November 14, 2008
Posted by yaman
The incoherence of the Zionist Freedom Alliance
Recent weeks have seen the appearance of a group called the Zionist Freedom Alliance at UC Berkeley. It is not clear at this point what the group’s affiliation is with Tikvah, however all the major members of Tikvah work with the Alliance, which sponsored Israeli Liberation Week.
The Zionist Freedom Alliance reflects the desperate and doomed status of right-wing Zionism in the United States. In tactics, it adopts thuggery, aggression, and violence in the style of Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the terrorist organization the Jewish Defense League (which Tikvah links to on its Facebook group). It also romanticizes the Irgun, a Zionist militia group which carried out dozens of attacks on civilians in the 1930s and 40s. In rhetoric, it pretends social justice, national liberation, and anti-imperialism. Overall, it symbolizes a failing attempt to maintain victim status for the State of Israel, which possesses the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East as well as the world’s 5th most powerful military.
The ZFA’s main goal is to provide a “revolutionary space” for Jewish youth through which they can support Israel. It arose to “fill the void… by establishing a campus network that would proudly champion Israel’s national rights.” One of its organizers at Berkeley, Gabe Weiner, a founder of Tikvah who was involved in a recent attack on Arab students at Berkeley, tells right-wing website Arutz Sheva that the purpose of the group is to confound anti-apartheid activists who are accustomed to support for Israel being couched in neo-Conservative language. Thus, the group attempts to explain Israel as an anti-imperialist force which is being screwed over by “the same people who invaded Iraq,” as Yehuda HaKohen, one of the speakers at their 10-person Berkeley rally stated on Nov 12 (pictured above). These historically inaccurate and baseless claims are supposed to confuse the Palestinian solidarity movement, which has consistently stood against Israeli oppression for 60 years and has encountered similar opposition throughout that time.
Because there is no longer any substance to the right-wing Zionist argument in the United States (that is why it is such a marginal movement within the American Jewish community, and may even be stronger amongst Christian Evangelicals than Jews in the US–AIPAC and similar lobby groups are now faced with dovish competitors like J Street), we see a shift to a war of images. It is no longer about building a Jewish movement, but about building ambient support for the Israeli occupation amongst Americans as a whole. Not only right-wing organizations like the ZFA and its satellites like Tikvah follow this approach, but so do new propaganda firms like BlueStarPR, who aim to create “positive images” of Israel by emphasizing its technology sector and its alleged status as a liberal democracy in the Middle East while refraining from mentioning the occupation.
These approaches, from right and left, all share one thing in common. They completely ignore the existence of the Palestinian people. Zionism does not know how to reconcile itself with the existence of Palestinians, nor can it conceive of co-existence between Jews and Arabs. Those Israelis who acknowledge the existence of Palestinians have now earned the enmity of their right-wing neighbors who accuse them of being self-hating traitors. Growing internal tensions in Israeli society have led to violence, including the assault of left leaders and academics and recent reports by the Shin Bet that left leaders may be assassinated soon by right-wing Zionists from the settler movement. On the other hand those who continue to ignore the Palestinians typically promote genocidal actions in their political pronouncements like the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine, or their “extermination,” to borrow a term from the ZFA’s website. In other words, their only resolution is an incitement to violence against Arabs and Palestinians.
In times like this, it is imperative for people to stand up against the radicalization and violent rhetoric of the Zionist right in the United States. These organizations go through phases. The Jewish Defense League, inspired by Meir Kahane, was once considered a terrorist organization in the United States. In 2001, two of its leaders were arrested for plotting to bomb the office of Congressman Darrell Issa (major Jewish American organizations condemned the plot). Given the racist expletives and slurs that the ZFA and Tikvah attackers shouted last night when they assaulted Palestinian students at Berkeley, I am concerned by how this right-wing ideology can embolden people to violence. One anonymous commenter on a Daily Californian article notes that one of the attackers attended a Jewish fighting camp this summer called iCommando sponsored by aish Campus. In fact, one board member of Tikvah today writes on his Facebook that he is “waging the war against organized crime (SJP).” In response, a student at the Hebrew Academy of San Francisco writes, “need ammo? men? i suggest an alliance.” War? Ammo? At a University?
With all this transpiring I am heartened by the support and condemnation of mainstream Jewish student leaders on campus. I want to point out that this is not an issue which affects only Arabs, Palestinians, or anti-apartheid activists. It endangers all students and promotes misperceptions that could potentially incite to violence. The Daily Californian, for example, mysteriously found it necessary to note that “all three men [attackers] are Jewish.” The fact that they are Jewish is irrelevant. They are extremely marginal elements in the Jewish and campus community at Cal, and their organization has already been removed from the Jewish Student Union. The lack of attendance at their rally reflects the fact that they have no substantive support whatsoever either from the campus Jewish community, or the community at large. While it is re-assuring to know that they lack any support on campus, it is disturbing that this lack of support may only frustrate them to use even more extreme means to physically hurt students they disagree with.
I second SJP’s call for campus administrators to respond to these events immediately and to ensure the safety of students by pursuing disciplinary action against the attackers. I also call upon the ASUC Senate to eject SQUELCH! Senator and Tikvah President John Moghtader, who the Daily Cal reports participated in the incident as well. It is worth noting that two of the attackers have refused on several occasions to meet with members of SJP in order to discuss ways of preventing tensions on campus. Last month they also participated in a similarly aggressive disruption of an SJP event involving John Dugard and Norman Finkelstein (video right). They clearly have no interest in working to defuse these tensions themselves, so it is time now for the campus community to collectively work to protect our safety and to stand against that kind of aggression and violence on campus.
1 Trackbacks
21 Comments
November 14, 2008
excellent post. I would add that the recent attack proves what we have been saying all along: that these students aren’t offended by specific SJP speakers, or events, or rhetoric, but by the very existence of a pro-Palestinian group on campus. Yesterday’s attack was justified simply by the fact that the ZFA members saw a Palestinian flag. That was it: a flag was a good enough reason to shout racial expletives and punch one Arab man and two women.
The next time people ask us why we use a map of Palestine in our events which is painted the colors of the Palestinian flag, this is what we should answer: we use it not to support ethnic cleansing (heaven forbid), nor to deny in any way the common future of Palestinians and Israelis who will continue to live in the same land, but simply to mark the existence of a Palestinian identity. The violence only demonstrates the necessity of doing that, as our very brave members were doing last night.
November 14, 2008
This is beautifully written.
After listening to one member of the Zionist Freedom Alliance, I knew something wasn’t coherent when the man kept saying that “The UN is trying to destroy Israel. We need to protect our land.” Funny that something like that would be said. I can recall that the UN has critized Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, but destroy it? No way, not a chance.
Even in ZFA’s website where it lists historical figures, the United Nations is not mentioned in any page. And that is a massive part of Israel’s history. Take a look at their myspace page, anti-UN images are shown in comments, which I’m not fully understanding. The UN helped create Israel’s borders, in recent news they are critizing the government’s treatment of Palestinians, like two days ago when the government did not allow the UN to bring in food into Gaza. So why all the anti-UN rhetoric? Is it because the UN is calling for, not even a more favorable attitude to the Palestinians, but for justice and fairness to them?
These groups are a very clear break from many Israeli students and Jewish students at Berkeley and it is reassuring knowing that the general population is not buying in to their extremist propaganda.
However, I strongly support the call for the campus administration to pursue disciplinary action against the attackers. As a student, and a supporter of Palestinian autonomy, I fear for the safety of myself and others. Much like the events that transpired earlier this semester with hateful grafitti, there obviously is business that hasn’t been taken care of. I would also like to note that the ASUC should do something in regards to Senator Moghtader. I feel that it is of poor conduct and taste that a senator resorted to violence, instead of reaching out in dialogue (which as you note, he has refused to on previous occasions) to handle a situation. If the senators are representatives of the students at Berkeley, then Moghtader’s actions do not correlate with the student body.
November 14, 2008
When speaking to members of the ZFA this week, I too was struck by their desperation. These are people who have been rejected by the larger Jewish community, as that photo demonstrates. From where I was sitting on Sproul that day, the entire “rally” was obscured by one shrub. “Revolutions” aren’t supposed to fit behind shrubs.
Their lack of support should be reassuring, but as we saw yesterday, the few core members have enough absurdity (and violence) between them to make up for their small numbers.
As for this new rhetoric of anti-imperialism, it is as if Zionists such as these are reaching blindly through the dark for any concept that could possibly build support, then taking it and struggling to make it fit into their own confused ideology. It’s a little like McCain co-opting Obama’s message of “change.” It didn’t work for McCain, and I don’t believe it will work well for Zionism. At least, that is my hope.
November 14, 2008
take a minute to read Dina’s testimony in the comments here
http://www.dailycal.org/article/103540/fight_breaks_out_in_eshleman_hall_overlooking_isra
November 15, 2008
I’ve been following this issue for the last couple of months through your blog posts and the Daily Cal. I’ve seen those BlueStarPR signs around campus, and I was wondering why they were here specifically, because I’ve never seen one anywhere else in California. It’s pretty clear that Berkeley is one of the focus points of any PR campaign, mainly because what happens here will be broadly publicized.
As far as ZFA goes, it seems that they provide funds for Tikvah, or “sponsor” their activities. Interestingly enough, Eyal Matalon left this message on the Facebook wall of the Israel Liberation Week event:
“I’m all for understanding zionism in its historical context and learning more about the challenges facing Israeli society today.
I’m just a bit concerned about the rhetoric employed on the sponsor’s website (http://zfa.org.il/programs.html), namely:
“Rather than build concrete walls and fortresses, ZFA encourages our government and army to eliminate those who threaten the Jewish people.”
and
“UN OUT OF ISRAEL–ISRAEL OUT OF UN”
To the planners of this event, will the content of this website reflect the content of this week’s events?”
I have to disagree with your statement that the Jewish community at Cal is not wholly represented by Moghtader. It only takes a few people to start something that has far reaching consequences.
I wasn’t at the event, so I don’t know what really happened, and the Daily Cal has never been good at getting their facts straight. If Weiner and Moghtader did assault those people, then Moghtader should be removed from his ASUC position, it’s as simple as that.
November 16, 2008
I am really really scared about the violence that is already happening and that could escalate over the coming week. To whoever is reading this – no matter what happens, *do not even consider* retaliating violently. This will, without any doubt, endanger innocent people and members of your own community. Retaliation is pouring oil onto a fire – NOTHING good could come of it. There are institutional means of dealing with what happened and we will be utilizing them.
We should all be working as best we can to prevent this and to restore calm and peace to our campus.
November 16, 2008
Both the incident and the talk of “retaliation” (if I parse Tom’s comments correctly) are distressing.
Small correction:
“recent reports by the MOSSAD that left leaders may be assassinated soon by right-wing Zionists from the settler movement”
Mossad should be “Shin Bet” or “Internal Security Service.”
November 16, 2008
Thanks Amos for the correction.
November 18, 2008
Hi guys,
I know my opinion will not be popular, but please consider it respectfully.
It seems to me that SJP is playing to the hands of those people by being so overworked with them and especially by using rhetoric of violence (referring either to yourselves as being assaulted or to “retaliating”). Please pay attention, since this year started your rhetoric is all about violence (inflicting it or being the subject of it). Its not that there hasn’t been violence – but you intensify it with the way you talk and write – rather than trying to pacify the conflict.
You have rivals on campus (what was not so last year) – deal with this according to your own motto of non-violent resistance! I am really confident in your ability to change the way this escalating conflict is manufactured in how you respond.
You know very well that this group does not represent even a fraction of jewish or israeli politics – so why do you give them so much power by positioning yourselves against them? I say, ignore them already.
Yaman, once you graduate and SJP no longer benefits of your cooling affect, it can drift to extremity itself.
November 18, 2008
Yael, honestly, I’ve been restraining myself from saying this, but I think this exposes a deep racist attitude you seem to have. It is the exact equivalent of some sexist criticizing all these annoying feminists who keep talking about “battered wives” and “violence in the family”. Instead of all this “rhetoric of violence”, why don’t they just shut up and be more positive?
Yaman and I spent the weekend going round websites that were inciting against Tikvah and telling them to tone down their rhetoric before it gets dangerous – this, after three of our members got called racial slurs by them. But you never seem to have one positive word to say about us – even when we get beaten up we’re doing something wrong. I’m honestly beginning to think that this constant negative attitude has something to do with the fact that many of our members are Arabs.
And as usual, you ignore what Yaman wrote. We not only know “this group does not represent even a fraction of jewish or israeli politics” – this is what the whole post is about. The reason for that being that we worked very hard to prevent people from attributing hate-crimes to the entire Jewish community, something we see as very dangerous. For example, the Berkeley Hillel was actually attacked in the past, so that’s one of the reasons we mentioned them positively in our press release.
I find it amazing that we work so much at figuring out how to do anti-racism, and you never have one single positive thing to say about us. Not one. I know לפרגן, to show support, isn’t a trait we Israelis are known for, but maybe try it out for once. It can really work wonders.
November 18, 2008
tom,
i actually expected you to be offensive, this is why i specifically asked this opinion to be respected.
you cannot, obviously. fine.
suggesting my opinion is about arabness is so low, tom, i honestly disrespect you for it.
– btw, you are just proving my point with your violent comment.
November 18, 2008
a voyage into the Fascist mind
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/11/18/18552126.php
November 19, 2008
Once again, Yael the Wise suggests that those targeted by violence should merely ignore it. It must be nice to sit where she sits, and to have the *option* of entering the fray or not. And of course, all the best, most insightful suggestions come from outside.
I table for SJP every week, I go to meetings, and I’ve never met this person. So far as I know, she’s never had anything to do with SJP beyond her criticism of it, yet her comments are consistently couched in a way that gives the impression she has some sort of investment in SJP’s agenda. Perhaps the muzzle as opposed to the cage…
Where’s the common ground, Yael? Where’s the reason to think your motivation is something other than stopping, or at least slowing SJP’s activity? You consistently respond to posts as if you hadn’t really read them with a desire to understand their content, and you never say anything that can’t be summed up by “SJP, you should stop X or Y.†At the very least, I suppose, it’s predictable. You blame the victims: “…since this year started your rhetoric is all about violence …Its not that there hasn’t been violence – but you intensify it with the way you talk and write.†You characterize the tensions as a “rival[ry]“, ignoring altogether the power dynamics at play (there are individuals who attacked and who were attacked). All in all, you’re beginning to sound like the ‘good-cop’ who works in concert with the bad-cop (Tikva attackers), and merely feigns concern for the victims in this scenario in order to impact what they do.
So far as “respecting†your input goes, I certainly respect your right to blather after failing to think. But I don’t respect apologists. And I don’t think the disrespect of a lazy intellect is a thing to mourn. Next time you post, you should try to say something you haven’t said before.
What a digression.
November 19, 2008
Yael, I don’t think I have a ‘cooling effect’ on SJP. SJP is not a bunch of monsters or radicals that are somehow ‘kept in line’ by my presence.
I want to echo what some of the previous commenters have stated. I am stunned and confused by your claim that we “position ourselves against Tikvah.” In fact, the opposite is true. Because Tikvah positions itself against us, and because its actions often require us to respond in order to defend ourselves, it gives the appearance that we exist only to oppose Tikvah. Frankly, that’s not true. It is unfortunate that Tikvah often precipitates a number of huge public controversies, that the Daily Cal and co love to cover, but I think it is really outrageous to say–especially at this time–that when students are assaulted we should just ignore it.
November 20, 2008
and again, what do you know about other SJP members that you are afraid could become extreme? nothing, apart from the fact that many of them are Arabs.
(I guess, apart from knowing me, and you assume I am extreme based on a post that warned anyone thinking of retaliating that “We should all be working as best we can to prevent this and to restore calm and peace to our campus”. Wow, that sure is radical).
November 20, 2008
y’all
i am not saying you are to blame for being attacked, nor am i saying that nothing should be done about the assaults on campus. however, i do think that your specific responses are a mistake you are making. i bother to say my opinion b/c unfortunately this does relate to me, since what you are doing (intentionally?) is to make those people more important than they really are and thereby suggesting we (jews/iaraelis) are all them.
my critique of you is that in my eyes sjp – astonishingly – seem to replicate the jewish anti-defamation league. look at you, you respond hysterically to things like a 5-man “rally” where people talk about the UN, for christ sake!
occupy yourselves with “retaliating” to those people in blogs like this if you have nothing else to do, fine — but my problem with this is that by so doing you further establish their positioning in front of you, not dismantling it. THIS is where i think you should exercise some ignoring (and just to make it clear for tom – not in relation to the assaults. this blog is not about the assaults).
now, the ADL are in this business longer that you and doing it better – and they are still pathetic and damaging.
like the ADL you hysterically yell “racist” at me for not agreeing with you. sweet. glad you found some easy target who tried to dialogue with you. guess i’ll leave you to your “everybody who disagrees is an anti-arab” attitude. so ADL of you.
(so tom, it is you, and not “the arabs” that i am addressing. call me an anti-semite, go ahead, enjoy).
November 21, 2008
“i bother to say my opinion b/c unfortunately this does relate to me, since what you are doing (intentionally?) is to make those people more important than they really are and thereby suggesting we (jews/iaraelis) are all them.â€
“unfortunately,†and as this does relate to you, have you considered that perhaps before “correcting†the colonized on how they should go about achieving their liberation, you should FIRST check your fellow colonizers on the intellectual and moral incoherence of their stance?
Just a question, sister. I really want to give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re an ally, but you’re making it really hard…
November 21, 2008
Yael,
1. the correct slur would actually be self-hating jew, not antisemite ;-) believe me, I have practice with that.
