Support Helen Thomas – Sign the Petition

Talk about the power of the Jewish Lobby to divert attention from the horrific attacks in the Mediterranean by forces of the Jewish State to the truthful statements uttered by one of the few remaining true journalists this country has to offer! It reminds us of the power of the local Jewish community to get a physician ousted from her job at a local community clinic, because, like Ms. Thomas, she stood up and spoke the truth. Our lessons for today is that Jewish Power plays along a continuum from the local to the international level, and that apologizing to angry Jews will not get you anywhere.

Readers of this report are encouraged to sign a petition in support of Ms. Thomas. You can also read Alison Weir’s accurate reporting of this attempt to divert.

They Beat Paul Larudee?

A personal note: Paul Larudee is the type of guy who’s instantly likeable. If you were to meet him and didn’t like him, my first assumption is there’s something wrong with *you*. He’s kind to a fault, dedicated, so caring and warm, that it was heartbreaking to hear of his treatment at the hands of the Torture State. That the response of mainstream Jewish organizations is to once again rally around this “shitty little country,” as one French diplomat put it, encourages members of JWPF to once again take to the streets in front of the Congregation dedicated to the existence and continual support of a Jewish supremacist state.

Torture Is Wrong

Once again, members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends observed that no anti-torture banner has been displayed by Beth Israel. However, we have unfurled our “Torture is Wrong” banner to draw attention to the fact that June is Torture Awareness Month. Could Beth Israel’s apparent lack of participation have anything to do with the fact that Jews have a collective problem with denouncing torture, or that two years ago Rabbi Dobrusin explained to his congregation how torture can be “justified” as and “act of self-defense” under Jewish religious law?

Correcting A Slight Misconception

Last week we reported on Fifth Ward City Council Candidate Lou Glorie, and we wrote: “But sadly, even she recognizes the damage the Jewish community can inflict upon local candidates”. This sentence caused some unintended discomfort, so we now clarify that it was an expressed opinion by the writer and not a reported statement from Ms. Glorie.

Nine Vigilers
Paul Larudee is beaten, Ken O’Keefe is beaten worse, because Jews want the land
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Aspiring Local Politicians Fear Jewish Power

Background: In the fall of 2004 the Ann Arbor City Council abdicated its responsibility to uphold the Constitution. Rather than support our exercise of our freedom of expression, they caved to Dr. Barry Gross and the local Jewish community by “condemning” our nonviolent, silent vigils at Beth Israel Congregation.

Currently: There will be an August 3rd primary election in Ann Arbor for Mayor and Council members in all five wards. Recently, Patricia Lesko, candidate for Mayor, and Lou Glorie, candidate for Fifth Ward Council, were asked the following question:

“As you might know, five years ago Mayor Hieftje and eight members of City Council issued a resolution condemning our group’s exercise of our First Amendment Right to freedom of speech. If elected, would you support our efforts in overturning this resolution, and recommitting Council to its sworn support of the US Constitution?”

To their credit, both Lesko and Glorie responded to our question. In fact Ms. Glorie called me over to her home to discuss the matter. She responded to our offer to write a few lines about our conversation, and they are included below signature.

Ms. Lesko writes, “In the face of the fiscal and management issues that the city is dealing with at the moment, I would be hard-pressed to justify devoting time to this resolution.” When I countered that Council in 2004 likewise had their business plate full, yet they made time to publicly condemn our vigils, she had no further comment. To be fair, she might have limited time to correspond with us, but her initial answer implies no change to be expected coming from the Mayor’s office.

Ms. Glorie strikes us as a caring, yet conflicted person. She expressed concern that our democracy has been stolen from us at the federal level, due to corporate/lobby influence, and that influence extends through the state level. She contends that the last chance democracy has in the US is at the local level. But sadly, even she recognizes the damage the Jewish community can inflict upon local candidates. It’s clear from her message that though she supports our vigils, she feels the need to remove discussion of Palestine from the agenda. Our lesson for today: when democracy at its most basic, grassroots level, squares off against Jewish power, there is only one victor.

Jewish State, Jewish Murderers

As JWPF members partook in a few rallies called to protest the murders committed by Jews on the high seas, we invite our co-protesters taking part in these reactive collectives to join us week-in, week-out, “israeli” atrocity-in, and “israeli” atrocity out on the Sabbath to hold the guilty Jewish Zionist community accountable for their support of this bloody-handed excuse for a sovereign nation.

