I wish the Palestinian people would accept the idea of two states for two people, as most Israeli Jews have. Not because Palestinians can't argue that they should have all the land, with Israeli Jews expelled to other Arab and North African lands, to Europe, to America, and to other places where they have ties.
Palestinians are good at making that argument.
I'd like them to embrace two states for two people because it is the closest we can come to a just, compassionate, and historically honest arrangement for all 12 million people who live between the river and the sea.
After all, the 1947 U.N. partition plan created a Palestinian state alongside Israel. It was invaded and occupied by Jordan and Egypt and not, primarily at least, by Israel. Here is the map: https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Maps/Maps/UN-Partition-Plan.jpg
Jews have lived in Israel continually since Biblical times, and there would have been more Jews if not for repeated massacres and expulsions by Islamic rulers.
In the mid-19th century the plurality of the population of Jerusalem was Jewish.
Israel is a reservation for Jews, smaller than America's Navajo reservation, similarly surrounded by more than 300 million largely hostile people with commonalities of language, religion, and a history of anti-minority oppression.
Jews deserve self-determination. The Palestinians do, too. And that's why two states for two people is simply the best solution.
46
"the largest annual conference of L.G.B.T.Q. activists in the United States."
Isn't "B", bisexual, in the name "LGBTQ" insulting to the community? Doesn't it imply that the two of all sexes are better or more important than other sexes, doesn't it imply that men and women are more important than other people?
9
I agree with almost all of this piece. But the view that Israelis "colonized" Israel is not anti-Semitic, in that it doesn't recognize Jews' ancestral attachment to the land. That ancestral attachment is obvious to anyone with any knowledge of Jewish culture, or who has attended a Jewish wedding. But its not an adequate justification for the establishment of a Jewish state against the wishes of the vast majority of the current inhabitants, which is what happened in 1948.
But what's done is done. Yes Israel is a "settler state" established through success in war and diplomacy. But so is the US, Canada, all the Americas, Australia and New Zealand- and those are only the recent examples.
So you can be anti-Zionist without being anti-Semitic. But BDS supporters are holding Israel to a unique standard among the world's nations, and that is an anti-Semitic position.
91
No state in history has received so much support and sympathy as Israel, and in fact discussion of Israel’s present day policies is pretty much barred. It seems it is still not enough.
80
It's a disgraceful smear for Stephens to associate Jeremy Corbyn with antisemitism. He's been consistent and outspoken against all forms of racism and indeed before it was even dreamt he could become Labour's leader he signed all the parliamentary motions condemning antisemitism, which is far more than most UK MPs did.
55
Israel clearly needs to change the way it is addressing the Palestinian problem. As the Palestinians have to let go of the idea of a unified state or getting rid of Israel. A heavily armed Israel with nuclear arms is not going away no matter what occurs and I am guessing were it faced with that most of the ME would be turned to glass. As for here and I say this as a progressive while I do not go to conferences etc no one would enjoy harassing me or trying to obstruct my passage. My late grandmother was born right before the turn of the 20th century and my parents were both GG. I heard their stories and loved history in Hebrew school. I concluded that the best course to safe is to be prepared. Hence I support the 2nd and have trained in a CQC system for decades. The fact is that as Jews we are never safe. A lesson history teaches. So better to be prepared which is the same as having a wrench in the tool box in case of a leak.
19
"Israel was given a state; why is the same not done for the Palestinians?" This question, asked by a previous respondent, either ignores history or demonstrates ignorance of it.
The UN resolution calling for the formation of Israel also called for the formation of an Arab state on what is now called the West Bank.The resolution did not specify "Palestinians"; there was, at the time, no Arab group referring to itself as the Palestinian nation. Instead of accepting the proferred nation, the Arabs in Palestine, along with several Arab nations, invaded the newborn Jewish state with the declared intent of annihilating its inhabitants. After losing the war, again there was no attempt to form a new state. Instead, the state of Transjordan annexed the land and renamed itself "Jordan."
When the PLO was formed, it explicitly recognized Jordan's right to the West Bank; its stated goal was the conquest and annihilation of Israel.
In 1967, when the Arabs attacked Israel, the Israelis implored the Jordanians not to join. To their regret, they did, and were once again back in their previous territory
Despite all this, then-PM Ehud Barak offered to relinquish virtually all the territory won in 1967. Arafat turned down the offer without even deigning to discuss it.
And that's why the Palestinians have no state.
128
“The progressive answer is straightforward: Israel and its supporters, they say, did this to themselves. More than a half-century of occupation of Palestinian territories is a massive injustice that fair-minded people can no longer ignore, especially given America’s financial support for Israel. Continued settlement expansion in the West Bank proves Israel has no interest in making peace on equitable terms. And endless occupation makes Israel’s vaunted democracy less about Jewish self-determination than it is about ethnic subjugation.”
Umm, how is that not true? Try to be more convincing.
70
With this sort of mindset, then any sort of criticism of Israel and it's policies falls on deaf ears. Critics of the Likudniks are automatically dismissed as 'anti-Semites', as the title of this article intimates with use of the term "racist dog-whistles".
It is the reasoning of a child and a reasoning that is highly suspect in its effort to halt any criticism of Israel. Basically very sad and ultimately stupid and profoundly nonproductive.
54
Let’s get one thing straight: The word ‘Palestinian’ refers to that population who subscribe to the Arab nationalist movement in what was formerly a derelict province of the Ottoman Empire for 500 years...and later, the British Mandate. It does NOT refer to a distinct ‘Palestinian’ ethnicity separate from other Arab populations...notably the Jordanians, whose country is situated upon 80% of the territory that was called ‘Palestine’, and is the defacto Arab Palestinian state.
They are, themselves, the descendants of Arab invaders and colonists following the Arab conquest off the Levant...as well as the descendants of Arab migrants who illegally arrived by the tens of thousands into Mandatory Palestine following WWI, who mendaciously claim to be ‘Palestinian Refugees’...in perpetuity.
Too bad the Arab leadership rejected the UN partition plan in favor of perpetrating endless war. They lost....but continue to fight on in their efforts to destroy Israel by any and all means possible. Sadly, the Left have become their allies in this sinister quest.
69
"In proportion to its size, Israel has voluntarily relinquished more territory taken in war than any state in the world."
America's Republicans will never get any approval of their Israel - anti-semitism narrative as long as they deliberately ask the world to start Israel's history only AFTER the state was created and all the violence that was committed in order to create it.
You cannot first destroy hundreds of thousands of people's homes and their land and then occupy it, and then imagine that the "war" only started once the occupied tried to fight back.
That Jews have been prosecuted so much that they deserve a state is an idea that can be debated.
That the violence started by Palestinians and Arabs, rather than by those (Jews and Christians, Israelis and Western governments) who created Israel on Palestinian ground, is a LIE.
No serious debate can ever be held if you ask people to accept a blatant lie first.
THAT is the main lesson the GOP has to learn today.
24
How about everybody involved just applies the Golden Rule and treats others like they would like to be treated, without regard to one's religion (which is a personal matter anyway), showing consideration and respect for the other person's inherent humanity? This downward spiral of interaction has got to stop and it's not going to happen by constantly pointing out the faults of the enemy. Both sides do this all the time and both need to learn respect before progress can be made. Imagine what a rebuke it would be if the best place Muslims were treated in the Middle East were the Palestinians in Israel. Let's not let the evil of Hitler breed more evil and let us have some understanding of the point of view of the Palestinians who had nothing to do with the crimes committed by his regime. I've always felt it's too bad a nice big chunk of Germany wasn't turned over so the fault could lie where it should. Unfortunately it seems that respect for others is in short supply generally in the Middle East as evidenced, for instance, by the almost complete lack of civil rights for women in Muslim countries, so I think it will be up to Israel to take the high road and show respect equally to everyone who lives in their borders if they want peace in their land.
15
Today’s Stephens Op-Ed on Israel is a hopeless mishmash of false analogies, obvious syllogisms and outright garbled facts. While I am culturally Jewish—and third-generation non-practicing, I do not think that fact of birth gives me any particular perch on the truth—nor any safe harbor from a VALID charge of veiled anti-Semitism.
With that preface, let me list what I believe to beundeniable truths in this murky situation: 1) Anyone who denies Israel’s fundamental right to exist is, if not a prima facie anti-Semite, so historically blind as to forfeit their privilege of being listened to ;on this subject;2) Anyone who denies the legitimacy of the MANY, if not most, of the grievances of those Palestinians—and their descendants—who were living on the land now part of Israel proper OR the “Occupied Territories” (quotation marks are my recognition that this appellation for Gaza and the West Bank is not universally accepted) is ALSO morally myopic—if not outright blind; 3) That the 52 years since these territories were taken over by Israel following the 1967 War have been marked by an extremely harsh occupation by the IDF, WHATEVER the minor provocations by Palestinian “terrorists” may have been. (Those in the blindly pro-Israel camp need only get the death counts on each side—roughly 100 Arabs to 1 Israeli or Jewish settler to realize why I say “minor.”)
These truths must be agreed by anyone who wants to discuss this whole mishegoss with me—or anyone seeking some sort of TRUTH.
39
The fact is, the story of the Palestinians and their plight in modern day Israel as well as their historical claims there, are grossly overlooked if not outright ignored. In the US at least, their stories rarely get told.
36
Let's see. Let's say we carve out a chunk of land belonging to somebody else like, Palestine, for many years, and give to to somebody else, like Isarel, and then give the somebody else lots of weaponry, money, and other nice perks and send them on their way to more or less imprison the poor and vulnerable because, of course, they are terrorists for resenting the original theft.
And by the way, the we in this suffers ever after for the unfairness of it and the blind onesidedness.
30
The “idea of a Jewish state itself” resulted in 750,000 Palestinian refugees. Your sense of history is blinkered.
30
BDS is clearly seeking to destroy Israel. It is affiliated with Muslim terrorists whose hate for Jews is on par with Hitler and the Nazi Party. If they could they would murder every Jew just like the Nazi's brutally murdered over one million Jewish children.
Israel is in a self defense mode against brutal enemies including Hamas,the PLO, Iran,Hezbollah and BDS is supporting these terror groups. As long as so called progressives and BDS supporters single out Israel they are supporting terror against Jews and Israel and they can be accused of anti-Semitisim.
41
As an old-school liberal I just chuckle every time I hear the word "progressive" used to describe the single-celled reactionary wing of the Democratic party. Pretty much in the same way I chuckle whenever I hear anti-abortionists call themselves "pro-life". It's not funny, but I have to laugh or I'll just sob. We should start putting up statues of Orwell every time we take down a Confederate one.
27
"Progressives" and other Jew haters are as bigoted as Trump. What would Cory, Kamala and AOC say if Israel adopted the policy of obliterating its neighbors. Palestine and progressives hope for "death to Israel."
25
Perhaps we can start to have a more constructive debate when EVERY criticism of Israel is no longer automatically met with charges of antisemitism.
57
Specifically anti-Jewish statements = anti-Semitism. Everything that examines Israel or Zionism is about the ethnic State of Israel.
Bret uses amalgams; however, amalgams can be troublesome. For example, here's a story from the NYT, dated April 17, 1976: JERUSALEM—The visit here this week by Prime Minister John Vorster of South Africa produced a spate of headlines, four days of speeches about Israeli‐South African friendship and, at its conclusion, a sweeping new economic-cooperation pact. But the visit also raised some questions, both among ‘Israelis and abroad, as to the wisdom and desirability of the burgeoning relationship between Jerusalem and Pretoria."
John Vorster was not only an architect of systematized Apartheid, he was a Nazi agitator and terrorist. As the British fought for life and liberty, he conducted sabotage against British war efforts as part of a pro-Nazi paramilitary group. The NYT article doesn't mention this, but outlines the Israeli offer to sell Vorster armaments and aircraft.
Wisdom: examine the fleas in your own hair, before calling someone a dog.
20
Dear Israel boycotters:
If human rights abuses justify boycotts then why are you not boycotting China which has over 1 million Muslims currently in reeducation internment camps?
It's the double standard at play over and over again---"let's prove our wokeness by boycotting Israel but give lip service to being outraged by other countries engaging in far worse abuses."
Nobody cares if you criticize Israel. But if the only country you routinely single out for condemnation and delegitimization is the world's sole Jewish nation you may just have a problem with Jews.
63
Vigilance is certainly the order of the day. These determined opponents of the Jewish state will stop at nothing. Today it is agitation over Israel's rightful use of force and measures to protect its security. Next they will br invoking again Rachel Corrie and the S.S. Liberty. Or demanding a full time pro Palestinian OP ed columnist. We must stand firm to stop anti semitism.
21
Opposing Israel is not anti-semitic or racist. Judaism is a world religion, not a country. Israel is a racially exclusionary state that does not represent all Jews.
35
Oh, brother. Unfortunately you cannot conflate the Palestinians with the other peoples of the Middle East. Another kind of subtle racism here? Isreal, being the powerful country, indeed, the most powerful country in the region, has the responsibility here. They have to fix their Palestinian problem. Currently they have instituted a kind of apartheid. Unacceptable. Period.
23
Peace not apartheid! End the military occupation of Palestine! This editorial makes no sense and continues to fall victim to the discredited belief that disagreement with Israeli government policy is Anti-Semitism. This is more of same malign, Zionist troupes that foment a sordid false equivalency.
21
I'm a Semite who's tired of hearing that being against BDS is anti-Semitic. I'm pro-BDS myself, and, anti-Zionist. This has nothing to do with being Jewish. Most Zionists aren't Jewish anyway. In fact, they're waiting for the end of days when Jews will die as non-believers.
Stop making excuses for Israel and enabling its worst impulses. Start helping to make it a better country, one that's able to solve problems, not exacerbate them, and one that can handle criticism without calling names.
32
I am still amazed at the ignorance, utter stupidity or desguised hatred of Jews (the oldest hatred extant in the Western world) as siupport for the Palestinians.
The Jewish Nation existed a little after 3000 BC. They would have stayed in the Land of Israel if it were not for constant attempts at eradication that culminated around 70 AD.
Is is really asking too much to let these people occupy one hundreth of 1% of the land mass that makes up the Middle East (BTW the Palestinian Arabs left voluntarily in 1947 as not to get in the way of the 4 Arab armies that tried to wipe the Jews off the map-they were NOT pushed out by the Israelis for those ignorant of history).
39
One can be pro-human rights without being anti-Semitic. There is no "progressive assault on Israel." Those who accuse anyone who criticizes Israel's atrocious human rights record of antisemitism are simply covering up the Israeli assault on civilians.
23
Condemnation of Israeli government for suppression of a people is not anti-Jew.
22
The forces arrayed against Israel seek the destruction of that state and the extermination of all Jews. Period. Anyone who directly or indirectly encourages or supports those forces, will be complicit in the results.
31
I've had to be in situations where there were some very outspoken anti-Semites. They went on and on how Jews cheated them and how Israel only exists to cause all the world's problems.
Anti-Semites hate Jews and it is only logical their hate extends to Israel.
One of the easiest ways counter anti-Zionists is to buy Israeli made products, only after trying to find a US made product first. I use the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction website as a shopping guide.
32
Supporting a two state solution to the Palestinian issue is anti-semitic when it is no secret that the ultimate goal of the leaders of the would-be Palestinian state is to rid the Middle East of Israel and all Jews.
18
If you are against Israel's human rights violations and apartheid policies against the Palestinians and agree with the BDS movement, then according to Brett Stephens, the NYT and both political parties, then you MUST be an "anti-Semite"!
We didn't hear this kind of trash talk when the world boycotted South Africa and its apartheid policy. However, because of the international economic boycott, apartheid was defeated and Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa.
Additionally, the United States gives billions in aid to Israel...Obama approved 3.5 billion last go round. But do American citizens realize that in addition to the billions in aid, the Israeli government is able to provide free college and universal healthcare to all Israeli citizens? Maybe the NYT, Brett Stephens and the US political system can talk about that !
21
I find this to be very insulting that progressive are attacking a country where their views will be accepted the most such as Israel. I would love to see them trying to express their views in one of the Muslim countries where they will most likely be hated or even prosecuted for doing so. Just hearing the Women's Rights Movement being anti-Semitic and anti-Israel is a major insult to me, who would normally support what they are fighting for especially when Israel is the only Mid East nation that is tolerant towards women whereas the rest of the region mistreats them. What some didn't know is that Linda Sarsour, who is the new head of the movement. is actually a supporter of Shariah Law, which still allows for Muslims to mistreat women. If only movement knew her true nature, they would dump her right away. Even hearing gays that are anti-Israel is an assault especially when Israel is the only country that tolerates homosexuality while in the rest region one can actually get killed or arrested without any protection for being so. Originally, progressives used to be very pro-Israel, but that seems to be changing especially when we certain individuals who have hijacked the group. Another thing is that they are using intersectionality to make such claims against Israel in that they are using progressive ideas to hide their oppression and apartheid despite never finding proof of such claims. Just recently, I did attend an event over at Temple Emanuel on this very issue.
31
Let’s seperate Judaism from Israel, seperate the State from the Religion... exactly like Saudi Arabia and Islam.
Both countries are considered the birthplace and the core base of the religion, but they are both equally oppressive.
Israelis oppress outsiders and Saudis oppress their nationals. Come to think of it Saudiss also oppress outsiders, i.e. Yemen.
11
Baloney. the second someone questions the moves about the Israeli government, the "anti-semitic" card comes out. This has nothing to do with the Jewish culture. It has to do with far-right, brutal aggression and theft of land by and for the Israeli government. What has Israel done for us?
17
"Continued settlement expansion in the West Bank proves Israel has no interest in making peace on equitable terms. .... It would be damning if it were true, or even half-true. It’s not."
Alas, this part is 100% true. The purpose of the settlements is to preclude withdrawal from occupied territories. That's why they popped up as early as 1967, months after the conquest of the West Bank, Golan, and Sinai. That's what Israeli documents show.
The offers of a Palestinian 'state' have been partial, with continuing Israeli presences and encumbrances, and were swiftly taken off the table. (Who cut off Taba negotiations after Camp David failed? Why, Israel!) And the settlements keep growing, and growing.
And to add insult to injury, Netanyahu has made US progressives his enemy by allying himself with US (and European) right-wingers of the worst sort.
21
Opposing Israel and its barbarism is not anti-Semitic. Full stop. Opposing Zionism and its settler-colonialism is not anti-Semitic. Full stop.
12
Quite obviously, this writer has never taken a look at the Likud party platform. That party was started by Menachem Begin, "Father of Terrorism" in the Middle East, and the party of the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. It explicitly calls for an exclusively Jewish State, "from the river to the sea." There is a copy available for viewing on the Jewish Virtual Library website.
10
Israel is the first subject where Jewish voices are voluntarily tokenized to diminish the nefarious intentions of bigoted, in this case Anti-Zionist, activists.
When groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, and other anti-Zionist Jewish groups advocate for BDS and attack Israel and its supporters, they do it with the full understanding of they’re respective voices’ shield anti-Semitic Israel bashers. No need to look any further than the many “another Jew for BDS shirts” populating the assemblies of many progressive causes when considering BDS resolutions.
The essence of this perversion of Jewish opinion and thought speaks to two issues: Jewish insecurity within Progressive circles (ask members of these groups how they perceive their privilege as Jews and prepare for the apologetic acrobatics) and Jewish insecurity in Jewish identity. They are intertwined ideas but they speak to the same issues: Jews who understand the real threats of Antisemitism tend to be more supportive than Jews who believe Jews should be apologizing for their success. As a Jew who’s experienced Antisemitism first hand on numerous occasions, and as a Jew who at the time was trending away from Zionism, I can tell you that it only takes one slur to awaken the Zionist in all of us. Hopefully these apologetic Jews get the message soon
22
While the Jews have the right to a "Safe Space" so do the Palestinians. It is not the Palestinians that turned Gaza into a walled ghetto, build illegal settlements in Palestine, use snipers to kill protestors hundreds of yards from the border, and by declaring Israel to be a Jewish state has effectively told the arab citizen of Israel that they are no longer wanted in their own country. It was not the Palestinians that killed over 2000 men women and children in Gaza as retribution for 2 Israelis killed by rockets. Israel does not want peace until it owns Palestine and the Gaza strip and all the Palestinians are exiled.
8
This may sound cruel, but what if all the money
spent on all the Israeli/Arab Wars had been
given to the displaced Palestinians to find a new
place to live.
5
Bibi is a criminal. He is in bed with extremist right-wingers because it keeps him in power and protects him (somewhat) against prosecution. He has been playing this game for years and years trading on his brother's legacy and using his beautiful voice to sway people, switching to English when he wants to gets ill-informed Americans on his side. I am NOT anti-semitic or anti-Zionist (in the older sense of the word) but anti-whatever this new rightwing Israel is heading toward. Good luck Gantz!
9
Criticism of this article has been particularly harsh. But I take its main point to be that anti-Zionist rhetoric may be thinly disguised, dog whistle anti-Semitism.
Appropriate attention is now being paid to the subconscious bigotry that we all carry. Dog whistles appeal to this bigotry. African-Americans in particular are victims of this. But others, including Jews are also victims. Every Jew in America must feel at least a little vulnerable. After all, the Jews of Germany were financially and politically comfortable before the Nazis took over. Also the Jews of France before the Dreyfus affair.
It is important to recognize that subconscious bigotry exists, and to try to fight its pernicious effects. This requires recognizing and rejecting bigoted dog whistles.
16
Logic and facts?
Unfortunately bigotry such as the examples you provide is blind to such inconveniences.
You literally criticize some Israeli actions and policies and clearly point out the bigotry...
Judeophobic antisemitic much?;
" '...the vibrant jihadist work to prevent the Judaization of Palestine,' a statement from the group’s leaders "
That from Al Qaida, but I've heard similar from what today gets called "the Left" and "Progressive" circles.
When the new Congresswomen representing MI, MN, and The Bronx show up physically to denounce and march against such ideas and words and actions and wishes, no matter who espouses them, maybe then the Left can start healing the alienation and pain they have caused fellow progressives and others. Maybe then I might grant them a speck of credibility and trust.
