Boston's Far Left-Wing Jews Are Determined not to Be Left Out

Jewish Currents
April 22-28, 2005
By Shira Schoenberg

As Cambridge residents join an international day of action against Caterpillar and the Somerville Divestment Campaign heats up, the Jewish Advocate asks: what motivates the Jewish left wing?

Left-wing activists who protested Caterpillar's selling of bulldozers to Israel this week in Cambridge were inspired by a discussion with Jewish author Michel Warschawski. The group viewed a documentary produced by the Jewish coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions Jeff Halper, who visited Boston last month.

Many protesters are active in the Somerville Divestment Project, a campaign to divest from Israel, whose supporters include Israeli attorney Shamai Lebowitz, and members of Somerville's Congregation B'nai Brith. Excoriated as "moral cowards," "liars" and "misguided dupes" by many of their co-religionists, Jewish leftists are now a driving force among local campaigns that some term anti-Israel.

Marty Federman, co-chair of Visions for Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine, explained his involvement: "Israeli politicies are indefensible from a Jewish point of view, for the sake of what's happening to the Palestinians and because they're self-destructive."

Federman said: "Our moral imperative is not to inflict suffering on the Palestinians, and to resolve the conflict justly. We have to recognize what the creation of Israel meant for the Palestinian people and deal with it."

Warschawski visiting from Jerusalem, advocates ending home demolitions and dismantling the security fence. He argues that these policies are illegal and encourage international pressure on Israel to stop them. He does it, he said, "for the sake of my people." He estimates that in Israel, approximately 3,000 to 5,000 Jews are "struggling against the occupation," of Palestinian land and said, "It's important even when you're a marginalized minority to say what you think."

One of those speaking out locally is Susan Jacoby, who is active in Jewish Women for Justice in Israel and Palestine. She argued that Israel is "stealing land" by building the fence, and "oppressing people." She said: "My grandfather was in a concentration camp, and my parents were refugees from Germany. If you know something, you have to speak out."

Ken Brociner understands the analogy to Nazism, but argues it does not apply in the case of Israel. An anti-war activist in the Vietnam era, he said: "I distinctly remember a sense of not wanting to be a 'good German.'" Brociner has remained active in the left-wing politics since the late 1960s and identifies with the Israeli peace movement, currently serving on the national executive board of Meretz USA. He is also active in the anti-divestment campaign in Somerville. He said those Jews who support campaigns like divestment, "have fallen into the trap of adopting a one-dimensional, dogmatic view of the world. They're moved by sympathy for Palestinians but they've allowed their heart to cloud their critical thinking skills."

He believes those Jews are "sincere, but misguided. They're acting as unwitting dupes, allowing themselves to be used by the architects of divestment, who are anti-Zionist, and don't support Israel's right to exist."

Diane Balser, incoming CEO of the American peace movement Brit Tzedek v'Shalom which advocates a negotiated settlement, said the difference is between those Jews who believe in a two-state solution and those who don't. Regarding the former, she says that even if they advocate divestment, which is ineffective, "we should see these people as potential allies, people we should be in dialogue with. We need to say you're good people, but there are more productive things to be done."

But many community leaders say some Jews have gone too far. "To joint he other side is a despicable act of cowardice," said Charles Jacobs, president of The David Project. "For leftist radicals to portray Israel as the cruelest of nations, to galvanize the rest of the world against crimes of the Jewish state first, and not galvanize them against massive crimes of the world such as Sudan and the Arab world, these lefties have abandoned the very people they should be championing."

Jacobs claimed the Jewish leftists ignore murer and slavery by Islamists and other radicals to focus on Israel. "What they're really saying is Israel needs to be 100 percent perfect. If it's 80 percent, that's not good enough. Jews have every right to criticize Israel, but they have to contextualize it. When they don't, they're liars and cowards."

Hillel Newman, consul of Israel to New England, argued that even singling out Israel for criticism crosses a red line: "When you have an imbalance of criticism, demonization of Israel, implementation of double standards, singling out Israel, those are instances when it's not legitimate criticism but Israel-bashing." Those Jews who single out Israel for human rights violations, or support campaigns such as divestment, he said, are "fringe elements" who may have genuine intentions, but their actions, he said, play into the hands of terrorists. "When you single out Israel and don't mention terrorism, it's reinforcing the terrorism and not enforcing Israel, which is the victim of terrorism."

Alan Ronkin, executive director of the JCRC, estimated that only approximately 25 Jews locally are active in "anti-Israel" causes. He said: "The boundaries of the pro-Israel community can be defined today as people who support a negotiated settlement to th conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. People who reject a Jewish democratic State of Israel, or who believe in a one-state solution shouldn't be considered pro-Israel."

Many note that often extreme liberalism comes from universalism. Larry Lowenthal, executive director of the AJC, said he himself is a product of leftist ideals. But he said, "Universalism of the extreme left has gone to such an extreme that Israel is in their minds a parochial, exclusivist, entity that has no right to exist. I have a deep concern for universalism, internationalism, common humanity, but it's balanced with a passionate concern about the survival of my particular people."

For Lowenthal, the line between valid criticism and anti-Zionism is clear: "Once criticism of Israel spills over into any question about the right of the State of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, that's where the line is crossed."