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CounterPunch
February
14, 2003
LernerGate
None of this
Helps Kids in Iraq, But It Sure Got Michael Lerner Air Time
By CounterPunch News
Service
The story begins when Michael Lerner demands 15
minutes, a larger chunk than other scheduled speakers, to speak
at the January 18 antiwar march in San Francisco. The organizers,
IAC-ANSWER decline to give him the extended time.
Michael Lerner put out a letter on the
internet in which he wrote that the position "... the Tikkun
community have put forward is that the mobilizations have been
run by a group called ANSWER, itself dominated by a communist
sect group which is filled with hate toward Israel and wishes
to see it dismantled. It has used anti-war demonstrations to
demean Israel and to picture the war in Iraq as a war for Israeli
interests. "
Of course speakers at peace demonstrations
have denounced the appalling conduct of the Sharon government
towards Palestinians. And many have noted that Sharon and before
him Netanyahu have been pressing for a US attack on Iraq, which
would indeed vastly benefit Israel.
Feb. 10: Lerner's Tikkun website announced
that "Rabbi Michael Lerner can not speak at the peace rally
in San Francisco, February 16th. That was the response given
when various groups proposed Rabbi Lerner, thinking it logical
to have him speak since he is one of the most prominent peace
voices in the Jewish world.
"But Rabbi Lerner was blackballed
and banned by A.N.S.W.E.R., one of the four organizing committees
for the S.F. demonstration expected to attract hundreds of thousands.
The reason: Lerner had been critical of the way that A.N.S.W.E.R.
has used the anti-war demonstrations to put forward anti-Israel
propaganda...."
Feb. 10: An article appear on the Nation
magazine website by its Washington correspondent David Corn,
which coincided with Lerner's announcement and echoed his accusations,
charging that "the peaceniks pulling together the San
Francisco march and rally may have tainted their efforts by
allowing the banning of Rabbi Michael Lerner as a speaker."
"Lerner is the progressive Jew," Corn wrote.
David Corn earlier wrote in the Nation
website a disgusting piece of red-baiting about ANSWER, as had
another Nation writer, Marc Cooper.
Feb. 11: A call for a national Tikkun
Conference against the war went out to Tikkun's mailing list
in the morning that made no specific mention of his disagreements
with the February 16th coalition, which said, in part:
"The war with Iraq and the re-election
of Ariel Sharon make it imperative that we become mobilized
for nonviolent peaceful activity--and to promote a more sophisticated
(and not tinged with anti-Israel sentiments) critique of the
war, and a balanced, progressive middle path that is both pro-Israel
and pro-Palestine on the Middle East.
"The large anti-war coalitions are
a step, but they need the kind of help that you and I can give
them by bringing into public discourse and into the media the
more nuanced and persuasive perspective which you and I can
supply.
"To do that, we need to recognize
what is legitimate in the fears of many Americans post 9/11
and what is legitimate in the fears of many Israelis about terror
from some Palestinians...".
"Nuanced" essentially means,
Keep Israel's name out of this.
Feb. 11: The Tikkun website announced
that it had "received ...[a] letter from Marc Cooper at
The Nation magazine..[who] has taken the lead in organizing
a public response to the irresponsible actions of those who
have sought to keep Rabbi Lerner from speaking at the anti-
war demonstration in SF this weekend."
It reads, in part, that, "We, the
undersigned, protest ANSWER's refusal to let Rabbi Lerner speak
at this Sunday's rally. At a time when the antiwar movement
needs as broad a platform and as broad an appeal as possible,
ANSWER has chosen instead to put the interests of sectarianism
ahead of the interests of all those who oppose this foolish
and unnecessary war. We believe this is a serious mistake, and
that it exemplifies ANSWER's unfitness to lead mass mobilizations
against war in Iraq.'
The letter contains the signatures of
many media activists, including at least a dozen who write for
The Nation.
