Meet Deborah Lipstadt President Biden nominated the historian Deborah Lipstadt as the special envoy to…
Whoopi Goldberg saw the racism of the Jewish Holocaust through the lens of the holocaust in the Americas.
The pro-Israel tactic of accusing advocates for Palestinian rights of antisemitism is weakening, as shown by a series of recent attacks. Now labelling Amnesty International an antisemitic organization for stating that Israel practices apartheid can only discredit those tactics further. Palestinians are becoming more relatable to the world, and the antisemitism charge is transparently its own form of bigotry, for it denies Palestinians the right to self-determination.
After the synagogue attack in Texas, Yair Rosenberg and other “Never Again” journalists rushed in to explain that antisemitism is a belief in Jewish control that permeates America and transcends history. According to the hasbara culture these authorities propagate, it is always the 1930’s. And isn’t that convenient for Israel and its lobby: Never Again journalists seek to make it taboo to mention Israel’s political power in the U.S.
The Nation runs a righwing religious endorsement of Zionism in an apparent sop to its New York base. The article opposes BDS, citing Jewish fears stemming from Nazis and “centuries of forced exile from a historic homeland.” And leaves out the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their land. And anyone who doesn’t acknowledge that Jewish connection is “goysplaining” to Jews, Alexis Grenell writes.
The good news of Israeli leaders smearing Emma Watson as an antisemite for a mil expression of Palestinian solidarity is that this time even establishment types questioned the timeworn strategy, and may even have noticed the anti-Palestinian bigotry that animates it.
Israel advocates are pushing a new front. They say that progressive are antisemitic when they characterize Jews as privileged, and don’t acknowledge history and “the unique collective Jewish vulnerability.” So the anti-Zionist understanding that Israel is a powerful settler-colonial state is antisemitic because that leaves out the origins of Zionism in Jewish persecution in Europe, according to Jonathan Greenblatt of ADL and the Reut Group of Tel Aviv.
The growing list of those who say Israel practices “apartheid” in occupied territories and west of the Green Line is joined by Michael Benyair, a former Israeli attorney general. But US advocates maintain a taboo on that word in the U.S. discourse, enforced by Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL and Rep. Ted Deutch.
Rabbi Wendi Geffen of a Reform congregation outside Chicago gave a sermon after the last Gaza conflict saying anti-Zionist Jews must not be allowed inside the Jewish “tent” because the “vast majority” of Jews support Israel. And she said the assertion by some Jews that Zionism contradicts progressive values is a threat to the Jewish people more dangerous than external threats. Her views are important because they reflect official Jewish statements that conflate Zionism and Judaism.
Emad Moussa calls on Palestinians and their allies to avoid dealing with the accusations of antisemitism in a defensive fashion; for it distracts from the moral objectives of the Palestine problem. Rather, we must declare: It is bigotry not to recognize Palestinians as an independent entity and acknowledge their historical rights.