Sent to the Virginian Pilot on July 26th and as yet not published, though it has appeared elsewhere including the New York Times.
I am writing regarding the published opinion of Mark Brilliant on July 26th. As an ethnic Jew who, like so many of us, stand against the abuses of Zionism, an idea orginally created by antisemites. I find this piece deeply insulting and misguided.
Nationalism turns all faiths to their moral antithesis and Zionism is a virulent example. Most of my own family was murdered by the same thinking in the 1940s. Who but we should know better than to repeat such atrocity or even to attempt to justify or excuse it? Some things are indefensible. As a participant in Hampton Roads for Palestine, and over decades standing with Palestinians, I have yet to meet an antisemite or to feel unwelcome and I'm not alone. Many thousands of us are involved in groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now. We are not self-hating or antisemetic.
Our people have a long and honorable history of standing against injustice. If our ethics are not consistent they are hypocritical. "Never Again" must mean for everyone or it is worse than meaningless. As a poet, I have written:
For any Jew,
for any of us honest enough
to admit it
Israel is our dream
turned to nightmare
A place of hatreds
and thrown stones,
of epithets and oppression --
our own hands turning
to monsters
the poison of nationalism
and hubris that stalked us
for a millennium of bloody nights
we now claim as our own
The accusation of antisemitism against those standing against the murder and imposed starvation of Gazans -- that open air prison of long oppressed and abused Palestinians are not only transparently wrong, they do us harm as a people and as Americans.
This genocide must be brought to an end and those responsible brought to justice. As for mainstream Judaism, only honest introspection and atonement, a breaking with Zionism, and a return to our traditional values are the only thing that can save it.
