Opinion

‘Segregation’ — liberal Zionists wield ugly ideas to combat Beinart

Peter Beinart’s declaration of support last month for one democratic state in Israel and Palestine has caused a panic in the official Jewish community, which is dedicated to the preservation of a Jewish state. The prominent writer’s defection represents a threat to establishment consensus (as we have said before), so the guns are out.

One revealing element of the response is, When push comes to shove, liberal Zionists and conservative Zionists make similar arguments. They all talk about the need for “separation” of Palestinians and Jews.

For instance, when New York Times columnist Bret Stephens attacked Peter Beinart for “disastrous” recklessness the other day, he began by quoting Amos Oz, the late Israeli novelist, explaining why “Jews and Palestinians couldn’t just live as equal citizens in a single state.”

Stephens is a conservative. Amos Oz was a liberal Zionist hero. J Street held a memorial service to him as a “spiritual godparent”– even though he wrote about the Jewish right to live as a “majority” in Israel, which required “divorce” or “separation” from Palestinians, whom he accused of being Islamist jihadists who wanted to kill Jews.

Some liberal Zionists who have criticized Beinart have also employed arguments that would be unacceptable in the United States– such as the idea that Jews and Palestinians are incapable of cooperating politically. For instance, Michael Koplow of the liberal Zionist group the Israel Policy Forum says that a Palestinian can never really represent Jewish Israelis:

Ayman Odeh and the Joint List on their own are never going to be the standard bearer for the overwhelming majority of Jewish Israelis, even if they are the most logical opposition to Netanyahu on the issues and on pure personal animosity.

But wait a minute. Ayman Odeh is an accomplished politician who says that he would like to represent all Israelis. He has said that he would like to be Israel’s Martin Luther King Jr! On what basis then does a Zionist who lives in the United States stand up for Jewish Israelis who don’t want Odeh to represent them?

A similar argument against Beinart comes from Shaul Arieli, a fellow at the Israel Policy Forum. Arieli praises the fact that Jews and Palestinians are “segregated” in the West Bank, again with the idea that the two communities cannot get along.

“Peter Beinart doesn’t realize that the Israeli-Palestinian divide is too wide to bridge,” Arieli writes. “[T]he spatial-demographic-social reality [means that]… it’s impossible to impose communal life on peoples that don’t desire it and don’t respect each other.”

Arieli seems to regard apartheid conditions on the occupied West Bank as a desirable accommodation of the fact that the two peoples can’t get along.

[T]he Israeli settlements are not integrated with the population of the West Bank. Sixty-two percent of the settlers work in Israel, and 25 percent work in their own communities’ school system, which is disproportionately subsidized. Only a few percent are employed in agriculture and industry, where 99 percent of the labor is provided by Palestinians; the road system serving the settlers is almost separate, lacking any logic in terms of planning.

There is no… no social or cultural interaction between Palestinians and Jews.

And segregation is a good thing. There are very few Jews in areas of the West Bank outside the settlement blocs, Arieli points out. “In other words, they are segregated in those areas….” As for Gaza, there is “total separation.”

These arguments might be more palatable if Arieli were not a member of the privileged group. Of course he doesn’t want to give up any of that privilege. But so what. Don’t Palestinians actually have more claim on the western conscience?

Arieli at least has the honesty to call this apartheid:

Has Beinart seen the results of a survey by the Institute for National Security Studies showing that 78 percent of Israelis are unwilling to grant residential or civil rights to Palestinians living in areas Israel might annex? These people support apartheid and oppose any relinquishing of control by Jews.

But if it’s apartheid then why should Americans do anything to honor the arrangements– let alone give $4 billion a year to Israel?

Arieli also indulges an argument that the Israel Policy Forum has promoted, that the gap in standards of living between the West Bank and Israel is too significant for the two areas to be unified politically.

How can a country with a per capita GDP of $40,000 absorb a population less than one-tenth as rich? Would the Jewish population accept the intolerable drop that would occur in health, welfare and education services with the absorption of a population equal in number where 98 percent occupy the lowest socioeconomic strata? Or would we witness a brain drain and an emigration of young people?..

The IPF’s economic argument against integration is a lot like Jim Crow rationalizations of segregation back in the day (as we pointed out before). Or against efforts today to deal with structural racism.

Of course, such attitudes have long been aired in the Jewish community, and long been objectionable. But Beinart’s declaration as a member in good standing has helped to expose these attitudes, and discredit them. It will be very interesting to watch J Street’s messaging. The organization has been able to ignore Palestinians and antiZionist Jews, because those voices were outside the tent. But it will be under great pressure now from Beinart and his following to ditch the separation/majority talk and actually entertain more hopeful visions.