Feb 11: The letter co-authored by Cooper
and Michael Berube, professor of American literature at Penn
State, is posted on the Common Dreams website and on David Horowitz's
Front Page website, under the heading, Peace Demonstration Bares
its Anti-Semitic Teeth, by The Nation and Tikkun Magazines."
On February 7, Berube participated in forum on the anti-war
movement, hosted by Horowitz for his website. His fellow panelists
were regular red-baiters Sean Wilentz, of Princeton, and Ron
Radosh, of the Hudson Instititute
The trap is sprung by a coalition of
people who have either slandered the existing peace movement
(Cooper, Berube et al) and straightforward Bombardiers for Bush,
like Horowitz, with whom Cooper and Berube appear to beentirely
comfortable. The protest letter is signed by many people ,
such as the well respected Howard Zinn, who have spared themselves
the convenience of raising even the mildest bleat about the
oppression of Palkestinians down the decades.
Feb. 11: A four-part mailing is sent
out by Tikkun that contains: "I. Banning of Lerner--background;
II. Op-ed by Rabbi Lerner (that will appear two days later in
the Wall Street Journal; III. Article [by Corn] from The Nation.com
about Banning of Lerner; IV. Letter Being Circulated Nationally
by The Nation (sic) protesting the banning of Lerner from speaking
at the anti-war rally."
So now Lerner has found his podium in
the the most fervent advocate of war among all US newspapers,
the Wall Street Journal.
Feb. 11: The February 16th organizing
coalition (Bay Area United Against
War, Not in Our Name Project, International
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, and United for Peace & Justice)
issued a statement refuting Lerner's allegations, explaining
that it was not Lerner's politics but his prior public criticism
of A.N.S.W.E.R. that led to him not being asked to speak. According
to the statement:
"One of the first agreements that
was made between the groups organizing the Feb. 16 anti-war
protest was that none of the coalitions would propose rally
speakers who had publicly attacked or worked to discredit one
of the coalition groups. When members of the Tikkun Community,
who have actively participated in the organizing meetings for
Feb. 16, suggested to Bay Area United for Peace and Justice
that it propose Michael Lerner as a speaker, it was explained
by members of UPJ that since he had publicly attacked A.N.S.W.E.R.
in both the New York Times and Tikkun community email newsletters,
his inclusion in the program would violate the agreement among
the Feb. 16 organizing groups. At that time, Tikkun representatives
expressed that it would not be a problem if Michael Lerner was
not proposed as a speaker."
The gullible organizers failed to see
the trap being baited, right before their very eyes.
Feb. 11 Lerner is interviewed on Pacifica
stations KPFK and KPFA.
Feb. 12 An article appears on the front
page of the San Francisco Chronicle, with the headline, "A
Mideast rift in peace coalition; S.F. rabbi highlights speaker
controversy. It reads, in part:
"A controversy over efforts to have
a Bay Area Jewish leader address Sunday's anti-war rally in
San Francisco is raising a politically radioactive issue that
a coalition of groups putting on the event had hoped to avoid
-- the peace movement's attitude toward Israel and the Palestinians."
Feb. 12 Liat Weingart from A Jewish Voice
for Peace in Berkeley writes:
"Rabbi Lerner was not banned at
all from speaking. A Jewish Voice for Peace is having a speaker
at the same demonstration, and two other rabbis from
San Francisco are also speaking. Marisa
Handler, a representative from Tikkun, was present at the meeting
of United for Peace where it was decided that Michael would
not speak. She was asked three times if she was comfortable
having someone else speak, and she said that she was, again
and again. A week passed after this meeting, without incident,
and then Michael decided to send a press release, stating that
he was banned because of his views. This is patently false and
has been tremendously destructive. We have been overloaded with
trying to right this wrong, and it has distracted us from our
work of organizing for this Sunday's demonstration. I urge you
to please set the record straight."
Feb 12: Michael Lerner sends out a response
to emails he has received criticizing his position, accusing
the left of anti-Semitism. He writes, in part that:
"The progressive world has never
seriously considered how anti-Semitism functions in their thinking.
