The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> From MondoWeiss... very refreshing

From MondoWeiss... very refreshing
Posted by Jeffrey (Guest) - Wednesday, December 2 2015, 4:46:52 (UTC)
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From http://mondoweiss.net/2015/12/givingtuesday-development-director

Generalist December 1, 2015, 5:25 pm

Tova here.

I understand, @hophmi, that you believe that what Mondoweiss does is not “good for the Jews,” nor for humanity as a whole (although the welfare of other humans matters less in your scale it seems). As I see it, even if I didn’t care about the welfare of millions of people just because they’re not Jewish, there is enormous–and mounting–evidence that the practices along with the legal basis for the state of Israel have been, are, and will continue to be bad for Jews.

Dangerous for Jews’ physical existence: More Jews have died through violence in defending the mistaken goal of a Jewish state than anywhere else in the world since WWII.

Dangerous for Jews’ moral or spiritual condition: Jewish identity, purpose and ethics have been reduced to support of a crude, simplistic and militaristic nationalism that shuts down questions and suppresses human empathy. There is beauty, humour and wisdom in many Jewish traditions I grew up with, but they are being pushed aside for the narrow value of blind loyalty.

But even if setting up and maintaining a precarious apartheid state could somehow in the long run benefit Jews rather than purchasing enmity and thus indefinite peril–even if, somehow, safety could be bought at the cost of other human beings’ dignity and freedom–that is a cost that is far too high to pay. I don’t see any value in maintaining a future for Jews if it means denying the humanity of anyone.

Specifically, you reacted to my hoping for a regime in which people can “honor one another’s cultures” and you claimed that Mondoweiss criticizes and desecrates “Jewish culture.” You may not have noticed that I intentionally did not refer to “Jewish” and “Arab” or “Palestinian” culture. In my experience, people live in a patchwork of partial, constantly renewing and changing cultures, which have local elements as well as components that link people across hundreds or thousands of miles and years.

I don’t believe that there is a single “Jewish culture.” In my experience, the writing in Mondoweiss gives room and possibility for a variety of Jewish and other cultures that prioritize human rights and connection. I don’t agree with everything published in Mondoweiss, even from the editors or contributing writers let alone all the comments. But I believe that this is a forum where people can learn and I know that the editors are committed to respecting all people.

I’ll close this comment by saying that I find @SteveGrover’s criterion for “idiocy” rather curious. It’s obvious that pro-Zionist organizations–whether the JNF or other–“will raise in the next 5 minutes an equal amount” to what we can raise for Mondoweiss over a *much* longer period of time (a year, perhaps?). If the best indicator of an ideology’s or institution’s value is how much money it can raise, clearly the Koch brothers and their think tanks are the wisest parts of American society. But many stories in Jewish history, and in other traditions, consider as heroes people who act according to their principles even against overwhelming odds.

All the millions raised by self-muzzling Zionist institutions have not made them immune to the power of people asking questions and demanding justice. I would rather be part of a movement that awakens people on a tiny budget than a system that uses a gigantic budget to frighten and limit them.



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