The following is a compendium of duplicitous and manipulative Judeo centric statements that illustrate precisely what many of us dread to admit – liberal Jews are not the solution; they are the core of the problem. These quotes are taken from a transcript of Rabbi Alissa Wise’s speech to a Christian Pro Palestinian organisation- Friends of Sabeel, North America Conference in Vancouver, BC, April 2015.
Rabbi Alissa Wise is not a Zionist zealot, she is much worse – a supremacist Jew dressed in dove’s clothing. Rabbi Alissa Wise is also JVP’s Director of Campaigns.
The Holocaust
In order to prepare the Christian crowd at Friends of Sabeel for the brutal emotional sodomy ahead, Rabbi Wise realizes that she must lubricate the minds and souls of her Christian listeners with some Jewish victimhood. The primacy of Jewish suffering must be proclaimed and recognized by all. The Holocaust is the Rabbi’s natural point of departure.
“At that Jewish Day School,” says the Rabbi, “education about the Nazi Holocaust was a centerpiece of our learning. In High School, I visited Auschwitz, Majdonek and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps with my Jewish youth movement. We were told stories of how the Christian world was complicit in Nazism and their crimes. I sobbed and wailed at each visit to the camps, horrified and disturbed. I knew then my life would be about interrupting today’s violence and hatred however I could.”
The Christians at Friends of Sabeel are then rewarded by their rabbinical master for being kind to the Jews. “I see you all working hard to get out from underneath the history of Christian violence against Jews.”
Once granted partial absolution from their ‘history of Christian violence,’ the flock is ready. Now the Rabbi can lead her sheep through the peculiar universe of Jewish Liberal solidarity.
United Against Anti Semitism
As you might anticipate, the Rabbi insists upon enlisting the Friends of Sabeel in the fight against anti Semitism. In the Jewish Liberal universe you can’t save the Palestinians unless you first vow your allegiance to the Jews. But let’s find out what anti-Semitism is in the eyes of JVP’s director of campaigns.
Anti-Semitism, just like other forms of oppression, lumps all Jewish people together and assigns us a set of characteristics. Some of the stereotypes we hear include: Jews are rich, Jews are stingy, Jews are smart, Jews control the media, or Jews are to blame for whatever the current crisis is.
In The Wandering Who, I delve into the fascinating relationship between Jews and Jewish stereotypes. Though many Jews are happy to identify themselves as Jews and proudly display their Jewish symptoms, Jews are often offended when a reference is made to them as Jews or to their Jewish symptoms.
Jews are amongst the richest and most influential people in the world. The Jewish media brags about it on a daily basis. Jews also brag about their Nobel prices and their dominance in academia, media and culture. Yet, for some reason it is forbidden for the Goyim to look into these topics. Both ADL and the JVP Rabbinical council are determined to stop it.
“Anti-Jewish sentiment,” the Rabbi continues, “has always served the interests of classism and white supremacy, by placing Jews as middle agents and scapegoats for the crimes of the ruling classes, thus obscuring the structural nature of injustices.”
Is it true? Were Jews ‘placed’ as ‘middle agents’ or, if true, was it a role that was determined by their own culture, religion and by their own choice? According to Israel Shahak it is the Jewish religion that drove Jews into such a role in society. Was it the crimes of the ‘ruling classes’ that made Jews hated by the European working classes in the 1930s? Is it the crimes of the French ‘ruling class’ that makes Jews hated in France at the moment? The shameless Rabbi constructs an imaginary history, probably hoping that none of the Christians in the room are brave enough to confront her spin.
Apparently, the vast over-representation of Jews in media, finance, political lobbying and culture is not enough as far as the rabbi is concerned. She wants to see more Jewish influence.
Despite the lack of structural barriers for Jews in the US, we still live in a country whose dominant culture is Christian. Many Jews in the US and Canada still feel very much like the “other” in society, as do other non-Christian people. These feelings are real, and not easy.
Did it occur to the Rabbi that it is more than likely that Jews are attached to their ‘Otherness’? They cling to it and won’t let it go regardless of their achievements and relative success. This is probably the kernel of the Holocaust fetish that has made it into dominant religion. In reality, it is the American people who are Otherized by Jewish cultural hegemony.
