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Report on Beth Israel vigil 12-20-14

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Taking a Lesson from Chris Rock

Millions of viewers have seen Chris Rock’s “How to not get your ass kicked by the police” video. His intro is:

People in the Black community often worry that we might be a victim of police brutality. So as a public service the Chris Rock Show proudly presents this educational video.

Have you ever been face to face with a police officer and wondered “Is he about to kick my ass?” Well, wonder no more. If you follow these easy tips you’ll be fine.

We in the peace movement, having been deceived countless times by Jews posing as anti-Zionists, have likewise wondered “Is this person the real deal? Is he/she truly a fighter for equal rights for Palestinians? Really refusing to be enemies?”

Well, wonder no more. If you use these simple questions you’ll be able to separate the true peace and justice activist from the Zionist pretender immediately.

First, ask yourself: Has this person stated or written that he/she unequivocally supports the Right of Return for ALL Palestinians – including their descendents – to return to the villages and cities from which they were displaced? Score it: Never: 0 points, Always 10 points, Mumbles something about ROR such as “it’s complex” but remains vague: 1 point

Second, ask yourself: Does this person reject the legitimacy of a Jewish state imposed and maintained by force? Score: Never: 0 points, always: 10 points, Mumbles something about troubling historical decisions unfavorable to Israel: 1 point

Third, ask yourself: Does this person interject the “Holocaust” in his/her presentations, blogs and/or writings without admitting that no one can produce a single wartime photograph of a homicidal gas chamber? Score: Always: 0 points, Never: 10 points, sometimes, albeit with crocodile tears in eyes: 1 point

Fourth, ask yourself: Has this person signed onto the “Jews for Justice for Germans” Facebook page, which demands, among other claims “We call on all Jews to demand that the interactions between Germans and Jews 1933-1945 be open to discussion in the same way as any other events in history”? Score: Has signed: 10 points, refuses to sign: 0 points, May consider signing at a future date: 1 point.

Finally, fifth, ask yourself: Does this person speak openly and frankly about Jewish Power and how it is implicated in a whole host of worldly ills, including endless war in the Mideast, world-wide banking upheaval and a media designed to distort the news while promoting Jewish interests? Score: Yes: 10 points, No: 0 points, says “I’m never speaking to you again”: -5 points.

So there it is. Add up the points and trust the Jewish person who scores 49 or more points.

Vigiler Ed Pinkney Sentenced to 2.5 to 10 Years

Two members of JWPF attended the sentencing of our friend, civil rights activist and co-vigiler Ed Pinkney in St. Joseph, Michigan Monday, Dec. 15. The mood of Ed’s followers were hopeful, even prayerful, before Judge Sterling Shrock called the court to order at 8:30 AM. But prayers were not answered, as Schrock meted out a two-and-a-half-year to ten-year sentence commencing immediately. Below is a photo of this writer and Ed prior to his handcuffing by the court’s bailiff. The definitive article describe Ed’s ordeal at the hands of a “politically motivated” court system by Abayomi Azikiwe can be found here.

Ed at sentencing-sm
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Ed%20at%20sentencing.jpg

Comments?

Dec. 13 – seven vigilers
Dec. 20– six vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Expose Fifth Columnists in the Movement!


Report on Beth Israel vigil 12-27-14

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Israeli Citizens in OUR Congress?

L. Michael Hager poses an important question in his Counterpunch article “Dual Citizens in Congress? Why It’s Important for Us to Know”. He received an indignant response when he asked a staffer at Massachusetts Senator John “Ed” Markey’s office to ask for help in identifying Members of Congress who hold dual citizenship with other countries. Taking the lead from Mike, I called my own (Jewish) Senator Carl Levin’s office in Detroit, identified myself by full name, and asked the staffer named George if Carl was a citizen of the state of Israel.

George (very firmly): “Senator Levin is a citizen of the United States.”
Me: “Yes I assumed that. My question was whether he was also a citizen of the state of Israel”
George (much louder): “Senator Levin is a citizen of the United States!”
Me: “I’ve identified myself with my full name. What’s yours?
George: “I’m the only George in the office”
Me: “And Carl Levin is not a citizen of Israel?”
George (really loud): “Senator Levin is a citizen of the United States!!”
Me: “And he’s not a citizen of Israel?”
George (right up there in volume): “No. He’s not. Senator Levin is a citizen of the United States!!!”
Me: “OK, thanks. That’s what I wanted to know”

Anybody convinced? This writer surely isn’t, and plans to exchange views, information and strategies with Mr. Hager later this month. Oh, it also comes from a reputable source that the online publication truthout.org refused to run Mike’s piece although they have run other articles by him. Interesting …

Armed only with Mike’s article and a burning interest in the loyalties of government officials, Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends showcased our new sign this Saturday.

Israeli citizens in congress
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Israeli%20citizens%20in%20congress%20-%20lg.jpg

Belated Report on Alison Weir Talk in Toledo

Seven JWPF members and supporters traveled to Toledo, Ohio on December 9 to hear an informative presentation by Alison Weir, President of the Council for the National Interest and Executive Director of If Americans Knew.org. Identifying the crimes of Israel as “one of the major ethnic cleansings of modern times”, she recounted many chapters of her book, Against our Better Judgment; How the US was used to create Israel. Some topics were: (a) the Bergson Boys – a clandestine group fronting for Zionists post WWI, (b) the Parushim – a secret organization boasting members such as then-current Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, and (c) the destruction of reputation of renowned reporter Dorothy Thompson by frustrated Zionists. And Alison did not flinch from loaded questions (e.g. “you don’t have a degree in history, do you?”) put to her by a member of what she referred to as “the usual ethnicity”. A similar talk to her Toledo presentation, given in Seattle, can be viewed here. Good job (as usual), Alison!

Comments?

Four vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Eight Million Dollars a DAY!!??

Report on Beth Israel vigil 01-10-15

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Open Letter to Abe Foxman

Once again, Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends – despite our self-identification as “anti-Israel” – failed to make the Anti-Defamation League’s “Top Ten Anti-Israel Groups in the U.S.” list. So we sat down and penned the following letter to the ADL’s National Director Abe Foxman in hopes of correcting this egregious omission.

Abe Foxman,National Director
Anti-Defamation League
605 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10158

Dear Mr. Foxman,

As the founder of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, I would like to share with you the concern our group feels when we read the ADL’s 2013 “Top Ten Anti-Israel Groups in the U.S.” JWPF has identified as “anti-Israel” ever since Rabbi Rob Dobrusin of Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor, Michigan, labeled us as such in his op-ed letter to a local newspaper in 2007. Prior to that we identified only as “pro-Palestinian”. That was before we understood, as the Rabbi does, the zero-sum game at work, i.e. either Palestine lives or “Israel” does; there’s no sharing this trophy called Palestine.

Due to our small size, we’re not disappointed that we haven’t made the Top Ten list, but what rankles is that nine of the “top ten” groups you’ve listed are NOT anti-Israel. Only Neturei Karta rabbis, who pray for the peaceful dismantlement of the Jewish state, can be thus identified.

In fact four of the listed groups are Jewish-led (as you point out) and are PRO-Israel. They are

Act Now to Stop War and End Racism
CODEPINK: Women for Peace
Jewish Voice for Peace
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

None of the above groups identify as “anti-Israel” and all call for a “two-state solution”, which is about as Zionist a “solution” as one can imagine: Jews go HERE, non-Jews go THERE. Bingo! you have a Jewish state. To call these four groups “anti-Israel” can only mean someone at the ADL isn’t paying attention, and it’s your job – with our help – to set the record straight.

Additionally, one of these Top-Tenners – Friends of Sabeel-North America – regularly invite Zionist Jews to be keynote speakers at their gatherings. If that isn’t the fox guarding the hen house then we don’t know what is.

