Miscellaneous Thoughts on Antisemitism and Israel

Criticism of Netanyahu, of Israel’s government is absolutely NOT antisemitism. Calling Netanyahu a war criminal might or might not be correct, but it’s not in and of itself antisemitism. Criticizing Israel’s Gaza war or West Bank policy is certainly not antisemitism.

I criticize Netanyahu and his government all the time, as do most American Jews and most (believe it or not) Israelis. In fact, Netanyahu isn’t popular at all right now with Jewish Israelis. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but that’s where it is right now.

Obviously when critics of the Israeli government say that Israel does not have the right to exist as a Jewish state, that’s almost certainly antisemitism. Unless you’re willing to criticize every country with ethnicity or religion enshrined by law (including virtually every country in the Middle East, many counties in Europe, India, Japan, and many other nations), you are singling out Jews for special criticism. That is wildly inconsistent and therefore antisemitism. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone actually do this. It’s possible, but it’s really more theoretical and than actual.

When people start using the words “Zionist” as a slur, that’s antisemitism. While the word, “Zionism” has come to mean Netanyahu and his policies to some, it really means the right of Jews to have their own state (as countless other ethnic/religious groups do). Whether or not Jews call themselves “Zionists,” about 90% of American Jews believe in the legitimacy and desirability of a Jewish state (i.e. Israel). Clearly for some on the far-left, the word, “Zionist,” is simply a proxy for Jews. If 90% of Jews believe in a Jewish state, and people slur them, well we know how Jews view that. We also know that much of the rhetoric is not ultimately about Israel, but about Jews themselves.

Even worse than “Zionist” is “Zio.” That’s clearly not an abbreviation for ease of speech, but out-and-out hate speech. It’s not much different from other slurs used against various minority groups

Zio” is everywhere in far-left circles, especially on social media. On X/Twitter I see it every day–unless I stop myself from looking at post comments (but I don’t have enough self-discipline for that).

Personally I don’t regard “Free Palestine” as inherently antisemitic. Palestinians have a right to their own state IMHO (as do Kurds, for example). So in isolation it’s not a problematic phrase.

If “Free Palestine means “Free of Jews” (as some have clearly said), that’s antisemitism. If “Free Palestine” is accompanied by attacks on the idea of a Jewish state or a desire to annihilate Jews, that is antisemitism. If Free Palestine is used alongside “From the River to the Sea,” that’s a promise of annihilating Jews, which is clearly antisemitic.

I support a two-state solution. So for me “Free Palestine” is reasonable as long as it’s about Palestinians getting their own state.

“AIPAC” is another hot word these days. I should say that I have criticized AIPAC for years now. Honestly I can’t stand them, and I have been ripped for criticizing them. I have told a few AIPAC reps what I think and I’ve said a certain amount on social media, and they just ignored me and moved on.

The problem is that politicians are using the word “AIPAC” repeatedly as if it’s a magic word or an obscenity. It’s essentially become e a code word for “Zionist.” While it’s certainly not antisemitic to criticize AIPAC (I’ve done so for years well before the current flood), to repeat it ad nauseam is a problem–especially if you don’t criticize other ethnic advocacy groups (Armenian, Turkish, Irish, etc.). If all you do is repeat “AIPAC” as a mantra, yes, you are wandering into the land of antisemitism.

Using “AIPAC” repeatedly also enters in the classic antisemitic trope of accusing Jews of ‘dual loyalty’. This goes back hundreds of years. This was one of the main accusations Nazis hurled against Jews and was effective in their murderous propaganda.

If you want to criticize AIPAC (as I have), explain precisely what you’re criticizing them for and make sure that you don’t solely focus on Jews when you discuss loyalty to foreign governments.

If you want to criticize AIPAC and not be problematic, you have an obligation not to simply repeat the word as a slur, but to explain what exactly you’re criticizing.

Another word thrown around regularly is “genocide.” I have taught courses on the Holocaust/Shoah, genocide generally, and mass murder,. I have studied it quite a bit, though I’m not an international lawyer. With that caveat, the word is deeply problematic.

For one thing, the population of Gaza is approximately the same as it was before the conflict (there are competing statistics here, but all in all there’s not much of change in population totals). Genocide laws require that a perpetrator target wiping out an entire population or wiping out a substantial portion of the population. No such evidence exists, however.

