Deir Yassin Remembered, is pleased to announce an evening fireside chat with Veterans Today editor Kevin Barrett. Kevin will be plugging his new book, We Are NOT Charlie Hebdo!: Free Thinkers Question the French 9/11

This book asks the questions that need to be asked: false flags, free speech, who is being manipulated and by whom, WMD’s etc. Readers are encouraged to review the book’s introduction at the link above.

Kevin will appear at this writer’s house
Thursday, May 28
7:30 PM
All are invited; for those needing location, please email me at hersko@umich.edu

JWPF Advertises our Vigils in Ann Arbor Observer

The June edition of Ann Arbor’s hip and trendy Observer will sport an advertisement encouraging attendance at our weekly vigils. Text of the ad reads

Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends. Weekly, peaceful pro-Palestinian (anti-Israel) vigils in front of Beth Israel Congregation every Saturday. Signs supplied, or bring your own; everyone is invited to stand with us. 9:30 – 10:45 AM, 2000 Washtenaw, one traffic light past “The Rock”, towards Ypsilanti. Supported by DEIR YASSIN REMEMBERED 734-663-3649 or vigilannarbor@hotmail.com

The color display ad will appear as

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/PDF%20Files/05.15_jwit1.pdf

Note: Readers who wish to contribute to the cost of this ad ($650) may make tax deductible donations to:

Deir Yassin Remembered, Inc.
c/o Daniel McGowan
9 One Mile Point
Geneva, New York 14456

Please add: “JWPF ad” in the memo line of your check

Comments?
May 2: 11 vigilers
May 9: 7 vigilers
May 16: 6 vigilers
Shocker: No wartime photo of a homicidal gas chamber exists
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Who Needs to “Stop the Hate”?

Ever-alert Vigil Supporter S draws our attention to a Washington Post article: “‘Killing Jews is Worship’ posters will soon appear on NYC subways and buses”, which describes the successful attempt by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) in having their posters attached to New York City subways and buses. The poster, pictured below, reads in part

ISLAMIC JEW HATRED
IT’S IN THE KORAN
STOP THE HATE

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/hate.jpg

Where’s the hate? Where does this claim originate? Does the Quran actually say “We Hate Jews”? We at JWPF just plain don’t know, but would be quite surprised to find it in the Muslims’ holy book.

We are NOT surprised, however, to find the shoe plainly on the other foot. Enter the high priest of Holocaustianity Elie Wiesel, who unrepentantly offered his fellow tribesmen some succinct advice:

Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate—healthy, virile hate—for what the German personifies and for what persists in the German. [source: Commentary]

Now if that isn’t “hate speech”, then we don’t know what is. True, US law does not define a crime of “hate speech”, perhaps because if we ever did come up with a working definition, Mr. Wiesel could be prosecuted. And if that were to occur, we envision lunches with famed Jewish attorney Alan Dershowitz, where the two could discuss Elie’s charges while enjoying some hamantaschen. For the uninitiated, this baked good is the Jewish Purim ritual of eating the body parts (in this case, the ear of Haman) of their enemies.

Jews know hatred, and they also know manipulation. How to conceal the obvious hatred their religion and culture promote, while in true Orwellian fashion accuse others of what they do best.

April 18: Seven vigilers
April 25: Eight vigilers
No Holes, No Holocaust
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

With Apologies to Pauline Esther Friedman (aka Abigail van Buren)

From JWPF’s “Letters” bin, we uncovered a concerned note from “Confused in Ann Arbor” and hereby share its contents and response from an authority on Jewish identity politics, Gilad Atzmon:

Dear Gilad,

I attended a presentation by Josh Ruebner – Policy Director for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation – in Ann Arbor on March 28th. He took questions from the audience and I asked three: Since he mentioned that Zionists had “no right in international law to create a Jewish state”, was he willing to now admit that Israel had no right to exist as a Jewish state? His answer rubber-banded him back to his previous position: that no state has a “right” to exist, that organizing bodies like the UN “recognizes” states but grants them no rights. Seems to me, dear Gilad, that he dodged the essence of the question and those four pesky words “as a Jewish state”. Second question: Does his organization oppose Israel’s occupation to preserve or dismantle a Jewish state? Answer: the US Campaign takes no position on one state v. two state. And three: since the Jewish community clearly supports the Jewish state, when will his organization take on the Jews as contributors – financially and emotionally – as opponents in this struggle? Answer: Josh doesn’t think the Jewish community is monolithic in their support and will not challenge them for their support.