Are Jewish-identified peace groups promoting full liberation for Palestine, or are they just working damage control? Consider Paul Eisen’s implied question:

“The crime against the Palestinian people is being committed by a Jewish state with Jewish soldiers using weapons displaying Jewish religious symbols, and with the full support and complicity of the overwhelming mass of organized Jews worldwide. But to name Jews as responsible for this crime seems impossible to do.”

The answer appears more and more obvious that Jewish peace groups will never allow Jews to be implicated in the crimes of the Jewish state. They will elevate allegiance to Jewish sensibilities over that of true solidarity with Palestinians. Paul, this is why naming Jews as responsible seems impossible to do. Jewish-controlled peace groups won’t let us.

Short Change We Can Believe In

An unarmed American citizen – Furkan Dogan – is killed by a foreign power in international waters on a lifesaving humanitarian mission, and our standing President expresses “deep regret”, but no condemnation. We are reminded of the silence emanating from George Bush in response to the murder of Rachel Corrie seven years ago. Seems the more things “change” the more they stay the same. According to Ray McGovern:

“On Monday, President Obama spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone about the incident. Afterwards, the White House said Obama had expressed “deep regret” over the deaths, but declined further comment, citing “the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances” as quickly as possible.” See Obama’s Timidity and Deaths at Sea.

This from a guy who’s tough enough to send 30,000 extra troops into Afghanistan, but rolls over like the poodle he is, when it comes to the crimes of the Jewish state. But wait! Why are we surprised, when this same guy stood mute when Jews celebrated their Hanukkah Massacre, claiming impropriety at commenting when another wolf held the office?

The peace community can serve justice well by removing this wolf in sheep’s clothing and replacing him with a wolf in wolves’ clothing in 2012.

Seven Vigilers
American peace activists are shot four times in the head because Jews want the land
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

From Lou Glorie, Candidate, Fifth Ward City Council

“The issue of Palestine is not one that I will take up in my campaign for city council. I’m not saying that it is unimportant or that it has no effect on us in Ann Arbor. What I will say is that I believe in the constitutional guarantee of free speech and the right of my fellow citizens to act according to their conscience. I do not believe that people exercising this right should be censured unless they be in violation of the law or are causing harm. To discomfit is not, per se, harmful. Open, honest discourse is an essential element of a civil society. The suppression of unpopular opinions cannot rightly be sanctioned by any democratic government.”

Help Us Contact IJAN

Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends would like to invite all members of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, to join us anti-Zionists on June 19th in yet another silent, peaceful vigil at Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor and to hold the Jewish community accountable for its undisputed support of Zionism. IJAN will cosponsor the first national Jewish anti-Zionist gathering prior the US Social Forum in Detroit. Contacting this group has shown to be slightly difficult: we were told that Sara Kershnar would be the person who could help us disseminate our invitation, but there has been no response yet from her email account. Nor have we received response from the general email address of 2010assembly@jewsconfrontapartheid.org If readers know Sara, or think we could use a better email address or phone number for her, or anyone else in IJAN that could help, please let us know.

Nahida the Exiled Palestinian – Our New Heroine

Working in the margins as we do (to date we remain the only synagogue vigil we are aware of on the planet), it’s always refreshing to hear a voice in agreement with ours. In her recently blogged piece A strategy of liberation requires emancipation Nahida takes direct aim at Jewish “peace groups” who put Jewish sensibilities and power ahead of true solidarity with Palestinians. She writes: “Many of our Jewish supporters, individuals and groups (including leading intellectuals) vigorously oppose Zionism, and condemn “Israel’s” crimes and brutality. At various degrees, they also play a significant role in documenting and exposing “Israel’s” crimes, and are unambiguously critical of the Zionist apartheid discrimination policies towards Palestinians Yet their vision of a solution always keeps at heart the interests of the co-religionists, co-culturalists (Jewish Zionists, occupiers of Palestine), as they seek to secure a good future for the perpetrators hand-in-hand with that of their victims: Some persist in supporting the obsolete two-state solution, irrespective the fact that this would subjugate Palestinians to the crushing ‘iron fist’ of the occupier’s military, and force them to accept the annexation of 80% of their land” (emphasis in original).

