When crititicsm of Israel is based on lies and and inadequate knowledge of history, that is anti Semitic.

Whern even Jews who are ignorant of history criticise – via lsander, sneering, boycott, isolation – of Israel, yes, that is antiSemitic.

Caryl Churchill Jewish? I hope not, but if she is, she’s even more tragically stupid than i thought.

I don’t see the play as anti-Semitic, but I do see the language as anti-Zionist. More than a criticism of Israel, it seems to me to also criticize the mythology and lies that Zionism must perpetrate to maintain its ideological hold on Jews.

British playwrite Harold Jacobson says Seven Jewish Children contains hateful dialogue from its Jewish characters that makes Jews out to be evil. But I know that the dialogue from Seven Jewish Children is familiar to many of us – having heard it or read it from prominent Israelis and Zionists.

Jacobson says that the Jewish settlers may say hateful things like that, but that they do not represent the majority of people who love and support Israel. I’m sorry, but the settlers who outwardly are racist and violent, are integrated into the Israeli political process of colonizing Palestine.

We progressive Jews have take a LOT of heat from the Zionist organizations here in Canada via the mass media — it is a dispute we are quite willing to have, to debate, and to continue if necessary.

However, we find that the most common reaction from the Zionists is first: Blanket denunciation of criticism of Israel as being anti-Semitic; second: Refusal to debate other Jews (or anyone for that matter) on the issues of Israel, Jewish identity or Zionism; third: attempts to censor our presentations, and if that is not successful, attempts to scare other Jews away from our events; and fourth – denounce criticism of Israel or Zionism as anti-Semitic.

Did I mention that criticism of Israel gets denounced as anti-Semitic?

Well, let’s talk about it.

To Caryl Churchill:
When I read your play online I was very angry at you and started thinking about what I’m going to tell you if I was face to face with you.

I thought , I will not tell her how one-sided and bigoted her train of though is. I will not tell her how anti-jewish she is in her sophisticated disguise of a play. I will not tell her that people like her embolden those who will threaten her own existence and freedoms.
I will not tell her that, because her mind is set, and it is set in one direction. And it’s ok, because we live in a free world for now.
The only think I want to tell to Ms. Churchill is that I have a wish. My wish is that she, her children and grandchildren live in a beautiful free country, and that country is hated by all it’s neighbors. I wish that she has acquaintances who lost their children protecting her country; or better, killed in a suicide bombing. I wish she experiences some kind of feeling when her beautiful country feeds and sustains those very people who want her dead. I wish she experiences times when a bomb lands very close to her home, or the school where her grandchildren are, and when her country retaliates, I wish her to have caryl churchills of the word have their “sophisticated ” say. I wish her to know the real truth about any war but especially the wars where civilian casualties are unwanted but expected because the terrorists hide amongst them. I wish she experience the wrath of always Anti-whatever-she-is Europe and other “friendly” neighbors. I whish there was media coverage which will not investigate all of the accusations against her country before printing hearsay of one solder who previously declined to serve her country in another war with the “frienldy” neighbors. I want her to feel the giddiness of the media’s “I told you so” at that point.
These whishes might seem a bit cruel, however they are realities for those people in that small country.
My wishes might or might not come true. They most probably will not, because there is only one scape goat of the world– and it’s not seven jewish children; it’s several million Jews.