Opinion American Jews Won't Abandon the Left. Will It Abandon Us?
In the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967, many American Jews grappled with a challenge that the Talmudic scholar Hillel had posed 1,900 years earlier: “If I am not for myself, who will be? … If I am only for myself, what am I?”
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Jewish lay and religious leaders commonly invoked that famous philosophical question from synagogue bimahs, at political conferences and in newspaper editorials. They had been shocked at their apparent abandonment by many American liberals — particularly liberal Christians — who voiced greater concern and affinity for hostile Arab countries than for the state of Israel. The whiplash from this abandonment led many American Jews to reevaluate their political allegiances. Could they stand up for themselves, even if doing so meant breaking with former allies, and still stay true to their liberal values?
It’s that same feeling of abandonment that many American Jews, particularly the community’s majority of political liberals, are struggling with today. In the two weeks since Hamas unleashed a brutal attack against Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis — a modern-day pogrom that included rape, the murder of babies, the kidnapping of young and old civilians by the hundreds and gangland executions of innocents — many American Jews are writhing in anger at self-styled progressives who strike them as wholly insensitive to Jewish suffering and trigger-happy not just to decry Israel’s military response but to deny its very right to exist.
“I am in such a state of despair,” said Nick Melvoin, a member of the Los Angeles Unified School Board and current candidate for Congress. “In my generation, we have been warned how quickly people would turn on us and we just thought no way.” A rabbi and progressive activist in LA put the matter in sharper relief when she observed that the “clear message from many in the world, especially from our world — those who claim to care the most about justice and human dignity — is that these Israeli victims somehow deserved this terrible fate.”
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We definitely need to be thinking about these two women.
Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85. Remind me of my beautiful, vivacious, delightful neighbor. And although these two women were released, their husbands are still captives. Ages 83 and 84. Makes me want to cry. It does make me cry. I really hate people who attack old people almost as much as I hate people who attack kids.
Appearing weak in a wheelchair and speaking softly, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz told reporters Tuesday that the militants beat her with sticks, bruising her ribs and making it hard to breathe as they kidnapped her. They drove her into Gaza, then forced her to walk several kilometers (miles) on wet ground to reach a network of tunnels that looked like a spider web, she said.
Once there, though, her treatment improved, she said. The people assigned to guard her “told us they are people who believe in the Quran and wouldn’t hurt us.” Lifshitz, whose husband remains a hostage, said conditions were kept clean, she received medical care, including medication, and was given the same one meal a day of cheese and cucumber that her captors had.
It’s best if we don’t think about this, a graphic from AP that’s shows
15-20 trucks (dark blue) allowed in to Gaza now
200 trucks lined up/ U.N. says daily need
500 trucks per day normally go into Gaza.
Or this boy here.
Palestinian boy sits on the rubble of the building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Bureij refugee camp Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023
Those two images make me cry too, because I listened deeply to the story of the childhood of a boy who grew up truly starving in wartime Japan 80 years ago.
We should not think about these people, because it’s very important to keep space in one’s heart for only one side of war.
https://apnews.com/article/palestinians-gaza-israel-humanitarian-siege-war-hamas-de2695f3b8b47753e09252089d22d4cd
Netanyahu says he doesn’t plan on taking control of Gaza. Maybe that is a mistake. This pain will never go away.
I have been following the Justice Democrats and its predecessor for a while including the "brand new congress group" and other groups created by Cenk, Kyle Kulinksi and their ilk. I am on the Justice Democrat email list and I have even listened once or twice to the Justice Democrat podcast which is amusingly called "Just Us" democrats. The Justice Democrats emails are fun to laugh at and I love the hatred this group shows to the Democratic Party, establishment Democrats and best of all corporate democrats.
The Justice Democrat group want to take over the Democratic party and remake into their image. I also do not want the Democratic Party to be taken over by the Justice Democrat group.
I am not the only person who has issues with the concept that the Justice Democrats want to take over the Democratic Party
Link to tweet
Lately members of this group have been attacking President Biden and all Jewish Democrats. This group has been attacking Israel for a while and now this group is attacking President Biden. I am getting the same email two or three times. Some days I get three or four emails from the Justice Democrats asking for funding to protect members of the Justice Democrats from nasty Jews and AIPAC.
Here are excerpts from an email that I have received three times
We are collectively witnessing the state of Israel commit public ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza after a long history of violent occupation and nearly two decades of blockading. What we — our elected officials, our media, and ourselves as individuals — do in this moment will undoubtedly have life-changing impacts for generations to come.,,,,
You may have noticed we’ve been in touch more often this week asking you to financially support Justice Democrats and our incumbents in Congress, as the violence in Israel and Palestine worsens. This is a longer email, but I want to take a moment to explain why.,,,,
We are collectively witnessing the state of Israel commit public ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza after a long history of violent occupation and nearly two decades of blockading. What we — our elected officials, our media, and ourselves as individuals — do in this moment will undoubtedly have life-changing impacts for generations to come.....
AIPAC spent millions trying to stop them and failed. Now, AIPAC is already recruiting candidates to challenge these progressive incumbents, while AIPAC-funded officials like Rep. Josh Gottheimer verbally attack them and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries remains silent.
Here is another email that attacks AIPAC and Jewish Democrats
AIPAC | Text ISRAEL to 24722 | #StandWithIsrael @AIPAC
Calling for a ceasefire now is a transparent ploy by @RepCori and the anti-Israel squad to paint Israel as the aggressor and allow Hamas to stay in power.
Hamas massacres Israelis while condemning innocent Palestinians to be human shields.
To save lives, Hamas must be driven out of Gaza.
Our bloc has shown tremendous political courage over the last week — at the cost of being attacked by both establishment Democrats and Republicans.
AIPAC has millions of dollars at their disposal to spend against us. Remember, they tried to defeat Summer Lee last cycle, and are actively recruiting against Jamaal, Ilhan and Summer right now.
? So now, we need to be prepared for AIPAC to spend heavily against our candidates who have been bravely calling for a ceasefire. We need their voices in Congress now more than ever.
I admit that I am amused by the pleas for money given that I am a Jewish democrat who practices corporate law (I guess that this makes me a "corporate democrat" ).
Hamas is the enemy here and must be dealt with
