Dissent and the right of security
August 6th, 2009 | Tikkun Daily
This article is edited to delete the name of a correspondent named in the TD article. I could name her in Tikkun Daily because her comments, which were all superb, were publicly accessible.
We live, frankly, in frightening times.
I was somewhat criticised (correctly) by H. S., who emailed me directly (rather than posting a comment), wondering why I would answer so stridently with respect to who sits on the Jewish Court for Social Justice (and whose member’s names I refused to divulge).
The stridency was a mistake. I cut and paste from a previous reply to someone else, someone I don’t trust. But the stridency reflects a strong concern of mine –
Security.
I did ask my associates if they wished to be identified. I also advised them against it. They both agreed with me.
There are several frightening aspects to being Jewish today. The infiltration of Jewish communal organisations by political extremists from the right has caused an imbalance generally, and most certainly in the Jewish polity of Canada, which has never fostered the neoconservative culture that grew in the United States.
The neoconservatives have caused a severe complication in the Jewish polity wherever it occurs: the legitimisation of violence as a means to an end.
We see the violence in Yesha (Yehuda and Shomron, which some call the West Bank and others call the Occupied Territories) with respect to the illegal settlements.
We see the violence in Tel Aviv and the disgusting murder of two young men in a gay club.
We see the violence in Gaza.
Yes, we see the violence in Israel. But do we see the violence in Canada, in America, in the United Kingdom? Do we see the strangulation of dissent in Jewish communal organisations by hyper-Zionists?
No, not usually: the reasonable among us walk away. They marginalise the hyper-Zionists by marginalising themselves. The less reasonable form dissenting organisations such as J Street — but we need the reasonable Jews no less, and now they are out of reach.
The hyper-Zionists are truly very frightening. It’s comforting to think they are all necons — not so: the hyper-Zionists transcend the left-right divide. In a red and blue world, they are purple.
Bruises are also purple. And a fresh bruise forms on the Jewish body-politic every time a name is added to the Self-Hating/Israel Threatening list maintained by Masada2000.org. [The Masada2000 website is presently down.]
If the Masada2000 website is down permanently, do not cheer. It can only go underground, and that is not a good thing. I’d rather see who’s pummeling me, thank you.
