Jewish lobby clashes with Israel lobby

Here's quite an informative story of how zionism can be, horror of horrors, bad for Jews. A Jew was murdered in Yemen back in December 2008. There has been an increase in anti-Jewish feeling in the country since Israel's attack on Gaza that began in the same month. Here's the Jewish Telegraphic Agency:

About three weeks ago, the Jewish Agency for Israel announced that it had brought 10 Jews to Israel. Meanwhile, the United Jewish Communities has been working behind the scenes to arrange for the immigration of some 113 members of the Yemenite community to the United States. The operation was a joint effort that included the Satmar community of Rockland County, N.Y. -- the community has ties to Yemenite Jewry and is determined that they preserve their traditional religious practices -- as well as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, FEGS, UJA-Federation of New York and the U.S. State Department.

But after Israel's daily Ma'ariv published an account this week of the UJC's effort, Jewish organizational officials involved in the emigration effort said they were worried the Yemeni government would clamp down on Jewish emigration -- especially to Israel -- possibly to placate Arab critics.

"We’re concerned this will endanger this operation and will strand the Jews there," one Jewish organizational official said of the publicity.

But now look at the sheer arrogance of the so-called Jewish Agency, or the Jewish Agency for Israel, to give it its full name and a more accurate description:

For its part, the Jewish Agency, which was the first group to go public with its effort to spirit Yemenite Jews out of the country, issued a harsh condemnation of the operation to bring the Yemenites to the United States.

"We vehemently oppose the immigration of Jews, wherever they are, to the United States, including the group of Jews from Yemen that is not going to the State of Israel," the Jewish Agency said in a statement. "The place of all Jews from the entire Diaspora -- and included in this are the Jews of Yemen -- is in their homeland, Israel."

Given that most Jews don't come from Israel shouldn't it be for individuals to decide what their homeland is? Not according to the Jewish Agency for Israel it's not.

U.S. Jewish organizational officials said they simply were following the wishes of Jews in Yemen who had expressed a preference to immigrate to America.

"Our efforts were aimed primarily at trying to get them to Israel," Joe Berkofsky, a UJC spokesman, told JTA. "Some did not want to go to Israel; they wanted to go to the States.

"Our primary mission is to help Jews in need and save Jewish lives. And if some want to come to the United States and that’s going to save their life, that’s what we need to do."

Now, assuming what's left of this ancient Jewish community is in danger, I can't help but be reminded of Ben Gurion's infamous words following Kristallnacht:

If I knew it was possible to save all [Jewish] children of Germany by their transfer to England and only half of them by transferring them to Eretz-Yisrael, I would choose the latter----because we are faced not only with the accounting of these [Jewish] children but also with the historical accounting of the Jewish People.

I think roughly translated that means that the Jewish state is more important than Jewish people and that's what they call zionism.