ZIONISM AND THE GNAT

A parable: In a large office the occupant grew more and more annoyed with a tiny gnat which, at the most inopportune times, would buzz around disrupting the relative peace that the occupant enjoyed. It grew so annoying that, periodically, the occupant would call out: "Would someone kill this gnat?" The gnat continued to buzz. One day a spectral woman arrived wearing a crown. In the hands of her consort were two huge fly swatters -- one was labeled "UNTRUTHS," the other "HALF-TRUTHS." "Take these," she told the occupant, "they will surely kill the gnat." Then, friends of the occupant arrived and they, too, were handed huge fly-swatters with the same labels. "Kill the gnat!!!" they screamed. WHAM!! SPLAT!! OY!! were heard as the fly-swatters landed. The gnat observed from the ceiling as the melee below resulted often in the swatters hitting each other, but never hitting the spectral woman in the crown or her consort....or the gnat. Exhausted, the occupant and his colleagues fell to the floor while the gnat continued to buzz. The moral: if you are going to come after a gnat, try the swatter labeled "TRUTH."

Recently, your Blogger has been accused of all sorts of things. I will try to sort them out for you. But know, at the outset, that the Federations which have issued strong statements accepting a "version" of events that JFNA leaders have been peddling as "the truth" surrounding the refusal to include the word "zionism"  have accepted a fable completely at odds with the facts.
The truth, based on an actual investigation: At a Global Planning Table Working Group meeting, federation leaders suggested the inclusion of the core value of "zionism" (not, as alleged, "zionist entity" or "zionist enterprise" and not in substitution for "the State of Israel."). It was the JFNA Board Chair herself who publicly objected to the inclusion of "zionism" as "too controversial to be in a Global Planning Table Vision Statement." (This is impossible to deny; the entire Work Group heard this rant.)


No one knows whom my sources were (I never reveal my sources) or how many members of the Work Group spoke (or wrote) to me verifying what I had written; yet, JFNA reports, and the federations assert that they know that it was but one. They are wrong. My original Post on the subject did not suggest that the excision of "zionism" was JFNA "policy" -- I wrote of "JFNA's leaders insistence that the cherished concept of 'zionism'...be excised from a Global Planning Table Work Group Report" -- yet, all of us can reflect upon the number of non-policy decisions over the past three years and longer (e.g., the claimed "consensus" that gave rise to the GPT itself) that have suddenly become JFNA "Policy" before our eyes. And, suddenly, in the middle of the third (or fourth) JFNA "response" to the cause celebre that it created and now perpetuates, for the first time Jerry Silverman asserts that the same Working Group "...reaffirmed our deepest support for Israel and Zionist principles." If only it were so; if only that had been the permitted discussion at the GPT Work Group; but it wasn't.  And I am accused of having "...twisted what really happened into a version with no basis in reality." I think we know, from the ever-changing "explanations" just who is doing the "twisting" here...and why.

And, just for a gratuitous shot, I am accused in CEO Jerry's effort at deflecting the truth as "...hostile to the federations and the Global Planning Table." To the latter, I plead guilty; as I have written from the start, it is an evermore expensive approach to reordering historic priorities at a time of declining resources that will create chaos. As to the accusation that I am "hostile to federations," Jerry, who frets over and sermonizes about in personam attacks, makes one that is laughable. I am only "hostile" to actions that would deconstruct and harm federations -- as the excision of "zionism" would have done.

I have offered my apologies and reiterate them here for even having reported these facts on these pages without giving consideration that some would read them and use them as an excuse to reduce or eliminate their gifts to and through their federations. As a lifelong fund raiser and as a one who cherishes all federations, I am so sorry. I urge everyone who reads these pages to increase their federation pledges as I have done.

I have shared with you and others my sincere belief that the vast majority of federations, and, in particular, my own, include Zionism and the values inherent in Zionism in our words and our work every day; we are inspired by the values of Zionism; we don't fear the concept -- we should fear those who would have it disappear from our lexicon as "too controversial." Clearly her/their effort, reflected most vividly in the JFNA "misinformation campaign," is to shine the light away from themselves and shoot down the messenger. (Someone I love and respect suggested that I "...stop being the messenger." Good advice.) Sadly, they won't, in the midst of their revisionist history, let the facts get in the way.

Next time, if you want to kill this gnat, you had better come after me with the truth -- coming after me with cover-ups and untruths and half-truths as JFNA has done and continues just won't do it.

Rwexler