Richard Cohen has a column in the Washington Post recommending several names for Obama's cabinet; and typically–because I am a Jewish non-Zionist and Cohen is pro-Zionist (he once said that reading Walt and Mearsheimer had him singing "Hatikvah")–I find myself scrutinizing his recommendations for ye olde pro-Israel bias. I used to feel more sheepish about this sort of conduct; but many of us on the non-Zionist front have lately been surprised by the degree to which Rahm Emanuel's Israel-affiliation was discussed around the world. And so I'm encouraged to flyspeck Cohen.
There are 5 names mentioned, 3 are Jewish. Two of them, Larry Summers for Treasury and Joel Klein, NY Schools Chancellor, for Ed Sec'y, will set off alarm bells among Arabs. Summers said that a divestment initiative at Harvard, along with other criticism of Israel's brutal behavior, was "antisemitic." Klein barred the fine Palestinian-American scholar Rashid Khalidi from a New York schools program on a similar basis, because Khalidi had dared to describe some Israeli policies as "racist" and as engendering "apartheid." No First Amendment here, bub.
Al Gore is Cohen's top pick. No, he's not Jewish; but many pro-Pals will think of Gore's endorsement of Arafat's nighttime arrests and courts for extremists, which even the Times couldn't stomach, in 1996.
In the age of Obama, identity politics is going out the window, and so, I hope is the unconscious elite Jewish religious identification with other successful Jews who share their regrettable views re Israel/Palestine. Unconscious may be the most important descriptor there. It is fading by the second, as awareness of these matters grows.
P.S. I'm heartened by a piece Jeff Blankfort wrote fully 16 years ago talking about "Jewish Responsibility" thru the lobby for "Israel's land expropriation." He's Jewish, so am I. Very Bill Cosbylike, and true.
P.P.S. I'd love to be able to talk about Arab money, elitism and bias. Will I ever get that chance? Not soon. Justin Vogt had this important piece in the National:
Arab-American households have an average annual income that is 8 per
cent higher than the national average, and almost 20 per cent of
Arab-American households have an annual income over $100,000.But
these achievements have not translated into political clout. The
success of Jewish-American advocacy organisations and the pro-Israel
lobby (whose influence is real but frequently overstated [yes it is sometimes overstated but generally it is ignored by journalists with access, and so it is hard to know whether it's an elephant in the room, a mastodon, a blue whale, or a dormouse]) has
invariably led to questions about the absence of an Arab counterpart.
But this puts the cart before the horse: for now, at least, there is no
Arab-American body politic.
