A new, even relatively sane thought about JVP — Jewish Voice
for Peace — occasioned by the fact that the nasty groupuscule** is
demanding that Lincoln Center cease and desist from mounting "To the End
of the Land" by Israeli writer David Grossman. Grossman, besides being an
eminent, and as of this year, Booker Prize winning novelist, has long been an
outspoken critic of Israel's occupation of the West Bank.
So what then bugs the irritable groupuscule? Well, there is
the undeniable fact that Grossman is an Israeli and JVP, when it's being open about
it, opposes the very existence of Israel, which it regards as no better, no
more legitimate, than Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
What JVP recommends for Israel is non-existence.
But getting back to my new thought: it's this, namely that the
very existence and headline-hogging, attention-grabbing activity of JVP makes
it harder for Jews and others to come together to forge an effective opposition
to Israeli policy toward Palestinians.
JVP is founded on such a bad premise, and draws too often on
an anti-Zionism shaped and driven by underlying anti-Semitism that it's an
obstacle to a sane approach. To call JVP a distraction is too mild. Taking time
with and defending against its
overtures drains energy and imagination from what might come together in its
absence. JVP makes opposition to Israeli policy more difficult to achieve.
I was disappointed, because I like his work, to find that
Wallace Shawn is among those who thinks the Grossman play should be evicted
from the Lincoln Center platform. Next time I see Wally, I'll ask, "Let's
put it simply, why are you being such a schmuck? Don't you know already from
the study of history that seizing on the most extreme sounding solution, though
it may sound like the smartest, and most principled, is often the dumbest thing
to do? Wally, why don't you know that already?"
**As per the Wiki, a groupuscule defined as, "A small political
group, especially of an extremist faction."
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