A strange and astonishing attack on Israel and American Jews by an Australian academic at the Conversation who deploys the pre-emptive offensive antisemitism denial at full force.
The compulsion, and it is a compulsion, to deny an allegation that has not been made. Once they do that you have to wonder where their heads are at.
The joint joined the conversation.
24 July 2014, 9.47pm AEST
Eyeless, brainless and heartless in Gaza
While there is violent disagreement about who is to blame for the unfolding catastrophe in Gaza, there is less argument about its consequences. A rapidly rising – primarily civilian – death toll is difficult enough to contemplate, let alone justify. Eventually the fighting will cease and talks will begin. The only question is how many women and children will be slaughtered between now and then.
Things might have been different. When John Kerry was appointed as US Secretary of State, he nominated doing something about the ‘Palestinian question’ as one of his key foreign policy goals.
Given how many of Kerry’s predecessors have tried in vain to address this problem, it always looked likely to prove a triumph of experience over hope. Even a passing familiarity with the historical record of American engagement in this part of the world should have given significant pause for thought.
Ironically, at least part of the problems have been caused by the United States. It is not controversial to suggest that no other state exercises as much influence over American foreign policy as Israel. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s important book may not have earned them many friends, but it did a valuable service in revealing just how powerful and influential the Jewish lobby is in the US.
The possibility that any American president or Secretary of State will be able to deal even-handedly with the protagonists in this conflict is simply laughable.
There are two crucial points to make about this. First, and most importantly, it is not anti-Semitic to point this out. Israel’s lobbyists have become highly skilled at shaping the dominant discourse in this area, and the stock response is to paint critics as closet anti-Semites.
This is simply unjust and gets in the way of any reasoned debate ...
And so on. Do read on.
My reply among hundreds. You should note that one of Australia's most notorious antisemites, most prolific Israel hating fanatics and occasional Holocaust denier has joined this "reasoned debate" ...
"John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s important book may not have earned them many friends, but it did a valuable service in revealing just how powerful and influential the Jewish lobby is in the US."
Actually Mearsheimer and Walt's thoroughly discredited book have earned them an enormous number of friends. This always does. They took the well trodden path from obscure academia to global celebrity by the time honoured method of attacking Israel and the Jews.
American Jews are probably overrepresented in neo conservative and centre or centre right intellectual discourse. Certainly they are in pro-Israel and Zionist activity of all kinds but only the blinkered and worse would draw M and W's conclusions from that. Jews are also over represented among Democrats, charity workers, left wing and revolutionary politics, the professions, universities, British conservatives, those who show up to vote in elections, until recently the ALP, Animal Liberation and for all I know the RSPCA.
So what. What exactly is your point? That a disproportionate number of Jews are activists? You really don't need to write a book to prove that.
People complaining about Jews being "over represented" and therefore having disproportionate influence is the oldest trope in antisemitism. Of course pro-Israel voices in the US are strong, there are many, but only the ignorant think of this as a monolith and only the bigoted see some kind of a conspiracy in this.
One might have hoped we had got past this sort of thing by now.
There are many lobbies in the US just like here. The "Palestinians", Arab Americans, Muslims, teachers, academics, the oil industry all have lobbies. Big Oil has had a bigger influence on American foreign policy than the Jews and it is not at all benign or pro-Israel.
The "gotcha" thesis of these academics about the Jews (remember that American and Israeli Jews are about 90% of the world's Jews) is risible and deplorable. A generation earlier and they would have been clamouring for quotas in the universities to keep the numbers in "proportion". These days I guess they would target east Asians if they could.
American Jews are pro-Israel for exactly the same reasons as most American are pro-Israel. It is because they are pro-American. It is because of the absolute moral clarity of this issue.
The Jews are a tiny minority in the US, less than 2%. To attribute to them some kind of sinister power over the US and the West should be unacceptable in the West even if it is unquestioned orthodoxy across much of the world and especially in the Muslim world.
It should be unacceptable precisely because of that.
Earlier
Why is it that so many are so driven to so incessantly deny an allegation that has never been made?On the other hand,it is impossible to support Israel and her right to exist without sooner or later being accused of racism. It always happens. Always.
"There are two crucial points to make about this. First, and most importantly, it is not anti-Semitic to point this out. Israel’s lobbyists have become highly skilled at shaping the dominant discourse in this area, and the stock response is to paint critics as closet anti-Semites."The difficulty is that no critic of Israel has ever been able to produce an example of someone serious, seriously suggesting that such criticism is antisemitism. It's been a long search. there have been many appeals in a number of places for an example but with no reports of confirmed sightings that could stand much scrutiny. It's like looking for the Loch Ness Monster. Plenty of denials. The word clouds are dripping with denials of antisemitism from critics of Israel but not a single allegation that criticism of Israel is of itself antisemitism.An example please. Just one will do.
"When the UN suggests that Israel may have committed war crimes, clearly something has gone badly wrong. "Of course something has gone badly wrong.
Excellent comments, geoffff. And fantastic bio / description / tagline, heh.
ReplyDeleteThey deny allegations of anti-Semitism that have not been made for a few reasons. One reason is that, within certain progressive-left circles, being accused of anti-Semitism is a kind-of badge of honor. It tells their friends that they have the strength to stand up to those nefarious Jews.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason to deny unmade allegation of anti-Semitism is because it then means you can simply ignore anything that any pro-Israel Jew may have to say about the Jewish state.
Maryscott O'Connor, over at the now defunct MLW, accused me of accusing her of anti-Semitism. It was very odd because I never made any such allegation and I, too, wondered what she got out of denying an unmade allegation.
The above two points were my conclusions.