VIDEO: Henry Herskovitz on Zionist Occupation of the peace movement \ Role of Jews in Movement \ My Life as a Holocaust Denier ~Paul Eisen

 

"It is a fact that the Jewish religion is above all Jewish nationalism ... One must be a Jew first and a human being second". ~Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem, as quoted in The Decadence of Judaism in Our Time by Moshe Menuhin. "Where is it possible to find a group of Jews who are committed to Israel, and whose children are likely to honor that commitment? The answer is, in a synagogue on the Sabbath." ~Elliott Abrams, "Can Jews Survive?"             "The Jewish community is a viable target for criticism, somehow that gets overlooked... somehow the Jewish community never gets held accountable" Zionists occupation of / power in the peace movement Video: Seattle 2011 - Henry Herskovitz of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends [JWPF] http://blip.tv/toddfboyle/henry-herskovitz-in-seattle-2011-5152037#disqus_thread excerpts: "the Jewish community in any city is very focused on promoting the state of Israel. I doubt that we can identify any other coherent grouping of people - coherent committee - that supports Israel more... 'this community is very focused ... it's very powerful... Henry quotes his friend Paul Eisen - board member, Deir Yassin Remembered: "The crime against the Palestinian people is being committed by a Jewish state with Jewish soldiers using weapons displaying Jewish religious symbols, and with the full support and complicity of the overwhelming mass of organized Jews worldwide. But to name Jews as responsible for this crime seems impossible to do." It seems obvious to me that IJAN and similar organizations exist, in no small part, to prevent the naming of Jews as responsible for the Jewish-led genocide against the Palestinian people." "[Beth Israel, Ann Arbor] synagogue supports Israel almost to the hilt no matter what crime they commit against Lebanon or people in Gaza "if somebody declared himself to be a peace activist - in general - i would have a bar of expectation ... if a person is Jewish and he is in the Palestine solidarity movement i think that ... he, she is poised most favorably to hold the Jewish community accountable... and so i scratch my head when i think that, hey, a) we're the only group that is doing this [JWPF] and b) our harshist critics are from Jews in the peace movement that won't hold their own community accountable [at about 20 minutes, 20 sec in] Left zionists worse than right-wing zionists [the sly, sneaky factor] "and i have a list of 34 Jews who have lied to get out of standing with us, who have been in the area giving talks, and when i call them ... and these are people that i think we all know...Dr Alice Rothchild ... Medea Benjamin [media hound ~pf] never returns my emails ... Anna Baltzer [of End the Occupation, [was told] if she stood with Henry she'd never get another speaking gig as long as she lived ... " [Later Henry talks about other left-zionist Jews that have gotten into leadership positions in the peace movement: Barbara Harvey, Jewish Voice for Peace - and lawyer advisor to BDS!!; Adam Shaprio [ISM]; [name-your-city]-Peaceworks. "We get it from both the right and left zionists ,,, "What is it that creates this difficulty ... when they [End the Occupation, etc] realize that their efforts are going to come to a precipice where they're going to finally realize and understand that Palestine is a zero-sum game .. and what i mean by that is the classical chess or checkers move when [the total of] all the pieces that you've lost plus all the pieces that i've gained equals zero. And so all the gains made by the zionists - they came and bought land, and as they came and destroyed villages, and took them, and took - you know property - and built things on .. that all came as a result of the losses of the Palestinian people. And and so justice means you gotta go the other way; you gotta start a process by which Jewish supremacism is challenged and reduced and - or eliminated - in the ME. So when Jewish activists come and see 'oh boy the more i push on this the more i'm gonna come to the conclusion that a Jewish state can't exist concurrently with peace, that i'm going to have to make a decision: do i want peace or do i want a Jewish state' and they can't come to that decision. And so what they do unfortunately is they become gate keepers." ( e.g., the case with the unitarians, UUJME ) He talks about one smoking gun that illustrates Jewish power: evidence that they pressured/threatened? Ann Arbor city council into prohibiting peace vigils [!!!] He recalls how Malcolm X handled whites: Malcolm told 'sincere' white activists, who he turned away from his movement: "your job, Mr White Activist is to go where the racism is in the country; the blacks aren't behaving in a racist, powerful manner, the whites are; so if you want to help us as a white person, you go to your own community and address white racists... We as blacks will continue to educate the black population as to what's going on, and the two movements will work together by working separately. " "...the job of Jews in the peace movement is to hold the Jewish community accountable" Re Henry: http://electronicintifada.net/content/michigans-vigilant-outcasts/7056 "Neither Henry’s family nor his synagogue had raised Israel’s sordid past with him. “That’s a personal drive for me. If you tell me ‘A’ and it turns out ‘B,’ I’m pretty mad. And if I find out later that you knew it was ‘B,’ now I’m in the opposite camp, and I’m really upset,” he says. [exactly how i feel about the US propaganda we're all fed from birth] The Role of Jews in the Palestinian Solidarity Movement http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/04/26/the-role-of-Jews-in-the-palestinian-solidarity-movement/ by HENRY HERSKOVITZ And MICHELLE J. KINNUCAN After Malcolm X returned from his epiphanic trip to Mecca, he was asked if White people could join his Organization