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rod such

Former editor for World Book Encyclopedia and Encarta Encyclopedia.

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  • Slater says Jewish state is warranted by likelihood of recurrence of anti-Semitism
    • rod such November 18, 2010 at 3:29 am

      Ali Abunimah effectively addresses this issue of Israel as a safe haven for Jews in his advocacy for the one-state solution in One Country. First of all, he notes that a secular, democratic state of Israel/Palestine would be open to any Jew fleeing racist persecution. A one-state solution would continue to provide asylum and be a safe haven and that would be codified in law. Secondly, he notes that Israel today is not, in fact, a safe haven for Jews. As he puts it, "but one could argue that the most dangerous place in the world to be a Jew is in Israel-Palestine, and that this is the direct result of the conflict that arose from establishing a state that benefits and privileges Jews in a country already populated by a non-Jewish majority. The point is not to deny Jews a safe haven in Israel-Palestine, but to make the necessary changes that can at last allow it to become one for the first time since Israel was founded." To which I say, Amen. (And as long as we're on the subject of safe haven, why don't all of Israel's allies, particularly ones like our own government that maintained a quota system and refused entry to many thousands of Jews fleeing Nazism, or those that collaborated with the Nazis and helped ship thousands of Jews to the death camps, why don't they all guarantee in law the right of any Jew or anyone facing racist persecution to seek asylum in their country.)
      But the core of Slater's argument, of course, is that only ethnocentric nationalism can guarantee safety for a persecuted ethnic group. That argument fails, I think, and the history of Jews in this country sheds some light on why. There is no doubt that Jews in this country historically faced discrimination and persecution, including as recently as the 1960s when restrictive covenants in housing prevented Jews from owning homes in certain neighborhoods, and then of course, there were the no-Jews allowed in country clubs (probably still goes on), and the quota system in admitting Jews to private colleges and universities and hiring Jewish faculty (anyone remember William Buckley's racist undertone in God and Man at Yale?)
      Today, however, Jews have successfully integrated into all of the elite groupings of society, and Jewish culture, reflected in motion pictures, literature, mass media, is almost universally respected and admired. Even the most right-wing Southern conservative is duty bound to extol the Judeo-Christian tradition, and Sarah Palin wears an Israeli flag lapel pin. So, what happened to change the place of Jews in American society so substantially. I would argue that it's due to the civil rights movement, which set into motion the idea that racism would no longer be tolerated, that diversity would be valued and respected, and that the true history of minority persecution would be brought to light. The civil rights movement spawned the feminist movement, the gay liberation movement, and helped bring attention to the ongoing struggles of Hispanics and Native Americans, and it also isolated and helped cripple discrimination against Jews. Militant anti-racism is the answer to anti-Semitism, not an ethnocentric state; respect and tolerance for diversity, guarantees of equality before the law, respect for minority rights, and the separation of church and state is what guarantees a safe haven, not the pursuit of an ethnically dominant
      theocratic state.
      How many Americans can't recognize the oxymoron in Jewish democratic state? What political or media figure would dare to describe this country as a white Christian state? (okay, quite a few would, but maybe not publicly). The idea that a state and a particular ethnic group are one is at the very least inherently undemocratic, particularly when 20 percent of your citizens belong to another ethnic group. There's a famous quote from the Israeli Zionist founder Jabotinsky about how he envisioned an Israel as Jewish as France was French, as Britain was English, and as America was American, apparently without any understanding of how diverse those societies actually were. Slater's statements, particularly his failure to acknowledge the Nakba and its racist underpinnings, raise the question for me: Can you advocate the two-state solution and not be a racist?

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