Traditional Rabbi Appalled As "Salute To Israel" Concert Degenerates Into Arab-Bashing
One hundred thousand people marched in the annual "Salute To Israel" parade in New York on Sunday and apparently a post-parade concert in Central Park turned into a hate-fest. Rabbi Sidney Schwarz of Potomac, Maryland writes about his reactions to being part of a Jewish assemblage in America in which participants sing "all the Arabs must die." Read his piece here. Is it any wonder that Israel's rightwing supporters here are feeling so uncomfortable in Barack Obama's America?
"Then a band launched into a rousing rendition of Am Yisrael Chai. I spent more than 25 years as an activist for Soviet Jewry. This was our theme song signaling solidarity both with the history of our people and with all those oppressed Jews in the world whose cause we championed. A group of young men in their 20's....were right in front of me dancing in a frenzy. But they alternated the verse that meant ''the people of Israel lives'with 'all the Arabs must die.' It rhymed with the Hebrew. Given the way all joined in, it was clear that this was not the first time it was sung.
"I leaned over to a young man who was next to me, also wearing a kippah and tzitzit. I nodded at the dancers and asked: 'Does this song bother you?' He looked at me with a suspicious look and replied: 'This is Zionism.'"
"I leaned over to a young man who was next to me, also wearing a kippah and tzitzit. I nodded at the dancers and asked: 'Does this song bother you?' He looked at me with a suspicious look and replied: 'This is Zionism.'"
Yes, it is.....
June 2, 2009 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm telling you, the best explanatory model for the behavior of American Jewish Zionism supporters is the drug model. They are high on a self-produced drug called ziocaine. The effects are alternating phases of grandiosity and paranoia, and continued use leads to a coarsening and finally eliminating of any ethical or moral restraints. It's addictive, and if the habit of producing this drug was aquired in childhood, it's almost an impossible habit to break. Problem is, the users find its effects so gratifying, and there is social pressure to continue use.
June 2, 2009 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
It seems that you are a one-hit wonder? Another Jew (or even gentile) living in the exile who has no working understand of Israeli society? Sidney Schwarz is no rabbi, that is for sure. An impostor, just as M(P)oser is.
The Anti-Self Defamation League
www.asdl.biz
October 28, 2009 7:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Witnessed the death of two canards right there, he did: First, that criticizing Zionism equates to anti-Semitism, and second - and more important - that Zionism does not equate to racism. Substitute "black" or "Jew" or "anything else" for "Arab" and it (rightly) earns universal condemnation, does it not?
June 2, 2009 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have met the enemy and he is among you. Time to clean house. Report when and as you can. You are on the side of the USA, and your commentaries are valuable, and they will help others help you. Keep up the good work.
June 2, 2009 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe they'd do well in Wichita
June 2, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
unfortunately as zionism becomes more militant, it becomes harder for that feeling of "the enemies are all around us, we must band together in our bunker with our weapons" to not turn into "the enemies are dogs/scum/vermin/etc." the current besieged thinking of contemporary zionism lends itself well to this demonization of the "enemy." (personal side note: when i was on birthright israel the counselors all but told me that i was a jewish "uppity negro" since i didn't feel besieged by malevolent anti-semitic forces all around me. at a different time a college classmate essentially told me that i didn't feel scared because i went to public school and never went to jewish school.)
my mother in chicago listens to the russian radio constantly and all she hears is israel israel israel, kill the arabs kill the arabs kill the arabs. the two go hand in hand. and then she accuses me of being a traitor to our people when i criticize israel.
unfortunately the conflation of pro/anti zionism with pro/anti jewish people achieved by the israel lobby to stifle criticism of israel works in the other direction. in the west bank instead of "why did israel set up a checkpoint and put a curfew on my city?" you can sometimes hear "why did the jews set up a checkpoint and put a curfew on my city?" this attitude is horrible and racist but isn't it a legitimate side product of being constantly told that zionism=judaism?
June 2, 2009 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
"why did the jews set up a checkpoint and put a curfew on my city?"
Israel, in case you were unaware of it, calls itself "The Jewish State" and claims to act by, and for, all the Jews of the world.
So what should they say. They are only agreeing with the Israelis.
June 2, 2009 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Which Israelis?
June 3, 2009 11:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
You are brave, MJ, to allow comments ... I do not understand professor AE's reluctance ... is he sensitive ?