2. Look, the point is that you ask for respectful answers, but it feels like you don’t act respectfully yourself. I’m sure you read the academic texts you work on very carefully, but it always seems like you criticize us before you read what we’ve said properly. For example, you say that “what you are doing (intentionally?) is to make those people more important than they really are and thereby suggesting we(jews/iaraelis) are all them”.
Now, the post you are responding to says “the right-wing Zionist argument in the United States [...] is why it is such a marginal movement within the American Jewish community, and may even be stronger amongst Christian Evangelicals than Jews”. It says “I am heartened by the support and condemnation of mainstream Jewish student leaders on campus”. It says “The lack of attendance at their rally reflects the fact that they have no substantive support whatsoever either from the campus Jewish community”. And my response to you said “We not only know “this group does not represent even a fraction of jewish or israeli politics†– this is what the whole post is about”. And instead of “occupying ourselves with retaliating”, my post very clearly says the opposite, it warns against retaliation. It calls for people to “to prevent this and to restore calm and peace to our campus”. The way you read us is like criticizing Fanon for supporting white supremacy.
If you want to disagree with us, fine, but you give the impression that what we write isn’t worth reading seriously and carefully.
3. Do we make mistakes? We definitely do. As they say in Hebrew, “מי ×©×œ× ×¢×•×©×”, ×œ× ×˜×•×¢×”” – he who doesn’t do anything, never makes mistakes. I appreciate and respect criticism from allies who are really on our side, who really know what we’re doing, who are really trying to support us and help us accomplish our goals. I feel your criticisms are based on a very superficial knowledge and understanding of who we are and what we do. When you say SJP will drift to extremism without Yaman, what is that based on? When you say we intensify violence – do you know our full range of activities, what emails we sent, who we met, what we did? You don’t, but again, you give the impression that what we do isn’t worth learning about before it is criticized.
4. Over and over and over again you blame the victim. What does it mean to say ” you respond hysterically to things like a 5-man “rally—? three of our members heard the ultra-racist lyrics in this rally, and decided to hold up a flag, and for this they were hit and called racial slurs. Why do you feel such a need to criticize “hysterical” Palestinians who are quietly and non-violently protesting racism against them? This is very offensive, as Yaman said, and it does make you sound like the “good cop” to Tikvah/ZFA’s “bad cops”. Tikvah tried to get them to remove the flags by force, and you are chiding them for holding it up. How about supporting them, being their allies, putting yourself in their shoes? And how about occasionally trying to sound supportive instead of 100% critical? Seriously.
5. And I think you need to take Seth’s last comment very seriously. Growing up in Tel-Aviv (or even in the affluent Ramat-Aviv, if I remember correctly) you (like me) benefited from a lot of privileges on Palestinians’ behalf. The land you were living on may have belonged to the destroyed village of Sheikh Muwwanis (which covered a lot of the area of what is now Ramat Aviv). The clean water you drank came not only from the Sea of Galilee, but also from the “Mountain Equifer”, that is – from the West Bank. You (like me) had access to a good high school which enabled you to come and study at Berkeley. All these are privileges which you shouldn’t take for granted – I think you could reflect on them and on what it means for you to be a true ally to Palestinians, before you criticize them as “hysterical” and extreme. I’m saying this not to make you feel guilty, but because I think we reach a much more empathic and profound political stance by recognizing our own privileges.
November 22, 2008
Just to demonstrate how you read posts, I’m going to write the way you responded to my post that WARNED AGAINST retaliating: I will take one word WHICH YOU USED TO SIGNIFY SOMETHING YOU OPPOSE, and pretend that’s something you actually meant, so as to reduce you to a caricature of a violent extremist.
So in your post you said you wanted Tikvah members to be “attacked”, and called for more “assaults on campus”. My advice to you is to calm down. Yael, this is an example of your violent and extreme rhetoric and if you don’t tone it down, someone could end up getting hurt. Quit being be such a fanatic.
How do you feel when you read this distortion of your words? respected? listened to? now try and think how Yaman feels when he writes this group is “marginal” and you tell him he thinks it represents the Jewish community, or how I feel when you cross out the words “do not even consider” that preceded the word “retaliating”, in order to twist my words to fit into some caricature.
November 27, 2008
in her beautiful op-ed, http://www.dailycal.org/article/103721/perspectives_on_fight_in_eshleman_hall
Avital pointed out that ZFA’s opposition to the UN isn’t some kind of irrational rant, but a deliberate attack on a specific UN agency, UNRWA, for supporting Palestinian refugees. http://www.zfa.org.il/opinions/new_paradigm.html
January 5, 2009
http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/05/confronting-islamophobia
Leave a comment