Jewish Liberals Say The Dog Wags the Tail (I Say the Tail Wags the Dog)
I have one important quibble, ahead of time. Remba reflects the conventional leftish pro-Israel view that the dog wags the tail. I.e., that Israel is a client that does as the imperial U.S. wants it to do. The U.S. doesn't want Israel to talk to Syria; so it doesn't. His view of the Israel lobby is that it is merely seconding rightwing choices that the U.S. government is making. And so he says:
American choices heavily constrain the Jewish state, eliminating options and creating the environment in which Israel must make its own now far more limited and difficult choices.
That's where I demur. I believe that Israel has made its own choice not to speak to Syria, for years, and that its friends in Congress reinforce that line here. I feel like a lot of lefty Jews want to think the dog wags the tail: the Stephen Zunes line, that neocon Zionist Jews have had only minor influence over a rightwing administration. Or here is Shlomo Ben-Ami, in the latest Commentary, making the same point (I'm afraid it's not online yet, but I just got my issue in the mail):
"[T]he interplay of factors that truly make up American foreign policy [are] strategic considerations, imperial ambitions, oil, the arms industry, corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton, ideology, and, last but not by no means least, the political and intellectual profile of the president. Bush's moral certitude and self-imposed divine mission makes [sic] utterly redundant the need for an 'Israel Lobby' to teach him the political gospel it wants him to follow in the Middle East."
I think Ben Ami is wrong, that he is blinding himself to a multitude of sins under that little word "ideology," that George Bush had little idea of anything when he came into office. I.e., that neocons are smart guys with a highly-developed belief system; and they also had agency here (yes, along with a lot of other fools who pushed this war).
In fairness, Remba does go after Jewish "communal leaders" choices. A nice way of putting the fact that neocon beliefs about the Arab world have gained wide currency in the erstwhile liberal Jewish leadership. But read Remba's post (which he was not able to post; problems again, sorry folks):
You write: "I do question the political will of the body of American Jewry; if they feel misrepresented by the Israel lobby and their congressmen, they ought to rise up against them. George Soros says he's going to start an anti-occupation lobby. Good for him, I'm in his camp. Will he get numbers?"I'd like to offer two of my recent articles on this subject for your and your readers' consideration. The first, published in the English edition of Ha'aretz, "Wanted: A Moderate Pro-Israel Lobby," can be read in Ha'aretz or on my blog at http://tough-dove-israel.blogspot.com/2006/11/haaretz-wanted-moderate-pr...
The new dovish pro-Israel peace lobby is not a Soros initiative, but an cooperative effort of many liberal/progressive Jews from various Jewish organizations, think tanks, liberal Democratic political activists and funders.
How many supporters will we get? Watch and wait. Many of us are working on it.
As president of Chicago Peace Now (Americans for Peace Now's Illinois-Indiana Chapter) for the last six years I, for one, have had some success, with the help of many colleagues and friends, in building support for dovish policies on the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts in the mainstream Chicago Jewish community and beyond.Second, here is an excerpt from my latest monthly column in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, which is sometimes syndicated nationally in the Jewish press. Perhaps it will give you a dash more hope to realize that pieces like mine are printed in mainstream Jewish papers around the country. This piece is titled, "Look Who's Pressuring Israel":
Writing in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz in November, I wondered whether AIPAC would work to promote a US-Israeli peace initiative with Syria or the Palestinians. AIPAC's Israel spokesperson responded on November 23rd in Ha'aretz that "AIPAC's mandate is not to pressure the Israeli government to follow a particular course." Reading these words, I scratched my head. Who said anything about "pressure?" In reality, the Bush Administration is pressuring the Israeli government to refuse peace talks with Syria, according to the testimony of Prime Minister Olmert, his advisors and cabinet ministers. AIPAC, and its allies in the organized Jewish community, who rush to loudly protest any time there is a whiff of US pressure on Israel in favor of a peace initiative, has absolutely nothing to say when the White House blocks Israel from talking with Syria. Even when the US isn't making overt demands on Israel, US foreign policy choices have so large an impact on the Middle East and the overall strategic context in which Israel lives, that every action the US takes--and those actions it fails to take--casts an iron boot of coercion on Israel. American choices heavily constrain the Jewish state, eliminating options and creating the environment in which Israel must make its own now far more limited and difficult choices.
