first post

I've been needing an outlet to ramble freely about politics, without the fear of being shunned by a group I work with politically, or censored. I'm supposedly somewhat of a political anomaly: a Green Zionist. As I talk about it more and more, I find that this is not necessarily the case. Many are scared as a Green to come out as being pro-Israel, or as a Zionist to support a party that seems resolved to hate Israel. There's also the problem of the classic Jewish democrat, often quite progressive, but scared to join a third party. I hope that my generation will be more gutsy, especially after seeing the betrayl of the Democratic Party (voting for the war, not standing behind immigrants, etc), but it seems that a wave of apathy is spreading. Sure, many say that they are anti-war or pro-choice, but action? I see none. Genuine efforts to stay informed? Not so much. Many of my friends are shocked to hear of that the Democratic Party disagrees with them and 70% of registered democrats on a variety of "hot" issues (death penalty, immigration, etc). Yet they will never change their registration. When pressed, they often respond "but there's nobody in the Green Party, they'll never make a difference" (so register and encourage people to do the same, it can't hurt), "they're spoilers" (why bother voting for a pro-war candidate, and if you're really that scared, just register Green, don't vote Green), "I want to vote in the primary" (this often refers to the presidential primary, and by time it gets to here in California, it's basically decided), or...Israel.

Yeah, it's the last one that gets me. It's a general thing in the left. At rallies and protests in San Francisco, there is often much irrelevant Israel bashing. On IndyMedia sites, Zionists are discounted solely on that one political beliefs, and on sites like IndyBay, we are censored and autoblocked. Whatever happened to tolerance? Whatever happened to defending our Bill of Rights? It's scary. Gary Acheatel of www.advocatesforisrael.org is working on reversing Resolution 190, the GPUS resolution for divestment from Israel. I plan to help him in his efforts. I have met Greens who believe that this resolution is isolating many Greens or people who would be Green, and some who do actually support Israel-- but they're scared to say anything. We need to be loud and proud. I have found that as soon as somebody says that they are pro-gun (for reasons such as not wanting the Bill of Rights messed with, or being prepared to defend our rights to the government by force if needed), many others say, "oh, me too..." I've heard of "Greens for Guns" caucuses being formed. Loud and proud.