ANSWER bans rabbi

A.N.S.W.E.R. bans a Jewish rabbi from speaking at an anti-war rally: (via Steven):

Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder of the progressive Jewish magazine Tikkun, says he was “blackballed” from speaking at Sunday’s rally because he has criticized one of four coalitions sponsoring the event for spreading “anti-Israel propaganda” at recent peace rallies.

[ . . . ]

The local peace movement’s intramural spat erupted nationally Wednesday when Lerner publicized his situation in a Wall Street Journal opinion article. It is all the more striking because the San Francisco-based Lerner is perhaps one of the most vocal Jewish critics of Israel in the country.

Many anti-war activists have unspoken agreements not to publicly air their differences, in part because they feel infighting distracts from the more urgent cause of opposing U.S. policy on Iraq. But Lerner said the anti-war movement will grow in strength only if it is able to seriously critique itself.

He charges that San Francisco rally organizer Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, or A.N.S.W.E.R., uses anti-war rallies to blast Israel’s human rights record while ignoring Palestinian violence, a tactic that he characterized as both lopsided and anti-Semitic.

The article goes on to explain that while the vast majority of the anti-war protesters are simply against war in Iraq, Jews attending these events often find themselves in a “hostile” environment that is strongly anti-Israel. The pro-Palestinian cause has been linked to the anti-war cause, and those who support the latter and not the former find themselves unwelcome, and asked to keep their opinions to themselves.

Some democratic movement.