The Bush Administration's military escalation in Iraq, which includes raids and arrests of Iranians, may lead the US down the slippery slope to a new war with Iran, warns Kenneth M. Pollack of the Brookings Institution. Bush's actions may provoke "the Iranians to respond, which in turn would escalate the situation and provide the Bush administration with the casus belli it needs to win Congressional support" for such a war, fears Johns Hopkins University Iran scholar Trita Parsi. Bush's refusal to bargain directly with Iran, his rejection of the unanimous bipartisan recommendation of the Iraq Study Group for direct talks with Iran and Syria, and his preference for more force, are recklessly pushing Israel and our Sunni Arab allies into an incendiary region-wide conflagration with Iran, Hezbollah and Syria. Neither Israel nor the US will achieve their military or political goals in such a clash, which will give birth to an even more insecure and explosive Middle East in which Israel will have to live.
I called, and I call again, on the Bush Administration to return to sanity: to abandon its failed policy of isolation and implied threats of regime change against Syria and Iran; to explore the possibilities for a grand bargain with both countries which would meet US strategic interests in Iraq, Lebanon, the Gulf Arab states, Israel and Palestine. I call on the President not only to permit Israel to test the waters with Syria through a secret back-channel, but to send American mediators to such meetings to maximize the chances of their success.
Finally, there's the stifling burden of inaction to which we subject Israel daily: the crushing weight of the Bush Administration's failure to build a regional diplomatic framework within which Israel can make safe and secure choices for peace with its Arab neighbors; the failure of American Jews to speak up--as American citizens, if not as Jews who are deeply concerned for Israel's well-being--about what's best for the national security of the United States and its allies, especially Israel; the timorousness and apathy of so many American Jews who have yet to express their solidarity with the forces of progress and peace in Israel itself, even within the Israeli government. We, the American Jewish community, have massively constrained Israel's freedom by the many dangerous choices we have let our communal leaders, and our government, make in the Middle East. Citizenship doesn't end at the voting booth.
Gidon D. Remba is co-author of the forthcoming The Great Rift: Arab-Israeli War and Peace in the New Middle East. His commentary is available at http://tough-dove-israel.blogspot.com/ He served as senior foreign press editor and translator in the Israel Prime Minister's Office during the Egyptian-Israeli peace process from 1977-1978. His essays have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Times, the Nation, the Jerusalem Report, Ha'aretz, Tikkun, the Forward, the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, Chicago Jewish News, JUF News, and the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.
(Gidon) Doni Remba (aka Tough Dove Israel)
P.S. My piece, "Look Who's Pressuring Israel," excerpted in my post, was also reprinted by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago/Jewish United Fund in their weekly E-Alert. You can't get more Jewish mainstream than that. It's slightly encouraging that such establishment outlets are circulating my writing, particularly when I say the kinds of things I say in this piece, including the criticisms of AIPAC, exposing its hawkishness and bursting its propaganda bubble.
I would distinguish the neocon power
Sorry to interrupt the substantive conversation but I do want to make a marginally important distinction for Phil's fans: I am not Doni Remba. His blog is "tough-dove-Israel." Don't hold him responsible for anything I post.
Now she tells us.
Gidon D. Remba on the Carter book:
The book is replete with major errors of fact, all systematically biased against Israel. Carter never makes a single factual error that works in Israel's favor, or against the Palestinians. He offers an abundance of misstatements and distortions that paint Israel black. Some of the most egregious have already been highlighted by others. But Carter's approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is as one-sided as that of the Israel haters. Though Carter himself is no Israel hater, at times he does an uncanny impersonation of one, serving up a morality tale of Israeli demons and Palestinian angels forced to descend to hell by the depredations of the evil Israelis. Throughout the book Carter unfailingly shows deep sympathy for Palestinian perceptions, while displaying little understanding for Israeli attitudes or needs. The book suffers from a deep and uncritical pro-Palestinian bias that makes a mockery of Carter?s pretensions to fair arbiter and peacemaker.
http://www.engageonline.org.uk/blog/article.php?id=783
(Note the sly bit about Carter's "uncanny impersonation of an Israeli hater." Nudge nudge.)
Here's what Yossi Beilin has to say about Carter in the "Forward".
"In other words, what Carter says in his book about the Israeli occupation and our treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories
I read an article in The Nation from a collection of nation writings. It was about israel's perception in America and was from I htink 1978. It was amazing how different things were then. I think jews dislike Carter because Israel was actually held to account for it's actions under his administration. Jews seemed genuinly concerned about the direction Begin was taking Israel. Also, the growing perception in America was that Egypt wanted peace and Israel didn't.
The whole tone of the article was completely unlike any article on israel perceptions in the US you would see today. I can't remember the author or title
I've developed a quick test for screening "left" Jewish sites like Mr. Remba's. I look for how many times the word "Palestinian" is used. For example, do they speak of "Israel's war with the Palestinians," or "Israel's war with the Arab world"? Is it the "Israel-Palestine conflict" or the "Arab-Israeli conflict"? Is it "Palestinian security" or "Israeli security" they call for?
On this basis, Mr. Remba's site scores very poorly. You'd almost think he's afraid of the word. ("There is not such thing as the Palestinian people.") In fact the site is not really a peace site at all but just another "J-site." If this is the Jewish left, I'm afraid there is little hope from all Soros's millions.
http://tough-dove-israel.blogspot.com/
(BTW Phil, you are right to indentify Stephen Zunes with the "dog wags tail" school, but you are leaving out its headmaster, Noam Chomsky.)
Trouvere,
People come to the same conclusions for different reasons. There are people, like me, who believe that the Jews need and deserve a state of their own. Some of us also believe the Palestinians should have a state of their own, and one of the main reasons is it will ensure the security and survival of a Jewish state.
That's not the only reason why we favor a Palestinian state. The other reason is that the Palestinians deserve to have a state of their own and to be rid of the terrible burden of the occupation.
You might not care about the first goal, the goal that is based on Israeli needs. Others do. If any political bloc is going to have any positive impact on the plight of the Palestinian people, American Jews like Remba will need to be part of that bloc. They, at least, have a chance to accomplish something --i.e., press the U.S. to press Israel to take the steps needed to give Palestinians a homeland. The far left, which has never had any power in this country and has never had much of an impact on anyone, and which dimisses out of hand anyone who expresses concern about Israel, will never accomplish anything.
I couldn't help but wonder if Gidon Remba actually read Carter's book.
Salvage, I don't believe we have the luxury of noodling over whether we should prioritize Palestinian vs. Israeli rights anymore. This country is on the slippery slope. America needs to call Israel to heel, to fulfill the promises made.
My name is Rowan Berkeley - I post paragraphs like the one below -- I accuse Jews of controlling both international finance and communism. But hey -- I'm not an anti-semite!
My take on 9-11 is that the demolition of the Towers was performed at least partially by pre-planted explosives. In this context obviously Larry Silverstein is the key player. It is hard to see people like, for instance, Chertoff as any less sinister - but it would be evidence of a puerile racism to imagine that all the core conspirators were Jews. The gravy train created by this thing is vast and there is plenty of gravy for all the "homeland security" gangsters.
Nevertheless, basically, we are looking at a constitutional coup conducted by people of zionist rather than american orientation.
I don't think it is correct to talk about a disinformational campaign in the formal sense, like a concrete conspiracy hatched in a physical smoke-filled room, in many cases. Outside of the core conspirators, there is merely a climate of conformity. It's like under Stalin : you didn't need to send goons to every journalist's doorstep to make the situation clear.
Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | January 27, 2007 3:02 AM
Kushner when will you wake up and see what a cesspool your erstwhile Journo's blog has become?
(btw -- I'm a concerned citizen who hates foreign influence (like Rowan's) on our fair country (and City) -- I'm not toughdove, nor bill P, nor a political animal at all. Just a normal guy who hates bigotry when he sees it).
"If any political bloc is going to have any positive impact on the plight of the Palestinian people, American Jews like Remba will need to be part of that bloc."
Why? What business is it of theirs?
Noted Neo-Nazi, Rowan Berkeley, tells Mary Rizzo (peacepalestine.blogspot.com, that she is a mossad provocateur!
Those who can read German may find this copybook example of guilt-by-association, is-he-an-antisemite, by someone Shamir claims used to support him and is now a "traitor", typically fatuous:
http://www.freitag.de/2006/06/06...06/ 06061502.php
I mention this because it illustrates the pointlessness of the endless discussion about whether people are 'anti-Semites' or not.