Keeping a Perspective

As we continue our weekly vigils, as we remember the USS Liberty’s 34 lost sailors in a vicious, deadly attack by the Jewish state, as we prepare our annual partnership with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, we recognize the relative safety in which we do our work: We face a stream of overwhelmingly supportive passersby, while our friends in Bi’lin, Palestine face Jewish soldiers with guns, stun grenades, deadly high-velocity tear gas canisters and a willingness to use these weapons. Iyad Burnat, a peaceful leader in this tiny town visited by this writer five years ago, writes that the IOF set fire to an olive tree in a fashion that had already killed the tree before smoke from the fire was detected. Iyad writes: “So it goes in Bilin, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, ad infinitum, in a vicious world which doesn’t care.” We care, Iyad, and mourn with you the one-year anniversary of the death of our friend Basem Abu Rahme. And we note that even after one year the identity of the coward who killed him, like the identity of the “soldier” who crushed to death Rachel Corrie, remains unknown.

Six Vigilers
Olive trees are bulldozed because Jews want the land
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Introducing Alan Hart … Twice

Good to their word, the kind folks at Interdenominational Advocates for Peace (IDAP) carried through on their promise to introduce this writer as a member of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends and identify him as the one who would present Alan Hart. Alan was well received by Jewish and Christian members of the local audience, but my Arab friends came away with a different point of view; a Syrian friend was frustrated to tears. Her concerns will be transmitted to Alan over beverages in the next two weeks. True gentleman that he is, he appears eager to witness others’ opinions.

The evening before this meeting in the Wesley Foundation Lounge of the First United Methodist Church, this writer also presented Ann Arbor City Council with an invitation to hear Alan speak. This brief talk centered on Alan’s critique of Israel’s claimed “Right” to exist as a Jewish state, and is contained in full below signature.

Alan was also featured Saturday at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn as keynote speaker for a fundraiser for the Palestine Cultural Office of Dearborn. This organization was formerly called the Palestine Office, and it’s regrettable to some members of JWPF that they would not only abdicate their responsibility to work towards Palestinian Right of Return, but in addition seemed to have turned over the political wing of the Office to Jewish Voice for Peace, a clear Zionist group. Talk about allowing the fox to guard the henhouse! JVP has removed “Boycott” from BDS, and will, according to speaker Barabara Harvey, proceed with divestment from selected large corporations. These members of the oppressor class will dictate the terms to Palestinians concerning the correct tactics of how their “liberation” should be waged. Is anybody paying attention?

Annual Challenge to Beth Israel from ICPJ

Chuck Warpehoski of the local Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice reminds us that June is once again Torture Awareness Month. He writes: “This is a time for people of all faiths and backgrounds to come together to shine a spotlight on the issues of torture and to work together to end torture practices around the globe.” (emphasis added)

We at JWPF will dutifully dust off our “Torture is Wrong” banner and carry it on Washtenaw Avenue to show that we are committed, as Chuck encourages us, to end torture. The pregnant question is whether Rabbi Rob Dobrusin and his Congregation at Beth Israel will also commit to ending torture, or will they still maintain that torture, or “rough interrogation techniques” can be “a justified act of self defense”. We again invite readers to review PeaceMonger’s deconstruction of Rabbi Dobrusin’s June 7, 2008 sermon on the topic.

Received Compliment

This writer was fortunate to meet a Gazan in Dearborn who said, upon hearing my critique of Ms. Harvey’s talk: “You sound just like my friends back home”. Sometimes paydays don’t get any better than that.

Dedication

This report is dedicated to the memory of Jim Tate, who passed away this week. Jim was founder of the Jim Tate Band, and provided his loyal group of followers with a style of rockabilly music second to none. In the opinion of this writer Jim possessed the best male voice in the state of Michigan, and will sorely be missed.

Eight Vigilers
Palestinian children are used as shields because Jews want the land
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Address to City Council:

May 17, 2010

Good Evening,

Tonight I’d like to address the topic of the legitimacy of the state of Israel. This is a topic that the Jewish community does not want to discuss. In his High Holiday address of 2003 Rabbi Rob Dobrusin of Beth Israel Congregation said ” We are absolutely right in rejecting those who deny Israel’s legitimacy”

And in an op-ed to the Ann Arbor News in 2007 he wrote: ” We have had many discussions on these issues at Beth Israel … However, our discussion is always predicated on the legitimacy of the State of Israel”.