of Afro-American Unity. He was very clear in his response: “They can’t join us. I have these very deep feelings that white people who want to join black organizations are really just taking the escapist way to salve their consciences. By visibly hovering near us, they are ‘proving’ that they are ‘with us’. But the hard truth is this isn’t helping to solve America’s racist problem. The Negroes aren’t the racists. Where the really sincere white people have got to do their ‘proving’ of themselves is not among the black victims, but out there on the battle lines of where America’s racism really is – and that’s in their own home communities.” The Autobiography of Malcolm X, pp 383-384, emphasis in original. He added that by working separately, Whites and Blacks would form a successful collective. "Working separately, the sincere white people and the sincere black people actually will be working together." The words of this fighter for justice are valid 46 years later in another context: Defining the role of Jews in the Palestine solidarity movement. The lesson is that sincere Jews should not play leading roles in the Palestinian solidarity movement, but should instead expose and challenge the racism that exists in their own Jewish communities. So what are Jewish-led and Jewish-identified groups and leaders doing? Certainly, they criticize atrocities committed by Israel in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, but are they clearly defining their positions? Do they oppose Jewish supremacism, as some opposed White supremacism in South Africa during the 1980s? Which of the higher profile Jewish-led and Jewish-identified groups are demanding an end to a Jewish state and full and immediate return for displaced Palestinians and their descendents? With the possible exception of the Neturei Karta rabbis, they don’t exist. Following Malcolm X, Jews have predictably ingratiated themselves into some Palestinian organizations, have created "dialogue" groups between Jews and Palestinians (where the elephant of who’s oppressing whom is conveniently ignored), have spoken clearly against Christian Zionism, but where are their voices challenging Judaic Zionism? After all, it’s "their own home community". Why is it that our group, Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, standing in front of an avowedly Zionist synagogue in Ann Arbor, Michigan for over seven years, remains the only Jewish-founded and Jewish-led group that openly and explicitly challenges Jewish power, here and in Palestine? Why is there a list of over forty Jewish peace activists who refuse to stand with us and against the racism so deeply rooted in their own community? What are they in the game for? Proportionately and in dollars spent, votes coerced, degree of dedication and organization, no other community supports Israel more strongly than the Jewish community. Perhaps a case might be made that Christian Zionists are more numerous, but they follow the lead of Jewish Zionists; strong Jewish-led anti-Zionist campaigns focused on the Jewish community would help empower more Christians to challenge Christian Zionism. Also, Christian Zionists are dwarfed by the political footprint of the Jewish organizations comprising the "Israel Lobby". In short, the Jewish community’s worthiness and appropriateness as a target for criticism and concerted anti-Zionist organizing is as clear as it is confounding that more Jews don’t take on this vital task. This writer joined the steering committee of a local peace group shortly after the attacks of 9/11 and was continuously frustrated that attempts to place Palestine on the table for discussion and action were swept off. This in spite of the fact that US support for Israel was one of three major reasons the attacks were purportedly launched. The Jewish leaders of this peace group could not countenance harsh criticisms of Israel, and when membership overwhelmingly (78 per cent in favor) supported a resolution calling for an end to military aid, the leadership eventually terminated the membership and reorganized Michigan Peaceworks as a Director-led 501(c)(3) organization. Personal experiences like the above suggest a pattern: Jews become peace activists, but when the realization strikes that they must choose between the mutually exclusive constructs of a Jewish state and a just peace, these activists move into gate-keeper mode. Like Monty Python’s Black Knight, they cry "None shall pass" to those of us who call for the peaceful dismantlement of the Jewish state. Our voices are marginalized, and by the very same folks who should be joining us. After all, who better than Jewish activists to challenge the Jewish community? Personal discussions with Christian activists indicate that all-too-many are terrified of being labeled an "anti-Semite". Terrified to the point of inaction, at best. They look to Charles Freeman, Arun Gandhi, Helen Thomas, and Will Smith as examples of what could happen to them should they speak truthfully. This sets the stage for true peace activism from Jews in the movement: The racist nature of the Jewish state is fostered in local, American Jewish communities. As an example, the rabbi at Beth Israel Congregation, where we protest every Saturday, confirmed in the local newspaper that his congregation is unabashedly Zionist: "there is one general statement which I can make on behalf of the congregation – Beth Israel Congregation affirms without any hesitation or equivocation the legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state". According to its website, Beth Israel proudly stood with Israel as it battered Lebanon in 2006. Children from Beth Israel are taken on trips to Israel where they are posed with armed IDF soldiers and in front of military vehicles. In short, Zionist indoctrination and support for Israel are staples in the religious life of that congregation. The unwillingness of many Jewish activists and organizations to confront the local roots of violent Jewish supremacism