16
Far left Jews, and there are plenty of them, are having a harder and harder time identifying with the Democratic Party. Bernie Sanders, a self hating Jew, shamefully fails to condemn the anti Semitic rants from the far left. Allan Dershowitz, an old style Democrat, increasing condemns the positions held in his own Party vis a vis Israel. It more important now for Jews everywhere to support Israel, condemn anti Jewish rhetoric on campuses, and to get out of the secularism that has lulled us into complacency. Every Jew should be more of a Jew now than just eating bagels and lox on Sunday mornings.
20
"A movement that can detect a racist dog-whistle from miles away is strangely deaf when it comes to some of the barking on its own side of the fence."
I think you and yours might hold this up to the mirror.
Then maybe address why comments that explicitly point out the evil things the Government of Israel does and has been doing for decades never get posted?
Truth is not bigoted.
4
It's interesting, Mr Stephens, that according to you someone who is pro B.D.S. must also be anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic. This implies that Israel is, according to you, a state for Jews only. Does that mean someone who supports Venezuelan sanctions is automatically against the Venezuelan people, or do Israelis get a wild card because of their religion (but again, just the Jews)? Do you mean one cannot distinguish between an administration and its citizens? Stupidity and false equivalences, the tools of the alt-right...
The Israeli has played the victim card for too long, trying to snuff out international condemnation about its many - and well-documented - human rights abuses (remember the sterilisation of Ethiopian Jews because they were black?).
Yes, Yasir Arafat was a terrorist. That does not make all Palestinians terrorists. Mr Netanyahu is corrupt, racist and does not wish for peace with Palestine. Again, that does not implicate the many Israelis who do not support his views. I could continue the parallel with Mr Trump. I could also point out that the American government has been the single greatest killer of foreign civilians, toppler of democratically elected regimes, meddler in democratic elections (ironic, eh), greatest warmonger since the end of the Second World World War, purely in the pursuit of power and profit, and that doesn't mean the rest of the world hates American citizens.
States have no morals. Citizens do.
Grow your conscience, not your demagoguery.
12
It’s not antisemitic to criticize Israel. Anyone can! Israelis criticize Israel (funny thing about democracies). The saddest part is that BDS boycotts cultural, academic, sports, science and religious exchanges to promote understanding and build bridges to the future. My mental models are such exchanges between Cold War enemies—USA, Soviet Union, China—to sustain hope and build bridges. Such participants are those most likely to promote liberal views influencing their societies. BDS shuts that off, conveying that any connection with Jews in Israel are worthless. When Jews merely seek to participate in the women’s march, they are told—collectively—they are not welcome and must reconcile their role in Slavery trade. Kind of parallels what the US did to Japanese Americans in WWII. MLK didn’t blow up buses or pizzerias, nor did he celebrate those who did. He protested in dignity, and realized he was saving white America from their own hatred. These examples capture the values of peace and reconciliation. BDS outrage is so one-sided and disproportionate, and can really only be explained by one thing: antisemitism.
20
The false claim that Zionism is not an excluding religious bigotry incompatible w democracy. It’s akin to white Christian Nationalism. No surprise these movements are allied
6
What a load of hooey. This is strategic on the part of reactionaries--conflate the government of Israel with Judaism, then chastise anyone who criticizes the government as "antisemitic." Netanyahu and his own reactionaries are NOT Judaism, writ large. I suppose Stephens would have characterized any criticism of P.W. Botha, the Krokodil, and the apartheid regime that crushed black dissent in South Africa as anti-white people. What a load of hooey.
12
The antipathy of L.G.B.T.Q activists to Israel in favor of Palestinian governments that consider homosexuality taboo shows either woeful ignorance, a sorry compromise of principles, or a degree of antisemitism that trumps their belief in gay rights.
27
Israel was attacked in 1948 by the Palestinians and five other Arab armies. This was after the Jewish State had accepted the partitioning of the land into a two-state solution. In the immediate aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust, the answer to the "Jewish problem" was the creation of both Israel and Palestine. The Arabs chose an attempt at a second Holocaust --"throw the Jews into the sea" was their mantra. Today the majority of Palestinians still support either a "phased solution" -- first a West Bank State and later an alliance with Iran (PLO doctrine since 1979) -- or the outright elimination of Israel in one full swoop (the Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood-Iran axis). The West Bank is the most strategic piece of military-geopolitical territory in the world today. It can't be just given back to the Palestinians. In 1968, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff estimated that for Israel to be safe form an eastern onslaught, it must hold on to at least 40% of the land. Israel has not been the historical aggressor, not in 1948, 1956, 1967 or 1973. In 1967, before Israel even captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Arab rhetoric was blood curdling and genocidal -- never to be forgotten and not unlike Iran and Hamas today. Three years after the Holocaust, it was the Soviet Union which came to Israel's aid with a much needed resupply of armaments. Then, the US State Department fully backed Israel's defeat and elimination. Nothing is in stone forever, including another geopolitical reversal.
24
Anyone can criticize Israel. Israelis criticize Israel! The sadness here is that BDS closes any bridge to peace or reconciliation. My memories of US-Soviet cold war were cultural, science, academic and sports exchanges, providing a bit of hope for the future. These participants are those most likely to hold and influence society with more moderate views. BDS cuts off all Israeli Jews, reinforcing that those connections are worthless and punishable, collectively. Waters and Mr. Peace Love and Understanding (E. Costello) cancels his concerts in Israel vs. creating a peace event in Tel Aviv or Ramallah. Women’s March leaders lecture the Jewish participant, during a planning meeting, that Jews (collectively) must reconcile their role in the slave trade. We see neo-Nazis loud and clear. But hate and racism is creeping up on us from the left, shrouded in moral causes. This obsession and action against Israel and, yes, Jews is so divisive and disproportionate it can only be explained by one thing: Antisemitism.
20
Not much difference between:
"...the tediously malign, thinly veiled call to end Israel as a Jewish state."
and
..."the tediously malign, thinly veiled call to end America as a White Christian state"
No democratic nation can proclaim one group of citizens as more entitled to membership in a nation-state than others. That is not true democracy, that's ethno-nationalism. Israel can't possibly proclaim itself a democracy while imposing second class citizenship on non-Jews.
8
It seems the Jewish people of America, like Jews throughout history, are being forced to choose between conversion or ostracism by the progressive left, the very same progressives who are being hailed as the future of the Democratic Party. The conversion being demanded of the Jews today is an unequivocal rejection of Israel as a viable haven and yes, protector, of Jews around the world. It’s pointless to try to debate whether Israel is a legitimate state. The progressives are moving rapidly toward the position that it is not by virtue of their disingenuous cry for a “democratic” one state solution. This is the position being demanded of the Jewish left. They are being forced to participate in the denunciation and potential dissolution of a state formed only after centuries of barbarous pogroms, slaughters and an almost successful effort at complete eradication of the Jews. But even if they “convert”, do you think Jewish progressives will then be be trusted? Or would an inquisition be established to ferret out the “crypto” Zionists? Perhaps, like the Trump administration’s purported Russian collusion today, any link with Israel would be considered treasonous. The ooze of fervent anti Zionism on the left is symptomatic of the festering infection of anti-semitism already fracturing movements whose strength lie in unification.
20
I just can't get over the fact that Israel consists of appropriated Arab land. And that Israel is a country where some of my high school classmates who had last names like Spiro and Levy, but where born in Queens, have the right of return to Israel, because Israel is their homeland.
But Palestinians born in Gaza, whose grandparents or great-grandparents may have been born in what is now Tel-Aviv, before Israel existed, have no right of return. And then they are told there will be no peace till they acknowledge Israel's 'right to exist'.
It doesn't make any sense to me. I think it doesn't make sense to me, because it doesn't make any sense period. This, 'right to exist', where does it come from? From the actions of the Nazis?
Native Americans were brutalized during the European invasion of North America and where is their homeland?
If Israel has a right to exist because Jews come from that part of the world, why doesn't Palestine have a 'right to exist'? Where do Palestinians come from?
This, 'right to exist', talk is nonsense.
How on earth is anyone going to get 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza to acknowledge this nonsense? They won't. They see its essential illogical nature. Getting them to admit that, is the same as getting them to admit something which they know is not true. It won't happen.
15
You've got a lot of dog whistles of your own, and you've done a lot of shape shifting. It would take too much space to dissect this long piece of hasbara.
It is a great pity because "from the river to the sea" could have been the crown jewel on planet Earth for religious and civil tolerance in a multi-ethnic country. Those who came in from Europe would have dominated and defined this new state. But, the Zionists had other plans.
3
I agree with the columnist.
17
The BDS campaign is not to eliminate Israel as exclusively a homeland fo Jews, a Jewish state. It is to have one state, with equal rights for all, from the Jordan River to the sea. Will world opinion, Jewish residents of the region, world Jewry, and the United Statesgovernment agree to this? If not, this stalemate, conflict, and oppression of all residents of the region not Jewish will contiune, That would be tragic, and unconscionable,
3
"Progressives ..... united behind Vermont’s Bernie Sanders in a failed bid to block a Senate bill.... that includes an anti-B.D.S. measure prohibiting federal contracts with businesses that boycott Israel"
The Rubio Bill approved by AIPAC in the Senate took a big chunk of "freedom" out of the American democracy. Sad.
7
LOL, your intellectual dishonesty would be comedic if it weren't so sad. Does your indictment of progressives include Senator Sanders?
2
Yitzhak Rabin's assassination by right wing fanatic followed by Netanyahu's hardline rightwing government has soured support for Israel amongst many.
6
I am a radical deconstructionist. I'm not pro-Palestinian or Anti-Semitic. Anti-Zionist Reducing the Israeli/Palestinian situation to the right of a baker to refuse to bake a wedding cake for a couple who have access to many other bakeries is about as logical as basing the right of a religious group to land acknowledged to belong to a group that has inhabited it for centuries based on a centuries-old book that has been passed down from an oral tradition of an illiterate group of folks who followed commands coming from voices of unseen speakers and objects without vocal cords as well as dreams and dreamers, into a written text of unknown authorship, heavily redacted and edited by radically biased groups of religious men, translated from one language to another multiple times, whose authenticity and meaning continues to be the subject of debates by religious and political zealots.
"More than a half-century of occupation of Palestinian territories is a massive injustice" that should not be ignored. "Israel has no interest in making peace" "Israel’s vaunted democracy less about Jewish self-determination than it is about ethnic subjugation".
1300 Jewish civilians have been killed—how many Palestinians? The massacred Jews of Squirrell Hill compared to how many massacred school children. What are Irael's "founding ideals" zionist
4
Progressive American Jew here saying that Israel’s government is completely off the rails.
7
Sorry, you're arguments and analogies don't hold water. Those on the left don't support dictators and countries that terrorize and kill vast numbers of their citizens. Becasue Israel receives a vast amount of funding we have a responsibility to question that funding and protest should we deem it harmful. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn't similar to other conflict regions because of the duration of the conflict.
No, Israel has no more right to the land than Palestinians. Imagine every country changing borders and demographics to align with those from 2000 years ago. If this were a valid argument then the land should belong equally to the Palestinians as they have also occupied that land for thousands of years.
Anti-Semitism? Perhaps a cloak for Israelis to hide behind rather than confront the problem and negotiate an end to the violence. How long will Hitler be blamed for all of Israel's problems?
6
This notion that being against the policies of the Israeli government means you're anti-Semitic is incredibly stupid and has to stop. Judaism is a religion. Israel is a country. It's not Judaism that is systematically murdering Palestinians, it's the government and military of Israel and it needs to stop today.
Why do Jewish people scream anti-Semitism when someone suggests that what Germany did to them during WWII is the same thing they are doing to Palestine?
Personally, as an atheist, all religion is fairytale and the fact that all this fighting is over supposed "holy" cities begs the question of when will we grow up as a planet and realize the gods of old aren't real.
6
Mr. Stephens asks, "How did this happen?"
Two words: Benjamin Netanyahu. The shrillest, most egregious, self-serving right wing nut job in the world today - Other than Donald Trump. That's how.
The man is a walking pariah. And it serves the Israelis right to be sanctioned for continuing their support of him while foisting his abomination of an Administration on the rest of us.
So please spare us the false-equivalence sanctimonious diatribe, because as long as Bibi remains, it doesn't wash.
People are simply asking for Israel to get what it deserves based on their immoral and deceitful actions. And there is NOTHING antisemitic about it.
5
Bret Stephens’ opinion and analysis on UK politics counts for precisely zero. I will be voting Labour next chance I get. 99% of the PLP are all pro-Israel. Party policy is pro-Israel. Corbyn seems more to suffer from foot-in-mouth syndrome rather than the flaming anti-Semite
2
The strangest alliance in history is that between so-called western ‘progressives’ and the Arab factions who’ve been trying to annihilate Israel one way or another for the past 70 years.
What they are is ‘progressively’ antisemitic...and nothing more.
18
It’s not antisemitic to criticize Israel. Israelis criticize Israel (funny thing about democracies). The saddest thing about BDS is that instead of building bridges to the future, it punishes exchanges of any sort with Jewish Israelis. No cultural, religious, sports, academic or science exchanges, participants of which are likely most liberal in their views and influence on their societies. That suggests that those connections are worthless, all Jews in Israel serves collective punishment. The model I recall among Cold War enemies were exchanges between USA, the Soviets and China, providing a promise of hope. Waters and Mr. “Peace Love and Understanding” (Costello) don’t play concerts in Tel Aviv and Ramallah promoting peace, the BDS. MLK didn’t bomb buses or nightclubs, or celebrate those who did. He maintained the dignity of his people, and even saw the need to free white racists from their hatred and bigotry. Jewish women in the US wanting to participate in the women’s march are scolded, by Farrakhan fans—at a meeting about the march—that Jews (collectively) need to reconcile their role in the slave trade. It’s kind of interning Japanese Americans during of WWII. The neo-Nazis are out there in the clear, we know who they are and their message. The far left just might creep up on us as their bigotry is packaged in seemingly moral causes. The out-of-proportion obsession with Israel can really only be explained by one thing: antisemitism.
7
I would think it should be unconstitutional to pass a federal law saying who I can't boycotted. Half my family was exterminated during the holocaust, I, myself, have been a victim of antisemitism. But sadly, I have come to the conclusion that the modern state of Israel has taken to emulating its religiously radical enemies and tries to bully it's democratic friends. I would boycott Israel just for that. And smearing all who oppose this law as being antisemites is McCarthyism at its worst.
7
Thanks for this article. This bigotry needs to be called out. The naked double standards used when evaluating Israel against ALL of its middle eastern neighbors is disgusting. The so called far left has allowed itself to get coopted by the ruthless tyrants reining in the middle east and become a pawn in their battle to wipe Israel off the globe
12
American Progressivism is just as morally and intellectually bankrupt as Stalinism, Maoism, and every other leftist ideology when put into practice. In the end it’s all about power, and evil people have been using anti-semetism as an excuse for seizing power for thousands of years.
5
Mr. Stephens’ is correct in his explanations of the many inaccuracies and falsehoods attributed to the State of Israel by its detractors and more so by its haters. What is not stated outright, is the undisputed fact that the entire worlds laser focus, and what can only be called its utter obsession with the State of Israel, can only be attributed to one thing, anti Semitic hate in its purest form. While the nations of the world murder, starve, and deny basic human rights based on religion, gender, sexual preference, tribal affiliation etc. to their people, the UN, worldwide press, EU, and most nations of the world are unduly fixated on the only state in the world where Jews are able to defend themselves from a majority of neighbors and many more that would like to see them wiped off the face of the earth. In a world made up of nearly 8 billion people there are less than 15 million Jews.... when China can put nearly a million of its Muslim citizens in “re-education” camps and it barely gets reported, when 85,000 people are starving in Yemen, when Syria can kill nearly 500,000 of its own citizens and I could go on... the crazy obsession with the Israeli-Palestinian political conflict is beyond all reason. The worlds oldest hatred is alive and well. It never disappears, it just goes in cycles as to when it is once again accepted, normalized and insinuated into daily society. I say with a heavy heart that time is NOW.
13
Last I checked, Israel is a country and Judaism is a religion. Opposing the policies of Israel does not make me anti-Semitic.
8
Wow. With an article of this length in which the author has labored so hard to breath life into threadbare lies and to distort the purpose of the BDS moment, only one conclusion is possible: BDS is working.
8
Mr. Stephens's unhinged tirade on behalf of right wing Zionism is extraordinarily revealing. There is too much to deal with. The central point is that, as a practical matter, any criticism of Israel amounts to anti-Semitism, which is stupid. He also wants us to believe that any suggestion that Palestinians deserve to be accorded human rights amounts to calling for the destruction of Israel. That is revealing of his conception of what Israel is or should be--a racist state.
9
Israel is the cynical postwar creation of the Allies ... who were half-hearted colleagues during WWII, and full-time imperialists for a long while thereafter. Accustomed to imposing themselves on "lesser sorts," they were reflexively disposed to eventually acquiesce in the Jewish project of creating an even bigger and more dangerous ghetto for Jews than the Pale of Settlement had ever been.
Of course America and Israel are fast friends: both countries were and are vengeful and truculent; both share a delusional belief that they comprise a "chosen people" (and that this preferment excuses the basest and vilest crimes against humanity, from mass murder in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan to multiple, death-dealing invasions of Lebanon and Gaza); both are sois-disant democracies possessed by a brutish fascination with infernal killing devices ... in short, both these countries not only resemble each other, they richly DESERVE each other.
If ethnocentric Israel succeeds in convincing the world that history should be rewound 2000 years to a time before the Diaspora, then I advise North Americans to prepare to return their real estate to its rightful owners, viz., descendants of the First Americans, whose ancient material and spiritual claims to North America are at least as compelling as those of the European invaders of America and their insufferably smug and murderous and meretricious Judeo-Christianity.
5
Many comments here claim that being against Israel is not the same as being anti-Semitic, so let's analyze this statement. Do these individuals genuinely care about the Palestinians, i.e. a collection of Arabs mostly from Egypt and Jordan? If that is the case, why didn't you, commenters, object to Kuwait expelling three hundred thousand Palestinians during the first Gulf War? They had been there for three generations, yet because of their alignment with Saddam Hussein, Kuwaitis threw them out.
Why didn't you object to five thousand Palestinians murdered by King Hussein of Jordan on Black Friday, because of their attempt to assassinate the Hashemite ruler? And if you are so concerned about human rights, why don't you object to the murder of millions of Kurds, Christians, and even Muslims, all over the fifty-seven Muslim countries?
And where were you when thousands of Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks? Why don't you criticize Hamas, a terrorist organization that fires tens of thousands of rockets on Israel. Israel gave up Gaza. Hamas was elected there, and now both Israelis and Palestinians suffer the consequences.
The majority of the countries at the UN are dictatorships, many, with egregious violations of human rights. Israel, a country whose citizens are the scions of refugees from all over the world, is the ONLY democracy in the Middle East. Targeting Israel for criticism while the real culprits get a free pass is anti-Semitic.
17
Thank you for writing the perfect summary of what anti-Zionism really means and why singling Israel out is absurd, and in turn, anti-Semitism.
13
I have to hold my nose when reading most of the comments here because they reek of ignorance and false equivalences.
First, the Jews have been expelled from their home countries over a hundred times, and nobody cared.
They suffered from falsehoods of blood libel and writings of those who hate anyone that does not embrace their teachings.
Pogroms and a Holocaust proved how deadly these attitudes can be.
The land they have was promised by the British in the Balfour Declaration. It need not have been. Anyone should be able to immigrate to anywhere, especially a home they have lived in for centuries.
The UN confirmed their right to be there.
The West Bank was Jewish land occupied for 19 years by Jordan after the 1948 war. Same with the Old City of Jerusalem. It was redeemed in 1967 and returned to its rightful owners.
Jews simply want to be left alone to live in peace. Arabs simply will not allow that to happen. Attacks happen daily. Wars happen frequently. Iran wants to destroy a sovereign state. Hardly anyone here cares.
Enough is enough. Brett is right. Michele Goldberg is very mistaken to not equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Israel will prevail because the BDS movement was just a Palestinian invention, and the left wing Democrats are incredibly ill educated on the realities and the history.
14
Behind the Palestinian Nationalist Movement is the core belief in Arab Muslim supremacy “from the river to the sea” (or more accurately, from the Arabian Peninsula to the Mediterranean Sea). It’s the reason the Arab leadership rejected the UN partition plan in 1947 and waged multiple wars against Israel in 1948, 1967, 1973...and ongoing.
The fact is that they cannot tolerate Jewish-majority rule anywhere in the Middle East....despite the fact that the imperialist Arab conquest of the Levant ended centuries ago,
...and despite the fact that tiny Israel is, indeed, the indigenous ancestral homeland of the Jewish people.
...and despite the fact that tens of thousands of Arab economic migrants from elsewhere crossed into Mandatory Palestine illegally following WW1 and thus have no legitimate claim to the land,
...and despite the fact that Jordan is the defacto ‘Arab Palestinian State’ situated upon 80% of the former province aka ‘Palestine’, carved out of the British Mandate in 1920 for the exclusive benefit of the region’s Arabs.
Dhimmi Jews ruling over Arab Muslims in the Middle East? Intolerable! Antisemitic? Absolutely!
16
The one thing that rings clear through this op-ed is the gross sense of entitlement many Israeli's and American supporters of Israel have concerning the United States.
For the record we owe Israel nothing and they owe us everything. They should have been standing on their own two feet decades ago. We should cut them off, 100%, and let them learn to deal with their neighbors as equals instead of as thuggish superiors.
Enough already of this Israeli ingratitude and arrogant entitlement about the U.S dollars and diplomatic and military aid that have enjoyed for decades.
16
Well it seems very few of these comments address what Brett Stephens has said here. It is just the simple idea that Israeli policies are all evil and the plight Palestinian people is all the fault of Israel.
The UN voted to partition Palestine into 2 states in 1947, probably due to pity about the holocaust. This was roundly rejected by all the Arabs who vowed to kill all the Jews there and throw them into the sea. The Israelis were fortunate enough to win all the wars started by the Arabs (or maybe in some weird way unfortunate). Many Israeli died. The Joranians marched into the proposed Palestinian state and took it over for themselves, including East Jerusalaem. And refused to let the Jews worship at their holiest site..the Western Temple Wall. Oops..there goes the Palestinian state. And the Syrians spent 20 years bombing northern Israel from the Golan Heights almost daily.