Anyway : hating people for their circumstances of birth ( ethnic group, skin variety, religion, etc ) is completely out of style in the USA and in other places ... I wonder whether the people you described are tone-deaf or isolated ...
For comparison, I would offer that the government of China seems to care more about the opinion of the civilized world ...
Do they think they are right and the world is wrong ? Do they notice that most American voters do not accept this sort of thing ? Do they care what American voters think ?
Their cause is no longer a polite topic of conversation in this country - have they noticed that ?
One must admire a guy dedicated to his cause. But at some point being stubborn leads to disaster.
June 2, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Traditional Rabbi Appalled As "Salute To Israel" Parade Degenerates Into Arab-Bashing
Yep... and I noticed Sen. Chuck Schumer didn't have a problem mingling with them! How many other Democratic and Republican Arab haters were in the march?
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/06/salute-to-israel-parade-2009.html
Do you really think just because Schumer had to take his name off the Advisory board of an Israeli neocon front think tank that he can hide his anti-arab, Israel-Firster war agenda.
-- Foundation for the Defense of Democracies:
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/index.php
-- An old Link showing a new Democratic member joining the Neocon Club:
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11773091&Itemid=351
June 2, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Via Richard Silverstein blog:
How many other Democratic legislators can we add to the list that want to undermine Obama's plan for peace?
June 2, 2009 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
The AIPAC driven letter that ML Hoyer and Cantor threatened other House members with - because AIPAC supporters have only threats of anti-semitism to get what they want no matter how vile, encouraging Obama to let all Arabs rot to appease Israel, received 329 signature from some of the worst sychophantic, money-grubbing and unpatriotic racist citizens of this country.
While we just let an Israeli spy go free, his American partner - an American Intelligence official, so "treasured" for his service, received a life sentence.
When those 329 Congressmen support Israel's use of cluster bombs, white phosphorous and terrorism against all non-supplicating Jews and happily send your children off to die defending Israel's brutal tactics and massive list of enemies, but send their own children off to Wall Street and K Street, it's time to consider those members and their supporters as extremist Jews, as radicals and as anarchists.
Because they sure as hell don't have this country and our troops as their #1 priority.
June 3, 2009 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Yes it is"
Yes it is, and always has been.
Here's a traditional Rabbi for you
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2009/06/01/1005535/chabad-rabbi-destroy-their-holy-sites-kill
"I don’t believe in western morality, i.e. don’t kill civilians or children, don’t destroy holy sites, don’t fight during holiday seasons, don’t bomb cemeteries, don’t shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral.
The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle)."
June 2, 2009 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ann Coulter, who also proudly scorns western morality, elaborated, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
But you know, even in the Old Testament -- which quotes God as green-lighting selective genocide --he clearly set some limits.
As I recall, the enemy's cattle and orchards were to be spared, because they were innocent of wrongdoing.
Explain how the wholesale destruction of olive groves in Gaza and around Hebron jibes with God's decrees.
(Admittedly, I'm some sort of heathen myself, since I think God was out of line to mandate murder.)
June 2, 2009 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can you imagine a more anti-Semitic comment (in the fullest sense) than the one made by that rabbi?
June 2, 2009 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
It certainly sounds like a recipe for total war between Semitic peoples to me.
June 3, 2009 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
only people who are suffering engage in this type of behavior. the suffering comes from a tremendous amount of self-hatred which can only be relieved by externalizing and directing it onto others. this external other-hatred is a safety valve for the internal self-hatred.
when manifesting in a group, this behavior further has the function of creating cohesion and solidarity within the group.
as long as the settlers, with the support of the israeli government, hate the arabs, cohesion is maintained. the self-hatred is abated by directing it out. once there are steps taken to remove the settlers, all the self-hate that was directed outward will turn back on the group.
current israeli society is maintaining it's cohesion by hating the arabs while taking their land. once this is removed, the structure of society will strain and break.
civil war will take place in israel once there is movement to actually remove the settlers.
FOUR LEGS GOOD. TWO LEGS BAD.
orwell, animal farm
June 2, 2009 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's disturbing, that's for sure. Goodness me. All [whomever] must die.
I walked past a Nazi killing field in Eastern Europe this week. The Nazis lined up 16,000 Jews and killed them because they were Jews. I said to the locals, "We don't have enough problems in life, we need to worry about people's ethnicity so we can single them out and kill them for that?" Everyone agreed it was not only horrific, but also totally asinine.
