Congratulations, Cynthia!
(new edits, 2/7/08)

The news of Cynthia McKinney's win in Georgia's 4th Congressional District primary two weeks ago was quickly blown over by the fervor of the Democratic National Convention and John Kerry's acceptance of that party's nomination for President of the United States. I'll get back to Cynthia in a moment, but first, let me share the two most noteworthy passages (in my estimation) of John Kerry's acceptance speech last week:

"I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war. I will have a Vice President who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws. I will have a Secretary of Defense who will listen to the best advice of our military leaders. And I will appoint an Attorney General who actually upholds the Constitution of the United States."

John Ashcroft enjoys his current job making paper dolls out of the Constitution. In a previous gig, he lost his 2000 Senate seat to a dead man.

How corrupt must a President be to foster a political climate in which a contender is empowered to call him, in polite terms, a murderer, a criminal, and an abuser of power at the most basic level of our democracy? For this willingness to extract as much political capital as is possible out of a moment, I am thankful for John Kerry. I will not soon forget (nor should you) that Kerry, himself, voted for the war with Iraq that he now criticizes, voted for the U.S.A. Patriot Act that is now under scrutiny, and substantively supported Bush's war of fear mongering over the last four years, despite this moment of vociferous criticism. I welcome the criticism, don't get me wrong. When (if? Please, god!) Kerry becomes President, we have to hold him to his word.

Here's the other part of his speech that really resonated with me:

"I want an America that relies on its own ingenuity and innovation - not the Saudi royal family. And our energy plan for a stronger America will invest in new technologies and alternative fuels and the cars of the future -- so that no young American in uniform will ever be held hostage to our dependence on oil from the Middle East."

We really have Michael Moore to thank for that nod to the Administration's unholy alliance with the Saudi royal family. Without Fahrenheit 9/11, most Americans would have had no idea what Kerry meant in that indictment. And Kerry's articulation of the travesty that is our dependence on petroleum and its direct relationship to U.S. militarism around the globe was swiped from years and years of dialogue and analysis on the Left. Even if Kerry, at heart, is sincere about these things--and I want to believe that he is--the oil industry and defense contractors' money is so entrenched in American politics that it will take much more than just a well-meaning President to root it out. Still, mind you, I am utterly impressed that a guy running for President has actually owned this progressive agenda. The Democrats' marketing team is finally listening--at least they're talking about doing the right thing, amid the requisite "Old Glory" nods and safely innocuous Bible references. No doubt, the upcoming Republican National Convention will be a cauldron of thinly-veiled racism, in the form of "Us versus the Evil Doers," blended together with a healthy pouring of Jesus talk and homo hatred. I'm thanking the stars right now for the existence of a "lesser of two evils." Please see my rant It's Not Easy Being Green for more of my thoughts on the Presidential election.

But, back to Georgia. An event of little fanfare on the national scene, but one that was much more interesting to me, personally, than the Democratic convention, was a primary election in that state's De Kalb county, in a Congressional district that includes the city of Atlanta. Cynthia McKinney's win in the primary is a major progressive victory, and she is poised to carry that victory to November, when she will take the seat in the general election. Or, rather, retake the seat.

McKinney, for those of you who aren't familiar with her, is the former US Representative for Georgia's 4th District: she was ousted two years ago during the hyper-paranoid "with us or against us" September 11 fallout period. A five-term incumbent, and one of the leading progressive African-American women in Congress, McKinney was defeated in the 2002 primary by a member of her own party, former judge and fellow African-American woman, Denise Majette.

Former (and future!) Representative Cynthia McKinney (left)


Incumbent Representative and current Senate contender Denise Majette (right)

Majette, a moderate, pro-big business Democrat, handily won the open primary, because she secured both the white vote and the Republican crossover vote after a massive smear campaign financed primarily by big corporate contributors and Republicans. The 4th District in Georgia, just over half African-American, and overwhelmingly Democratic, is a territory the Republicans knew they'd never win for themselves. So they backed the more palatable moderate and achieved this nearly unprecedented unseating of a popular incumbent (McKinney still got over 80% of the Black vote in the 2002 primary, but it wasn't enough to edge out Majette).

McKinney was targeted for removal from office for alleged statements she'd made insinuating that George W. Bush knew about Al Qaeda's plan to attack the United States and was using it as a pretext for U.S. militarism abroad. The truth of the matter is that, while she is highly critical of the Bush administration (and one of those very rare Democrats who actually puts her vote where her mouth is) she, in fact, never made any statement insinuating that Bush knew about the attacks. She did, however, call for inquiry into the connection between the Saudis and the attacks, and questioned the Bush administration's ties to the Saudi Royal family, a matter of debate that, while taboo in 2001, has now become integral in the investigation of the events of 9/11, thanks to legislators like McKinney and the progressive reporting of journalists like Greg Palast, Amy Goodman, Arundhati Roy, Robert Fisk, and Michael Moore.

But there was another noteworthy element to the smear campaign that drove Cynthia McKinney out of office: Majette's campaign was also fortified by pro-Israel lobbies, among them AIPAC (the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee), and by other, largely out-of-state Jewish contributors and PACs. Cynthia McKinney has long been charged by these groups as "anti-Israel" (and, by proxy, "anti-Semitic") because she is on record in favor of Palestinian sovereignty and has criticized the US for its funding of Israel's massive military offensive in the occupied territories. In the aftermath of September 11, McKinney became a more compelling target for the pro-Israel lobby because she openly condemned Mayor Rudy Giuliani's refusal to accept a $10 Million check from Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, after the prince visited Ground Zero, and wrote the check for New York's relief efforts. Guiliani had refused the check because, although bin Talal offered the money in sympathy with American losses, he also suggested that the United States start treating the conflict in the Middle East, notably between the Israelis and the Palestinians, with a more even hand. When Giuliani refused the money, Cynthia McKinney wrote to Prince bin Talal thanking him for the offer, and expressing sympathy for his political concerns and a regret that Guiliani did not accept his offer. She also suggested to bin Talal that the Black community in America could certainly have used that kind of financial support.

