Chomsky Ascribes ‘Self-Hating’ Blackmail to Abba Eban ’73

The latest Jewish Currents traces the history of the blackmail "self-hating Jew" to describe Jews who have not drunk the Israel koolaid. It quotes Noam Chomsky on the subject:

Chomsky attributes the promiscuous use of the accusation of Jewish
self-hatred to a piece by the late Israeli foreign minister and United Nations
ambassador Abba Eban, who wrote in Congress Bi-Weekly in 1973, “One of
the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the
distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all.”
“That is a convenient stand,” Chomsky remarked to me. “It cuts off a mere 100
percent of critical comment!”

Although Chomsky comes from a religious background, he refused to address his
own religious beliefs: “I’ve always regarded my personal life as a personal
matter.” But he added that while he is not as observant as his grandfather, “who
barely left the shtetl,” he does have deep connections to his Jewishness
and considers the accusation that he is self-hating to be comical.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in US Politics

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  1. Klaus Bloemker says:

    As I have said before: The unstated assuption is that Jews are a most wonderful people. If someone – as a born Jew – renounces his/her Jewishness or even critizises it, he/she must suffer from a personality deficit called 'self-hate'. Isn't the intellectual and moral superiority of the Jews a proven fact?. How can someone be so idiotic to renounce his/her Jewishness?
    This logic is compelling, isn't it?

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