Carlo Strenger :Irresponsible use of anti-Semitism label by Israel’s right is dangerous
The misuse of the anti-Semitism charge by
Israel’s right-wing politicians has been criticized time and again. My
colleague Bradley Burston’s hilarious, but unfortunately quite realistic
questionnaire ‘Are you a closet anti-Semite’ is just one of the latest instances.
Israel’s
right wingers are lately upping the ante. Let me just remind of the
last two gems quoted by Bradley: Habayit Hayehud MK Moti Yogev accused
United States Secretary of State John Kerry of being driven by
anti-Semitism in his drive for peace, or when settlement official Adi
Mintz says to Channel 2 about Kerry’s warning that a failure of the
current peace initiative might lead to boycott against Israel: “In the
end John Kerry’s statement is: ‘Hit the Jews in the pocket’. I am saying
here that Kerry’s statement is anti-Semitic.”
Mintz’s
statement borders on a parody of mindless populism: I suggest that next
time a gentile doctor tells a Jewish patient that he should quit
smoking, because otherwise his chances to contract cancer increase, this
doctor should be disqualified as anti-Semitic for threatening a Jew
with cancer! I wonder whether Mintz actually believes his own spin, or
whether he just thinks that the audience of Channel 2 is stupid enough
not to notice the logical blunder it involves.
Leave
alone the fact that Kerry has Jewish ancestry − something he only
discovered in 2004. It is clear that he genuinely cares about Israel’s
future and security. He is afraid that the occupation policy will drive
Israel into a depth of isolation never known before, including the
economic boycott that is now gradually beginning to be implemented by
European institutions − and yes, he warns Israel of the consequences of
perpetuating the occupation.
I
can attest to the same caring for Israel by many European politicians
and diplomats who speak to me under condition of anonymity. Many of them
have been friends of Israel for decades, and are both shocked and
worried by the country’s growing lack of diplomatic finesse and its
blatant disregard for its closest allies and friends.
The
recent downward spiral in the level of right-wing discourse in Israel
and its indiscriminate anti-Semitism charge against anybody who doesn’t
agree with the ideology of the Greater Land of Israel could be funny if
it wasn’t so phenomenally dangerous.
There
is no doubt that anti-Semitism has not disappeared from the face of the
earth, and the rise of new forms of anti-Semitism in the Islamic world
has been documented in detail by Robert Wistrich’s book A Lethal
Obsession. It is also true that Europe’s extreme left at times crosses
the border to anti-Semitism in its strange coalition with radical Islam.
World
Jewry and Israel will need all the friends they can get to erect
bulwarks against all forms of anti-Semitism, whether from the right as
in Hungary, from some quarters of the extreme European left, or from
people like the French performer Dieudonné M’bala, who is lately at the
center of a stormy discussion in France about the limits of what can be
legitimately be said about Jews − or any other minority, for that
matter.
But
when Israeli politicians start arguing that anybody who dares
disagreeing with the champions of a Greater Israel is an anti-Semite, we
will lose these friends. Why should they fight anti-Semitism − as they
currently do quite strongly − if they are accused of it without any
fault? Why should they care if their Jewish friends offend them
mortally? The geniuses of Israel’s extreme right might well learn
National Security Adviser Susan Rice’s recent tweet apropos the slanders
hurled at Kerry by heart: “Personal attacks in Israel directed at Sec.
Kerry totally unfounded and unacceptable.”
The
indiscriminate use of the anti-Semitism charge by Israel’s right
wingers is not just stupid, intellectually irresponsible and morally
repugnant. It is also profoundly dangerous. Under the pretext of
protecting Israel’s future and that of Jews around the world, some of
Israel’s right wingers are actually endangering Israel’s future and
creating impossible situations for Diaspora Jews by alienating our
friends with their shameless and irresponsible abuse of the
anti-Semitism charge.
sintesi in italiano
Irresponsible use of anti-Semitism label by Israel’s right is dangerous - Strenger than Fiction
www.haaretz.com
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