Young, Thoughtful Jews with Ideas Immediately Removed from Debate
J Street, your spanking new Pro-Israel political action committee, asked poets Josh Healey and Kevin Coval to perform at its first national conference. But when a few right-wingers scanned Healey’s work and found some lines sympathetic to Palestinians, the jig was up. They’re now about as welcome as evolutionists in a small Texan town. And according to Healy and Coval, J Street fully admits caving to reactionary pressure. “The executive director called us to say ‘I know what I’m doing is wrong . . . but there are some battles we choose not to fight,’ before cancelling our program, and disinviting us,” Coval writes.
Aren’t we, like, supposed to argue, discuss and have conflicting ideas? And isn’t that the whole point of a conference? Of Jews in general? And for God’s sake, look at that dirty hippie! Didn’t they think he might be just a tad left-wing? You really expect a conservative, non-challenging point of view from the author of “Queer Intifada”?
comments
submit a comment10.25.09 at 7:10 pm
I think comparing Auschwitz to Guantanamo is neither ‘thoughtful’ not clever…such a line, apart from being laughably inaccurate, was hardly likely to win him any fans on either side of the debate regarding Israel/Palestine within the Jewish community.
Using controversy to mask a lack of ability to connect with wider society is a tricky thing, it invariably works…but the downside is that you lose all credibility and all those shocking statements one makes to get some column space inevitably come back to bite one in the arse. Comparing Anne Frank and Matthew Shepard, on the other hand, was simply bizarre and nonsensical and offensive to both gays and Jews.
Thigns you do and say in the past have consequences in the present and future…why are people so unwilling to accept responsibility for the outcomes of their actions? Grow up.
10.26.09 at 12:10 am
this is nice article. i like it,after read people must be try think about this,thanks for this article.
10.26.09 at 2:10 pm
I agree with you Puck. It’s not at all thoughtful, but it was the same “not at all thoughtful” before the controversy blew up that it was after the controversy blew up. The question isn’t whether this poetry is interesting or salacious or counter-productive or even clever, but why in the world the same organization invited and then dis-invited them. Does the right get intimidated when the left calls out their nudniks??!
10.26.09 at 5:10 pm
True, but I think this is more than a ‘left/right’ issue…let’s be honest, if you’re a poet and you’re not Maya Angelou…you essentially toil in obscurity. It’s entirely likely at the time of booking the majority of sponsors or attendees or whoever were unaware of who this guy is (I’d never heard of him)...as the publicity around the event grows it’s natural that the press (gutter feeders that they are) would try to find some newsworthy aspect to print…and the sorts of broad, overarching, hyperbolic comparisons made by the poet would’ve been a publisher’s wet dream. I’d certainly argue the organisers should’ve either been more aware of the artists work or more cognizant of the sensitivities of their audience…but I can’t argue against their decision to nip this in the bud. Comments like Healeys and Covals are so ludicrous, so designed to offend that they actually prevent any sensible reasonable discussion of the underlying issues because people become fixated on arguing over the appropriatness of the language. Really, it’s the pseudo-intellectual’s way of having a debate…it conceals the fact that they really have nothing sensible or valuable to contribute to the discussion.
I have spoken.
10.26.09 at 6:10 pm
I’m no expert on poetry so I’ll leave the lit crit to you guys, but I will say without hesitation that J-Street are a bunch of pussies for yanking them at the last minute.
10.26.09 at 6:10 pm
I think it’s both reasonable and appropriate for a Jewish/Israeli lobby group to ditch someone who has publicly minimized the Holocaust…their only faux pas was ever putting him on the schedule in the first place (though having since read his poetry, I can understand why none of them would’ve bothered prior to booking him). Perhaps they can fill his spot with David Irving :P
No doubt the group realised the flak from ditching him at the last minute would hurt them less than having the entire event devolve into an argument over the language of one participant in one poem.
10.27.09 at 11:10 pm
sigh
We just don’t have the raging debates that we used to on here…I’m considering developing an alternate personality to argue with.