But I have another question: where is the young Arab elite that claims its roots from Palestine, that spend hours criticizing the politic of Israel and the US from the confort of their home elsewhere? Why don’t they stop complaining and dig their hand for real in the heart of Palestine? Don’t you think this well educated, well paid, and well brought up society is more of a remedy to the unbearable injustices happening in Palestine than the Bono of this world?

I’d be willing to bet that most philanthropists are steering clear of the Palestinian issue because helping any Palestinian would mark you on government radars all around the world as a potential helper to Izzedine al-Qassam, Islamic Jihad, or worse, al Qaeda.

Moreover, it is impossible to speak about Israel unless: 1) your argument comes to a favorable conclusion about Israel; 2) you first mention the laundry list of things wrong with all Arabs, all Muslims, and all non-Jews in the region; 3) you recognize and establish, in no uncertain terms, your belief that Israel has the “right to exist.”

I’ve been on the receiving end of slung dung as both an alleged anti-Semite and avid Zionist. Strange how one topic will gain a kid enmity on all sides. Being labeled an anti-Semite, however, is much riskier than being labeled an Israel apologist or Jewish supremacist (despite the fact that I am very brown and goyim to my core).

You can lose your job, reputation, and respect as an anti-Semite, even if all you say is Israel has no right to exist (and I will bail myself out right here and now by saying no country has a right to exist). By tying Israel to all Jews everywhere, proponents of the Jewish state have a bulletproof defense, and I have to admit that I’m a bit jealous. I sometimes wish American liberals had a gimme like that. Perhaps then we could silence the goons broadcasting on AM radio for good.

In the end, though, it’s a matter of safety. Reach your hand out to help the Israelis and you are a righteous gentile. Reach your hand out to help Palestinians and you are a terrorist sympathizer pitying a population who deserved their own destruction because they wouldn’t just accept military defeat and be done with it (feel free to insert any of these outright lies: 1) “Palestine” never existed, 2) there’s a Palestinian state called Jordan despite the UN resolution in ‘48 splitting Israel and Palestine, 3) Jewish “settlers” bought all the land they occupy, 4) Palestinians left of their own accord, 5) there have always been Jews in the area, so that means all Jews have more rights than all Palestinians to the land).

Have you read Bernard Avishai’s post with regard to this? He writes: “This is not the first time (what we call) our world has seen this kind of thing. It may be the first time it just looks away.”

I think this is an important comment – from both of you. I hope you don’t mind if I post your comment at Media Lens.

P.S. I’m glad I discovered your blog. Thanks for linking.

I have been observing these rock star bandwagon efforts for a good long while. I question how much effect they have five minutes after the guitars stop twanging and the last table with pamphlets closes up. Then these socially active music fans move on to their five minutes of effort on green fuel, PETA, or whatever cause catches their momentary fancy. Short attention span is rampant these days and growing. Look at the effect Sean Penn had. He was laughed at and everyone here thought he was an ineffectual dolt for sticking his nose into politics.
The problem with these guys is that they are not politicians or activists, they are pop stars whose power is in their fame, not their solutions and long term involvement. They flash on the TV screen for five minutes and it’s over. End of awareness.
I actually think that smaller efforts more sustained, less glitzy bursts of attention but more insidious that hammer at people will have more impact. Blogs are great, but blogs that only reach “the choir” so to speak are not effective in changing oppositional minds. Attacks and insults in eloquent essays are not either, and they only cause the opposition to hunker down and recircle.
So, the strategy would seem to be in reaching, gently and compellingly, the open spots in minds that can be made to see reason, and increasingly, reason for all of us is, do we want to stay alive and not living as scavengers upon the face of a ruined globe.