Disenfranchised Jewish Brits Play a Prank on Organized British Jewry

How sad is it that this has to be faked, but this doesn't?

 Um... you are aware that "disenfranchised" does not mean "bummed out because the hateful haters in the right-wing establishment refuse to admit the irresistibly compelling logic of your position"?

הגיון

Tell me, Mr. McGee: In light of the fact that you are not Jewish and have not lived or worked within the Jewish community for the duration of your lifetime, what, pray tell, qualifies you to speak with such authority on these matters?

You seem to predicate your analysis on second hand information from heavily biased sources, whereas I spend my days inside the halls and offices of the very institutions of which you feign intimacy.

For the record, "Disfranchisement (also called disenfranchisement) is the revocation of the right of suffrage (the right to vote) to a person or group of people, or rendering a person's vote less effective, or ineffective."

If you surmise that Jewish institutions operate either democratically or in such a way that they do not run roughshod over the sensitivities, needs and opinions of a sizeable portion of the Jewish population, you only evidence your lack of knowledge on the subject.

I wonder, as a gay man, do you feel disenfranchised or disempowered by the American political establishment?  Or do you simply feel that the gay community does not make a compelling enough case for equality?

If it's the former, perhaps then you can relate to those of us in the Jewish community who feel our voices go unheeded, despite our inalienable right to representation.  If it's the latter, I can only assume that your moral compass is broken.

Leave it to the intolerant left-wing to find new and exciting ways to silence people.

They cannot win on their arguments so they resort to dirty tricks to silence their betters.

Leave it to the far left-wing Jews to do for Hamas what it cannot do for themselves.

It is nonsense that this point of view is not represented or heard. There have been voices like this for YEARS - but not these days. Events in the real world have unified everybody, and this position simply has lost credibility. There are a lot of alternative news sources to the mainstream media now. Blogs. We all just can see for ourselves that after Israel withdrew completely from Gaza in 2005, the result was daily bombings on the parts of Isreal they could reach, from Gaza. Now, through the smuggling tunnels, they have obtained better bombs, so, they are reaching further into Israel. Israel is the size of New Jersey. It's put up or shut up.

There is remarkable unity now, across the right-left, religious-non-religious, divides. Nobody wants to lose the first sovereignty we have had in 2,000 years. There are plenty of Muslim countries already, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Their territory is vast.  They have enough land. It is NOT about land. That land is mostly sand anyway and you can't tell one part of it from another. Their population density is low, too.  It is about the Koran. The Koran says unequivocably that no Muslim can relax until the world is Muslim, and certainly not while there is a politically sovereign, armed  Jew alive. Because: the Jews preferred to remain Jews, and not accept their prophet. Sure, there are Muslims who find the whole thing tiresome and no fun, but they are outgunned and don't say anything.

There are about six million Palestinians in existence. If all the torrents, cataracts, heaps, piles and Niagras of money that have been thrown at and poured into their leadership had simply been given out to each Palestinian, personally, they would all be just fine, even rich. Richer than you. Yassir Arafat's widow, Suha, receives TWO MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR to live in Paris, quite nicely, and not write a book. She has one child. Arafat made lots of money selling the Israelis concrete to build their security wall. Which has saved many lives. Both kinds of lives.

This Jewdas must be a false-flag, disinformation thing. It may emanate from Soros. It may emanate from the Arab world. It has already been discredited. NOBODY could be stupid enough to rally around it as an alternative Jewish viewpoint.

Listen, Jewdas, if the Jews wanted to think like you, they could, any time. They just don't. Not now.

And, Israel keeps sending the other side tons of food and medicine! Tons! Long, long truck convoys! And their injured are treated for free in Israeli hospitals, courtesy of the Israeli tax payer! You didn't know that. You don't get the right newsletters.

My father didn't win WW II by sending the Germans food and medicine! No. He sent them metal in the form of projectiles. Unpleasantly. It had to be done. When people want you dead, they just do, and there's nothing to say. Die or fight.

