Over a week ago I emailed to the well- known\u00a0 blogger\u00a0 Philip Weiss,\u00a0 an interesting post written by Nahida (AKA The Exiled Palestinian).<\/span><\/p>\n In her article, <\/span>Jewish Voice For Peace? Really??<\/span><\/a> , Nahida expresses some sharp criticism of Jewish anti-Zionist groups, forcefully arguing that \u201cAnti-Zionist Jewish organisations are trying to silence Palestine’s supporters, to frame the debate\u201d and to \u201csteer the course of the liberation\u201d of her homeland.<\/span><\/p>\n Since Weiss runs the most popular <\/span>Jewish progressive blog<\/span><\/a>, offering an invaluable source of information regarding Israeli crimes, I thought he might be willing to address Nahida\u2019s criticism, and to discuss it with his many progressive Jewish followers.<\/span><\/p>\n Weiss did not post\u00a0Nahida\u2019s article on his blog, but his discussion with me\u00a0was brave and honest*, and to a certain extent he affirmed Nahida\u2019s criticism, admitting that it was indeed \u2018Jewish self-interest\u2019 that he himself was \u2018concerned with\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n Weiss had the following to say on the matter:\u00a0\u201cI believe all people act out of self-interest. And Jews who define themselves at some level as Jews — like myself for instance — are concerned with a Jewish self-interest. Which in my case is: an end to Zionism.\u00a0 A theory of political life based on altruism or concern for victims purely is doomed to fail.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Openly and bluntly, Weiss confirmed what many of us have been saying for a very long time: it is not solely \u2018altruism\u2019 or concern for Palestinians victims that motivates some of the most prominent Jewish campaigners and organisations, but it is also, as Weiss freely admits, \u2018Jewish self-interest.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I confessed to Weiss that I was overwhelmed by his frankness. I think that Weiss may well be the first Jewish activist to admit , or even to define the Judeo-centric impetus behind the Jewish- progressive political discourse.<\/span><\/p>\n I decided to press it further, asking Weiss whether he considered himself to be \u2018tribal\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n And once again, Weiss\u2019 answer was brave and honest, though he did start to express some frustration. He answered, \u201cYes I do at some level. And what bugs me about stuff you send me <\/strong>(I guess that Weiss was referring to Nahida\u2019s article)<\/em> is that I end up in the end inevitably and predictably at some site trashing Jewish religion, to which I have very little connection, though yes I feel some core \u2018Id\u2019** and this makes me think in the end, that dialogue with you will not help ME because I am interested in frying different fish. While you seem out rather reductively to prove the degeneracy of a religion which I\u2019m sure is deeply problematic, as Islam is and the Church of Pedophilia\u2026( <\/strong>sic<\/strong><\/em>)\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n However, I still do not grasp\u00a0why Weiss thinks that I am interested to reductively \u2018prove the degeneracy of a religion\u2019 — I am not really interested in criticising the religion of Judaism, or any other religion for that matter: in fact, I am far more concerned with Jewish secularism and Jewish secular ideology.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, it was at that stage that\u00a0I realised that Weiss was a perfect candidate for an interview.\u00a0 He certainly embodies the Jewish-progressive school of thought: a unique mixture of righteousness, charming self-love, mixed together with some deep intolerance towards other people\u2019s belief systems.<\/span><\/p>\n I went on to ask Weiss: \u201cWhat does the word \u2018Jewish\u2019 mean for you?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Weiss was\u00a0short and precise in his response : “My mother, my father, my grandparents, a family feeling, us-ness, in distinction to the Them.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I pressed Weiss further\u00a0, asking him,\u00a0\u201cthis \u2018us-ness\u2019 does it really\u00a0extend beyond family and friends? Do you, for instance, feel \u2018us-ness\u2019 with an Iraqi Jew?\u201d, I wondered.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I think identity is multi-factorial,\u2019<\/strong> Weiss replied,\u00a0\u00a0 \u2018I feel American before I feel Jewish. I think that’s the achievement of my life, to have flipped those identities, and Jewish is second. I see Jewish as this great civilization that I am part of. That transcends borders, and it’s not Zionist. Zionism is like Shabbetai Tzvi<\/a>,\u00a0 It’s a big chapter in a long story. Jews will survive this one too. Jews is: a sense of difference, yes, inevitably of elite identity, that’s part of Jewish history and one I struggle with.\u00a0 Jewish is a Story, a myth\u2026\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I liked the imaginative\u00a0 and poetic manner in which Weiss referred to his own identity. I appreciated his honesty, and I also accepted what seems to be a possible discrepancy between the universal consciousness and the tribal affiliation.<\/span><\/p>\n And yet, I really wanted to grasp how Weiss translated his sense of tribalism into a political, or ideological, awareness. I enquired further, to which he responded, \u2018I\u2019m against compartmentalized identity but I do think that people are tribal, it’s the nature of the species right now, and the deal is do we call on that or do we try and reduce it? I\u2019m for reducing it but not denying its existence till everyone puts down their shield and that doesn\u2019t seem bloody likely.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I had some \u201cus-ness\u201d from my family, a lot of it, but bridled at it. \u201cIs it good for the Jews?\u201d question bugged the hell out of me. But if Herzl, a Christmas tree Jew like me, was made Jewish by anti Semites, as he was, I was made Jewish by the Neocons. I thought, I\u2019m Jewish too so f**k them with their tribalism.\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n