But the question really is: should there be a Jewish state at all? If the answer is “no”..then you should want a “one state” solution with Jews and Arabs sharing power. Of course,, this scenario is really what the current Palestinian leadership wants. Why? Just look at the recent history of Lebanon. Christians sharing power with Arabs.
If you believe in a 2 state solution...then it is a question of the borders and capitals etc etc. But regardless...it seems to me that the Palestinian leaders much prefer the one state option..for obvious reasons.
Not so simple it seems.
9
Calling Israel out on its brutal treatment of Palestinians isn't antisemitism. American Jewry should understand that most Americans support the rights of Israel to exist in peace and safety - but we also expect Israel to behave responsibly, curtail resettlement and seek a just solution.
8
We all recognize, abhor, and censure anti-Semitism on the right. But I can't grasp why so many progressive Americans who are anti-Semites get a pass. How can anyone countenance a bigot like Louis Farrakhan?
It's a trend that's baffling and disturbing. It's time to step up and call this new "progressive movement" what it really is - the ugly specter of anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust rearing its head again.
15
It is interesting that the hypocritical Left shows NO interest in redressing the long term, genocidal occupation of Kurdistan by Arabs, Turks, and Iranians. Like the Jews, Kurds have lived in their native area for thousands of years and like Jews have been subject to savage persecution including massacres and POISON GAS! Turkey, until recently even banned the use of the Kurdish language,
The 35 million Kurds are the largest national group with NO country of their own. The Political Left, the Useless Nations (UN) and the Turks all exude a vile stench of hypocrisy in the unique denial of the national rights of both Kurds and Jews.
They talk about Jewish "Settlers" in the ancient homeland of the Jews, but have no problem with the millions of Arab and other Muslim settlers all across Europe.
13
You can categorize the vast majority of "anti-Zionist"/"anti-Israel" critics (I would wager over 90%) into three main categories:
1) Muslims. Who oppose Israel on religious grounds, based on the antisemitism inherent in their religion that started with their warlord "prophet" ethnically cleansing Jews from Arabia in the 7th century.
2) Neo-Nazis/antisemites. Who oppose Israel because they oppose anything Jew related.
3) Socialists/Communists. Who oppose Israel because they see it as an imperialist/capitalist adventure.
The next time you come across someone who is obsessively focused on criticizing Israel, play a game and ask yourself whether they belong to one of the above three groups. I guarantee you that nine times out of ten the answer will be in the affirmative.
You then have much smaller categories of critics, such as orthodox Jews who also oppose the existence of Israel on the basis of religious beliefs or large segments of the Irish population who see Israel as an extension of the British empire that has caused them so much hardship. However, the above 3 categories make up the overwhelming majority.
When you realize this reality, you start to understand that their criticism is not based on any sort of humanitarian or compassionate grounds, it's based exclusively in ulterior motives. This is also evident in the fact that most of those who obsessively focus on Israel don't utter a peep about other human rights violators that are FAR worse.
13
The below is from the Daily Beast article "Report: Women's March Leaders Made Anti-Semitic Comments to Fellow Founder”:
Women's March leaders Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez told the group's founders before its first march that "Jewish people bore a special collective responsibility as exploiters of black and brown people," Tablet magazine reports, citing several sources. Similar comments were allegedly made at a leadership meeting just after the hugely successful 2017 march, when, according to Evvie Harmon, the group's former co-global coordinator, “Tamika told us that the problem was that there were five white women in the room and only three women of color, and that she didn’t trust white women. Especially white women from the South."
"At that point, I kind of tuned out because I was so used to hearing this type of talk from Tamika," Harmon was quoted as saying. "But then I noticed the energy in the room changed… I suddenly realized that Tamika and Carmen were facing [March co-founder] Vanessa [Wruble], who was sitting on a couch, and berating—but it wasn’t about her being white. It was about her being Jewish. ‘Your people this, your people that.’ I was raised in the South and the language that was used is language that I’m very used to hearing in rural South Carolina. Just instead of against black people, against Jewish people. They even said to her ‘your people hold all the wealth.’ You could hear a pin drop. It was awful,” she said.
15
Mr. Stephens is actually very kind in his opinion. I have talked with Palestinians here and abroad. I always ask them "What will satisfy you?", "We want our land back." Then I ask "How much of it?" And the answer always is "All of it." ("from river to sea"). The truth is they just want to annihilate all Jews. So the so-called progressives are just regular anti-semites that mask it behind anti-zionism. I am not Jewish but anti-semitism is unacceptable. Shame on all these BDS bigots. I will not vote for any politician that supports this thinly vailed bigotry out of political expedience.
18
Many comments here claim that being against Israel is not the same as being anti-Semitic, so let's analyze this statement. Do these individuals genuinely care about the "Palestinians," i.e. a collection of Arabs mostly from Egypt and Jordan? If that is the case, why didn't you, commenters, object to Kuwait expelling three hundred thousand Palestinians who were thrown out during the first Gulf War? They had been there for three generations, yet because of their alignment with Saddam Hussein, Kuwaitis threw them out. Why didn't you object to five thousand "Palestinians" murdered by King Hussein of Jordan on Black Friday, because of their attempt to assassinate the Hashemite ruler? And if you are so concerned about human rights, why don't you object to the murder of millions of Kurds, Christians, and even Muslims, all over the fifty-seven Muslim countries? And where were you when thousands of Israelis were killed in cruel terrorist attacks? Why didn't you criticize Hamas, a terrorist organization that fires tens of thousands of rockets on Israel. Israel gave up Gaza. Hamas was elected there, and now both Israelis and "Palestinians" suffer the consequences.
The majority of the countries at the UN are dictatorships, many, with egregious violations of human rights. Israel, a country whose citizens are the scions of refugees from all over the world, is the ONLY democracy in the Middle East. Targeting Israel for criticism while the real culprits get a free pass is anti-Semitic.
11
This article is patently ridiculous, on so many levels it's hard to keep track. It completely ignores the well-documented expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and native lands by the Israelis in 1948, and the ways in which this expulsion was integral to the creation of Israel as a Jewish state. It completely ignores the perspective of many anti-Zionist Jews and Israelis like Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe, indeed the long history of Jewish anti-Zionism in general. If Stephens wants to discuss racism, maybe he should mention the systematic discrimination faced by Israeli Jews of Ethiopian origin, not to mention that directed against African immigrants in Israel. Finally, comparing the relationship between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism with that between segregrationism and racism is both absurd and deeply offensive. Jews under Nazi rule were sent to the gas chambers because they were Jews, not because they were Zionists.
4
The world didn’t only not lift a finger when only 4 years after the holocaust 5 Arab nations declared there intent to finish the Jews off, they actively enforced arms embargo’s in the lead up to the British leaving. (This was also after European and North American countries turned down boats of Jewish refugees.)
No foreign troops have ever fought along Israel in a war. Sadam sent Scuds down on Tel Aviv in the first gulf war and still stood down as to not break America’s fragile coalition with its Arab allies. Everything Israel has they bled for and won themselves.
14
Netanyahu and his government has lost the moral high ground in their behaviors and policies. Time for America to reduce foreign aid unti such time that the Israeli people dimp Netanyahu and his policies towards non Jews.
4
I have a question for Mr. Stephens:
Is Zionism compatible with international law?
6
This is just poor reporting. Many of the statements that are "anti semitic" as mentioned are "anti-Israel", which considering Israel's policies towards Palestinians over the last 20 years are somewhat fair. After all, its not the Israeli's subjected to constant violence, exposure to disease, long term unemployment and deeply unsanitary living conditions. Mr. Stephens comment about Israeli's leaving Gaza (like it is somehow independent) is a farce. Israel controls all of Gaza's borders and refuses to allow humanitarian aid in. He also fails to mention that Israel's military is under preliminary investigation for war crimes awaiting a decision by the ICC whether to proceed. If Israel were so open then why not allow UN Special Rapporteurs in to the country, but no they are banned from entering Gaza. What does Israel have to hide? A boycott is a legitimate response to oppressive actions. All of which which this article seeks to ignore on Israel's behalf and lay at the Palestinians door. This constant conflation of being "Anti-Israel" as being "Anti-Semitic" needs to stop. Its a lazy argument and ignores a militaristic nation oppressing a people with far less resources and capabilities. Lets look at the power dynamics here for a second before we play the victim shall we? Mr. Stephens, sorry but your article is pure tripe.
5
One thing an opinion columnist should avoid is being knee-jerk predictable and selectively prejudicial.
Stephens has written this column several times before. We get that the slightest audible doubt about Israel instantly triggers his tribal rage and off he goes on a rant that's all heat and no light.
He believes the best defense is unrelenting offense. Which is why his column is less coherent opinion than spasmatic screed on all matters Israel.
After awhile it becomes tedious and off-putting the same way Al Sharpton can be on racism.
I appreciate the challenge Mr. Stephens faces as the right wing voice of reason in the liberal newspaper of record. His readers are no longer the Wall Street Journal subscribers who read the Journal's editorial opinion page to confirm their biases and affirm their place in the world.
What's troubling about Mr. Stephens is how blind or dishonest he is about the deep gulf between Judaism, the foundation of Western ethos and empathy and the actions of those who in the name of Judaism blithely betray its core values.
At a moment when orthodox extremists in Israel have stripped nearly all American Jews of their legacy faith and identity, and the corrupt Israeli leadership endorses Trump and his politics of hate and intolerance while spitting in the face of America's first Black president, Stephens finds his apoplexy taxed by Americans who honor human rights by speaking out for those denied it.
((Let's see if my comment gets posted.)
13
Anti-Zionism is a thinly veiled cover for being anti-Semitic.
I've had the misfortune of having to be around a few rabid anti-Semites at jobs or in school. They were very open of their hatred of Jews and Israel.
It would be illogical for someone being anti-Zionist and yet not be ant-Semitic.
9
The facile assumption that opposition to the policies of the Israeli government is a form of, or product of, anti-Semitism does a great deal, in itself, to nourish the soil from which anti-Semitism springs.
5
It would be nice if we had some facts:
1. The term Palestine was introduced by the British in 1918 thatis when they took over the land from the Turks.
2. Palestine then comprised of present day Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan—yes Jordan too.
3. Although there were Jews in Palestine continuously since their exile 2000 years ago, new arrival came in the late 19th century and the trickle continued into the 20th century.
4. The new arrivals stole non-one’s land. They paid dearly for it. For example, Tel Aviv was built on sand gladly sold to the Jews by absentee Arab landowners.
5. In 1948 the UN established 2 states one Arab and one Jewish. The Arabs rejected the proposal.
6. When the Arabs lost the war the UN resolution 194 "Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return."
7. At approximately the same time as many Jews were thrown out of Arab countries as Arabs who left/or were forced out of Israel as a result of the War.
8. Arabs remained in charge of all of the West Bank , Gaza and the old city of Jerusalem—no state was built because that would mean recognition for Israel.
9. Israel offered peace proposal in 2000 and again in 2008.
10. There is another Palestinian state, it’s called Jordan. The population is Palestinian the KIng is a scion of a former ruler in Arabia
15
Jews have been expelled from their home countries over a hundred times, and nobody cared.
They suffered from falsehoods of blood libel and writings of those who hate anyone that does not embrace their teachings.
Pogroms and a Holocaust proved how deadly these attitudes can be.
The land they have was promised by the British in the Balfour Declaration. It need not have been. Anyone should be able to immigrate to anywhere, especially a home they have lived in for centuries.
The UN confirmed their right to be there.
The West Bank was Jewish land occupied for 19 years by Jordan after the 1948 war. Same with the Old City of Jerusalem. It was redeemed in 1967 and returned to its rightful owners.
Jews simply want to be left alone to live in peace. Arabs simply will not allow that to happen. Attacks happen daily. Wars happen frequently. Iran wants to destroy a sovereign state. Hardly anyone here cares.
Enough is enough. Brett is right. Michele Goldberg is very mistaken to not equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Israel will prevail because the BDS movement was just a Palestinian invention, and the left wing Democrats are incredibly ill educated on the realities and the history.
8
What constitutes a significant indicator of antisemitism in the United States? Does the expulsion of three marchers from the Chicago Dyke Parade of 2017 for carrying a flag with the Star of David on it pass that bar? I don't think so. I further question whether the Israel boycott movement passes this bar either. Congress passes a law prohibiting federal contracts with any company endorsing that boycott. Can anyone name an American company that has endorsed such a boycott? I can't. The Israel boycott does not have significant support in the United States and is no more a cause for concern than what happened in the Chicago Dyke Parade in 2017.
2
It is so very depressing to see people, who by their use of language, are clearly educated and well-informed, fall down the rabbit hole of ignorance and prejudice. This can be be the only sane explanation for their accusing Israel of ‘apartheid’ and ‘colonialism’ which Mr. Stephens cogently demolishes.
These weak-minded bigots should only know the derision with which they are held by Israelis, whose basic response is a simple, Never Again’ as they turn to reinforcing their futures with the world’s highest rate on Nobel winners and life-saving and life enhancing medical and technological contributions to the world. A world, by the way, that includes these very same individuals who now celebrate the ascension of Jew-hating anti-Semites to the highest levels of our government.
Mr. Stephens, bless you for continuing to expose this for what it is.
10
Victimhood is the default position of apologists for the Israeli government. I am opposed to amti-semitism in the same way that I am opposed to any form of bigotry. The simple fact is that Palestine belongs to the Palestinians. The religion of the Arab people that are so mistreated by the Israeli government and Israeli forces is immaterial, it's their land, period.
3
Late last year 30 leading Israeli academics, most of whom teach Jewish history and related subjects at such cesspools of anti-Semitism as the Hebrew U of Jerusalem, the Open U of Israel, Tel Aviv U, and Bar-Ilan U, issued an open letter condemning conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism:
"Zionism, like all other modern Jewish movements in the 20th century, was harshly opposed by many Jews, as well as by non-Jews who were not anti-Semitic. Many victims of the Holocaust opposed Zionism. On the other hand, many anti-Semites supported Zionism. It is nonsensical and inappropriate to identify anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
"We must also not forget that the state of Israel has been an occupying power for more than 50 years. Millions of Palestinians under occupation lack basic rights, freedom and dignity. As the Israeli occupation is now transforming into annexation, it is essential, more than ever, that Europe rejects efforts to restrict free speech and to silence criticism of Israel on the false ground of equating it with anti-Semitism.
"Europe also needs to do so for the credibility and effectiveness of its fight against anti-Semitism. Extending this fight to protect the state of Israel from criticism feeds misconceptions that Jews equal Israel – and are thus responsible for what Israel does."
See https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-professors-warn-against-equating-anti-zionism-with-anti-semitism-1.6674309.
I guess Brett didn't get the message.
5
AOC’s swooning over Corbyn may be as attributable to empty-headedness and ignorance as a signal of approval of his noxious anti-semitism. That said, knee-jerk identifications with “victimhood” by the American left, like spontaneous right wing “fellow traveling” against urban elites (Trump hates the people they hate, so they love Trump) won’t dominate US policy toward Israel. Indeed, if lefties do foist such anti-Israeli policies into their party’s bloodstream it’ll just reinvigorate Trumpism, a phenom possibly more dangerous to Israel in the long run with its romance with cynical uses of murder, power and the flouting of international law and the denigration of alliances. Small states aren’t safe in such a dog eat dog world; Pompeo’s invocation of that standard in giving MBS a pass poses greater dangers to maintaining sacred alliances with small resourceless States than empty headed lefty fulminating.
2
Let's not let the facts get in the way:
- The PLO was created in 1964 (years BEFORE Israel controlled the West Bank and Gaza) with the express objective of liberating Palestine and considered the establishment of Israel to be 'null and void'
- Since the Six Day War, Israel has returned more land than it currently controls as part of the process to make peace with neighbors Egypt and Jordan.
- Israel has pulled out of Gaza and repeatedly offered to evacuate over 95% of the West Bank
- BDS leadership includes numerous vocal anti-Semites who don't believe Israel has a right to exist
Feel free to comment about what bothers you about Israel if the corruption, sexism, lack of religious and LGBT tolerance, and terrorism of the Palestinian and Hamas leadership don't bother you.
Just make sure if you want to boycott Israel, don't spread the word on a PC or smartphone - devices loaded with Israeli technology.
8
does the Author know all the UN resolution and the founding resolution of Israel that called for a palestinian state?
Does the Author know what Einstein wrote about the founding of Israel?
4
I see no moral or ethical problem with boycotting Israeli companies that make products in the Israeli occupied West Bank or American companies that profit off that production. I also respect the right of Palestinian groups to engage in temper tantrums over the fact that the European and American powers decided to carve out a Jewish state from an area in which many Palestinians lived. That said, many well-intentioned supporters of the BDS movement, have fallen into a thoughtless mistake. They have accepted or been silent about the avowed goal of some of its Palestinian founders either to see Israel abolished or transformed into a majority Palestinian nation by the demand of a right of return for Palestinians displaced by the conflict. This acquiescence has undermined the legitimacy of the boycott and is doing nothing to further the humanitarian aims of a boycott.
2
I am Jewish, I believe in the State of Israel. But I deplore the policies of the current Israeli administration, and I opposed the moving of the American Embassy and the expansion of the settlements. I do not want my tax dollars going to the current Israeli regime. Netanyahu's cozying up to the Republicans in Congress was inexcusable. I have friends in the Israeli peace movement who believe that Trump and his policies have set back the peace process for decades. I agree that the situation is very difficult and there is no easy solution. Unfortunately no one in the Trump administration understands nuance.
7
Loudly silent (elided) in Bret Stephens' op-ed are the views of far-right Israelis who want no rapprochement at all with Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular. This factor has nothing to do with external (American) attacks on Israel for its "progressive failures" and everything to do with domestic opposition, arguably significant and powerful, to concession and conciliation. After all, Rabin was assassinated in 1995 not by a Palestinian Arab, but by an Israeli Jew who rejected the prime minister's support of a peace process with the PLO. If anything, the far right in Israel is only invigorated by all the criticism from outside. This is a force to be reckoned with.
3
This is yet another attempt to equate opposition to Israel's policies with anti-semitism. It has worked for many years, allowing Israel to expand more and more by seizing Palestinian lands that were not included in its original borders. The foundation of the state of Israel was based on the slogan "A land without people for a people without a land". It sounds beautiful, except that it wasn't a land without people. The Stern Gang and the Irgun were terrorizing people into abandoning their land (see the massacre of Der Yassin). Israel doesn't want peace because peace would mean staying put and stopping new settlements. Every time peace agreements are considered, Israel will do some act of aggression against Palestinians, knowing that it will inflame their rage and that they will then refuse peace, thus giving the appearance that it's the Palestinians who don't want peace. Palestinians, too, have a connection with their lands that goes back for centuries.
8
I'm all in on protecting Israel's sovereignty. But I'm also all in on some justice for the Palestinians and whomever else the Israelis have been systemically denigrating, and in fact killing in what they deem self-defense. They are guilty of crimes, period. And their hiding behind the inerrant Jewish statehood excuse has long expired.
The good portion of the mess in Israel has been self-inflicted. And the US has been complicit, due to inconsistent US policies, or efforts.
The US has to decide on its core positions, based on our core values, and not allow this POTUS to POTUS change of heart and efforts. We need more of a coherent, cohesive long term strategy, that is based in our core values. We need Congress to be more involved in these strategies, and not leaving so much of our foreign policies to the revolving door at the Oval.
At the same time, we have to figure a way to get the people on the ground, the citizens, involved in these negotiations, thereby taking some of the power away from the organizations like Hamas, and nations like Iran, or elsewhere - whose agenda's are not aligned with the people they claim to govern and/or wish to help.
We also need to deal with the fact that we, the US and others, can be anti-Israeli-policies (their policies) and NOT have it be decried as antisemitic at the same time.
Its simply a POV that has expired. Israeli policies are by and of the Govt, and therefore subject to scrutiny.
4
"rejection not just of this or that Israeli policy, but also of the idea of a Jewish state itself — is becoming a respectable position among people who would never support the elimination of any other country in any other circumstance." This is a strange conflation of the idea of "Tribe" with "Nation". I'd like to remind Mr. Stephens that "Nations" are homes to many tribes. Israel was built on a land of mostly Arabs with many Christians, Jews and other minorities. Most of the Arabs were pushed out to make a "Tribal State" for Jews. That approach does not fly well in today's multicultural world. Israel should recognize its multicultural heritage as an element of the greater Middle East. That might be a first step in a lasting peace - an Israel for all.
3
Am I missing something? When did it become racist to criticize the actions of a state government. It is not racist to say Israel treats Palestinians poorly. It also not racist to call a theocracy a theocracy. That Israel wants a "Jewish State" is not something we as Americans should accept. That Israel wants to live in peace and safety IS something we should accept.
I fully support the state of Israel, and I do not believe that Palestinians deserve their own country anymore than any other group of people. If we are going to cry over every group of people that has lost their land to foreigners, we'd never stop crying.
Nevertheless, it is quite apparent that an ostensibly democratic government (in Israel) has precluded participation by a large number of people who live there (whether you call it Israel or occupied Palestine).
4
Part of Manifest Destiny was realized by the false narratives of the Mexican American war,the Spanish American war,the acquisitions of the Philippines,and Hawaii ,as well as the dehumanization and elimination of the American Indian.
This country ‘s imperialism and movement west was based on the superiority of the historic Anglo Saxon Aryanism.
4
"They were met with sustained applause by the audience at what is the largest annual conference of L.G.B.T.Q. activists in the United States. Conference organizers did nothing to stop the disruption or disavow the demonstrators."
Mr. Stephens if there was such "sustained applause" it seems to me that this audience supported what the demonstrators were saying. This is call freedom of expression. Regardless of the message, please tell me why on earth the organizers should have stopped and disavowed. This is not Nazi Germany where it happened.
3
Mr. Stephens, a right-wing Zionist, accuses American liberals (including American liberal Jews) of failing to hear the whistles of anti-Semitism.