Sure, it's a pity there are murderous, insane ideologies in the world. I don't want anybody to have a bad day. Do you think I care how other people live or pray? I'm the diversity expert. They're the cultural imperialists. But the Torah is eternal, and we have to stay us. Yeah, honey, it's another Holocaust. All my father's hard work has to be done over.

Can you imagine if some right-wing group decided to trick and confuse the protesters at the recent "Pro-Peace" rally in New York (considering "pro-peace" lefties are easy to trick and confuse)?

Would you be calling it an innocent prank or a despicable fascist attempt to disrupt freedom of speech?

Hear him. Hear that man. Yes. It IS a despicable fascist attempt to disrupt freedom of speech. Now why didn't I think of saying that? Way to go, Alcove-One.

This kind of psy-war is always part of war, and could not more clearly demonstrate that the opinion it offers is from an enemy, an enemy to YOU, the consumer of it.

Maybe this incident will cure some people of misplaced goodness. Goodness is fine, but not the misplaced kind. Indeed, misplaced goodness kills people, oddly enough.

Anonymous and Alcove-One, I would direct your attention to this statement, released by Jewdas today, reprinted here by indymedia.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/418471.html

It describes more fully their motivations: not to trick or confuse or even upset anyone but to provoke much needed debate and to burst the myth that, among the Jews, there is blanket unity on the war in Gaza.

Especially see the numerous emails at the bottom, thanking them for the email, because it spoke for them. Evidence that actually yes, there are Jews who think like that and they are grateful to finally see their voice acknowledged here. True, there are blogs but the mouthpieces of the Jewish mainstream purport to speak in our name and with one voice. Last week's Jewish Chronicle (the main Jewish paper in the UK) claimed "Anglo-Jewry has united in solidarity with Israel, organising five days of action designed to culminate on Sunday with rallies in Trafalgar Square in London and Albert Square in Manchester." That my friend is a whitewash.

Hey I have my issues  with the organized Jewish community as well. But these organizations are not democracies. They are not a government within a government meant to promote the interests of the Jewish body politic. There's already an entity in the UK that promotes the interests of Jewish citizens. It's called Parliament.

The organized Jewish community acts primarily as a collection of philanthropic organizations that raise funds and provide services primarily to members of the community at large. Their claims to being representative of the Jewish community are not founded on Democratic principles. They are founded on the notion that most Jews use the services and resources that they provide.

If one does not wish to be represented by the organized Jewish community, one need simply join any of the many Jewish organizations that function outside their sphere of influence. I can be critical of organizations like Jewdas but I'd never stop them from existing.The fact that they are not being inundated with membership requests by the large of mass of Jews is telling, but that's cool.

So go ahead Jewdas and J-Street and all the rest of you that are unhappy with the way things are. Create your organizations. Foster and develop your own community of pissed off, "disenfranchised" Jews. While you're at it, start raising funds to build your own alternative Jewish schools, Old Folks homes, Hospitals, soup kitchens, synagogues, burial societies, kashrut authorities, etc. Start raising funds so you can run alternative Birthright Israel programs, endow alternative Jewish studies departments in Universities etc. etc. And of course, do not ever, ever, ever use those resources bought and paid for by those craven, power hungry leaders of existing Jewish community organizations.

 Of course there are alternatives. You can get involved in the Jewish community. You can volunteer your time or even better raise funds for and donate your money! Then you'd have a voice from the inside that promotes your interests. But if your opinions and attitudes do not resonate within your targeted constituency, if only 40 people show up to your peace rally, if your members are interested in your Yom Kippur Rave party but not so interested in your advocacy work and your overall goals, have the friggin decency and integrity to at least acknowledge the fact that you represent an insignificant number of Jews. Stop bellyaching about "disenfranchisement" and stop purporting to be representative of anyone but your little gang.

