Lately David Simon, creator of the HBO series, "The Wire," called American Jews to action on behalf of blacks in our cities, and Weiss said Simon has practiced self-censorship on the Israel/Palestine issue. Lizzy Ratner-- who will be speaking on the Goldstone Report in New York in 2 weeks-- wrote to say, "You got it wrong."
It's true that I love the man -- or at least his work -- so I could be blinded by admiration, but I also think I'm right. So listen up.
In your post from last Monday, you call Simon out for not mentioning Palestine in his big sit-down with Tablet, for failing to connect the "slow motion Holocaust" taking place in West Baltimore and New Orleans to the one taking place among the Palestinians. You cite Leon Golub's famous statement about what makes a Jewish artist (essentially: craven avoidance of the Israel-Palestine issue). You all but call Simon a hypocrite. Never mind that we don't know the exact intent behind his omission, or whether there was an actual omission since we weren't privy to the full interview on which the article was based (and as you and I both know, a lot ends up on the cutting-room floor). The real problem with your post is that in calling Simon out for what he doesn't say, you miss the exquisite promise of what he does say.
In just a few unsparing sentences, Simon gives us what amounts to a jeremiad on the failings of the organized, mainstream American Jewish community, particularly the Federation set. He blasts them for their narrowness, for holding Jewish suffering sacred and superior to all other suffering. He denounces the "corruption" of elevating the Holocaust "beyond any possible point of comparison for other collective tragedy." And he warns that by holding our own tragedy apart from all the other human tragedies, Jews are in serious danger of desensitizing ourselves to other people's pain -- and desensitizing other people to our pain. Or, to go all sophomore lit-crit major on you, he stages a serious intervention in one of the most pervasive and damaging narratives to hold sway among Jews in a long time.
For Simon, one of the chief outrages of this narrative -- we'll call it the narrative of Unrivaled Jewish Persecution -- is the way it inures Jews to the outrages unfolding every day in this country's inner cities -- inures and then makes us complicit. But as anyone who has taken any kind of critical look at Israel knows, it's also one the most corrosive narratives going in the Zionist logic. It's the scaffolding (or part of it at any rate) on which occupation, segregation, siege, and military vengeance are built. It justifies them -- and then gives those who inflict them on other people the permission not to care. Which is why anyone who succeeds in breaking through the chorus of supreme Jewish suffering for even a moment should be applauded and encouraged. Their actions make the whole frame weaker, and create space for the rest of us.
And there's another element to your post that I want to discuss, one that is a bit thornier and which I'm a bit less certain about but I feel the need to bring up all the same. I'm talking about the Golub Idea, the implicit notion that it's incumbent on Jews of conscience to "mention Palestine." Now, I myself don't have much time for the whole Progressive Except Palestine business, for Jews (and non-Jews) who speak with a clarion voice about the world's injustices and then get all mealy-mouthed about injustices in Palestine. But I do wonder: When *you* give interviews about Israel-Palestine to publications like Tablet, or when you give talks to throngs of eager, earnest students about Gaza or the Goldstone Report or the Israel Lobby, do you always, or even ever, mention the outrages unfolding daily in Baltimore, New Orleans, Detroit, Cleveland, East New York, and the rest of this country's inner cities? What's your -- and my -- responsibility to that reality? After all, it's unfolding just a few blocks away, in the midst of the country we pay our hard-earned taxes to each year, at the forgotten end of an economic ladder that holds both of us up.
I think this scratches at me -- and it does scratch, quite a bit -- because I have seen so many progressive-minded folks turn their attention away from this country, away from the structural injustices that make our inner cities possible, homelessness acceptable, hunger palatable, and radical inequality as ho-hum as a bag of Lays. The outrage at the violence of economic injustice is gone, or secondary.
Certainly there's been some good reasons to look outward. When your country makes a hobby of bombing other countries to smithereens, you should probably be a bit outraged by it. And when a country like Israel occupies, bombs, and besieges a whole people in your name, you had better speak out. Nonetheless, there are times when I can't help but ask and then answer: "What's an American lefty? Someone who doesn't mention injustices at home."
