We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivitiess become irrelevant.”

Elie Wiesel, From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences

“My loyalty to my people, to our people, and to Israel comes first and prevents me from saying anything critical of Israel outside Israel… As a Jew I see my role as a melitz yosher, a defender of Israel: I defend even her mistakes… I must identify with whatever Israel does – even with her errors.”

Elie Wiesel, Against Silence (AS)

In the end, whether Israel’s penchant for serial atrocities encounters an effective obstacle will hinge on two types of resistance, elicited not from the fictitious “international community”, but from the active opponents of Israel’s ongoing projects, and from the withdrawal of moral and financial support for the ongoing reproduction of Israel as an apartheid Zionist State.

Among the first type of response are the increasingly visible efforts, which gained momentum in the wake of the May 2010 flotilla murders, to promote sanctions, boycott and divestiture. A broad range of individuals and groups -rock stars Elvis Costello and The Pixies, the actor Meg Ryan, Britain’s largest union, Unite, the United Methodist Church, the cosmetics firm Lush, the University of London Union, Deutsche Bahn, the German railway operator, large supermarket chains in Italy, dockworkers in many cities around the world refusing to unload Israli cargo- has either actively called for or effectively engaged in actions in support of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel’s occupation and in support of Palestinian resistance. (For an up to date list of such actions see www.bdsmovement.net.)

The second kind of response includes refusals to any longer make excuses for Israeli abominations, willingness finally to speak out in public protest, and the cessation of financial support for the rogue State. An especially powerful development would be the readiness of American Jews to announce loud and clear that Israel does not speak for them, to distance themselves from the agenda of the politically powerful Israel lobby, and to cross over into solidarity with the Palestinian people. None of this, I will suggest below, is as far-fetched as it might have seemed fifteen years ago.

Among the key habits of thought, feeling and action that must be defeated is what we might call the Wiesel Doctrine, as expressed in the second passage at the head of this article, which pledges to “defend even [Israel’s] mistakes… [to] identify with whatever Israel does – even with her errors.” The Doctrine saturates the political consciousness of too many older (an important qualifier) liberal American Jews. These are the Jews most likely to contribute to AIPAC and for whom their perception of a given Senate, House or presidential candidate’s friendliness to Israeli policy is sufficient to determine support.

The Doctrine’s stalwarts have been marinating in a political-ethnic milieu largely formed since the early 1950s by the self-promotional and political-marketing zeal of Elie Wiesel, the world’s leading holocaust entrepreneur. The man has been adroit in milking Western guilt over the holocaust in the service of making it virtually impossible for soi disant humanitarians to dissent from Israeli propaganda. He has also helped to create an atmosphere in which the likes of Alan Dershowitz can thrive, and the jobs and reputations of both politicians and university professors who challenge the Israeli line can be jeopardized on the spurious grounds that they peddle anti-semitism. Wiesel has contributed hugely to the mystified ideological settlement that invites a well heeled and ardently motivated entity like AIPAC to win enviable gains for Israel on Capitol Hill and to prevent critical issues from being raised in the US media, even as these same issues are put forward and contested in the more democratic Israeli press.

Wiesel and his Doctrine are to the typical American Jewish apologist for Israel as the standard meter is to the meter stick in your workshop. Wiesel is the Platonic Form made flesh in every Zionist apologist. Listen to the argumentss of your Zionist friends. They channel the teachings of St. Elie.

It beehooves us, then, to review what Wiesel is about.

Wiesel as Archetype of the Soul of Zionism

Elie Wiesel is in a class by himself. Take his word for it. The man promotes himself with unflagging persistence as the living embodiment of Jewish humanitarianism. This makes him, he’d have us believe, the -not ‘a’, but ‘the’- humble representative and wounded spokesman of the community of holocaust survivors, the preeminent guardian of Jewish memory and witness to Jewish suffering. What this comes to is granting Israel carte blanche to treat Palestinians as it chooses and to habitually lie about its political intentions.

In Wiesel’s stance we find a paradigmatic expression of the apologetics that has become the party line for so many older American Jews for whom nothing Israel does warrants open opposition.

Wiesel pulls no punches. In the second citation at the head of this article he announces that facts and evidence are irrelevant to his assessment of Israel’s behavior. Thus, Wiesel misled when he remarked, regarding his assessment of Israel’s May 2010 flotilla raid, “I don’t know enough. ..For me to say anything now would be irresponsible.” (June 2, 2010) We are to believe that Wiesel is open to evidence of Israeli wrongdoing. But he has made it clear that he is not. When pushed to the wall on Israeli misbehavior, Wiesel’s tactic is patented: he changes the subject to the holocaust. Moments after the above remark Wiesel whimpered “Holocaust denial today – what it does to the children of survivors,” he said. “I believe Holocaust denial should be illegal.” There followed a philosophical debate on freedom of thought and the limits of censorship. Mission accomplished: the original issue, the assessment of Israel’s murders of noncombatants in international waters, has been forgotten.

It is essential to Wiesel’s agenda that he depict his categorical refusal to criticize Israel as more than a merely individual decision. He is merely acknowledging a moral obligation binding everyone, everywhere, to eternal silence regarding Israel’s abominations. That’s the Wiesel Doctrine: “The nations that kept silent during the Holocaust ought to keep silent now as well. The world that then condemned itself by its silence has lost all rights to judge Israel now.” (AS, 2, 191.)

The holocaust is made into political plastic carrying an unlimited line of exculpatory credit.

In his speech to the United Nations last September Benjamin Netanyahu began by conflating Nazi Germany, contemporary Iran, al Qaeda (a Sunni tendency foreign to Shiite Iran), and global terrorism. The word ‘Nazi’ appeared five times in the first thirty paragraphs. This kind of nonsense is made possible and certified by the Wiesel Doctrine.

The Doctrine also rules out solidarity with the Palestinian people. As a holocaust survivor, Wiesel must accept whatever claims Israel makes about its relation to Palestinians: “Do not ask me, a traumatized Jew, to be pro-Palestinian. I totally identify with Israel and cannot go along with leftist intellectuals who reject it.” ( AS, 1, 223) These two sentences are packed with Israel-serving dogma: the fact of the holocaust permits open season on Palestinians, speaking the truth about Israel is an inherently “leftist” prejudice, and criticizing Israeli policy is the same as “reject”ing Israel, whatever that may mean.

Wiesel As Terrorist and The Requirement of Hypocrisy

In his essay “To a Young Palestinian Arab” (1979) Wiesel intones “I feel responsible for your sorrow, but not for the way you use it, for in its name you have massacred innocent children, slaughtered children.” (‘sorrow’ is a favorite word of Wiesel’s, which he deploys almost as frequently as you and I use ‘the’) Wiesel’s claim to feel “responsible” for Palestinian “sorrow” (Why not refer to Palestinian deaths? Why not indeed.) is disingenuous. He refuses to acknowledge the death and destruction visited upon Palestinians by Israel except in the context of blaming Palestinians. He acknowledges no responsibility to do anything as an expression of his professed responsibility, nor does he acknowledge that this responsibility stems from wrongdoing by Israel. And he has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the occupation as a political matter, preferring “sorrow” as the required non-political “moral” attitude.

Wiesel goes on to anticipate the young Palestinian’s response that these acts were performed by “extremists”, not typical Palestinians. He rejoins that “they acted on your behalf, with your approval, since you did not raise your voice to reason with them. You will tell me that it is your tragedy which incited them to murder. By murdering, they debased that tragedy, they betrayed it.” Wiesel goes on to contrast Palestinians’ insidious political response to their suffering to holocaust survivors’ humanistic “moral” response to their brutalization. Here we have a typical case of the hypocrisy that is a leitmotif in Wiesel’s repertoire.

Wiesel is surely not ignorant of European Zionists’ response to persecution by pioneering innovations in the art of terrorism. Zionists crusading in Palestine prior to the establishment of Israel created a range of modern terrorist tactics. In 1938 the Zionist terror outfit Irgun executed attacks against Arab civilians, including placing bombs in milk cans in a Haifa market, killing twenty three Arab shoppers. In 1947 the Zionist group the Stern Gang was the first to use letter bombs, mailed to British Cabinet members. The Gang assassinated high-level British diplomats and the chief UN mediator attempting to negotiate a two-state solution for Palestine. Irgun, then under the leadership of Menachim Begin, planted bombs in Arab East Jerusalem, killing civilians in an effort to drive Palestinians out. As the British mandate was coming to an end in April 1948 and a civil war between Arabs and Zionists was beginning, Irgun and the Stern Gang attacked the village of Deir Yassin, killing over a hundred unarmed villagers, including women and children. The villagers had not been involved in any violence prior to the attack. In 1954 Israel became the first country to hijack an airplane for political purposes, seizing a Syrian civilian plane in a botched effort to trade hostages for Mossad intelligence agents captured by the Syrians
read more at

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/29/countering-the-israel-lobbys-dominance/

You know the frank thing I like to illustrate against such focus on a problem is this, why not kill all lobbying by making it illegal in this nation? Voter Reform! I mean come on. I am against ALL forms of lobbying. One of the reasons we are so misrepresented is our Congress is pursuing tangents all day long thanks to the whole "No Man Left Behind," thinking. We need to get government back on track and one way is term limits, eliminating political lobbies, and most of all getting rid of teh partisan political system we have. it is failing us in all degrees.

More bash bash bash Israel for no reason.

Great. While Syria in the Mideast commits atrocities against their
own citizens purposefully attacking innocent people in their homes
while denying them political rights...

While Iran is acknowledged as the worlds worst state sponsor of
killing of innocent men, women and children in disgusting terrorist
missile and bomb attacks which would be warcrimes...

While no other Mideast country permits freedom of speech or freedom
of religion or full equal rights for women...

Yet...you attempt again and again to smear tiny Israel and the one
country in the region which actually respects dissidents rights,
women's rights, freedom of the press and freedom of religion...

Yet you ignore the atrocities of Syria and Lebanon and Iran and
Hezbollah and Hamas and instead bash Israel.



It is a cartoon of decency. A lampooning of real freedom and valor.
But don't let me intrude in your monomaniacal abuse of the free and
just! Just keep flogging that tired old anti-Israel horse of yours.
Beat it, maul it, drag it's rotting carcass across these pages!
Beat it some more! Flog Israel for no reason! Whack them some more!
Show us the true depth of your anti-Zionist Zeal! Flog flog flog
that dead horse!!



The age of Israel-blame is over. That Jimmy Carter BS is too old to
stink anymore! It is just lame. Lame and dead. Long live the dead
carcass!



Let us know when you get around to criticizing some other countries
who actually deserve a little righteous indignation!



Let us know when you are ready to condemn Hezbollah and Hamas for
attacks where they really actually TARGET civilians and try to kill
innocent people. Then others might actually take it seriously!

(if you can actually stop flogging the anti-Israel horse long enough)

:laugh

So I say the Israelis are right. Terrorists put down your arms
and hateful ideologies and commit to live in peace. No respectable
country will support your efforts to gain weapons and kill
innocent civilians. I am just weird like that.



There is no political grievance which justifies bus bombings and
rocket attacks on cities. Period.

Support the religious tolerance in Israel and help them live
free from unwarranted terrorist attacks.

Stop trying to help Hamas get access to arms shipments!

Support Israel with 4% of our international affairs budget
and help them fight terrorists and support peace!

AMERICA 1ST!

You want to live under Isreali rule or obligation, move there! This is OUR country, let them live or die by their own sword! Rule their own country, NOT OURS!

Not bashing! But if they can't bring peace to their own nation, why allow it to affect ours!

They are a sovergn nation, they want war, their call....NOT our problem! We only stand in the way of them making their own decisions and dealing with the consequences, harming more than helping them!