That's why it comes as a shock to many morally decent people
on the Left to hear that many Jews hear their criticisms of
Israel as anti-Semitic. So they defend themselves by insisting
that criticism of Israeli is not anti-Semitic. And they are
partly right.
"But context is everything. It's
not the fact of criticizing Israel, but the one-sidedness and
the selecting out of Israel for special focus. We in the TIKKUN
Community have been outspoken critics of Israeli repression
of Palestinian rights. But we've also been outspoken in our
criticism of acts of terror against Israeli civilians. We've
called for Palestinians to reject all forms of violence and
follow the lead of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi, whose
struggles against oppression were successful in part because
they conveyed to the oppressor that the oppressed still recognized
their humanity and hence would not take acts of cruel revenge
the moment they could. It was that same spirit that made possible
the transformation of South Africa under the leadership of Nelson
Mandela. Acts of terror, on the other hand, drive the Israeli
population into the hands of the most right-wing forces in Israeli
society. So if one attends a rally in which Israel is being
critiqued without this larger context, the feeling of bashing
Israel becomes predominant.
"And then, if Israel's human rights
abuses are selected out as the major focus, only reserving more
abuse for the U.S. government, then we have to ask: Why is there
such silence at these demonstrations about the far greater human
rights abuses of Saddam Hussein? Or of China in Tibet? or of
Russian in Chechnya? or of the regimes in Saudia Arabia and
Syria and Egypt and dozens of other states?
"The selective focus on Israel,
coupled with the unfair way that the situation is portrayed
(e.g. "Israeli apartheid" --apparently with no awareness
that Arabs living within the pre-67 borders of Israel have their
own political parties and representatives in the Knesset, are
not legally restricted from being on the same beaches and same
movie theatres as Jews, and face discrimination that is far
less intense than, say, the discrimination that Jews face in
Saudi Arabia)."
So far as CounterPunch is aware, Russia,
China and Arab nations are not pressing the US into attacking
Iraq.
Feb. 12: Lerner's op-ed article, now
titled The Anti-War Anti-Semites is published in the Wall Street
Journal.
Feb 13: The Jewish Voice for Peace newsletter
responds to the situation.
It reads, in part:
"A frenzy has been whipped up around
the issue of whether or not Rabbi Michael Lerner will speak
at the upcoming demonstration in San Francisco, taking place
on Sunday, February 16. The accusation that the anti-war movement
does not incorporate Jewish voices is a serious one, one that
deserves a serious response.
"At A Jewish Voice for Peace, we
have found close and staunch allies in the anti-war coalition.
We have found that our opinion is sought time and time again
and that our stance in support for a truly just peace between
Israelis and Palestinians and respect for Israeli human rights
as well as Palestinians' has been respected and represented
in the speakers that have been chosen. At the upcoming demonstration,
Mitchell Plitnick, Director of Administration and Communication
for JVP, will speak, along with Israeli refusenik Ofer Shorr,
and Kate Raphael from San Francisco Women in Black, Rabbi Steven
Pierce, Rabbi Pam Frydman-Baugh, and Rabbi David Cooper. This
represents a broad spectrum of Jewish anti-war views.
"Rabbi Lerner's views are welcomed
in the coalition. He is an important spokesperson for the movement
for peace and justice in Israel and Palestine. It was because
he criticized one of the coalition partners, ANSWER, in the
New York Times and over TikkunMail, that the coalition, including
the Tikkun representative present at the meeting, decided that
we were capable of finding another speaker with views similar
to his who did not openly attack a coalition partner. Therefore
the question of Rabbi Lerner speaking was never even brought
before the coalition's program committee. The proviso that anyone
who had taken such action would not be welcomed to speak can
be debated, but it was agreed to well in advance by all members
of this coalition.
Feb. 13: KRON-TV in San Francisco gives
Lerner a five minute segment to criticize International A.N.S.W.E.R.
without any rebuttal.
For CounterPunch's
position on whether Lerner should speak, click here.
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