Genocide in Gaza opposed by anti-Zionist Jews
There are 26 Jewish members (5%) of the 2023-24 House of Representatives in the United States.
They don’t all walk together in lockstep. Last month several Jewish Representatives broke ranks by voting against a bill on the grounds that it would criminalize valid criticism of the state of Israel.
The Antisemitism Awareness Act however received unanimous support from powerful Christian fundamentalists. The bill was pushed forward by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has ties to far-right Christian movements.
Christians United for Israel (CUFI)’s John Hagee and the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Ralph Reed defended the bill.
CUFI is the largest Zionist organisation in the US, with 10 million members. Based in San Antonio, Texas, CUFI is so important to the Republican Party, that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence all turned up at its 2023 annual conference. Former President Trump seeks its backing.
Research indicates that 51% of American evangelicals believe that Jews are God’s chosen people. Their faith tells them that the foundation of the State of Israel is a pre-requisite for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and that Israel must be defended at all costs.
The majority of Christian Zionists belong to “Bible Belt” evangelical churches in the southeast and south central United States. They oppose liberal values on gender, education, immigration and abortion.
On a National Radio podcast last May, Robert Jones, a religious scholar and President of the Public Religion Research Institute, explained how White Christian Zionist demographics tip the balance towards support for Israel:
‘White evangelicals count for 14% of the population. That’s still more than 47 million people in this country. Again, just to put that into perspective, only about 2% of the American population is Jewish, and about 1% is Muslim. They [White evangelicals] are all voting for pro Israeli candidates. They really turn out to the polls, and they’re overwhelmingly clustered into one party…Even though it’s only 14% of the population, it makes up about a third of the Republican Party base.’
The American Israel Political Committee (AIPAC) lists a stunning three-quarters of the House of Representatives who back Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Holding US and Israeli flags, a crowd of Evangelical Christians pray during the Christians United For Israel (CUFI) ‘Night to Honor Israel’ during a CUFI Summit, in Arlington, Virginia, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, July 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Charitable Giving, Aid to Settlers, Tours
According to Christianity Today,
‘For years, giving to nonprofits that work in the Holy Land has been on the rise. Some rank among the biggest Christian charities in the US.
‘We were able to mobilize immediately because of the partnerships we have,’ said Yael Eckstein, president and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
The Christian Zionist organization, HaYovel launched Operation Ittai when the war broke out, raising almost $3.7 million of its $29 million goal as of May 8 to go toward defense equipment in Jewish settlement communities in the West Bank.
Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas leads tours of evangelicals in Israel. He says:
‘There are certain words I refuse to use. There’s no such thing as the West Bank – it’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities. They’re neighborhoods. They’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.’
Israeli settlers with assault rifles in the West Bank on 1 July 2021 [MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images] Israel settlers escalate attacks against Palestinians in West Bank – Middle East Monitor
But pro Israel campaigns face stiff opposition from many directions, including:
1)Palestinian solidarity within the Democratic Party, led by the ‘Squad,’ Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Rep. Cori Bush (Mo.), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) — the only Palestinian-American member of Congress. Millions of dollars have been spent by AIPAC targeting pro Palestinian congressional candidates.
2) Jewish groups that organise protests against US support for Israel.
Jewish Anti-Zionists and Critics of Israel
AIPAC and the powerful Anti-Defamation League (ADL) claim to represent near unanimous Jewish support of Israel. But the ADL and others have no evidence by which to demonstrate what Jewish opinion actually is.
Jewish pro-Israel organizations don’t operate by democratic vote. And allegedly independent polls claiming unconditional Jewish support for Israel, are deceiving. They never ask directly, ‘are you an anti-Zionist?’ or ‘Is Israel committing genocide?’ They ask questions like, ‘do you feel an affinity with Israel?’ to which if you have a relative living there, you might answer yes.
Jewish anti-Zionism has a long history. Today, countering AIPAC et al, Jews in their thousands, especially the youth, are coming out on the streets in greater numbers than ever before in opposition to Israel.
The charter of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network reads ‘we are an international network of Jews who are uncompromisingly committed to struggles for human emancipation, of which the liberation of the Palestinian people and land is an indispensable part. Our commitment is to the dismantling of Israeli apartheid, the return of Palestinian refugees, and the ending of the Israeli colonization of historic Palestine.’ Charter of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network – IJAN
The goal of the anti-Zionist Jewish movement is to dismantle Israel and restore historic Palestinian lands to Palestinians everywhere. It aims to reinvigorate peaceful Islamic-Jewish relations that existed for centuries before the Balfour Declaration of 1917, United Kingdom’s support for a ‘national home for the Jewish people’ on Palestinian lands.
It’s a goal that disproves the conflation of Zionism with Judaism.
