Mondoweiss

The Yes Men say no to the Jerusalem Film Festival

The Yes Men are a group of "culture jamming activists" who impersonate heads of corporations to embarrass them in the media. They are increasingly well known and put out a movie in 2003 about their work called, The Yes Men Movie.

They are now about to release their second movie, The Yes Men Fix the World (trailer below), and it was supposed to show at the upcoming Jerusalem Film Festival. No longer. The Yes Men have decided to pull out of the festival to honor the call to boycott Israel. Here is their moving statement on their decision - "For Once, the Yes Men Say No":

The Yes Men, co-directors of the new award-winning documentary film The Yes Men Fix the World, have decided to withdraw their film from the Jerusalem International Film Festival, in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign:

Dear Friends at the Jerusalem Film Festival,

We regret to say that we have taken the hard decision to withdraw our film, "The Yes Men Fix the World," from the Jerusalem Film Festival in solidarity with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (http://www.bdsmovement.net/).

This decision does not come easily, as we realize that the festival opposes the policies of the State of Israel, and we have no wish to punish progressives who deplore the state-sponsored violence committed in their name.

This decision does not come easily, as we feel a strong affinity with many people in Israel, sharing with them our Jewish roots, as well as the trauma of the Holocaust, in which both our grandfathers died. Andy lived in Jerusalem for a year long ago, can still get by in Hebrew, and counts several friends there. And Mike has always wanted to connect with the roots of his culture.

But despite all our feelings, we cannot abandon our mission as activists. In the 1980s, there was a call from the people of South Africa to artists and others to boycott that regime, and it helped end apartheid there. Today, there is a clear call for a boycott from Palestinian civil society. Obeying it is our only hope, as filmmakers and activists, of helping put pressure on the Israeli government to comply with international law.

It is painful to do this. But it is even more painful to hear Israeli policies described as "fascist" - not just from the ill-informed and the clueless, not just from the usual anti-semitic morons, but from well-informed Jewish activists within Israel. They know what they're talking about, and it's painful to think that they could be right.

As we're sure you know and deplore, the Israeli government has recently authorized the construction of new units in an illegal West Bank outpost - one that is illegal even according to Israeli law. On Monday, nine Palestinians were injured as Israeli authorities demolished their East Jerusalem home. Tuesday, the Israeli navy stopped a ship from delivering medicine, toys, and other humanitarian relief to Gaza, and detained over twenty foreign peace activists, including a Nobel Peace laureate. Meanwhile, a UN commission was in Gaza investigating much worse abuses committed early this year.

Whatever words are applied to such actions, our film mustn't help lend an aura of normalcy to a state that makes these decisions. For us, that's the bottom line.

There is certainly another way to do things in Israel/Palestine, and that is what we must fight for, however feeble our means. As for our film, there is another way for it to be seen in Israel... and in Palestine, so that the people most in need of comic relief, who would never have been able to see it at the Jerusalem Film Festival anyhow, will be able to see it too. Within the next few months, we will make this happen.

To those who want to see our film, savlanut and sabir (patience)! And for all the rest of us, a little LESS patience, please.

L'shanah haba'ah beyerushalayim,

Andy and Mike

The Yes Men

www.theyesmen.org

'Times' columnists could be pressuring Obama. Except for Cohen, they're AWOL

Almost all of us at this site who want peace in Israel/Palestine are pulling for Obama. As an Egyptian student said to me last month in Cairo, "He's our only hope." She meant: for fairness and dignity.
It goes without saying that Obama is now under tremendous pressure from the lobby--and so letters like Peace Now's to the Washington Post today are all the more important, as signals that the lobby is splintering. A friend asks, Where are the New York Times columnists--who have such tremendous clout in the Jewish community? Good question.