Second, you can’t just kill a lot of people in a genocide. You have to prove “intent” to eradicate a group or large part of a group. Without getting into the weeds (there are a lot of weeds), there’s not enough evidence that the IDF are attempting to do this.

So I think this is very likely not a genocide in a legal sense. Is it possible for a kangaroo court to conclude otherwise? Possibly I suppose (though the evidence is almost non-existent). People hate Jews for whatever reasons. In fact, the accusation of genocide is echoed in Nazi propaganda of the 1930s. The Nazis claimed that they had to kill Jews because Jews were trying to annihilate (exterminate–a word I don’t like) Aryans and Germany. You might think this sounds silly or crazy, but this is precisely what Nazi propagandists argued.

So in some ways, the word, “genocide,” is for Jews a kind of red herring–because it’s not based on facts or truth. Rather it’s an old trope without evidentiary basis that allows people to treat Israel and Jews badly. In fact, it’s the kind of language that encourages physical attacks on Jews globally–as some of the perpetrators themselves have acknowledged.

Also a substantial portion of those killed are members of the Hamas military. Hamas recently said that it was sending out payments to about 30,000 widows of Hamas soldiers. That makes a genocide accusation even less likely.’

Jews have been accused of targeting children since the 4th century C.E. This is one of the most common tropes used against Jews. Many of the Jews in the USA today have grandparents who fled Eastern Europe partly because they were facing mass attacks of local populations. We call them pogroms. The mobs murdered Jews in part because they accused Jews of killing Christian children or putting children’s blood in their matzoh during Passover. So when Jews hear about Israelis targeting children, and there’s not much evidence of intentional targeting, then Jews hear the sounds of 2,000 years of people calling Jews child murderers.

Also many of the deaths in Gaza occurred because Hamas used civilian locations, including neighborhoods and hospitals, to protect their soldiers and equipment. This is clearly an issue for any war crimes charges. This policy is often referred to as using “human shields.” It would be a difficult legal argument to overcome in any prosecution of war crimes.

Again I’m not an international lawyer, but killing civilians is not a war crime per se–especially if Hamas embeds itself in civilian locations. In war, militaries have the right to attack civilian areas if military units are located there. This is an intentional Hamas strategy. At Nuremberg and in other trials, Nazis (including Herman Göring) claimed that Allied bombing campaigns like Dresden were war crimes. This was rejected consistently by the courts. If we were to examine the Allied bombing campaign, we would be horrified by the level of death and destruction. We have seen how awful things were recently in the battles of Mosul and Fallujah in Iraq. If we examined WWII battles and civilian casualties and property destruction, we would be horrified. War is always brutal, but that in itself doesn’t make it a war crime. War may be wrong or even immoral, but that doesn’t make it necessarily a crime.

Netanyahu might well have committed war crimes in certain areas, such as denying food to come into Gaza. Also obstructing medical assistance could be a war crime conceivably. There are probably other potential crimes I have not thought of. I don’t know the evidence, and obviously the fighting isn’t over, but we would have to wait and see what might qualify as a war crime legally.

If we were to examine the Allied campaign in WWII, both in Europe and Japan, there were very likely war crimes committed. Were Hiroshima and Nagasaki war crimes? Didn’t the atomic bombs intentionally target civilian populations? This is a subject of debate.

In Europe, Allied soldiers often killed POWs (because having to use fighting soldiers as POW guards was viewed as hindering Allied military advances). Allied troops sometimes denied medical care to German and Japanese soldiers in WWII. Are these not war crimes? These kind of things happen in virtually ever war I’ve studied. The question is: are they isolated incidents or are they part of an intentional policy?

The biggest issue for me when it comes to Gaza is proportionality of protest.

This is very, very important. In Syria, there were between 500,000 and 1,000,000 killed by the Assad government in Syria. Most of them were civilians. We did not see protesters marching in the streets about that even though the total number of dead and wounded was far greater than in Gaza.

In Yemen approximately 150,000 people have so far died in the civil war (most civilians) and another 225,000 died of malnourishment. This was caused by the Houthi (Shiite-Iranian) revolt. Where have been and are the protests against this?