We have placed phone calls to the Rabbi and he has reiterated that Israel’s legitimacy is off limits in any dialogue.

Why is this? Why does this representative of the local Jewish community want to avoid discussion of Israel’s legitimacy?

The answer should be obvious: he cannot defend Israel’s legitimacy, so he takes the entire topic off the table.

Well, I have some good news for those here who wish it placed back on the table. A distinguished former BBC correspondent, Alan Hart, will be in town Tuesday evening, and he may well speak to the claim of Israel’s legitimacy.

Mr. Hart will be speaking at the First United Methodist Church at 7pm tomorrow. The church is at the corner of Huron and State Streets, just three blocks from here. And everyone is invited. You may also be able to purchase his new book: Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews.

Alan has taken on this question of legitimacy, and has turned support for such “propaganda nonsense” – as he terms it – on its head. He claims that the United Nations had no legitimacy partitioning Palestine in 1947. He writes that Israel, ” …which came into being mainly as a consequence of pre-planned ethnic cleansing, had no right to exist and, more to the point, could have no right to exist UNLESS … Unless it was recognised and legitimized by those who were dispossessed of their land and their rights during the creation of the Zionist state. In international law only the Palestinians could give Israel the legitimacy it craved.

And that legitimacy was the only thing the Zionists could not and cannot take from the Palestinians by force. ” [emphasis in original]

Please come to hear Alan Hart tomorrow at First United Methodist.

Thank you

Source : http://www.alanhart.net/israel-and-the-de-legitimization-oxymoron/

The text below about DYR Board of Advisers member Rich Siegel is reposted from “Teaneck harassment case ends with apology & forgiveness & Ilan Pappe” on the Mondoweiss site.

Yesterday we reported that a leader in the U.S. arm of the settler movement was going to trial in Teaneck today for allegedly tailgating/harassing another New Jersey man who sported pro-Palestinian bumper stickers on his car. Well Bernie Thau, the settler-supporter, and Rich Siegel, the complainant, met in the parking lot outside the courthouse today. Siegel tells the story.

Bernie apologized to me rather profusely.  He agreed to write my wife and me a note of apology and share it with the board of the Hevron Fund.  He agreed to read a book- yet unnamed- that I am going to give him, and give me his reaction afterwards.  (I will send him “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” by Ilan Pappe.)  And he offered– I did not ask– to make a donation to Deir Yassin Remembered [Siegel sits on the advisory board]. That all satisfied me, so I agreed to ask that the charge be dropped.  (I can’t drop the charge myself; after probable cause is found it becomes the state’s charge.  I can only make the request.)

The two men went into the courthouse and learned that through a misunderstanding owing to the religious investment of both men in the issue, as Jews,Thau had been charged with “bias intimidation” and the case referred to Bergen County court.

At this point my goal was to get Bernie untangled.  I went to Hackensack with him, and we were sent around to three different offices and accomplished nothing.  I’ve subsequently called the police sergeant whose garbage pail should have been the destination of the unsigned charge.  And Bernie and I chatted about this and that, coming to realize that we’re both human beings and decent guys.
I tell you what, I think Bernie and I both learned a lesson today, and although I can’t speak definitively for him, I really think it was the same lesson.

I’m so used to being angry about Israel, angry at my own background–angry at being lied to and being put in harm’s way with the lies, and in particular being especially angry at the people Bernie hangs out with– the Hevron Fund and the rest of the Gush Emunim settler movement. And obviously from Bernie’s actions, he’s pretty used to being angry at what he probably perceives are anti-Semites.   But we saw each other as human beings today.  I saw him as a guy who acted impulsively and regrets it, who was genuinely apologetic and willing to do some very out-of-character things to make it up to me.  He saw me as a guy who was willing to back off from revenge and accept an apology, basically willing to forgive-  him personally, definitely not the movement he represents.  I just wonder if, after he reads the Ilan Pappe book he’s committed to reading, will he also be able to see the Palestinians as human beings.

Later Bernie called me to tell me that the bias intimidation mess had been resolved, and he reminded me that he had agreed to read a book, asked me the title, because he wanted to buy it.  I told him I’d already ordered it and was going to send it to him.  So, could it be the world is changing and starting here?  (I can dream, can’t I?)