A louder sound still, which Mr. Stephens neither hears nor acknowledges, is created by policies of the right-wing Israeli government, policies that have caused millions of progressives, not just in America but around the world, to question the Israeli project.
How does Mr. Stephens account for their change in attitudes? Are we really seeing, mysteriously, a return of medieval anti-Semitism with worldwide scope, including anti-Semitism by Jews? Or could it be far simpler and more obvious — the descent of Israel from the beacon of hope with which it began into just another corrupt theocracy? In Israel we see an example of the ancient truth: you become like your enemies.
Sure anti-Semitism is real and abhorrent. But until Mr. Stephens comes to terms with the reality of modern-day Israeli, he’s going to continue to misinterpret a long and urgently-important historical process.
7
Interesting you can hold up a number of Israeli deaths - but omit the orders of magnitude higher number of Palestinian deaths? Not militants, innocents caught up in random bombing campaigns, children, the sick who are denied health care as supplies are blockaded, the sick who aren't allowed to leave to a place with hospitals that aren't being bombed.
Yes, Israel has committed atrocities. To hide from that is to show you have no willingness to face reality. To act like a single random bomber is sufficient reason to punish hundreds of thousands of people is against UN conventions. They're used as blatant excuses - Israel knows how to generate them - a few inflammatory comments, squeeeeeeeze the population, then when one person attacks, that's justification for everything. Even when they don't harm anyone. Make no mistake, terrorist attacks are wrong, but your inability to see that they are wrong even when committed by the State of Israel is a massive blind spot.
The fact that the Democrats aren't always willing to turn a blind eye, and can hear the Palestinian's justified grievances, as their land was stolen, and every promise to them was broken (much like our own history with the American Indians) - this is a good part of the Democratic party.
5
All problems in the middle east can be traced back to our thirst for oil and how Israel treats it's neighbors. As a result of failed negotiations, diplomatic double talk and turning a blind eye on corruption and human rights abuses, peace in the middle east is only words. As a result of years of nothing changing ISIS was born. The only way to change things is to wean us off of fossil fuels and assist those inside and outside of Israel on actions aimed at becoming a helping neighbor rather than a wall builder, like what America was before Trump.
1
What forms of pressure should America and Americans apply on Israel to get them to conform to the two-state solution that Bret Stephens also supports? The Stephens' piece appears to me to be the same lip service verbiage offered forever by apologists who want to flag their "progressive" credentials but in actuality are obsequious in seeing the further marginalization of a weak people. Without foreign pressure, the degradation of both internal Arabs and external Arabs will continue as has occurred for decades. The two tier citizenship provisions in Israel can never pass muster as a proper democratic state. But as we know, the commitment to democracy is quite superficial everywhere -- just habitual rhetorical cover. Something better be done soon in fixing problems otherwise the label anti-Semitism will loose its effectiveness and just cause yawns, akin to attacking everything as "white privilege"
3
Does Mr Stephens ever write a column in which he doesn't malign someone by association? Last week it was Michael Moore. This week AOC gets the treatment. There are a lot of ways to support Israel's legitimate grievances re knee jerk left wing attitudes without resorting to character assassination of well meaning in search of the truth.
What’s been concerning me is the slow radicalizing of American supporters. For too many the suggestion that Israel has the right to exist but that others have the same right and the current government is extreme leads to screams of anti-semitism. It’s not a binary situation:
1
Bret, the bottom line is that you are losing the narrative. Young people view the Palestinians as victims. They see pro-Israel forces aligning with right-wing ideologues such as Donald Trump and that does not sit well with them. Israel has made an alliance with the Christian Right, and a variety of dubious characters such as Sheldon Adelson, Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, David Horowitz, etc. Moreover, they have chosen to elect a right-wing government that is led by an arrogant and thoughtless leader who literally came to the Congress and insulted the sitting president, i.e. Barack Obama. These people and these actions do not and will not appeal to the broad swath of young people. This is not antisemitism, it is blowback for poor and thoughtless political choices. Time for the pro-Israel movement to stop wining and reconsider its approach.
5
I haven't read it recently but I bet somewhere in the US Constitution it is the duty of all citizens to intervene when they encounter crimes in progress. Ergo our assault on Israel.
3
History is a very complex undertaking and there is no black and white answer. A two thousand year calamity has come to an end and the Jews have made it back home. But just as ruthlessly stubborn as they were in accepting Roman rule and kneeling to the many gods they are as mulishly unforgiving in setting up their Zionist dream, and who would blame them. You only have to look on a map to see that a two state solution is unfathomable and has been for a long time. Any talk about it was an illusion for 2 decades - unless on the tiny Gaza enclave and mosaic of the West bank - untenable by a rational mind. The myth of taking over the jewish heartland of the West Bank outnumbered the voices for moderation. And the force was with the Jews - the Arabs would have done the same. We have to shift the conversation and talk about setting up a palestinian state outside Israel - of course the question is if the palestinians would want to talk about it. Most Jews have left the middle East and other parts of the world to settle in Israel - so it would be fair to say that this concerns the whole of the Middle East and the World at large to find a fair solution. But the fanatics will make this debate impossible, as it has on both sides of the aisle for a long time. And on the Zionist side, it may lead to further calamity and may draw the whole world into a war - that is if the fanatics win and build their third temple and as a consequence destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque.
1
“Now is the time for party leaders to make sure that doesn’t happen by insisting that anti-Zionism has no more a place in the Democratic fold than any form of prejudice.”
This one section explains it all. Mr. Stephens is insinuation of decades long mantra of AIPAC - Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism - is only an outdated instrument to ship up the critics of Israel.
2
Fascinating piece, completely wrong headed. The isolated (and shameful) anti-semitic barks from "some progressives" is not worthy of hanging your biased hat on, Mr. Stephens. You really should have led with the point you finally concede, that anti-semitism of the political right is the major problem. That on the part of the "progressive left," while also outrageous, (The LBGTQ community? Really?), just doesn't compare. I believe anti-Zionism is anti-semitic, as you do, however, you neglect to mention that some in the Zionist movement are quite extreme. Yes, you note Netanyahu's flaws - as you should!. His take-no-prisoners anti-Palestinian stance is fair game for critics.
Progressives tend to lean towards principles "fairness" and "equality" - and yes, Israel's policies towards this group, while in many cases legitimate, can at times resemble the brutality of an occupying nation. To criticize this is not to say the State of Israel should end. Most progressives I know are for a two-state solution. Even Obama, to my mind, a just-left-of-center progressive, called for "even-handedness" when dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - to the profound consternation of the Jewish Lobby (Sorry, but it does exist), often guided by the geopolitical agenda of the neoconservatives. Yes, some progressives need to be put in their place for their flagrant anti-semitism. However, Palestinians who mostly demand the end of Israel, are problem that can't be ignored.
2
UN Security Council resolution 262 and its successors, the fourth Geneva Convention, and the International Court of Justice all affirm that all Israeli construction and settlement of Occupied Palestine is illegal.
2
I agree with the author. US being so dependent on Isreal for everything our citizens should never criticize Israel. Israelis provide so much defence aid to us we should just keep quite.
Pardon me if this sounds antisemitic, but a lot of innocent people were chased out of their homes and out of the new state of Israel in 1948 simply because they were not Jewish. Those people and their heirs have a right of return. Until Israel recognizes this, I will regard it as undemocratic.
2
"Jews have been hated for reasons of religion, race, lack of national attachments, and now an excess of national attachment. The arguments for hating Jews vary; the target of the hatred tragically remains the same."
To me, this statement speaks to a lack of historical consciousness surrounding this debate. History and civics teachers in the U.S. are in a special position to help the general population understand how our present world came to be. The rejection of a Jewish woman from the Women's March because Jews are "too white to experience prejudice" is another symptom of this general lack of historical understanding. The NYT recently reported on a study that found that a significant percentage of Americans couldn't name a single concentration camp or define the Holocaust accurately. The history of anti-Semitism will continue to rhyme in this predictable, sad way if the public education system doesn't do its job.
5
Both sides are deaf to each other Mr. Stephens and it is odd that you pick a side at all. Here you are trying to point out the irony that the left’s argument is one sided while you don’t go into the equally one sided argument that is blindly pro Israel on the right. If you’re trying to point out that something is ironic, but you cherry pick facts to suit your argument, you are doing exactly the same thing this piece claims is wrong. How can you be so blind to your own bias? It is illogical.
1
Stephens intentionally conflates Israel with its government. I just returned from Israel and the West Bank. Stephens has it exactly backwards. By its actions, Israel’s government is stoking worldwide anti-semitism, and that’s bad for Jews everywhere.
1
The essence of the problem facing Israel is summed up in these lines:
"Jews have been hated for reasons of religion, race, lack of national attachments, and now an excess of national attachment. The arguments for hating Jews vary; the target of the hatred tragically remains the same."
This undercurrent of unremitting anti-Semitism will always inform the narratives against Israel. Everything else, including the arguments of the Progressives, is just window dressing.
5
Criticizing the BDS movement as anti-semitic is a nice dodge and avoids having to explain why 9M Palestinians continue to have few rights and certainly little freedom. It's been this way since 1967. One would think that Israel could do a lot better in the intervening 52 years. Yes, Palestinian leadership has been abysmal but the onus has to be on the occupying power, Israel, to break the logjam. I am unaware of even a tiny effort on Israel's part. Instead it uses victim-hood as shield against criticism for how it treats Palestinians. Based on reported comments, many Israeli politicians are racist vis-a-vis Palestinians. There is only one entity that can bring Israel to the table - the US. It chooses not to and that is a big shame.
3
Appareled is wrong, building walls to keep people in or out is wrong, and acquiring land by dubious means is wrong. Time to get serious about helping not hurting one another.
3
Do we have to worry about Anti-Semitism? Yes. Do we have to be very careful on addressing Judaism from both Israel as a nation, and separate from that the policies of its government? Yes.
Do we have to abandon all reason and compassion because one can’t draw a line between a government and a religious faith? No.
To put the Israeli government as beyond reproach because of the religious affiliation of its leaders is racist in itself. It forever illegitimatizes everyone who disagrees based on the faith of one group, and at the exclusion of those of other faiths.
Also by equating religion with the state also questions the religiosity of those of the faith who disagree with the leaders of the state. Especially those in Israel who are Muslim citizens. It also takes any voice from the Muslims in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
When people cannot address the problems they face, because to do so makes them Anti-Semitic there isn’t a protection from unjust bigotry but the exact opposite. Bigotry and Racism.
And this is what Mr Stephens advocates for.
10
Methinks Brett Stephens doth protest too much. He searingly castigates anyone sympathetic to the BDS movement. Wrongfully in my view. Only with regard to his comment about AOC and her conversation with Jeremy Corbyn do I agree. There is no doubt that Israel has trampled all over the rights of the Palestinians. The West Bank settlements provide living proof. And Israel does not want for support among members of the Democratic establishment - to wit the new "Democratic Majority." Nor among members of the Republican party, including the President. Nor among the Evangelical community. Isn't this enough? Is the foundation of the anti-BDS argument that weak?
2
There are so many different factors at play here. As Stephens points out, if opponents of Israel are purely motivated by human rights violations, then they should be boycotting China as well, given the current state of their Muslim internment camps.
Then there's the question of whether or not the US should be giving any foreign country as much money as it has been giving Israel, but any politician that broaches the possibility of giving less foreign/military aid is usually smeared as an isolationist. (Ironically, both Trump and Obama have had the accusation lobbed at them in the past, and any prospective candidate who tries to explore the possibility is usually met with a similar accusation).
There's a lot of talk here in the comments about how anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism, and while that is certainly true, it's also worth considering how a number of anti-Semites masquerade their prejudice by saying that they're only criticizing Israel, rather than Jews themselves, the same way that racists try to get away with their prejudice by saying "I can't be racist because I have friends who are black."
6
Why should they boycott China when it’s our money and weapons being put to use to kill Palestinian children?
Of course we should not be silent about China, but this is a matter where Americans have a stake in.
2
ANTISEMITISM Here and Now By Deborah E. Lipstadt ably documents the B.D.S.. movement as a facilitator of anti-Semitism.
I'm an Obama Democrat, who supported the Iran nuclear agreement and opposed Netanyahu and the expansion of the settlements. I am dismayed that the "Progressive" movement--which, if anything, is "regressive" when it comes to anti-Semitism--considers candidates that are Obama Democrats too right-wing to be worthy of their support.
Reps. Tlaib and Omar have a right to their opinions, but so do Obama Democrats like me. Rather than continue to donate to the DCCC, we should continue to contribute only to individual Democratic candidates, and request to be removed from the DCCC mailing list while its contributions support Representatives who support B.D.S.
9
@SomeGuy
Could you please explain HOW Omar' and Tlaib's remarks would have anti-semitism as motivation/intention or in one way or the other would attempt to promote anti-semitism?
Omar, for instance, has explicitly stated on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah that freedom of religion is an essential value for her.
So how to concretely turn her words into anti-semitism?
1
I have been a staunched Democrat since I moved to this country over 30 years ago. However I will change my allegiance should Democrats start defunding Israel. As a Jew I cannot live in peace thinking that my people are not able to live in peace.
8
Mr. Stephens: If you are having such an impossible time understanding why progressives are so critical of Israel, then perhaps the problems lay not in the politics but your own unwillingness to view this with an open mind. Let me give you my perspective and perhaps it will help. I am an American progressive secular Jew. Much of my family from Poland, whom I never knew, were killed in the Holocaust. I grew up at a time when the concept of a United Nations had currency and ideals of human rights were universally accepted as a standard we should strive for. As an American, I understood that religion was second to the state, or as I understood it then, also a nation. But here we have in mid-century, the state of Israel being founded on religious identity. How backwards is that in the mid 20th century? Unlike Denmark that you cite in your op ed that was founded a millennia ago, Israel had a choice as to how to define nationhood. And for more than a half century it gave lip service to equal rights. Only this past year did Israel finally state openly that first-class citizenship equals being Jewish. I am anti-Zionist because I believe that a religious-based state being founded in the 20th century to be an arrogant and anachronistic concept, particularly when the land is already peopled by non-Jews. The concept of a ""A land without a people for a people without a land"" says volumes about the problems that Israel would soon face after gaining statehood. ....
11
@Glenn Ruga Hmm while I am secular I am pretty sure as an American that is not what the Constitution says. It simply prohibits the government from setting up a religion hence it is called the Establishment Clause. It does not say or imply that religion is secondary. The driver was to simply not mix the two due to the experiences of some of the Founders.
1
@Glenn Ruga
It’s not whether you call yourself a “progressive ... secular Jew.” It’s how others see you. They don’t care if you are progressive or secular. For others you are a Jew and that has given them a pass to persecute people like you and me. Israel is our safe haven.
4
For many centuries Jew Christians and Arabs lived together in peace in Palestine. It was only when one group tried to dominate the other that today’s turmoil began. This is not an issue peculiar to Palestine.it has happened in many places over the centuries. Until we humans can learn to find some common ground it will continue.
1
@Vincent L
Palestinians have oppressed Jews for centuries.
There were rules: Jews had to pass Muslims on their left side, because that was the side of Satan. They had to yield the right of way, step off the pavement to let the Arab go by, above all make sure not to touch him in passing, because this could provoke a violent response. In the same way, anything that reminded the Muslim of the presence of alternative religions, any demonstration of alternative forms of worship, had to be avoided so synagogues were placed in humble, hidden places, and the sounds of Jewish prayer carefully muted.21
8
@Vincent L Historically incorrect. That peace was enforced by the Ottoman Empire of which Palestine was a province. An empire wherein Jews were always second class citizens.
5
@Vincent. That is absolutely not true. Jews there and elsewhere in Muslim/ dominated areas (Ottoman Muslims occupied much of Western Asia and North Africa prior to WWII) were routinely harassed and oppressed, their holy sites encroached on and despoiled, and they were not even allowed on horseback in case they passed by a Muslim walking and were "above" them.
7
This effort to portray Israel's critics as anti-Semitic fails to recognize not only the actual history of Palestine as a land in which people lived and thrived until the Zionist movement moved in and began to create the nation of Israel.
There is a double problem:
First problem -- European Jews were a people without a land which, in the wake of the Holocaust, became intolerable, a horrific effect of anti-Semitism. This was absolutely true.
Second problem -- Israel's settlers, from the beginning, have treated Palestine as if were a land without a people, which it absolutely was not. The Palestinians have lived there all along.
In 1947, when Israel founded itself in Palestine, Palestine was willing to share its land with the newcomers, but it turned out, over time, that many Israelis wanted the land all to themselves, which is the problem we're facing right now.
As for terrorism. It's been there all along, on both sides, and today it is the Israeli-state-sponsored terrorism that poses a greater threat. Palestinian-sponsored terrorism cannot be an excuse for Israel's dehumanizing, violent treatment of either the West Bank or Gaza.
If there is ever to be a solution to this multifaceted problem, the only third parties that can be helpful are those that recognize and honor the deep truths and human need of both Palestinians and Israelis. As long as the United States sees only one side, we can do nothing but make the problem worse.
7
@Heyward
In 1947, the UN Partition Resolution proposed that Palestine be split so that there would be a Jewish State & an Arab State. The Jews accepted. The Arabs did not. The Arabs wanted ALL the land.
Palestinian terrorism began in 1920. Jewish terrorism arose in the 1930's as self-defense against Palestinian terrorism.
9
You omit terrorism against the British,administering Palestine under a UN mandate in 1946.
2
Israel can't isolate and harm Palestine and expect no backlash. They have brought this upon themselves; it has little to do with Judaism and everything to do with political isolationism. Stop crying about it and look for a two state solution that is fair to both nations.
7
@Amber
Palestinians have been persecuting Jews for centuries long before settlements, occupation, Israel, Zionism.
Palestinians want to rule over the Jews, but the Jews don't want to be ruled.
If Palestinians can't rule the Jews, then they want want to exterminate the Jews.
The Jews don't want to be exterminated.
That's the conflict.
6
"All of this is profoundly unsettling to a Jewish community that has generally seen the Democratic Party as its political home."
No it isn't.
It's precisely because contrary to Evangelicals - as poll after poll shows - the majority of American Jews strongly opposes apartheid ANYWHERE, and as a consequence has the guts to call out the current, corrupt, far-right Israeli government and its failure to solve the problem with the Palestinians, that the majority of American Jews vote for Democrats in the first place (not jut "suddenly", but for a long time already).
And obviously, opposing apartheid is the OPPOSITE of racism and Steve King-like or Trump-like, typical GOP behavior (calling King out once in decades of course doesn't change the fundamental racist character of the current GOP).
Anyone interested in anti-semitism should start by taking it seriously, rather than cultivating the idea that rejecting the politics of certain Israeli politicians somehow would mean rejecting Judaism as a religion or rejecting Jews because they are Jews.
Stephen Brett doesn't reject Emmanuel Rahm's politics in Chicago because Rahm is a Jew. He should learn how to take the debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seriously too.
6
@Ana Luisa
De Klerk [Former South African president who ended apartheid]: ‘Odious’ to compare Israel to apartheid South Africa
5
Persecuting people based on the will of an unknowable and unreachable force like a god is morally wrong.
Expansion of the Israeli state via the settlements falls into this category, as does the plan of some in Israel to one day so populate the region with people of like-faith, that the land will be de facto Jewish land.
Israel has demonstrated that it will not turn away from this immoral pursuit by its persistence in choosing Likud and the right to run its government. "Friendly advise" from the Americans, obviously, is going absolutely nowhere. BDS is a way for Americans to show Israel they do not support their actions that actually makes a difference. And it is long overdue.
4
While most of the comments I see are concerning Israel, I think the bigger point is that the Jewish people in the Democratic Party, many quite liberal, are being marginalized. They are concerned about having a home in a party that is becoming more and more anti-semetic and while many wont become Republicans, becoming Independents looks more and more attractive. The narrative that this is simply an anti-Zionist movement or pro-Palestinian movment is transparently false. It is blatanly anti-semetic and the party will suffe for it. Jewish people are some of the biggest donors to the party. At a time when the Democrats need to be united, with people already running for president the schisms seem to be widening and threaten to tear the party apart.
6
@NYer
Could you please explain HOW the Democratic party would somehow be anti-semetic today, concretely?
And of course, the party that picks as its leader someone who can't even condemn slogans such as "Jews will not replace us" but then adores selling weapons to right-wing fundamentalist Israeli governments, cannot possibly claim to NOT be anti-semitic anymore, today.
1
I've never understood the "Zionism = racism" narrative simply because, as Mr. Stephens points out, so many Jewish Israelis are in fact Arab themselves. Many of us Jews (like my family) are of Middle Eastern/North African descent and ethnically indistinguishable from Arab Muslims and Christians (and also had to flee their Middle Eastern homelands, like Egypt, in the 20th century due to persecution after the creation of Israel). I don't think a lot of Americans, including Ashkenazi Jewish Americans, even know this and assume all Israelis are of European origin. I find that particular argument frustrating because it is clearly not based in fact, and yet so many seem to subscribe to it.
7
@Elizabeth Great movie on that very topic is "Live and Become." In 1980 the black Falashas in Ethiopia are recognized as genuine Jews. Most of us are surprised to find black Jews and few of us know they are direct descendants of the Queen of Sheba, through her son.
5
I've never been clear on the timeline of possession of the lands in the area being discussed. An article on that alone would be a good primer for this article. The other thing that always comes up for me when I'm trying to understand the turmoil in this area of the world and US involvement in it is this. You can't equate a parallel equivalency with Danes and Denmark to Jews and Israel. Danes are many different religions and most of those living in Israel are Jewish. I think that is what brings about hatred, the indivisibility between Judaism and Israel. One who lives in Israel is an Israeli and one who lives in Palestine is Palestinian but not necessarily Muslim?? Christians live in Palestine also?? Palestinians live in Israel also??? This is all very confusing. I was born in America. I'm American. It tells you nothing about my religion. Blending country of origin with a religious descriptor makes people dislike that area. That situation, in and of itself, is hateful.
1
I am so tired of people like Mr. Stephens claiming that anyone concerned with Israel's abysmal treatment of Palestinians is anti-Semitic.
