Fadel, Don’t be this disappointed.  There are not as many at Truthdig who go into ear-to-the-ground as there are with respect to “reports.”  Also, I know it would surprise you given my last name, but I am one-half Jewish.  My mother was a Russian Jew.  My father was British.  I was born in China, and consider myself an atheist and a humanist.  As such, I am anti-Zionist, though, like many, I have come to the realization that a two-state solution between Palestinians and Israelis of good will is the only solution.  So long as the brutal occupation continues, there will be

Where are the Peaceful Jews?

Though this thread has been posted since April 29, it has generated only a poor 22 comments. Since I posted mine on April 29 in which I hailed this news as “Glad Tidings,” I only noticed one on the Jewish side, namely by Inherent The Wind, whose comment delighted my heart given that he has been mostly a hard-core Zionist.

So my question is, “Where are the peace-loving Jews who would embrace this opportunity to express their support for the J Street.” I know there are at least some 5 million Jews in these sad United States of America, and just one person to come publicly in support of J Street would be a sad reality that peace-loving Jews is becoming are becoming an extinct bread. Was I so naive to hail the news of the formation of J Street as “Good Tidings?!”

Outstanding post EC. If more people understood the social mechanisms at work, the population as a whole would be less inclined to fall victim to these manipulative tactics. Even now, it is clear to those who get it, how Americans are being conditioned to treat Arabs and Muslims as less than human. The process, as described in your post, is virtually no different than that employed by the Nazi party. Only the out-group is changed.

There is a debate among scientists as to the evolutionary advantage of out-grouping. We may eventually discover that we are genetically predisposed to this kind of thinking. Wether this turns out to be true or not, the efficacy of out-grouping can not be denied. It worked when we were living in caves, and, as the neocons well know, it still works today.

If Judaism is truely a compassionate religion, its about time the truely righteous question the ethics and immoral actions of its own.

I guess the jewist zionist proagandists use the label “self hating jew” in an attempt to stifle the honest criticism those true believers in that faith observe and condemn.

Like these:

http://www.masada2000.org/dirt-list.html

It is a shame that Israel and many way too many Jews have lost their sense of justice.  They have lived in Amerikkka to long (even if they don’t live in Amerikkka)  They have absorbed the ideology of Social Darwinism, Capitalism, Might makes Right, competition above cooperation.

We need an ethic, a rule of law that respects all people as the family of man. We must stop this barbarism.

Respect all people.

1dree5, Since this is the first rational post from you, I will respond to it.

I referred to a 41 year “illegal” occupation because that is the only occupation condemned by UN Resolution 242.  You refer to the creation of the State of Israel.  While that worked to create a substantial injustice, it was not in violation of any UN resolutions or its charter and therefore I do not apply the word “illegal” to it.

While my personal preference would be a secular state in which Jews, Arabs and other immigrants to that corner of the world live and work productively as one, politically even Carter and Hamas appear to concede that this is not likely to occur.

Thus, I speak of the “illegal” occupation as being limited to when Israel moved beyond its pre-1967 borders. 

As to the remainder of your posts, I would suggest that you consider getting some professional help; anger management, perhaps.

ITW—Like you, I understood 1Dree5’s post as anti-Semitic rants.  But unlike you, I saw no need to so much as respond to an irrational diatribe by someone who appears so, for lack of a better term, “unbalanced.”

1Dree5’s twisted mind is the product of what Dr. Phillip Zimbardo refers to as “the process of dehumanization by which certain other people or collectives of them are depicted as less than human…”  Zimbardo regards this as “one of the central processes in the transformation of ordinary, normal people into indifferent or even wanton perpetrators of evil…a ‘cortical cataract’ that clouds one’s thinking and fosters the perception that other people are less than human…to see…others as enemies deserving of torment, torture, and even annihilation.”

History’s most abhorrent example, the “final solution,” was not the product of some inherent psychological deficiency in the German people.  To the contrary, it was the product of a deliberate campaign carried out in newspapers, on radio, in required texts of school children, and even in comic books, which “sought to create the perception of Jews as a sub-human race that was a threat to the survival of the national state.”

