The Jews Who Live on Stolen Land (Judean Rose)

Note: Not written by Elder of Ziyon

What makes Progressive American Jews so dogmatic about “Palestinian” rights to statehood on Jewish land? Is it that they don’t know that Israel is indigenous Jewish territory—that the Arabs are latecomers? Or is there something else in play? Perhaps they feel just a wee bit guilty, as latecomers themselves, to be living on stolen Native American territory? In supporting the Arab cause, progressive American Jews may be making a subconscious statement that he who is last, has dibs, thereby giving themselves moral permission to steal.

They may reason, if they reason at all, that no one expects Americans to vacate America. Least of all the Native American people. Everyone accepts that it’s a fait accompli. Today the land belongs to America, whatever the motives or the rightness or wrongness of the land grab at the time that it happened. That’s just a fact. To the victorious Americans go the spoils.

No one does anything about this. There is simply no impetus for anyone to do anything about returning the stolen object that is America, to its rightful owners, the Native American people. If you were to speak about this to someone at a party, you’d see their disdain, the unspoken words they would be privately thinking: “That’s a bit silly, isn’t it? Unrealistic, immature, a nonstarter. No one expects us to just leave. No one. Even THEY, the Native American people, don’t expect us to go.”

I will be bold: Americans are thieves. They are living on land that doesn’t belong to them. Yet the Progressive Jews who are supposedly all about “tikkun olam” don’t do anything about this. They don’t think about it in the morning when they’re catching up on email; drinking soy lattes; and eating their almond croissants. And if you think about it, for Progressive American Jews to disagree with this unspoken yet accepted policy would be, well, un-American. And the thought that they may not be real Americans, or not American enough, just may be more upsetting to your average Progressive Jew than the thought of some faraway cousins being forced to abandon their home to violent squatters.

Because what is tikkun olam to them anyway? According to Nave Dromi, director of the Middle East Forum in Israel, "[Tikkun Olam] seems to have overtaken all other precepts formulated in millennia of Jewish life and tradition, in certain quarters. Its modern use was popularized in the early to middle of the last century, primarily among liberal Jewish movements in the United States. It was adopted as a way of finding a way to ensure that Jews felt common cause with the many social action and justice causes that were springing up.

“It is an extreme universalist interpretation of Judaism,” says Dromi, “and, while worthy in itself, holds nothing uniquely Jewish. Many have argued that it is a way to mold a frame of Judaism into their already held belief system to provide religious legitimacy.”

Hence, stealing Jewish land and giving it to “Palestinians” is tikkun olam, repairing the world, even though it is the exact opposite of that. Giving asylum to all illegal immigrants is tikkun olam. And yet some pigs are more equal than others: American rights over Native American rights. Illegal immigrant rights over the rights of American citizens in border towns who are already in the country and are adversely affected by this flood of illegals. And of course, Arab rights over Jewish Israeli rights.

But that’s not exactly the point of this piece. The point is the betrayal of Progressive American Jews in putting pressure on Israel to cede Jewish land to a non-native people with origins in Saudi Arabia. Progressive American Jews claim to be Jews and Israel is Jewish land. They should be defending Jewish rights as “tikkun olam.” How sick is it that they demand an indigenous people—their own—vacate its bustling, modern state? Particularly considering they themselves identify as belonging to that people.

Perhaps, subconsciously, shilling for the Arabs makes non-native Progressive “American” Jews feel better about living on stolen Native American land, rather than on their own. 

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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Book review: "Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership"

I generally abhor divisions in the Jewish community. There are too few of us to be able to afford partisanship and needless hate for our own.

For those reasons I have been reluctant to criticize fellow Jews outside of the fringe who are anti-Zionist or anti-Judaism. And I have been equally reluctant to criticize the leaders of American Jewish organizations, trying and wanting to assume that they do the best they can with the resources they have.

That position is no longer tenable after reading Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership, a new book of damning essays edited by Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser.  