Which is why I appreciate Simon's work so much. And why I feel such a strong impulse to defend him.
Just listen once again to his words:
“No, there is no barbed wire around West Baltimore. No, there is no political imperative to segregate them from the greater society, or ultimately, to murder them en masse. That would be a Holocaust at normal speed. Instead, we have simply participated—either tacitly or actively—in constructing a national economic model that throws away 10 to 15 percent of our poorest and most vulnerable citizens. There is no work for more than half the adult black males in Baltimore. Other than the drug corners, of course. Can anyone argue that the percentage of human destruction among adult males of color in these neighborhoods has not for generations approached the genocidal?”
He's right, of course. And while I would love to see him turn the awesome force of his vision eastward, toward Israel-Palestine, I wouldn't mind seeing a bit of the reverse from the rest of us. At least once in a while. It can only make our own work smarter, and our voices stronger.
For someone who purports to be concerned with the narrative of Unrivaled Jewish Persecution — as Simon does — failure to mention Israel in the context of American Jewry, particularly in the statements Ratner cites, signals that Philip Weiss has it right. Simon’s case is akin to discussing life-sustaining conditions on planets within our solar system without describing conditions on planet Earth.
Congratulation to Phil! (and obviously to the writer) This is one of the most important pieces of writing ever published by Mondoweiss, in my (usually insufficiently) humble opinion.
really, e-doer, such hyperbole, it’s embarrassing. and the exclamation point after ‘Phil’ will only work to irritate his untreated disorder. but, yes, i generally agree with your point about the utter pettiness and meanness of american society, as if the inequity is somehow the natural result of water reaching its own level. (if that’s what you meant, and if not, i take it all back.)
Two many trees out there for your ragtag group of antis to see the forest.
Lizzy — excellent points. I plead guilty as charged. However, in mitigation, I have long felt that there are causes (100s of environmental groups to support, 100s of civil rights groups to support, etc.) which appeal to a broad swath of Americans, who will give their very considerable support whether or not I do, and that my efforts (such as they are) can be of more use when directed at this “orphan” cause — Palestine — than diluted by spreading them out over the whole panoply of serious wrongs in the world.
In the case of more “public” people, as David Simon may be, there is also the ever-present possibility that espousal of Palestine (at an untimely moment, such as the period 1948-2011) may ruin his work or effectiveness in other realms. Think of Tony Kushner, possibly of recent lamentation, for an example.
Thanks Ratner. I think you do a good job of demolishing the argument that person A gets to dictate terms to person B regarding what they should care about and how they should care. Even when person A is on a pro-Palestinian high horse and person B happens to be a Jew.
One accusation of many that have focused on Israel/Palestine issues is similarly of an insensitivity to the suffering, needs, aspirations of those in other parts of the world, local and distant.
“I’m doing the one thing that I am doing”, is better than “how come you didn’t mention …. in a comment about …..?”
Not to beat a dead horse, but yeah you were off on that Phil.
Simon focusing on the injustice in his own country doesnt mean he supports injustice against the Palestenians. Expecting Simon to condemm Israeli aggression because he is Jewish is just as unfair as to demanding ‘moderate’ muslim answer for OBL.
I’m glad you posted this reply by Lizzy Ratner…whose surname used to bring to mind all sorts of negative emtions about Brooklyn and real estate development…but now it also means someone whos is brave & principabled.
That’s false equivalence and the comparison — excuse my French — shows a lack of understanding of the concept of ethnic, religious and personal identity. So, I’m sorry, but your perception is rather simplistic and superficial.
To better understand this issue, one needs to understand the centrality of Israel in modern Jewish life, in the Jewish narrative, especially regarding the holocaust and the Jewish collective memory, at least in the so-called West.
I would love to be proven wrong about David Simon’s views on Israel. But, until then, everything points to the contrary.
‘your perception is rather simplistic and superficial.’
:-) …eh, maybe so.
