Boston city councilor apologizes for blasting supposed Zionist 'shakedown' after people tell her that might be more than a tad anti-Semitic

She has to go. Plain and simple.

Ms. Lara’s tweet certainly has the ring of an anti-Semitic rant, and if it was not one, she deserves a certain amount of condemnation for either not caring, or not understanding that it would be perceived as such. I wouldn’t vote for her even if I accepted the sincerity of her apology, because I don’t want the world being run by people who shout things on twitter. Not even if they apologize, or even if they are sometimes right.

That said, I do not see any reason to doubt the sincerity of her apology. She is right in finding fault with herself, and she is right about the conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. There are two groups that commonly do this; anti-Semites and Zionists. The anti-Semites enthusiastically interpret the Zionist project of attempting to control a few thousand square miles of the Levant as a prototype of their larger scheme to control the world. Zionists would prefer to regard anyone who opposes their project as being motivated by hatred of Jews, rather than by concern for the rights of others.

She is also right in condemning the decision of the 8th Court of Appeals, which allows state legislatures to pass laws that discriminate against disfavored opinions, using the fig-leaf that participating in a boycott is not speech and thus isn’t protected. The State of Arkansas passed a law requiring state contractors to sign a pledge that they would not participate in any boycott against Israel. Failure to sign the pledge resulted in financial penalties. Note that it is a failure to make the pledge, not actually boycotting, that is punished.

Arkansas is not alone in this; thirty-something states have passed similar laws. They are monstrous, but they’re not the work of Zionists. They are the work of American right-wingers who misunderstand Zionism every bit as much as the anti-Semites do, sympathizing with it because they see in it a reflection of their own anti-Arab bigotry, and above all their hatred of everything they associate with liberalism, such as concern for the rights of displaced peoples. Their support for hard-line right-wingers in Israel does not prevent them from making alliances with neo-Nazis, both in Eastern Europe and at home. Hatred of a common enemy is all that matters.

I would cross my fingers behind my back, if I didn't really want to apologize or wasn't sincere in my statement.

You too, Kendra?

At this point when I hear any kind of anti-Zionist language I assume that either they are either anti-Jewish or they genuinely do not know what they are talking about.

Recently, on Facebook, I called out a fellow who complained about the people who control the media and the nation. After weaving and bobbing he eventually used the word "roach."

I shared with him that roaches were used by NAZIs to dehumanize Jews in the NAZI film propaganda. The fellow took umbrage at my implication. Called me nasty names, claimed to be 1 of the 3,000 greatest experts of WW2 and said he never heard about this propaganda.

Was he lying or genuinely living in such a empty bubble that he never learned this bit of WW2 history.

I feel the same applies to BDS.

The nation of Israel has been a target of violence ever since May 14, 1948. That means surviving with in a constant state of trauma.

Imagine if 9/11 was a regular occurrence in this nation? In spite of our pleasure of violence (cf., Supreme Court virtually declares open carry of devices for death) was a regular occurrence. If every year there was a mass murder of US citizens. The US goes to WAR. River of blood flows.

Israel is a western nation planted in a land of authoritarian thugs. If a comparable nation-state had existed in Central or South America the same dynamic would exist.

When Israel is no longer under constant threat by Arab and Persian nations, when the kings and mass murderers of Arab states, when Hezbollah and Hamas, all stop striving to destroy Israel, then Israel can be stand in a public court of judgement.

Israel is not the aggressor. No Israeli government existed without "sin." But then the sins of Israel as compared to the US make Israel seem saintly.

BDS reminds me of US citizens in the 60s and 70s who wanted the Soviet Union to be a beacon of human freedom, to the extreme that they chose to be blind to the horrors of the USSR. We treat Communist China with kid gloves in spite of its various attempts at ethnic cleansing and genocide.

I can believe that BDS supporters in this nation are sincere. But like the American supporters of the the Soviet Union under Gorbachev, Khrushchev, they are foolish wanting to see an enemy, and choosing as the enemy the smallest group in the gang fight that is the Middle East.

Much of the Middle East is run by governments that value violence. More so than the US. They value authoritarian and theocratic dictatorships.

BDS reminds me of a boy who is abused by bigger boys, and so instead of pushing back (because he is too small) he chooses to bully boy smaller than him.

Yes, that's believable.
She knows exactly what it means and it's exactly what she meant.