Back to describing our group a little for your consideration, seeing as how the 2014 “Top Ten” list has yet to be published and perhaps opening a slight chance for JWPF to be recognized: We have held peaceful vigils in front of a Zionist synagogue (is there any other kind?) for over eleven years. The local newspaper covered our group with a front-page story about a year and a half ago, including our picture above the fold:

JWPF Anti-Israel

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/JWPF%20Anti-Israel.jpg

You can read the story at the URL provided below if you need more verification of our bona fides. Or you can contact me at the email address supplied below. Please, Mr. Foxman, set the record straight and give our group the recognition it deserves.

Yours truly,
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Ann Arbor, Michigan
hersko@umich.edu

http://www.annarbor.com/news/beth-israel-congregants-reflect-on-10-years-of-protests-outside-synagogue-we-certainly-didnt-ask-for/

Comments?

January 3: Six vigilers
January 10: three vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Gas chambers? Tell us the truth!

Report on Beth Israel vigil 01-24-15

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Winning

It’s no doubt that Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends is a small group. Our last report detailed how we are left out of Abe Foxman’s “Top Ten Anti-Israel Groups in the U.S.” Size must matter. But as a peace-with-justice group we accomplish a goal that no other group seems to do. We don’t “demand” anything. We’re not scrambling to cry “end the siege” every time the Jewish state viciously acts out, or any other topic du jour. We merely stand with a message that the world should not and cannot tolerate the existence of a militarized Jewish state on other people’s land. Oh, sure, we would terminate or move the vigils were Beth Israel to endorse the goals in the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions, but week in and week out, we’re out there – with noticeable support from passersby – stating the obvious: that the US can no longer tolerate its supposed “only friend in the Middle East.”

We remind the general public how our country has been taken over by a Lobby that seems to know no limits on what it can demand of our leaders. We call out the Jewish community for its support of a fanatical and cruel Jewish state. We use their turf as our turf.

And they don’t like it. JWPF has inverted the power pyramid by just appearing at the steps of Beth Israel Congregation and – while demanding nothing – expose some of the skeletons in the Jewish community’s closet. And as we demand nothing, the Congregation demands we leave. THEY want US to leave, recognizing who’s in the driver’s seat. Professor Victor Lieberman whistles past the graveyard when he advises us to take our protests to a political venue, ignoring the well-known and time-honored tradition of the synagogue using its own pulpit for political speech. He should listen to a sermon or two from Rabbi Rob Dobrusin or from Elliott Abrams.

The truth is winning and so are we. Armed only with the Constitution’s First Amendment and behaving in a 100% legal manner (some say we’re too old to run from the cops), we have become the ones whom the Congregation, the City, the Clergy, the faux peace groups like the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, beseech. They want us to go away, much like Jewish Zionists would like Palestinians to go away.

We’re not going. We like winning, and only hope that other peace-with-justice groups find ways to follow our example. The concept of winning has been absent from the peace community in this writer’s eyes. Many liberals eschew sports but that’s one place where the competitive juices are found. Often, as inspiration I’m reminded of a close friend and former defensive lineman for Michigan whose surgically repaired knees remind him of the tackles he made in the 1960’s for the sake of the team. Would he do it again? You betcha.

Winning: it’s what’s lacking. Let’s bring it back.

Comments?

January 17: Four vigilers
January 24: Four vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Je suis Dieudonne

Report on Beth Israel vigil 02-21-15

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Are Jews Manipulating the BDS Movement?

Three members of JWPF attended a presentation by Barbara Harvey, a Jewish leader of Jewish Voice for Peace and ostensible supporter of the BDS movement, to students at Eastern Michigan University at the request of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Barbara is a good speaker and focused her talk on the “occupation” of Palestine and was specific that Palestine meant the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. She said that the goal of the BDS movement was to continue “until [Israel] ends the occupation”. It wasn’t until this writer reminded her that the real goal of the BDS movement is a three-pronged demand of which ending the military occupation is only one-third, did she confess yes, that the demands of the BDS movement included (a) equal rights for Palestinians living within the Green Line and (b) the implementation of the Right of Return for millions of Palestinians exiled by the Jewish state from their homeland.

Then she talked about a “negotiated” settlement to the refugee question, as if rights are negotiable, yet alone enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She noted – as did the whistling-past-the-graveyard Professor Cary Nelson – that Israel “isn’t going anywhere”, and we wonder again why the compulsion for Jewish leaders to remind their audience of this assumption. It is likely that “Israel” did not exist when Ms. Harvey was born, yet in 66 years of its existence she’s willing to speculate – using terms meant to convey fact – that this state, non-existent in 1947, will last forever. Can someone provide us the definition of “chutzpah?”

Since her presentation was informal, I brought up the statement made by Rebecca Wilkommerson (executive director of JVP) that “The occupation, with US military and financial support is the root cause” of the violence in Palestine. I tried to ask her if a better explanation wasn’t “The root cause of the conflict in Palestine-Israel is the creation and maintenance by force of a Jewish state in a territory with a non-Jewish majority?” She cut me off in mid-sentence, however, claiming she wanted to continue her report on the “successes” of the BDS movement.

One man asked whether the implementation of all three prongs of the BDS demands wouldn’t lead to the “unwinding” of the Jewish state, and her response was emotional: “The BDS goal is not to ‘destroy’ Israel”. I spoke up and reminded her that the questioner used the word “unwind” and not “destroy”, but it appears very telling that Jewish speakers hear “destruction” when it is not uttered. Perhaps Gilad Atzmon is right when he suggests that Jews experience a false PTSD (Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder: “the stress is the outcome of a phantasmic event, an imaginary episode set in the future; an event that has never taken place.”), yet remain leaders in the “liberation” movement they have renamed “solidarity”. Now what the heck does that mean?

Barbara listed some companies that have been financially affected by the BDS movement: Elbit, Caterpillar, Veolia and Motorola. She focused on Soda Stream and reported its imminent closing of its West Bank facility and relocation within Green Line Israel. I asked if the BDS movement would continue to boycott Soda Stream and she answered that some groups would continue and others would not. Now, wait a minute! That doesn’t sound like the original BDS call to us. Let’s quote the source, www.bdsmovement.net

In 2005, Palestinian civil society issued a call for a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights.

According to Ms. Harvey, this suggests that companies that crawl back into their hole of the Jewish state within the Green Line deserve an unrecognized sanctuary from the BDS movement that she is falsely representing. The question is open for activists: Do we tolerate this re-write of the movement’s goals or call out Jewish leaders for what appears to be the hidden agenda of protecting Jews and the Jewish state?

Does Barbara support Israel’s claimed right to exist as a Jewish state? Two of us stayed after to ask this question and to her credit she replied in the negative. But who, outside of readers of this report, knows this? We asked if this was the position of JVP, and she responded that she didn’t think so. Sounds confusing, yes? Maybe it’s supposed to be. Diligent readers of these reports can remember Anna Baltzer, National Organizer with the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, admitting to a small audience in the basement of a local church that she, too didn’t support this claim. But try to find Anna’s or Barbara’s public refutation of Israel’s “right” to exist as a Jewish state.

There are serious problems with a movement to liberate a country led by members of the same ethnic/religious group that is ethnically cleansing that country. We are reminded that Malcolm X refused to allow sympathetic white voices to lead the movement for black liberation in the US. Why do complacent non-Jews extol and honor the Jewish voice when it appears pregnant with hidden agendas?

Comments?

Feb 7: Four vigilers
Feb 14: Four vigilers
Feb 21: Five vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
“It’s the Jews, Stupid!”

Report on Beth Israel vigil 08-22-15

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A Day in the Life (I)

A female bicyclist cruises by our vigils, checks out our signs, and moves on, only to return a few minutes later. From my distant vantage point, I sense a slight commotion, and saunter over. The woman has turned our sign, “Israel: No Right to Exist” around and is attempting to defend her attempt at censorship. She is told “It’s free speech” by Vigiler G, and the biker retorts “This [sign] is beyond free speech.” Nice to know the boundaries…

A Day in the Life (II)

Same day, towards evening: My mate accepts an invitation to an outdoor party and I tag along. Now, I’ve been booted out of a number of bars in my day, but this evening marks the first time I was booted from a private party. The host – a hippie kinda guy I’ve seen on the dance floor of the local bar (where I wear my colors) many times – was told by some Jews at the party that they were offended by my car. Initially, he said my mate and I could stay, but the front license plate

License Plate 1-sm
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/License%20Plate%201.jpg

had to be removed, claiming it said “eliminate the Jews”. Mate tried to explain things to host (he’s primarily her friend) but he wasn’t listening, and claimed the plate was like waving a Confederate flag in front of blacks.

I was so shocked at his increasing upset and anger that I didn’t think to point out to him that the racism some see in the Confederate flag bears a great similarity to the overt racism in the Israeli flag, and is why the license plate negates it. Oh, well, hindsight’s 20-20.

Your Opinion Matters

Perhaps reacting emotionally to the above examples of Tribal-influenced silencing, I had a cartoon found on the internet printed on a sign. The cartoon is intended to convey the message of Jewish Power’s influence on US foreign policy. Internal discussions in JWPF have so far prevented its appearance at the vigil, two in favor, three against. We await your input; does the following enhance our attempt to address the general public or does it detract?

us fight for israel-sm
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/us%20fight%20for%20israel.jpg

Comments?

Aug 8: 7 vigilers
Aug 15: 7 vigilers
Aug. 22: 7 vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
How many Jews does it take to screw up a peace movement?
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Report on Beth Israel vigil 08-29-15

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Quality, Not Quantity

Sometimes it takes a d’oh! moment to hear the voice of reason. Last week’s report, you may remember, called for readers to express their opinion whether a certain cartoon sign should be posted at the vigils. The vote was 11-8 FOR displaying the cartoon.

But Vigil Supporter J posited a game-changer. He wrote: “Henry, I think that drawing will discredit your group. Use the copy…change the drawing.”

Here was an extremely positive compliment to Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, wrapped in an innocent piece of free advice. J, like those of us who stand vigil week after week, recognizes that we are a pretty proud group. Some dress in our Sunday (or Saturday) best, not out of respect for the Jewish supremacist congregants of Beth Israel (although initially we did), but out of self-respect. Was hoisting the cartoon somehow diminishing our messages and self-esteem?

Vigil Supporter M also raised awareness: When shown the shoddy treatment of JWPF afforded by Ann Arbor’s Jewish newspaper, M reacted by saying both sides are just slinging mud. “They are, but we’re not” I attempted a correction. “You will be, if you hold that cartoon” was the succinct response.

So here’s what the sign/cartoon looked like this Saturday. Who says we’re not a reasonable bunch?

Vigil Sign Aug 2015-sm
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Vigil%20Sign%20Aug%202015.jpg.jpg

Rally for Ed Pinkney

Three members of JWPF traveled to the Michigan State Office Building in Grand Rapids to join supporters in a two-hour protest to request that the three judges reconsider a bond request that would release Reverend Pinkney, currently held in the Lakeland Prison in Coldwater, Michigan. The rally drew about twenty supporters from Detroit, Ann Arbor and Lansing. This writer hopes to visit Ed some time soon after Labor Day.

Guest Celebrity Vigiler

Aimee Smith, now hailing from California, rejoined her friends and associates at our vigil, boosting attendance to eleven. Aimee was the Voice of the Vigils while she lived in Ann Arbor, always willing to verbally go toe-to-toe with the most virulent Zionist, and this week was able to engage and totally embarrass Professor Victor Lieberman. When the good professor realized he’d met his match, he quickly resorted to the Zionist’s weapon of choice: name calling. JWPF’s film editing department is currently producing a viewable video from the original provided by this writer. Stay tuned …

Comments?

Eleven vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Zionists Out of the Peace Movement
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Report on Beth Israel vigil 09-12-15

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JWPF Completes Twelve Years Holding Jewish Community Accountable

Guest vigiler Michael Rabb joined our ranks this Saturday as seven activists continued the “only game in town” – holding congregants of Beth Israel Congregation accountable for their political, spiritual, and (especially) financial support for the Jewish state, which continues its genocidal program of cleansing Palestine of non-Jews. A football Saturday in Ann Arbor provided an increase in cars passing by and the number of occupants in those vehicles. So, well over 1,200 observers were exposed to political messages they will not receive through the mainstream media.

Sixth Annual Eat-a-Cheeseburger Day Approaches

Peacemonger reminds us that Wednesday, September 23rd will be the Sixth Annual Bill Henry International Eat-a-Cheeseburger Day. Members of JWPF invite you to attend a burger burn at this writer’s home, 4:00 pm, to celebrate the man who, through his memorable action 61 years ago, indirectly brought us the longest running Palestine liberation action Ann Arbor has ever seen.

ICPJ Hosts “Insipid” Rally for Iran

Four members of JWPF accepted an invitation from the deceptively named Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice’s “Vigil for Peace and Diplomacy with Iran” at Ann Arbor’s Federal Building on September 10. About 75 people showed up and listened to Chuck Warpehoski and Joe Summers and Alan Haber. Report readers will remember these guys as the architects of the purge of the Middle East Task Force, then the largest task force of ICPJ, for having the temerity to unanimously support BDS back in 2006.

The Michigan Daily article covering this event including a photo cleansed of our presence but author Allana Akhtar did give us a nod, “Attendees also included four noticeably anti-Israel activists, holding signs that read ‘boycott Israel’ and ‘defeat Israel.’ It also quotes Warpehoski saying the Iran nuclear deal “will help make the world safer for nuclear weapons”. As Peacemonger points out: “Chuck has that right, Israeli and American nuclear weapons are indeed ‘safer’ as they are unacknowledged and untouched by the deal. Iran’s repeated calls for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East go unheeded, virtually unheard, and certainly un-echoed by faux peace activists such as Warpehoski and Summers. Some diplomacy.”

For the vigil from our perspective, Vigiler C reports:

Last night was surreal. It was a protest without a protest. The biggest protest was when this guy came looking at Henry and R’s signs and then decided to stand in front of R’s.

… I couldn’t stand what the [guy] was doing, so I asked R to move around me. Baffled, he did and immediately the [guy] moved again making his place right in front of R. R saw now and said, “Oh, is this why I am moving?” And I said, “Yeah. He’s trying to cover up your sign.”

I told R to hold his sign up, but he didn’t understand [author’s note: R is extremely hard of hearing] and it seemed the [guy] was reaching to take it, so I grabbed it, held it high and said, “Ever heard of free speech?” He said, “What group are you here with? I’m with the Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice. Our message is one of peace. This is not our message.”

I told him, “See that sign?” and pointed to M’s – “That’s why we’re here and that’s why you should be here.” The [guy] said, “I’m here for peace and you don’t tell me why I should be here.”

August 31_Face of occupation-sm
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/August%2031_Face%20of%20occupation.jpg

Five minutes after that, they stopped their ‘protest’, crowded into a small circle of about seventy and had different speakers preaching to the choir. The four of us stayed at the corner engaging positive and negative interactions with drivers and passers-by. As the first speaker started, M yelled, “The reason to protest is to end the occupation – end apartheid. What you are doing is not a protest. It’s a joke.”

She was right. That was a controlled protest to give an appearance which lacked substance. As she said, “They are so lame.” Beyond the insipid was trying to stifle our voice as if they owned the corner and the rights of free speech. I am so sick of the sham of their facade and the depth of the infiltration into our mindset, culture and institutions.

Comments?

Seven vigilers
Henry Herskovitz [with additions from PeaceMonger]
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
“You’re either a Zionist or an anti-Semite” – vigil supporter M
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Report on Beth Israel vigil 09-19-15

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Ann Arbor Quakers Put it to Josh Ruebner

Floating across our desk this week appears a letter to several top dogs in the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and Jewish Voice for Peace from the local Quaker peace group, Palestine Israel Action Group (PIAG). Obviously concerned about USCEIO and JVP’s recent ouster of Alison Weir, this letter asks for assurance that “USC and JVP’s investigations of coalition members will end.”

PIAG reports to their constituents: “PIAG is sad to report that US Campaign is unable to give the assurance they requested in the final line above. Policy Director Josh Ruebner stated in a conference call with PIAG that if any further group were to request the ousting of another member, US Campaign’s standard procedures would mandate that such a request be duly considered.”

Perhaps PIAG members in attendance last April when Josh spoke at the Quaker’s Meeting observed his dodge of a vital question from the audience: Does Israel have a “right” to exist as a Jewish state, and if so, on what grounds? Then PIAG members witnessed the removal of If Americans Knew from the coalition which makes up Josh’s group and are now, hopefully, catching on to the nature of Jewish Power within the Palestine solidarity movement.

Go PIAG!

Questioning the US Campaign

The letter from PIAG highlights US Campaign’s Common Principles, which stand “opposed to Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, all forms of racism…” yet the authors fail to ask an obvious question: Why, if the USC stands against all forms of racism, don’t they stand firmly against Zionism and demand the peaceful dismantlement of the Jewish-privileged state? After all, even the United Nations “Determine[d] that zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination” in 1975, and, in spite of being strong-armed by Jewish Power to revoke the resolution in 1991, the UN never “determined” that Zionism was not a form of racism. A slight, but salient detail we think…

Last Reminder: Eat-a-Cheeseburger Day Wednesday

Readers are reminded that this writer will host a gathering Wednesday September 23 at 4:00pm for a celebration of the 6th Annual Bill Henry International Eat-a-Cheeseburger Day. Please call ahead or email your plans to attend so the correct amount of cheeseburgers may be grilled. And wherever Wednesday finds you, hoist a burger for Bill.

Correction

In last week’s report we mistakenly identified Alan Haber as one of the architects of the purge of the Middle East Task Force. He was not. We apologize for this error and hope that our rash conclusion did not do any harm.

Comments?

Seven vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Challenging Jewish Power since 2003
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Report on Beth Israel vigil 10-03-15

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Mondoweiss Strikes Out

For the third time in about six years we once again reached out for on-line news coverage by Phil Weiss’ Mondoweiss. This time, our friend Dan McGowan, Executive Director of Deir Yassin Remembered, asked Phil to report on our 12 years holding the Ann Arbor Jewish community accountable for their support of Israel as a Jewish state. Dan wrote to Phil:

Would you be willing to run a piece on Warren Routledge’s excellent new book, Holocaust High Priest?

Would you be willing to run a piece on our board member, Henry Herskovitz, who still leads the longest running vigil every week in Ann Arbor?
http://a2vigil.org/sacredground.htm

Phil Weiss replied:

sorry Daniel, can’t touch it w a ten-foot pole

We note that Phil could have differentiated between Dan’s two requests and used his unwillingness to question the holocaust, to accept the task of reviewing our vigils, yet he chose – once again – not to accept that challenge. Perhaps Gilad Atzmon is right when he quotes Phil as being more concerned with “Jewish self-interest” than “a theory of political life based on altruism or concern for victims.” As Gilad writes in “Jews & Their Self Interest – An Interview with Philip Weiss“:

It seems to me that once again, I have failed to converse with a ‘progressive Jew.’ I guess that in spite of the openness Weiss showed initially, he, like many others, cannot resolve the tension beyond the universal and the tribal.

And by now, I am increasingly certain that this gap cannot be bridged easily, if at all, for the tribal and universal are like water and oil.

I guess that the difficulties involved in resolving the tension between the universal and the tribal explains why so many progressive Jews prefer to operate in intellectual, ideological and political exclusive ‘Jews only’ cells where these questions are never raised, never asked, and never answered.

In any case, we won’t bother Phil with any more requests. After all, outside of our initial requests to present our witness of Palestine to three area synagogues in 2003, JWPF is not in the business of asking for favors from others. We act, and others react.

How did you celebrate Eat-a-Cheeseburger Day?

Hats off to our friend and supporter Michael Rabb, who celebrated this annual event with a protest at TWO synagogues in Boulder, Colorado (Bonai Shalom and Har Hashem) PLUS downing a cheeseburger and a beverage at a local brew pub. He reports:

Hey !

we did it again !

My friend Jim and I stood in front of Congregation Bonai Shalom on Yom Kippur and asked Jews to confess and atone for the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Not much was happening at Bonai Shalom (we were out numbered by the police!) so we moved on to the next synagogue, Congregation Har Hashem on Baseline Rd in Boulder. Congregants at Har Hashem seemed puzzled : what does Palestine have to do with Jews?

MR at protest 2015-09-23-sm
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/MR%20at%20protest%202015-09-23.jpg

Considering Congregation Har HaShem’s open commitment to Zionism the reported puzzlement is curious, to say the least.

Local Report: Eat-a-Cheeseburger Day

Falling well short of our Colorado friends in the protest business, 16 JWPF members and supporters celebrated this holiday only with a cheeseburger cookout including lively discussion and poetry reading.

EACD 2015-09-23-sm
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/EACD%202015-09-23.jpg.jpg

Comments?

Seven vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Bernie is a Jewish Zionist
Zionism is Racism
What does that make Bernie?
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Report on Beth Israel vigil 10-17-15

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Detroit Billboard by Deir Yassin Remembered

We are happy to announce a new billboard in Detroit sponsored by our friends at Deir Yassin Remembered to remind American motorists that our legislative leaders need to put American interests ahead of the interests of the Jewish Lobby in determining U.S. foreign policy. The strategy behind this billboard’s statement, “America First, Not Israel”, is to drive a wedge between those who feel American interests are not served by fighting wars for Israel, and the Israel-firsters in this country who manipulate our leaders into the false premise that Israel is the ally of the United States. As Alison Weir documents in her book, Against Our Better Judgment, nothing could be further from the truth.

This billboard is located on Eight Mile Road, just a half mile west of the Southfield Expressway. It is visible to the four lanes of traffic flowing east on the south side of the road.

Billboard Oct 2015 1 of 2-sm
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Billboard%20October%202015/Billboard%20Oct%202015%201%20of%202.jpg.jpg

higher res photo here

Pro-Palestine Protest in Dearborn

Five members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends attended a rally for Palestine on Sunday, October 18 in front of the Henry Ford Library in Dearborn, Michigan. This was part of a series of rallies held throughout the United States and Europe, designed to support Palestine in its Third Intifada. The Dearborn rally, about 125 people by our read, was covered by an article in the Arab American News, which can be read here.

Merriam Webster: No “Holocaust” for 36 years after WWII

When did the term “Holocaust” become defined as a reference to the egregious treatment of Jews at the hands of the Nazi government of Germany? Not until 1983, according to JWPF’s research department, which paid a visit to the Reference Room at the University of Michigan Graduate Library. Check it out:

In the 1981 Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, the word “holocaust” is defined as:

1.  a sacrifice consumed by fire
2.  a thorough destruction, esp. by fire

Two years later, in the 1983 Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, we find the definition of “holocaust” as:

1.  a sacrifice consumed by fire
2.  a thorough destruction, esp. by fire
3.  often cap : the genocidal slaughter of European Jews by the Nazis during World War II – usu. used with the

Comments?

Oct. 10 Seven vigilers
Oct. 17 Nine vigilers
Alison Weir returning to SE Michigan; stay tuned!
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Report on Beth Israel vigil 11-07-15

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Local TV station initiates coverage of DYR billboard, then clams up

Billboard Oct 2015 1 of 2-sm

A story within a story … reporter Camille Amiri of local television station WXYZ-TV “breaks” the news of our billboard in the Detroit area and interviews only ADL (Anti-Defamation League) Detroit Regional Director Heidi Budaj, and claims that she tried to “reach out to the organization who had this billboard put up”. Neither this writer, nor Dan McGowan, Executive Director of Deir Yassin Remembered, was ever personally contacted, nor contact made via the DYR website. Amiri also assures her readers “Of course we will let you know when and if they (DYR) do call me back and get a more definitive answer on what exactly this billboard means.”

This writer phoned the TV station within one hour of Amiri’s broadcast on Thursday, October 22, and repeatedly tried via email to contact her over the next few days to provide the answers to her question, but to no avail. She responded only once and that was to say she had forwarded my contact information to the news room.

Why the Wieselian silence? Why the false statements? And why the immediate dropping of the story? For help on this let’s allow the Detroit Jewish News and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to provide insight. The female reporter from the DJN called this writer but was apparently shocked into printable silence by my claim that America and Israel were ideologically opposites: (1) America represents separation of state and religion, whereas Israel is wedded to the Jewish faith; (2) America does not discriminate based on ethnic origin or religious affiliation in granting the right to vote, while Israel denies millions of Palestinians that same right; and (3) Americans enjoy freedom of political expression, where Israel does not.

She questioned the third claim, but again had no response to the fact that it is illegal in Israel to question the standard narrative of the “Holocaust”.

Julie Weiner of the JTA did not even bother going through any potentially damaging phone call interviews, and merely ascertained from Mr. McGowan that more billboards are planned, pending funding. In spite of receiving my contact information, Weiner elected not to proceed.

We are left to speculate re: the silence from the Jewish community on this topic. We feel it’s clear that they would like this embarrassing billboard removed from the sight of the viewing public, and possibly informed WXYZ to drop it. Perhaps Tony Soprano carried the message personally to Camille Amiri. We really just don’t know.

Billboard story gets play internationally

Flip to the good side: many news organizations picked up on our billboard, including the American Free Press, the Arab American News, the Jerusalem Post and Russia Today. Dave Gahary of the AFP spent over an hour on the phone with this writer, and we anticipate a story coming out soon.

The billboard strikes a nerve – just as our weekly vigils do – in the heart of the Jewish community. They know that the claim of dual loyalty is a valid one, despite the kneejerk reaction from Heidi Budaj. Michael Hager wants to know the number of congressmen and senators currently holding dual citizenship with Israel, and so do we. To which country are these political leaders pledging allegiance? Why is it that Benjamin Netanyahu receives more standing ovations addressing OUR congress than any US president in recent memory? Why does Barack Obama say there is “no daylight” between the U.S. and Israel despite the three major differences listed above?

Isn’t it clear that our leaders in Congress and the White House are hand-picked or coerced to pay homage to the “special relationship” by the enormous financial and political pressure exerted by the Jewish Lobby? Deir Yassin Remembered and Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends see the daylight, and we’re not the only ones. That’s why the billboard has enjoyed so much success. The next one is coming. Stay tuned.

Comments?

Oct. 24 Nine vigilers
Oct. 31 Seven vigilers
Nov. 7 Four vigilers
Israeli Citizens in OUR Congress?
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Report on Beth Israel vigil 11-21-15

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Whither Academia?

Four members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends attended an academic discussion of “The Israeli Palestinian Conflict” at the Ford School for Public Policy on the University of Michigan campus. For ninety minutes Professors Shai Feldman and Khalil Shakaki lectured an audience of 50 people and answered note-card-filtered questions without once mentioning the J-word, as if Israel was not a Jewish state committing crimes against the Palestinian people with Jewish soldiers using weapons adorned with Jewish religious symbols and with worldwide support of the Jewish community.

These two professors, both affiliated with Brandeis University, create the illusion of discussion as they talked past the 800-pound gorilla sitting right in the middle of the plush Annenberg Auditorium. Listen to Shai Feldman, who claims to be a “fifth generation Israeli”, talk about the “Golden age” of Israeli-Palestinian history which ended upon the assassination of PM Rabin. Hear him talk about his claim that there is “no architect” with which to continue the “peace process”, and remember the claims fifteen years ago that Yasser Arafat provided “no partner” for peace negotiations. The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

Also pay attention the quisling role played by Dr. Shakaki, whose presence gives a false credence to this dialogue. Both professors “team teach” the “conflict”, and neither call the issue by its right name: the Jewish ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Thank you, Dr. Shakaki, for playing your role to perfection, for bringing up non-issues like the “mind-set” of Mahmoud Abbas, and the “status quo” being shaken by the current stabbings in Palestine.

Feldman claimed that since Jerusalem was “a Jewish city”, only the local Jewish police – and not IDF troops – patrolled the town. Shakaki remained silent, while the four JWPF members cast quizzical gazes at each other. Had we missed the UN memo declaring Jerusalem all-Jewish? Both professors patted themselves on the back when Feldman claimed the two were “entrepreneurs for peace”. Really.

How far has academia fallen? Have suits and neckties substituted for critical analysis? Are students to be led by the Snake and the Sycophant, aka Feldman and Shakaki, away from understanding a simple situation and toward a false construct? JWPF members expect better from our intellectuals. So should you.

America First? Not in New Jersey!

Deir Yassin Remembered is an organization with a board of advisors comprising seventeen individuals from Ramallah to Melbourne. Our New Jersey rep contacted the local Lamar Advertising Company and requested the billboard used in Detroit be installed on a billboard near his hometown of Teaneck. DYR Executive Director Dan McGowan summarizes the result of this attempt in an article published on =Dissident Voice=.

Deir Yassin Remembered, a not-for-profit organization of Jews and non-Jews working for the human rights of Palestinians, rented a billboard in Detroit. The message was simple: “America first, not Israel.”

DYR's new billboard in metro Detroit.

DYR’s new billboard in metro Detroit.

The mega billboard company, Lamar, designed the message and produced the 14’ x 48’ vinyl for $700. It charged an additional $3,000 to display it for four weeks and agreed to ship the vinyl to the next location at the end of the rental period.

But when Deir Yassin Remembered tried to rent a billboard in Bergen County (NJ), Lamar refused saying “due to its sensitive nature, we do not want to post in here in New York or New Jersey.”

In a country whose Congress gives 28 standing ovations to the Prime Minister of Israel, an apartheid state to whom we give the lion’s share of our foreign aid, free speech is often not allowed, even when you are willing to pay for it.

Comments?

Nov. 14: Seven vigilers
Nov. 21: Five vigilers
America First, NOT Israel
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Report on Beth Israel vigil 12-12-15

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In the face of Jewish Power, Lamar caves

Last month we reported on the one-sided news coverage provided by television station WXYZ about the billboard, “America First, NOT Israel” erected by Lamar Advertising Company and paid for by Deir Yassin Remembered. Readers will remember that Heidi Budaj of the Anti-Defamation League was allowed to make bogus charges of anti-semitism without fear of televised rebuttal.

Then, in our report of November 21 we saw some telltale signs of the effects of Jewish Power when Lamar nixed the idea of running the same billboard in New Jersey. Did Lamar receive “The memo”? One way to tell was to attempt a second run – another four-week rental – of the billboard back in Detroit. Here’s the response from the honchos at Lamar:

This is in response to your request to run the “America First, Not Israel” message in our Detroit office that was paid for by Dier [sic] Yassin Remembered. We are rejecting both the message and the group sponsoring the message as the copy and the sponsor do not fall within our copy acceptance policy. The copy, “America First, Not Israel” is factually inaccurate and misleading. While it is within our policy that Lamar Advertising will not accept or reject advertising copy based upon agreement or disagreement with the views presented, it was easy to conclude that after closer examination of Dier Yassin Remembered, it is a deeply Anti-Semitic group that even questions the very existence of the Jewish Holocaust during World War 2. In addition to being Anti Semitic, we believe that it is factually inaccurate and not within reasonable standards of fairness and decency to accept this message from this group or any similar group whose directors or members share this view. Lamar will reject this message and group in other Lamar offices, not just Detroit. It is always Lamar’s desire to work with all advertisers to develop acceptable or even alternative messages that represents legitimate political discourse, provided that the message and group paying for the space fall within our copy acceptance policy once it is submitted for approval. This decision involved the local General Manager, the Regional Manager and the Vice President of Governmental Relations in our corporate office and this rendered decision is final.

Who calls the shots on advertising about the Jewish state at Lamar? “We do” yells the Jewish establishment. “And don’t you forget it.”

In the face of Jewish Power, JWPF remains resolute

Compare Lamar’s capitulation to that of our group, Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends last week. Professor Victor Lieberman of the University of Michigan and Beth Israel congregant, makes a habit of verbally assaulting members of our peaceful protest and this writer attempts to video Victor’s sidewalk lectures in order to record any misdeeds he may try. As he approached our group, I walked across the street to get a little closer, camera running.

Victor threatens to call the cops, claiming I was “stalking” him, and in fact does so. The response to an upset Jew calling the AAPD was typical: send out THREE patrol cars to investigate the matter. When Officer Rebecca Singer asks what’s happening here, I play back the tape for her. She asks for a copy of the tape for her records and I provide her with a cd of it the next day. No arrests or even admonitions towards JWPF were even considered by Officer Singer. Lieberman walks to Beth Israel, and we are left to finish our protest as usual. We think the AAPD might be getting a little tired of Beth Israel congregants crying wolf as they have over the years and look forward to sharing Singer’s report with our followers. It’s also worth remembering that only Beth Israel attendees have ever actually been engaged in criminal behavior. View Lieberman video here.

Good Quote

Vigiler C gets turned down from a comment he tried to make to some on-line publication. Vigiler R responds sympathetically:

Given the relentless, long term, and highly successful propaganda mantle that shrouds reality, while introducing exclusionary self-serving semantic content to linguistic hooks such as hate-speech and anti-Semite as it unfolds, I am not surprised that you got censored.

Comments?

Dec. 5: Five vigilers
Dec. 12: Nine vigilers
America First, NOT Israel
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Report on Beth Israel vigil 12-19-15

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Is Jewish leadership getting nervous? It should be.

This writer attended a press conference this week at a Dearborn Heights (Michigan) mosque, which was to show solidarity with the Muslim community against Islamophobia in the face of alleged racist comments by presidential candidates, notably Donald Trump’s.

Islamic Press Conference

Had the religious leaders in attendance listened to what their colleagues were actually saying, they might have realized that the racism they were proudly denouncing was exactly the same racism exhibited by the Jewish state’s treatment of Palestinians. Of all the racisms denounced – and there was JWPF’s open critic Dawud Walid (Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations) dredging up “anti-semitism” for his handlers to witness – Zionism didn’t get mentioned.

Hello, Muslim and Christian friends: Zionism is a form of racism that has led to decades of suffering and righteous resentment among Muslims.

Consider some of the comments made at that conference:

“America needs to do more to take care of the Syrian refugees.” … What about the plight of Palestinian refugees exiled from their homes by force for the last 67 years and denied [u/l]to this day to return to them by Israel and its supporters? Why don’t the pastors and imams include that group of refugees in their calls for justice?

“America is proud of its inclusion and diversity; indeed, it’s part of our American values.” … No mention that Israel is a Jewish state, where exclusivity reigns. Israel by self-definition excludes from equal standing the very members of the religions – Christianity and Islam – represented at this press conference. How could the pastors and imams present have looked at this obvious violation of human rights, then looked the other way?

One pastor said “Being human takes all of us together” and we agree. But certainly Israeli Jews (and many American Jews) don’t believe that. Otherwise, Israel would be a state that welcomes, rather than denies – and is violently hostile to – the six million Palestinians under its control.

“Trump violates American separation of church and state when he singles out a religion for persecution.” … Israel, on the other hand, is as un-American as a state can be. It conjoins church and state, rather than separates the two. This conflation is one of the core reasons JWPF was formed: We have long challenged Beth Israel as “a political institution as well as a house of worship”.

And another pastor said “All people are equal in the sight of God.” Was Rabbi Daniel Schwartz – present in this group of respected clergy – getting a bit nervous at the pastor’s words? Did he think for a moment of the story of a little boy and a naked emperor? How would he countenance the word “equal” with the dissonance of “chosen”?

And who remembers the made-for-the-average-American video “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” given away to voters prior to the 2008 Presidential election? That video epitomizes the term Islamophobia and was produced by Aish Hatorah, the “leading Jewish content website” for the last fifteen years.

Jewish organizations like Aish Hatorah and powerful Jewish leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu have no trouble identifying a “radical Islam”, but do Christian and Muslim leaders utter the phrase “radical Judaism” when describing the violent and continuing Jewish Zionist takeover of Arab lands? Not a peep. What could have served as a timely wake-up call to Christians and Muslims, these leaders of their respective communities let their worshippers down. Fighting for racial equality while turning a blind eye in the presence of overt Jewish racism serves no group and is certainly not a way to promote justice.

Comments?

Six vigilers
America First, NOT Israel
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#


Report on Beth Israel vigil 01-02-16

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Young Men’s Judeo-Christian Association?

Floating across our desk this week from our local YMCA came “We Belong – A newsletter for members & volunteers of the Ann Arbor YMCA” (January 2016). The Mission statement was printed on page one:

To put Judeo-Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.

“We Belong” also reports that the Cleveland, Ohio Director of Marketing and Development is moving to Ann Arbor to become our new President and CEO.
A quick check on the Mission Statement from the 2014 Annual Report of the YMCA of Greater Cleveland finds:

To put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.

Hmm-mm…

Another check places the origin of the YMCA in London, England. YMCA.net, the website of the US affiliate, reports that in 1844, founder George Williams, a young farmer-turned-department store worker, was troubled by what he saw for the young men who migrated to the city from rural areas to find jobs. “… London offered a bleak landscape of tenement housing and dangerous influences… [Williams] joined 11 friends to organize the first Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), a refuge of Bible study and prayer for young men seeking escape from the hazards of life on the streets.”

Well, George, welcome to the 21st century and a dominating Jewish influence in the social sphere: the “C” in “YMCA” has all but been removed from the American branch of the organization you founded and now puts “Judeo-Christian” principles ahead of your outdated and silly “Christian” ones. Just as influential Jews in the Ann Arbor community saw to it that the “First Unitarian-Universalist Church of Ann Arbor” became the “First Unitarian-Universalist [u/l] Congregation of Ann Arbor”, it appears to the careful observer that there are forces about set on removing “Christ” from Christmas and “Christian” from the YMJA…

An Unexpected Teaching Moment

Feeling pretty clever about our most recent bumper sticker – “Liberate Palestine, End ‘Israel’”, we were somewhat surprised to find a note critical of that sticker pinned to our windshield from a Harley Davidson motorcycle rider in Deerfield, Ohio. The note read “Liberate America, End Liberals.”

OK, insult aside, what was this person communicating? Probably that he didn’t give a rip about Palestine, Palestinians, or anyone from the Middle East, as those folk weren’t part of his everyday experience. Weren’t Muslim Arabs responsible for the attacks in New York and Washington fourteen years ago? Check out this license plate from an auto salesman’s desk in nearby Brunswick, Ohio:

Va Plate

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Va%20Plate.jpg

Whether or not this biker believed the government report on the attacks of 9/11, he was saying “How about caring about America? Forget the foreigners! They mean nothing to me.”

This teaching moment allowed us to see the impact of Dan McGowan’s “America First, NOT Israel” bumper sticker and successful billboard which bore the same slogan. We believe Americans – JWPF’s target audience – will act when they feel their own interests are at stake. Why are US taxpayers forking over 10 million dollars a day to a country which kills Americans, spies on us and has its own partisans in the highest levels of the US government? Perhaps our biker friend might sport a bumper sticker of his own one day:

America First JPGhttp://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/America%20First%20JPG.jpg

Comments?

Six vigilers
Israeli citizens in OUR Congress?
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Report on Beth Israel vigil 01-16-16

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Disappointed

Disappointed
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Disappointed.jpg

A hard core of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends showed up this week to once again take to the streets for the only regular protest in Ann Arbor, certainly the only one which holds the Jewish community accountable for their support of Apartheid Israel. Loyal readers have heard this before.

What perhaps you haven’t heard is – and channeling the words of baseball player/manager Charlie Brown on a rainy day: “Where IS everybody?” With apologies to Michael Rabb and Rich Siegel, who have executed their own public protests at Zionist synagogues, we wonder where are have all the activists gone?

There are at least two possible explanations for the failure of others to follow our example. The first one is that our small group is completely wrong-headed about the issue. The second is that Jewish Power has so dominated the movement in support of a Jewish state – both inside and outside the peace movement – that activists who entertain the possibility that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state – are cowed into silence by that very power.

A Jewish jeweler, well known in the Ann Arbor art scene, stops by the vigils and tells me that “This is completely wrong”. Why is it wrong? “It prevents meaningful dialogue and turns the hearts of those who might actually agree with you.” In an exchange that well could have happened twelve years ago, we reply that the time for meaningful dialogue has passed, and refer to the 1955 “dialogue” that was similarly beyond its time between Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus driver.

We might win the battle of a successful counter-argument, but she wields the Jewish Power cudgel and walks away satisfied that our group hasn’t grown in well over a decade of protest, and provides small challenge to her well-established Jewish state.

Where IS everybody?

Should JWPF fold our tent and join ranks with openly Zionist groups like Jewish Voice for Peace? Stop calling out Jewish Power, the illegitimacy of a Jewish state founded as it was on brute violence, Jewish supremacism both in the US as well as in Palestine? Focus our efforts on “the Occupation?”

Where IS everybody?

Should we recant our principled stance and join the ranks of Palestinians in this country whose concern rarely extends beyond family and entertainment? Oh yes, expect these folks to come out in scores whenever the Jewish state has an outburst and kills and maims thousands of Gazans, but hey, they haven’t migrated to the cozy US, and junior needs to be driven to soccer practice, so we really just don’t have the time for continued, sustained protest.

Where IS everybody?

We’re told that “Peace is the Church’s Business”, and though appreciative of the national Presbyterians and UCC in their efforts to support the BDS movement, we note that both statements from these groups came with the blessings, if not direction, of Jewish Voice for Peace. JVP clearly supports Israel’s claimed right to exist as a Jewish state and also wields the cudgel of Jewish Power to ensure that Christians in the Palestine solidarity (not liberation) movement toe the line at the 1967 military occupation of the 28% of Palestine not stolen in 1948.

Where IS everybody?

Saving the worst for last we have the Jewish “progressive” who sometimes likens Zionists to fascists, but is the first to circle the wagons to protect the Tribe when groups like JWPF single out the Judaic element of Zionism. Fortunately, there are a few – like Paul Eisen and Gilad Atzmon – who recognize these Jewish “anti-Zionist” Zionists for what they are.

Four dedicated vigilers last Saturday. At 69 years of age I’m the youngest of the group. Standing (some sitting) in a breezy, snow-flaked Saturday morning, up against a very powerful bunch of well-heeled Zionist Jews. I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of these guys … but

where IS everybody?

Comments?

Israel: No Right to Exist
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Report on Beth Israel vigil 02-06-16

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Bernie’s a Jew; Don’t breathe a word

My partner offers some criticism of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to family members, telling them that he’s a Jew. The reaction to her comment is sharp, almost hostile … “What difference does THAT make?”. She withdraws from the conversation, saying later that she should have said “Zionist”. But should she have? Let’s consider …

Bernie Sanders is a Jew. No doubt about it. And because he’s a Jew and a senator in the US Congress, we can safely assume that he’s a Zionist Jew, even if we had no access to his political views: Imagine for a moment that Bernie was an anti-Zionist Jew, and ask yourself what chances would he have had to become a US senator, holding such views? Or of winning any elected office for that matter?

So what difference does it make that Bernie’s a Jew? Let’s take a quick look …

Bernie is the only Jewish candidate among the mix.

That makes him a member of arguably the most politically powerful group in the United States. No other candidate can claim that status.

He’s the only one of the candidates that’s eligible for birthright citizenship in the country that receives the most US foreign aid in the world. An apartheid country that openly discriminates against its non-Jewish citizenry and subjugates those non-Jewish non-citizens living under its control.

According to the Times of Israel “Shaar Haamakim [a Jewish kibbutz] was a bastion of socialism when the Vermont senator volunteered there in the ’60s, and continues to preserve ‘social democratic values’”. Certainly these social democratic values did not extend to the Palestinian refugees then wishing a return to their homeland. Nor is Sanders arguing for their return today.

No, it’s safe to say Bernie supports a Jewish state in Palestine. And though he’s certainly not alone among the candidates in that regard, Bernie is uniquely positioned to challenge Jewish power both here and in the state that by definition would grant citizenship to him and deny it to the other candidates.

Imagine for a moment we had a real free press, one where journalists could ask meaningful questions of candidates …

“Mr. Sanders: When you served as a Jewish kibbutznik in Palestine, I mean Israel, was the offer of citizenship made to you?”

“Mr. Sanders: Did you accept that offer? Were you in fact a citizen of Israel?”

“Are you a citizen of Israel today?”

“Do you think that members of the US Congress should be totally transparent about possible citizenship in foreign governments?”

“Would you support an inquiry that would supply American citizens with the information about their leaders’ possible dual citizenship in other countries?”

“Author and philosopher Gilad Atzmon, in his study of Jewish identity politics, describes three categories of Jews: (1) Those who follow Judaism, (2) Those who regard themselves as human beings that happen to be of Jewish origin, and (3) Those who put their Jewish-ness above all of their other traits. Given your track record in the Senate supporting the Jewish state, would you identify yourself as a third-category Jew? Put another way, how does your Jewish-ness influence the way you feel and vote in regard to Israel, the Jewish state?”

“For over twelve years a group of dedicated activists in Ann Arbor, Michigan has identified the Jewish community as the politically strongest ethnic group distorting US policy in support of Israel, and has clearly challenged the power of the local Jewish community. Do you agree that Jews are indeed powerful, and would you support such challenges to this power?

“Regarding our constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech, and since NPR reports that your “father’s family was mostly wiped out during the Holocaust”, would you favor joining France, Germany, Israel and nine other countries which provide prison sentences for those revisionists challenging the standard narrative of the Holocaust?”

“Thank you, Mr. Sanders”

Comments?

Jan 30 – Seven vigilers
Feb 6 – Six vigilers
America First, Not Israel
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Report on Beth Israel vigil 02-27-16

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Taking the Message Mainstream

Last summer we reported on The Great Holocaust Trial by Michael Hoffman and its shocking revelation that one of the foremost authorities on the Holocaust was “at a loss” to produce a single document proving the existence of homicidal gas chambers anywhere in Nazi-controlled territories.

