Reply to The Rush to Judge Ilhan Omar

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[quote=Anonymous]David Rothkopf, former CEO and editor of Foreign Policy, had an awesome set of tweets that I wholly support and encourage everyone to read:

I'm a Jew. I'm not a Zionist. I believe Israel is a key ally. I also believe the current gov't of Israel is a menace & a serial human rights violator & many of its policies are not in the U.S. interest. Being critical of that gov't is in the interest of both the US & Israel.

I also believe there's no place for anti-Semitism or intolerance, racism, or prejudice of any sort in any aspect of US life. We all owe each other the respect and tolerance we ourselves would demand. That means we must understand & be sensitive to coded language & hateful tropes.

Would-be leaders and public officials who represent diverse communities have a special responsibility in this regard.  We benefit from vigorous debate from different perspectives on our foreign policy choices.  We are damaged by prejudice & hate-mongering.

We need to recognize those two ideas are not only not in conflict, they are inextricably related, they are essential parts of who we aspire to be as a free democratic and richly, proudly diverse society.

p.s.  I have receive a number of questions about what it means not to be a Zionist.  While I respect the claims of indigenous and ancient peoples to lands they once occupied or have continuously occupied, the nature of human history...

makes granting national sovereignty to all with such claims impossible. Similarly, granting those with a claim in one period hundreds or thousands of years ago preference to others with similar claims would be very difficult to adjudicate fairly.

We need to find solutions that honor historical claims & it seems to me those must be based on both respect and tolerance.  For me, it is also therefore key, to adhere to the principle of separation of church and state in all societies--another approach incompatible with Zionism.

The only solutions to the complexity of claims and affinities thrown at us by world history is civil societies that are scrupulously neutral on such issues except to guarantee minority rights and accommodations reach through negotiations among all parties.

In short, I believe in some old Jewish principles--like values-based societies, the struggle to perfect ourselves and our world, and respect for the law and for learning from history.  And that is why I can't embrace the idea of Zionism.

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