2.5 million people have died in the ongoing conflict in Sudan over the years. Where are the protests about this?

In February of this year, the Iranian government murdered (executed) between 30,000 and 40,000 people simply for the crime of protesting against the current government. Did we see protests in the streets of NYC or SF or anywhere? No we did not. In fact, many on the far-left have defended the Iranian government and criticized the protesters.

The Chinese government has placed 1,000,000 Muslim Uighurs over the past two decades in concentration camps and murdered thousands more. Are there people on the streets about this?

I could go on and on. The question is: Why do protesters focus on Israel and not on other countries? Why do some on the far-left and the far-right defend Assad in Syria and the Iranian government for what are more obvious violations of morality and war codes? If protesters treated all these cases seriously, including Israel, then we would have a far different landscape to look at. Why don’t protesters do this: For most Jews the answer is obvious.

If protesters were consistent (more or less) and applied their protests tactics equitably on various forms of violence, the Jewish community would feel a lot differently. But they don’t and have shown no indication of doing so. Criticism of Israel doesn’t occur in a vacuum. There’s over 2,000 years of history. Christians don’t have a lot of credibility here, given centuries of persecution of Jews, including the Crusades (which targeted Jews along the way, as well as Muslims). They are not neutral arbiters or observers. So when protesters focus on Israel at the expense of other brutal situations, this is what it looks like to Jews and those who understand the history.

Btw, I would say the same about Christian Zionists who blindly support Israel and Netanyahu. They honestly have no clue what they’re talking about. Sure the Israeli government loves their support and their money, but they’re wrong IMHO. They care about themselves and their theology and want Jews to convert. Many younger Evangelicals are not supportive of Israel or Jews. So the landscape is going to shift again probably–not too far away either. In any case, I’m under no illusion that they care about us. They don’t.

Some have argued that disproportionate criticism of Israel is justifiable, since the U.S. provides significant military and economic assistance. As far as economic and military ties go, do observers really think that there would be no protests against Israel if this had not been the case? In Europe where there is much less connection (and a lot more connection to Arab governments), there are massive protests against Israel and more attacks against Jews than in the USA. It’s clearly worse now there than in the USA for Jews. The diminished connections between European countries and Israel has not changed the protest landscape at all. There are no significant protests for any of the countries I mentioned.

Israel knows its days of U.S. support are coming to a close. It’s already established close relations with the Gulf countries (especially UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia). It has peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. With Hezbollah weakened there are now talks with the Lebanese government–which is weak but wants a change from constant war status. It’s in a state of non-belligerence with Syria. It is developing close relations with India–and is probably cutting deals with China. It has relations with several countries in West Africa and improving relations with Morocco.

In fact, many in Israeli leadership would be happy not to have U.S. support at some point in the future. It would give them more freedom to operate independently. This might not be a good thing for Israel because the USA has had a positive influence overall. And it won’t probably be a good thing for the USA–since it provides jobs for Americans and since it gives the USA a lot of influence over an important area of the world. U.S. influence is already dissipating with the Iran war and with our current incompetent government, but the dissipation of influence will accelerate as U.S. aid diminishes to Israel. That is the reality of where we’re headed I think.

Jews in the diaspora are a whole different story. Many of our neighbors dislike us and conflate us with Israel. There’s also the 2,500 years of antisemitic history that we have to face daily. Israelis think all Jews should live in Israel and so they don’t really care that much about our lives here. We’re alone at this moment.

As I talk with my friends in the Jewish community, I hear lots of talk of moving outside the USA. We’re a nation of travelers, migrants, and nomads. That might happen again. But where? Is it really a good idea for all Jews to live in one place (Israel)? One or a few bombs can kill us all. I don’t think that Israelis have thought the diaspora issue through.

There’s a scene in Schindler’s List where a Russian soldier finds the Schindler Jews wandering around somewhere after Schindler had to flee. They’re trying to figure out where to go. He tells them that whichever way they travel, the people they meet will hate them (and probably murder them–which actually happened historically). So most of them ended up in the USA or Israel. It was a very claustrophobic situation, and it is now once again.