As a Jew and an American, I wouldn't want to live the Christian theocracy that many of Trump's supporters (and the evangelical Israel supporters) would like to create in the US, and so I can sympathize with Christians living in a Muslim state or Palestinians living in a Jewish state.
6
I can agree with most of this — except — anti-Zionism is not always grounded in anti-Semitic bigotry — it’s is also grounded in the fear that a "Jewish state" is susceptible to the same kind of nationalism that threatened the Jewish people in modern Europe.
The nationalism of the Likud party stokes this fear - which is why progressives in the United States quickly overlook the history of the PLO in the region.
Just as Trump was duly elected, so was Netanyahu. It is our fault, like it or not, and its dangerous
2
"Progressives" can not and do not conceptualize and formulate their own opinions. There are blocks in the link to the logical process. They only echo opinions from others - but they do try to be trendy - this anti-semitic - anti Israel opinion is dangerously one of the new "trendies." Perhaps the anti-Israel opinion originated form MSNBC, Facebook or their college professors and progressives are simply echoing it in mass.
4
@sh Hmm I think you are discussing conservatives who routinely repeat almost verbatim what the hear on Fox, Breitbart from Rush etc. The commonality of points, language etc is pretty clear. Most progressives I know base their conclusions on research and facts and analysis.
2
Mr. Stephens has hit this OP-ED out of the ballpark. In simple English, the narrative on the Left remains hypocritical. It does not matter to the Left that Israel is the only Democracy in its neighborhood. By being on the ground, Mr. Stephens offers a perspective that is unsullied by partisan rhetoric. The facts are the facts, even when they are inconvenient.
4
Why are conservatives in the modern era unable to put forth a cogent let alone internally consistent argument? Why are the unable to make distinctions and prone to gross false equivalences? Seriously what the heck is wrong with the conservative psyche??
2
Not surprising that Times readers are opposed to this spot on, brilliant and urgently necessary article.....but so sad that so many comments are so ill informed but nonetheless are so filled with certainty and conviction that Israel is worthy of the unique condemnation that lies at the heart of the anti-Semite Linda Sarsour's "from Ferguson to Palestine, occupation is a crime" intersectionality mantra.
It is just an extension of this perverse comparison to arrive at the trendy conventional wisdom amongst these same "blame everything on Israel" crowd to promote the lie that police killings of unarmed black men are the fault of the Israeli defense forces for "training" our US police in "genocidal tactics" -- look no further than that champion of civil rights Angela Davis for this.
If, magically, prejudices could be stripped away from our American progressives and other leftist across the globe, people would recognize that Israel, this tiny, wholly imperfect democracy is surrounded by millions that want nothing more than its destruction. As a result, it has spent the 71 years trying to figure out a way to survive, fending off attacks from mighty nations, and terrorist cells, from tanks and war planes to suicide bombers, from secret tunnels under kindergartens, to knife attacks at cafes. This sliver of land has been under constant assault from day one. In words attributed to Golda Meir, "peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."
7
We need to separate being antisemetic from being anti- Israeli policy. Israel adds to the confusion by conflating the two.
5
Shouldn't the Native Americans be granted 50% of the United States, lets say all the lands East of the Mississippi. After all, it is their rightful, ancestral land. Right Christians? pun intended.
3
Unless we are victims of propaganda we have every reason to be anti Israel Government.
#1- Stealing of much of the west bank and building illegal settlements. Removing Arabs from their homes and farms.
#2- Military occupation with no rights for the arabs.
#3- Water rationing so Arabs get 40 gallons per day and Israel settlers 400.
#4- many Arabs in "settlement camps" for over 40 years.
These are a few things that appear to be happening. Of course we cannot support any government who does this.
5
Many Israel supporters who have commented are not shy about stating Israel is not perfect and criticizing its current leadership.
Why is it that among the numerous pro-Palestinian comments, we hear absolutely no criticism or commentary on Palestinian:
- Government corruption which diverts resources away from the masses toward priorities like terror tunnels
- Lack of adherence to any semblance of democratic principles given the many years since the last election
- Government rewards being paid to terrorists and their families which effectively represents state-sponsored terrorism, partly paid for by the US government
- Schools and children's TV shows continuing to indoctrinate their youth with hatred for Jews
- Folly for not having accepted multiple offers for 95+% of the West Bank
-
5
The problem for Israel is that much of the world sees the equation as 'European kills European, so the Arabs lose land'. Yes, Israel is a reality. The behavior of Likud is predicated on a view of Arab Palestinians as being seat warmers during the centuries of the Diaspora. The refusal of the Arabs to accept a new Jewish state on land they assumed would be theirs after independence is not unusual or sign of exceptional hatred. Anti Zionism must be seen as as much anti hierarchy, anti domination as anti Semitic. Certainly some of it is pure hatred of Jews but to lump all opposition to Zionism as anti Semitism not correct either
I can only assume that a non-Jew or non-Palestinian cannot really understand what's happened in the now 70-year Israel-Palestinian conflict. As an American-born Jew from a Holocaust family, I remember cheering President Harry Truman's recognition of the State of Israel and singing the Hatikvah, Israel's national anthem, in my synagogue. As the endless wars, disputes, and killings have gone on over the decades, I've become disillusioned with the autocratic, extreme right-wing rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party. The Occupation has become a Jewish settler cry for "lebensraum" that has eerie echoes of the Nazis who eventually killed over 200 of my relatives in Poland, including the rabbi I'm named for. We need to end the bloodshed, the bickering and blaming, and the occupation. It's time for an American president to have the courage of Harry Truman and endorse a two-state solution by recognizing an independent State of Palestine. Instead, we have the craven Trump policy of moving our embassy to Jerusalem which is claimed as the capital of Palestine as well. The dark secret behind the abandonment of the Palestinians is that Trump has signed onto a new axis with Israel and Saudi Arabia to confront Iran in what promises to be a major war that totally engulfs the Middle East and perhaps beyond. It's "wag to dog" for all three embattled leaders--Trump, Netanyahu, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman--who have have been credibly accused of crimes.
4
Progressives may believe and repeat hamas propaganda and indeed are very likely to engage in what they call 'othering', to the extent I would literally be more comfortable hanging out with hamas than their progressive supporters. However, the one flaw in the logic that this is racism is that they actually do the same things to themselves. I've observed so many people ever ready to accept that everything they do is a micro-aggression, that they are racist by default and privileged. My half sister is an American college student, and apropos of nothing, she starts talking to me about these subjects. I tried to explain that no one in America is that privileged, how there are millions of girls in India who have servants bring them anything they want, and they don't have to go to school, and how most Western European women have never had to think about money a day in their lives and just go to festivals all the time, and this is not because they are oppressing anyone. It is totally absurd to me that she thinks she is privileged but there is no talking her out of it.
3
I'm a progressive American Jew who objects to and is appalled by Israel's mistreatment of Palestinians and the occupation of their lands and I fully support American and international political efforts to change this situation. However, I am also equally appalled by the obvious double-standard that many progressives apply to Israel - something that can only be understood as anti-Semitism, not just as anti-Zionism or objection to Israeli policy. Where are the calls for boycotts of other countries with even far worse human rights records - China, Saudi Arabia, for example - or where stolen lands were never returned - the United States, for example? I have not yet seen any American progressives give up their iPhones or relinquish their property rights in American soil. I'm not sure where that leaves us in terms of political action, but one thing is for sure - a genuine concern for human rights cannot possibly be based on anti-Semitism.
3
When the Israeli people came out of Egypt there were already people living in the areas they went to. How did they get land? They fought wars and took it. Before they went to Egypt I assume they lived in the area with other people and had some interactions but sometimes friendly and sometimes not. I'm no Bible scholar and it has been many years since I read the entire Old Testament, but I think there are peoples in the area who could claim just as much right to the land.
In North and South America, Europeans came and took land away from the indigenous people who were here first. Same in Australia and New Zealand. The argument goes on as to what is just, but at least many countries have integrated the early peoples with the later arrivals to some extent and continue to try and do more, instead of "locking them up" as seems to be done in the Middle East.
7
You should ask American Indians about how they’ve been treated for the past 400 years. Our government is still trying to take mineral rights away when we find oil and gas under tribal lands. And we redirect pipelines through tribal lands instead of putting it through our towns. The US has been worse.
3
It seems Israel is simply being asked to stop building new settlements in the West Bank. That doesn't seem like so much to ask. Then the parties can get on with a peace process.
10
While I most definitely do not support the Israel-specific boycott etc., I am also uneasy about a law prohibiting it-- BUT the proposed law does not prohibit it. Instead, it prevents government contracts (and thus direct allocations of general public dollars) from being granted to entities that choose to engage in such behavior. And that I think I could support.
8
Does Palestine have the right to exist?
Are allhumans created equal?
Is there a defensible moral argument that a group of people with military might can strip the rights of their neighbors? Israel is inching towards pertetrating an injustice which can nearly only be compared to the one its people suffered.
Israel had the moral high ground 60, 70 years ago. It is squandered. This isn't about Judaism and Islam or history but about the moral imperative we have to not let our fellow humans be opressed.
From the pragmatic point of view, the bigger the tension in the near East, the closer we get to doomsday clock midnight.
12
Too bad Bret Stephens has not read "The Holocaust and the Nakba: A New Grammar of Trauma and History" edited by Bashir Bashir and Amos Goldberg. Before labeling anti-Zionists as anti-Semitic, it would be useful for Stephens and others to understand the language and ideas that Arab and Jewish writers are using to grapple with the connections and the differences between Germany's genocide of Jews and Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
14
I don't think Israelis such as the Bedouin former Deputy Consul General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest or the Druze Consul General of Israel would agree that Arabs/Palestinians have been "ethnically cleansed" from Israel.
Of course, the same cannot be said of how the Jews of the West Bank were treated during Arab (Jordanian) occupation, including being barred from going to pray at their most holy sites. Nor how the Palestinians in the-chance-for-autonomy Gaza dealt, deal, or would deal with Jews in their midst. Indeed, the very Charter of the Palestinian-elected Palestinian leadership there directly instructs it's population to engage in ethnic-religious cleansing of Jews from the entire region.
People might take American "progressive" sympathy for Palestinians more seriously if they would with at least equal vigor support Jewish people in the region and even right here at home (where were the mass protests of Judeophobic murders -- in a synagogue and on the Sabbath -- of Jewish elders and disabled in Pittsburgh???).
5
Being against a government that is immoral and irresponsible is not being anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. Stop hiding behind these to avoid valid criticism.
16
Fabulous piece. Exactly how I feel. I have been very dismayed as my very progressive friends go down this bunny hole and slide into the world of anti semitism, while greatly denying. As an member of the Episcopal Church, I have been greatly disturbed that these ill informed anti Israel progressives have taken over the Church.
13
Reading these comments is so disturbing as it demonstrates the complete lack of knowledge about the founding of Israel and what would have been Palestine. Please publish a timeline of the history and actions of the Palestinians, so the uneducated, but extremely opinionated BDS supporters have a minimum understanding of how they arrived at this place. Even after reading your very informative piece they make it painfully clear that the history is lost to the extremely slanted PR of the BDS movement.
14
Stephens elides the difference between contractors who support BDS from getting government contracts and bakers refusing to serve gay customers.
The first is a limitation on the government's ability to hire the best contractor because of the contractor's beliefs about Israel. The second is invidious discrimination against individuals.
By Stephens's logic, the government could refuse to hire contractors who oppose apartheid but should allow restaurant owners whose religious beliefs forbid miscegenation from serving mixed race coup.es.
5
A clear position supported by a sound argument did nothing to elevate the discussion from the comment mob. The knee-jerk reactions are as predictable as the sunrise.
The ironic comfort is that on a good day, three tenths of one percent of America read the NY Times and only a fraction of that number consider the comments worth any time to read. From these rantings it's plain to see that Trump supporters are not the only gullible rubes who are easily duped by propoganda.
10
So, continue the unquestioning support of the likud party, to include the substantial subsidy? Is that your course of action? Well, this is beyond sustainability, in case you haven’t noticed. And with the country’s weaning itself off Mid East oil, the appetite to stay heavily engaged there reduces quickly.
6
Dear. Mr Stephens :
As a fellow American Jew I am insulted by your column’s assumptions.Might you ask, for example, why so many PEOPLE, not just progressives are angry with the GOVERNMENT of Israel, and it’s defacto behavior in colonizing land that might otherwise be used to establish a bona fide state called Palestine? How can anyone negotiate with people whose idea of negotiation is to “ win at all costs” ,to obliterate then “ negotiate? Don’t we already have enough of that scenario with Trump himself?
Have you asked yourself if you’d be frustrated with both your own leadership and your opponents after decades of taking you for granted, just posturing, ignoring your life as,
so how is your column helping rectify an intractable problem ?
Lastly, do you actually expect to there to be more or less American Muslims in the future? How long is the American Jewish political power base ( not now or for some time unified on this issue) going to hold? What happens when the Evangelicals pull their support after they realize the overt proselytizing positioning of theirs yields little to no fruit?
Better a humbled and moral Jewish state than no Jewish State. That is a viable alternative which happens to fall in the middle of this mucky argument of yours and the radical left. For now though, it’s got your attention in presenting an alternative. The trick is now to open the dialogue. Your column is a non starter in that .you are just more hysterics.
10
Wait, what? The Republicans denounced Steve King? Took them long enough. Well, apples to apples, equivalency will be respected if the Democrats condemn Tlaib and Omar in, say, about thirty years. Which is how long it's taken the GOP. Come on, now. And as little as I like Louis Farrakhan, it's not like there's no issue about Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. A LEETLE bit different from the white supremacy bilge spouted by Steve King.
8
NGOs search the records to find land that belongs to palestinians. Oftentimes the owners of the land weren't even aware that it was in fact theirs. Settlements that are built on land owned by palestinian arabs are dismantled. That's why it is dishonest to continually repeat the canard that 'Israel steals palestinian land'. Hundreds of thousands of Jews who had nothing to do with Zionism were expelled from the arab nations and everything they owned was confiscated after the creation of Israel- yet you never hear calls for a Right To Return or even compensation for them. Israel made citizens of these people, whereas the arab nations put the refugees they created in concentration camps instead of assimilating them. Arafat was offered 97% of what he wanted for a state but he refused to negotiate the rest and went to war after signing an agreement to resolve disputes through negotiation. Now Abbas refuses to negotiate, even though the palestinians now have a degree of autonomy in the west bank as a result of the Oslo Accords, and everybody knows what the arabs in Gaza are doing with the autonomy they have there.
5
"As for the oft-cited apartheid analogy, black South Africans did not have a place in the old regime’s Parliament, as Israeli Arabs have in the Knesset; nor were they admitted to white universities, as Israeli Arabs are to Israeli universities." This statement is a total red herring. Israel is an apartheid regime not on the basis of its tratment of its own Palestinian citizens, but on the basis of its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel has placed a half million or so of its own Jewish citizens on conquered territory that no other nation on earth recognizes as part of Israel. There they enjoy the full rights of Israeli citizens, living in subsidized housing, traveling on segregated roads both within the West Bank and to Israel, and enjoying a shockingly disproportionate share of the areas's scarce water resources. Meanwhile, the Palestinians live in what are, in effect, non-contiguous ghettoes isolated from each other and subject to, onerous travel restrictions. Those in areas under Israeli security control (60% of the territory of the West Bank) are denied permits to expand housing to accomodate population growth. They are subject to being denied use of their farmland for security reasons, or to have it siezed for new Jewish settlements. Even liberal zionists say that Israel is in danger of becoming an apartheid state if it continues to occupy the West Bank. Since Israel shows no hint of ever leaving, it is an apartheid state today.
6
Anti-Semitism is evil and wrong under any pretext. However, opposing hard core right winger Netanyahu and expansionist religious zealots in Israel is justified in the same way that opposing Trump and anti-abortion religious zealots is essential in the USA.
10
Mr. Stephens perpetuates an often-leaned-on intellectual laziness on this topic that makes it nearly impossible to have a real conversation about Israel. For him, some infinitely small number of progressives believe Israel shouldn’t exist as a state, and some of those people are anti-semites, therefore the left is mainstreaming an anti-Semitic assault on Israel. It’s a false construction that he then argues (correctly if it were true) is bad. The growing mainstream position amongst progressives regarding Israel is that its policies toward and treatment of Palestinians are disastrous and inhumane. There is no mainstreaming of ending Israel as a state. To conclude that there is either purposefully or accidentally conflates semitism, Zionism, and pure policy arguments.
That conflation and false equivalency wouldn’t be tragic in a vacuum. The problem is, however, that it has been used frequently and to great effect in stifling real discussion and debate about what should and shouldn’t be happening in Israel and what the US should or shouldn’t do by way of support. Read Michelle Alexander’s piece from the Times entitled “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine” for an indication about the fear-based silence Mr. Stephens’ logic engenders.
8
Mr. Stephens is absolutely right. The list of countries with human rights abuses is staggering, but the left pays little mind to China or Iran or the Philipines or Zimbabwe, et cetera. They focus disproportionately - almost obsessively - on one country: Israel. Nevermind that Israel is the only country in the region that shares our liberal values; nevermind that they have been among our staunchest allies for years; nevermind their history of medical and technical contributions; nevermind that they have been under attack since the UN declared them a state - nevermind, nevermind, nevermind. I don't agree with Netanyahu's policies, but the left's tendency to stand up for every marginilized group in the world but Jews bothers me. And yeah, it smells a bit like anti-semitism.
10
@Y.N. Hard to say that the Israelis are marginalized when they have have helicopter gunships, the iron dome, and nuclear weapons. The Palestinians have slingshots and burning kites. I think you have your David and Goliath mixed up.
3
Imagine that America had gone all-in for Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists had won the Chinese Civil War. Massacres would have ensued, and progressives would be pointing to those and using them to condemn the U.S. Yet look at what transpired: Mao and the greatest crimes in history. ... So, what would've happened if the Arabs had won in 1948?
Look at the 20th century prior to '48: massacres and starvation in China; massacres in Central Asia (starvation, too); massacres in Caucasia; the near eradication of Europe's Jews; etc. Look at the multiple the instances of ethnic cleansing. ... And, really, how far back in time must we traverse? Why aren't First Americans condemned for the displacement of "Population Y," whose genomic traces are seen in Amazonia?
What about the Old Yishuv? What about those Jews who emigrated to the land over the centuries? Why the focus on this Ottoman backwater? Arafat said, when he visited South Africa, that negotiations were a way to buy time until Palestinians were strong enough to destroy Israel. Israel's land-for-peace Left died in the Second Intifada. What of Palestinian media? Holocaust denial and antisemitism are normal in the Muslim world.
A majority of Israeli Arabs say they'd opt to remain citizens of Israel even in the event of a Palestinian state, even if they could remain in their homes. That says something. Many progressives only see the Palestinian narrative, not the Israeli. (Yossi Klein Halevi's short new book might remedy this.)
9
Too many words wasted on a fantasy. The truth, the facts, are just that. What’s happening in Palestine is apartheid, plain and simple, and the Israeli GOVERNMENT is a disgusting oppressor that must be condemned and whose actions must be stopped. We need to lay these facts and be loud and angry to achieve a meaningful transformation.
That’s the truth. And nothing above has anything to do with religion. Love to all jews. Love to all.
This article, its author and the publisher are catering to a sad, angry and pathetic audience, a tiny spec of a minority, that’s no different from that of Trump’s; dangerous and vindictive...
4
I’ve been to Israel twice and spent time in the West Bank. I saw with my own eyes how the Israeli soldiers treat helpless Palestinians. This article ignores that reality.
8
This topic is swiftly becoming a straw dog that conservatives use to bludgeon liberals. Give me a break Bret. It’s not difficult to see right through this.
5
The idea that criticizing Jews is brave and dangerous is part of the canard. It's one of the most popular political opinions on earth, and one of the safest forms of bigotry.
7
This has NOTHING to do with Judaism, and EVERYTHING to do with I S R A E L -- get with the program, Stephens! Progressives are NOT anti-Semitic, but they are decidedly anti- a state that bullies, denigrates and chastises the minorities within its borders: the Palestinians.
6
Being an anti-Zionist has never been synonymous with being antisemitic. Indeed, until some time shortly after June 1967 most Jews (outside of Israel) -- and especially Orthodox Jews -- were NOT Zionists.
Being opposed to the Israeli Occupation and Israel's systematic oppression of the Palestinians is not synonymous with calling for the elimination of Israel.
Wanting to see a state radically transformed into a democracy that protects the human rights of all its inhabitants is not synonymous with wanting the destruction of the state or the elimination of its privileged national or ethnic group.
Moreover, no state has "a right to exist". People have rights. States have obligations and among those obligations is the gurarantee and protection of the human rights of all its inhabitants. Anyone who believes in the principles of democracy as enunciated in the US Declaration of Independence knows that when, in the course of human events, a government becomes tyrannical then it is the right -- even obligation -- of the people to change or abolish that government.
This I believe as an American and as a Jew and as a Jewish educator.
5
Opposition to Israeli policies toward the Palestinians has nothing to do with anti-semitism.
It is a reaction to the Zionist takeover of Palestine by driving Palestinians out of their homes and off their land and the continued military occupation, subjugation and repression of those who remain - all in violation of of international law and scores of UN resolutions.
6
Zionism at its core is the Jewish right to self determination. Jewish human rights. Please explain to me how you can be against Jewish human rights and not be anti-Jewish? You can be anti israeli policy and not anti Semitic but you can’t be against their right to exist and run their own affairs in the only tiny Jewish state in the world and not be anti Semitic. Bret is just pointing out the illogical double standard held by the left.
8
Much of the growing acceptance of BDS in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, including many of the Times readers responding to this column, is not the product of anti-Semitism or even Anti-Zionism. It is just as much the result of Netanyahu's tacit support of Mitt Romney for President in 2012, his speech in Congress attacking the Iranian deal of the Obama administration, and his "bromance" with Donald Trump. In the toxic partisan political environment of the US, Netanyahu's taking sides in a partisan fight is as responsible for ending the pro-Israel consensus of the Democratic party as are the anti-Semites and self-hating Jews who have always been there on the margins of the Democratic left, but have now entered the mainstream.
