Yakov Hirsch on August 8, 2016
Read the Anti-Defamation League‘s statement twisting and turning on Black Lives Matter, because Black Lives Matter called Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians “genocide,” and you are reading the obituary of the Israel lobby.
The ADL’s big lie is that they care about other “minorities.” That’s the only thing that can keep the organization alive in the 21st century. “To woo millennials to the ADL, [director Jonathan] Greenblatt wants to stress the group’s work among other minority communities, which has long been a part of its agenda,” says the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
And in Greenblatt’s statement about Black Lives Matter’s new platform, look how he is FORCED to go on about their common struggle, one minority comrade to another:
the Platform is bold and provocative in its demands. It pointedly rejects many racial equality approaches tried over the past four decades. Instead, the document proposes a transformational policy frame for many ideas that previously have been articulated by activists, scholars and writers…
We do not agree with many of the specific demands of the Platform, but the document appropriately highlights the need to address mass incarceration and a wide range of racial inequities and socio-economic issues facing African Americans today. Beyond hand-wringing and soul-searching, the Platform proposes a number of specific legal, administrative, and legislative remedies to address identified challenges.
We appreciate these points because the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is deeply committed to addressing many of these issues, too.
Nothing about Jews, it’s all about black lives mattering. Greenblatt can’t give away the game: that what the ADL is really of course only about is the Jews. If he goes ballistic over one little part of this platform trying to help all the downtrodden he will be exposed. So he has to keep up the charade as long as he can.
It’s not till paragraph five that Greenblatt can part company with BLM.
But would-be allies in the struggle for civil and human rights along with justice and fair treatment cannot ignore the Platform’s false and blatantly one-sided position on US-Israel relations and Israeli-Palestinian issues. We categorically reject the document’s criticism of the United States and Israel as being “complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people.” The Jewish community knows too much about genocide.
Whatever one’s position on the relationship between Israel, its Palestinian citizens, and the residents in the West Bank and Gaza, it’s repellent and completely inaccurate to label Israel’s policy as “genocide.”
Repellent is as strong as it gets, and it’s buried in the article. Now remember the utter condescension Greenblatt showed to Rep. Hank Johnson, who said far tamer things about Israel during the Democratic convention. Greenblatt on Johnson’s innocent “termites” remark:
[Our first tweet on the comment] did not go far enough in condemning him.
So I wanted to take the opportunity now to put this issue into full context, to explain why the remarks were so offensive both to Israelis and Jews across the political spectrum and to elucidate what elected officials must do in such instances to assure the public that they do not support the kind of anti-Semitic notions the remark suggested for so many.
First, to the remarks themselves: As I myself tweeted, there’s absolutely no doubt that Rep. Johnson’s comments were both irresponsible and reprehensible, particularly because they played into traditional anti-Semitic canards. The image of “termites” being used to describe Jews has sordid connotations.
Nothing like that with BLM. Notice the tone of Greenblatt’s piece. No reprehensible or sordid or anti-Semitic. Quite civil on the part of the ADL, considering this BLM organization just claimed Israel is “committing Genocide”!
Why? Because BLM can’t be bullied. BLM isn’t in the Congress, BLM isn’t a thinktank or a nonprofit or a news organization with a big budget. BLM can’t be bought, and now it’s too late to start to try to marginalize them.
And they’re not going away. This is not the first encounter, but it is the beginning. Because I promise you that BLM is not going to be “precise” with every word when talking about Israel, as Walt and Mearsheimer, Andrew Sullivan, Chris Matthews are. And that will lead to public discussions.
No one is publicizing what is going on in Israel like BLM is going to do. And a big fight between ADL and BLM will just be very bad PR.
So what’s left? Greenblatt has to plead with BLM not to use such such over the top words.
So let’s work to keep our eyes on the prize…
The vital issues of racial justice we are confronting now — and the need to directly combat extremism, hate violence, immigrant bashing, and stereotyping — require sustained commitments. They necessitate a disciplined, relentless focus. They demand clear-headed, fact based approaches.
We cannot walk away. We cannot be distracted or dispirited. Those of us committed to justice cannot afford to stray from addressing the very real injustices facing our communities.
The only problem with this is– what happens when the next video of an Israeli medic murdering a Palestinian lying on the ground comes out of the occupied territories? Or the next video of an Israeli soldier throwing a Palestinian child’s bicycle in bushes after another soldier has bullied the girl?
Well, Black Lives Matter is not going to use careful and precise language, and nor should it. Black Lives Matter has taken on the conflict directly, and when Jeffrey Goldberg et al go after BLM the fight will be in the open, and Israel’s action will be in the spotlight. And the last thing Jeffrey Goldberg or the rest of the lobby need is a public debate with BLM.
Why do you think Goldberg let Gideon Levy get the last word with his column, “The Dangerous Fantasies of Jeffrey Goldberg”? When is the last time Jeffrey the bully ever let an attack go unanswered? He let this drop because Goldberg does not debate reality. And he knows very well that a public spat, which is what would have happened if he responded to Gideon Levy, would be a disaster for Goldberg. People would start talking about his false reports that helped get the United States into the Iraq war. He cannot win a debate over the occupation with Levy.
And it’s the same thing with BLM. Do you think the BLM people will publish a 10,000-word article in the Nation explaining why they’re not anti-Semitic after Goldberg accuses them of anti- semitism? No way. They will tell him, “Go away, you racist entitled warmongering prick.” “Israel is a colonial racist state committing Genocide against the Palestinians.”
Goldberg will be left to make fun of their lack of commas on twitter, or some other trivial matter, as he did when Levy dissected him in the eyes of the world.
The truth is, Israel can’t survive the truth. Israel is in the position it is in because of totally censoring and ostracizing critics, and creating so much of Nate Silver’s “noise” that the “signal” is lost in the eyes of the world. What their echo chamber is great at is pumping out bullshit to bury the “reality.” Jimmy Carter used the word apartheid when there isn’t an ex Israeli PM alive who doesn’t use the word Apartheid when discussing Israel’s future. But that didn’t help Carter. He was shamed by Wolf Blitzer and Terry Gross and pushed out of the Democratic convention.
Black Lives Matter is not in Jimmy Carter’s establishment position. BLM knows how to read the whole Israel situation. They see reality and what these Jewish tribalists are trying to do. They see Hillary Clinton in the pocket of Haim Saban (“I am a one issue guy and that issue is Israel”), they see Clinton promising him to work against Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS); and they know what to do: they endorse BDS.
Jonathan Greenblatt is going to have a hard time convincing BLM that standing by Israel is part of worldwide fight for social justice. It would go a long way to convince BLM if the ADL would just show the least bit of interest or empathy, for the lot of the Palestinian people. That won’t be happening on Mr. Greenblatt’s watch.
- See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/08/israel-because-reality/#sthash.CnsDG2IN.dpuf
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