Dehumanization is by no means unique to Nazi Germany.  To the contrary, it “is created by virtually every nation’s propaganda on its path to war….The process begins with stereotyped concepts of the other,...conceptions of the other as worthless, the other as all-powerful,...the other as a fundamental threat to our cherished values and beliefs.  With public fear notched and enemy threat imminent, reasonable people act irrationally, independent people act in mindless conformity, and peaceful people act as warriors.  Dramatic visual images of the enemy on posters, television, magazine covers, movies, and the internet imprint on the recesses of the limbic system, the primitive brain, with powerful emotions of fear and hate.”

Just as you see anti-Semitic dehumanization in the rants of 1Dree5, you see a visceral hatred for all things Arab and Muslim not only from posters like Lefty but so ingrained in American culture and Zionist propaganda, as depicted in films and television as to give rise to the same type of stereotypical caricatures of Arabs as either a threat to our security or our finances as to resemble the level of pre-WWII propaganda against Jews.

What makes J Street so important is it provides to opportunity to bridge the gap between progressive Jews and progressive Arabs created by the propaganda and to permit the rest of the American public to begin to understand that there are many, many Jewish Americans who abhor the brutality of Israel’s 41 year illegal occupation of Palestine, who desire a just and lasting peace.

What’s the matter—did you lose your job to a Jew who was more qualified?

Did a Jew outplay you for a woman you liked?

Did a Jew beat your ass at handball?

Or are you just such a failure at life that you can’t stand your own image in the mirror, and like the old nazis, need someone ELSE to blame for your worthlessness?

All I ever did was get born—but that’s enough for screwballs like you to say I “earned” your hate.

Clearly 1Dree5 didn’t bother to read the article before he launched into his irrelevant hate-filled multi-post rant.

This despite the fact that his usual cronies, Non-Credo and Fadel actually read it (I give credit where credit is due).

I know you won’t believe it but I actually agree with the idea of J Street—a RATIONAL approach to Israel, supporting her existence but condemning the excess of Likud, or attacks on politicians like Howard Dean who dare question those excesses.

Fadel, this is not really new news.  It was reported on Democracy Now! some two weeks ago.  I would respectfully suggest Non Credo’s observation misses the mark.

For years now AIPAC-led Zionists have made the claim that they speak for American Jews.  More importantly, the Zionists have continually conflated opposition to Zionism with anti-Semitism.  That is the central thrust of Prof. Norman Finkelstein’s “Beyond Chutzpah.” 

It is rather difficult for Zionists to paint a Jewish organization that is opposed to the brutal occupation of Palestine as being anti-Semitic.  That is what makes the creation of J Street, an organization of progressive Jews, so important.  Indeed, the creation of this organization is critical to breaking the stranglehold that the Zionists have on the scope of public discourse that reaches the American public.

Of course, I fully expect that the Zionists (whom I regard as synonymous with fascists) will next turn to trying to pin the same label on the progressive Jews of the J Street Project that they have sought to pin on Norm Finkelstein and Noam Chomsky.  They call them “self-hating Jews.”  The Zionists are truly “beyond chutzpah.”

Dear Non-Credo,

It seems we just posted at the same time. Your points are stronger than mine and I particularly liked the “anti-Israel Lobby lobby.” However, I would modify it to be “anti-Zionist Control Lobby” if you allow me.

Despite your reservations, I still believe that good peace-loving Jews can be a great asset for universal peace with justice. There are large numbers of them and I had the pleasure and honor to work with some of them; though I have to say without concrete results for the bigger cause.

You’re great Non Credo, and I have a lot of love and respect for you and your points of view.

Glad Tidings!

This is a piece of news that made my day! However, I am anxious to see immediate results and action! I cannot bear to have another disappointment! Only people’s action will bring peace! You cannot wait for the war-mongers and military-industrial complex to do some thing that will go contrary to their worldly power and their profits bottom line.