Introducing: A New Column From The Forward

Here are 19 people Jews should actually be more worried about than Linda Sarsour… Morton Klein; Ayatollah Khamanei (The Forward, August 3, 2017)

During the course of my conversations with several senior ayatollahs and prominent political and government officials, it became clear that there is high-placed dissent to the official line against Israel. No one had anything warm to say about the Jewish state. But pressed as to whether it was Israel’s policies or its very existence to which they objected, several were adamant: It’s Israel’s policies. (The Forward, August 12, 2015)

There is no shortage of think pieces these days — many from Jews — accusing the left of divisiveness and hate. Bari Weiss’ “When Progressives Embrace Hate” and Ann Lewis’ “I Did Not March for Hate” are two of the latest examples of white Jewish leaders employing the same talking points the white nationalist movement uses to attack Palestinian Muslims and Black people. (The Forward, August 22, 2017)

Richard Spencer Might Be The Worst Person In America. But He Might Also Be Right About Israel. (The Forward, August 17, 2017)

Introducing the latest column from The Forward, by Hannah Virtuestein, New York’s most woke social diarist. She can be reached here:

Javad Zarif is an honorary Jew in my book. Such a Mensch. Even with his busy schedule he agreed to come all the way out to Brooklyn to address our chapter of Iranian Centrifuges Matter. He’s right too. Netanyahu and the Likud in Israel are just a bunch of Chazars. That’s right. Iran’s foreign minister speaks Yiddish. I wish Bubbe was still alive, She’d like him.

Here’s my dilemma. I want to invite Linda Sarsour to our social justice Shabbaton at B’nai Ramallah, but the community can’t agree to separate seating by gender. I argued that we can support our Muslim sisters and still hold the line on gender equality. Rebecca Cohen-Shabazz and Running Deer Goldmanberg told me I was being problematic and Islamophobic. Double whammy! I wish I had more Muslim friends to dialogue with on this.

I wish more blue checkmarks on twitter would get behind my petition to require incoming Brandeis students to take a course on the Muslim Brotherhood, Queer Liberation and Climate Change in the Era of Netanyahu.

Sooner or later the resistance is going to have to come to terms with the fact that the alt-right isn’t wrong on everything. Take Richard Spencer. He’s a racist and a Nazi and it would be ok for a person of color or a trans/queer/lesbian/bisexual/questioning/two spirit/gender optional (but not white-male, cis-gender, gay) person to punch him. But he has a point when it comes to the ethno-apartheid entity known as “Israel.” I wish I had more Muslims friends to dialogue with on this.

It’s time we moved beyond boycotting Israeli hummus at the co-op and take direct action. Are you hearing this, antifa? Not only does this support the occupation, but it erases the Palestinians from the history of Hummus. This is Israel culturally appropriating the spreads of the people it oppresses. It’s culinary blackface. Lo Dayenu!

When my eight-year-old son was watching Peter Beinart on CNN, he turned to me and asked, “What will they say in 50 years about Jews who only boycott half of historic Palestine?” I just looked at him and cried. As Javad Zarif would say, “he gives me such Nachus.”