USING CHARGE OF “ANTISEMITISM” TO SILENCE CRITICISM OF ISRAEL
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In
recent years, there has been an effort to redefine “antisemitism” to
include not simply bigotry toward Jews and Judaism, but also criticism
of Israel and Zionism. In May 2022, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL), declared that, “Anti-Zionism is
antisemitism.” He argued that groups calling for equal rights for
Palestinians in Israel are “extremists” and equated liberal critics of
Israel with white supremacists.
In
an assessment of the role the ADL is now playing in the campaign to
silence criticism of Israel, Eric Alterman, CUNY Distinguished Professor
of English at Brooklyn College, published an article in the New
Republic (Aug. 21, 2023) titled, “What Does the ADL Stand for Today.”
He is the author of the book,”We Are Not One: A History of America’s
Fight Over Israel.”
Alterman
points out that, “The far right is the source of the vast majority of
antisemitism In the U.S. today…The ADL should be saying so more
insistently…Greenblatt had virtually nothing to say about the rise of
white Christian nationalism, together with its undeniably antisemitic
‘replacement theory’ that has mesmerized so many MAGA supporters and
inspired murderous violence against Jews…and other vulnerable members of
the population. Instead, he focused his ire on what the ADL calls
‘hostile anti-Zionist activist groups’ like Students for Justice in
Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, which loudly criticize and protest
against Israel on American college campuses, calling them ‘the photo
inverse of the extreme right.’”
While
Greenblatt assaulted alleged “antisemitism” on the pro-Palestinian
left, the ADL’s own “Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2022” found that the
liberal groups he focused on were responsible for just two percent of
the “antisemitic” actions to which the ADL objected. Lara Friedman, a
Middle East policy analyst and frequent critic of the ADL, points out
that of these incidents cited, 53 out of 70 were attributable to a
single marginal group in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The
ADL’s overall count of antisemitic incidents, Alterman points out,
“does not allow for crucial distinctions to be made among them. A
tragic massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh or the Jews
held hostage in a Dallas synagogue for 11 hours by a gunman last year,
are accorded the same statistical significance in the ADL’s counting as,
say, a report of graffiti written on a stairwell of a college dorm. In
the ADL’s statistics, they both count the same.”
The
motive for promoting the idea of mounting antisemitism, Alterman
argues, is clear: “A major reason for the ADL’s addiction to alarmism
is the same institutional imperative that drives virtually every other
issue-oriented nonprofit: Bad news in the world is good news for the
organizations committed to fighting it. Climate change catastrophes
fill the coffers of environmental groups. Attacks on choice fill the
coffers of planned Parenthood.”
Some
Israelis admit that the equating of anti-Zionism with antisemitism is a
tactic to silence criticism of Israel. Shulamit Aloni, a former
Minister of Education, and winner of the Israel Prize, describes how
this works: “It’s a trick. We always use it. When from Europe,
somebody criticizes Israel, we bring up the Holocaust. When in the
United States, people are critical of Israel, then they are
antisemitic.”*
DIVERSE JEWISH VOICES REACT TO DEVELOPMENTS IN GAZA
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The
Hamas terrorist assault upon Israel on Oct. 7, which took the lives of
more than 1,000 civilians, and Israel’s response in Gaza, which has
taken the lives of thousands of men, women and children, has stirred
much discussion within the Jewish community.
Sara
Roy, senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies
at Harvard University, whose parents survived the Holocaust while 100
members of her family were killed in Poland, wrote an open letter to
President Biden (London Review of Books, November 2023).
She
writes: “When does the death of a Palestinian child become
unacceptable? Or perhaps I should ask the question this way: when will
you assign a Palestinian life the same sanctity you assign an Jsraeli
one? Yesterday, Israel bombarded the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza.
Part of the camp was destroyed and at least 100 people were killed or
injured. My friend the poet Mosab Abu Toha, his wife and children moved
to Jabaliya recently after Israel warned them to leave their home in
Beit Lahiya, a city north of the camp, because Beit Lehiya would be
shelled. It was and Mosab’s house was destroyed. I have just heard
from him after two days of frantic worry. ‘The bombing in Jabilya Camp
was just 70 metres away from us,’ he said. ‘a whole neighborhood was
wiped out.”
Dr. Roy notes
that, “Jabilya is a familiar place to me…It is the largest of Gaza’s
eight refugee camps, with 26 schools, two health centers and a public
library. More than 116,000 are in an area of 1.4 square kilometers. Do
you have any idea
What it means to crowd over
100,000 into half a square mile? I must also tell you that as a Jew and
child of Holocaust survivors, I was welcomed into every home I visited
in the camp. In fact, I was embraced…I don’t know if my friends are
among those murdered or injured by Israel. But I do know that this is
not the first atrocity and it won’t be the last if the barbarity
continues to be justified by you and the others with the power to stop
it. You call for a ‘humanitarian pause,’ which I do not understand.
What does a pause mean in the middle of such carnage? Does it mean
feeding people so they can survive to be killed the next day? How is
that humanitarian? How is that humane?”
Professor
Emeritus Yakov M. Rabkin of the University of Montreal, author of the
book “What Is Modern Israel?,” provides this assessment (Pressenza, Nov.
1, 8, 2023): “The new state of Israel placed Palestinian Arabs under
military rule, which lasted nearly two decades. Refugees and exiles who
tried to return to their homes were killed, expelled or arrested…The
murderous attack of Oct.7,2023 obviously enraged most Israelis. But
instead of taking pause, military and political leaders immediately
subjected Gaza to massive bombardment followed by a ground invasion…This
caused a humanitarian crisis.”
In
Rabkin’s view, “Vengeful demonization of the Palestinians has become
common. Even the soft-spoken president of Israel claimed that there
were no ‘innocent civilians’ in Gaza. Meirev Ben-Ari, a parliamentarian
from Yesh Atid, which in Israel passes for a liberal centrist party,
said in reference to thousands of Palestinian children killed by Israeli
bombardment, ‘The children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves!
We are a peace-seeking nation, a life-loving nation.’…Many Jews…have
been trying to come to terms with the contradictions between the Judaism
they profess to adhere to and the Zionist ideology that has taken hold
of them. A new variety of Judaism has taken root in Israel: National
Judaism…Among its most fervent followers one finds the assassin of Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who had attempted to find an accommodation with
the Palestinians, and prominent members of today’s Israeli government.”
Prof.
Wendy Pearlman, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Studies
Program at Northwestern University, wrote an article, “Collective
Punishment in Gaza will Not Bring Israel Security” (New Lines Magazine,
0ct. 30, 2023). She writes, “The current siege of Gaza has shifted…to
uprooting it entirely. Indeed, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s
declaration that Israel is fighting ‘human animals’ points to an even
more startling biological metaphor. It not only casts all of Gaza as a
fair target, but also deploys dehumanizing rhetoric of the kind that
scholars have long recognized as genocidal.”
Dr.
pearlman concludes: “Bombardment, siege, forced displacement and the
denial of humanitarian access might satisfy the desire for revenge, but
these actions cannot bring Israelis security. As long as
self-determination is denied, Palestinian resistance will continue.
There is no military solution to the…political problem of two peoples
seeking to live with freedom and dignity on the same small piece of
land. Security requires peace, which can only be obtained through a
negotiations process grounded in respect for international law and the
human rights of all people.”
Rabbi
Alissa Wise of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council states:
“History will ask: what did you do to stop the Israeli genocide of
Palestinian people? Have an answer…Zionism is incompatible with
Judaism. The point of fasting today because of destruction and losses
and trauma our ancestors suffered is to prevent us from doing the same
to others. Instead, the ‘Jewish’ state uses the state to destroy…and
traumatize Palestinians. By design, under Israeli law, Palestinians
have an inferior status to Jews legally, judicially, politically. This
is apartheid.”
Rabbi
Brant Rosen of Congregation Tzedek Chicago states that, “After the
horrific massacre of Israelis by Hamas on Oct. 7, the collective Jewish
world entered into an acute and unprecedented period of mourning. Our
hearts then cracked open again—-and continue to crack open—-as thousands
of Palestinians in Gaza are being killed by Israeli bombs and an
Israeli ground invasion, and Israelis continue to die….This latest
violence did not occur in a vacuum. It is but the latest manifestation
of an injustice that Israel has been perpetrating against Palestinian
people for decades. We must shine an unflinching light on the roots of
this violence….For the past 75 years, Israel has been violently
dispossessing Palestinians in order to make way for a majority Jewish
state. And for just as long, the Palestinian people have been resisting
their dispossession…” *
IN ISRAEL, “MORAL REBUILDING MUST BEGIN NOW”
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In
the wake of developments in Gaza, Peter Beinart, a professor of
journalism and political science at the City University of New York and
an editor for Jewish Currents, wrote an article in the New York Times
(Oct.15, 2023, “The Work of Moral Rebuilding Must Begin Now.”
He
writes: “Hamas…has committed an unspeakable horror that may damage the
Palestinian cause for decades to come. Yet when Palestinians resist
their oppression in ethical ways—-by calling for boycotts, sanctions and
the application of international law—the U.S. and its allies work to
ensure that those efforts fail, which convinces many Palestinians that
ethical resistance doesn’t work, which empowers Hamas.”
In
Beinart’s view, “The savagery Hamas committed…has made reversing this
monstrous cycle much harder…It will require a shared commitment to
ending Palestinian oppression in ways that respect the infinite value of
every human life…It will require new forms of political community…built
around a democratic vision powerful enough to transcend tribal
divides…The effort may fail. It has failed before. The alternative is
to descend , flags waving, into hell.”
Over
the years, notes Beinart, “Israel, with America’s help…has repeatedly
undermined Palestinians who sought to end Israel’s occupation through
negotiations or nonviolent pressure…As part of the 1993 Oslo Accords,
the PLO renounced violence and began working with Israel…because they
thought it would deliver them a state…The 1996 election of Mr.Netanyahu
and the failure of Israel and its American patron to stop settlement
growth, however, curdled Palestinian sentiment…Like many others who care
about the lives of both Palestinians and Jews, I have felt in recent
days the greatest despair I have ever known…A Palestinian friend sent me
a note of consolation. She ended it with the words ‘only together.’
Maybe that can be our motto.” *