Cordoba House Advisers Include Liberal-Zionist Rabbis
August 23rd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Sometimes there is so much misinformation spread about an issue that the relevant parts get missed — an intended consequence. For all the accusations about religious fundamentalism fueling the Cordoba House initiative — originating from Pamela Geller, her umbrella organizations, and supported by the likes of Anne Bayefsky who claims that it is part of an “Iranian plot” – it’s interesting to note that a Liberal-Zionist Rabbi is acting as an “adviser” to the project.
On Sunday ABC’s Christiane Amanpour interviewed Faisal Abdul Rauf’s wife, Daisy Khan, along with Rabbi Joy Levitt who heads a Jewish Community Center in New York. In 2008 Levitt co-authored an open letter addressed to Christian Friends of Israel (a Jerusalem-based Christian-Zionist organization dedicated to recruiting Eastern European Jews for “resettling” in Palestine/Israel) where she warned about the dangers of supporting Israel along evangelical Christian lines. In the letter Levitt exhibits common Liberal-Zionist positions (support for a two-state solution, opposition to further settlement building) along with other statements revealing more contentious positions.
For example, Israel’s Apartheid Wall is a necessity that needs to be positioned more strategically:
That building a security fence so that it divides Palestinians from their fields is counter-productive. And that denying the reality and legitimacy of Israel is madness…Join us in telling Congress and the Administration: Because we are committed to Israel’s security, we want to see a security fence that will help protect Israelis from terrorism, but not one that cuts so deeply into the West Bank that it will sacrifice security in favor of settlements, and make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.
Levitt also equates anti-Zionist activism on American campuses with anti-semitism:
Moderate, rational voices often get drowned out in the crisis of the moment. On American college campuses today criticism of Israel is often barely distinguishable from anti-Semitism. But those who cast Israel as the villain and attack Zionism do the Palestinians no favors.
For the past several months it has been alleged that the Cordoba House initiative is a symbol of radical Islam intended to recruit terrorists at a site of national tragedy in the US. Now we learn that a Liberal-Zionist rabbi who supports the Apartheid Wall and defames those who protest against Zionist policies as anti-Semitic is an adviser to the center. Khan argues that the Muslim community center is intended as a symbol of “bridge-building,” but it is alarming to note that the importance of supporting well-meaning initiatives like “interfaith dialogue” (something which Levitt and Abdul Rauf preach) can also be used as justification for ignoring important issues like some of Levitt’s positions that should be at the heart of such initiatives. And here’s a question that needs to be asked more: why didn’t the “moderate, rational” voices behind this project foresee that building a Muslim Community Center around the topic of 9/11 would result in a cemented connection between Islam and terrorism? As prominent Lebanese-American academic and blogger Asad Abukhalil reminds us, 9/11 had nothing to do with Islam:
I am personally against the construction of the mosque (just as I abhor the racist and bigoted reactions against it): but I am against it for a different reason. It will stand as a symbol to remind Americans and others of the association (in Western minds) between Islam and terrorism. A gesture intended to appease the mainstream culture received a slap on the face. Predictable though. I mean, many in the America associate Sep. 11 with Islam, so this silly project will only serve as a permanent reminder. Cordoba my potato. Sects and religions are not coexisting peacefully: neither here nor there in Muslim lands.
Indeed, only the extremist, reactionary attackers behind 9/11 and those extremist reactionaries who are now protesting against this community center claim it does. Building a bridge in the form of this center around this issue will result in a permanent, inaccurate association.
Meanwhile, the fire keeps burning.