3
Thus piece blithely dismisses the reality of systematic oppression carried out by the government of Israel and of that government’s indifference to Antisemitism unless it suits Israeli’s leaders current political goals.
3
To hone in on perhaps the most telling point in Stephens' excellent survey of Israel- and Jew-hatred on the left:
A simple browsing of history show unequivocally that terrorism targeting Israel's civilians cannot possibly be the result of the occupation [sic]. The occupation [sic] began in 1967, before which Israel controlled no land on the West Bank nor embargoed Gaza or any other adjacent territory. Yet, in the decades before '67, fedayeen (Arab guerillas) regularly crossed the borders of Israel proper, from the West Bank, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon to inflict terrorist murder on Israelis in Israel proper, using primarily explosives and knives.
That is, negating the right for Israel to exist anywhere in what historically was Israel is the true agenda.
8
It's impossible for any reasonable person not to sense the dislike of Jews that fills the anti-Zionist dialogues.
it isn't a coincidence that anti-Zionism comes from the hard-left. The old accusation that Jews are money-grubbing exploiters of the working class attached itself to racial anti-Semitism in the 19th century. When racist anti-semitism became unacceptable, the economic form lived on. This was especially true in the USA among big-city blacks, whose only contact with Jews tended to be as customers of Jewish-owned businesses which were blamed for the lack of spending power in black communities. Other ethnic groups suffering economic stress have been easily led into accepting the same narrative.
Mr Corbyn's strongest constituency is among those left behind by the economic transformation of the Thatcher years and beyond, who observed Britain's Jews flourishing while they sank.
Now this resentment has found a seemingly-respectable way to proliferate by attaching itself to the Palestinian cause, but that attachment hasn't changed its true nature.
There is a long precedent on the hard-left for not recognizing this, but no excuse whatever.
8
"one party that has surrendered to the politics of ethnic bigotry disguised as social concern"
Sorry, Bret, but that's not an accurate description of your Grand Old Party today. There is nothing being disguised as social concern there...they are just plain bigots.
And they have been that way for a good long while.
Maybe you should get your own house in order before moving on to others.
4
If progressives really want the US to be free of Israel, then we should all unite under the banner of alternative energy. Israel is and will always be a forward base to protect access to Middle Eastern oil supplies.
But progressives overall only unite through observing the litmus test of hating Isreal. To me, this is where the hypocrisy and the real Jew hatred is clearly evident.
5
Say whatever you like, the de facto apartheid existing in Israel is NOT a stable nor sustainable situation. That leaves that morality of it aside, out of the question...which is not the actual case.
1
Israel is a sovereign state. You can't accuse anyone who criticizes the behavior of Israel the nation of anti-Zionism and/or anti-Antisemitism. That's just lazy. One can fully support the preservation and development of Israel while still expecting them to behave as a responsible, rational member of the global community. Pointing it out when Israel the country does bad things is not evidence of hostility or discrimination against Jews. A country can do wrong - you are erroneously arguing that Zionism is a desirable end therefore any means Israel uses to achieve it are permissible, no matter who else suffers. False, Mr. Stephens.
The Corbyn bit is utterly absurd. He's too kooky for UK politics, anything remotely redolent of him coming to the US ever is full blown LOL. Does talking at you right now make me a climate change skeptic (hint: no, and you should wise up)?
Consider the possibility that one can admire and support Israel without staking out the position that it can do no wrong and any critique is an anti-Semitic attack.
3
As a former editor of the Jerusalem Post, once again Bret Stevens displays his obvious pro-Israel bias. ISAREL IS NOT A DEMOCRACY. A TRUE democracy ensures equal rights to ALL its citizens. Palestinians are treated much like the blacks in apartheid South Africa. Israel’s appalling treatment of the Palestinians should stir the conscious of the citizens of the world. Israel was founded by terror groups I urge Stevens to read Daniel Kurtzer, (former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Israel, Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East policy studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) on how Israel was founded by terror groups. Israel is an apartheid state. It is outrageous the US sends billions of dollars propping up an apartheid state. Let us raise our collective in support of the BDS movement. Anti-Semitism is a convenient slogan to stifle criticism of Israel.
Finally, I urge Stevens to read & ponder over Michelle Alexander’s superb
Op ed in the NYT, January 19.
2
Would the New York Times consider giving the megaphone (a regular opinion column) to a person of Arab or Middle Eastern descent? Just to allow readers to hear from a non Israeli-right-wing perspective? I am not holding my breath. I doubt that would happen, so how about occasionally letting someone from Haaretz write a few words rather than let the editor of Jerusalem Post build straw men on these pages on a weekly basis? The Salzberger modus operandi in regards to this area of journalism is as 'fair and balanced' as the Murdochs'. And the readers know it.
3
These efforts are NOT about Palestinian rights. Instead, it is about delegitimizing Israel and opening up the borders for non-Israelis to flood in and eventually kick out every Jew from Israel. Thus the world's 14 million Jews are, once again, in an existential fight for survival. Without Israel, no Jew is safe anywhere.
6
This piece falls under ‘gaslighting’. Shamefully disingenuous and deceptive. E
7
I find the notion of WASPy conservative men being all in love with Israel to be almost funny.
Is it because they prefer their Jews on the other side of the ocean? Or is it just because they need the votes of people who
think Jesus won't return unless Israel exists?
In the meantime, how does good old Brett explain that most Jews still vote Dem?
4
Opposition to Israel’s clearly expansionist, racist policies against the indigenous Arab population of Palestine is NOT ant-Semitism.
There may be a few anti-Semites who have used the Palestinian cause for their own twisted agendas, but they are a minuscule minority of the large (and growing) international BDS community.
4
I don't understand this as written. Need to reread.
1
Bret fails to acknowledge the existence of people like me who have supported the state of Israel since its founding in 1948, but who regard the present GOVERNMENT of the Israel as a real and present danger to Israel.
We think that each settlement is a cancer on the body of the state.
We think the treatment of the Palestinians is contrary to Jewish morals and traditions. We hold Jews to a higher bar.
We think that the encroaching theocratic direction of the government coupled with the demographic challenge of the ultra-Orthodox point to a dismal future for the Israel of Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir.
Tel me, Bret, are we anti-semites?
4
There is today an obsessive hysteria over anything and everything ‘Israel’....Israel’s duly elected government, their majority and minority citizenry, their laws, their self-defense strategy, their economy, their immigration policies...and on and on, ad infinitum.
It’s astonishing. No other country in the world is scrutinized, censured, condemned, and denounced as is Israel...day in and day out...and not only by the media and left-leaning governments, but by individuals who’ve never set foot in Israel, who have zero understanding of the facts on the ground, who know next to nothing about Israel’s history (both ancient and contemporary), and who rely on ahistorical narratives and mendacious propaganda to form the basis of their endless...and I do mean ENDLESS....opinions.
As for the Arabs (themselves, the descendants of invaders and colonists to the Levant) who rejected statehood (repeatedly) in favor of waging endless war and terror in their ongoing efforts to destroy Israel by any means possible...they are the authors of their own misery. They got exactly what they signed up for....
8
Remove the occupation of the West Bank, remove the blockade on Gaza, accept an international peacekeeping force on the border, and recognize the State of Palestine. When this happens the progressive assault on Israel will evaporate. Until this happens the assault will fester and grow. If it is postponed indefinitely the future of the State of Israel will be at risk;
3
In 1967 when the Israeli government was considering the occupation of, and settlements in, the West Bank, that governments own legal advisors advised against such action, saying it would be illegal. It remains illegal today and is the principal reason why- there is what Stephens calls "the assault on Israel".
8
There's lots to quibble about in this article, but let's start with the totally apples-and-oranges comparison of those (progressives) who opposed the anti-BDS bill but would not support First Amendment rights for bakers who refuse to make cakes for gay couples. The right to gay marriage is the law of the land, decided by the Supreme Court. As far as I know -- and I certainly hope I'm right, although there are evidently some states with laws regarding boycotts of Israel -- there is not yet any law of our land doing so.
1
Stephens says it is possible to be segrationist without being racist to undermine the idea that it is possible to be Anti-Zionist without being anti-Semitic. This is a poor analogy. People want to segregate precisely because of racism. There is no other reason for it. People have a problem with a Jewish state that denies rights to Palestinian people for a host of reasons. You can deplore the Jewish state’s policies without hating its people because of their ethnicity and religion. Why is this concept hard?
11
Despite the many debatable points in this column, and there are many, the one salient fact is this: Israel shows no inclination to stop building settlements or appropriating land from many areas belonging to Palestinians. Israel shows now desire to negotiate an end to their illegal occupation.
9
@Bevan Davies
The occupation is legal because Israel was attacked.
Netanyahu said that he is willing to meet to negotiate anywhere anytime with no preconditions.
3
Unfortunately, Bret Stephens bellows the same smoke-screen that all neo-liberal apologists do with regards to Israel's bad behavior: Cry anti-Semitism! No clear-eyed observer doubts that anti-Semitism is rife in our world---even more so since the advent of "populists" like Trump. And most people would admit that it is sometimes difficult to parse protests that are motivated by Jewish hatred from those that stand on sold social justice grounds. But like Judge Judy contends, you can't come to the court (of public opinion) with dirty hands. Palestine, however your parse it, is a human rights and political disaster. And, by the way, this disaster has been aided and abetted by extremists in Israel and in Palestine. The leadership of both constituencies have not been well-served by their leadership for the past 70 years. That said, the State of Israel has always had the upper hand; it has the power.
The social scientists tell us that the threat of an enemy brings cohesion to a group. What would Israel be without an enemy? What would the United States be without enemies? At least that's the way Bibi and Donald think.
All the tropes of Jewish oppression, now and throughout history, do not erase the stain of Israel's treatment of it's neighbors.
Before we can complain about a Black person's admiration of another Black person, we need to get our own house in order. With regards to Palestine, no matter how you deflect attention, the tragedy of Palestine remains.
7
Stephens writes the same piece over and over again. It sounds like a kind of desperate prayer he repeats in an endless loop.
He can't face the reality that many rational people have long questioned the wisdom of Israel's creation. Why should Palastinian Arabs give up any of their land to provide a refuge for Jews? It wasn't Arabs who gassed and shot the Jews 75 years ago. It was German Catholics and Protestants. Many, many others (Spaniards, Russians, Poles, French etc.) also murdered the Jews on a smaller scale. Why don't they give up land for a Jewish refuge? Your ancestral ties to the land claim is religious nonsense. Arabs and even Romans, could make an equally credible claim to this bit of real estate. Jews, whose country was sustained by US money, nukes and military, now want even more land. They steal and build in the West Bank, isolate Arabs in Gaza and have twice tried to grab southern Lebanon. Hezbollah, Hamas and the PLO wouldn't exist if Israel didn't exist. Stephens' justification for all this Jewish land lust: When Israel offered the Palastinians half their land back, they didn't take that lousy deal and even fought back. What a shock and surprise! Mr. Stephens, before you write another column on this same topic, dream up a new justification for Jewish Zionism. The old ones don't work anymore.
3
@Edward
“Who can challenge the rights of the Jews in Palestine? Good Lord, historically it is really your country. What a wonderful spectacle that will be when a people as resourceful as the Jews will once again be an independent nation, honored and complacent, able to make its contribution to needy humanity in the field of morals, as in the past.”
Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, the Arab mayor of Jerusalem, in 1899 in a letter to Zadok Kahn, the chief rabbi of France about the rights of Jews to self-determination in the land of the Jews.
4
Carving out land for Israel at the expense of Palestinians is always mentioned but what about the land given to form Jordan? Was that not also part of Palestine? Should that be part of the conversation? The reality is that most borders on the middle East are arbitrary, drawn without regard to history or culture. Israel has much to answer for in it's treatment of Palestinians but so, too, do the Arab states that used them as pawns for decades and treated them just as badly, if not worse, than Israel.
13
Demography is destiny:
the Democratic Party now contains a large and younger number of adherents who come from cultures that are historically antisemitic as well as anti Zionist.
Bernie Sanders gets it, although it is probably too late for him to benefit from this, and he is probably the wrong person to benefit from it.
No columns are going to do anything short of a transitory (top down) delay until the elderly leadership passes away,
and until the donor base is replaced by new wealth.
If the two party system is to survive, the Republicans will have to follow the Democratic Party's template, or at least
a light version of it.
It should be considered that the lead article on today's paper is about a young woman, the daughter of the leader of Dubai, and her struggle to find freedom -- and sanity, in a world of brutal dictatorship. The world she describes, in a harrowing video, is a window into the world of Palistinian leadership as well. Brutal, unreasoning, hideously totalitarian, disgustingly repressive. And the foolish and uninformed Left of our country supports it. Advocates for it. Israel is an open society.
15
SarSOUR is a flame thrower, a fame seeker, a poseur, and does NOT speak for this Woman, in any fashion. These professional agitators do more harm to WE Feminists than most
“ conservative “ organizations. NO THANKS.
11
Why doesn't Mr. Stephens support J Street. whose mission is to organize and mobilize pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who want Israel to be secure, democratic and the national home of the Jewish people? https://jstreet.org/
2
I was thrilled to read Bret Stephens's latest opinion piece. The New York Times is lucky to have him. I have relatives in Israel whose ancestors arrived during the British mandate era, and I fear for their safety today.
16
A professional writer should be aware of topics that he can't handle objectively. Israel is such a topic for Mr. Stephens. Time and time again he attacks those that oppose the policies and tactics of Israel's government. Time and time again, he shows little more than his own bias in favor of Israel. He misconstrues virtually every aspect of the positions of those that oppose Israeli behavior toward Palestinians. A central problem is the occupation of the West Bank. He gives it short shrift whenever he touches on it but in my experience it is the primary and overwhelming basis of most of the hostility toward Israel. It simply cannot be justified by sane, moral people. His weak, irrational and illogical attempts just expose his blind hypocrisy. I recommend that he take this one aspect of this complex problem and deal exclusively with it until he is able to present a defense for Israel that passes the smell test. He can't do it.
4
To quote Bob Marley, “Remember your history, to know your destiny”. In acceptance of the premise, that the BDS movement is connected to anti- semitism, all people should remember that Goodman and Schwerner gave their lives for voting rights in the South. Dozens of German Jewish professors taught and inspired at traditionally Black Colleges. The former American goodwill ambassador, Louis Armstrong had his first trumpet purchased by Jewish Lithuanian immigrants. Louis’s traveling suitcase had on it, a Star of David, the symbol of The State of Israel and the Jewish people.
13
Yet another person who cannot seem to grasp the difference between (1) disagreement with decisions and actions made by the Israel government, (2) anti-Zionism, and (3) anti-Semitism.
5
@Mackenzie
I would say Mr.Stehens has a very good grasp of the differences, but intentionally conflates them all.
3
Forget Putin. Netanyahu and Adelson have
hijacked the United States. Of course,
there's going to be a backlash. Trump is in
their pocket
7
I'm not one to put much stock in the Bible as history, though so many secular Zionist do. If I'm not mistaken, Abraham, the father of the Jewish faith, was indigenous to current day Iraq and had to conquer Palestine. Let's stop playing bogus indigenous games. Jews and Arabs have lived in Palestine continuously for at least 1,000 years, mostly at peace. Let them continue to live together in the future as equals in a just and democratic society.
8
The Muslims that completely surround Israel(1), DO NOT WANT PEACE with her(2). They want Israel (the Jews) to go away and the land to be occupied by Muslims. The Muslims see this as "justice." Israeli Jews (left, right and center) understand this from hard experience. Most American Jews and non-Jews still don't get this(3). So the incredibly difficult task is to find a way to make Peace, with surrounding Muslims who are overwhelmingly hostile to Israel's existence. This is the "real" base case. The rest is Muslim and Jewish dreaming and obfuscation.
(1) Mostly Sunni Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Lebanese and a smattering of Shia / Iranian and other Muslim sects. Plus the approximately 1 billion Muslims further removed in the ME.
(2) This is weakly debated by those wishing it weren't so, unfortunately it is.
(3) This is were it gets "complex."
7
The screen name is appropriate. Sometime quiet or minimal words speak louder than most.
3
If memory serves the Zionist founders of Israel were mostly secular and socialist. That Israel is no longer.
Another historical fact is that when Jews fleeing the pogroms of Europe came to Palestine the number of Arabs was far, far greater than the number of indigenous Jews.
By every definition Israel is an apartheid state.
The same type of people here and in Europe that demonstrated and urged boycotts of South Africa are now doing the same about Israel. Where they accused of being prejudiced against the Dutch Reformed church?
In any event I am too weary of the many problems that exist here to be concerned about the fate of a small state on dusty, rocky land that has been fought over by its native people for untold centuries.
What happens there in no way affects the national security of the USA.
3
@Edward B. Blau
“The Red Cross was very familiar with the regime that prevailed in South Africa during the apartheid period, and we are responding to all those who raise their claim of apartheid against Israel: No, there is no apartheid here, no regime of superiority of race, of denial of basic human rights to a group of people because of their alleged racial inferiority."
6
Does anyone remember Israel selling arms to apartheid South Africa? Netanyahu walking with 30 armed guards at the Temple Mount? His racist screed on the evening of election day? Americans who have long supported the settler movement without one word of protest?
Israel has lost its soul. It's no surprise that there is a boycott of any settler goods. Peaceful, long term efforts like this can effect change.
3
@john kevin
Palestinians have been firing rockets & mortars at Jewish residential areas (a crime against humanity.)
Why a boycott of Israel, but not a boycott of Palestine?
Palestinians have been setting Israeli crops on fire (a war crime.)
Why a boycott of Israel, but not a boycott of Palestine?
Palestinians, per capita, are among the top recipients of foreign aid. They use this money to pay people to murder Jews. The more Jews they kill, the more money they get. This is racism! This is genocide!
Why a boycott of Israel, but not a boycott of Palestine?
Palestinians murdering Jews before the settlements, before the occupation, before Israel. On August 29, 1929 the violence spread to the ancient Jewish community of Safed. The Arabs of and surrounding villages invade children—were attacked with knives. Women were raped. Homes and stores were looted and set ablaze. The violence in Safed ultimately took the lives of eighteen Jews and left approximately eighty more injured. Similar attacks were launched against the Jewish communities of Te d the city’s Jewish quarter. Residents—including Safed many l Aviv, Haifa, Hadera, and a number of rural villages... everything …was burned to the ground.
Why a boycott of Israel, but not a boycott of Palestine?
5
Palestinians, and Muslims in general may be occasionally caught saying they are not anti-Semitic in their claim to statehood and their anti-Israeli stance, but one need only to research the official position of their leaders that eradication is the ultimate goal. Indeed, our newly elected freshmen are only vaguely hiding the same stance. This is becoming defacto Democratic platform; even Jews amongst their ranks no longer offer the unwavering support to our only trusted Middle East ally.
So why are American Jews still aligned with progressives who are becoming more comfortable with openly advocating against their historical existence? The examples of this are too numerous to list, but it is blind allegiance to look past the trend.
The excuses for Jew hatred are tired, and canards to soften the ultimate and consistent desire to eliminate the Jewish state. Long live Israel.
13
All Stephens does is demostrate that it’s impossible to defend Israel without being totally dishonest. Israel is supposed to be congratulated because it returned some, but not all, the territory it wrested violently from its rightful owners? Palestinians are to be condemned for refusing a ‘deal’ in which they were ‘offerred’ part of what already belonged to them? Hamas did not “seize” control of Gaza; Hamas prevailed in free, fair, UN-spervised, US-monitored elections that no one has questioned the legitimacy of. And the anti-BDS measure S.1 isn’t “ostensibly” unconstitutional, it’s a blatant, frontal assault on the 1st Amendment,
Want to get an insight into the racist, hostile and violent forces behind Zionism? Have a look at Morgan Spurlock’s film, “Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?” Spurlock and his camera man visit a Jewish neighbourhood in Jerusalem and do nothing but stand quietly on a public street. Within minutes they are surrounded by an angry threatening mob, who start with shouting, spitting and threatening and make clear they plan to escalate to physical violence if Spurlock persists in standing quietly on a public sidewalk. Violent, aggressive and confiscatory behaviours are baked into Zionist culture. Opposing Zionism is just and appropriate.
3
@Gregory Smith
You shouldn't dismiss important facts that are inconvenient for you.
Israel is to be congratulated for making peace with countries that were her sworn enemies that were mounting an attack to eliminate the Jewish state. As part of the peace agreement, Israel gave them back enormous amounts of strategic land
BTW the PLO was created in 1964 - long before the Six Day War - with the express purpose of eliminating Israel.
You extrapolate a camera crew visiting a Jewish community which prides itself on privacy to be representative of all Zionists? Arguably, that group was not made up of non-Zionists.
By the way, you are ok with all the Palestinians who cheered on 9/11?
5
Disagreeing with the unfair policies of the Israeli government is not anti-Semitic.
6
Antisemitism is the safe hate. Everyone needs to hate someone and Jews have been under that yoke for two thousand years. Never mind that before 1948 Palestinians _were_Jews or that a Jewish state (2 kingdoms and the current state) was the _only_ independent state on that land for over 4000 years doesn't have an impact with UNESCO who thinks all that history came from someplace else.
The bottom line is that antisemitism is a unifyer. It's worked well throughout history, as recently as 1930s Germany. Now, it's working its way through the United States on a variety of platforms, too many to name here.
I may dislike Netanyahu and his policies intently, but that doesn't negate that Jews are in indigenous occupants of that tiny strip of land. That's OUR history under the cobbles of Jerusalem, not someone else's,
But it doesn't matter. It's safe to hate the Jew because everyone has to hate someone.
https://wifelyperson.blogspot.com/2019/01/antisemitism-safe-hate.html
13
Let's be honest with ourselves: Israel would never have existed if we in the United States had allowed Jews to immigrate to the United States beginning in the late 1930's. Palestinians have been terrorizing Israeli Jews for 70 years. Israeli Jews have returned the favor, and for nearly 20 years, Israel has been sabotaging any chance at peace by allowing hundreds of thousands of homes to be built and more than a half million Jews to settle in occupied territories. Furthermore, Benjamin Netanyahu sabotaged any chance of unified American support for Israel when he disrespected the population of the United States by bypassing President Obama, violating well-understood protocol, and met directly with Republicans in Congress. Now, Israel's lousy policies divide the United States. I have no animosity toward Palestinians, toward Jews (I am one), or toward Israel. But I am disgusted by Benjamin Netanyahu's administration.
5
Israelis will never admit that we committed the first two sins.
We declared half of Palestine to be Israel. And that just happened to be the half on the Mediterranean Sea.
And we prohibited the refugees to return to their homes, their own property.
And now many Israelis want to make Israel a Jewish state.
How would Jews here feel if Mike Pence made the US an evangelical Christian state.
4
@Independent
The UN decided which areas would be for the Jews. Most of what the UN assigned to the Jews was desert.
3
@m1945
And what the Palestinians were left with is not mostly desert?
And who really was the UN at that time? Mostly the US, UK, and France?
Is it that the Palestinians are paying the price by western Europe for the Holocaust?
And Israel still go the Mediterranean, Tel Aviv, Haifa. And now they want all of Jerusalem.
How would you feel if Mike Pence made this an evangelical Christian state?
Mr. Stephens refuses to consider the question of thel possibility of a democratic secular state for all residents of the area; something like the US in the Middle East. That possibility has been considered from time to time by some Jewish intellectuals but has never got much traction. An eloquent argument for that was given by a first aliyah settler, Yitzak Epstein, in 1907, and is still worth reading. http://marikasosnowski.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Dowty_YitzhakEpstein.pdf
2
@Eudoxus
Arabs would soon become the majority. The probability that a majority-Arab state would be a democracy is virtually ZERO.
Israel was ranked 30 out of 167 on The Economist's Democracy Index.
That's better than Belgium, Greece, Cyprus & at least a dozen other European countries.
The highest Arab state is Tunisia which is ranked 69. Palestine is 108, Yemen is 158, Saudi Arabia is 159.
4
Andrei S. Markovits, writing in the relatively progressive magazine Dissent, said in the Winter 2005 issue, “A new European (and American) commonality for all lefts—a new litmus test of progressive politics—seems to have developed: anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism (though not anti-Semitism, at least not yet).”
It is possible, as Markovits says, to be an anti-Zionist without being an anti-Semite. But the power of anti-Zionism is so strong and so contrary to the values of leftism and progressivism that nothing could explain its survival except anti-Semitism.
7
Protesting the misdeeds of Israel is not the same as being antisemitic as Stephens implies in his piece. I, for one, think that after Bibi bypassed President Obama and the Clinton State Department and spoke directly to a majority Republican Congress Israel should be left to its own devices. No more military aid. No more training its pilots. And we should hold them accountable for their secret nuclear arsenal (I don't care that we supplied it). If Iran cannot have one neither can Israel. If they don't like it then perhaps they should have thought of that before showing such utter contempt for one of the best U.S. Presidents and then sucking up to the piece of garbage that is Trump. You want to play in our politics then don't side with the evil that is Republicans.
5
@Max Deitenbeck
Congress is an equal branch of government & doesn't need the president's approval to invite anyone. It would have been rude for Netanyahu to say no to Congress.
What does Hamas want to do after it defeats Israel?
When the rocket attacks first began against Israel, a senior Hamas leader, Dr. Yunis Al-Astal, published an article in the Hamas journal, Al-Risala, where he compared Hamas’ al-Qassam rockets to the Manjaniq catapult which the Prophet Muhammad used against the Jews of Khaybar. The fall of Khaybar, he explained, opened the gates of the Byzantine Empire to Muslim conquest and was the first step towards the fall of Constantinople. Now, the fall of Israel, he said, would open the gates of Europe to Islam and lead to the fall of Rome.
Hamas MP and cleric Al-Astal proclaimed in 2008, “We will conquer Rome, and from there continue to conquer the two Americas and even Eastern Europe” (Al-Aqsa TV, April 11, 2008)
It’s in our interest to have Israeli soldiers fighting Hamas over there rather than needing to have American soldiers fight Hamas over here.
4
No, no, no. It is simply not legitimate to pretend that being opposed to the illegal occupation of the west bank by Israel is necessarily anti-semitic. Or is the author contending that to be Jewish is to be incapable of doing wrong?
3
@Charles Marshall
The occupation is legal because Israel was attacked.
3
The Israelis brought this upon themselves by pushing things too far.
2
Israel seems to be pretty good in the assault department, raking in U.S. dollars to subsidize those assaults while bragging about its great economy.
1
It is sad when a NYT editorial writer cannot make a distinction between Judaism and the state of Israel. They are NOT one and the same. From my perspective, Israel has long neglected the aspects of the Jewish religion that I most appreciate. I've always admired the fact that my fellow Jews in the world I grew up in would fight hatred with words and humor but now fight with guns like everyone else. Our power is in our resilience and our intelligence not in our weaponry.
2
We are flat out outraged that Israel continues to build out into land that is internationally recognized as NOT THEIRS TO BUILD ON. THAT is the issue. (The fact that a country that claims to be a democracy can proclaim itself to have a state enforced religion is also, say, more than a bit dubious, even if the intention is understandable given the history.)
I am neither an anti-semite nor an anti-zionist. I have watched and cried and been utterly sickened watching the nine hours plus of Shoah. No one does that who doesn't know or care about the holocaust and the issues surrounding the creation of the state of Israel.
But that does not mean Israel gets a free pass on their actions regarding the Palestinians- who's behavior, yes, is worse than the Israeli's, but still does not make it acceptable for Israel to flout international laws and continue to make the situation worse and worse as they continue to appropriate land which is just not theirs. Not only is it unjust, it is _incredibly_ stupid.
1
@Bruce
Palestinians were murdering Jews long before there were any settlements.
There are no official borders so no one knows if land near the green line is not theirs to build on.
Israel has no official religion.
Palestine has an official religion.
The Palestinian Constitution establishes Islam as the only “official religion” and requires that “the principles of Islamic Sharia shall be the main source of legislation.”
5
If you are against the current policy of the current government of Israel you are anti Zionist (against the existence of a Jewish state) and anti-Semitic (against the Jews). That is not true.
Because of the disgraceful history of anti-Semitism in Europe that led to the greatest crime of the last century, the Holocaust, and the wars against the state of Israel in the Middle East, Jews are more entitled than any other people to see enemies everywhere. But Israel has won every war it fought, has Nukes and is armed with the latest US weapons but refuses to accept victory. It rewards it's ally, the US, by interfering in our politics and fighting for an unconstitutional, anti free speech and anti economic choice bill that forbids US citizens to boycott Israel to protest of what they see as injustice toward the Palestinians. Israel passed a bill the makes non Jews second class citizens in Israel plus treating non Orthodox Jews as second class Jews who are not even entitled to marry in Israel and is building more settlements to make a two state peace with the Palestinians impossible. What I see is Israel under Netanyahu becoming more fundamentalist and Middle Eastern, allying with Saudi Arabia and pushing Tump to fight Iran as it pushed for the war on Iraq. I hope Netanyahu loses before the israel that won wars and planned to make the Desert Bloom and was the pride of American Jews who were in the front line of the fight for Civil Rights is gone.
2
What has been happenning in France and Britain is now happening here too. For many reasons - some of them logical, most of them not - liberal Jews who don't wish for Israel's destruction are no longer recognized as legitimately progressive. Outside of Israel, Jews will now have to reflect and make a choice between being a Liberal or pro-Israeli. It is not fair to have to choose, but early Zionists, including Herzl, recognized the limits and dangers of Jewish assimilation 130 years ago.
6
In centuries passed anti-semitism was based on contrived false-hoods that Jews were an inferior race, killed Jesus, caused the Black Death, controlled the world’s money, and used children’s blood in religious rituals. All of that is now debunked and rejected by most of the world.
In the past century a new form of Anti-Semitism has arisen, and ironically, it is based on the very values Jews cherish: freedom and equality. The “Jewish State” of Israel, intended as a safe haven for Jews after centuries of pogroms, expulsions, forced conversions and genocide, is now rejected by many as oppressive and anti-democratic.
Never mind that the Palestinians rejected at least four offers for their own state (in 1937, 1948, 2001 and 2008); never mind that in 1948, just as thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from Israel, thousand of Jews fled or were expelled from neighboring Arab countries into Israel; never mind the wars, airplane hijackings, intifadas, attacks on civilians, suicide bombings and missile launches intended to destroy Israel.
Make no mistake, they may call it anti-Zionism, but it’s the new form of Anti-Semitism. Bottom line, it’s a subversive attempt to delegitimize and eventually destroy the Jewish State in the name of “modern progressive” values. It’s the twenty first century brand of anti-semitism and it’s incredibly dangerous.
9
@Steven Roth
Not true at all. I'm not opposed to the Jewish State. I'm opposed to Israel annexing territory to which it is not entitled under international law.
1
Isn't it just possible that people on the left, including Jews, can have legitimate issues with an occupation that has lasted for some 60 years now with no end in sight, has uprooted people from their homes, and taken their land unlawfully? Is it possible that people on the left, and Jews especially, are disturbed by the brutalization of not just the occupied, but the the occupiers? Isn't it possible that people on the left, and especially Jews, can take legitimate issue with a regime that is increasingly abandoning any idea of the Jewish state as being "a light unto the nations" in favor of a sullen, defensive, and chauvinistic ethno-nationalism? Isn't it a cause for concern by people on the left, especially Jews, that the Netanyahu regime increasingly looks for support not to rank-and-file American diaspora Jewry (whom he not longer trusts), but to the most reactionary elements of right-wing American "Christianism"?
3
Why was Israel the only country that supported the United States' embargo of Cuba recently at the UN?
Why is our White House working behind the scenes to block any resolutions at the UN deemed to be unfavorable to Israel By threatening these countries with withholding aid? Jared was manning the phones.
Why are they bombing Syria on a regular basis?
Am I an anti-Semite if I object to this along with a litany of other Indefensible behavior?
4
If, per Stephen's claim, Israel's very existence depends on the oppression of the Palestinian people, what kind of nation is Israel?
Note: Objecting to Israel's oppression of Palestinian people is NOT antisemitism
4
Re "That’s not because American Jews are unfamiliar with the radical left’s militant hostility toward the Jewish state."
You have got to be kidding (except that I cannot believe you would joke about such a serious situation.
The hostility is not to the Jewish state, but to Israel's actions toward Palestine. There is no question that Israel been working to avoid the two state solution, and causing incredible suffering by the Palestinians in doing so. That injustice is why progressives are so upset with Israel.
3
Isn't this exactly the argument White Nationalists make for defending European supermajorities in historically White countries? Isn't it intensely hypocritical for Jews to support open borders in White nations and closed borders for Israel? Can't help but notice.
1
If the state of Isreal has a right to exist why not the Kurds ? And for that matter what about the various Native American Tribes that were driven off their land ? Where is their right to have states of their own ?
The entire reason Isreal Claims that piece of land is because of the propaganda mythology of that worthless book "The Bible" which has caused death and human suffering beyond all others even "Mein Kampf".
Chosen people - promised land ? Says who ? Isreal is a religious state and there fore it should be ruled unconstitutional to support such a state as it is supporting a particular religion.
2
New York Times headline: "Israel Meets Palestinian Concessions in Historic Peace Deal" ... can we at least dream of an Israel which shows true compassion and humility? Eternal war is the current Israeli prospect, but never forget that is a choice.
1
The leaders of Israel have made the decision to take the hardest stances possible. It's difficult not to do that when Arab leaders and terrorist groups vow to destroy your country. Yet, persistent attempts to de-escalate the conflict must be continued, no matter how hopeless they appear. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time before a radical Islamist group gets a weapon of mass destruction and it will be like another Holocaust. Israel must survive - but without peace (or some semblance of peace) it's just a matter of time before Israel is all or partially destroyed.
1
If those of the BDS crowd were smart, they'd nix boycotting all of Israel and just focus on boycotting companies that work and profit within the occupied territories.
Listening to people's response to that idea might shed light on where their true gripe lies.
3
your article is more fallacious logic than good argument. Any Jew who cares about the morality of Israel has an obligation to criticize. Israel's immoral, shameful treatment of Palestinians and even the non-orthodox is causing an increase in anti-Semitism. progressive Jews protest Israel and Netanyahu just as they protest Trump and the USA's bad behavior. the lie of accusation of anti-Semitic behavior is despicable and it will bite the accusers back.
1
Stephen's position on this is soooo binary. Left v RIght, Gay v Straight, Hamas v Likud, Evil v Good. The correct answer is E: None of the Above.
South Africa ended its civil war and Apartheid at a stroke and has made enormous progress since. Meanwhile, the Israeli-Palestinian struggle has gone on for 70 years, about the same as my life. But it is not new.
Occupiers of Palestrina (the Roman term) include Egypt, Babalon, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, Arabs, Crusaders, Turks, French, and English, quite a list. Both Israel and the Palestinians today see each other as the modern occupiers of Palestrina. (Where is the Cannenite Liberation Front?)
The wall Trump claims works has failed to settle this endless war in any way. The wall prolongs it. Hebrew/Israeli - Palestinian/Philistine, 3000 years of occupiers and occupied. Only ending Apartheid can end this civil war. No justice/No peace or one person one vote. That is the binary choice.
2
Same old Dog Whistle, new tune : Any individual or group who questions the Israeli Apartheid ,is automaticly branded "Anti-Semitic". Only this time it's the Gay's and the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party, instead of the easier and more regularly targeted Moderates, that is expected to come to heel at the first shrill note of that Whistle.
Sorry, not only do most Moderate and Progressive's (Gay, Straight or otherwise) reject the notion that Israel ought to get a free pass for it's treatment of the Palestinians, simply because Israel is "An ally"- But so do most Jewish Americans, across the board. And yes, we Love the Israelis and respect their right to their homeland. But no, we Liberals when talking about injustices anywhere in the world will not be cowed into silence, and this includes the injustices wrought against the Palestinians. So blow that whistle just as hard as you might, it won't change our minds about that terrible injustice.
In this entire meandering article Mr. Stephens fails to ask the most critical question of all: For 50 years the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation have been denied even the most basic human rights.
How can we fix this outrage?
2
My wife is Jewish and theoretically our children could immigrate to Israel. Palestinians are every bit as much Semitic as Jews. To some they would call that an anti-Semitic comment. Anti-Semitism is an inaccurate warn out term unless being referred to all Semitic peoples. One could also say Jews are Palestinians. For the most part, Jews and Palestinians share the same gene pool. Ashkenazim have maintained that close genetic identity despite millennial separation from Palestine. I don't see opposition to the actions of Israel as being anti-anything other than being opposed to the abuse of power. If Zionism means the right of Jews to return to their homeland of Palestine then I am a Zionist. If Zionism means the right of Jews to displace Palestinians from all of Palestine than I am an anti-Zionist.
3
When Bibi's regime stops treating the Palestinians like dirt, I will listen. The only thing that will happen until then is that the bullying by the far more powerful Israelis will only harden the despair and hatred of the people they terrorize and oppress.
Ever heard of Northern Ireland? No? Well, it is prime example #1 of what happens when a people lose their land, their hope, and their dignity to a conquest. They fight back and the hatred lives on for generations.
Peace and reconciliation are what is needed, not bulldozers and squatters on Palestinian land. The settlements are provocative and illegal.
BTW, this has NOTHING to do with being anti-Semitic and everything to do with bullying, which is what you are indulging in by conflating standing up for the oppressed with hating Jews. Jews are fine; what Bibi is doing is not - not even if he were the pope.
2
Israel needs to behave. With every new settlement my support declines. There needs to be one country, call it whatever you like but it's citizens would be Palestinians and Jews.
2
My initial outrage at Stevens’s comparison of Israeli deaths due to alleged attacks by groups within the larger people of Palestine has subsided as I thought it through. There is indeed a connection, although not one that Mr. Stevens presents: Arab terrorists targeted the United States on September 11 precisely due to our blind support for terroristic acts by Israel and the hundreds of billions of dollars we’ve spent propping up its existence.
Movements such as BDS are entirely appropriate and legal under this country’s Constitution. The new Senate law, sure to be struck down by the Supreme Court, impinges on our freedom and will further convince Palestinians that we are totally under the spell of Israel-ism.
I believe in Israel’s right to exist but I also believe that peace will not come until Israel finds a way to return lands to rightful owners and compensate others for the stolen properties. Ms. Ehrlich may be proud of her heritage but she is dead wrong about the land. It was stolen, with the tacit approval of the British and American governments. Attacks like 9/11, and terrorist attacks across the globe, are part of the price we are still paying for our complicity.
To pin the blame for pro BDS protests on the gay rights movement or the entire LGBT community is pure homophobia. Stevens should be ashamed, as should the Times for printing this hateful “opinion.” He and his ilk won’t rest until Americans rights have been subjugated to Israel’s prosperity.
1
A brilliant piece that gives the lie to the virulently anti-Israel narrative widely found in progressive circles. Thank you, Bret.
You will see comments below that immediately fall back on the “Israel is oppressive”, “Israelis made their own bed” tropes. Those commenters clearly either did not read this column or have minds that are firmly closed and cannot process the words they read, for whatever reason - even ugly ones. Those commenters are beyond hope, and there is no point engaging them.
9
"Gay" rights organizations stopped representing actual gay people when they were hijacked by intersectional feminists in the 90s. Since then, "gay" became "gay and lesbian," then "gay, lesbian, and bisexual," then "gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender," and now "gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer." (Verdict's still out on what "queer" even means.) The addition of "asexual" and "intersex" is already standard in some countries, leading to the hilariously unwieldy LGBTQIA.
At these conferences, they spend more time railing against the "hegemony" of "privileged" white gay cisgender men than, for example, rampant homophobia in communities of color. Unassimilated members of my Middle Eastern "community" would literally kill me if they could get away with it, but even I can't raise this issue without being maligned as a racist. (Similarly, try pointing out the irony that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that doesn't persecute homosexuals and you're accused of "pink-washing.")
Add to that the Farrakhan debacle, and the message is pretty clear: Black and brown lives matter. Jews and gays? Not so much.
6
Does everyone know that the territory known as “Palestine” was divided by the British in 1918 with 80% on the “east bank” of the Jordan river re named “The Kingdom of Trans Jordan”.? How come we never see that on all the dank memes showing Israeli expansionism? The Jordanians are majority Palestinian and sit on the majority of land once called Palestine. Why don’t they take control of the West Bank like they used to have before 1967 (when they controlled east Jerusalem and put snipers on the western wall and had the Arab legion paving roads with Jewish tombstones)
Maybe this is the double standard Bret is trying to get you guys to understand.
7
Bibi Netanyahu interferes in our elections - oddly opposing the wishes of the majority of american jews. We should cut off support based on that alone.
1
If what I say is false or bigoted, I deserved to be called on it. If what I say is true and stated in plain English, I don't like people telling me it's anti-Semitic. "From the river to the sea, Palestinians will be free." What honest American would deny that a people should be free on their own land and that of their ancestors? None, if they are honest. Yet to say those words brings down on someone the charge of anti-Semitism (and claims they should be fired.) Example 2: Supporters of Israel by American Jews and Gentiles alike, have tremendous political clout in the US. Who will deny that? Look at the 1st Amendment-busting anti-Boycott law just passed by the Senate! "Sorry can't say that." "But it's true! Both are true! Palestinians should be free and American Zionists have great power in the US." "Well, literally true, sure. But they are tropes, memes, they have been historically used by anti-Semites, they are motivated by anti-Semitism even if the words are true. That anti-Semite, Jack, says them so you are anti-Semitic when you say them." This is manipulative nonsense. Anti-Semitism is a horrible phenomenon that has had immeasurably tragic consequences. It is trivializing to resort to claims of memes and tropes and hypotheses about motivations in order to demonize people who object to Israeli government behavior toward Palestinians. I don't like people telling me what words and phrases I can and can't use when I'm speaking the truth.
1
Neither Jeremy Corbyn nor any of the people Mr Stephens misquotes or otherwise libels have called for the destruction of Israel. Neither is it "anti-semitic" to call out Israel for its crimes against the non-Jews who inhabit the lands "between the river and the sea". Nor is Israel being picked-out for particular opprobrium. What is happening is a campaign by those who are passive accomplices in Israel's crimes to de-legitimise all criticism of Israel as anti-semitic.
Israel herself has picked herself out from among the other criminal outfits of the Middle East by taking huge amounts of US money, while flouting US values. She has picked herself out by constantly claiming to be a liberal democracy "just like us", while being nothing whatsoever like us. As long as we fail to call her up in this latter claim, we are complicit in her crimes against the fundamental principles upon which liberal democracy rests: the rule of law and the equal vindication of person and property.
And we should remind our Israeli friends that Hamas didn't force them to steal the homes, farms, and water of their Palestinian untermenschen, nor did the PLO force them to use battlefield weaponry against civilian enclaves, and use automatic rifles against stone throwers.
The opprobrium will continue to be heaped on Israel until it ceases its crimes. It is mistaken if it believes it can continue this behaviour and depend on its apologists in the media to delegitimise well-earned criticism.
2
It was so heartening to read your column in The NY Times. You clearly tried to explain as have many others how the cry of Anti- Zionism is a way to free the bigots from their true anti-Semitic thoughts. If the dog whistlers can say all whites are racists, can we say all non- Jews are anti-Semitic. I can’t really believe either statement. Yet surely it is the tweets with so little information and such snap decisions that allow this bigotry to rear its ugly head unchecked. However as well as this is written and how logical it is explained, it falls on deaf ears. Too many words for our current culture.
One issue Mr. Stephens, many Jews are not rich.
4
In this diatribe there is a noticable absence of any reference to international law. If the State of Israel conformed with the international laws and the principles of human rights recognized by the rest of the modern world there would be no audience for this opinion piece.
3
Best article ever.
7
It's ironic that the writer condemned "black and white" thinking as nuance and sound logic do not seem to be of concern for Bret Stephens. For example "If the Jewish state is really so villainous, why doesn’t it behave more like Syria’s Bashar al-Assad or Russia’s Vladimir Putin". As if there's isn't a world of degrees of immorality in between being thoughtful and being Bashar al-Assad.
