Recognizing anti-Semitism when you see it

Ever since the Holocaust, dedicated anti-Semites have had a tough time -- once accepted into polite WASP society everywhere, after that they were rudely and quickly shoved into the same social cesspool as other  bigots and shunned. The creation, finally, of a Jewish homeland, however, gave them a new focus for their hate and new opportunity for its expression, and in the last few years, particularly, the political left everywhere -- to its lasting shame -- has given them shelter, aid, and comfort. Of course, it's still considered ill-mannered to openly voice a hatred of Jews as such, but no lefty gathering is complete without some expression of hatred of Israel and Isrealis. They think, pathetically, that this can provide a cover or mask for an age-old bigotry, but in singling out -- in the context of a world full of vicious tyrannies, and in the midst of a region supporting the worst kinds of misogyny, homophobia, and oppression, not to mention terrorism -- singling out the one Jewish homeland in the world for special and perpetual condemnation they only make themselves look ridiculous as well as despicable.

In light of this, and the often craven response of so much of the world before the overt anti-Semitism of an oil-rich region, it's rare to find anyone in a leadership position outside of Israel itself to make a strong and clear statement of support for that country and plain condemnation of bigotry as an evil -- like this:

“The horror of the Holocaust is unique, but it is just one chapter in the long and unbroken history of anti-Semitism. Yet, in contemporary debates that influence the fate of the Jewish homeland, unfortunately, there are those who reject the language of good and evil. They say that the situation is not black and white, that we mustn’t choose sides. 

“In response to this resurgence of moral ambivalence on these issues, we must speak clearly. Remembering the Holocaust is not merely an act of historical recognition.

“It must also be an understanding and an undertaking. An understanding that the same threats exist today. And an undertaking of a solemn responsibility to fight those threats.

“Jews today in many parts of the world and many different settings are increasingly subjected to vandalism, threats, slurs, and just plain, old-fashioned lies.

“Let me draw your attention to some particularly disturbing trends. Anti-Semitism has gained a place at our universities, where at times it is not the mob who are removed, but the Jewish students under attack. And, under the shadow of a hateful ideology with global ambitions, one which targets the Jewish homeland as a scapegoat, Jews are savagely attacked around the world, such as, most appallingly, in Mumbai in 2008.

“One ruthless champion of that ideology brazenly threatens to ‘wipe Israel off the map,’ and time and again flouts the obligations that his country has taken under international treaties.

Or this:

“We must be relentless in exposing this new anti-Semitism for what it is. Of course, like any country, Israel may be subjected to fair criticism. And like any free country, Israel subjects itself to such criticism — healthy, necessary, democratic debate. But when Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack — is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand. Demonization, double standards, delegitimization, the three D’s, it is the responsibility of us all to stand up to them.

The speaker here is the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, at the Ottawa Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism, and the speech should really be read in its entirety -- it's not that long, and it's a remarkably powerful and refreshing expression of support not just, as he says, for Israel and the Jewish people, but for free people everywhere. I can't resist adding a bit more:

“And I know, by the way, because I have the bruises to show for it, that whether it is at the United Nations, or any other international forum, the easy thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israeli rhetoric, to pretend it is just being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of ‘honest broker.’ There are, after all, a lot more votes, a lot more, in being anti-Israeli than in taking a stand. But, as long as I am Prime Minister, whether it is at the UN or the Francophonie or anywhere else, Canada will take that stand, whatever the cost. And friends, I say this not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israeli mob tells us all too well if we listen to it, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are a threat to all of us.

“Earlier I noted the paradox of freedom. It is freedom that makes us human. Whether it leads to heroism or depravity depends on how we use it.

“As the spectre of anti-Semitism spreads, our responsibility becomes increasingly clear. We are citizens of free countries. We have the right, and therefore the obligation, to speak out and to act. We are free citizens, but also the elected representatives of free peoples. We have a solemn duty to defend the vulnerable, to challenge the aggressor, to protect and promote human rights, human dignity, at home and abroad.

... 

“As I said on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, Israel appeared as a light, in a world emerging from deep darkness. Against all odds, that light has not been extinguished. It burns bright, upheld by the universal principles of all civilized nations — freedom, democracy and justice.

Johnny Rotten goes to Israel

Rock n Roll was always about stickin it to the Man, right? (See Jack Black, The School of Rock.) And punk rock stuck it with a fist or a broken bottle. And Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols stuck it about as hard as the hardest puck rocker. Still stickin it, in fact, though he's now middle aged, living in California, and goes by the name of John Lydon -- here he is talking about why he isn't joining other performers in a boycott of Israel:

I really resent the presumption that I'm going there to play to right-wing Nazi jews [sic]. If Elvis-f-ing-Costello wants to pull out of a gig in Israel because he's suddenly got this compassion for Palestinians, then good on him. But I have absolutely one rule, right? Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated.

Now, I'm not going to defend the logic here -- it's punk logic! -- but I think the gist and the underlying instincts are dead right. And predictably, the left apparently has its knickers in a twist about it, as John might say: "The British blogosphere and commentaries in the Guardian are packed full of hysterical tirades against Rotten". So you see the main thing that's changed? It's the identity of the Man, who's morphed from your parents into those guardians of the cultural gates, those bien pensant chattering classes, the liberal-left culterati themselves, most of whom, comically, remain frozen in attitudes they formed during their extended adolescence, as self-righteous outsiders fighting an endless battle against now phantom parents.

