Several months ago, I mentioned in passing an organization called "Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace." But I've only recently become aware of what exactly it is they're up to.
Their latest project is "A Call to Bring the Settlers Home to Israel" and, while it doesn't sink to the level of, say PETA's "Holocaust on Your Plate," it's one of the more offensive and racist campaigns against Israel I've encountered lately. That's in large part due to the fact that it masquerades as being supportive of the Jewish state while advocating a Judenrein 'West Bank.'
We are American Jews who care deeply about Israel and who are filled with sorrow by the continuous cycle of violence and death in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
coo the editors in the introduction to "The Call." Under the guise of concern for Israel's security and economy, Brit Tzedek is promoting a program to bribe Israelis living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza to abandon their embattled communities and "return" to the safe haven of Israel. Gee. According to "The Call," the settlers in general are a bunch of vapid, ideologically challenged opportunists anxious to jump ship at any chance to take a scrap of "compensation" thrown their way (a characterization BT claims is supported by a 2002 Peace Now "study" which, oddly enough, appears nowhere but on the webites of BT, Peace Now and Islam Online). Relying on this rock-solid foundation, the campaign seeks:
to provide generous foreign assistance and to solicit contributions from the European Union, other major industrial democracies and the United Nations for this massive relocation effort, irrespective of whether the Israeli government is ready to participate.
So much for democratic ideals. Well known Jewish "peace activists" like Ed Asner and Michael Lerner and Rabbi Arthur Waskow are included in the list of "endorsers" of this farce. So you know where they're coming from.
Regardless of how one feels about "settlements," this is the sort of patently dishonest oblivious-to-reality nonsense that makes my stomach churn. There are "settlements" and there are "outposts" and there are neighborhoods and suburbs of Jerusalem, and in the long run some of these will stand and others will fall, but it won't be due to the efforts of the Jews Without CluesTM.
Let me return to a point I've made too many times before. Until there are Arab groups advocating the "surrender" of Tel Aviv, there shouldn't be Jewish groups advocating the surrender of Ariel. And that's a "necessary," not a "sufficient," condition.