Yrs ago, I had a ‘Jewish’ American friend who was critical of Israel. They said they felt guilty over I/P…I opined that just because you’re ‘Jewish’ doesnt mean you are more responsible for what happens in Israel than anywhere else.
They said something similar to what you said about the ‘the centrality of Israel in modern Jewish life…’ yada, yada
Fast foward a few years, I fwded them something critical of Israel, they got defensive (‘what about American crimes!’ ) offended and now we are no longer in touch.
So who knows maybe you do know something I don’t Avi.
Excellent. Paul Eisen made some related observations in his (much longer) essay on Holocaust denial/revisionism ( “The Holocaust Wars”, 2004) and the quasi-divine and aristocratic status acquired by the claim of unique and wholly exceptional suffering and bloodletting:
“Maybe Abe Foxman had it just about right when he wrote:-
[The Holocaust is] “not simply one example of genocide, but a near successful attempt on the life of God’s chosen children and, thus, on God himself”
Because it may be that the Holocaust is not just special, it may be that the Holocaust is sacred. It may be that speaking of the Holocaust alongside other atrocities is like speaking of the Passion as being the crucifixion of one troublemaker and two thieves. It may be that the Holocaust is a narrative of suffering greater than just of one person on a cross. [...]
So the Holocaust and Jewish suffering, no longer history now theology, have become a religious imperative for Jews, and more critically for all Jews, even for those Jews who regard themselves as secular, who haven’t been near a synagogue since they were children, even for those Jews who don’t much consider themselves Jews. Take ten Jews today, maybe three will worship God, perhaps nine will worship the state of Israel, nine-point-five may worship “The Jewish People” but nine-point nine-nine-nine recurring will worship Jewish suffering and the Holocaust. The Holocaust resolves the great dilemma of modern Jewish life – how to be a Jew when you no longer believe in the Jewish God. Secular Jews have found many gods to replace the one they reject – Marx and Trotsky, atheism, psychoanalysis, multiculturalism, human rights, money and success, and of course, Zionism – there’s lots to choose from but only one that serves as a catch-all for everyone. And if you don’t believe it, try this – go find the most educated, secular, progressive, enlightened, perceptive, sensitive Jew you know – deny the Holocaust and then stand back.
But the Holocaust is not confined to Jews. The Holocaust is not only the central martyrdom and therefore a religious focus in modern Jewish history but also, if not in world history, then certainly in American and European history. All over North America and Western Europe: Holocaust museums – cathedrals to the new religion with their own priests and priestesses; Abe Foxman, Deborah Lipstadt, Elie Wiesel, Simon Wiesenthal, abound – the biggest and best in Washington DC with all the other symbols of American nationhood and power. Holocaust Chairs at major universities, memorials, foundations, conferences and symposia, books, magazines, films, TV documentaries. The further we travel in time from the actual events the greater the sacralisation. But these are only the outward manifestations. The Holocaust, the ultimate in suffering is a paradigm for all Jewish suffering and for all intolerance, discrimination and hatred against Jews and this is in itself is a paradigm for all suffering and all intolerance, discrimination and hatred against all people. That’s why a major Holocaust Museum in the U.S. is able to style itself as simply “The Museum of Tolerance” and that’s why those who dare to challenge the Jewish claim to a particularity of suffering are nearly always accused of “intolerance” or of “promoting hate”. The Holocaust may be the ultimate symbol of Jewish power, the most visible means by which the Jewish will in this world is enforced and displayed to a cowering non-Jewish world. It proclaims that Jews are suffering and Jews are innocent so Jews can do what they like and, by association the state of the Jews is also suffering, is also innocent and can also do what it likes.
The power of the Holocaust is the same power as enabled a few thousand Englishman to rule hundreds of millions of Indians; a few hundred French aristocrats to rule a few million French peasants and a Czar and a few hundred Russian nobles to rule millions of Russian serfs. It is the same power that all over the world and throughout human history has enabled the prosperous few to rule over the impoverished many. It is the very essence of power in this world; the power of bluff. ”
link to israelshamir.net