United Against Christianity
Watch Rabbi Wise Seeking the Peace of Jerusalem:
The Rabbi has a lot of very clever ‘challenging’ suggestions for her Christian listeners: “To that end, I offer a challenge to you all as Christians in this movement: what can you all do to confront and address Christian hegemony in the world, and in our work organizing for justice?”
The Rabbi, who just a few minutes earlier insisted that looking at Jews in the media, banking and politics is anti Semitic, is now telling the Christians to examine “ways Christian dominance manifests in our media, educational systems, and pop culture.”
If it is kosher to talk about ‘Christian dominance’ why is it anti Semitic to explore Jewish domination? Is it because the Rabbi believes that Jews are somehow chosen and their cultural and political symptoms are beyond criticism or scrutiny? Or is it because in Rabbi Wise’s mind the American Christians are already ‘Otherized’ and excluded from the discussion?
Here Rabbi Wise attempts to alert her Christian listeners to their ‘domineering powers’: “Have you ever been given a school vacation or paid holiday related to Christmas or Easter when school vacations or paid Holidays for Ramadan or the Jewish High Holidays were not observed?”
Apparently reducing Christmas into a commercial holiday was not enough to appease our Jew liberals at JVP. The Rabbi has a point here – if ‘turning the other cheek’ is a part of their religious practice, why don’t these Christians just submit once and for all?
Are public institutions you use, such as offices, buildings, banks, parking meters, the post office, libraries, and stores, open on Fridays and Saturdays but closed on Sundays?
The Rabbi is correct again. Israel is a very successful economy. It is closed for business on Sabbath and open on Sunday. Why can’t the Americans just copy the Israeli business model?
Is the calendar year you observe calculated from the year designated as the birth of Christ?
Believe it or not, I agree with the Rabbi once again. If the Holocaust is our new official religion, shouldn’t we make the liberation of Auschwitz into our year zero? Accordingly every historical date should be re-calibrated as BA (Before Auschwitz) or AA (After Auschwitz). Christ accordingly was born 1945 BA. The Palestinians were expelled from their Land on year 3 and so on. I am starting to like this idea.
Have you ever seen a public institution in your community, such as a school, hospital, or city hall, decorated with Christian symbols (such as Christmas trees, wreaths, portraits or sculptures of Jesus, nativity scenes, “Commandment” displays, or crosses).
The Rabbi is right again. This desperate attempt made by hundreds of millions of Christians to celebrate their heritage achieves very little except to annoy the Jews. Why can’t these Christians just love their Jewish neighbours as they claim to do and just burn their own Churches and symbols voluntarily?
Liberal Jews And Their Many Privileges
Choseness is a very problematic Jewish concept, and here the Liberal Jews have far surpassed their Zionist twins. Rabbi Wise is obviously an uber chosenite.
For those of us who are Jewish in the movement, we strongly feel the obligation – strategically and morally – to speak out when false charges of anti-Semitism are used to tar the movement.
Here we go, the application of ‘anti Semitism’ is faulty unless the charge is made by a liberal Jews or JVP members.
As Jews we often find ourselves in a position of privilege in this realm. Partially this is because Jews can be the most effective at rebutting the accusations of anti-Semitism which can paralyze BDS efforts, and partially because our overall place in society, and our perceived connection to Israel, gives us greater credibility by society at large than Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian people.
Our JVP Rabbi has anointed herself as the ultimate decider of who and what is kosher and allowed in the movement. Clearly, she is better qualified than the Palestinians whose rights have been demolished. This is the true contribution of our Jewish allies – a kosher thought police. This fake progressive rabbinical cleric is openly admitting that she is privileged but instead of disowning it, she celebrates her privilege to the hilt. This is the real meaning and manifestation of Jewish supremacy. The Rabbi expects the Christians in the room to disown their cultural ‘hegemony’ while at the same time she brags about her symptoms and privileges.
And if you want to grasp, once and for all what ‘Jewish universalism’ is all about, just take it from the Rabbi’s mouth.
As progressive people who are part of a social justice movement who should model the change we want to see in the world — we all need to speak out to make sure that everyone’s full humanity is respected in all cases and at all times.
So please tell us dear Rabbi, how many Goyim are members of your Jews-only JVP’s board? When the Rabbi refers to herself and JVP as ‘progressive people’ she is basically referring to the welcoming attitude towards Jewish transgender, Jewish gays, Jewish bi-sexual, Jewish transsexual, Shemale Cantors and female Rabbis with facial hair, etc.1 The Goyim are somehow left out of that ‘universal synagogue.’ In truth, I can’t think of any Gentile sick enough to join this exclusion of Gentiles morbidity, not even for Palestine.
