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Zionists and Settlers

(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - As far as the New York Times' Roger Cohen is concerned, Israel's democratically elected government and the people who elected it don't measure up to his moral standards. On Dec. 9, Cohen weighed in with the sad tale of an American who got into a scuffle after a demonstration in Tel Aviv during which he and his friends waved signs that said "Zionists Are Not Settlers." There's no excuse for violence. It would have been far better for his antagonists to merely point out that Zionists have always been "settlers," since there would be no State of Israel had not some Jews had the chutzpah to jump-start the rebirth of Jewish life in the Jewish homeland by planting roots in places where Arabs didn't want them to be. Like, for example, the metropolis of Tel Aviv, which a century ago was a small Jewish settlement on the outskirts of Arab Jaffa. But Cohen did get one thing right. He notes that the administration's latest attempt to pressure Israel failed because "President Barack Obama had virtually no domestic constituency" for his policy. This is absolutely true. The vast majority of Americans, both Jewish and non-Jewish, support the Jewish state and oppose twisting its arm, despite the constant drumbeat of attacks on Israel, such as those by Cohen.
2010-12-13 08:17:14
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