By the way- about the “put in harm’s way” thing I wrote above. There’s a really lovely statue in front of the library here in Teaneck, right next to the town hall where the municipal court is located, of a young woman bending over flowers.  It’s dedicated to a young woman who, like me, went to Israel to be there for a while, to live and work, whatever she did.  I also went to Israel to live and work, as a young man, with a head full of Zionist myths I’d been taught all my life.  I was there for awhile, and came back home, still a Zionist. She came back in a box.  She got on the wrong bus. That could have been me.  I often wonder about her- what she thought, how much she knew, how much she didn’t know, if she had any idea, in the final moments of her life, about why someone wanted to kill her.

How many of us have gone to an early grave supporting Zionism without understanding a damn thing about it?!

While the bias charge has been dropped, the harassment case that Siegel pushed is still on the books.

There will be another court date. If I don’t show up, the charge will be dropped. I think I will write a letter to the prosecutor in advance of the court date to make sure that happens, copied to Bernie so he can carry a copy with him.

A Quota for Jews on the Supreme Court? Where’s Abe Foxman?

An implied 40% quota on Jews able to serve on the highest court in the land is contained in the nomination of Elena Kagan by Barack Obama. (The fourth Jew would make it 4/9=44%). We feel that there should be no such quota, and America’s interests would be best served by a Supreme Court of nine – or even ten – Jews. So what that Elena’s academic publication record is, in the opinion of the distinguished political scientist James Petras, “lackluster” and “is only surpassed by her total lack of any practical experience as a judge”? Who needs experience when she can muster the political support of a stable of Jewish neocons, the size of which could form an easy minyan* at Beth Israel. Petras lists “Wolfowitz, Feith, Abrams, Levey, Greenspan, Axelrod, Emmanuel, Indyk, Ross, Summers, Rubin, et al:” as Kagan’s all-too-willingly-helpful co-religionists. According to Petras, it was Elena’s ability to attract such popular, powerful support that won her the job, ” and not her intellectual prowess” (his emphasis). See James’ article here.

Seriously, it’s in everyone’s interest that the elements of a true democracy be preserved, i.e. that our governmental offices be staffed in accordance with population demographics. When a minority group is over-represented in powerful positions, and when this minority pursues chauvinistic goals, and when these goals work to undermine the interests of the majority (underrepresented) population as the Jewish community does … well, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this majority (read: U.S. Protestant population plus other non-Jews) might harbor some resentment towards this over-represented, and rather pushy, minority. Perhaps it’s time to heed the words of George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

CORRECTION on Last Week’s Report

A few local members of the Friends Meeting informed this writer that the letter which appeared in the May, 2010 edition of the Washtenaw Jewish News was indeed approved by their Peace and Social Concerns committee, then formally adopted by their Meeting for Worship for Business in early spring. So the letter from Cassie Cammann was not – as reported last week – an “unauthorized letter”. As we offer our apologies for the error, we note that there was indeed a prior unauthorized personal letter from Ms. Cammann sent to the WJN, and copied to Rob Dobrusin, Rabbi at Beth Israel.

Ms. Cammann’s personal letter was less flattering to our group than the published letter. She writes: “We are troubled that the author [Steven Pastner – hh] chose to cite a misleading statement from Henry Herskovitz linking Quakers to the Jewish Witnesses for Peace, as Ann Arbor Friends Meeting does not support the weekly protest at the Beth Israel Synagogue”. We wonder what statement she was referring to and why she felt it misleading, but note that her letter led to an apparent dialogue with members of the Jewish community, e.g. Dobrusin’s response: “I am certainly aware of the fact that the Friends Meeting has not endorsed the protests outside of Beth Israel. I had several conversations with members of the Friends Meeting concerning the protests a few years ago and that stand was made clear to me at that time and I know that it is still the position of the Friends Meeting.”

JWPF wishes that our Friends would spend as much time and energy holding dialogue with us as they have done with the Jewish community. Our offer to discuss the group’s goals and tactics with members of the Friends Meeting remains open.

Thanks to IDAP

Our thanks go out to the Interdenominational Advocates for Peace group (IDAP) for hosting this writer at their meeting this week, and for honoring Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends by inviting me to introduce Alan Hart this coming Tuesday (May 18th) in the Wesley Lounge at First United Methodist Church, corner State and Huron, from 7-9 pm. See you there!

