It is a little over two months since Hamas stormed over, under and through the fence separating Israel and Gaza, slaughtering over 1,200 people and sparking a war that has so far cost over 18,000 lives and set off massive anti-Israel protests in Western cities accompanied by a wave of antisemitism around the world.
Underpinning this "no compromise with Israel" approach of the "anti-normalisors" seems to be a delusion that Israel's existence can be somehow "undone" or removed from the map. Perhaps this explains the obsession with blaming the West for Israel, a convenient fiction that "without Western Imperialism, Israel could be defeated." The cold, hard fact that this will never happen, that Israel is here to stay, Western support or not, and that any solution that helps Palestinians needs Israeli involvement and agreement, is thereby avoided by the "no surrender" voices of StopTheWar and others.
It won't influence the hard-core believers of course, but pointing out that the only alternatives to a two-state solution, however difficult, are either endless war or Palestinian defeat may work with the general Public to help marginalise the "from the river to the sea" crowd, by showing their complete political and intellectual bankruptcy. You can't eat what's not on the menu, most of us get that.
Also raising public awareness of the existence of the Mizrahi Jews and their history may help undermine this "White or Right side of History" rubbish.
Bernard Harrison's distinction between social antisemtism and political antisemitism strikes me as very helpful in connection with current events, and his dissection of the latter seems spot on to me:
Underpinning this "no compromise with Israel" approach of the "anti-normalisors" seems to be a delusion that Israel's existence can be somehow "undone" or removed from the map. Perhaps this explains the obsession with blaming the West for Israel, a convenient fiction that "without Western Imperialism, Israel could be defeated." The cold, hard fact that this will never happen, that Israel is here to stay, Western support or not, and that any solution that helps Palestinians needs Israeli involvement and agreement, is thereby avoided by the "no surrender" voices of StopTheWar and others.
It won't influence the hard-core believers of course, but pointing out that the only alternatives to a two-state solution, however difficult, are either endless war or Palestinian defeat may work with the general Public to help marginalise the "from the river to the sea" crowd, by showing their complete political and intellectual bankruptcy. You can't eat what's not on the menu, most of us get that.
Also raising public awareness of the existence of the Mizrahi Jews and their history may help undermine this "White or Right side of History" rubbish.
Here's hoping, anyway.
Wonderful article David. Thank you for taking time to explain how deeply antisemitism is embedded in our culture.
Excellent writing!
Thank you, Dave
Bernard Harrison's distinction between social antisemtism and political antisemitism strikes me as very helpful in connection with current events, and his dissection of the latter seems spot on to me:
https://fathomjournal.org/fathom-long-read-political-antisemitism-explained/