And that's what these people are about.
June 2, 2009 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, genocide is the logical conclusion of all exceptionalist ideologies.
The Jews have waited 2,000 to prove to the world that they are just as lousy as everyone else.
June 2, 2009 7:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
That might be an instructive model, exceptionalist.
Another way to look at it, confied to the Middle East, is that this is a timeless Hatfield vs. McCoys blood feud (with W. especially having picked sides!) and that neither side can coherently even explain what they're so belligerent about.
June 2, 2009 7:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't be an idiot.
There was no Holocaust in the middle east.
Arabs did not put Jews in extermination camps, Europeans did.
And the Palestinians are paying for the crimes of Europe, again.
Josh Marshall says "The world owes the jews."
No. Europe owes the Jews and many others.
June 2, 2009 11:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
As is often the case here, MJ's post is misleading, implying that the Salute To Israel Day Parade, which drew 100,000 people, degenerated into a hate fest in which Israel supporters gleefully danced and sang death to Arabs.
As is explicitly clear from the linked piece, the Rabbi attended an "Israel-themed concert in Central Park" after the parade. At this concert, some speakers made some typically over-the-top right-wing statements challenging US politicians' support for Israel. Afterward, the band launched into the music that a group of young men twisted into their hateful and repugnant message that inspired the Rabbi's rightful disgust. Hardly the same thing as a 100,000-person-strong hate-fest.
Predictably, given the nature of the comment, the Israel-bashers take this as a symbol of the racism at the heart of the Jewish state. Thanks again, MJ.
June 2, 2009 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
the Israel-bashers take this as a symbol of the racism at the heart of the Jewish state.
So even though the symbol is, indeed wrong, it is good that you concede that racism is at the heart of the Jewish state. Conceding that "the racism at the heart of the Jewish state" is the problem is the first step towards thinking clearly on the issue.
June 2, 2009 6:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are right, Armchair, that MJ should have distinguished between the march and the Central Park rally that followed it.
Rabbi Schwarz in his column does make that distinction. But it in no way lessens his shock and sadness.
From what you've written in the past, I think you would have been equally (and rightly) shocked and saddened.
June 2, 2009 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Saddened, but not shocked. In this conflict in particular, there are enough loons and haters to go around. I have no doubt there must have been protesters delivering equally repellant messages, which hardly makes them typical. I commend the Rabbi for speaking out eloquently. I couldn't agree with him more. MJ... not so sure.
I've never participated in the Israel Day parade myself. The thought never occurred to me. I did come across it once purely by accident. It struck me as similar to the other parades we see on 5th Avenue routinely: primarily an assertion of national pride for those who identify strongly with the cause. Not as ribald as St. Patrick's Day, and perhaps a bit heavier, but what do you expect from the Jews?
June 2, 2009 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I certainly agree that the distinction should be clear -- and it appears to be now (I just came along so it could be an edit) -- but do you not think it is a bit hypocritical to complain about the matter and then follow up by saying, without sourcing:
June 2, 2009 9:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fair enough, although I was speaking hypothetically. I did have in mind an account somewhere from a protester who was disgusted by someone with a noxious sign making light of the holocaust - I don't recall now where or what.
June 3, 2009 12:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
How predictable. Heck, I strolled my two-year old across the park and spent some time hanging around the parade on Sunday. Luckily for MJ, who feeds on hate for the purpose of salving whatever chips on his tortured shoulders he has acquired as an advocate for the State of Israel he loves to detest, there were undoubtedly haters, Jewish haters. But I saw none of that; I saw a bunch of kids, moms, dads, and grandparents, all enjoying a lovely day in Central Park. I watched happy kids marching up 5th Avenue. But I have no doubt there were haters, and for MJ and his ilk that's a good thing, because it gives him something to write about, and his readers something to read.
And so it goes. Feed on the hate. Mange.
June 3, 2009 1:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not meant for you of course AG. I know you know what I mean, even though my tongue is so far embedded in my cheek I just can't remove it! :)
June 3, 2009 1:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
I sense a lot of love for Israel in what MJ writes - a sustainable, humane Israel that lives up to its ethical imperatives - tikkun olam.