Motivational Words from Wendel Barry
(with thanks for Dissident Veteran for Peace)

Much protest is naive; it expects quick, visible improvement and despairs and gives up when such improvement does not come. Protesters who hold out for longer have perhaps understood that success is not the proper goal. If protest depended on success, there would be little protest of any durability or significance. History simply affords too little evidence that anyone’s individual protest is of any use. Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one’s own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence.

Eight Vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Women die at checkpoints because Jews want the land
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

* – Minyan: the number of persons required by Jewish law to be present to conduct a communal religious service, traditionally a minimum of 10 Jewish males over 13 years of age. Source: www.dictionary.com
#

Local Jews to Quakers: Censure Vigilers!

Cassie Cammann, Clerk of the local Friends Meeting, penned an unauthorized letter to the editor of the Washtenaw Jewish News in response to Steven Pastner’s charge that the Quakers are “pro-Palestinian”. The Friends usually require consensus before such a letter would be sent, but a little investigation found that Ms. Cammann sought no consensus before writing, and acted on her own. Notwithstanding that internal violation, a few Jewish respondents saw fit to attack her exculpatory plea with typical twisted-victim logic.

Steven Pastner responds that he stands by his charge that the Quakers are indeed pro-Palestinian, as if that were a bad thing. Henry Brysk cries “I look in vain for recognition of Israel’s right to exist or for condemnation of the murder of Israeli civilians by Hamas”. And WJN Editor Susy Ayer – you remember, she’s the one who has refused to print any rebuttal from Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends – demands that the Quakers censure their members who participate in our peaceful, silent vigils at Beth Israel. She writes, “I know that an active member of the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting has been picketing us on Shabbat now for seven years without his being censured by Quakers locally for his reprehensible behavior”

And if it weren’t enough that these local Jews hold the Quakers to their chauvinistic demands, they even find fault with Zionist groups like Jewish Voice for Peace. Ayer writes: ” … JVP’s moral outrage is decidedly one-sided, directed overwhelmingly at Israel.” Oh, Poor Israel! They can’t even commit massacres against the people of Gaza without some misguided Jews or Quakers making comment.

Full letter to editor and comments follow signature.

Six Vigilers Protest Obama

At least six members of JWPF were on hand to remind visitors to the University of Michigan’s commencement exercises that our President has fully sided with the Bully of the Mideast, aka “Israel”, as it completes its 100-year-old attempt to ethnically cleanse Palestine so that Jews may enjoy a supremacist state. Thousands of people witnessed our signs; some took pictures, others made some ill-advised attempts to defend the terrorist state. These folks apparently did not read page 31 of their Hasbara Handbook, which advises them to “Just Walk Away: When Not to Engage”, typically when “they are likely to get out of their depth”.

Readers should note that our regular vigil at Beth Israel was suspended for May 1st, so that we could greet our President.

Congregant Sam Calls it Quits

A few weeks back a very pleasant congregant asked some members of JWPF if they would be willing to arrive a half hour early to engage in some pre-prayer dialogue. According to Sam, congregants of Beth Israel were unable to converse with us, since the vigils coincided with services: we were outside; interested congregants were inside. Fair enough, says we, and agreed to meet Sam prior to our vigils. This resulted in one pleasant enough conversation, but on Friday Sam wrote “Actually, with my few remaining Saturdays left in Ann Arbor, I’ve sort of lost interest in pursuing this issue any further. I do certainly appreciate your willingness to meet though.”

We are glad that Sam has taken notice of our willingness to hold reasonable conversations with congregants, and hope that another willing member of Beth Israel will step forward in the near future.

Ann Arbor Quiet While Seattle Rocks

While it appears that the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor was able to “celebrate Israel” without protest, former Vigiller M reports that a similar celebration at the Jewish Community Center near Seattle, Washington was indeed protested. Here’s the report, and link:

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Protesting Tzuza–Recent BDS Action in Seattle

On Sunday, May 2, 2010, eight people of conscience took a nonviolent stand for justice and peace in front of the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island, near Seattle, Washington. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) action was hastily organized during a regional BDS workshop at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral to protest the performance of the Tzuza Dancers, an Israeli troupe hailing from Kiryat Malachi, Israel, a town built on the remnants of Qastina, an Arab village. On July 9, 1948, Qastina was violently ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian inhabitants by Jewish troops of the Giv’ati Brigade.