foisted upon the indigenous people of Palestine is shocking and inexcusable. It would be clear to Malcolm X, were he to return to us today. He would most likely have harsh words to Jewish peace activists who do not hold their own community accountable for the support they give the Jewish state, much like he had for Whites who refused to expose the racism in the White community. The solution to Jewish supremacism in Palestine is simple: End it. Demand of Jews in the peace movement that they stop yelling only about a 1967 "occupation", and start condemning the creation and maintenance of a Jewish supremacist state imposed by force upon an unwilling and incredibly resilient native population in 1948. This was the culmination of a Jewish movement started decades earlier. Taking the cause of justice and peace back to the Jewish community is the most valid path forward for Jews supporting an end to the racism both in Palestine and in their own community. Henry Herskovitz is a retired Mechanical Engineer, and became a peace activist after witnessing the effects of US-led sanctions against Iraq in 2000. He founded Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, a group in Ann Arbor that has held non-violent vigils at Beth Israel Congregation for over seven years. He’s worked with the International Solidarity Movement as well as the Michigan Peace Team in Palestine. Contact: http://www.facebook.com/people/Henry-Herskovitz/627467402 My Life as a Holocaust Denier By Paul Eisen http://www.righteousJews.org/article27a.html ... And as for my 'Holocaust denial', I wasn't at Auschwitz, so I don't know exactly what did or did not take place there. Nor am I any scholar, but I've had a fair look at the evidence and as far as I can see, the revisionists have got it pretty much right. But I'm not a hundred percent sure and I say so, so technically I suppose I'm not a denier.16 Whether I say this from conviction, cowardice or simply an inability to sever that final link to whatever, I can't say. But I have no doubt that Robert Faurisson, the greatest of all living revisionists, would rage at me for such equivocation.17 No, Holocaust revisionism or 'denial' if you like is confined to three main contentions in the typical Holocaust narrative, namely: That there ever was an official plan on the part of Hitler or the National Socialist regime to systematically and physically exterminate every Jew in Europe. That there existed homicidal gas-chambers. That the number of Jewish victims was around six million. Having examined all these contentions and found them questionable to say the least, it seems to me that a Holocaust revisionist (denier, if you like) is an entirely honorable thing to be. So why should I rush to deny that I am one? In his article David Aaronovitch quoted me as writing about the gas-chambers: "No one is able to show us, at Auschwitz or anywhere else even one of these chemical slaughterhouses. No one is capable of describing to us their exact appearance or workings. Neither a trace nor a hint of their existence is to be found ..." Aaronovitch got this wrong. I did not write those words. They were written by Robert Faurisson whom I was quoting. I was urged to protest this inaccuracy which I did successfully with the Press Complaints Commission.18 (It is the amended version that appears in the article accessed by the link above.) But now I'm not so sure about this. Professor Faurisson's words were honorable and courageous and probably accurate, so even though I didn't write those words, why should I now rush to disown them? The same is true with Ernst Zündel. Why should I not support Ernst Zündel? Ernst Zündel has never committed an act of violence, nor has he ever called on anyone else to commit an act of violence. Ernst Zündel has never discriminated against anyone, nor has he called on anyone else to discriminate against anyone. Ernst Zündel has never stifled anyone's freedom of expression, nor has he ever called on anyone else to stifle anyone's freedom of expression. So why should I not support Ernst Zündel's right to think, speak, and write as he pleases? And why do those who go on and on about these rights fall strangely silent when it comes to Ernst Zündel and the other revisionists? And why is it that so many of these folk, so busy, busy, busy defending free speech, at the same time work so hard to create a climate in which that freedom may be so easily denied? Joel Finkel believes in free speech and he calls Ernst and Ingrid 'scum'. But I also support Ernst Zündel and Holocaust revisionists because both Ernst and the revisionists are essentially truthful (though one doesn't have to agree with everything they say). It is true that the Holocaust narrative is gravely flawed and could stand some serious examination. It is true that Adolf Hitler and National Socialism were, respectively both human and the creation of humans and both may well not have been any worse than many other brutal regimes and their leaderships, notably Bolshevism.19 And regarding Ernst's alleged 'racism' it is also true that ethnicity, to my mind simply a mix of biology and culture, matters a lot to people and it may be that the human individual is moved as much by his or her ethnicity, roots and faith and, yes, genetic makeup, as by his or her class and aspirations. ... But above all I support Ernst Zündel and the revisionists because they, along with the Palestinian and other Arab peoples are the ultimate victims of, and resistors to, an abusive Jewish power. (Why else are they dealt with so harshly?). Also, they're the most feared. As Robert Faurisson said, above all, Zionists fear the weak—those with nothing left to lose. And they fear the weapons of the weak: The stones and martyrdom of the Palestinians and the words of the revisionists. They fear the Palestinian Intifada but they also fear that other Intifada—that of the revisionists. full piece > http://www.righteousJews.org/article27a.html

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