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Perhaps the most provocative and challenging conversation at the Righteous Indignation conference was the Israel panel discussion which took place last night. The participants included Dr. Dianne Balser, Joseph Gindi, Dr. Leonard Fein, Rabbi Melissa Weintraub and Rabbi Brian Walt.
Listen in:
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Just returned to Los Angeles last night from the RI conference, and I’ll admit to some disappointment with the whole thing, particularly the Israel discussion. Now, first, an explanation: I was under the impression (and so were some others, apparently) that this was all going to be about making sure that Jews continue to vote progressively in 2008, with the unstated assumption that especially in some key states, there was a good possibility that questions of nat’l security and Israel would lead older Jewish voters to swing right. So we were going to talk about emphasizing the logical connection between Jewish ethics and progressive causes like the environment, healthcare etc., and how to remind potential right-leaning Jews of that connection.
If the panel had been about how to deal with the inevitable questions from many corners about “yes, I know that as a Jew I should be concerned about the environment, but my fear from Israel trumps that,” I would have found some utility for that. Instead, like with many aspects of this conference, I mostly heard a bunch of progressives talking to each other about progressivism, rather than a conversation about how to approach Jews who might not see, as clearly as we do, the imperative to vote progressively.
Interested to know if others felt the same way.
Sorry for messing in other people’s matter _as I don’t live in Israel and didn’t attend.
As far as I can compare with the History Memory Movement in Spain, practically new born in my country, the same is happening to 30-something people whose families have belonged to Left until now.
We have a proverb here… it’d say in English “I want justice for all, and food, and water, and human rights, and a good transport as a car for everyone in this whole world and… ‘ _Hey dude, and what about a motorbike? ‘ ‘You crazy??? I DO HAVE a motorbike!!!’”
It’s happening all across Europe, even in traditionally poor, emigrant-senders as Spain, Ireland, Italy… the more I realise this the more I believe the Progressists’ Challenge now is to roll over communities _I mean, coming back to the good-old idea of no land but man’s land and re-creating an internationalism of our own.
Sorry for the speech. I’m a looong-phrase-spanish-speaker after all.
Shalom galanos e doncellas. Salaam Alaicum
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