Hundreds of Jews occupied Grand Central Station in New York demanding a ceasefire in Gaza on October 28, 2023. ‘We refuse to allow our own pain and trauma to be used to justify attacks against another people,’ said Jay Saper of Jewish Voices for Peace. ‘We are here to say: Not in Our Name.’ JVP states on its website, ‘Our role in the movement for Palestine freedom is to shake the US-Israel alliance by fundamentally changing the financial, cultural and political calculus of Jewish support for Israeli apartheid and for Zionism.’
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group assails JVP as “a radical anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activist group that advocates for the boycott of Israel and eradication of Zionism.” Who are the Palestinian and Jewish-led groups leading the protests against Israel’s action in Gaza? | PBS NewsHour Columbia University has suspended JVP in Detroit.
The Jewish Neturei Karta (‘Guardians of the City’) have a long history of support of Palestinians, and call for the return of all Palestinians refugees to “their rightful land.” Here, the Ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist organisation demonstrate with Palestinian and international activists calling for the end of the blockade on Gaza in Beit Hanoun, near the Erez Crossing between Gaza Strip and Israel, Dec. 31, 2009.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra.)
The mainstream media in the United Kingdom ramps up fear of anti-Semitism, by falsely claiming that London has become a “no-go zone for Jews“ since anti-genocide protests against Israel began after October 7. The Jewish Bloc continue to march in support of Palestinians. This photograph was taken March 24, 2024.
The Anti-Defamation League says that ‘negating Zionism’ or ‘distorting or de-legitimizing Israel’ crosses into anti-Semitism. Organisations like the ADL solve the conundrum of Jews critical of Zionism and Israel with a particular twisted form of logic, by using such terms as ‘self-hating ‘or ‘non-Jews.’
From 2000 to 2007, the S.H.I.T (Self Hating Israel Threatening) listed more than 7000 Jewish academics (including this writer ) whose works were deemed critical of Israel, with their geographical location. Compiled by the right wing Kahanist Masada2000 group, it was a hit list, as the name implies. Some academics received death threats.
Last December, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student told a US congressional hearing: ‘Jewish supporters of Israel at MIT have called me an anti-Semite, Hamas, a self-hating Jew, and have told me that I am ‘not a real Jew’ and that ‘G_d made a mistake by having you born a Jew’ — the last statement was made directly to my face. All of these labels and comments are anti-Semitic under any definition of the word.’
Prominent Jews targeted for being outspoken critics of Israel include:
· Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate of the Grayzone, slandered in the Washington Post for alleged links to Russia.
· Professor Norman Finkelstein, son of holocaust survivors, brilliant researcher (‘The Holocaust Industry’,) ousted from university positions.
· Historian Ilan Pappé, recently detained at a US airport by border agents and questioned about popular slogans at pro Palestinian protests.
· Journalist Hannah Gessen, whose grandfather was murdered by Nazis, had a prestigious literary prize withdrawn for writing an essay on Gaza.
Israeli police officers arrest a member of the group ‘Rabbis for Ceasefire’ during their march toward the Erez crossing, to prevent a delivery of aid to Gaza on April 26, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP) The Jerusalem Post said bringing aid to Gaza is strengthening Hamas and Palestinian terrorists.
Supporters of Jewish Voice for Labour protest outside the party’s headquarters in London in July 2021. The much larger Jewish Labour Movement -which has been affiliated to Labour since 1920 – has called its views an “extreme fringe”. Board of Deputies of British Jews president Marie van der Zyl disparaged JVL as ‘a tiny organisation whose odious views are representative of no one but themselves.’ John McDonnell: Labour treatment of Jewish group brutal – BBC News
Incredibly, Labour Party Jews critical of Israel are almost five times more likely to face LP’s anti-Semitism charges than non-Jewish members. The LP has been the target of a sustained campaign to portray it as rife with anti-Semitism, culminating in the ouster of its leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Although ignored by the Western media, the message that anti-Zionism is not anti- Semitism is getting through loud and clear on Islamic channels as well as in Jewish communities.
Conclusion
The battle lines have been drawn up. On the one side: the US Christian right and Israel’s right wing nationalism and its allies, the US neo-cons. On the other side: progressive White, Black, Arab, Hispanic and Jewish Americans who demand an end to US arms shipments to Israel. The battleground: US Presidential and congressional campaigns running up to elections in November 2024.
What’s at stake: the lives of 1.7 million Palestinians who face bombardments, starvation and homelessness in Gaza. Since the onslaught began, 37232 people have been killed, 85037 wounded, 11000 missing, according to the Palestinian Chronicle’s latest figures.
This post was adapted from an article that originally appeared in Geopolitics: It’s Not Rocket Science a reader-supported publication. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Geopolitics: It’s not Rocket Science | Philippa Jane Winkler | Substack
Sources:
https://philippajanewinkler.substack.com/p/jewish-supremacy-invisibilizes-jewish?r=29y4p8
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