I still believe in the USA, even with MAGA, Trump, an authoritarian government, and the massively increasing antisemitism. It still can be a good place for Jews. I believe most Americans don’t like what they see with antisemitism on the far-right and the far-left. I believe that they’re overplaying their hands, but … I’m not sure about that. We just don’t know what’s going to happen on anything these days. I’m still an optimist at heart, but I’m a realistic optimist. Much as it pains me, I have to embrace uncertainty.

I’m betting that Jews in the USA will eventually get through this and that Israel will be ok.

Israel’s problem is no longer primarily strategic, but political. Except for Iran, Israel’s relations with its neighbors are much better than they’ve ever been. That said, Israel’s Public Relations are just dreadful across the globe. If the Israeli government can think of something to alienate people–even its supporters–then they almost always do it. It’s honestly breathtakingly dumb. How can really smart leaders do stuff so stupid?

Also Netanyahu has been pushing hard against democracy and freedom in his own country. Like Trump he’s trying to rig the courts and the political system so that he can stay in power and avoid prison time. This is is a serious problem, though it could prove (I hope) temporary. We’ll see. The next government after Netanyahu will be a big test.

In the USA, we’re experiencing a massive wave of antisemitism and Jew hatred, especially on the far left and far right. Jews in the U.S. have never experienced anything quite like it. Ultimately this has almost nothing to do with Israel, and everything to do with Jews. A lot of people despise and resent Jews in ways that they previously hid. How do we get past that? As someone who spent a large part of my life trying to address antisemitism, it’s disheartening to say the least. This is part of a populist surge, however, and those kind of waves usually wear themselves out over time and dissipate–as we just saw in Hungary.

“Populism” is almost never good for Jews. Historically, when the lid comes off and people start expressing (and acting on) how they really feel about one another, then the resentment and frustration almost always turns to attacking Jews–who are the world’s eternal scapegoat. It’s clockwork.

Graham Platner, Jews, and Israel

This is a response on social media to someone defending Platner:

—————

Platner didn’t remove/cover over the tattoo until he was shamed into doing so by the media. This tattoo is a TotenKopf tattoo, the death head image used by the Nazi Waffen SS who were in the front lines murdering Jews in the death camps and in the East. He has never apologized. He seems to have known what the tattoo meant over the years, but has tried to make that go away. To my knowledge, while he has generally condemned antisemitism, he has not explained what his specific views of the Shoah are. Calling the tattoo a youthful mistake is way, way insufficient. If he had apologized and explained why he did what he did was wrong, he would have a much better reception.

On this basis, if Platner is the future of the Democratic Party (as some have suggested), Jews don’t have much of a place in such a party.

Most Jews and many African Americans have warned Democrats about Platner, but White people haven’t bothered to listen. They apparently have already forgiven Platner. There aren’t many Jews or African Americans in Maine. So there you go. Apparently they know more than we do. When most Jews tell Democrats that someone has an antisemitism problem and they don’t listen, we already have a clear answer on how a large number of people view Jews. It’s honestly hard to miss.

I hope Platner proves me wrong by taking a more humane path. I truly do. But, if history has lessons to teach, we shouldn’t ignore obvious warning signs.

If I lived in Maine, unless something changes, I could not vote for either Platner or Collins. I’ve already explained Platner. But Collins is a coward who enables Trump, and she does virtually nothing to support democracy. Every step of the way she undermines our freedoms and only does what’s best for her politically. It’s gross.

I’m watching Trump, Republicans, and SCOTUS undermine and try to wreck our democracy, but many Democrats care more about ostracizing Israel and Jews than they care about the Constitution and the values that underlie it. Yes, we’ll likely get through this, but living through it sure is painful and exhausting.

Demonstration of Solidarity of Christians and Jews at Temple Adath Israel: Friday, August 18, 2017

Thanks to support from our Christian friends for the Jewish community on Friday. With me is Rev. Marsha Charles who helped to organize this demonstration of solidarity at Temple Adath Israel. She is a mensch and my former student at Lexington Theological Seminary!