Towards the end of her scandalous tribal supremacist rant the Rabbi decided to teach her subservient Christian audience how to differentiate between kosher speech and an anti Semitic rant.
This is kosher speech: “A clear criticism of Israel would be: Israel has a repeated and on going record of human rights offenses.”
But, this is an anti Semitic slur: “A way to say this same idea in a way that reflects anti-Semitic sentiment, even unwittingly, would be to say: “Israel is a worse humans rights violator than most or all other countries.”
Hang on Rabbi, Israel IS a worse human rights violator than most or all other countries. If you don’t agree with that, why are you wasting the time of Friends of Sabeel who support Palestine?
According to the Rabbi the following is kosher: “the corporate media provide one-dimensional, sensationalized coverage, usually biased toward whatever side the US government is backing – when they cover it at all.”
And here is the what the Rabbi regard as an anti-Semitic’ rant: “The media, controlled by Zionists, never talks about the plight of Palestinians.”
Hang on again. The media IS controlled by Zionists. The Rabbi is spinning again and she is doing it consciously. The rabbi is making peculiarly sophisticated argument. It is Jewish interests and Jewish sensitivities that dominate Western media. Through the back door, Rabbi Wise attempts to sanitize the dissident discourse of arguments against Zionism.
With such Jewish ‘allies’, the Palestinians don’t need enemies?
According to the JVP rabbi, complaining that “many Israeli soldiers justify their actions toward Palestinians by saying they are just following orders,” is super kosher.
But declaring that ‘Israelis are just like Nazis,’ is evil and anti Semitic.
First, I would like to remind the Rabbi that Nazi soldiers and officers also followed orders. Would such an elementary equivalence be enough to vindicate the Germans once and for all?
Like the Rabbi, I also oppose to the banal repeated attempt to equate Israel with Nazi Germany. As a part of my parody act I strongly oppose it because ‘it gives Nazis bad name.’ On a serious note, the argument positions the National Socialist regime as the ultimate evil and lets the Jewish State off the hook. Comparing Israel with Nazi Germany sustains the primacy of Jewish suffering by referencing the Holocaust religion.
Israel is a democracy and, as such, its crimes reflect on the entire society, something that cannot be said about National Socialist Germany.
Moral Bankruptcy
“What is hateful to you, do not do to others,” the Rabbi tells her Christian listeners in an attempt to mimic ethical thinking. A bit of Hutzpah on the Rabbi’s Part. As we saw above, in her talk, the Rabbi continuously did just that- She insisted that looking at Jewish domination is hateful (anti-Semitic) while criticising ‘Christian domination’ and culture. Maybe this is the right time to advise Rabbi Wise that Christians do not dominate America or the West, they are actually the dominant group. Can the rabbi accept that it is totally natural for dominant groups to celebrate their cultural heritage in the open? Even if the Jews are upset by it?
The rabbi finalizes her diatribe of lies with a uniquely delusional observation.
My work alongside Christians is an important challenge to those dangerous and disempowering messages I learned growing up. I no longer believe Jews are inevitably alone in the world, but in fact quite the opposite. I now see just how much we are there for each other.
Here the Rabbi is wrong. The Jews are more lonely than ever and a Rabbi lying to a Christian audience for 90 minutes won’t help. The more powerful the Jews become, the more fearful they become of the possible consequences of their actions. Jewish fear of anti Semitism is fuelled by the Jewish acknowledgment that anti Semitism is a reaction to Jewish bad behaviour. And yet, it is peculiar that neither Rabbi Wise nor JVP leadership detect the Jewish supremacist tone in Rabbi Wise’s speech. Once again, it was Ned Rosenberg, the JVP dissenter who insisted that I look into this obscure tribal chauvinist diatribe.
But there is something that must be said about the Christians at Friends of Sabeel. The fact that they tolerated this infuriating Jewish exceptionalist speech for 90 minutes and didn’t lynch the Rabbi on the spot proves that the Christianity may well be what it claims to be – tolerant and forgiving.
- I, DV editor, Kim, asked Gilad Atzmon to clarify his stance on LGBTQ: “As you know, I am supporting right of all people but also critical of marginal politics as divisive.”