The list of endorsing organizations for Saturday’s march is full of Arab and Muslim groups, but there are no Jewish organizations listed. The Shalom Center in Philadelphia, a Jewish Renewal outpost, will participate in a Friday night Tu B’Shvat service and seder [that was January 17th] and a “nonviolent civil disobedience action against the war near the White House” on Sunday. But the group will not have an official presence at the rally — in part because of concerns about the anti-Israel themes.Even Michael Lerner is avoiding these marches.
“I do feel uncomfortable with the way that ANSWER deals with Israel, and for that reason have declined to speak at the event unless I was given enough time to present a case for those of us who are anti-war but pro-Israel,” said Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine. . . . Another Jewish activist said that “those of us who oppose the Iraq war are cut off. . . .Read the whole thing.
So - do you want A.N.S.W.E.R. running your antiwar protests? Let's see whether United for Peace forces Jews to leave their identity outside the big tent.
Kind of makes you nostalgic for the days when Michael Lerner was the peace movement.
PS. My previous comment about Instapundit never linking to KesherTalk has been superceded by reality. (Glenn says he did link to Kesher Talk before. Must have been before my time, in the late Cretaceous or thereabouts.)
UPDATE: Lynn alerts me to one of her posts the eve of the march which I missed at the time. Turns out Lerner did summon theTikkun crowd to the march, in his inimitable nerdy wordy style. When read more closely, the Jewish Week article infers from Lerner's statements that he was going to boycott the march, but he doesn't actually say that himself. He does say in his pre-march sermon to the troops:
We approached the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition and asked to be given enough time (minimum 15 minutes) to put forward our more complicated analysis, but were turned down.which is consistent with the Jewish Week article.
You know, now that I think about it . . . . it would take Lerner 15 minutes to make a point anyone else would make in 10. He needs one of those self-marketing courses which includes how to make a 30-second elevator speech.
Someone in comments asks where the article claims A.N.S.W.E.R. doesn't believe Israel has a right to exist. It's true I am inferring that, but my assumption is based on several years of reading statements by people at their point on the political circle. Also, Lerner is about as far as you can get on the Left and still believe Israel has a right to exist, so if they won't give him 15 min, and all the other speakers on Israel are from A.N.S.W.E.R.'s stable, what other conclusion am I supposed to draw?
UPDATE: Keep reading about the Shalom Center's attempts to maintain a principled approach to the anti-semitism of the antiwar movement.
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