---------------------------------

I blog at Jewlicious.com

Mobius asks me:

I wonder, as a gay man, do you feel disenfranchised or disempowered
by the American political establishment?  Or do you simply feel that
the gay community does not make a compelling enough case for equality?

There were all sorts of snotty rejoinders I was tempted to make in answer to mobius's post, but since these questions were seriously intended, I will give it a serious reply. Let me say first that I think that he's making a rather clumsy analogy with the first question, but in thinking about what was wrong with it, I came to sympathize with mobius's position a little bit more.

My answer to that first question is "No -- as a gay man, I don't feel disenfranchised by the American political establishment" -- since, of course, I'm free to vote for whomever I wish; and there are in fact politicians who will court the gay vote by supporting the various agendas that many gay people have; and moreover the national media culture not only gives gay issues extensive coverage, but overall tends to promote tolerance and acceptance of gays.

It's true that sometimes gays have faced minor political setbacks, but we have also made significant (and in most cases irreversible) gains. The political losses, such as the passage of Proposition 8 in California, do not "disenfranchise" or "disempower" gays, at least not any more so than Young Earth Creationists are "disenfranchised" when, as happens pretty routinely, they get their asses handed to them in court cases. Despite these losses, the YECers still manage to win school board elections from time to time, and likewise gays still manage to prevail in some of our efforts -- for instance, I expect that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will be done away with long before the marriage issue is settled at a national level.

Instead, mobius might've asked, after looking at my profile, "Back when you still identified as Catholic, did you feel disenfranchised, as a gay man, within the Catholic church?" (The answer, incidentally, is N/A, since there was never a phase in my life when I aspired to self-identify as "homosexual" and "Catholic" at the same time. However, if I were ever to return to Catholicism -- which would require an LSD-Norplant, or some other way to deliver hallucinogens continuously into my bloodstream -- I'm sure I would feel very disenfranchised within the Catholic community.)

Or -- without even needing to know my personal views on abortion -- he might've asked, "Wouldn't you agree that a pro-life lesbian is likely to feel disenfranchised within LGBT political circles?" (Here I would answer "Yes, definitely -- because, although there are pro-life gay groups, the biggest, most influential, and most nationally visible gay groups are all pro-choice.")

I think either of those examples might present a better parallelism with the situation of anti-Zionist British Jews within the larger BritJew community that is more or less pro-Zionist -- better parallelism in comparison to mobius's original formulation, I mean.

Oh, I almost forgot the second question: 

Do you simply feel that
the gay community does not make a compelling enough case for equality?

My answer to that is: Yeah, sometimes. For instance, returning to the matter of Proposition 8, I think that California gays utterly failed to demonstrate why the status quo of Domestic Partnership was such a dismal, inadequate kludge that the onliest remedy was for same-sex couples to sue! sue! sue! their way to Marriage™-with-a-capital-M, thereby doing a judicial end-run around the legislature.

הגיון

CK, you're mistaken.

You say "They are not a government within a government meant to promote the interests of the Jewish body politic" and Their claims to being representative of the Jewish community are not founded on Democratic principles"

The British Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council precisely do consider themselves the 'government' of Anglo Jewry. The Board claims democratic status because its members are elected by synagogues. This claim to democracy is unfounded because a) a large number of jews are not synagogue members and are therefore unrepresented b) shul agms, where the elections happen, are notoriously poorly attended and c) the posts are usually unopposed.

The rally was not called by one particular institution. If it had been, say, by the Zionist Federation, we would have had no problem with it. But the rally was called, in the name of British Jews in general, by organisations claiming to represent them. It is this that is unacceptable, when a very large number of British Jews disagreed with the sentiments of the rally. Faced with this situation, it is not sufficient to simply set up new institutions (and believe me we're doing that) we need to lose the communal framework that is illegitemately trying to speak for all of us.

To sum up-like CK we're not trying to stop Jewish institutions we disagree with from existing. We are however, trying to stop them claiming that the represent the entire Jewish community