There are endless attempts to analyze what happened on November 7. The media outlets published or aired several points of view, some of us think it is Iraq, others claim it is the economy and the middle class crunch, Katrina and the confirmation of incompetent government is another argument.
Probably it was all the above and more, but the single most important lesson is the fact that the American people voted in a mid-term election overwhelmingly to punish the Republican majority.
The mid-term election is always about local issues, but this did not stop the American public from voicing their anger and frustration at a branch of government that probably had little to do with the over all performance of the executive branch.
This type of reaction has a single name it was a backlash.
I am concerned the next two years will bring to America a much larger backlash, and this time it will be against a minority in America.
The backlash this time will be against the American Jewish community, I come from a minority, and I know how it feels to see in the eyes of your neighbors, your colleagues, people you never saw before a question that you could not answer. Are you patriotic?
I am not a prophet, I cannot project the future, and the Jewish community is an integral part of the American fabric that existed since the birth of this nation or very soon after.
I understand that the Jewish community learned the value of activism from an incident during the Second World War when a ship full of Jewish escaping the Nazi ordered to leave the shores of America with its human cargo regardless of the consequences. The President then denied the community leaders a chance to meet with him in attempt to reverse the decision. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005267
I respect the fact that the community united afterward, worked very hard to organize, so today the Jewish community in America has the most access of any interest group through several powerful organizations such as AIPAC and Conference of Presidents.
I believe that our constitutional system guarantee the rights of minority to representation, our system defines the proper channels to accomplish these goals through legal means such as lobbying.
I totally believe that The Jewish community and their major organizations understand the system better than any other does and the current influence and power they insert on the American policies especially in the area of foreign affairs is through legitimate means.
The success AIPAC, Conference of Presidents and many other Jewish organizations achieved by supporting candidates on both sides of the isle, guarantees that the new majority will not change the American policy in the Middle East substantially.
Therefore, the Jewish organization unlimited success might be the reason behind an uncontrollable demise of their influence. If this happens Israel will be a loser, but the American Jewish community will pay even a bigger price.
In the last few months, the American public discovered that all our investment over the last five years in American lives and treasure failed. It failed in making us safer, it failed in making us stronger, it failed in making us more influential.
In the last few months, I read opinion editorials in major publications such as the Washington Post and New York Times that I never thought a year ago was possible, articles that described Israel as the major reason of our failing policies worldwide. The more stunning phenomena are the comments on articles supporting the American policies in the Middle East. The comments without exceptions mentioned Israel as the culprit for our failures.
The internet is not any better, hundreds of Blogs full of angry words talking about the price the Americans are paying for unconditional support to Israel, talking about war crimes, usage of chemical weapons, indiscriminate killings in Gaze and Lebanon that constitutes genocide. Discussions on how these actions create the next generation terrorists and the responsibility of Israel.
I am an Egyptian American born in Alexandria. I immigrated to the US in the late eighties, during this time lived in many places in US and Europe. I work as an IT manager and love it. I love to travel, it makes me feel young, and it awakes in me sense of adventure and curiosity. I love knowing people from different cultures; it never fails to amaze me how we all live in our little worlds that never meet. History is my second amazement, it always differ depending on who is winning, that leads me to my third hobby, politics is it history or human nature that is the culprit?
that the problem is more about fundamentalism. The Christian evangelicals are probably more responsible for the current Bush Admin's policies than AIPAC. They are praying for the "rapture" so they will raptured up to heaven-- and they believe that first, the middle east war must get much hotter.
I'm not denying that the ORthodox-- the most zionist of the Jews think crazy thoughts about attacking Iran, not considering that this would cause massive deaths, probably in the hundreds of thousands in Israel.
I belong to a synagogue in which 98% of the members would love to see peace between Israel and Palestine, who are totally opposed to what Israel has been doing lately. Our congregation is not alone. But we are small and don't have much of a voice. And I've spoken with Israelis who believe that the invasion of Lebanon was incredibly stupid.
Then, there are the Saudi Wahabists, who teach hate to little children, in tens of thousands of Madrassas, and the dictatorships throughout the Arab world, where they find the Israeli Palestinian conflict a handy way to distract their people from the anti-democratic problems at home.
It's not just about AIPAC. Just putting the onus on Israel is not the solution. They absolutely DO need to change, but the textbooks that teach hate in the Muslim world also need to change, and the attitude that put them there.
Shalom Salaam
by
Rob Kall (807 articles, 3921 quicklinks, 332 diaries, 1702 comments)
on Sunday, November 19, 2006 at 6:53:45 PM
I am troubled by the almost threatening tone of this poster in noting, however indirectly, that antisemitism in America is tied to support for Israel.
"I respect the fact that the community united afterward, worked very hard to organize, so today the Jewish community in America has the most access of any interest group on this land."
While I have only been a jew for 64 years I honestly am unaware of any organised community of jews here, perhaps it is this authors views that might be questioned here. Jews, tending towards being rather liberal in politics, are as disunited as any other liberal group in this nation and, as Rob notes, have rather disparate views on every issue. I myself, for example, deplore the actions of the State of Israel towards its neighbors, as do many of my fellow lantzmen....
By the by Rob, Orthodoxy is not the same as Zionism.....one being purely religious while the other is purely political. The term "Zionist" has been distorted beyond belief and stretched to encompass anything folks find unacceptable in politics as applied to jews.