The only effective opposition to zionism, america, or the general imperial charade, will come from now on from people who regard the accusation of 'anti-Semitism' with contempt.
Rowan Berkeley | 04.27.06 - 11:55 am | #
Spoken with the same obsessiveness as the Germans who decided that it was more important to kill Jews than to win WW II.
The idiot neo-nazi member of the BNP realizes that he will never be taken for anything but an antisemite as long as the term has meaning.
The world hold's Adolf Berkeley in contempt.
joe90 | 04.27.06 - 2:41 pm | #
can't be arsed to moderate
Rowan Berkeley | 04.27.06 - 2:54 pm | #
I have just noticed that Dina Porat, one of D Irving's persecutors, is "Director of the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University".
-- I have news for Ms. Porat. "Anti-Semitism" is not a "Racism".
Rowan Berkeley | 04.27.06 - 6:08 pm | #
"Why? What business is it of there's?" Trouvere asks.
Well, I thought it was axiomatic on this blog that American Presidents and Members of Congress have been reluctant to be evenhanded and to criticize Israel because of fears of political retribution from the conventional Jewish lobby. That's plain as day. So, what kind of political force could possibly make them feel like they have the political leeway to take a different approach? A bloc that includes American Jews who aren't afraid to be called "pro-Israel" and can nudge and prod their community to support evenhandedness...Reversing American policy is "their business" for the same reason it is every American's business.
So now we have the Kach racists accuse others of racism?
Gee, that's cute. You gotta love the Kachist crowd. The State Department lists Kach and Kahane Chai as foreign terrorist organizations. They worship the Stern Gang, the extremist group that in 1940 AND 1941 offered nazi Germany to fight on her side!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi_%28group%29#Contact_with_Nazi_authorities
Here is the actual offer:
"The National Military Organization(NMO), which is well-acquainted with the goodwill of the German Reich government and its authorities towards Zionist activity inside Germany and towards Zionist emigration plans, is of the opinion that:
1. Common interests could exist between the establishment of a New Order in Europe in conformity with the German concept, and the true national aspirations of the Jewish people as they are embodied by the NMO.
2. Cooperation between the new Germany and a renewed volkish-national Hebrium would be possible and
3. The establishment of the historical Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, and bound by a treaty with the German Reich, would be in the interest of a maintained and strengthened future German position of power in the Near East.
Proceeding from these considerations, the NMO in Palestine, under the condition the above-mentioned national aspirations of the Israeli freedom movement are recognised on the side of the German Reich, offers to actively take part in the war on Germany�s side."
Here is some info on Kach from the Council on Foreign Relations:
Kach, Kahane Chai (Israel, extremists)
Updated: November 2005
What are Kach and Kahane Chai?
Two marginal Israeli groups that have used terrorism to pursue their goals of expanding Jewish rule across the West Bank and expelling the Palestinians. Both groups grew out of the anti-Arab teachings of Rabbi Meir Kahane, an American-born extremist who founded and led Kach (its name means �thus� in Hebrew) until he was assassinated in New York in 1990. Israel outlawed Kach and its offshoot Kahane Chai (�Kahane Lives�) in 1994, a month after a Kach supporter shot and killed twenty-nine Muslim worshipers at a West Bankmosque. Experts say Kahanist leaders in Israelhave steered clear of terrorism recently in hopes of getting Israel to lift the ban on the two groups, but Israeli authorities continue to regard Jewish extremists as a potential terrorist threat. The State Department lists Kach and Kahane Chai as foreign terrorist organizations.
- What terrorist attacks have been associated with Kach and Kahane Chai?
The deadliest came in February 1994, shortly after the signing of the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) when Baruch Goldstein, a Brooklyn-born doctor and Kach supporter, opened fire with a machine gun inside the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. He killed twenty-nine people and wounded dozens more before he was himself killed. Goldstein chose to attack at a particularly sensitive religious site; the mosque is built atop the Cave of the Patriarchs, where, according to both Jewish and Muslim traditions, the prophet Abraham and his family are buried.
Kahanists have also shot, stabbed, and thrown grenades at Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank. In cases where Kach and Kahane Chai have not themselves claimed responsibility for anti-Arab attacks, Kahane and his followers have declined to condemn such violence and have often glorified it.