The NYT columnists have said hardly a word about Obama and Israel since he took office. Virtually nothing on the back and forth over settlement expansion. It is really quite striking. Nick Kristof is always up on his high horse about this or that violation of human rights, but has few words to say about the Palestinians plight. It is hard to believe that Tom Friedman doesn't have something to say, and what about Frank Rich, who cares deeply about Israel, but practices radio silence on this important issue. Dowd and Herbert, of course, have been completely domesticated when it comes to Israel. Roger Cohen is the only exception and they hardly ever put his stuff about Israel in the print version. He is really an IHT person who provides filler on the web site and occasionally in the paper. Anyway, these people could make a big difference if they backed Obama and made it clear that he was acting as Israel's friend, not its enemy.

My friend Ilene Cohen demurs somewhat:

I'd like to speak on behalf of Kristof, who has in fact written on the topic (which is not his usual domain) quite eloquently and courageously on a number of occasions, going back more than two years. And he took plenty of flack for it, too. Three of his columns follow. I think the record should be corrected. These are: Gaza boomerang from January; from a year ago, The Two Israels. And Talking about Israel, from two years back.

 

As for the others, that's a different story. Thomas Friedman, who bills himself as a Middle East expert, has not been able to keep his story straight over the course of many years. He hates the settlements, but in the end he always come home to stand small with his Israeli friends. There's a reason why so many people who care deeply about this issue don't even bother reading him anymore. I don't think he satisfied the right wingers either.

I'd respond that it's great about Kristof, but the point now is Pressure on Obama.

Should Americans have a vision of Israel as a 'democratic Jewish state'?

Debra DeLee of Peace Now has a great letter in today's Washington Post telling Obama to keep up the pressure on the settlements:

'Exodus' drew the world's sympathy. Will Gaza boat?

A friend writes:
The incident you reported, of the Israelis attacking and boarding the Spirit of Humanity en route to Gaza, carries a strangely powerful resonance against the incident of the ship Exodus 1947--the British refusal of refugees on that boat after the war, which drew the world's sympathy and inspired a stronger resistance against British rule in Palestine. It was the germ of the novel and movie of that title.

Israel lobby in action: the 'LA Times' once stifled Hezbollah story out of piety for Israel's foundational myths

The other day Ashraf Khalil wrote about how hard it was for him to publish an account of the mistreatment of Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer in the LA Times last year. Khalil's story reminded a reader of the story that Ken Silverstein wrote in Harper's two years ago, describing his ordeal in trying to publish a story explaining Hezbollah's political appeal in Lebanon:

Report: Obama won't bend to Israeli 'tricks' re settlements

Israel intercepts aid boat carrying medicine, building supplies and toys attempting to break the siege of Gaza

From the Free Gaza Movement:

[23 miles off the coast of Gaza, 15:30pm] - Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY (pictured right before leaving port), abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.

"This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip," said Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate. "President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that's exactly what we tried to do. We're asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey."

According to an International Committee of the Red Cross report released yesterday, the Palestinians living in Gaza are "trapped in despair." Thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed earlier during Israel's December/January massacre are still without shelter despite pledges of almost $4.5 billion in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building material into the Gaza Strip. The report also notes that hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their patients due to Israel's disruption of medical supplies.

"The aid we were carrying is a symbol of hope for the people of Gaza, hope that the sea route would open for them, and they would be able to transport their own materials to begin to reconstruct the schools, hospitals and thousands of homes destroyed during the onslaught of "Cast Lead". Our mission is a gesture to the people of Gaza that we stand by them and that they are not alone" said fellow passenger Mairead Maguire, winner of a Noble Peace Prize for her work in Northern Ireland.

Just before being kidnapped by Israel, Huwaida Arraf, Free Gaza Movement chairperson and delegation co-coordinator on this voyage, stated that: "No one could possibly believe that our small boat constitutes any sort of threat to Israel. We carry medical and reconstruction supplies, and children's toys. Our passengers include a Nobel peace prize laureate and a former U.S. congressperson. Our boat was searched and received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before we departed, and at no time did we ever approach Israeli waters."

Arraf continued, "Israel's deliberate and premeditated attack on our unarmed boat is a clear violation of international law and we demand our immediate and unconditional release."

Would Maddow and Olbermann have ignored the march in Selma?

Max Blumenthal has a great piece up on Huffington pointing out that even as the cable networks and MSM endlessly reprise the video killing of Neda Agha-Soltan in Tehran, they have ignored similar cold-blooded killings during protests in the West Bank. Those videos are also available. It is, Blumenthal says, hypocrisy; and more important, it stymies the global idea of nonviolent protest. 

These videos are no less outrageous than the video of Neda's death. However, to my knowledge, no outlet from the mainstream American media has ever broadcast them. And as far as I know, no cable news program, including liberal-leaning shows like Olbermann and Maddow, have never even mentioned the non-violent protests in Bi'lin and Ni'ilin, or Israel's brutal response. The videos remain unseen by America eyes. The struggles of Bi'lin and Ni'lin do not even play in Peoria.

Direct action protest tactics only work if the brutal responses they provoke are recorded by influential media sources and projected to sympathetic audiences across the world. MLK's tactics in Selma would not have succeeded had he not been accompanied by camera crews ready to broadcast images of racist savagery to outraged Northern white liberals. The outpouring of American public sympathy for Iranian demonstrators might never have occurred had cable news outlets not made the courageous decision to broadcast Neda's killing vividly and repeatedly.

Yet when Palestinians employ direct action tactics to protest Israeli oppression, and when Israeli forces respond with wanton brutality, they are ignored by the US media, even when footage is already available through online sources.

OK, I get it. The situation sucks for Palestinians. What do you propose to do about it?

The other day I was having coffee with a well-connected neighbor, and going through the litany of Palestinian suffering in the occupied territories, when she nodded impatiently and said, "What's the answer?" Then: "Do you believe there should be a Jewish state?"

Good questions. This is a special moment for this website because non-Zionists and anti-Zionists are being included at last in the national discussion. Americans are beginning to understand that Israel's human-rights record is outrageous. We have accomplished that work.

Ezra Nawi in 'The Nation': As a human rights activist 'I am considered a provocateur. I can only say that I am proud to be a provoker.'

Ezra Nawi will be sentenced tomorrow in a Jerusalem courthouse for allegedly assaulting a police office while attempting to stop a house demolition in the occupied territories. Today, The Nation has published an aptly titled article by Nawi - "Israel's Man of Conscience":

My name is Ezra Nawi. I am a Jewish citizen of Israel.

I will be sentenced on the first of July after being found guilty of assaulting two police officers in 2007 while struggling against the demolition of a Palestinian house in Um El Hir, located in the southern part of the West Bank.

Of course the policemen who accused me of assaulting them are lying. Indeed, lying has become common within the Israeli police force, military and among the Jewish settlers.

After close to 140,000 letters were sent to Israeli officials in support of my activities in the occupied West Bank, the Ministry of Justice responded that I "provoke local residents."

This response reflects the culture of deceit that has taken over all official discourse relating to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

After all, was I the one who poisoned and destroyed Palestinian water wells?

Was I the one who beat young Palestinian children?

Did I hit the elderly?

Did I poison the Palestinian residents' sheep?

Did I demolish homes and destroy tractors?

Did I block roads and restrict movement?

Was I the one who prevented people from connecting their homes to running water and electricity?

Did I forbid Palestinians from building homes?

Over the past eight years, I have seen with my own two eyes hundreds of abuses such as these and exposed them to the public--therefore I am considered a provocateur. I can only say that I am proud to be a provoker.

Because I am a provoker, the police together with their allies have threatened me, beaten me and arrested me on numerous occasions. And when I continued to "provoke" them, they did not hesitate to out me as a gay man; indeed, they spread rumors among the Palestinians with whom I work that I have AIDS.

One of the reasons I have been singled out has to do with who I am. It is difficult to explain, but as a Mizrahi Jew (descended from Jewish communities in the Arab and Muslim world), a gay man and a plumber, I do not belong to the elite of Israeli society and do not fit the stereotype of the Israeli peacenik--namely, an intellectual Jew of Ashkenazi decent. Actually, the police officers who constantly arrest me and I are part of the same social strata. I was programmed like them, have a similar accent, know their jargon and our historical background is comparable. And yet, in their eyes I am on and for the other side, the Palestinian side.

Read the entire article here.

(Surprise) Lobby uses Tehran crackdown to ratchet pressure on Iran

We're in a conversation aimed at forming a new political combination. Inspired by Josh Ruebner's tragicomic effort to pierce the veil on AIPAC's influence in Congress, Grant Smith of IRMEP talks about the real nuclear "hegemon" in the Middle East (Israel) and about AIPAC's myrmidons. [emphasis mine]

Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R-Ill.) sponsored an amendment to the foreign operations bill that would prevent the Export-Import Bank of the United States from providing loan guarantees to companies selling refined petroleum to Iran. According to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Kirk is the top 2008 recipient of pro-Israel political action committee (PAC) contributions [.pdf]. Kirk received $91,200 in the 2008 election cycle, bringing his career total thus far to more than $221,000. Kirk’s AIPAC-sponsored sanctions legislation passed the House Appropriations Committee on June 23. While tactically positioned as a rebuke to the crackdown on Iranian election protesters, the measure is only the most recent of a raft of long-term AIPAC-sponsored sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program. Israel contends Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons under the auspices of a civilian program, though no hard evidence has emerged. Yet one illicit nuclear arsenal in the region has been positively identified.

What Madoff reveals about the new Jewish status

A couple months back at the 92d Street Y, someone on a panel said that Bernie Madoff could have happened to any community. I mocked the comment at the time because it was willful indifference (on the part of a person whose duty it is to make social observations) to this special Jewish moment in the American Establishment. Yes there are crooks in every ethnic/religious group; but the Madoff scandal was special in magnitude and character. It exposed the new Jewish place in America in a fresh way. We are equal partners in the Establishment. We have extremely wealthy kinship networks, and country clubs. And we tend to believe that other Jews will treat us more fairly than non-Jews. The credulity issue.

"Six Degrees of Separation" was John Guare's read on liberal credulity toward "good" black people, who would con them. And Madoff is about Jewish credulity in smart ethnocentric Jews, who would con them. 

Rep. Donna Edwards says U.S. lacks a spirited, open debate of Israel/Palestine

Dan Sisken reports on Congresswoman Donna Edwards's town hall meeting earlier tonight in Silver Spring, MD:

For the first hour or so, Edwards talked about how she had come to get involved in Israel-Palestinian issues and take a trip to the region. Edwards was cautious in her statements, referring many times, for instance, to the "security infrastructure" but saying very little directly about checkpoints. She also spoke about Israel's security needs and expressed fear at the growing influence of Hamas in Gaza. She saw the large number of kids in Gaza as being especially susceptible to Hamas's influence.

But as the evening wore on,  she injected more comments and observations that one seldom hears in public discussion about the Middle East in the United States from members of Congress. This was particularly the case in the question and answer session when she often directly answered questions instead of just mumbling some pat phrases. When someone asked her if she would support the current aid bill in Congress, she said she didn't know (b/c she hadn't read it yet). And by the end of the event, it was her willingness to go fairly far outside of the AIPAC talking points that left the strongest impression on me.

The drumbeat... in Boston Globe, novelist Messud says to be Palestinian is to be homeless

Claire Messud has a short story in the New York Review of Books, set in Australia and the New Hebrides. I love the South Pacific. But I wonder how long before the NYRB takes up the leftwing responsibility of running, routinely and persistently, work like Messud's piece in the Boston Globe, reporting her recent visit to the Palestinian arts festival.
Notice the casual use of the word "apartheid," which would have been censored in an earlier day. This is further proof that slowly but surely, Israel's image is tanking in the U.S. press: 

Israel's rapidly-changing image ('Time Magazine' says its treatment of Palestinian child prisoners may well be 'torture' under U.N. convention)

The Jerusalem Post has given me a new theme: Israel's delegitimization is reaching American culture in a whole new way. I first heard this pronouncement at AIPAC, from Howard Kohr, who gave a Shakespearean speech saying that a "Predicate for Abandonment" of Israel had taken hold every where but in the councils of power in Washington-- so AIPAC members had to stop it there.
Now JPost is getting the news, interviewing U.S. professors who say Israel's image is changing rapidly and Israelis and the lobby are in denial.

'Washington Post'-- Israeli intransigence is the new meme

An OK piece in Washington Post on confiscation of Palestinian land to build Modiin Illit settlement. The piece actually mentions Bassem Abu Rahman, killed at the Bi'lin demonstration in April, and ends on a note of Israeli intransigence--the new paradigm. Includes this tapdancing:

"The goal is to find common ground with the Americans," said Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev. "Israel is willing to be creative and flexible."

Palestinian officials said Monday that they will not restart peace talks with Israel until a full settlement freeze is declared.

Maybe Obama will have to force Netanyahu out of office before anything can happen?

Naomi Klein talks boycott in Bil'in

Video from Naomi Klein's visit to Bil'in:

(h/t Palestine Video)

Mainstream journalist Ashraf Khalil explains why stories about the Palestinian experience are rarely told

Before going to Cairo last month, I made it a point to seek out Ashraf Khalil, whose journalism on the conflict in the LA Times earned him a wide reputation for fairness. A man of large spirit, Khalil (left) introduced me to other journalists, brought me to a place I could actually get a beer, and made me feel completely at home. Last week we picked up a piece by Mohammed Omer, the Palestinian journalist who was tortured by Israeli border security on returning to Gaza from England last year after winning the Martha Gellhorn prize. Omer referred to Khalil's coverage of the episode-- in fact the best piece to appear in American mainstream media-- though he criticized Khalil for including an Israeli explanation of certain injuries. I asked Ashraf if he had anything to say. He writes:

The case of Mohammed Omer was my first sobering glimpse of what it’s really like to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a major western news outfit. In the end, it proved to be a window into why stories like this simply don’t get told very often.

    When the first reports emerged, it seemed like a hot-button story that much of the massive Jerusalem press core would jump on: A prominent Gazan journalist returns fresh from a European tour where he received a prestigious award and met with several European parliamentarians.

    He enters the Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank with a Dutch diplomat waiting on the West Bank side to escort him back to Gaza. He emerges from the terminal in a wheelchair, semi-coherent, and is never quite the same again.

    Hot stuff, right? Well, no.

    The media coverage of the incident was genuinely puzzling to me. A couple of angry articles from European leftists who took Omer’s entire account as gospel truth and a few matter-of-fact mainstream accounts that were basically glorified briefs. But nobody seemed inclined to actually investigate the issue.
I was just a few months into what would turn out to be a one-year run as Jerusalem correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. Perhaps my more seasoned colleagues recognized quickly what I was still too new and naïve to grasp. Put simply, the story was a swamp—something that would require months of investigation to properly unravel, then prompt a horrendous clash with their editors and probably never see daylight in any kind of satisfying form.

    And that’s exactly what it turned out to be.

This is what occupation looks like: Bil'in invaded by Israeli soldiers

We give a lot of attention to the weekly nonviolent protests in the village of Bil'in as they are an inspiring example of popular resistance in the face of Israeli repression. But the truth is that the village is under constant threat of attack from the Israeli military, not just during protests. The video below should be an international scandal, instead it's just another night in the occupied territories. From the Friends of Freedom and Justice - Bilin:

    At around 2:30am two groups of around 35 soldiers (70 total) descended on the village of Bi'lin.  They raided several houses, detained their inhabitants, and searched the inside of the houses.  When members of the ISM and the Popular Committee of Bi'lin confronted the soldiers, they called all of Bi'lin a closed military zone and threatened to arrest anyone out of their house or anyone on top of a house taking pictures.  In the course of these house raids, they kidnapped a 16 year old boy (Mohsen Kateb) from his house and took him away into the night. And they kidnapped a 16 year old boy (Hamoda Yaseen)from his house and took him away into the night. Haitham al-Katib, a respected Palestinian activist in Bi'lin was video taping the raids when soldiers aggressively pushed him against a wall and threatened him with arrest.  Two members of the ISM intervened on his behalf and were able to wrest him out of the grasp of the soldiers. They then raided the house of Iyad Burant, the head of the popular committee, and threatened his 9 year old son (Abdal kalik) with physical harm if he didn't produce a camera he was holding.  After several people including 2 internationals intervened by blocking the soldiers path, they were also threatened with arrest and were pushed by the soldiers.  After repeated efforts, the soldiers gave up and left that particular house.

    This raid follows on the heels of others that have happened almost every night for 2 weeks.  Today's arrest now brings the total to seven people, who have been arrested and taken away since the onset of the raids.  Bi'lin currently is facing the loss of sixty percent of its farmland due to the construction of the apartheid wall and the illegal settlements that have followed in the wake of the wall.

The Israel wobbly

From the Jerusalem Post, American professors say U.S. support is eroding, and fast. Wish they were covering this over here:

O Times, what do you mean when you say, 'complete settlement freeze'?

A friend writes: More on that NYT piece about settlements. Here's my favorite part, lede:

Barak's bogus proposal

Ira Glunts writes:
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will meet with George Mitchell on Tuesday to present an Israeli compromise to the U.S. demand that all settlement expansion cease. It has been in the Israeli press for a few days.  Ethan Bronner reports in the Times that Barak will propose a three-month to six-month trial freeze which would be continued if the Palestinians and other Arab nations respond in an appropriately conciliatory manner.

I think Barak is substituting for Netanyahu here because Bibi pissed Mitchell off . This proposal is, of course,  a joke since after the time limit expires, Netanyahu will surely declare that the Palestinians did not do what was expected of them and then he will proclaim that settlement building should proceed.

Bronner is wrong in presenting this Israeli proposal  as a serious compromise. If the Americans do not stand firm here, I think it is a very bad sign. The U.S must reject all compromise on new settlement construction. If it does not, it will signal that Obama is not going to apply the necessary pressure on Israel to achieve his stated goals.

'Times' story on settlements echoes Israeli government propaganda

Two friends have pointed me to the New York Times' story today on the Netanyahu government's apparent willingness to cut a deal regarding settlements. The story is remarkable for its utter immersion in the Israeli discourse. "Where are the critical voices?" a friend asks. "American?  Israeli?  Palestinian?  Seems to me this is a free day of advancing Netanyahu's policy." There are no critics at all quoted. But note the officious tone, the piety about rightwingers making policy:

While such an offer falls short of President Obama’s demand that Israel halt all settlement building now, it is the most forthcoming response that senior Israeli officials have given to date and suggests that American pressure is having some effect. Until now, Israeli officials have insisted that settlements cannot be asked to end “natural growth” or “normal life,” meaning building for the children of those living there.

The officials who spoke of the prospect of a temporary freeze said the issue was explosive in Israel, so they were not prepared to have their names publicly associated with the idea at this stage. But they spoke with clear authority.

I love "forthcoming" and "clear authority." As if these are sober statesmen, and not ideologues. Try to  imagine a reporter in Tehran echoing the Ahmadinejad government's line on the election, without quoting any of the opposition. There would be rage. Ethan Bronner also regurgitates Israeli propaganda--and balances it with Obama's "beliefs".

Israel says the real problem is Arab rejection of its existence in any borders at all and the rise of violent, radical Islam backed by Iran. When it removed soldiers from southern Lebanon in 2000 and soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005, it faced rocket fire from Hezbollah and Hamas.

The Obama administration believes that in order to build a solid regional coalition to confront Iranian ambitions, West Bank settlement building needs to stop as a sign of Israeli willingness to accept a Palestinian state.

Is privatizing West Bank checkpoints step 1 in an Orwellian 'economic peace'?

Rob Browne writes:
I just saw this article by Amira Hass in Haaretz on a private Israeli security firm that is running a checkpoint and is implementing more severe restrictions on food that can be brought into Israel than the IDF-run checkpoints--including even large water bottles.  The checkpoint is at Sha'ar Efraim, south of Tul Karm, and is managed for the Defense Ministry by the private security company Modi'in Ezrahi.

An additional surprise came later in the article:

I have a good short conversation about the situation with my mom

My mom and dad came through on the weekend. We had a good visit. I was wondering how Gaza would come up. My mother read my blog a little during my trip to Gaza earlier this month. It troubled her but she doesn't have the information to counter it. She defers to people who know more than she does about the Situation. Still, it puts us in a funny position because she's not deferring to my knowledge, but to pro-Israel friends.
We had ravioli on Saturday night. After dinner, my wife got down a box of Trader Joe's cinnamon grahams off the fridge. She said, "These are the best cookies I've ever tasted."
My mother said, "Oh I like Trader Joe's. I just found out, They're one of the few companies not to bend to the pressure to boycott Israeli goods."
I said, "Oh boy. That's the last time we shop at Trader Joe's." And smiled at my mother.
"I didn't send you that email," she said.
"No, you were wise not to," I said.
Later I was pleased by the exchange. My mother and I know where the other stands, and we're not going to waste good emotion arguing about it. I can joke about it. I think this is an effect of visiting Gaza: I feel so secure in my view of the situation--it's racist persecution--that no one is going to tell me otherwise. While I'm angry about this, I feel a sense of calm power about it too.

'I think this is the most emotional event I've ever done' (Naomi Klein in Ramallah)

Anees of Jerusalem writes:

Yesterday Naomi Klein gave a great talk at the Friends School in Ramallah. It was a short addendum to her January piece in The Nation supporting the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement against Israel. I recorded it in video, but it came out too shaky, so here's the audio in mp3, 35 min long.

    Speech is about movement-building, beginning with Klein's days working against apartheid, "a training ground" for many of the Israel/Palestine activists. Klein:

"There is a debate among Jews. I used to say the Jewish community then I got excommunicated. There is a debate among Jews--I'm a Jew by the way" that boils down to: "Never again to everyone, or never again to us?... [Some Jews] even think we get one Get away with genocide free card... There is another strain in the Jewish tradition that says, 'Never again to anyone.'"

    Then thanks her parents for being in that second tradition!

breathtaking double standard

Remember when people wanted to lynch the late Edward Said, English professor at Columbia, for throwing a symbolic stone toward Israeli forces from Lebanon in 2000?
Well today my old friend and mentor Lucianne Goldberg: published this image of an Iranian protester with the macha caption, "The Hand that Cradles the Rock."

Some day, some way, Palestinian resistance--lately involving a legitimate election, denied by the world--will be understood here.

On the verge of sentencing, Ezra Nawi inspires even the 'Times'

 This photo of Ezra Nawi, the Israeli human-rights activist, appears at Jesse Hochheiser's blog here. What a beautiful man. He's about to be sentenced this week for trying to stop a house demolition in the West Bank two years ago. Here's video of the amazing incident:
And Jesse Hochheiser has these inspiring quotes from Nawi that explain how he can be smiling when he's challenging persecution:

'An ethno-religious real estate pact with a partisan God justifying any actions against real or imagined enemies' (Judt on Zionism)

Do you sense that anti-Zionism is being normalized? I do. I hear the word and more more frequently these days, in a neutral manner. It's been separated at last from the smear, that it is anti-semitic, thru the refusal of many critics to be intimidated. Here is more evidence:  Tony Judt's frankly post-Zionist obituary in the New York Review of Books for his friend Amos Elon (1926-2009), who died in Italy after a long career in Israeli letters.

Israel relaxes some checkpoints. But some are removed, then reinstated

Yesterday Assaf Oron expressed skepticism about reports that Israel has eased movement in the West Bank by lifting checkpoints. Today Oron offers "some additional information confirming my suspicions, from Micheala, a Machsom-Watch activist (translated from Hebrew)":