All in all I find this post nothing more or less than a veiled threat. One that has very little substance.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 7:30:07 AM
The tone of the article if was threatening it is definitely not what I intended for it to be. I was thinking more along the lines of concerning.
My argument is simple. Backlashes are dangerous, because the angry crowd usually are not sophisticated enough to understand the differences within a community.
A good example would be the fact that Indians and Mexican were attacked after 9/11!
As I said in my article, powerful organizations such as AIPAC do not represent moderation or liberalism. As the average American grow tired of the mess in the Middle East, their anger might be divided equally between Arabs, Jews and the American government!
by
sameh abdelaziz (35 articles, 6 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 28 comments)
on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 12:56:33 PM
I believe that you underestimate the USA. You might note that the muslim community here is the most integrated of any such community around the world. While there are, in a community of almost 300 million, some few who express hatred and bigotry, generally Americans are a tolerant and gracious species and that which you fear will not happen here.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 7:09:00 PM
You say, "Wahabists, who teach hate to little children, in tens of thousands of Madrassas, and the dictatorships throughout the Arab world, where they find the Israeli Palestinian conflict a handy way to distract their people from the anti-democratic problems at home."
You are right the problem is multi faceted.
I happen to believe that the very dangerous extremism that exists within the Arab world will be defeated only from within.
This can happen when the moderate forces in the Middle East become strong enough to stand to all the ills you described.
I also know that over the last few years the moderate forces within the Arab world are losing support while the extremists are gaining momentum, rightly or not the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is used as a pretext for defeating moderation in that region by arguing that moderation did not solve the problem for the last 50 years.
The one last point I want to make, and the article attempted to cover is while your synagogue and the Jewish community in general are liberals, the People representing the Jewish community such as AIPAC are not.
The irony though during backlashes the herd mentality does not distinguish between people, it lumps them together.
by
sameh abdelaziz (35 articles, 6 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 28 comments)
on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 12:13:39 PM
Sameh, I agree with everything else you have written, but...
... you missed it here.
The mistake you made was addressing the American Jewish community as a monolithic one. Unfortunately, as soon as you say, All Jews... or All Muslims... or All Christians... or All White People... or All Black People... etc., anything that comes after that is wrong.
There are observant American Jews, non-observant American Jews, American Jews not in favor at all of having an Israel that was not established by the Messiah, American Jews who are pro-Israel in some circumstances, American Jews who are pro-Israel no matter what, American Jews who like Likud, American Jews who like Labor, American Jews who like neither main Israeli Party, American Jews who are Democrats, American Jews who are Republicans... etc.
There are so many disagreements among American Jews on so many topics that it is impossible to list them all. Suffice to say there are lots of Jews on virtually every side of every issue here in the US.
One of the things that always made me see red was that pro-Republican Jews and neocons somehow made the argument that the Iraq war and the proposed Iranian one was something to do to help Israel. From the very beginning I made the argument that either prospect would be a disaster to Israel and that the only thing that would help Israel in the long term would be a peaceful approach, demilitarization of the entire region and policies that provided for statehood and a voice and removal of humiliating policies and conditions for all. To me, as a Jew and son of a holocaust survivor, those sorts of things seem obvious. To neocons, some of whom are also Jews, they are completely wrong. Of course we are seeing who is right before our very eyes on the news everyday. This war is a disaster in progress for everyone but particularly Israel.
Anyway, keep writing. I like seeing your stuff.
Steve
by
Steven Leser (211 articles, 44 quicklinks, 33 diaries, 1388 comments)
on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 11:04:31 PM
First, thank you for your very kind words regarding my writing I really appreciate it.
Secondly, all the comments I got on this article are from people that I respect greatly and follow their writings consistently which lead me to my third point.
I would never generalize about a group of people and I totally despise such bigotry.
I think where my article fell short is on explaining that organizations such as AIPAC speaks in the name of the American Jewish community, I personally believe it does not represent the majority of this community.
While I disagree with my friend Sameh on that "Backlash" possibility, not because the americans are particularly a tolerant and gracious species, nor because the general population will "suddenly" feel so srong about Israel's actions (as helping the extremists' cause), that they will take to the streets to vent their anger. For me it is simple, ordinary Jack and ordinary Jill are far too busy with their daily chores to even give a hoot about the ME conflict or imagine the possible consequences of leaving it unsolved. And those who understand or care are too unorganized to make a difference.
I just want to address two points that came in the commentaries above:
1. Andree ...This ultra-sensitivity about Anti-semitisim is sometimes uncalled for and can easily qualifies for paranoia. If you find that term "Zionist" has been distorted beyond belief, let's not start with the term "Semitisim": Jews are not the only semite people, arabs are semites too.
2. Rob ... While the extremists in the ME teaches hate, let's take a look at what caused this to flourish in the first place. While jews generally enjoyed a good and peaceful life in moslem/arab nations (e.g. In Andalusia and then in Morroco, Egypt, Iraq and Iran) in the past, it is the "recent" events in Palestine that caused this "hate culture" to flourish. Again, -and to the astonishment of many politicians- it is the "Mysterious" and often "un-american" concept of "Let's fix the root cause first".
by
waelsm (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 at 6:23:58 PM
8 comments
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
