On Life After Zionist Summer Camp
@hypnosifl I don't think Jeffrey was "baffled by the concept that she was being sarcastic". He thought it was "strange" of her to write that phrase, given that her husband -- as she portrayed him -- came off as "a bully and a jackass". Written sarcasm only works when there is a contextual counterpoint, which Benedikt lacked. On the whole, her response echoes her original article -- self-centered and superficial.
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On Life After Zionist Summer Camp
@Larry Snider Thoughtful reply. The worst thing about Benedikt's essay is that she reveals complete ignorance of her subject matter, and relates everything merely to her own personal experience. Most of the people writing to support her are guilty of the same. Generalizing from bad personal experience has created a lot of racists in this country.
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On Life After Zionist Summer Camp
@Dave Bry A couple of comments -- Martin Buber was a Zionist;he believed in Israel as a bi-national state. He was a Zionist leader in Germany, moved to pre-Israel Palestine and taught at Hebrew University. Buber allied with Ahad Ha'am's more spiritual version of Zionism, rather than Herzl's; but World War II and the Holocaust was pretty much a game-changer and Buber never opposed the creation of Israel. He did hope it would some day become a Jewish-Arab confederation.
I have family and friends who are intermarried; I would never call the non-Jewish spouse a "goy". While I'm sure you were joking, the term is a derogatory one.
To be disgusted by the current government of Israel is different than what Benedikt stated; that her friends -- and, by implication, she -- were "disgusted with Israel". I was disgusted by the Bush Administration, but I think it would be a different matter to paint the entire U.S. with the broad brush of "disgust".
I did not go to Zionist camp, but did go to the (secular) JCCA camps. No one ever brought up the subject of mixed marriage. I suspect the camp you went to was one that operated under the aegis of some religious movement in Judaism. Just guessing.
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On Life After Zionist Summer Camp
When a writer, who claims to be thoughtful, is reduced to tweeting, in response to a challenging question from a renowned scholar," I am Jewish, you mother fucker", we know how little depth of knowledge the writer has. Allison demonstrates she understands little outside of her own internal feelings, and what those around her (parents, sister, husband, etc.)tell her is true and real. Her rambling essay indicates no insight, synthesis or complexity -- only a chain of life events loosely linked by her pitiful self absorption and a willingness to believe whatever the next person she becomes attached to tells her about the subject of Israel.
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On Life After Zionist Summer Camp
@Jackie Johnson@facebook People who are raised by abusive parents, or grow up in gang infested neighborhood where their siblings are murdered in front of their eyes are "screwed...up." Being sent to Zionist summer camp does not screw anybody up, unless one of the counselors is a pervert.
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On Life After Zionist Summer Camp
@bobd Completely inappropriate. You are an embarrassment.
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On Life After Zionist Summer Camp
@gregorycraigory I'm sorry if I did not make my point clear, (or you inferred incorrectly). One can be upset, angry and in disagreement with certain policies of a country. I certainly am with both Israel and the United States, on various issues. However, I wonder why all of your friends are disgusted with Israel and not the United States, or China, France, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, etc? I'll never apologize for Israel's bad policies or excuse them, yet there are many great things about Israel as well -- its social and economic policies and programs are much more progressive than most of those in the U.S., let alone its immediate neighbors. Also, I definitely did not propose that one should not not be "outraged" by certain injustices. But disgust at an entire nation is a different matter. As far as your parenthetical remark about congressional funding, I personally think it is a fair question to ask whether or not the U.S. needs to provide foreign aid to Israel -- not as a matter of punishing Israel, but whether or not it's necessary (By the way, many Israelis ask the same question -- because they do not want to be beholden the the U.S.). But we do not fund "injustices", any more than our foreign aid to any other nations funds the injustices of those countries.
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On Life After Zionist Summer Camp
We all buy into the myths of our cultures. I believe the Jewish social culture is among the most open, diverse and dynamic you'll find in the world. "Most of my Jewish friends are disgusted with Israel" -- make me wonder where Allison finds her Jewish friends. I often despair at what goes on in Israel, but then I take a look at what's going on in my this country -- the United States. Is our own nation really superior to Israel? We have killed and ruined the lives of more Middle Easterners in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last ten years than Israel has done in its entire history -- and without any existential threat to our security. I would suggest Allison look right in her own back yard, before joining her husband in scapegoating Israel.
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On Life After Zionist Summer Camp
@snarine I appreciate your thoughts. I also think you have not been exposed to much of the Israeli or U.S Jewish community. There is tremendous discussion, organization and advocacy for the rights of Palestinians and the creation of a Palestinian state. Read the Israeli newspaper "Ha'aretz" in English (on line), or the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. Dozens of major religious and secular Jewish organizations in Israel and the U.S. address the issues you write of. I believe you may be exposed only to ant-Israel propaganda, which engages in polemics to de-legitimize Israel. "Palestinians don't exist" is a misquotation of Golda Meir from many decades ago. The majority of Israelis and U.S. Jews are secular, so they do not believe that religious connection to "the land" means anything. As for her husband's supposed reaction based on being rejected by Allison's parents being "understandable", what part of hating an entire nation (or ethnic group) because of a personal insult is "understandable". Most people who generalize like this are considered bigots and racists.