Neocon High School Kids: The College Boards Are Anti-Israel!

MJ RosenbergSenior Fellow Media Matters Action Network
Posted: May 13, 2010 10:24 AM


This story in the Forward today reminds me of something my older son wrote to us in a letter from Jewish summer camp when he was 14.

He told us the kids were terrific but that some of them were so paranoid about Israel that he thought they were "crazy." After all, these were all pretty well-off Jewish kids at a beautiful spot in Massachusetts and yet they acted like they were under assault by the world . Some of them were even Republicans (because of Israel).

"Dad, he wrote, there is nothing worse than fascist children."

Naturally, I saved that letter.

Of course, they weren't fascist, just brainwashed.

I was reminded of those kids when I watched the debate at Berkeley over the issue of divestment from two companies that supplied weapons to Israel.

AIPAC and Hillel, the Jewish student group allied with AIPAC, came up with the strategy of having Jewish students tell the university senate that seeing signs calling for divestment frightened them. Some broke down in tears when describing the pain of seeing pro-divestment placards in the student union.

It was hilarious because it was so utterly bogus..

remainder in full: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/neocon-high-school-kids-t_b_574804.html

by unexploded cluster munitions, I would think.

Clearly, something ought to be done about that too. Maybe even before the divestment posters are taken down.

Kidding aside, I feel sorry for them, rather pitiful. They are so young, so there is some hope for them..perhaps.

Having been one. So OK. But you can't just let it go either.

If they feed into this nonsense on any level, the students will have little opportunity to re-think their perception.

"Using this quote in the AP exam “is very reflective of the widespread use of education and testing as a platform for anti-Israel propaganda,” she told the Forward."

Sad she is seeing things that are not there. Note she says widespread use, what else is this public school doing to spread this anti-Israel
propaganda, appears she is suggesting this incident is not exclusive to this school, nor this one test.

Pitiful, and sad.

of strong group emotion such as crying is quite reminiscent of cult indoctrination techniques

Seriously. As soon as some kid has so internalized the sense of victimization and views their survival dependent on some symbol or external agency, views the cultural narrative as crucial to their survival or the survival of their group, this is what you get.

Replace "Said" and "Palestinian" by some Jewish refugee from Germany or Yemen. It'll be seen by Palestinian activists as siding with Israel, in the first case, and generally by most Arab Palestinian supporters in the second. Even if they're not directly affected.

Give the context as some African-American ex-slave in 1830, and it'll be seen as supporting Civil Rights for blacks; some KKKers would vehemently object to it. Even though the context would be far past.

Have the writer be a white farmer from Rhodesia, and it'll be taken entirely differently by African-Americans in the US. Moreover, the response would be different in 1981 from what it would be in 2009.

Or perhaps a South Vietnamese former refugee in the US. Somebody will say that the inclusion is supportive of US involvement in Vietnam in the '60s. That somebody might well be born after the US-Vietnamese peace treaty that ended the war in January 1973.

Some things would seem silly. A Pole from Belorussia, a German from W. Poland, a Slovene from Trieste or an Italian from Slovenia; a Serb from Kosovo or a Bosnian from Croatia could write such a thing, and provoke strong responses from Belorusians, Poles, Italians, Slovenes, Kosovar Albanians or Croatians. Once you have that kind of sensitivities instilled in people, even second or third hand, it's just nasty. It's like walking on egg shells, and you have to either watch every word lest, by accident, you (as they perceive it) intentionally commit some horrid bit of racism. The result is a rigid self-imposed (or outwardly imposed) code of speech and conduct.

Fascism writ small. Been there. Done that. Nasty business, because you have to argue about the sincerity of your intent versus the utter righteousness of another's perceptions, and convince them that their perceptions are wrong and your assertions as to your intent correct. Like that's going to happen, cet. par.

Then again, Said is a well known Palestinian activist.