The piece is totally bizarre. It reads like two totally different essays, one on the effort to prevent the US from participating in a redux of the infamous Durban conference (which she predictably attributes to Jewish neurosis and alleged strongarm tactics by Jewish communal groups), and one about President Obama’s failure to engage in the debate surrounding reparations for the transatlantic slave trade.

Her account of the Durban episode is totally skewed: she whitewashes the first Durban conference, misrepresents the Jewish community’s strenuous efforts toward a more balanced agenda, and then manages to characterize the emergence of a more sane, less Jew-hating 2nd Durban as some sort of defeat for the Jews. She then talks about Obama’s failure to engage in the reparations debate, a pretty much completely unrelated issue.

Klein sort of mushes the two topics together using a bizarre formula whereby the Jews of the world are preventing the developing world from moving ahead on a program to repair the legacy of centuries of slavery. (And somehow Obama — who Klein herself admits was never interested in this agenda anyway — is also being stymied in his (nonexistent) efforts at redressing the slavery legacy.)

The culmination of this line of thinking is the bizarre and offensive title of the essay, suggesting that Blacks and Jews are engaged in a worldwide “death match” (but one in which the US Black and developing world communities — and specifically champions of reparations — are the only ones on the side of right). Never mind that the movement against US participation in a Durban redux had nothing whatever to do with reparations, Obama, the Black community in the US, etc.

Klein seems obsessed with pitting Blacks against Jews in some sort of fantasy worldwide reparations debate, as well as in some sort of struggle for Obama’s attention domestically. You really need to see this thing to believe it; it reads like some sort of science fiction/alternate history short story.

I don’t see why you are surprised some people in Palestine House are also involved in CAIA. I bet you some people in the Canadian Jewish Congress are also involved in the Jewish Defense League. it doesn’t mean the groups are one and the same. A cultural/national organization has overlapping interests with political groups.

The difference? You may hate what CAIA does (promote the idea that Israel is an apartheid state), but the JDL has actually been called a terrorist group by the FBI!!

What’s the expose here? I fail to see why realizing that some Pro-Palestine activists are involved in many groups is newsworthy. And who are you??

Please make sure you read my “Exposing Naomi Klein” post, especially the concluding paragraphs where I describe how the racist Zionists keep offering the Palestinians compromise and a state, only to be rebuffed.

Thanks! And nice to have you visiting Jewlicious. Come back soon, y’hear.