In advance of this weekend’s BDS conference at the University of Pennsylvania, we are highlighting five of the most anti-Israel individuals scheduled to speak at the conference.
Today we profile Philip Weiss, a writer and the founder of an anti-Zionist blog called “Mondoweiss.”
Weiss regularly tries to portray Israel as the only antagonist in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including describing much of its history asa “neocolonialist landgrab.” Weiss alleges that Israel abuses the memory of the Holocaust in order to justify the “endless mistreatment of Palestinians” and that Israeli policy toward the Palestinians is a sort of vicarious revenge for the Holocaust, with Palestinians standing in for the Nazis and the “abused becoming the abuser.” After a visit to Gaza in 2009, Weiss described the Gaza War as an “assault…[that] reminded me of what I had heard about the Jews in Warsaw and in Germany and Austria in the runup to the Second World War. Those Jews were persecuted; and these Palestinians were too.”
Weiss has also frequently alluded to an excessively powerful pro-Israel lobby, even claiming that President Obama’s insufficient focus on the revolution in Egypt during his 2011 State of the Union address was a result of “the unwavering influence of the Israel lobby in our public life.”
30 comments:
Weiss sounds like a reasonable person to me.
Good for Philip Weiss, a brave and thoughtful man.
Mr. Weiss is a very courageous man. G_d's blessings upon you, sir.
Thank goodness for Phil Weiss, a man of courage and a truth teller. All Jews should be grateful that Weiss has the courage to tell the truth about the country that says that it represents all Jews. Given what Israel is doing ther is no wonder that there is an increase in anti-semitism when israel says that it represents all Jews.
Too bad that the ADL has its head in the sand.
I couldn't agree more with the above comments. I am an enthusiastic supporter of the website Mondoweiss. I had the pleasure of speaking to Mr. Weiss on various occasions and can attest to his unrelenting integrity and courage. He is an exceptional human being and fierce defender of universal human rights for his Palestinian and Israeli brothers. In light of the misleading and bias ME coverage in the media Mondoweiss is needed to disclose the horrendous realties faced by millions of Palestinians living under a brutal military occupation
Phil Weiss is a wonderfully courageous antidote to the mainstream media's and our own government's nonstop propaganda passing for news concerning the Middle East, especially regarding US foreign policy there, and most particularly, concerning Israel and the American regime's "special relationship" with that foreign state. He is a cure for the delusion that our foreign policy regarding Israel is simultaneously not a domestic issue of the first order.
Philip Weiss is part of the long American Jewish tradition of standing against racism and bigotry. If we weren't living in the new dark ages, he'd be hailed as tzedakah giving patriot. Instead he is reviled by those who succor to Christianist extremism in the US.
The ADL used to stand up for justice. I think that was in the 1930s.
The ADL of the day didn't have much use for that other fellow who described the seething pot either.
Weiss doesn't just speak of "an excessively powerful pro-Israel lobby," but THE excessively powerful pro-Israel lobby. It exists, it is excessively powerful, and it is being exposed.
Phil Weiss equals hope for us all. Thank you for your courage.
Weiss and his ilk are KAPOS and enemies of the Jewish people. The hardcore commentators on his site are dyed in the wool anti-Semites.
I've been following Philip Weiss' writings and activities since 2006, when we came into contact while he was researching an article about the play My Name is Rachel Corrie for The Nation. I watched and read as he was edged out at mainstream media outlets for refusing to be dishonest by backing away from sensitive issues. I've watched as he developed Mondoweiss into one of the more important web sites there are.
Although I view some issues facing mankind as more important than the centrality of Israeli conduct to the downward spiral of hopes in the Middle East, I can't help but think of this statement by Albert Einstein in April 1938, when I read some or Weiss' own essays at the blog he started:
"I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish State. Apart from practical considerations, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish State, with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain – especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish State. We are no longer the Jews of the Maccabee period. A return to a nation in the political sense of the word, would be equivalent to turning away from the spiritualization of our community which we owe to the genius of our prophets."
Weiss' blog's mission statement is:
"1. To publish important developments touching on Israel/Palestine, the American Jewish community and the shifting debate over US foreign policy in a timely fashion.
2. To publish a diversity of voices to promote dialogue on these important issues.
3. To foster the movement for greater fairness and justice for Palestinians in American foreign policy.
4. To offer alternatives to pro-Zionist ideology as a basis for American Jewish identity."
What could be wrong with that, ADL?
Loll petrol money could hire few cheap comments I guess. What a pathetic group of comments Mr.Philip
Bravo ADL
I discovered Phil Weiss and Mondoweiss several years ago when trying to figure out the US-Israel-I/P connection. Weiss is the other Jewish perspective on I/P and Israel, not the one Americans see represented by the Israel Lobby and the Israeli injustices in Palestine.
Regardless of whether Israel is able to involve the US in a war with Iran, and regardless of when Israel is put in it's proper place in US foreign relations----Americans, Palestines and in particular US Jews, will owe Weiss a debt of gratitude for having the courage of his honorable convictions and telling the simple truth about Israel, Palestine and the US.
American
Dear American ( aka Philip)
Your theory is the most ignorant one, I suggest you see a therapist for the following reasons.
1- you have low IQ
2- you think US Jews should be grateful to you ( I mean to Philip Weiss)
Why should we be grateful to a self hating person, who sold himself for a cheap price.
Philip Weiss, one thing is for sure: one they kick you because you are Jewish. Remember you have a strong country called Israel that will protect you and take you there. The same country you are trying to attack.
Shalom
Many thanks for this blogpost so that I can, once again, state, unequivocally, that Phil Weiss is a hero.
- Riis
Philipp Weiss is a light unto the nations ...
I hope he paid for the light of your house at least.
What do you mean?
Wow, does everyone who supports the ADL just slander and insult and act like rude curs uncontrollably? The comments that all endorse Phil Weiss are polite. The ones that don't sound like they were penned up by grade school bullies.
That should tell you everything you need to know about both the character of Phil Weiss and his supporters, and the ADL and their supporters.
I heard you guys get paid to post comments. Is that true?
I support Phil Weiss.
Nobody is paying me to write this.
Just want to say that I am reader of Phil Weiss's blog and greatly admire him. He is making a heroic effort to
stand up for Jewish principles and all universal human values in the issue of Israel and Palestine while telling the truth that has to be told about that conflict.
Phil is brave man who cares more about truth and human rights more than money & glory. In the long run he'll have both.
I went to Jordan in the Summer, I heard horrifying stories about the Palestinians persecuting Jordanians until the king attacked them and dismantled their terrorist organizations in Amman.... You guys spread your venom everywhere.
Uh, I'm completely in favor of the ADL, but why are you profiling these BDS people and not revealing what's actually bad about them?
This profile almost seems PROMOTIONAL of the disgusting Philip Weiss
This Phillip Weiss seems like a pretty good guy, a "mensch", if you will. Foxman and the ADL should strive to be more like Mr. Weiss.
Also, why the hell do you idiots think that all the positive comments about him are paid for? Do you think that what the ADL and the mass media has to say about the Israel-Palestine conflict is the be-all end-all and 100% correct view that has no faults at all? Are you truly this deluded? And you wonder why anti-semitism is on the rise!
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