Bernie Sanders Names Anti-occupation Activist as Jewish Outreach Coordinator

[Israeli]

Simone Zimmerman objects to Jewish federation funding for Israeli projects in the West Bank and wrote favorably of a pro-BDS group and protested the 2014 Gaza war.

Uriel Heilman Apr 13, 2016

JTA – Simone Zimmerman, the Bernie Sanders campaign’s newly hired national Jewish outreach coordinator, is quite familiar with the American Jewish establishment.
She is used to fighting against it.

During the 2014 Gaza war, Zimmerman was one of the leaders of a group of young Jews that held regular protest vigils outside the offices of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, reading the names of Palestinians and Israelis killed in the conflict.

She opposes Israel’s occupation, wants Hillel to allow participation by groups that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, is against Jewish federation funding for Israeli projects in the West Bank and wrote favorably of the efforts of Jewish Voice for Peace, a pro-BDS group, to get “international corporations to stop profiting off human rights abuses.” (The Anti-Defamation League has called JVP one of America’s top 10 anti-Israel groups.)

“We’re paying attention to what’s happening in Israel — and we are angry,” Zimmerman said in a column on her fellow millennials in Haaretz in February.
“The hypocrisy of expecting feel-good social justice projects to offset millennials’ deep outrage at the grave injustices committed by the Jewish state is almost too much to bear,” wrote Zimmerman, who is in her mid-20s. “No public relations trick can save Israel’s image. The problem isn’t with the hasbara. The problem is nearly 50 years of occupation. The problem is rampant racism in Israeli society. The problem is attacks on human rights defenders by extremists and by the state. The problem is a Jewish establishment that ignores or justifies all of this.”

Continued: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/1.714164

[EdwardBernays]

1. excellent

real change is what we need

[Israeli]

2. "excellent" for some .....

Sanders 'Jewish outreach' director: Israel-hater extraordinaire

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/210816#.Vw9jstR95kg

I feel sorry for her already ....our Right wing are going to eat her alive .

[oberliner]

3. Israel National News is a right-wing pro-setter website

Obviously no fans of Bernie (or even Hillary) there to begin with.

[Israeli]

4. No argument with me there oberliner.......

.....put it down to a pre-emptive strike .....before shira has a chance to tare Simone Zimmerman
to pieces .

[oberliner]

6. What is the buzz in Israel about our elections in the US?

Curious to know what you've been hearing from folks first hand (especially among the left).

[Israeli]

10. Today this is the biggest buzz (especially among the left).....

What critics of Bernie Sanders' Jewish liaison are missing

Simone Zimmerman’s appointment is great news for mainstream American Jews who are desperate for a real conversation on Israel/Palestine.

Over the past few days, it has been difficult to watch the American Jewish establishment’s attacks on my friend, Simone Zimmerman. Just three days ago Simone was appointed the Jewish outreach coordinator for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. Within hours of the announcement came a torrent of vicious attacks, both against her as well as the Sanders campaign for having the gall to appoint a critic of Israeli settlements and policies in the occupied territories. (Update: Just hours after publishing this post, the Sanders campaign suspended Simone from her position).

I have known Simone for years, and for years I have watched her unwavering dedication to the American Jewish community, whether through work at her synagogue in Los Angeles, trips to Israel, or leading trainings for young Jews. Her commitment to a people she loves always remained steadfast — even as her views on Israel began to shift away from that establishment, within which she was raised and first came up as a leader.

On the face of it, the criticism leveled against Simone by major media outlets and figures — including former head of the Anti-Defamation League, Abe Foxman, who called on Sanders to fire her — is the result of the severity of her criticism and her choice of words. But let’s be honest: it is neither Simone’s style nor choice of words that is rattling the establishment, rather it is the fact that it is not willing to make room for a leader who has no qualms openly stating that Jewish life is no more precious than Palestinian life.

Here is the lie the American Jewish establishment keeps telling itself: Simone and her ilk (in organizations such as J Street, IfNotNow, and others) are the voice of a minority that must be shut up and shut out of the American Jewish conversation. But sooner or later the old guard will have to contend with the fact that Simone isn’t a radical, and if she is she is not alone. She is the face of the new American Jewish mainstream — one that is no longer afraid of its own gatekeepers.