June 3, 2009 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I did have in mind an account somewhere from a protester who was disgusted by someone with a noxious sign making light of the holocaust - I don't recall now where or what.
I think this guy is the one referenced:
http://muqata.blogspot.com/2009/06/return-of-juice.html#links
June 3, 2009 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lally: You are the king of links. How you manage to keep up with so many blogs is beyond me.
June 3, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
AG, I get interested in stuff and searches sometimes yield up some unique perspectives. The Muqata blog is run by and for American settlers & their supporters; during the Gaza assault, "Jameel" was live warblogging and I was hooked.
BTW, how many guys do you think would choose a fem nic like "lally"? I'm the effin' QUEEN of obscure links.
June 3, 2009 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry. I think that may be the second time I've done that. I made the same mistake with artappraiser and she has a female silhouette to remind me. Fortunately for me, I have a mandatory sensitivity in the workplace training coming up.
June 4, 2009 12:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
.... I have a mandatory sensitivity in the workplace training coming up.
How dreadful. Do you have to role play?
You aren't the first by any means and won't be the last....it's just funny that when I THINK I have picked a womanly nic, there's something about my content that raises doubts..... ;~{)
June 4, 2009 3:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
My eyes may deceive me, but I think MJ might have just amended his post to sort of clarify things.
June 2, 2009 7:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Come on... "shocked"? Those sentiments are hardly new, unknown to be under the surface, nor surprising in the highly political NY Jewish community.
"...In a NY synagogue, Israeli settler leader calls for assassination of Abbas-- and tax-deductible contributions
...In a speech at a New York synagogue Wednesday night, Nadia Matar, a leader of the Israeli settlers' group "Women in Green," called for the assassination of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, as a way of bringing peace to Israel..."
It's there as plain as day, and then posters here have the nerve and expect us to feel 'exclusively' sorry for Israel.
That's why we need to be even-handed in this political mess... and IMO certainly not 'exclusively' funding one side of it.
June 2, 2009 7:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Link...
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/03/in-ny-synagogue-settler-leader-calls-for-assassination-of-abbas-and-taxdeductible-contributions-to-s.html
June 2, 2009 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unfortunately the sentiment of the people at this rally is expressed openly through violence by settlers themselves.
I experienced this personally this last Saturday.
http://acrosstheborderline.wordpress.com/2009/05/30/settler-violence-police-indifference/
June 3, 2009 11:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
I actually go by the description, "a person of conscience." Novel concept for you?
June 2, 2009 7:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I missed you, darling.
June 3, 2009 12:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Someone has to keep you on the staight and narrow.
June 3, 2009 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think most readers would ascribe hate to 100,000 attendees based on what was written. The article MJ cited paints a very grim picture of hatred of Arabs, details aside.
June 2, 2009 7:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
No. The word to ascribe to them is contempt.
Israel was founded on racism, as a racist state.
But there are 'nice' racists and 'bad' racists.
MJ is a 'nice' one.
June 2, 2009 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, well, no suprise there, eh? Especially since the story has already been pointed out on other blogs, just trying to make it go viral in any way, shape or form, I guess. Actually, the reason I am moved to comment is that you made me think conspiratorial of how this modus operandi may actually be purposeful, perhaps in a subconscious kind of way--if one can solicit and rile up a constant stream of hateful commentary on the internet, then one could frighten or guilt the actors and actions causing that kind of commentary into changing their behavior? Twisted, I know, but the kind of twisted that Fielding Melish would understand, no?
BTW, if anyone's interested in what's really going on with the NYC Israeli parade, and it's attempt this year at enlarging its marketing to Israelis, and perhaps covertly, right wingers as well, I found this piece in the June 1 New York Times quite interesting and nuanced, especially in that it presents the view of some that that idea was not such a success.
June 2, 2009 8:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good link, aa.
In a peripheral way, it adressed something way that I've been wondering about of late, the seeming lack of interactions between the Israeli disapora and American Zionists.
From some ancedotal accounts, I've seen guilt expressed by what our old friend bar_kochba132/YBD called "exilic Jews" because they choose not to return to live in the Israel so blindly worshipped by so many from so far. I would hazard to guess that few Israelis who have chosen to remain in the US would relish confrontations with the truebelievers who would not respect their hard choices.
On reading the Rabbi's lament, I was reminded of another Orthodox defender of the principles of Judaism he adamantly believes are being distorted by the current Israeli state and the warped version of Zionism claimed by perpetuaters and defenders of atrocities.
Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, meet Jewish Studies professor "Jeremiah Haber" :
"One of the great joys – and weighty responsibilities – of the historian is to reincarnate the forgotten voices of the past, so that we can listen to them and learn from their neglected counsels. The time still may not be ripe for a Rawidowicz, a Magnes, a Buber, or a Leibowitz to be heard.
But that time is coming soon. As Israel becomes more and more deeply racist (Today I saw a big metal sign outside a company that says proudly that it employs only Jews), as its rightwing legislators compete with each other to propose legislation restricting the rights of its Israel's Arab minority, as its Minister of Justice equates Arab observance of Nakbah day with "wishing the State to fall and to throw its inhabitants into the sea" (here), as it forces the entire country into an unnecessary air raid exercise, thus further sowing panic, as a government radio announcer wonders out loud on the air whether Obama is more "Hussein" than "Barack" --
The time for the likes of a Rawidowicz is coming sooner than you think."
http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com/
Perhaps the Orthodox will be leading the way .
June 2, 2009 10:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, I remember this article. As you might know, my wife is Israeli. When we happened upon the parade she was baffled and found the entire spectacle alien.
June 3, 2009 12:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Suggestion: take her to the Puerto Rican day parade, and the bafflement will lessen. Talk about er, conflicting sentiments of nationalism, identity, culture, whatever you want to call it, not to mention rowdy, and even nasty behavior by some attendees, its reputation in NYC is notorious above all the other ethnic parades. Perhaps the St. Paddie's day parade was once like that?
June 3, 2009 5:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Better yet, you could schedule a visit to Tel Aviv during the time the Gay Pride Parade takes place.......
June 3, 2009 6:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or maybe even a rowdy Israeli barn-raising festival on Palestinian land to really explore the true Settler culture.
June 3, 2009 9:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I felt exactly the same way. A supposed lover of Israel, MJ never misses a chance to point to a misleading, unrepresentative story that puts Israel or Zionism in a bad light.
There's no hope in reaching the consciences of confirmed haters of Israel. They will stew in their own moral rot and there's nothing I or anyone else could write that would change that. But for others, let me make a strong statement of protest against this ugly smearing of Zionism, the national movement of the Jewish people.
To equate all Zionism with racism is to profoundly libel the Jewish people, for Zionism is to the Jews what any nationalism is to the people it represents. Nationalism is an assertion of identity, nothing more or less. Like anything else, it can get hijacked by extremists. But to then assume that anyone who is a nationalist is an extremist is to subscribe to the worst sort of woolly leftist thinking that you assumed went away 40 years ago.
June 3, 2009 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I personally have my opinion that Israelis and certain Jewish citizens alike abuse their relation and protection with and under the U.S. They are the same ones who smile at you with pleasantries while working to undermine you behind your back. "Death to Arabs" ..I believe they have negative chants for every culture and ethnicity not their own - they don't have high opinions of Americans either. It's shameful how their culture hide behind our protection while crying for sympathy to keep reminding the world of the past - which many cultures sacrificed to save them I may add. I think it's time for big brother U.S to let Israel stand on its own and chant all they want - put their money where their mouth is against the Arab world and chant death to Arabs. Let's see Zionism in action.. disgraceful. They are publicly displaying more frequently these days (compared to keeping quiet in past from world ears and eyes their true beliefs - ever lived in Israel for long?) Those who speak with forked tongues should be watched closely.
June 2, 2009 7:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
the gig is up. the israeli right wing is racist supremacism behind crocodile tears with a hand pick pocketing uncle sam.
June 2, 2009 8:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's not over-analyze.
Callous youth has ever been with us.
Note: Which, by the bye, makes an excellent argument for getting rid of hate crime statutes.
June 2, 2009 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I disagree. Sorry.
June 3, 2009 12:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wonder if the Rabbi was also appalled at the signs to re-open Aushwitz and send nukes to kill Jews at the same rally? or the poster calling all Rabbi's pedophiles... Will we ever see posts on TPM about such things or is it always about the evil Zionists?
http://www.israellycool.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/salute-to-israel-protest1.jpg
more here: http://www.israellycool.com/2009/06/01/the-day-in-israel-mon-june-1st-2009/
June 4, 2009 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink