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Forwarded From: Brian Henry <b.henry@3web.net> -- <<<<< Bernard Weinraub writes: In a perfectly rational world it should be easily possible to despise Likkud/Sharon for its sins (as I myself do) without having to detach oneself convincingly from those who use Likkud as a pretext for a more deep-seated antisemitism." >>>>> I think H-antisemitism is close enough to being a rational world that anyone can disagree with Sharon or Barak, with Likud or Labour, or with Horowitz or Pipes (as Barbara Sibold does) or any other person or party without being suspected of antisemitism. Moreover in my personal experience of the wider world, people are not accused of antisemitism for criticizing a party or its policies. Rather, the charge of antisemitism is levelled when they demonize Israel, when they make Israel out to be uniquely evil, figure Israelis as Nazis and Sharon as Hitler, and say that Israel should be removed from the map. People (generally on the Left) who go in for this sort of Israel-bashing indignantly reply that they're not antisemitic; they're anti-Zionist. I do think it's true that these Israel-haters are not usually racist antisemites or xenophobic antisemites or Christian antisemites. Perhaps, they shouldn't always be called antisemites at all. However, when Israel-haters claim that demonizing Israel is anti-Zionism not antisemitism, their defence amounts to just this: Yes, they are bigots, but they're bigoted against Israel, not against Jews. I don't think the distinction much improves their moral standing. Also, I think the distinction is usually counterfeit. First, even if Israel-haters weren't otherwise guilty of antisemitism, they'd be guilty of aiding and abetting antisemites. Most of the Israel-hating Left may genuinely oppose old-style antisemitism in the West, but it fully endorses Palestinian nationalism, while ignoring its thoroughgoing antisemitism. Moreover while the Leftist intelligentsia may believe they can hold the line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, their continual attacks on Israel must certainly increase the antisemitism of others. For example, in the recent ADL survey of 12 European countries, 29% of those surveyed said the actions of Israel influence their opinion of Jews. See: http://www.adl.org/anti_semitism/european_attitudes_may_2005.pdf Twenty-nine percent - that's a lot of people. And this counts only those who recognize that Israel's actions affects their opinion of Jews. In short, when Leftists (or anyone else) slings mud at Israel, the spatter hits Jews everywhere. Second, when Israel-haters employ classic antisemitic themes, accusing Israel or Sharon or Jewish neo-Cons of pulling the strings in Washington, then this is not "just" anti-Zionism; it's antisemitism. Third, when Israel-haters describe Israel as a Nazi state, Sharon as Hitler, Gaza as a concentration camp, Jenin as Warsaw and so forth, this is naked antisemitism. Even if the attack is ostensibly against Israel, it has resonance only because it actually targets Jews. The essential formulation is this: As the Nazis were to the Jews, the Jews are to the Palestinians. Or more briefly: Jews are Nazis. Could any slander be more obviously antisemitic? Fourth, when Israel-haters declare that Zionism is racism or otherwise declare it's criminal for Jews to be a nation, this is antisemitism. Of course, if someone were to declare it's criminal for any group to be a nation or for any nation to express itself as a state that nation states are intrinsically criminal and he didn't single out Israel, hed be guilty of utopianism not antisemitism. But although I've certainly heard people argue for a post-nationalist world, I've only ever heard one nationality singled out as intrinsically racist, as criminal. And of course, you or I or anyone might critique the way Jewish nationalism expresses itself on the ground. I might argue that Israel should follow a policy of full integration of its Arab population, allowing civil marriage, instituting a universal army draft and so on. (And if I moved to Israel, I'd even expect the government to pay the attention due to me as a citizen.) Others might argue that Israel should go post-Zionist: abandon the idea of Jewish nationalism, abolish the Law of Return and declare itself a melting pot state on the model of America or a multicultural state on the model of Canada. On the other hand, for the international Left to attempt to force a vision of post-nationalism on Israel - and only on Israel through criminalizing Israel, through boycotting it, and through defending terrorist attacks on it that's antisemitism. The old antisemitism accused "the Jew" of being criminal (of everywhere and always willing evil and only evil, to paraphrase Sartre). The new Leftist antisemitism accuses the Jewish polity instead. As Taguieff points out in Rising from the Muck, the accusation is the same; it's merely been shifted into the political realm. Fifth, though the intelligentsia that leads the anti-Israel Left may regard itself as the arbiter of political virtue and immune to common prejudice, it slips easily from slandering Israel to slandering Jews, which is precisely why the French court convicted Le Monde and the authors of "Israel-Palestine: The Cancer." (The JTA has an interesting article about the backlash against the conviction, "In France, debate rages over verdict finding paper guilty of anti-Semitism," by Lauren Elkin, July 7, 2005. Reprinted here in the Canadian Jewish News under the headline "Le Monde guilty verdict sparks debate": http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?idh66&s Andrea Zanardo has provided us with another example in the interesting case of Maurizio Blondet. Here is a man who propagates a crude neo-fascist antisemitism, and for this reason, the Italian militant Left embraces him. Does Leftist political antisemitism inevitably lead to old-fashioned hatred of Jews? Does hatred of the Jewish polity inevitably lead to hatred of "the Jew"? I don't know, but it shouldn't surprise any of us when it does. Shalom from Toronto, Brian Henry -- Yocheved Menashe List Editor, H-Antisemitism
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