Last week we took this message to the Ann Arbor City Council during the public commentary section of its bi-monthly meeting. Generally, the remarks made in this forum go unremarked by Council members, but Councilman Chuck Warpehoski couldn’t resist the kneejerk impulse to label my comments as “Holocaust denial” and opine that they were “repugnant”.

Readers are invited to review the address to Council, below signature and to view them by clicking here and advancing to 00:13:50. You can also view and hear Mr. Warpohoski’s comments by advancing the video to 00:41:05. Mr. 679-Warpehoski’s remarks, also included after signature, will be responded to and expanded upon at the next council meeting on March 10 at 7:00 pm, City Hall.

Jewish marrow contains Israel, not America

Flash back with us to the comments of Heidi Budaj, Detroit Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League, when she was granted sole commentary on the Detroit billboard sponsored by Deir Yassin Remembered: “This particular [billboard] goes a step further and raises an old anti-Semitic canard of dual loyalty, implying that Jews are not loyal to the country in which they live.”

Not so fast, Heidi. The Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, in a full page ad covering the entire back page of the March issue of the Washtenaw Jewish News, explains quite clearly that, under the heading of “Find the Israel within”: “Whether you are secular or religious, Orthodox, Conservative or Reform – there is one value that as Jews – we all share. Israel. It is in our marrow.” Check it out.

Marrow

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/PDF%20Files/WJN_Mar-16-web%20p%2028.pdf

The Federation, clearly speaking of all Jews, is telling the reading public that their core loyalties lie with the state of Israel. Heidi may whistle past the graveyard claiming Jews are loyal Americans, but, according to the Federation, this claimed loyalty does not inhabit the marrow and must reside elsewhere. America, maybe, Israel … YESS!

Comments?

Feb. 13 – Three vigilers
Feb. 20 – Six vigilers
Feb. 27 – Four vigilers
This report dedicated to the memory of Bradley R. Smith
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
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Comments made at Ann Arbor City Council Meeting, Feb. 16, 2016:

Good Evening,

The movie “Son of Saul” was released in the United States on December 18th. It deals with the Holocaust. According to Wikipedia, it joins 341 other films produced since the 1940s on this topic.

On December 21st in this very chamber, the memory of the Holocaust was invoked by a speaker regarding her reaction to the City’s plan to cull the deer population. Tonight I’d like to share with you what I found to be revelatory in this book, The Great Holocaust Trial by Michael Hoffman.

Mr. Hoffman was a reporter at the “false news” trial of community activist Ernst Zundel in Toronto in 1985 and also at the 1988 re-trial. Though Ernst was handed guilty verdicts on both occasions, they were overturned by the Canadian Supreme Court in 1992, when they declared the country’s “false news” law unconstitutional.

Instructive in understanding revisionist history is the following exchange, reported by Mr. Hoffman, between Zundel defense attorney Doug Christie and Raul Hilberg, certified by the Court as an expert witness, and lauded by the Canadian Jewish News as “one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Holocaust”.

Christie: “Can you give me one scientific report that shows the existence of gas chambers anywhere in Nazi-occupied territory?”

Hilberg: “I am at a loss”

Christie: “You are (at a loss) because you can’t.”

When asked by the Canadian government to testify three years later at Ernst’s retrial, Hilberg declined. More astonishing is what Hoffman then writes:

“Neither did a single ‘Survivor’ take the stand in the second trial. They too feared what would happen to the credibility of their tales when subjected to critical scrutiny by Zundel’s defense team”.

To my friends discussing this book Hilberg’s revelation comes with shocking implications. Has the fabric of the standard Holocaust narrative been ripped substantially by Hilberg’s admission, now thirty years old? If claims about homicidal gas chambers are false, doesn’t that pierce the heart of Zionist defenses protecting the state of Israel? Is challenging the factual aspects of the Holocaust a worthwhile endeavor for the goal of liberating Palestine?

There are many who think it is.

Thank you

Chuck W. at comments from council;

Finally I want to thank Mr McGee for his reminder about respect. I think even in situations where there are deeply divided views it’s important to maintain good decorum and some sense of respect. There’s always room for respectful communication. For example I found the Holocaust denial comments at tonight’s meeting – I deeply deeply disagree with that perspective; and however though I deeply disagree with that perspective I respect civil discourse so I respect Mr. Herskovitz’ ability to bring those comments forward. I also respect my ability to say that I find them repugnant. and being able to say that I respect the process, I respect to comment without hissing heckling or name calling is part of the civil discourse.

Report on Beth Israel vigil 03-05-16

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A picture says a thousand words

A Palestinian businessman in Ann Arbor tells me this week that Judaism and Zionism are two distinct and separate entities, a claim heard often on the Left. When I shared with him that in 1942 over 800 rabbis signed onto the document “Zionism: an Affirmation of Judaism”, he responded “They are wrong”. Really? This Palestinian Muslim knows more about the religion of Judaism than 800 rabbis?

It might have helped the conversation had I in hand the fund raising advertisement from the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor in which a Jewish woman proclaims “there is one value that as Jews – we all share. Israel. It is in our marrow.” She doesn’t say “as Zionists”, she chooses to say “as Jews”. No bones about it (pun intended).

Now another 1,000-word photo emerges from our friend in New Jersey who happened to walk by a Judaica shop in Teaneck and shares with us this Jewish religious garment – called a yarmulke or kippa – emblazoned with a clear political message: All of Palestine is Jewish. Here is what our friend says about this religious garment:

Jewish Skullcap - Sm
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Jewish%20Skullcap%20-%20Lg.JPG

Taken this morning in West Orange, New Jersey, at the Lubavitcher Judaica Shop. The “kippa” is a religious article. It features a map of Palestine (“Israel”) with the word “mine”, as in “not yours”. I submit this to counter those who would argue that Zionism is a political agenda separate from the Jewish religion. This is an item worn exclusively by Orthodox Jews and its racist Zionist message could not be more clear.

Palestinians, like my friend above, would do well to remember that their lives have been destroyed and certainly disrupted by Jewish exclusivism, Jewish supremacism, and Jewish power. Herzl did not write “The Zionist State.”

Revealing statements from Dr. Jill Stein

Dr. Jill Stein (Green Party) is the second Jewish candidate (or perhaps third) for president of the US and, as such, bears similar responsibilities to that of Bernie Sanders, whose candidacy we spoke about in our report of February 2. A friend passes along an article by The Peace Resource which touts Stein’s alleged commitment to “…human rights, equality, peace, freedom and justice for everyone.” A few statements caught our eye. One, “Bibi is a threat not only to human rights and to U.S. interests, but also to the security and sanctity of the Jewish people living in Israel-Palestine.”

We thought Bibi was a threat to the Palestinian people, but Jill senses Jewish-centric concerns. And why not? Although it’s not stated in the article, Jill is a Jew and may have been swayed by her years of indoctrination of real and alleged Jewish suffering to view the ethnic cleansing of Palestine through Jewish eyes.

Second quote: “On taking office, I will put all parties on notice – including the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority, and the Hamas administration in Gaza – that future U.S. support will depend on respect for human rights and compliance with international law.” Is the US currently supporting the Hamas administration as implied by Stein’s statement? Are we actually funding what the US has declared to be a terrorist organization? Back to the drawing board on this one, Jill.

And what she doesn’t say looms large: no demand for the Right of Return for Palestinians whose lives have been destroyed by the Jewish state; a tacit agreement, rather than a challenge, to the legitimacy of a Jewish state foist upon an unwilling and remarkably resilient population. No visible support for BDS and certainly no challenge to Jewish power. Dr. Stein may look good to our friend, but as they say in Lenawee County, “That dog won’t hunt.”

Comments?

Three vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Challenging Jewish Power since 2003
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