The old guard cannot handle an American Jewish mainstream that is desperate for a real, open, and sensible conversation about Israel/Palestine. But that’s just the thing — sooner or later Foxman will have to realize that his grandchildren’s generation is no longer interested in whitewashed conversations about the Middle East. It is a generation that holds tight to its Judaism, its rituals, its love for community, and its unwavering desire for justice. It is a generation coming up for air. Thank goodness Simone is making it a little easier for all of us to breathe.

Source: http://972mag.com/what-critics-of-bernie-sanders-jewish-liaison-are-missing/118589/

[oberliner]

12. Bernie Sanders Campaign Suspends Jewish Outreach Coordinator for Vulgar Remarks About Netanyahu

From the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/04/14/bernie-sanders-suspends-jewish-outreach-coordinator-after-reports-of-her-criticisms-of-israel/

[EdwardBernays]

5. sometimes

you just have to stand up to assholes...

[grossproffit]

20. And fire them.

[LeftishBrit]

7. Of course FarRightSettlersNews won't like her...

They tend to think Netanyahu is a dangerous leftie, after all.

She seems to be a woman of sense.

[Israeli]

11. True that ....

....they have said a lot worse about him than she has ever done

[shira]

13. BDS activists aren't people of sense. FarRightSettlerNews nailed this one. n/t

[Israeli]

14. But of course they did shira....

.........losing their precious Judea and Samaria is the last thing they want

ref : http://www.democraticunderground.com/1134126847

[shira]

15. Losing land is definitely the last thing they want...

...but when they oppose racist scum of the earth, that's something everyone should applaud, right?

You don't like their motives, but there are those for 2 states and against settlements who oppose racist BDS'ers. Are you trying to pretend everyone opposing BDS racists must be FarRightwingSettlers and their supporters?

[Israeli]

16. So you think that Simone Zimmerman is .....

...." racist scum of the earth " ???

Along the same lines you consider any of us that oppose the occupation and are for The State of Israel versus The Land of Israel ....

re : http://www.democraticunderground.com/1134126847

Problem is shira ......' FarRightwingSettlers ' dont give a damn about 2 states and never have .

Are you still trying to pretend that you would vote Meretz if you could ??????

[shira]

17. Any activist in deep with Max Blumenthal is racist scum. You know that.

Blumenthal and his Hamas-supporting BDS crew do not simply oppose the occupation and support 2 states.

You know that too and yet you peddle bullshit equating anyone opposed to BDS as far rightwing settler types.

I told you before I'd probably vote for a party like Labor, Kadima, Yesh Atid, or Kulanu. If it were up to me, they'd all unite into 1 party.

[Israeli]

18. Nope ....

I dont know that shira .

I know about as much about your American activists as you know about ours .

I know you dont like any of us .....from Peace Now to Gush Shalom ....from Breaking the Silence to B'Tselem.

I told you before I'd probably vote for a party like Labor, Kadima, Yesh Atid, or Kulanu.

You told me before you would vote Meretz if you could .

re : If it were up to me, they'd all unite into 1 party.

B"H you will never have the chance ....or the choice .

[geek tragedy]

8. and she's already fired/suspended/thrown under the bus

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/04/14/bernie-sanders-suspends-jewish-outreach-coordinator-after-reports-of-her-criticisms-of-israel/?_r=1

Two days after the announcement of her hiring, the Sanders presidential campaign suspended its national Jewish outreach coordinator, Simone Zimmerman, on Thursday after revelations that she had posted vulgarities about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Facebook.

“She has been suspended while we investigate the matter,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs wrote in an email.

Ms. Zimmerman’s suspension comes after a report on Wednesday in the Washington Free Beacon which found a Facebook post in which she used a vulgarity and described Mr. Netanyahu as “arrogant, deceptive, cynical,” and “manipulative.” She then used more aggressive language and continued that he had “sanctioned the murder of over 2,000 people this summer.”

But members of the American Jewish establishment had been attacking her and the Sanders campaign since her appointment for her record of criticizing Israeli settlements and its policies in the West Bank and Gaza. Abe Foxman, the president of the Anti-Defamation League, also called for her firing.

[King_David]

9. Bernie Sanders Suspends Jewish Outreach Coordinator After Reports of Her Criticisms of Israel

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1134127138

[grossproffit]

19. Buh bye!