Monday, December 19, 2011

Saying Hello

I want to thank Dusty for inviting me to participate with you guys here at Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers. I am a long-time pro-Israel blogger who usually goes under the name of "Karmafish," although I am becoming more and more inclined to use my real name, which is Michael Lumish. I am a PhD in American History who has taught at Penn State University, San Francisco State University, and City College of San Francisco.

I also have my own blog, Israel Thrives, which I invite you guys to come visit and participate in according to your will. My partners on that blog go by the names of "Doodad" and "oldschooltwentysix." Doodad, School and myself do not necessarily agree on everything, but my major focus is as a liberal critic of the progressive-left when it comes to the Arab-Israel conflict. I come out of that movement, and out of that party, and believe that we have every right to object to what is going on within it... even as we distance ourselves from it.

I generally have two themes. The first is that the progressive-left, as a movement, and the grassroots / netroots of the Democratic Party have, essentially, betrayed their Jewish constituency by welcoming anti-Semitic anti-Zionists as part of the larger coalition. Anyone who reads Daily Kos (which was at one time my home blog) or the Huffington Post or the UK Guardian, knows that when it comes to the Israel-Palestine conflict (I-P) not a day goes by wherein Israel is not demeaned, defamed, and dehumanized. Those on the progressive-left who speak the loudest as critics of Israel tend to not so much criticize that country as drag it through the mud at every possible opportunity.

This development, the rise of anti-Semitic anti-Zionism and the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction the Jewish state (BDS) is exceedingly dangerous to the Jewish people for the obvious reason that they want Israel to be dissolved as a Jewish state and toward that end they are endeavoring to delegitimize that country to western audiences. It is our job, as people who care about the Jewish people and the Jewish state, to counter their efforts by any means necessary.

My other major theme is that the Palestinians do not want a country in peace next to the Jewish one, for if they did they would have accepted any one of the numerous offers for statehood which they have consistently rejected from 1937, with the British Peel Commission offer, to Olmert's 2008 offer a Palestinian state comprised of 100 percent of Gaza, well over 90 percent of Judea and Samaria (which the Jordanians dubbed "the West Bank") in a contiguous area, and the Arab sections of Jerusalem as a capital.

It should be obvious that if the Palestinians wanted a state for themselves in peace next to the Jewish one then perhaps they would have accepted precisely that at some point over the last seventy plus years.

In any case, I want to thank you guys for welcoming me into this community because reaching out to one another is our only option in this struggle.

You have my thanks.

Oh, and by the way, I would very much recommend not voting for the Democrats this cycle. Another theme that you will be hearing from me is concerned with the failure of the Obama administration's Middle East policy and the need to make certain that Democrats do not take their Jewish constituency for granted.

11 comments:

oldschooltwentysix said...

Nice gig!

Mike L. said...

Heyyyy.

Nice to see you here, School.

Let's work with Dusty and Cushman and the other people here in order to help breathe additional life into this joint, eh?

Israel Thrives

Anonymous said...

We often ponder why our local " progressives" imagine that the Arab-Israeli Conflict is solely based on a recent dispute over real estate and how much ignorance of history is necessary to believe their nonsense. Usually, after some thought and analysis, it boils down to thread of traditional Anti-Semitism woven deeply into the tapestry of the " Left".

R

DrMike said...

Karmafish-- welcome to this particular outpost of the Bay Area's branch of the " worldwide Zionist conspiracy"!

however, I would caution against a blanket "don't vote for the Democrats" statement. Many Democrats have been-- and still are-- stalwart supporters of Israel. In races with open seats there are strong proIsrael/anti-BDS voices on the Democratic side.
Yes, there is no doubt that the Democrats also host far more of the antiIsrael activists. In most cases, though, they are rejected in the Democratic primaries (cf Marcy Winograd's repeated failures in LA). In any individual race, let's judge the candidate based on his or her individual record and position.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the club. Once you start researching progressive stances you find more and more to reject. You wonder, if they are lying about Israel, what else are they lying about? I now see most of my oldest and dearest friends as akin to the Stalinist apologists of a previous generation. Chavez, Castro, the Sandinista handling of their "kulaks" and the Miskitos, and on and on...

Anonymous said...

The Sandinistas of Nicaragua actually liberated the people from a brutal regime.

Try not to drag your knuckles too much.

Anonimo said...

"The Sandinistas of Nicaragua actually liberated the people from a brutal regime.
"


And then instituted their rule over the Miskito. In some ways, no less brutal than what the Spanish and Hispanics did. The attitudes towards Indios in all of Latin America is rather repulsive.
It's a racial thing. Like many Anglos, 'educated' Hispanics tend to think that they are by right at the apex of whatever dung-heap they've taken over.

juliette.bensimon said...

Hello! Welcome to the team!

Mike L. said...

Thanks, Juliette.

Dusty said...

Indeed, welcome to the team- now you are part of one, big dysfunctional over-caffineated family.

The back of the hill said...

Who said I was dysfunctional? It was my mother, wasn't it? Wasn't it?!!??

In any case, welcome.