I normally get annoyed at these kinds of columns that seek to equate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. But Howard Jacobson’s piece is worth reading for a couple of reasons. First, it’s instructive to see how dramatically different public opinion about Israel is in the United Kingdom. And, second, he makes many worthy points. In the end, while I empathize with Jacobson’s pain and disconsolation, I do not think he quite understands the magnitude of Israel’s moral collapse. World opinion is responding to actions taken by all sides in the Middle East. There are no shortage of anti-Semitic people in the world, but that is not a sufficient explanation for the sharp decline in sympathy for Israel. The ‘fighting in Gaza’ was not justified by the rocket fire. It’s that simple. The War in Lebanon was not justified. The Israelis continue to expand the settlements on Palestinian land. All the rest is just window dressing.
Nevertheless, I think Jacobson made some accurate and cutting observations about some of the lazy and thoughtless criticism Israel receives. It’s a good read.
It is a good read. The subtleties are apparently lost upon some individuals.
I’d also note that people like me would be more inclined to make some of Jacobson’s arguments if we weren’t getting attacked as anti-semites by people like Jacobson.
On both sides there are individuals that don’t want to “indulge” in subtleties. There is no gray, only black and white.
No one has expended more effort to push me toward antisemitism than Abe Foxman or Marty Peretz.
i hope they have been unsuccessful.
What hyperbolic nonsense. He thinks the English are anti-Semite, does he? I’d like him to live for a few days as an Asian (i.e., Muslim) here and see how “fraught” his life is.
Was not the original withdrawal from Gaza and the dismantling of the rightly detested settlements a sufficient signal of peaceful intent,
I had to stop reading when he wrote this. He’s a liar or a fool.
Israel’s left-leaning newspaper Ha’aretz ran an interview with Sharon’s senior advisor Dov Weinglass that is nothing less than extraordinary. In the interview, Weinglass reveals Israel’s hidden strategy in dealing with the 37 year long conflict in Palestine. The solution, as Weinglass suggests, is “a long-term interim situation” (Sharon’s disengagement plan) that precludes negotiations with the Palestinians.
Weinglass equates Sharon’s plan to “embalming fluid”, the necessary component for preserving the remains of a dead body. In this case, it is the requisite additive for creating a public relations smokescreen that conceals a “certifiably” dead process.
Again, we must congratulate Weinglass for his stunning candor. It is rare indeed, that a politician will openly boast about a strategy that is so transparently malicious. Weiglass is bragging that he has devised a method to suspend all political activity while (appearing to) pay homage to a peace plan. It is a wretched deception and a tacit condemnation of 3 million Palestinians to a miserable life of deprivation and brutality.
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/7674
Ah, religion. I read what I could stomach of Jacobson’s moral contortions, but then my food started to come back up.
I was raised Jewish, and I value the experience tremendously. But the best part of Judaism, for me, was the moment that I realized I didn’t buy the theology. A million plus children dead in the Holocaust and you’re telling me that there’s a benevolent, all powerful deity who “frees the captive” or “heals the sick”? Good one.
Furthermore, religious beliefs seem to me to be part of a giant system of indoctrination and control that beats people down with fear. Fear of the “afterlife”, fear of “the other,” fear of a wrathful deity, etc. Religious indoctrination at a young age also primes people to be easily controlled by governments (to control themselves, really, which isn’t always a good thing…)
We are told, from young, there is an Authority above with your Best Interests in mind who is Just. We conflate this, often unconsciously, with government. Since we are primed to believe that something powerful is taking care of everything, we abdicate personal responsibility. Since we are primed to believe that something powerful and anthropomorphic is in control, and that this is the natural order of things, we are prepared to surrender our autonomy and conscience to a government.
…
Hamas is a terrorist organization. They are despicable and have sold out their people via the illusion that violence breeds freedom. Violence only breeds violence. Violence is a dead end, literally.
For this same reason, the Israeli government is making big mistakes, and selling out their own people, whether they realize it or not. The moral arguments against Israel’s actions speak for themselves, I consider them to be self-evident. But here’s a practical argument:
Just as the US “War on Terror” strengthens terrorists, Israeli military brutality strengthens Hamas. Israel should know about strengthening Hamas; they nurtured Hamas to check Fatah. Just like we nurtured Al Qaeda to check the Soviet Union. Both nations are letting their panicked, short-sighted need for the illusion of security obscure any long term prospect of peace.
The average Israeli deserves peace! The average Palestinian deserves peace! So with the regular people across the globe who want little more than a safe place to raise, nourish, and educate their families. Has this become an unattainable luxury??? Is this only the province of the wealthy???
I hope this lesson is learned and learned quickly: As long as there are terrorized, oppressed, starving people in the world, no one, anywhere, is safe. As long as there are terrorized, oppressed, starving people in the world, there can be no peace. Whoever the terrorist, terror is wrong. Whoever the oppressor, oppression is wrong. And whoever the militant, violence is wrong.
But it also doesn’t work. It. Just. Doesn’t. Work.