Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Drawn into the debate with Canadian Jewish leaders

As someone with Jewish blood in me who is not technically a Jew, and who is not a follower of Judaism, except as a Christian who thinks the heart of David is the best thing about the old testament, besides the depth of vision of prophets like Isaiah, I developed a romanticized notion of Jews from having guided canoe trips at a Jewish camp in Algonquin Park way back when and so still love a great many more Jews than I even know Muslims. However, I nonetheless find this whole issue of Israel's treatment of Palestinians both anti-Semitic, and a symptom of the hard-hearted, stiff-necked tendency of Jewish leaders to dam the rivers of justice. There should have been a Jubiliee in 1998-99, justice should have been done to the Palestinians, justice still needs to be done. The idea that conservative Jews can simply ignore the demands of Jubilee is highly offensive to me and to scriptural prophecy. No amount of propaganda can change that fact. And that doesn't make me an Islamist, it makes me just one more voice crying out in the wilderness for Jewish leaders to let justice flow like a river. As for Warren Kinsella, his position is always in opposition to conservative propagandists: the idea that he is somehow promoting anti-Jewish sentiment by railing against reactionary elements in Canadian Judaism is absurd. The idea that he may be a closet Islamist is equally absurd, he's on the same side of the denial of Israelis first, Palestinians last as much of the Jewish leadership is, left or right. By the Rivers of Babylon I sit down and weep when I remember Zion.

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