AIPAC: Beautiful Jewish Voices of Peace Reject Israeli Policies

Never let anyone tell you that objecting to Israel's illegal acts of war amounts to 'antisemitism' or being a 'self-hating Jew'.

A single picture tells many stories; the Jewish man on the far left is clapping, the large man is pointing his finger in the face of Liza Behrendt; a young man looks puzzled and confused, and the hand of an organizer betrays the stress of the unexpected words- and the reaction they received.

(SALEM) - The human action in the video below is impressive, and breathtaking; it blows the lid off of what it really means to 'support Israel'.

Liza Behrendt, a member of Young Jewish and Proud (the youth wing of Jewish Voice for Peace), offers no quarter in her appraisal of Israeli policies that lead to Palestinians living like animals, or even worse. She takes the Jewish lobbyist group AIPAC (American Israeli Public Action Committee) to task and receives an overwhelming amount of applause, heck it was a standing ovation.

She stressed that that AIPAC does not stand for the majority of American Jews who in fact, oppose any type of war with Iran, and who want the US to oppose settlement expansion in the West Bank. The sad truth is that AIPAC specifically represents and stands for Israel's worst acts of murder, political oppression and genocide.

This young Jewish woman proves what we always contend; that Israeli expansionist 'Zionists' have nothing to do with the well established values of Judaism which like Christianity, Islam and all major faiths of significance, calls for peace on earth, regardless of how they are constantly misinterpreted.

This interruption of the meeting was part of protests being held outside of the AIPAC conference, of course these have been ignored for the most part by the US networks.

Liza Behrendt's performance at the 2012 AIPAC Policy Conference in a breakout session called "The Struggle to Secure Israel on Campus" focuses attention on the silencing of Palestinians— and young Jews who support them — on U.S. campuses.

This action was part of OCCUPY AIPAC. occupyaipac.org

This effort to draw attention to the silencing of Palestinians and young Jewish activists is part of a weekend long series of activities to highlight the destructive practices of AIPAC. A separate group of Jewish activists from Jews Say No and Just Foreign Policy went inside the AIPAC conference and also were interviewed by journalists.

Timed to coincide with the AIPAC policy conference, Occupy AIPAC (occupyaipac.org) is a coalition effort led by CODEPINK: Women for Peace and cosponsored by over 130 organizations, including Jewish Voice for Peace, Interfaith Peace Builders, Jews Say No, Just Foreign Policy, US Palestinian Community Network and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

The purpose of the week of actions is to urge Obama to reject the Israeli administration's push for war on Iran, insist on respect for Palestinian rights, and draw attention to the role of AIPAC as a special interest lobby that maintains a stranglehold over US policies.

Liza Behrendt is a stellar activist for humanity, she is an example of who and what is required to reach the Jewish population and convince them that Israel's values and the values of any moral person, are far from a match. Everyone deserves to live in peace and have security, I am so pleased with these Jewish resistance groups today.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

As children we are educated in right and wrong, we are told how to conduct ourselves; we learn both expectations and limitations, and from that point we go forth with these tools, and our individual personalities, and fail or succeed accordingly.

In school we quickly understand that without paper, there is no place to write. Once we have paper, a pen or pencil is required to move to the next point. There is a great analogy that exists between this simple concept of paper and pen, and what we know today as Maslow's hierarchy of needs- the theory in psychology proposed in Abraham Maslow's 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation.

He demonstrated how without the correct necessities, a person can do little good for themselves, and has none to offer for others. However when people are housed and have clothing, heat, food, health and security, anything is possible. However if just one of these dynamics is removed from the mix, the chance for success can be adversely affected.

Wikipedia describes Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a pyramid consisting of five levels:

The lowest level is associated with physiological needs, while the uppermost level is associated with self-actualization needs, particularly those related to identity and purpose.

The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus when the lower needs in the pyramid are met. Once an individual has moved upwards to the next level, needs in the lower level will no longer be prioritized. If a lower set of needs is no longer be met, the individual will temporarily re-prioritize those needs by focusing attention on the unfulfilled needs, but will not permanently regress to the lower level.

For instance, a businessman at the esteem level who is diagnosed with cancer will spend a great deal of time concentrating on his health (physiological needs), but will continue to value his work performance (esteem needs) and will likely return to work during periods of remission.

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Tim King in 2008, covering the Iraq War

Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from The Associated Press the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs, Electronic Media Association and The Red Cross In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005.

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