Betrayal is a strong indictment of those American Jewish leaders, on both the national and local levels. 

The single biggest issue that should unify American Jews is the fight against antisemitism. But as Betrayal shows, the mostly self-appointed American Jewish leaders have been more interested in maintaining their positions of power than in going toe to toe with today's antisemites.

Worse, in example after example in this book, when grassroots Jewish groups organize to fight a specific threat to American Jews, these pseudo leaders generally try to dissuade and discourage them. They claim that their connections with other powerful people, and their quiet diplomacy, will carry the day. Their message to ordinary Jews who want to defend themselves from specific threats is "sha, shtill" - shut up and be quiet.

We cannot read minds, but the overwhelming impression given is that these so-called leaders enjoy their perks of being considered as such. They love to attend their interfaith breakfasts and to attend meetings and parties with local and national secular leaders. They don't want to make waves, to risk their positions and their perceived prestige, their speaking engagements at Temples, their parades for progressive causes.

Problems which should and could have been attacked early on - mosques with terror links, undermining K-12 and university education with the concepts of "wokeness" that slot Jews as oppressors and supremacists, BDS and campus "apartheid weeks" as well as the other constant attacks on Israel that these leaders prefer to sympathize with instead of battle against - have metastasized into major sources of today's American antisemitism. 

An essay by Jonathan Tobin sets the tone with his analysis of how the Anti Defamation League has turned its back on fighting antisemitism and instead steered the ship to be more progressive and partisan rather than defending Jews.  The organization's hiring of a rabidly anti-Zionist Tema Smith as "director of Jewish Outreach" was particularly risible. 

Richard Landes describes how American Jewish leadership has exhibited cowardice in the face of the jihadist threat, preferring to partner with their Muslim friends rather than to ever confront them. Of course, this peculiarly Jewish tendency to compromise on principles in order to seek approval from others is not mirrored by the openly pro-Hamas Muslim American leadership, who - if anything - feel empowered to more extremism because the Jews are on their side.

Josh Block describes the failure of American Jewish leaders to push back against Ilhan Omar's antisemitic statements, and this led directly to her emerging from the controversy as more influential than ever. 

Caroline Glick observes that the "two state solution" has become a religion of sorts for American Jewish leaders, and instead of defending Israel they are defending cutting Israel in half and abandoning nearly all Jewish holy sites. 

Naya Lekht notes how liberal Jewish groups have replaced Judaism with "social justice," a philosophy that comes from Stalin's Soviet Union and that is ultimately used against Jews.

The ADL, the AJC, the local JCRCs and Federations, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs - all of them are stridently criticized as becoming part of the problem rather than the solution for the one theme that Jews should unite around, fighting antisemitism. Specific examples from grassroots groups who were stymied by their local Jewish "leaders" abound. 

The only national organization that has held on to its principles of unwavering support for Jews and Israel is the Zionist Organization of America, and its president Morton Klein writes an essay as well demonstrating how the eagerness by other Jewish leaders to make nice with the anti-Israel and ultimately antisemitic progressive philosophy hurts the Jewish community and makes everyone lose respect for their leaders.

One of the most interesting essays is by M. Zuhdi Jasser, of the Muslim Reform Movement, who has tried to partner with American Jewish leaders - only to be spurned because they prefer their partnerships with Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations that are actively antisemitic. His frustration of being abandoned by those who should be his natural allies is palpable.

Jacobs and Goldwasser's own essay doesn't only describe the problems, but offers a ten point program towards solutions - the exact thing that the supposed American Jewish leaders avoid. These pro-active ideas are what real leaders should come up with and implement. 

Betrayal describes outrageous examples of failed and counterproductive leadership. It will make you angry, and it should.

American Jews pour millions into these organizations that have little or nothing to show for themselves. It is time to replace those fossils with real leadership, real ideas, and real passion. The authors of these 22 essays are all fine candidates to be true leaders of the North American Jewish community. 

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

Read More