The $10 Million that never was. Then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani accepts a check from Saudi Arabia's Prince bin Talal, only to reject it later.

The most balanced reporting I've yet found on this piece of the controversy can be found at USA Today, in an article which deems both Giuliani and McKinney's actions in the incident as motivated by impulsive passions and not by what was reasonable in the situation. All other articles about this exchange that I've found on the web refer to Cynthia McKinney's "undercutting" of Giuliani as "treasonous" and call her a contemporary "Hanoi Jane" who is in sympathy with terrorists. "Jihad Cindy," as she has been called in some circles, became a lightning rod for attack on all sides, and the campaign to oust her from Congress succeeded. It is interesting to note that Cynthia McKinney's isolated expression of sympathy toward one member of the Saudi Royal family branded her a "traitor" and nearly ruined her political career--but the guy in the White House has done business with these people for decades and, well...you know the rest.

* * *

Regrettably, the controversy over McKinney's alleged and actual statements, and the decision on AIPAC's part to target her in 2002, have reinvigorated festering tensions between Black Americans and Jews, and have exposed a good deal of anti-Jewish backlash on the Left. Read Stephen Zunes' article Don't Blame the Jews for an informative critique of this trend.

I will not claim to present anything close to a complete analysis of the relationship between African-Americans and Jews in this forum. Suffice it to say that our shared history in this country is a rich and complicated one. Thinking about this relationship is important to me on a personal level, because, as a progressive, pacifist Jew, I strongly value reconciliation and peace, and it pains me to witness the intensity of conflict that seems to exist between communities I see as fundamentally aligned.

Jews stood with African-Americans throughout the labor movement and the Civil Rights movement, and the communities felt, for many years, a solidarity in their mutual identity as oppressed minorities in the United States. And as such, they shared common political goals--an end to racism and anti-Semitism and increased economic and educational opportunities in a nation that denied them these. Blacks and Jews were banned from the same universities, home owners' associations and social clubs, and they were both targeted by the Klan. There is a long history of Blacks and Jews working together in radical socialist and communist organizations before and through the McCarthy era, and Jews joined African-Americans in founding the NAACP in 1909. The common struggle of Jews and Blacks shaped alliances between some of the most well-known thinkers and activists in the 20th Century. And African-Americans even felt affinity with the Zionist movement, modeling upon it the return-to-Africa movement that gained popularity in the 1960s and 70s.

Paul Robeson and Albert Einstein were both known for other things, of course, but each was also an outspoken advocate for social justice in his time. They worked together on a national anti-lynching campaign in 1946.

The relationship between the communities, however, has shifted. In the last thirty years, it's been increasingly tense, and I believe this owes primarily to the stark economic contrast that exists between the communities--the fact that, while once Jews and Blacks shared a commonality as oppressed classes in America, the white privilege of Jews in the United States--most being of European


extraction--allowed us to assimilate into American society much more quickly and to escape, to a much greater degree, the marginalization that continues to plague African-Americans. Jews were never slaves in America, and did not suffer the same degree of multigenerational poverty that has kept a disproportionate number in the Black population in this country subject to life in a permanent underclass. I believe that it is these underlying economic and social divisions that have done the majority of the work in cleaving the communities from one another--and it is the petty blaming and indictments of some community leaders, on both sides, that have fueled the continued animosity between Jews and Blacks. Jews have rightly felt mistrust over Louis Farrakhan's infamous anti-Semitic remarks. But our own anti-black racism and the mainstreaming of Jewish politics in this country have likewise created distance between Jews and African-Americans.

Minister Louis Farrakhan, of the Nation of Islam, has called Judaism a "gutter religion," and has repeatedly called Jews "bloodsuckers." He's not fond of Asians, Catholics, or queers, either, by the way.

And the plot thickens when we add the politics of Israel/Palestine to the mix. The seemingly intractable standoff between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East becomes a backdrop for the conflict at home, as allegiances have emerged between African-Americans and Muslims, not only through the Black Muslim movement, but also through a growing solidarity of progressive people of color with international struggles for self-determination.

Matters are certainly not helped any when American Jews and Jewish advocacy organizations become so myopic about Israel that we fail to recognize an ally when we see one. Her critical stand on Israel, by no means, makes Cynthia McKinney an anti-Semite--it doesn't even make her "anti-Israel." She's a longtime champion for international peace and disarmament--a major advocate for nuclear nonproliferation and an indispensable leader against the brutal international weapons trade. And at home, she is a leading advocate for civil rights and a steadfast representative for people who care about real issues--education, health care, good jobs, opportunity, and local solutions to corporate globalization--fundamental issues that should still be of concern to Jewish Americans. Contemporary Jewish politics in America have become bourgeois politics--we are isolating ourselves from our oldest allies in the struggle for civil rights and equality.

But thankfully, the American Jewish community is diverse, and I am not nearly alone in my call for a new open mindedness among American Jews. There are many Jewish organizations, as well as organizations whose core founders and visionaries have been Jewish, that are questioning the monolithic "Israel--right or wrong" mentality in the larger Jewish community.

Here are some of them:

Jewish Voice for Peace

Women In Black

Tikkun.Org

Jews Against the Occupation

Cynthia McKinney at an anti-war demonstration last year.

And, on behalf of the thousands of progressive American Jews out there, I say mazel tov to Cynthia McKinney--the next US Congress member for Georgia's 4th District.

Peace & Love,
Bree

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