No, the Jewish community is not monolithic, but the range, in my opinion, is from right Zionist to left Zionists, you know, a kinder and gentler Jewish supremacist state. In fact, dear Gilad, Mr. Ruebner never utters the phrase “Jewish supremacism”, nor “Jewish Power”, while he and other Jewish leaders in the peace movement grab more and more control, thereby exercising the exact power they seemingly refuse to discuss. Can you help me resolve these issues? I’d really like to have a more favorable opinion of Josh.

Thank you,
Confused in Ann Arbor

This letter was answered immediately:

Dear Confused in Ann Arbor,

You are indeed confused for a reason. Monitoring Jewish progressive duplicity for more than a decade has left me with a clear impression that integrity, factuality and reason are foreign to the Jewish Left political discourse.

Josh Ruebner like Max Blumenthal, JVP, Mondoweiss and other Jewish left operators’ mission is simple – they attempt to convey an image of Jewish ethical thinking. The Palestinians and their plight have an instrumental role. They are there to affirm Jewish goodness. This may explain why Jewish solidarity didn’t liberate Palestine. It was there to conceal the Jewishness of Jewish State.

(signed) Gilad Atzmon

Comments?

April 4: Eight vigilers
April 11: Nine vigilers
Remembering Deir Yassin
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Jews Teach SAFE a Lesson; Will They Learn?

SAFE (Students Allied for Freedom and Equality) is a Palestine solidarity organization at the University of Michigan, and proposed a Divestment resolution before the Central Student Government in 2014 and were soundly defeated (25-9). This year SAFE returned to the CSG, hat in hand with a “revamped” resolution, and padded their ranks with Jewish false prophets who led them, once again, down the path to failure (25-15). Was it intended to fail? Let’s look.

An article appeared in the Michigan Daily a week before the vote, and featured statements by two Jews and an Asian woman, but none from any Palestinians. One Jew, Benjamin Gottschalk, assured his audience “supporting this organization is not anti-Semitic because it does not target the Jewish people,” If critical-thinking SAFE members were listening, Gottschalk was telling them it’s not JEWS who were committing the crimes against Palestinians, not a Jewish state with Jewish soldiers using weapons with Jewish religious symbols on them. Heaven forbid any reflection on his Jewish people for these crimes. And SAFE apparently bought this lie.

Snap out of it, SAFE! As Henry Gondorff says in The Sting (1975), “that’s what you get for playing with your head up your ass.” Your lesson is clear:

One, allowing Jewish activists to call the shots will not win the day, because they absolutely refuse to address the core issues, specifically Israel’s claims to legitimacy, Jewish Supremacism in Palestine (and elsewhere), Jewish Power in general, and they will apparently NEVER hold their own community accountable for the racism that is created and nurtured there. Josh Ruebner, the Jewish Policy Director for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation was in town last weekend and declined our invitation (repeated after signature) to stand vigil with us. Josh joins the list of Jews Who Will Not Stand with JWPF at the #37 slot, and continues to refuse to hold his own community accountable while writing books critical of non-Jews (Barack Obama) and button-holing non-Jewish performers like Lauryn Hill to boycott Israel, rather than shouldering the burden to target Jews as the backbone of Israel’s apartheid here and in Palestine. No wonder Jews have such a tarnished image.

Two. take heed to the words of Malcolm X, who knew that blacks and whites holding hands and singing” Kumbayah” wouldn’t address the issues of white racism in America. To paraphrase Malcolm, I know that every time Jews join a Palestinian organization, you watch, pretty soon the Palestinians will be leaning on the Jews to support it, and before you know it a Palestinian may be up front with a title, but the Jews, because of their money and manipulation, are the real controllers. (see Autobiography of Malcolm X, p. 384)

Three, take back YOUR liberation movement. Reject “solidarity”; it’s a meaningless term. Palestine can live only if Israel dies. That goal will gain you enemies in the near future (as your Jewish pseudo-friends leave you), but the true friends you make by dealing straight up with these issues will remain long after the memory of false friends recede.

Four, recognize that as long as wolves in sheep’s clothing like JVP leader Barbara Harvey and Josh Ruebner fail to clearly differentiate themselves those Jews openly supportive of a Jewish state, wolves in wolf’s clothing like UM Professor Victor Lieberman will continue to mop the floor with these liberals and yourselves with his lies. “Israel has offered to recognize Arab sovereignty on five occasions,” Lieberman said last Tuesday. “If any of those offers had been accepted, there would be no refugees.”

End of lesson.

Comments?

March 7, Four vigilers
March 14, Five vigilers
March 21, Five vigilers
March 28, Four vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Invitation to Josh Ruebner

Dear Josh,

As a representative of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, please allow me to accept your invitation to join you March 28th at the Friends Meeting House in Ann Arbor at 4 PM.