The Machteret a 1980s Jewish underground terror group with links to Kach�staged several attacks, including an unsuccessful May 1980 campaign to kill several Palestinian mayors, before being broken up. Israeli authorities also foiled the Machteret�s plans to blow up Jerusalem�s al-Aqsa Mosque, which is built atop the contested holy site known by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the TempleMount. Destroying the mosque, experts say, could provoke a massive Middle Eastern conflict.
- How big are Kach and Kahane Chai?
Recent reports say Kach and Kahane Chai have an overlapping core membership of several dozen as well as a larger number�perhaps several hundred�of less committed supporters that includes both native-born Israelis and radicalized immigrants from the United States and elsewhere.
- Where do Kach and Kahane Chai operate?
In Israel and the West Bank . Two West Bank settlements�Kiryat Arba, near Hebron , and Tapuach�are thought to be the cradles of Kahanist support.
Have Kach and Kahane Chai been active in the current Israeli-Palestinian violence?
Kach has been suspected of a number of low-level attacks since the start of the al-Asqa intifada in 2000. But the extent of their involvement is unclear. Neither group has claimed responsibility for any of the anti-Arab bomb plots or the more common roadside shootings of Palestinians by Israeli extremists. Nor have Israeli authorities yet proved any Kach or Kahane Chai connection to these attacks. In April 2002, Israeli police arrested a former Kach spokesman in connection with an attempt to leave an explosive-packed trailer outside a Palestinian girls� school and hospital in East Jerusalem, but experts say the plot was arranged by individuals affiliated with another Jewish extremist group that is not affiliated with Kach or Kahane Chai.
During the August 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, angry settlers protesting the withdrawal� and in some instances, resorting to violence�were reportedly associated with Kach and Kahane Chai.
- Who was Meir Kahane?
Martin David Kahane was born in 1932 in Brooklyn , New York . As a teenager, he joined Betar, a quasi-military youth group affiliated with the Revisionist Zionist movement, which sought a Jewish state in all of British-ruled Palestine . In 1968, Kahane, who trained as a lawyer and rabbi, formed the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a militant group that promoted Jewish vigilantism and urged American Jews to arm themselves under the slogan �every Jew a .22.� Putatively organized to combat African-American anti-Semitism, the JDL went on to target the offices and representatives of Soviet-bloc nations, the PLO, Arab states, and Jewish organizations it saw as moderate.�
www.cfr.org/publication/9178
Salvage, well put. There is no point in having a new PC vocabulary in which anyone with the slightest concern for Israel is a Likudnik or a Lieberman. It serves no political purpose. They want you to go away, some of the regulars here, but there are also people reading this who might get the idea.
Nah. When goings get tough you people will just betray the Palestinians again, as you always end up doing.
This tough dove blog is a must read for anyone who entertained any illusions.
Read the review of Carter's book where he lays out what he believes in see for yourselves:
tough-dove-israel.blogspot.com/2006/12/carters-palestine-israel-book-its-even.html
No thanks guys.
Dear Anonymous,
do you possess a brain? i take it you are probably Alan as you have all the markings of his moronic postings.
I merely laid out what is easy to find -- Rowan Berkeley's anti-semitic ravings on the web. You respond by calling me a Kachist. I am nothing of the sort.
Seems like Rowen is so easily hanged by his own petard. Praytell, where do you find my racist rantings on the web?
Alan -- please do yourself a favor and read a real book. I recommend Gershom Gorenberg's Accidental Empire. Pretty interesting read. You might also try anything by David Pryce-Jones. Much better than your gradeschool efforts on wikipedia.
Let me lay out what is even easier to find: The manual for advocacy called Hasbara which you constantly use:
The techniques utilized
* Smearing/defaming critics of Israel, aka, attacking the messenger. This is even the terminology found in the Hasbara Handbook
* Selective discussion of issues
* Framing of issues, and setting the terminology used in discussing Israel
* Harassing media about its coverage, aka, flak
* Challenging the portrayal of an alternative narrative, and attempting to keep the zionist narrative as the dominant one.
Hasbara Campus Manual
The Hasbara Handbook: Promoting Israel on Campus, is now available online. And this is an interesting admission (page 31 onwards):
Propaganda is used by those who want to communicate in ways that engage the emotions and downplay rationality, in an attempt to promote a certain message.
The manual goes on to describe seven propaganda techniques:
1. Name calling: through the careful use of words, then name calling technique links a person or an idea to a negative symbol.
