Zoe Goldblum, the President of J Street U’s National Student Board, wrote a letter to the House Judiciary Committee which held a hearing on combating antisemitism on US college campuses.She wrote in support of leftists demanding the destruction of the Jewish state, saying that such a position should not be considered antisemitic.
She starts off with something that no one would argue with:
While we work to challenge ill-informed criticism of Israel and Zionism on our campuses, we believe that such criticisms can and must be treated as constitutionally-protected free speech – not banned and suppressed by an act of Congress.And no one says that criticism of Israel should be banned - this is a straw-man argument.
But then she eases into what she really wants to allow on college campuses:
Anti-Semitism is a real and serious problem on some of our college campuses and in communities across our country. Yet applying the label of “anti-Semite” to all those who oppose the existence of the State of Israel is unfair and unhelpful overreach that ignores the nuances and sensitivities of a complicated political debate.Calling for the end of the world's only Jewish state, and saying that Jews are the only nation who do not have the right of self-determination, is "nuanced" and "complicated political debate"?
No, Zoe. it is modern antisemitism. It invokes age-old antisemitic tropes in a slightly newer package. Most of the modern antisemites claim that the Jewish people are not a people to begin with, in order to justify that they don't have the same human rights of other peoples.
There is no nuance in saying that Israel should not exist. It demands that Jews in Israel be treated the way that Jews in all the Arab nations are treated - meaning that they would be largely expelled from the region. It is advocating ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Middle East.
If J-Street U thinks that such a position is "nuanced debate," then let me get rid of the nuance. J-Street U supports the right of leftist antisemites to incite hatred against Jews who support their own human rights.
In the name of "free speech."
By positioning supporters of Israel as enemies of free speech, it would in fact only strengthen and empower anti-Israel voices on our campuses.Yes, Jewish Zionists are the only minority in the world who, when they complain about incitement against them and their families who live in Israel, should really be more sensitive to the feelings of the haters because the haters' free speech is more important than the rights of Jews to live without fear on campus.
J-Street U has jumped the shark.
(h/t Arsen Ostrovsky)