 

Elie Wiesel: Neutrality

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Elie Wiesel

Theresienstadt Propaganda Film and the Holocaust

A sad and revealing story about a Jewish director who in 1944 made a propaganda film under Nazi supervision at the Theresienstadt camp in order to fool the International Red Cross. This film was just re-released to remind us not only of the holocaust, but to show us the use of propaganda to propagate a lie:
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/04/27/3087086/rare-nazi-propaganda-film-showcases-theresienstadt-as-paradise-for-inmates

Wisconsin’s Radical Break

William Cronon of the University of Wisconsin wrote this op-ed on March 21 and then conservatives launched a witch-hunt by trying to rifle through his emails. All you have to do is express an opinion and talk about decency and living standards to qualify for harassment from corporate sponsored bullies.
www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/opinion/22cronon.html

Qadaffi: His Toady Supporters in the West and His Murderous Benefactors in Africa

A wonderful article, written with flair and sardonic elegance, skewering numerous, Western individuals and organizations for serving as toadies to a brutal dictator, the “loon of loons”:  http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/03/03/the-mead-list-worlds-top-ten-gaddafi-toads/

Qadaffi has apparently supported a wide array of corrupt, violent, genocidal dictators throughout Africa, as well as several dubious leaders in Central and South America:  http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/04/harvard_for_tyrants?page=full

Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Relations between the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are close, as this article indicates.  And now Hamas has invited one of the charismatic leaders of the Brotherhood to Gaza, Yusuf al-Qaradawi.  Egyptian Qaradawi has frequently called for jihad against Israel and Jews, the destruction of Israel, and has said that he himself looks forward to coming to Israel to personally shoot Jews.

http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e137.htm

For more on Qaradawi and his hatred of Jews, see the following:

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/02/sheikh-qaradawi-seeks-total-war/71626/

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=35&x_article=2000 (this discusses not only Qaradawi’s anti-semitism, his love for Hitler and his hopes for another even more successful Jewish holocaust, but also his support for female genital mutilation and wife beating, suicide killers, the fatwa ordering the murder of Salman Rushdie, the execution of apostates, and laws treating religious minorities differently.  The author emphasizes the whitewashing of Muslim Brotherhood hatred and violence in the New York Times.

Aqedah (Genesis 22): Binding of Abraham and Isaac

See Laurence H. Kant, “Some Restorative Thoughts on an Agonizing Text:  Abraham’s Binding of Isaac and the Horror on  Mt. Moriah  (Gen. 22)”:  “Part 1,”Lexington Theological Quarterly 38 (2003) 77-109; “Part 2, Lexington Theological Quarterly 38 (2003) 161- 94: AqedahPart1a andAqedahPart2a

See also Laurence H. Kant, “Arguing with God and Tiqqun Olam:  A Response to Andre LaCocque on the Aqedah,” Lexington Theological Quarterly 40 (2005) 203-19 (this was a response to an article by André Lacocque, “About the ‘Akedah’ in Genesis 22:  A Response to Laurence H. Kant,”Lexington Theological Quarterly 40 (2005) 191-201): AqedahResponseToLacocque

Antisemitism on Rise in West

See Laurence H. Kant, “Anti-Semitism on Rise in West,” op-ed, Lexington Herald Leader, January 8, 2007:  Antisemitism1

Genocide and Human Progress

I recall explaining to a group that the percentage of soldiers killed in war  is much lower than in the past, especially in hunter-gatherer societies.  The number of civilians killed was also much higher, and people viewed genocide as a normal (though dreaded) hazard of life.  In fact, we did not even have a word for “genocide” until the twentieth century. There is no record of any nation intervening to stop a genocide until the US intervened in Bosnia and Kosovo.

The fact that we talk about “genocide,” condemn it, and criticize lack of action about it is in fact a testament to the unfolding evolution of humanity.  This did not happen in past centuries, in pre-modern cultures, or in the Bible. That’s why cultural transformation is difficult.  People refuse to see what right in front of them:  a growing repulsion for the annihilation of groups of human beings. If we want to move forward, we need to talk about what’s good about us.  Otherwise, those listening shut down.

Ivory Coast on the Brink of Genocide

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/30/ivory-coast-brink-genocide-election-crisis

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110102/ap_on_re_af/af_ivory_coast

Now is the time to act to stop genocide before it happens in the Ivory Coast. Use conversations, talks and sermons, emails, and blogs to stop potential horror.