Allow me also to return the favor by inviting you to join us in our street protest of the crimes of the state of Israel (and its existence), which we do every Saturday morning in front of Beth Israel Congregation, 2000 Washtenaw Avenue, about a half mile from the Friends Meeting House.

I’m sure you’ll agree with me that the racism evinced by the Jewish state is created and nurtured within the Jewish community, and the congregants at Beth Israel are no exception: speaking for all its members, Rabbi Dobrusin “affirms without any hesitation or equivocation the legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state”. This racism is exhibited clearly in Max Blumenthal’s recent book, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel.

In addition, the Rabbi takes innocent Jewish children on trips to Israel and poses them with armed Israeli soldiers on military vehicles, as part of their indoctrination to support the Jewish state. Rabbi Dobrusin is on record as supporting torture, flies the Israeli flag in Beth Israel’s sanctuary and weekly utters a “Prayer for the State of Israel.”

Please also join us for a late breakfast at a nearby restaurant, as we debrief from our morning’s activities. Our vigils begin at 9:30 AM and end at 10:45 AM. They are peaceful and legal.

We share many close friends with three groups sponsoring your talk: IDAP, UUJME and PIAG. I’m sure we’ll have lots to talk about. If you need transportation, please let us know.

Best wishes,

Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/wizard-of-oz-curtain.jpg

A remark made by Barbara Harvey at her BDS presentation two weeks ago still sticks in our collective craw: in response to a question, she said “What is being criticized [by the BDS movement] is not a people”. What is being criticized, she clarified, is “[Israeli] state official policy.”

This brought to our minds the observation by Paul Eisen, who wonders why Jews are seemingly shielded from responsibility for the crimes committed on behalf of a Jewish state by Jewish soldiers using weapons adorned with Jewish religious symbols and with the full support and complicity of every mainstream Jewish organization. Ref: Jewish Power.

Cleary we have a tug of war here: Ms. Harvey is warning people not to peer behind the curtain of Jews acting collectively, and Mr. Eisen is calling the question. Since Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends has identified local Jews as a collective part of the problem and hold our protests at a Jewish House of WARship, we clearly see that Mr. Eisen has opened a can of worms that Ms. Harvey would like immediately and permanently closed.

Are Jews to be held responsible for their support of the crimes of the Jewish state? Enter Jewish peace groups: Jewish Voice for Peace (Ms. Harvey is a local leader), International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Israeli Coalition Against House Demolition, Jews for a Free Palestine, Code Pink, etc. They contrast themselves from their co-tribalist pro-Israel organizations like AIPAC, Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Federations, but both sides clearly indicate a preference for the continued existence of a Jewish state, and certainly side with Ms. Harvey’s answer, with implication: Say what you will about the state of Israel, but don’t you EVER hold Jews accountable for their part in supporting that state.

This sounds a little suspicious to we who hold vigils on Saturday mornings. Who supports the Jewish state more than “the Jews”? Are we allowed to say that? To think it? Does JVP and the BDS movement wish to reduce violence in Palestine, while maintaining Jewish control over the discourse? Is that their main function? Are they the man behind the curtain and we little Toto?

Heavens to Murgatroyd! What shall we do if Jews are somehow responsible for their support of crimes committed by the Jewish state? Will the world cease to exist? Will it draw attention to “anti-semitic” attitudes which just may have roots in collective Jewish behavior? Is learning from past history somehow a key to understanding current anti-Jewish behavior? Can we use this history to chart a different course for Jews or will we be content to wait for the “peasant’s axe” to fall once more?

Hiding behind the curtain solves nothing.

JWPF members Visit Berrien County Courthouse (again)

Two members of JWPF traveled to Benton Harbor to hear Judge Sterling Schrock dismiss at least four of the five legal considerations before him in the case of our friend Reverend Edward Pinkney. Ed has been incarcerated at the Marquette Branch Prison under the Michigan Department of Corrections, 500 miles away from friends and family for the past two months. He appeared well and was obviously moved by the attendance at this legal proceeding. About 60 supporters from across the state showed up for Ed. Mark Fancher of the Michigan ACLU delivered their amicus brief in support of allowing Ed free on bond. Request was denied by Judge Shrock.

What we heard: Pinkney attorney Tat Parish asked prosecutor Mike Sepic to state briefly the direct evidence which linked Ed to the changed dates on some recall petitions, and Sepic refused, saying that the jury already decided, and when you take motive into account with the circumstantial evidence, that “tells us who did this”. Local newspaper article here.

Comments?

Three vigilers, 4 degrees
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
End Jewish Supremacism