The protesters included members of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Voices of Palestine, and Greater Seattle Veterans for Peace. While there were a few middle-finger salutes, the action was generally well-received by members of the Mercer Island community with decidedly more passersby by honking, waving, smiling, and gesturing in support. Such a good and productive time was had that the protest was extended fifteen minutes longer than scheduled. The shows of support coming even from people entering the SJCC more than made up for the one angry, young man who repeatedly screamed at us from a distance, “No one cares about your message.” He seemed to care a lot.

Henry Herskovitz
Palestine is Occupied because Jews wanted the land
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
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The following letters can be viewed on page 2 at

Click to access WJN_May-09-web.pdf

AFSC committed to human rights

Dear Editor,

We write in response to a statement by Steven Pastner in the February issue of the Washtenaw Jewish News. Mr. Pastner, on page 9, stated that the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and local Quakers are “pro-Palestinian,” implying that those who are pro-Palestinian are anti-Israeli. We hope that most readers of WJN are aware that the focus of Quakers and of the AFSC as well, is human dignity, human rights for all persons, the alleviation of suffering, and the peaceful resolution of conflict. To that end, the AFSC has a long tradition of working in Israel and with Israelis, as well as in the West Bank and Gaza and in countries around the world and here at home. We can assure readers of WJN that Quakers locally and nationally do indeed seek the well-being, peace quality, and human rights of Israelis, as well as Palestinians.

The AFSC and Quaker individuals have worked in Israel and in the Palestinian territories for over 60 years. Their cause has been peace. The renowned Friends Schools in Ramallah were started in the 1800s, while Friends International Centre in Ramallah is a newcomer to the work. Starting in 1948 and continuing through this past difficult year, the AFSC has carried out intensive relief work among refugees in Gaza. The organization won a Nobel Peace Price in 1947.

The commitment of AFSC and of Quakers locally and nationally is to human rights for all people.

The Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, Cassie Cammann, Clerk

Stephen Paster responds: I stand by what I said. More than one member of the small synagogue-stalking group is affiliated with the Friends… and to paraphrase some wise advice from the alcoholic beverage world: “Friends don’t (or shouldn’t) let Friends harass other faiths.”

Henry Brysk responds: On behalf of the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, Cassie Cammann takes umbrage at Steve Pastner’s characterization of their political bias. Unfortunately, her letter only confirms this bias, particularly in its omissions. To be explicit, we consider it unFriendly (pun intended) that they have taken into their midst several of the False Witnesses that harass the synagogue and that advocate the complete destruction of Israel, and that they have participated in political actions furthering a similar ideology. There is no mention of any of that, and I look in vain for recognition of Israel’s right to exist or for condemnation of the murder of Israeli civilians by Hamas. How do they square Quaker pacifism with giving aid and comfort to terrorists? The praiseworthy humanitarian projects of the American Friends Service Committee are irrelevant to this discussion, which concerns the political activism of the local group. I do find it instructive
that the letter stresses AFSC activities in Hamastan (Gaza), apart from a school in Ramallah, and none in Israel. If they find it distasteful to help Jews, how about the needy Darfuri refugees that have fled to Israel? Or are they incapable of sympathy for any victims of Arab bombing?

WJN Editor Susan Ayer responds: In searching out AFSC’s position on the conflict in Israel, an often listed source is a group called Jewish Voices for Peace. According to a 2008 posting on CAMERA’s website, Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) bills itself as an organization of “activists inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, and human rights” who “support the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians for security and self-determination.” However, JVP’s moral outrage is decidedly one-sided, directed overwhelmingly at Israel. (http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_ outlet=108&x_article=1498). Checking on other links from the AFSC website reveals a similar bias. In 1947, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and British Friends Service Council were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Quakers worldwide. The prize recognized 300 years of Quaker efforts to heal rifts and oppose war. In particular, it named the work done by the two recipient Quaker organizations during and after the two World Wars to feed starving children and help Europe rebuild itself. The Prize was not given for any work AFSC did in the Middle East. We are told, “The commitment of AFSC and of Quakers locally and nationally is to human rights for all people.” Speaking as a member of Beth Israel Congregation, I know that an active member of the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting has been picketing us on Shabbat now for seven years without his being censured by Quakers locally for his reprehensible behavior. I am only referring to the picketers’ actions, not their beliefs. I see nothing in Cammann’s letter that indicates the Friends board feels such a censure is warranted. I wonder why the commitment to “human rights for all” excludes the right of Beth Israel members to worship without harassment.