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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Mann's article: Anti-Semitic...not anti-Semitic
Wednesday 04 August @ 16:14:35 |
 Demonstrators not anti-Semitic
I’m certain that most Americans are completely unaware that we send several billion dollars to Israel every year, year in and year out. This, and the way the Palestinians are treated, are some of the main reasons we will have to put up with terrorism in this country for a long time into the future.
I joined the protesters last Friday at their weekly afternoon demonstration at Summit and Snelling. A Jewish woman stopped by and tried to tell us that what we were doing was wrong. I told her that more than 95 percent of the nations of the world not only condemn Israel and Zionism for racism, but the United Nations Security Council has passed 26 resolutions declaring the same and accused Israel of being in violation of international law.
She said I was anti-Semitic, and I told her that I was not anti-Semitic but I am anti-Jewish. I told her that I’m also anti-Catholic, anti-Baptist, anti-Muslim, anti-astrology, anti-Voodoo, anti-tooth fairy and anti-all-dumb-dogmas-of-the-world. Religion and religious dogmas are getting us in more trouble and dividing the people of the world more than they are uniting us.
From the Catholic Church with its ban on birth control and its condemnation of Galileo, to the Muslims draping their heads sanctimoniously with upholstery fabric (vestige of the burkas?), to the Jews who claim that “God gave this land to me,” to the Christian fascists we now have in the White House, dogmatic religionists need to examine their consciences.
A God in his or her heaven there might well be, but take my word for it; you don’t know for sure and I don’t either.
Don Johnson
Minneapolis
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Opinion: Mann’s ‘Peace vigil’ actually anti-Semitic
by Cheryl Fields
Doesn’t this woman have better things to do?
True women of peace would not justify sitting on a street corner every Friday afternoon to vigil against Israel in a neighborhood that is known to have a larger Jewish population than other areas of the city — even though Polly Mann insists that’s just coincidental — and wave protest signs that Jews especially might find offensive and antagonistic and which Polly herself admits are “pretty confrontational.” There’s a meanness of spirit here.
And there’s a smugness in reporting that a co-vigilante was called an “anti-Semite” from a passing car, as though there were something wrong with the person who was offended and not her own actions that had provoked such a reaction.
Polly tries to deflect accusations of being anti-Semitic by saying there’s “no way you can prove or disprove it,” which is a cop out. Whether prejudice is real or perceived really matters little. How one responds to such accusations matters most.
To be clear, opposition to Israeli policy in and of itself is does not an anti-Semite make; there are other factors at play here. While Polly says she vigils so that her voice may be heard, and reheard on the pages of the Pulse, she gives lip service to her stated belief in the “freedom to speak” – because, truth be told, Polly and the women of WAMM, as well as other Twin Cities “peace” groups and “peace” churches, have themselves tried to silence others, e.g., Jews in this town. For many years now they’ve refused to give voice to Jewish people, other than the few who agree with their point of view. That’s called “discrimination.” And discrimination against Jews is called “anti-Semitism.”
 In her article, Polly insists that she and WAMM are not “anti-Jewish” nor “opposed to the existence of Israel” and that she “has never heard anyone with connections to the peace community say that Israel should not be permitted to exist.” Au contraire. The very policies Polly and WAMM promote, e.g. unilaterally disarming the Israelis and support for the Arab “right of return,” guarantee the annihilation of Israel or would so drastically alter Israel’s character that she would no longer be a “Jewish” state. Indeed, there are those currently in positions of leadership in the “peace” movement who have expressed that there should have never even been a Jewish state in the first place and that Jews should just get over “being Holocausted.” At the core of the “peace” movement are those who actually believe the absurdity that Israel, the size of Maryland, is to blame for all that is wrong in the Middle East and pretty much the world, and busy themselves spinning recycled Jewish conspiracy theories concocted in hell’s kitchen.
Jews especially should be cautious, like the daughter of the Holocaust survivor Polly speaks of who joined in her vigil — because the “peace” movement is not merely “anti-Sharon” as they claim; they object to Israel no matter who is in power, no matter what the policy. And because a small contingency of Jews support their views, or happen upon their vigil, they use that as a disclaimer that they’re not “anti-Jewish”, just “anti-Israel” — just anti the country where the largest number of Jewish people just happen to live, which is nothing more than collective anti-Semitism.
Polly believes “if it were possible to have low-key, conversation about this, one might be able to find agreement that the right to speak means the right to say things unpopular or even disgusting to the other individual.” So being that pro-Israel views are “unpopular” in the “peace” movement, why hasn’t Polly et al allowed those views to be heard? And there can’t be anything as disgusting as having to tell others they’re behaving like bigots, harsh language usually reserved for Arlon Lindners, not “peace” activists.
A number of years ago during the height of protests against US military intervention in Central America, a member of Veterans for Peace asked if I would portray Anne Frank in a bit of street theater for a commemoration of the Feast of the Children, a Catholic observance. Afterwards I asked my “friend” where he would have stood in 1933 Germany. “Are you sure?” I pressed. I knew where he would have stood then. Where he stands today. Where his Lutheran church stands today. And his former Catholic church as well. And Veterans for Peace. And WAMM. And most Twin Cities “peace” groups and their affiliate members’ churches. And it’s not with Anne’s people. And it’s not open to discussion. These people fool themselves if they think they would have given Anne the time of day.
Today’s “peace” movement is a predominately white Christian movement and two thousand years of anti-Semitism is tough to undo. It’s only been in the past decade that the Lutheran Church finally denounced their founder’s vicious anti-Semitic teachings and others, like the Berrigans, long-time leaders in the anti-nuke and anti-Israel movement, were raised in and continue to follow pre-Vatican II theology, factors that undoubtedly continue to play out in the self-righteousness of the “peace” movement and their blistering attitude towards Israel. Other denominations, e.g. the Presbyterian Church, have signed on to the Palestinian cause as well, likely without thoroughly exploring both sides of the issue, thinking they have, because Christians it seems tend to presume they know more about the Jewish world than they actually do and therefore see no need to hear from Jews/Israelis, only the Palestinians. As a matter of fact, that was a reason given by Polly and WAMM for excluding Jewish views — that they already knew what Jews and Israelis had to say. If not anti-Semitic, certainly haughty.
My hope is that sharing these unpleasant thoughts will result in reflection and positive change rather than the usual personal attacks on the messenger to avoid discussion of the actual message.
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