Zioness Movement's Lame Response to President Trump's Executive Order Targeting Antisemitism on US Campuses
A few months ago, I posted a series on the Zioness Movement, in which I took them to task for going against their original mission, and becoming little more than another Trump-bashing organization. More than that, I opined that Zioness is attempting to impose a litmus test on Zionism - since they define “calling out Trump” as an integral part of being a Zioness, they are excluding Jews who refuse to constantly bash him.
I was criticized by many, and was the subject of this hit piece that deliberately misinterpreted me. But I was confident in the validity of what I had written.
I have continued to monitor their social media posts, and the pattern has remained the same: bash Trump at every available opportunity, and refuse to give him any credit whatsoever for any act good for, or clearly in support of, Israel - like his administration's declaration that the establishment of Israeli “civilian settlements in the West Bank” is not inconsistent with international law.
Yesterday's announced (and subsequently signed) executive order provided quite the test for Zioness (something I alluded to in my post on it). On one hand, it was clearly a strong act to help protect Jewish students on campus and fight antisemitism. Don't believe me? Listen to what noted American lawyer and academic Alan Dershowitz had to say about it last night at the White House Hanukkah party:
On the other hand, Trump.
So what did they do? They first complimented Hillary Clinton(!):
https://www.facebook.com/zionessmovement/photos/a.152774841969485/544867266093572/?type=3&xts%5B0%5D=68.ARD9WcNvMDYhxa1vKHlwgfO4hQuYGkOGDLXbkCgIVRkJFujxtKp0pWbULC5UvbqoUTJishPN-NRgUfgTB9y5MGM0qXrvQ2QJ2P1dl2amlm7viLCbvSSza34MqWmxzDzMEmjEPfh8jUShMzAtyouJewXNCPa5lFqy9kv7TGhFHEgAqeDJYsVBbMU2bnCP3Oks_UnhNkzhikhest9F1sbDPbCNffo_71HwkTaWyKCRFj_721zxLZBHDFusuFB-UkqFeoGsore9fZoS8FPzipc-gp5mBqVijNQM3VpcF0o5FZe8tDkwfckOTplK8aP-Ih44Yufrj7JpltsbQUFcg5bgk1o&tn=-R
probably to bide time while they gathered their thoughts. Then later on in the day, they released this gobbledygook statement:
Zioness statement on today's Executive Order:You can almost feel their heads hurting as they wrote this. They know the executive order is a good thing, but find it hard to acknowledge such good could come from their bogeyman. So they try to have their cake and eat it; acknowledge it is a good thing, but attribute it to the Obama administration (with absolutely no credit to the President for actually signing it), while having the chutzpah to take the opportunity to bash Trump further.With antisemitism rising around the globe and from every corner of social and political life, American Jews are feeling increasingly afraid, not just of the attacks on our bodily integrity, well-being and peoplehood, but of the disproportionate attention and focus on "the Jews". Attempts to define us in certain ways or as members of certain categories or classes of people do not end well for the Jewish people, and it is difficult for us to find comfort in any action by an American President who singles out marginalized group after marginalized group, consistently propagates classical antisemitic tropes, and cozies up to white nationalists––including within the senior ranks of his own administration.
Having said that, the American Jewish community––and all Americans of conscience––have an urgent obligation to pay attention to what is happening on college campuses in this country. Jewish students are demonized, demoralized and alienated as "Zionists" by far left factions––whether they publicly identify as Zionists or not. Jewish voices are silenced, the Jewish state is existentially threatened, and anyone who believes in its secure future––including, of course, nearly every American Jew––is attacked, verbally and too often, physically, for its ostensible wrongdoing. Young Jews who feel called to social action are told by peers, professors and university administrators that they must make a false choice between their progressive identities and their commitment to Jewish liberation (Zionism). They are discriminated against in campus environments that are pervasively hostile, where they cannot learn because they cannot even be without fear.
And yet, under our existing national civil rights framework, Jewish students are not adequately protected because "religion" is not a protected class under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. U.S. Department of Education guidance established in the Obama Administration recognized that Jewish, Muslim and Sikh students were indeed members of a religious group, but faced discrimination on account of their ethnic identities, and would therefore benefit from Title VI protection––but that guidance has not been formally adopted by the federal government, leaving a gaping loophole in civil rights law that must be closed.
It is critical that academic stakeholders and law enforcement officials understand that the perverse discrimination Jewish students face will have consequences. While in today's hyper-partisan and alienating political environment, the messenger is often conflated with the message, today's Executive Order is the culmination of years of bipartisan work by Members of Congress, attorneys, civil rights professionals, and courageous students who have been victimized by antisemitic and anti-Zionist hate.
We must remain vigilant in ensuring that any "classification" of Jews or any other persecuted group does not lead to more of the disgraceful "othering" we have seen from this administration since Day 1. But we must also recognize that the Jewish community, and Jewish students in our nation's university halls, dorms and quads, must be protected to the full extent of the law.
Seeing this, I feel further vindicated with my previous posts about Zioness - they really have become little more than Trump bashers in the progressive space. What is the real “Zionist” value added by them when they basically seem to parrot the radical progressive Left minus their antisemitism?
Posted from Israellycool with SteemPress : https://www.israellycool.com/2019/12/12/zioness-movements-lame-response-to-president-trumps-executive-order-targeting-antisemitism-on-us-campuses/