Some news: I think there's a new non-Zionist liberal consensus, brought on by Gaza and Lieberman, lapping at Congress and the White House too. The not-in-my-name ranks are growing in Jewish life. Here is Dana Goldstein at the American Prospect (echoing Noam Sheizaf) on Israeli policies. Note the universalist moment at the end:
There is absolutely no excuse for anti-Semitism, or for racism of
any kind. But the current Israeli government appears to oppose
reasonable self-determination for Palestinians, a stance interpreted by
many in the Muslim world as evidence of a racist ideology. This is a
rational interpretation. Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman,
has said,
"Minorities are the biggest problem in the world." Lieberman opposes
withdrawing Israeli settlers from Palestinian territories. Under his
influence, Benjamin Netanyahu's administration has indicated
that it no longer considers itself bound to the peace agreement made at
Annapolis in 2007, in which Israel and 40 other nations vowed to pursue
a two-state solution. In an interview with a Russian newspaper last
week, Lieberman went so far as to claim
that President Obama "accepts all our decisions" — despite reports
that Obama is, in fact, preparing congressional Democrats for a
possible showdown with Israel's reactionaries.
An Israeli government perpetuating such policies, all while claiming
to speak for the world's Jewish population, does little to combat
prejudice against Jews. Rather, it plays right into Ahmadinejad's
hands, vastly increasing the likelihood that Jews living outside Israel
will have to confront anti-Semitism. We saw this sad phenomenon in
January, during Israel's brutal incursion into Gaza. Some 1,000
Palestinians, hundreds of them civilians, were killed in retaliation
for Hamas rocket attacks that killed four Israelis. Simultaneously,
Jews in France, Sweden, Belgium, and Denmark were victimized by anti-Semitic violence and vandalism.
That said, global anti-Semitism is not the only reason why Israel
should move quickly toward a two-state solution, curb its politicians'
race-baiting rhetoric towards Palestinian and Israeli Arabs, and make a
broader commitment to human rights. Israel should do so because every
nation should do so.