2. Glittering generality: Simply put, glittering generality is name calling in reverse. Instead of trying to attach negative meanings to ideas or people, glittering generalities use positive phrases, which the audience are attached to, in order to lend positive image to things. Words such as "freedom", "civilization",
Hey, thank you for the suggestion but I only watch tv and read comics.
But I think you are the guy who likes Christopher Hitchens!
I sense the same pompous self-importance which is so characteristic of people of insufficient and pretentious culture.
Alan --
Don't read superman, it's a Jewish comic.
Hitch
Yeah, well, too bad this hasbara propaganda manual was invented to 'help' students 'advocate' Israel on campuses by the World Union of Jewish Students.
It wasn't written by the World Anti-Zionist Cabal.
See also the 'megaphone':
www.giyus.org/ (Give Israel Your United Support)
Anonymous -- it's a democracy stupid.
"What business is it of theirs?"
I see what you're saying, Salvage. I wasn't sure whether you were claiming a special moral claim to be heard, or a special wisdom into the question, or just a special position of power in the political process. I would disagree with the first two claims, but of course I agree with the last. But we can fix imbalances of power, can't we?
I'm suspicious of folks who, when confronted by an obviously broken political process, oppose any attempts to fix it and instead say, "Trust us, we won't do it again."
What trouvere is trying to say Salvage is that you're help is just not wanted here. Left wing Jews need not apply as it confuses matters. You can't be trusted. Too easy to be a plant. Your only hope is to be more British than the British. Only then will you be certified as non-kosher and trusted. Any nuance on your part will be seen as suspect of jewish particularism.
Not sure what you mean by "confuses matters". Wouldn't something like ToughDove1's private entreaty to Phil to stop talking about the lobby, or ToughDove2's smearing of Carter as an Israeli hater be better classified as "sabotaging matters"?
What are their priorities?
By the way, here's a hint about the possible priorities of ToughDove2: he posted his book review at the Engage site--
http://www.engageonline.org.uk/home/
Take a look.
And if I may add, read Blankfort's interview to understand their role in the past decades:
portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/12/350717.shtml
Theirs is just a damage control operation. Coming from the 'Left', it has a chance of succeeding to hijack the movement again and save Israel from the turbulence and land her safely. Or so they think.
They will never give in that it was always thanks to them and their insistence on what they call 'nuances' that the Eretz Israel crowd advanced their agenda with no meaningful opposition.
They are always two steps behind. Only when events overtake them and the pressure becomes overwhelming do they move an inch forward. They have always been a roadblock and a burden, and they still are.
For a good recap of their 'helpful' and 'just' ideas read Tough Dove's review of Carter's book:
"Carter's Palestine-Israel Book: It's Even Worse Than They Say", by Gidon D. Remba
tough-dove-israel.blogspot.com/2006/12/carters-palestine-israel-book-its-even.html
Then read Blankfort's interview too and judge for yourselves what the agenda of those "Machiavellian dove[s]"(!) is really all about.
P.S. Remember that lately even the ADL's Foxman stated he is supposedly for the two-state solution. How nice.
Whatever wrote
"it was always thanks to them and their insistence on what they call 'nuances' that the Eretz Israel crowd advanced their agenda with no meaningful opposition."
Which "meaningful opposition" are you referring to? The far left that Blankfort wants to grow? The one that loves to talk to itself? An opposition based on rallies and declarations to the already-converted and blogs like this one? One that has no hope of getting more than a few people elected in a few American cities, and will never develop enough support to pressure any U.S. officials to do anything?
You centrists just don't get it, because your ideas are static, not to say, congealed.
What we are doing is disarming the accusatory force of the 'anti-Semitism' accusation. Since this accusatory force is the only thing that allows you to sort your opponents into non-communicating groups, without it you are lost (at least as a coherent political bloc).
Funny how those who helped marginalize -- and consistently sabotaged -- those in the Left who wanted to talk about the real issues and take meaningful action now accuse us of not making a difference!
Which begs the question, what did YOU guys achieve?
Nothing! You only strengthened those you supposedly fight against. And only now that the shit hits the fan are you finally accepting SOME of our longstanding arguments. Why? Because you can't do otherwise! Because you realize there is a grassroots response coming -- also called blowback -- which you completely failed to anticipate. As always, your game is only damage control on Israel