Religious Dialogue as a Method for Peace in the Middle East

cross-posted here from a live-blogging session at the J Street Conference on jewcy.com

Along with plenty of student bloggers at the J Street conference, I've been blown away by the excitement and the empowerment that has come out of it.

I stopped by the Jewcy booth on my way out of a breakout session on religious dialogue and was roped into sitting down and posting (although it didn't take much effort to convince me).

The panel had a prominent representative from each Abrahamic faith, all talking about how although the Israel-Palestine conflict is not inherently a religious conflict (its based in territorial and ethnic differences), religion plays a huge part in furthering differences, but it can be used to work towards peace.

One of the things that stuck with me is some of the comments that Salam Al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said. Earlier in the day, a friend of mine had said that she was concerned that while many people had been talking about Israel's faults and mistakes, no one had been rebuking the Palestinians for the rocket-fire into Sderot and for extremist rhetoric coming from Hamas. This can easily lead to a criticism of the conference for being blindly left-leaning and ignoring some of the important issues that Israelis deal with.

But what resonated with me about this panel was that Al-Murayati, the only Muslim speaker at the conference that I know of, was the most vocal in criticizing members of his own faith for their immoral actions.

This creates a critical message that I believe this conference is bringing to the Israel-Palestine debate. I fear imperialism and I fear people who impose their views on other cultures and ethnicities. One of my main criticisms of the established right-leaning pro-Israel lobby is that they rebuke Palestinians for everything they do, but see Israel as flawless and with a clean slate. But to hear Jews criticizing Jews and Muslims criticizing Muslims is to me an essential part of our individual faiths. Just as in Isaiah we have the quote, "Justice, justice you shall pursue," Al-Murayati also quoted the Koran saying (and I apologize if I vehemently misquote and paraphrase) "Oh you believers, you must promote justice even if it is against your own people and communities" and "One human life is more important than the entire Kabbah."

This is a voice that needs to be heard and publicized, especially throughout the political right, who seem to ignore it. We have an ethical responsibility to criticize ourselves and to allow space for other groups to make their own personal criticisms.

This conference is the beginning of a new movement in leftwing pro israel, pro peace, politics and to see a religious element that supports it is really awesome to see, considering my own religious background.

Why, Adam Sandler, Why?

Last night I was intending to see this really cool documentary at the Pacific Film Archive called The Decline of Western Civilization (with the director present) about Punk in the early 80's, but it was sold out. So after some discussion, we headed over to pay 10 bucks for Adam Sandler's new movie about an Israeli hair dresser.
I'll admit, it was exactly what I expected it to be. It was incredibly stupid with some funny slapstick and we were the only ones in the theater laughing at the Israeli jokes. But one thing that I didn't expect to see (although I guess I should have) was all the horrendous stereotyping that went on throughout the film. I didn't like constant use of the word feygele to make fun of hair dressers (yet a fair criticism of the macho attitude of Israeli society), and the terrible way that Palestinians were portrayed. Jack Shaheen is having a field day with this movie.
At the beginning there was a funny bit of dialogue that showed that the makers of the movie weren't total Islamophobic idiots. As Zohan, the superhuman Israeli counter-terrorism commando, has a fight scene with Hamas terrorists, in between punches in kicks they begin to argue about the conflict saying, "you know, its not so cut and dry, we've been here for a long time" "Right, and there were never any Jews in the Middle East." After hearing that exchange I had false hopes that the movie would continue with witty, intelligent humor instead of Sandler's usual poo poo jokes, but I was wrong. I should have remembered that movies like this are funny for the first ten minutes in order to hook you, and then they just get stupid.
They started blurring the lines between Arab and Palestinian, at some points given them Saudi head coverings, confusing the Lebanese flag with the Palestinian flag, and persisting the Arab stereotypes that have been going on since the beginning of Hollywood. The writers must have done their homework. I can just see them watching Lawrence of Arabia, taking notes, and saying, "Yeah, thats offensive and inaccurate, let's add that to the storyboard." Having the evil Palestinian leader surrounded by a harem of belly dancers and making the Arabs so incompetent that they couldn't figure out how to make a bomb, forcing them to call the Hizbollah hotline, must have been taken straight out of Arabs in American Media 101.
I understand that stereotypes are funny and that they are an easy way to introduce a character in a short period of time, but we shouldn't be trying to persist those stereotypes. It is movies like these that lead to the experience that I had in the airport in Detroit. Producers should start focusing less on "how can we make the most money with the least amount of thought" and more on "how can we make a great movie that will be funny for a mainstream audience."
Even comedic movies that focus on stereotypes can be made intelligent. Take Borat, for example. It was a smart film because they used stereotypes to poke fun at the kind of people who use and believe these stereotypes. So although there were parts of the movie that seemed anti-semitic, in reality they were making fun of anti-semites and may have even opened peoples consciousness to antisemitism. We need more Sacha Baron Cohen films.

