Criticism of Israel and antisemitism – shades of prejudice
JVL Introduction
The Economist reports here on two recent surveys carried out in America and Britain assessing the link between antisemitism and critical attitudes towards Israel.
Strong antisemitic attitudes were found in 7% of Americans, with little difference across the political groups identified. In Britain by contrast, only around 4% were found to have strong antisemitic attitudes except for the very right-wing group where it was 14%.
In both countries, strong anti-Israel attitudes were significantly more common on the left but the link with anti-Jew sentiment increased from left to right on the political spectrum.
“The data simply show that most left-wingers who criticise Israel do not dislike Jews as people”.
See also JVL’s own analysis of the Staetsky report Antisemitic criticism of Israel is NOT widespread in the Labour Party which reported that critics of Israel on the left and far left had the weakest links to strong antisemitic attitudes.
This article was originally published by The Economist on Sat 12 Oct 2019. Read the original here.
Drawing the line between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel
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I have been a member of the Labour Party since I was boy in !956. I have Jewish friends,one who I worked with for many years. He is also a Labour Party member. I was a guest at his daughters wedding. I go to Rugby League games with him and his two sons. It would laughable to say I am antisemitic.. However, I virulently criticize the Israeli State for its treatment of the Palestinians,. I believe the Israels have and are committing some of the worst crimes against humanity jn my lifetime. This does not make me antisemitic in any way.
Clearly the Israelis have not responded as well as they could have to the too long ongoing conflict. But to conclude, as Stephen Mitchell does, that “Israeli … treatment of Palestinians … are some of the worst crimes against humanity” seems to me be exaggerated and thus fails The Sharansky 3D Test, and so is an example of Jew hate.
Paul Ret’s comment on Stephen Michell’s reference to the”worse crimes against humanity” as being an example of Jew Hate doesn’t make sense. The history of the Nakba emphasises the criminality of the actions.
So I agree with Stephen. Does that mean that I as a Jew am guilty of Jew Hate?
Paul Reti says: ““Israeli … treatment of Palestinians … are some of the worst crimes against humanity” seems to me be exaggerated and thus fails The Sharansky 3D Test, and so is an example of Jew hate.”
This is not an argument but an abandoned of all logic. It is one thing to say that Stephen Mitchell’s description of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians “seems” exaggerated. (Personally, I think it “is” exaggerated.) But to move from that to say it is an example of Jew hate is a simple non sequitur.
I hate pointing it out, but you can hate someone who is Jewish without that being generalisable to Jew hatred. You can even hate Israelis – who happen to be Jewish – without that being Jew hatred. The very best you could squeeze out of it is Israeli hatred. It certainly is not generalisable to all Jews who are not Israeli; and you’d be stretching it to generalise it to all Jewish Israelis, since there have historically been hundreds of thousands of Jewish Israelis who have been highly critical of what Israel has done to the Palestinians. And why should hate of what Israelis have done equate with hate of Israelis in the first place – why can’t it just be hating what they have done?
All this without bothering to bring in Sharansky’s silly 3-D Test. One of the D’s is delegitimising Israel and what counts as delegitimising is not an exact science – but rather what Sharansky or Reti or whoever says is delegitimising. Personally I think Israel’s ongoing occupation delegitimises Israel, as does its use of torture, house demolitions, collective punishments, theft of Palestinian lands and much else. And those responsible for all these delegitimations are of course Jewish Israelis. Clearly antisemitic to the core…
I find Reti’s statement that “the Israelis have not responded as well as they could have to the too long ongoing conflict” a tad understated. Tsk, tsk! Wrap them over the knuckles!
But I’m not going to sue or accuse him of bad faith and more…
Apart from polling and historical precedents, common sense tells me that America’s “special relationship” with “Israel” is doomed. It is abundantly clear that the borderless “Jewish state,” which has devoured over $134.7 billion in U.S. taxpayer provided aid since 1948, serves no useful purpose for the U.S., a country now in obvious decline economically and geopolitically. Sooner or later, all nations act in their own best interests and America will not be an exception. It will inevitably have no option other than to cast “Israel” adrift.
I support Stephen Mitchell’s original comment, with the caveat that “the Israelis” in the fourth line should read “the Israeli state”. There are plenty of Israelis who not agree with their current right-wing government’s policies, and some of them have campaigned for years against Israel’s human rights violations. Also, to be fair, there are plenty of past and present UK government policies that a large proportion of UK citizens did not agree with (e.g. military intervention in Iraq and Lybia).
I would strongly recommend people interested in this topic to read a recent article by Jonathan Cook, https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2019-11-11/antisemitism-smears-corbyn/ which puts the claim of antisemitism in the Labour Party in perspective.