Thanks to Scott Roth and Terry Weber.

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I grew up in Apartheid South Africa and every single detractor and argument against Beinart’s articles could have been repeated almost verbatim from the lips of the National Party and its supporters. From the “they must be separated” argument, to the they’re too different” argument, to the “they don’t share our values or beliefs” argument, to the “they hates us all and want us dead” argument, to the “they’re too poor and would be too much of a burden on society”, blah, blah, blah. It all boiled down to the same thing. Apartheid was necessary. The status quo should remain. We are superior. We don’t want to give up our privilege. Who cares if they have no rights or dignity, or if they have no running water, access to electricity, and have to shit in a bucket! As long they are over there, in their township or Bantustan, and not on my doorstep and we don’t have to see them in our “public” places.

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“Part II—Reaction from the Right: Standard Tropes”

EXCERPT:
“A few days after Rogen’s interview appeared, a quick retort appeared in the Jewish publication the Forward. Weirdly entitled ‘Dear American Jewish boys, Please, please, take your Oedipal rage and find another outlet for it.’ It was written by Dr. Shany Mor, a researcher at, among other places, the Israel Democracy Institute. Mor’s objections to Rogen’s positions are reflections of standard Zionist tropes. 

“Standard Trope One: As Mor’s title implies, his initial reaction to Rogen’s statements is that they must reflect some form of self-hatred. The ‘self-hating Jew’ is an established, if rather despicable, Zionist trope. Mor now uses it against Rogen, accusing him of being motivated by ‘Oedipal rage’ that is hatred of his parents because they did not tell him about Israel’s bellicose origins. This is a ridiculous ad hominem attack. It should be noted that it is probably the case that a majority of Jewish children in the West, post 1948, were either lied to or left in ignorance about the Palestinians and their fate. That some of them should now express resentment is not evidence of some personality flaw on their part. It is rather an expression their dismay of Zionists’ inability to admit to their own criminal behavior.” 

“How can a country with a per capita GDP of $40,000 absorb a population less than one-tenth as rich?”

The Germans seemed to manage it quite well when East Germany collapsed in 1989.

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Not precisely on topic, but another “on the money” must read analysis by Prof. Davidson

https://tothepointanalyses.com/seth-rogen-turns-the-truth-into-a-joke/

“Seth Rogen Turns the Truth Into a Joke—An Analysis (10 August 2020) by Professor Lawrence Davidson

EXCERPTS:
Part I—Seth Rogen Tells the Truth
“Just how much erosion has support for Israel suffered among Western Jews under the age of 40? The polls are not much help, because they tell contradictory stories. However, in anecdotal terms, there is a strong sense that the gap is growing between an increasingly rightwing & racist Israeli society & younger, liberal/progressive Western Jews. The well-publicized recent interview with Seth Rogen, a comedian & filmmaker with an “ability to capture the Jewish cultural conversation,” & a fan base among Jewish millennials (i.e., those born between 1981 & 1996), may be a case in point.

“On 27 July 2020 Rogen was interviewed on fellow Jewish comedian Marc Maron’s ‘insanely popular podcast’ WTF. While on Maron’s program, Rogen questioned why those with ‘a secular Jewish identity’ should feel ‘any cultural identification with the state of Israel.’ Indeed, he admitted that the notion of a Jewish state made little sense to him. He said ‘Jewish statehood’ was the result of an ‘antiquated thought process’ & was in truth, counterproductive. ‘Encouraging all Jews to live in one Jewish state is a nonsensical strategy for the preservation of Jewish peoplehood.'” 

.

“One revealing element of the response is, When push comes to shove, liberal Zionists and conservative Zionists make similar arguments. They all talk about the need for “separation” of Palestinians and Jews.”

Oh, joyful moment!!! I always have believed that (with all honesty) that “liberal Zionists” is an oxymoron. It really and truly is and this was good to read~ finally.

The only ‘solution’ is to realize that it is way, way past time for the Occupation to end, the Israeli violence to end, the supremacy to end for Jewish Israelis and Zionists, and to stop calling lands by Biblical names (Judea and Samaria~ ho, ho, ho!) and claiming ownership of same. Palestinians deserve a long and hearty apology, human rights, justice, freedom, health care, a living wage, equality, peace and security, clean water, and a decent home in which to live. Same thing that Israel has demanded and taken/stolen for nigh on a century.

As Americans and the marginalized in the US are suffering from evictions, Covid- 19, stupid politicians, no healthcare, no unemployment benefits, etc. ad nauseam~ how can they justify the money to and for Israel and the DOD and for the 1%??? More education of the US masses is required.

Thank you Philip, Scott, Terry and Mondoweiss.