Thursday, June 16, 2022
From Ian:
Jonathan Tobin: Condemning the 'mapping project' isn't enough
Jonathan Tobin: Condemning the 'mapping project' isn't enough
It may be more open in its willingness to label anyone remotely connected to Israel – as is the case with the entire Jewish community other than anti-Zionists – as criminally complicit with the effort to defend the Jewish state and to an America that they see as a bastion of racism. But there is no real difference between this map, and the labeling of Jews and Israel as examples of "white privilege" that is the engine of oppression that is part of CRT indoctrination and intersectional propaganda heard elsewhere.Jonathan Greenblatt: You don’t need a map to find antisemitism
It is those ideas that helped motivate 83 House Democrats to sign a joint letter last month demanding that the United States oppose the demolition of an illegal encampment in the West Bank that has been upheld by the Israeli Supreme Court. Weeks before, 57 members of the Democrats' Progressive Caucus signed a similar letter demanding an "independent" investigation into the death of a Palestinian journalist who was killed in the crossfire during an Israeli counter-terrorism operation in Jenin.
Both efforts illustrate the way increasingly large numbers of Democrats are taking up Palestinian propaganda attacks against Israel. These letters, promoted by anti-Israel groups, show how the same ideological arguments that back up CRT and intersectionality have resonance on the political left when applied to Israel.
If pro-Israel Democrats want to go on the offensive against anti-Semitic BDS groups, they shouldn't be satisfied with a few statements condemning one map. Instead, they should be joining with centrists and conservatives in attacking the ideas that make such efforts possible. But so long as that means confronting both the BLM movement and the way CRT and intersectionality grant a permission slip for anti-Semitism, then most liberals and left-wingers want nothing to do with it. And as long as that is true, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism will continue to make inroads on the political left and the Democratic Party.
To be fair, these are very different threats. As I said in the speech and as ADL has documented for decades, far-right extremism is a singularly lethal and dangerous threat to the Jewish community and to our country. For years, individuals have been driven by white supremacist conspiracy theories to murder Jews along with other minorities. From Pittsburgh to Poway to Buffalo, it is a violent danger that should not be underestimated.WaPo Editorial: BDS detours into old-school antisemitism
At the same time, we also must recognize the growing threat posed by the organized anti-Zionist movement, which – despite its effort to wrap itself in the progressive cloak of solidarity with oppressed minorities – is no less conspiratorial and antisemitic. Left unchecked, the demonization, vilification, and conspiracy theories from anti-Zionists will lead to more – and even deadly – violence.
This is not a paranoid abstraction. Rather, it is what Jewish communities in Europe have experienced over the past several years, and it is what we see happen to other minority groups such as Asian-Americans in the US in the wake of COVID, to name just one example.
Let’s be clear: this does not mean that Israel should be exempt from critique.
There are a host of Jewish groups in and out of Israel that criticize the actions of the Jewish state, such as, Ameinu, J Street, and T’ruah. Unlike the anti-Zionist groups who think pro-Palestinian solidarity compels an anti-Jewish racism, these groups believe that Zionism does not compel being anti-Palestinian. In fact, they – along with ADL — often condemn those politicians, groups, and commentators who incite violence against Israeli Arabs or Palestinians and advocate for a Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state of Israel.
Equally importantly, these critics inside and outside the Jewish community – many who are proud progressives – level their critiques without demonizing Jews, calling for violence against Jewish organizations, or calling for the eradication of the Jewish state.
These organizations know that words have consequences. Words lead to actions, so they choose them carefully. The leaders of SJP, JVP, and CAIR know this too. And so we have no choice but to take what they say seriously. And by judging those words, it is clear that these anti-Zionist groups represent a growing antisemitic threat in the United States, a threat that ADL will redouble its efforts to counter.
There is no place in civilized society for such acts — nor for rhetoric that motivates the unstable to do the terrible. Nor is there a place for a BDS movement if it is going to use (justified) anger with Israel’s policies to foment antisemitic conspiracy theories and to implicitly call for violence against “agents of oppression,” including Jewish entities.
The Mapping Project is ludicrous in its attempt to implicate Jews. It includes JewishBoston, a publication of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, because it “pushes propaganda which glories Israel.” Such as? “JewishBoston helped promote ‘Taste of Israel 2022’ … which featured Boston area restaurants serving and promoting ‘Israel’s diverse culinary landscape.’ ”
The long list of groups “systemically connected” with supposed Zionist oppressors includes: the AFL-CIO, Apple, Google, the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute, the Boston Globe, the City of Boston, Democratic Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, the FBI, the Harpoon Brewery, the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Pfizer and Moderna, an interminable collection of businesses, universities and police departments, and seemingly every Jewish group under the sun.
If the broader movement isn’t willing to step in and condemn those among them fanning antisemitic conspiracy theories and violence against Jews, then BDS will become nothing more than BS.