Not John, though -- he's grown.

Israel's image: paradigm or frame(-up)?

A friend sent me a link to a longish essay entitled "Israel Through European Eyes". Not surprisingly, the view through those eyes is apparently not good:

... whatever the ostensible subject, and regardless of whether Israel’s political leaders and soldiers and spokesmen do their work as they should, we know for certain that the consequence of [some] future incident, a few months from now, will be another campaign of vilification in the media and on the campuses and in the corridors of power—a smear campaign of a kind that no other nation on earth is subjected to on a regular basis.

His first question is, why:

My friends on the political left always seem to think that a change of Israeli policy could prevent these campaigns of vilification, or at least lessen their reach. My friends on the political right always seem to say that what we need is “better PR”.

No doubt, Israel could always stand to have better policies and better public relations. But my own view is that neither of these otherwise sensible reactions can help improve things, because neither really gets to the heart of what’s been happening to Israel’s legitimacy. Israel’s policies have fluctuated radically over the past 30 or 40 years, being sometimes better, sometimes worse. And the adroitness with which Israel presents its case in the media and through diplomatic channels has, likewise, been sometimes better, sometimes worse. Yet the international efforts to smear Israel, to corner Israel, to delegitimize Israel and drive it from the family of nations, have proceeded and advanced and grown ever more potent despite the many upturns and downturns in Israeli policy and Israeli PR.

His answer is to draw from Thomas Kuhn the concept of the "paradigm" as something that stands over and above particular evidence and/or reasons -- his explanation for Israel's bad image in Europe, then, is the apparent rise of a "post-national" paradigm that underlies the European Union:

Both in Europe and in North America, we are watching the growth of a generation of young people that, for the first time in 350 years, does not recognize the nation-state as the foundation of our freedoms. Indeed, there is a powerful new paradigm abroad, which sees us doing without such states. And it has unleashed a tidal wave of consequences, for those who embrace it and for those who do not.

It's an interesting point, but I'm skeptical:

• First, I question how seriously the end of the nation state is taken by anyone, young or old, apart from a few elite "eurocrats" who obviously have a personal interest in the matter. 
• Second, even if European loyalties were shifting to the EU itself, that only seems to be another order of nation state -- one encompassing diverse ethnicities, it's true, but one that has serious difficulties with certain ethnicities, as the Turkey issue makes clear.
• Third, in any case, it doesn't seem to explain why Israel alone is singled out as the target to be smeared and, as the author himself says, driven out "from the family of nations", while the rest of that family is left alone.
• And fourth, perhaps most importantly, I think this systematic rhetorical attack on Israel alone should not be dignified or elevated with a term like "paradigm", especially in a scientific context -- that term describes systems that are relatively impervious to evidence or reason, it's true, but what's going on here has a much uglier, nastier, and sneering feel to it than that. What's going on here looks more like the return of a very old kind of bigotry -- of the sort that Helen Thomas and Oliver Stone, for example, have  inadvertantly blurted out recently (and then both made quick but mealy-mouthed apologies for) -- and it doesn't take a "paradigm" to foster that sort of thing. "Mainstreaming hate" calls it what it is.

No, a better word than "paradigm" to describe what's happening with respect to Israel is "frame", in the sense of a deliberate use of a kind of rhetorical box to present an issue in a constrained way, so as to foster certain conclusions, and prevent others from even being seen. Thus, for example, you speak of Israel as an "apartheid state", or the Palestinians as "conquered people", or -- with breathtaking depravity -- of Israeli Jews as Nazis. The last may be too revolting to qualify even as a framing device, but the two previous are good examples of how this sort of thing can work to the advantage of the framer, setting the terms of the subsequent debate and putting even those who disagree with the frame on the defensive immediately.

Now, rhetorical frames are used all the time, and while it's important to be aware of them, you certainly can't expect to avoid them. But when you see examples as blatantly distorted and biased as even the first two examples above, you have good reason to suspect that you're dealing with mere dishonesty and bad faith -- something other than a frame, in other words: a frame-up.

"Peace activists" as sadistic psychopaths

Remember that Gaza "aid" flotilla? Here's how one of the participants described it:

We talk about humanitarian work, we talk about activism. I don’t know how much more peaceful this could have been.

And here's what some of the participants actually did:

Testimony one of the commandos released later described how the “activists” shot this commanding officer in the leg and stabbed him in the stomach before tossing him off the deck. Other “activists” on the lower deck then dragged the officer inside, taking a knife to expand the wound in his stomach.

“They cut his ab muscles horizontally and by hand spilled his guts out,” the soldier said.

“When they finished, they raised him up and walked him on the deck outside. He was conscious the whole time...."

From the Corner 

Totten on Berman: rare sighting of the "reality-based" liberal

Great, wide-ranging interview on intellectuals, liberals, liberal guilt, Israel, Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Tariq Ramadan, and "the sixteenth minute", among many, many other things.

"The whole intellectual atmosphere of right now has become a little strange on points like these. That's the meaning of my title, The Flight of the Intellectuals. Too many very intelligent people are running away from looking at some very influential and pernicious doctrines of our own time. They don't want to look. They prefer to shut their eyes and hope for the best."

Israel and the shame of the contemporary left

Pilar Rahola (Spanish politician, journalist and activist) exposes it:

"... as a non-Jew, journalist and lefty I have a triple moral duty with Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too. The struggle of Israel , even if the world doesn't want to accept it, is the struggle of the world."

h/t Death by  Noodles