On September 21, a collection of left-wing Jews, many of them with "Rabbi" in front of their names, published a full page ad in the New York Times making the outrageous claim that Judaism imposed an "obligation" on Jews to oppose the war in Iraq. Their evidence? Two Biblical quotations: "Justice, justice shall you pursue" and "Seek peace and pursue it."
Most of the signatories are familiar names to those who have followed the peregrinations of anti-Israel Jews over the last decades: the older ones are veterans of the 1970s Breira (the first heavily rabbinic outfit to take up cudgels for the PLO) and the younger come from Breira's replacement in the 1980s, New Jewish Agenda, an even more vociferously anti-Israel operation. While these people have been active among Jews, they have little connection to traditional Judaism. They have redefined Judaism as left wing politics: to them, Judaism means opposition to nuclear power; Judaism means the Kyoto treaty; Judaism means support for any and every vicious anti-American despot whom they define as "progressive," no matter how murderous the regime. Has anyone seen ads of protest from this gaggle of "rabbis" and communal activists as Mugabe's "war veterans" seized farms and turned a country that exported food into one where over half the population is now close to starvation? Have this bunch run protest-ads against the mass murders in Rwanda or the butchery in Sierra Leone? To them "justice, justice shall you pursue" means "Israel and the United States shall you pursue, with never-failing hostility."
The timing of the ad is especially odd for Jews claiming to speak for Judaism. It came immediately after the holiday of Purim, when Jews celebrate the elimination of Jew-haters in Persia, and a week after the annual Sabbath service in which Jews are reminded of their duty to eradicate Amalek, which has come to typify Israel's enemies throughout the generations. The Jewish idea of justice is to eradicate the Saddams that appear with regularity through history, not preserve and appease them.
There is one humorous paragraph in the ad. It says, "We must join the overwhelming majority of the antiwar movement who share Jewish concerns for Israel." If there is one emotion the disparate antiwar protestors share, it is solidarity with "Palestine" and the placards in demonstrations around the world generally feature as many battle cries against Israel as slogans attacking the war. Indeed, in their enthusiasm for "peace," demonstrators in Paris on March 22 attacked two young members of a Hashomer Hatzair youth group. They stabbed one on noticing he wore a yarmulke and then seriously wounded another, attacking him with poles and chains.
This offensive ad brings to mind the words of Alfred, Lord Tennyson: "Blind and naked Ignorance/Delivers brawling judgments, unashamed/ On all things all day long."
The death of 23 year-old Rachel Corrie, who was accidentally run over by an Israeli bulldozer while she served as a human shield in Gaza, has been a propaganda bonanza for anti-Israel activists. Corrie was portrayed in the media as an idealistic young woman and by her friends as an inspiration "always prepared to stand for peace and justice."
The media failed to mention that Corrie had recently appeared in a televised mock trial in which President Bush was accused of war crimes, and she burned an American flag. The media did worse than that. David Bedein has pointed out (in the Israeli weekly Makor Rishon) that Reuters released a photo (published on p. 3 of the New York Times of March 17) that falsely made it appear as if the Israeli driver deliberately killed her. The photo showed Corrie standing in front of the bulldozer with a megaphone and the caption said it was taken before she was crushed, leading the reader to believe she had been standing with a megaphone in clear sight of the bulldozer. The next Reuters photo showed her lying in front of the bulldozer. But Bedein noted the lighting of the sky was different in what were supposed to be sequential shots: moreover the landscape was different.
Bedein checked with Reuters and it turned out these were not their photos: they had received them from the International Solidarity Movement, the anti-Israel grouping to which she belonged. A colleague of Bedein spoke to Joe Smith, another human shield, who had been with her in Gaza and witnessed her death. Smith recounted that Corrie "was sitting on a mound of earth in front of the bulldozer. The earth started to move under her when the bulldozer digs in. You have a couple of options: you can roll aside -- you have to be very quick to get out of the way. You can fall back, but she leaned forward to try to climb up on top. She got pulled down, and the bulldozer lost sight of her. Then, without lifting the blade, he reversed and she was underneath the blade." Smith recognized that extremely risky behavior
Outpost - 2 - April 2003