A Fascist Against Islamo-Fascism

Earlier this week this cartoon appeared in the student newspaper at the University of Madison - Milwaukee. It is a depiction of David Horowitz, a Jewish neocon who associates with that constituency for Jews who support Islamophobia. He's been traveling around the US, going to different universities and doing this Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week which is all about scaring people about the evils of political Islam and how it threatens the US. He's the kind of guy who would show Obsession every hour on the hour on Tisha B'Av (An Aish tactic) and call upon moderate Muslims to save their religion.
When David Horowitz came here, he caused a bit of a commotion (as was his plan, I'm sure). His donors paid for a page add in the Badger Herald calling out the MSA of being a Jihadist organization and coercing them to support him or else he would have them blacklisted. Of course, the MSA didn't support him and, in fact, they went to his talk and wore all green in solidarity. They didn't speak out in order to protest the event like the ISO did which I'm glad because I think disruption of free speech is a cowardly tactic. But anyways, Horowitz is exactly the kind of AIPAC-loving Jew that is screwing things up for American Judaism as well as Israel's image in America.
So he decided to come over to UW-M to have an Islamo-Fascism Week There, and this cartoon was distributed by the MSA. Apparently, the person who drew it is not part of the MSA, they just distributed it. But I think the cartoon is great, it's a great representation of David Horowitz. He loves to call out organizations as being fascist but his methods are so medieval: He blacklists, he promotes hate, and he's just an overall unpleasant guy. So when I saw this cartoon in the Badger Herald I thought it was so funny and I was in immediate support.
And, to make things even better, Horowitz's reaction to the cartoon perfectly exemplified his character. He flipped out and called it antisemitic, arguing that they gave him a hooknose so its obviously slander and wildly inappropriate. Couldn't have been more spot on, right? Of course he pulls the antisemitism card, making him the victim and the MSA the badguys. It's perfect. And his arguments are so funny too:

“Sure, it’s free speech. It’s just inappropriate for a campus. I don’t think the university should have banned it from being posted, but had that been a cartoon on blacks or gays, there would have been hell to pay — there should be one standard rule.”

What? I don't know if Horowitz has a hooknose or not, and in fact, I don't think it really matters. I just don't see how a critique over his political views has anything to do with being black or gay. No one said anything about his Judaism, and if we accept his argument by imagining the same cartoon where he is black or wearing a pink scarf, would that change anything about his caveman attitude?
Mohamad Elsayed, president of the MSA of UW-M summarizes Horowitz's whole demeanor very eloquently:

“In typical demagogic form, Horowitz tries to characterize the very legitimate and very justifiable attack against him as an attack on all Jews. How ludicrous.”

The Jewish community in Milwaukee really freaked out too and is in full support behind Horowitz, speaking out against antisemitism. I hate how the conservative Jewish communities go along with this propaganda, it's a chillul Hashem. Hopefully, my generation of progressive Jews and Muslims can work to get rid of this nonsense. Enshallah.