As far as lobbying, much could be done if an amendment were passed stating NO CONTRIBUTION over $100 from ANY source.... cut the head off the snake!

Lobbying is a citizen right too! But under the influence of corporate MILLIONS, citizens lose a voice to political ear!

$100 contributer limits levels the playing field, removing finacial influence of corporate funds towards campaigns!

I am against sending aid to most countries, but Israel is one that I will always make an exception for.

i see it better to outlaw lobbying completely... Israel needs the backup, and probably always will...

We give more aid to Isreals enemies than to Isreal!

The best thing we could do is cut off ALL foreign aid, let Isreal make her own decisions, and stand with her as an ally, covering her back so to speak.

Under those terms, they don't act in haste, enemies lose their weapons, food and money on a larger scale, that helps Isreal.

Like in a school yard..... your friend is the toughest guy in school, but he won't fight your battles, only see that you don't get hurt too badly by your choice of opponents, or your own big mouth.

i agree... sounds like a plan... but ron paul is out, and the idiot rommney is in, so nothing is going to change for the better...

Dats beecuz Israyul has Joos init.

Eggsaccly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...........and you really think Israel is getting all of that for FREE?
Think again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep,Deir Yassin!
Might have to talk to someone who has been there,and been shot at from behind Women and Children,by Civilians!
Just as the Palestinian Arabs do today!
Nothing has changed!
They still use Human Shields!

Feeding both sides.......whats new?


The Military Industrial Complex will profit

Oh that Conspiratorial Drama!

I dont think Isreal can stand on its own, moraly or financialy. Its sad but true we are forever going to be burdened with their financial woes.

We give them around 3 billion a year, one fifth of the US foreign aid budget.

Can you imagine what the state of Ohio could do with an additional
3 billion a year for its budget?

If we even put it towards social security it would at least do some americans some good.

How Much Is A Billion?

Some Wall Street types (and others) make over a billion dollars a year – each year. How much is a billion dollars? How can you visualize an amount of money so high? Here is one way to think about it: The median income in the United States is around $29,000, meaning half of us make less and half make more. If you make $29,000 a year, and don’t spend a single penny of it, it will take you 34,482 years to save a billion dollars
http://aworldofprogress.com/blog/2011/what-could-you-buy-with-a-billion-dollars/

The US Intl Affairs Budget FY 2013 is $51.6 Billion.

$1B is 2% of the 2013 Intl Affairs Budget.

The entire 2011 US Budget was $3600 Billion or $3.6 Trillion.
$1B is 0.028% of the 2011 US Federal budget.

Nobody should have the power to destroy another persons career.

Many peoples careers have been destroyed as a result of the power of the Israeli Lobby.



They have been destroyed by people who claim to love Israel but have no intention of living there and claim to be American.

As Binyamin Netanyahu said....We Israel can get America to do what we want...or something similar.

But again what about my answer to this problem? kill Lobbying and a lot of the influence and financial feed for the corruption mill dries up. It also pulls the teeth of the MIC. But again bash the MIC all you want. In this age it IS a necessary evil. It should serve the American people and not itself. If you want to deal drugs do not do it within our own nation. Sell the damn drugs to countries who can stand the social unrest it will cause like Iran, N Korea, Indonesia, hell, even Syria, Palestine, Egypt, GIVE THEM MONKEYS ON THEIR BACKS! Hell, N Korea tries to print American money to do to us what we did to N Vietnam back in the late 60's.

Haterating Israel is only racism in the guise of politics and morality. I am sick of how misguided people's animosities are directed. Instead of seeing the problem like most bad doctors you look at symptoms rather than the disease agent itself. All foreign aid would dry up if lobbying were the first thing to go! I am only for foreign aid for nations friendly to the US. But I am aware Israel has spied on us. But it is not like they are trying to use what they learn against us. They are surrounded by wolves and since you don't live in their world you do not have to face their realities on a daily basis. Here in Good old America you are insulated from having a lot of threats we BARELY have faced on a more intimate and daily basis.