{"article":{"id":29861,"heading":"Are we to apologize for Israel-bashing? -- Jeffrey Blankfort","author":"Jeffrey Blankfort","created":"2003-02-18 23:22:16","modified":"2003-09-26 14:21:03","last_modified":"Fri, 26 Sep 2003 21:21:03","article":"<br>  <br> MICHAEL LERNER has claimed that the reason he wants to speak at the anti-war rally is not only to express his opposition to the war, but to attack those in the movement whom he has repeatedly accused of \"Israel-bashing.\"  <br><br> Of course, he is referring to verbal bashing, not acts of violence against the state of Israel, as if what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians for decades - not under a dictator, but under a series of democratically elected governments - has not earned, at the very minimum, the most harsh of verbal bashings.  <br><br> Given Israel's history, one cannot be pro-Israel - that is, in support of an exclusivist Jewish state - without being a racist, any more than one could have supported the apartheid system in South Africa (as did Israel) without being a racist. The proof? A Zionist, like Lerner, believes that a Jew, any Jew, including his paratrooper son, has more of a right to live in historic Palestine, than an Arab Palestinian who was born there.  <br><br> And what kind of a state does Lerner envision for the Palestinians? A demilitarized one living next to and literally surrounded by the fourth largest military in the world which includes his son. Better an honest fascist like Sharon than a false peacenik like Lerner. And what can one say to all those who signed that petition supporting his right to speak? They are the living, sad proof of how deeply Zionized the left has become. Most of them, Howard Zinn included, have never uttered a word in defense of the Palestinian cause, and some, like the odious Todd Gitlin, are committed Zionists.  <br>  <br> \n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"\r\nRead journalist and Jewish anti-Zionist activist Jeffrey Blankfort&#8217;s response to racist Zionist apologist Rabbi Michael Lerner&#8217;s whining about his not being allowed to horn in on Sunday&#8217;s (2\/16\/03) huge San Francisco anti-war march and rally. (Posted by Joseph Anderson) \r\n","numcomment":9,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/02\/29861.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":34537,"heading":"to Jeff","article":"Excellent comments!","author":"Bev","parent_id":29861,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-10 15:58:08","modified":"2003-03-10 15:58:08","fileurl":""},{"id":34549,"heading":"Fuck man","article":"Bush admirer, are you even human? How the hell do you step out into the sunlight?\r\n\r\nFucking A... you give humanity a bad name with your nazi bullshit.\r\n\r\nI'm ashamed to be of the same species as you, much less from the same country. Momma sure must be proud of this one. \r\n\r\nGo die again, please. Stay dead this time. Blood sucking chickenhawk warmonger scum.\r\n\r\n&quot;Ten eyes for an eye&quot;... yeah, that's good foriegn policy there. Glad to see the bush administration following such an innovative lead.\r\n\r\nYou suck.","author":"Pissed Off in Ohio","parent_id":29861,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-10 17:11:46","modified":"2003-03-10 17:11:46","fileurl":""},{"id":34616,"heading":"It's always a good idea....","article":"...to address your comments to the author as the scooper\r\ncomes down to delete remarks according to the overworked \r\nand frayed sensibilities of the IMC editorial staff...\r\nBTW, where IS the editorial policy located?  Didn't it used to be on the front page?  Just curious...","author":"Sheepdog","parent_id":29861,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-10 22:51:07","modified":"2003-03-10 22:51:07","fileurl":""},{"id":34622,"heading":"Sheepdog","article":"Sheepdog:\r\n\r\nare you still around?  Can you be a little more specific?\r\nYour statement is obsure, sheepdog.\r\n\r\nthk, Q.","author":"Query","parent_id":29861,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-10 23:06:13","modified":"2003-03-10 23:06:13","fileurl":""},{"id":34626,"heading":"Re: Query","article":"1.  Of course. \r\n2.  Angry responses look strange to deleted posts as the response seems to attack non existent comments.\r\n3.  Where is the editorial policy?\r\nClaro?","author":"Sheepdog","parent_id":29861,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-10 23:20:04","modified":"2003-03-10 23:20:04","fileurl":""},{"id":34627,"heading":"Claro\/Sure","article":"Okay, Sheepdog\r\n\r\nthks, Q.\r\n\r\n","author":"Query","parent_id":29861,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-10 23:25:22","modified":"2003-03-10 23:25:22","fileurl":""},{"id":84707,"heading":"pacifica home of crypto nazi cry babies","article":"Anti-Semites? Who, Us?\r\nby Prof. Steven Plaut Wednesday September 24, 2003 01:28 AM\r\n\r\n\r\nSay what? Anti-Semites? Who, us anti-Zionists? Us? We have nothing against Jews as such. We just hate Zionism and Zionists. We think Israel does not have a right to exist. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. Heavens to Mergatroyd. Marx Forbid. We are humanists. Progressives. Peace lovers. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSay what? Anti-Semites? Who, us anti-Zionists? Us? We have nothing against Jews as such. We just hate Zionism and Zionists. We think Israel does not have a right to exist. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. Heavens to Mergatroyd. Marx Forbid. We are humanists. Progressives. Peace lovers. \r\n\r\nAnti-Semitism is the hatred of Jews. Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism and Israeli policies. The two have nothing to do with one another. Venus and Mars. Night and day. Trust us. \r\n\r\nSure, we think the only country on the earth that must be annihilated is Israel. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nSure, we think that the only children on earth whose being blown up is okay if it serves a good cause are Jewish children. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nSure, we think that if Palestinians have legitimate grievances this entitles them to mass murder Jews. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nNaturally, we think that the only people on earth who should never be allowed to exercise the right of self-defense are the Jews. Jews should only resolve the aggression against them through capitulation, never through self-defense. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe only denounce racist apartheid in the one country in the Middle East that is not a racist apartheid country. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe refuse to acknowledge the Jews as a people, and think they are only a religion. We do not have an answer to how people who do not practice the Jewish religion can still be regarded as Jews. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe think that all peoples have the right to self-determination, except Jews, and including even the make-pretend Palestinian ?people?. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe hate it when people blame the victims, except of course when people blame the Jews for the jihads and terrorist campaigns against them. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe think the only country in the Middle East that is a fascist anti-democratic one is the one that has free elections. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe demand that the only country in the Middle East with free speech, free press or free courts be destroyed. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe oppose military aggression, except when it is directed at Israel. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe really understand suicide bombers who murder bus loads of Jewish children and we insist that their demands be met in full. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe think the only conflict on earth that must be solved through dismembering one of the parties to that conflict is the one involving Israel. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe do not think that Jews have any human rights that need to be respected, and especially not the right to ride a bus without being murdered. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nThere are Jewish, leftist anti-Zionists and we consider this proof that anti-Zionists could not possibly be anti-Semitic; not even the ones who cheer when Jews are mass murdered. These are the only Jews we think need be acknowledged or respected. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe do not think murder proves how righteous and just the cause of the murderer is, except when it comes to murderers of Jews. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe do not think the Jews are entitled to their own state and must submit to being a minority in a Rwanda-style ?bi-national state?, although no other state on earth, including the 22 Arab countries, should be similarly expected to be deprived of its sovereignty. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe think that Israel?s having a Jewish majority and a star on its flag makes it a racist apartheid state. We do not think any other country having an ethnic-religious majority or having crosses or crescents or ?Allah Akbar? on its flag is racist or needs dismemberment. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe condemn the ?mistreatment? of women in the only country of the Middle East in which they are not mistreated. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe condemn the ?mistreatment? of minorities in the only country in the Middle East in which minorities are not brutally suppressed and mass murdered. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe demand equal citizen rights, which is why the only country in the Middle East in need of extermination is the only one in which such rights exist. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nWe have no trouble with the fact that there is no freedom of religion in any Arab countries. But we are mad as hell at Israel for violating religious freedom, and never mind that we are never quite sure where or when it does so. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n\r\nSo how can you possibly say we are anti-Semites? We are simply anti-Zionists. We seek peace and justice, that?s all. And surely that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. \r\n","author":"adolf schimmelpeter","parent_id":29861,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-09-26 14:21:03","modified":"2003-09-26 14:21:03","fileurl":""}]}