e-Mailbox Issue 11

Third, there is a special relationship between blacks and Jews that cannot be destroyed by AIPAC or anyone else. The relationship is sustained by both good and evil. As long as Jews and African-Americans remember their shared heritage of slavery and oppression we will be tied together in our shared and perilous journey to freedom. And if we are not good and thoughtful enough to remember that we are in this together, the Aryan Nations folks will try to help us. Peoples who fight their natural allies while their bitter enemies gain strength have a special mention in the book of fools. I hope that American Jews and African-Americans don’t add another chapter to this book.

“Citizen K” is sorry to remain anonymous, “but that’s how it has to be right now,” she says.

Citizen K misses our point. Of course there has never been any relationship between African Americans and the American Israel Political Affairs Committee. AIPAC’s policies are made in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Its only relationship to American politics is that of a foreign agent.

Our remarks were directed at mainstream Jewish organizations, indigenous American institutions. Their position on McKinney was succinctly expressed by Ira N. Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council: “One of the most antagonistic persons – if not the most antagonistic person – to the U.S.-Israel relationship is gone.” Note that Forman’s concern is for “the U.S.-Israel relationship,” not the Black-Jewish relationship. Forman and his colleagues’ priorities are clear, as is the responsibility for the demise of the Black-Jewish relationship, in organized form.

It is in this spirit that Bert Zackim took to task, and threw in some Arab-bashing.