And "that is, rejection not just of this or that Israeli policy, but also of the idea of a Jewish state itself — is becoming a respectable position among people who would never support the elimination of any other country in any other circumstance." No one wants to abolish Israel. But the idea that Israel should be a Jewish-only state is where I personally draw the line. Israel's foreign policy is a state-wide platform of religious extremism.
How can a country think it's okay to recruit and pay for Americans to move their entire families onto land already occupied by other families just for the sake of creating this mystical, oh-so-important Jewish-only state? How can Israel not see the ridiculous immorality of "us and only us no matter the cost"? It's embarrassing that people move into the West Bank and then get upset when their safety is threatened. Really? You think people are just going to roll over and allow themselves to be bulldozed?
And calling people anti-Semites because they don't subscribe to your religious extremism is itself a dog whistle.
2
A part of the problem is the reference, frequently made by activists, to the "way" or "system" by which Israel treats Palestinan Arabs, as if Israel treats all Arabs in a uniform manner. The fact is that the Arabs living in Israel are treated very differently than those in the territories. Within Israel Arabs are citizens, go to Israeli universities, both seek and provide treatment at Israeli hospitals, vote and hold office in the Israeli government, etc. This is not apartheid-like in any way, despite all the accusations.
On one border Israel has a Hamas government which openly declares its desire to obliterate Israel. On the other install has the P.A., which claims to be open to peace but which educates its children to hate Jews (84% of depictions of Jews in school texts are negative) and which provides lifetime salaries to those who have killed Jews, no matter what age the victim. Nonetheless, if Israel does not allow Arabs to cross those borders easily it is condemned as racist. No one cares that those borders are only open in one direction, from the territories into Israel. Only Israel's checkpoints are the problem, the Arab governments encouraging terrorists to cross them are no problem at all.
For what it's worth, the Netanyahu gov't has invested millions of dollars into bringing more Arabs into universities, but no one cares to report on that, perhaps because it doesn't fit into the narrative of his being racist.
Oh well.
7
How does the concept of "historic Israel" referring back to Biblical times, trump the reality of an "historic Palestine" that has existed for a far longer period of history.
Yes, there was never before a Palestinian Nation State, but then again, neither was there an Hungarian or Polish or Judean one, the nation state concept, unfortunate and implicitly racist it may be, goes back only less than 200 years.
And now, while its absolutely true that left wing Judeophobes like my Iranian friend Farhad, use otherwise legitimate critiques of the Zionist project as cover for their dislike and/or hatred of Jews, all you have to do is go to most any Chabad house in USA, or to lots of places in Israel to find an equal amount of Islamaphobia and racism towards Arabs, Palestinians, Black Americans. See: reactions towards Obama.
More importantly, when Ultra-Radical right wing billionaires like Sheldon Adelson combine with American policy in the Near East, its easy to see why Israel starts to look like a client state of American imperialism to some folk.
Maybe there was no chance for a Zionist state without ethnic cleansing. We will never know. But in so many ways, Israel has not done itself too many favors when it comes to progressive public opinion, post-Begin.
2
Quite frankly, I don't know how anyone can support Israel under Bibi's leadership! He is as bad as Trump. ...and I have family who served in Israel as diplomats (along w 5 other nearby embassies).
3
Brett
You are getting your WSJ groove back. Good to see.
6
BDS is a non-violent call for justice and equality for ALL individuals that reside in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank. No matter their religion or race. No more and no less.
And even more Americans- Jews, Muslims, Christians and the rest- will rise up against suffering, injustice and intolerance. Its what Americans do. No matter how Israeli likuk apologists spins their victimhood in this conflict.
3
Many Israelis opposed the "Jewish State" designation. Not because they wish for their country's destruction, but becuase they prefer to live in a country that treats all its citizens equally, rather than under an ethno-nationalist blood-and-soil regime.
But that's what Israel has become. Zionism seemed benign for a time, but now it has turned into something like South Africa's Apartheid.
1
All the ink. All the argument. Blah. Blah. All the wars. All the killing. What a tragedy. It MUST be a two state solution. 50 years of UN resolution informs its conclusion: borders to '67; Pal state to have a capital in Jerusalem; and Israel must pay some sort of reparation. End of story. Make the Peace!
2
There is a glaring omission in Mr. Stephens diatribe. He meticulously avoids any mention of international law. I will assume that this is because Zionism is incompatible with international law.
3
I think mr. Stephens would like to reisit his recent article on the nytimes about the construction of an Israeli Wall
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/opinion/border-wall-israel-lebanon-egypt.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fbret-stephens
by knowing that Israel is in fact not spending its money on tech and low fences his pernickety search found, but on a Massive Tall Wall extended for 40 miles and high 20 feet
https://www.dw.com/en/israel-builds-new-barrier-along-gaza-strip-border/a-47345902
Just for the love of not taking parts and be the skeptic he always declared he wants to be.
1
"To say,...that Jews are “colonizers” in Israel is anti-Semitic because it advances the lie that there is no ancestral or historic Jewish tie to the land."
Really? The whole darn world has been colonized at one time or another. Jews and Palestians were living together; occupying the same land prior to the name 'Israel' being placed on world maps by the UN? Before that renaming, it common land was in 'fact' named Palestine.
The story of Israel's 20th century formation by 'legal' fraud done by colonist states and colonizers parallels identically the process by which American Indian tribes were culturally suppressed and dispossessed of 'their homeland property, rights and liberties with one glaring difference. They gave up the fights over decades to maintain sovereignty, accepting the foreigners as conquerors and terms of surrender. But, Palestinians after three generations have not done so.
Let's be absolutely clear, Palestinians like American Indians were the 'Others'. Different language, 'religion' and cultures then the 'western' Colonist law makers. Whereas Jews were fully assimilated into the western politics. Power not morality or ethics can make the difference in social outcomes, ask the British about the Boxer Rebellion in China or former India.
Jews & Palestinians will either 'willingly' and fulsomely embrace full democracy and human rights as One or not. The U.S. is of diverse enclaves so what's the problem? Many, yet the experiment continues!
2
"A movement that can detect a racist dog-whistle from a mile away is strangely deaf when it comes to the barking on its own side of the fence."
I work on a college campus and have spent a lot of time around student activists. While obviously they do not offer the most mature perspective, again and again, I'm struck by how totally ignorant of anti-semitism they are.
Many of them do learn. But as a blind spot it would be outrageously funny if it were not also dangerous.
Older progressives like to say, 'you can be critical of Israel and supportive of Jews.' And of course you can. But when you really get down to it, a lot of high-minded culture warriors do not begin from that premise. They do not guard against the mixture of Israeli criticism and deep-rooted anti-semitism because they have no idea they should be on the look-out.
Consider Ilhan Omer - in many ways, an admirable young leader. Look how much heat it took for her to even recognize that the distinction was genuinely important. Look at Tamika Mallory - parroting hateful drivel from a rockstar among Jew-haters, and apparently in full ignorance, as if she really was born yesterday.
The problem is not that any criticism of Israel is irreducibly anti-semitic. The problem is profound ignorance from otherwise well-meaning advocates for Palestine.
7
Sir, please read Michelle Alexander’s piece on this matter. Your attempt to entwine anti-Zionism with anti-semitism is riddled with fallacies a college freshman would not make.
Your attempt at likening anti-Zionism and anti-semitism to segregation and racism is laughable, given that the state of Israel has passed apartheid-like laws. “Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusively right to national self-determination,” one of its laws reads.
It is actually being debated in the academy whether any nation has the right to exist—not just Israel. A one-state solution with Palestinians and Israelites as legislatures and citizens should be the only solution.
It is ironic that you defend a religious nation-state given that you wrote this article from the comfort of a county that establishes no religion.
2
The BDS movement is obviously anti-Semitic. If "occupation" is so bad, why aren't they screaming at China for its occupation of Tibet or its imprisonment of a million Uighurs, for starters? No, they are not; just at Israel and only Israel.
7
Mr Stephens,
One is not anti-American if they believe the US should not use drone strikes on civilians. One is not anti-Israel if they support peace in a troubled part of the world. And one is not anti-Semitic when they oppose the apartheid of the Israeli Government and their killing of unarmed protesters who object to a vicious occupation of their land. The NYT continues to give voice without other views from others and when op-eds insist on linking an objection to behavior to bigotry they are losing the real problem. Some governments are bullies. They should be identified as that.
2
You lost me when you equated a free Palatine with the destruction of Israel. I wasn't aware that freedom was a zero-sum game.
2
There's a false dichotomy between anti-Semitism and legitimate criticism of Israel. I see plenty of criticism of Israel that isn't necessarily anti-Semitic, but demonizes Israel and Zionism - accusations of apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, etc.
Anti-Semitism is wrong because it demonizes Jews. Demonization of Zionism not the same - the target population and the grievances overlap, but also differ in important aspects. But they are both manifestations of the unfortunate human tendency to create conspiracy theories and demons.
Ultimately Israel's long term survival is dependent on the goodwill of non-Jewish states which are primarily Christian and Muslim and whose populations skew toward the young who may have no sense of the enormity of the Holocaust and may , in fact, considering their lives, be indifferent to the lessons of the past. The demographics are not in Israel's favor just as the demographics have never favored Jews historically. All the bravado will not change the facts and the leaders of Israel can't avoid this reality. Humankind has always had a short memory and recent outbreaks of antisemitism around the world suggest that the clock is beginning to run out of time.
1
Can you find an objectionable extremists in the progressive ranks, yes, but that does not make criticism of Israel anti-Semitic. Stop generalizing . If you want to see real prejudice in action --backed up by tanks and guns--look at Bibi and study him for a while.
3
Israel has the right to exist. So does Palestine.
1
An Arab state within the former province of Palestine does, in fact, exist. It’s called ‘Jordan’.
5
It’s hard to set the record straight by repeating lies.
1
This wave of Jews decrying antisemitism from the left is really beginning to annoy this progressive reform Jew. Where was Israel during the Arab Spring? Supporting democracy? Yea right. It was fermenting it’s duplicitous acceptance of evangelicals and the Saudis of all the beyond insane dances on the strings of Sheldon Addelson’s web within a web within a web of deception. What have I heard recently? Israeli intelligence spying on American’s? Are you kidding me?!?! For any Jew to a) act racist b) play with racists c) do a&b and then cry foul?!?! Has got to be the most insane wrong in light of thousands of years of really, really tragic lessons. Wise up people . Playing this game will have disastrous consequences and anyone playing it should feel guilt commensurate.
3
The accusation that Israel practices apartheid is not only unfair to Israel and insulting to South Africans, historically it was formed as a political lie at the 2001 Durbin "Human Rights" bash-Israel affair. It was at that conference that BDS strategy was hatched to apply the successful lessons of overturning South Africa's government onto Israel. "Apartheid" being the key ingredient, accusing Israel of apartheid was simply an expedient political lie which like all political lies, if big enough and repeated often enough, gain acceptance. It is not and never was true of Israel.
8
Judging from many of these posts, a good number of you haven't even read Stephens' column. He is by no means a supporter of Netanyahu, and he agrees Palestinians should be afforded more dignity and rights.
He points out-- and this is in response to some of you who say the Palestinians should have a state of their own--that there were two valid proposals made by previous Israeli PMs in 2000 and in 2008, to hand over the West Bank. The Palestinian leadership said no. Whose fault is that?
In response to Israel's olive branch in 2000, the Palestinians launched the Intifada with suicide bombers (homicide bombers, really--I mean, blowing one's self up at little kids' birthday parties is hardly martyrdom) and a steady daily stream of rockets fired from Gaza since.
How does that make Israel evil? How is Israel guilty of genocide? How is Israel an apartheid state?
Stephens acknowledges that the situation is more complex than you know, Israel is not entirely innocent, and that the Palestinians are certainly not innocent. Despite his providing hardcore facts in this piece, the anti-Semites amongst the progressives -- and they are anti-Semites-- continue to sway the rest of you.
What many reasonable, well-intentioned progressive people do not realize is that the Palestinians do not want a 2-state solution. They want the whole enchilada, with Jews out of the picture. What do you think the oft-chanted "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" is all about?
9
Everybody has a right to their opinion but I wonder how many of the posters against Israel have spent time, money or protesting on behalf of the Native Americans whose stolen land many of us live on.
5
What? The party of unassailable virtue engaging in hypocrisy and racism? Say it ain't so - I refuse to believe this apostasy. The left must narrow their hatred toward rich white guys and rural folks if they are to salvage any credibility at all.
Hurry - time is running out.
Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. Please stop making the logical mistakes you accuse the left of making. It undercuts your arguments.
There is Zionism and there is Zionism, e.g. the political Zionism of Theodor Herzl of the 19th century and the Zionism of the arch-right Bibi coalition dreaming of of a Greater Israel with its ever growing illegal settlements in the West Bank.
The latter form of Zionism is heavily subsidized by US Evangelicals because of their own messianic dreams.
And no, Mr. Stephens, progressives, be they Jews like myself or non-Jews , are not assaulting Israel, they are deeply disturbed by and opposed to the policies of the crook Bibi and his cronies in government.
4
The sovereign state of Israel is not the same as "the Jewish people." If non-Jewish Americans cannot criticize the behavior of Israeli leaders without being branded "anti-Semites," we should just annex Israel as our 51st state or at least a US protectorate. Americans criticize the policies of all of our allies from time to time but only when the target is Israel is the criticism instantly turned into a racist statement. Israel is not beyond reproach any more than any other country, and Israeli leaders, their American defenders and American Jews do themselves and Jews everywhere no good service by crying "anti-Semitism" every time legitimate criticism is directed at Israel.
1
“Jewish state’? Is Israel a theocracy? I thought it was one of the few democracies in the Middle East. If someone criticizes Israeli government policies it does not mean they hate Jews and want to destroy the state of Israel. Why is this so hard to understand?
1
Criticizing Israel has nothing to do with anti-semitism, as much as Israel and their American supporters like to portray it that way.
Let's get this straight once and for all, please. Being absolutely opposed to a "Jewish State" in Palestine/Eretz Yisrael is not in the least anti-semitic. It is merely a recognition that there are at least two communities of people who have an emotional, cultural, historical connection the land there. To make this land be a "Jewish State" or a "Muslim State" or an "Arab State" is simply an injustice to a very large number of people. Think that's anti-semitic? How does making the USA a "Christian State" sound to you? Is being opposed to the USA being a "Christian State" make me anti-Christian? No way.
So: STOP already with the "anti-zionism is anti-semitism" already. Genuk. Dai kvar.
I'm Jewish and I am 100% against having a Jewish State in what is now Israel and the Occupied Territories. You can call me wrong, you can call me a leftist, you can call me naive, a liberal, you can call me anything you like but don't you dare call me an anti-semite.
By conflating anti-zionism with anti-semitism you are legitimizing anti-semitism, or certainly muddying the waters. Stop it. Now.
3
How is Representative Rashida Tlaib's tweet anti-semitic? It's definitely anti-Israel, but being critical of Israel does not equate to being anti semitic.
1
Conflict will continue until Israel works out an accommodation with the Palestinians. This is not a jewish problem but a state problem.
We have to be aware of respect the impact Andy history of the evil force that’s anti-semitism. However that is no excuse to mistreat and commit genocide against indigenous Palestinians. Can’t have it both ways. Reach a settlement and give people their fare share of land and citizenship benefits
The Progressive, intersectional wing of the Democrat party, including OAS and Omar, is virulently antisemitic. They single out Israel for special approbation, merely because it is a Jewish state, yet they ignore other Middle Eastern nations that actively persecute gays, women, Jews, Christians, and any other non-Muslim minorities.
Trump made support of Jews a centerpiece of his SOTU speech, and, as a result, is likely to win Florida in 2020. His embrace of Israel and his position as the anti-socialist against the Progressive Green “New Deal” is paving the way for his second term. Forewarned is forearmed.
5
I was born a Jew. am currently Atheist, and been married to a man for years. My support for Israel weakened when Netanyahu spoke before Congress, circumventing Obama. My blood will always have Jewish DNA whether I practice Judaism or not but my homosexuality is a far more important part of my life. My sexuality doesn't define me but my HOMOSEXUALITY does because my marriage stems directly from my love for and of men. Israel under Likud and Netanyahu has a dismal record protecting and advancing gay rights. The nail in Likud's coffin is the cozy marriage with Trump. As the ultra-right in Israel ascended, Reformed and Conservative Jews are becoming disenfranchised, eroding support for Israel even among American Jews. Settlement expansions have prevented lasting peace with the Palestinians, and the Labor party in Israel has shrunk as extremists representation in the Knesset has grown.
What's happening in the US where 'progressives' attack supporters of Israel is another matter. UNWILLING to understand the facts, their actions ARE anti-Semitic and I've said the tyranny on the Left is as bad as on the Right. That's why I prescribe to NO agenda. I will NEVER support anyone calling themselves Republican but I'm not an unqualified supporter of Democrats or progressives either. How repugnant that a gay man who wears a Jewish star is persecuted by other gays - what a disgrace! Like "MeToo", the ultra Left overreaches and ends up alienating those predisposed to supporting them.
2
I am Jewish and I am anti-Zionist and I am hurt and offended when self-styled friends of Israel presume to tell me how to be Jewish. I am wronged when they trade on the history of the persecution of my family, and of all Jewish people, to shill for a political entity that I oppose and that commits the same and worse to the Palestinian people that the Cossacks did to my Bubbie.
3
I agree with much, if not most of what you say. But I disagree with your characterization of those who oppose settlements. I do not oppose the spread of settlements because I think it is the only sticking point in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. I do not think that the only thing they have to do is stop building, and then all will be sunshine and lollipops. To wave off the anti-settlement position with that simplistic notion is disingenuous to say the least.
I think the settlements are a crucial impediment to arriving at a two state solution. They engender distrust on the side of the Palestinians, and promotes conflict between Palestinians and Israelis by increasing their proximity on that particular turf. They serve no purpose other than to placate the Israel right, and, possibly, actually annex the West Bank.
Israel caught a tiger by the tail when it occupied the West Bank in 1967, and it was faced with a perhaps insoluble dilemma that has only grown more insoluble over time. Keep the WB in perpetuity? What to do then with the inhabitants? Make them Israeli citizens? Then lose the Jewish state to demographic forces. Keep them as non-citizens? Then lose legitimacy as a free democratic state. OTOH, let the WB go? The claim is that this leads to unacceptable security risks, and the Gaza experience bears this out. A solution is only possible if the Palestinians are placated in some way.
1
Bret Stephens. Put your money where your mouth is. Demand Israel withdraw all settlements and settlers from the West Bank. Once that is done. Attack and end BDS. Fight for Israel’s right to exist. Protect Israel from terror.
Once Israel leaves the occupied territories, I will fully trust and support Israel.
Oh yeah by the way, calling me anti Semitic because I am against the illegal and immoral West Bank settlements really pisses me off. I support Israel. Stop alienating supporters of Israel by basically calling us modern day Nazis/anti-semites.
4
I did not read Mr. Stephens as equating anti-settlements with anti-semitism. Indeed, he expressly disavowed that notion. I, too, object to the settlement expansion and am opposed to much of the Netanyahu policies. What Mr. Stephens said, and to which I agree, is that calls for the end of Israel are inherently anti-Semitic.
3
I do not understand this complex issue, nor the explicit or subtle/indirect motivations of the factions involved. Could the NYT please print a primer on it? Thanks in advance.
8
Palestinians have enlisted the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to seize by public opinion what they would - but can’t - take by force.
16
Entirely unsurprising that the Times's resident global warming denier can't tell the difference between hatred of Jews as people, vs. criticism of the unconscionable policies of a government that (ludicrously) claims the right to speak and act on behalf of all Jews. He thus makes one of the biggest (and most bigoted) mistakes he alleges of his targets: he conflates the government of Israel with all Jews.
As for the purported double standard: the parallel Mr. Stephens is looking for is not China or Zimbabwe, but the United States itself, where we displaced people who had lived on the land for hundreds or thousands of years, murdered them if they didn't want to go, and forced them to assimilate or live in open-air prisons. If acknowledging settlers' treatment of Native Americans requires using strong language like "genocide" (which at this point is nearly indisputable) why do we balk at the same words in similar situations on the other side of the globe? Victims of abuse often perpetuate that abuse, and Israeli treatment of Palestinians is simply the most visible geopolitical example of it. Comparisons to Nazi Germany are (I agree) way beyond the pale, but let's not pretend Germany is the only nation ever to displace and kill people for land.
16
@Ben
It is the Jewish people who are the indigenous and may be compared to the Native Americans in your comment....not the Arab population, who are, themselves, the descendants of invaders and colonists to the Levant.
6
I fear that there is a resurgence of anti-semitism around the world. I fear that more and more people are associating the immorality of present day Israel with the world's Jewish community in general. This needs to be stopped. It is up to the world's Jewish comminty to come forward forcefully against the extremist policies and actions of the current Israeli government.
6
Magnificent!
Judah Ben-Hur, the Prince of Judaea, charioteered a quadriga pulled by Arabians to victory over the Roman nobleman, Messala.
As for Jeremy Corbyn, does it surprise? England expelled Jews for 350 years, beginning in 1290. Nor did Jews enjoy rights underwritten by the Magna Carta.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is flirting with disaster.
This is not the appropriate forum for a meditation on the roots of antisemitism. I refer you to Robert Wistrich’s book-length study.
How is it that the Arab nations, with all that oil revenue, have not achieved what Israel has achieved.
The United Nations needs paladins like Hillel Neuer, Brigitte Gabriel, Bret Stephens.
17
I can’t believe the Times published this. Being pro-human rights and believing that the Palestinians have equal rights in the world is not “hostile” toward Israel and is certainly not anti-Semitism. This piece mixes too many political ideas and Mr. Stephens is deeply uninformed at best and biased at worst. Perhaps a better topic would be how Israel’s political leaders’ unjust policies have led to a loss of support.
14
I'm no supporter of Mr. Farrakhan. I've always been very sympathetic to and hopeful that the state of Israel would prosper as it brought truly democratic principles to the region.
Neither do I think the government of Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu is anywhere near as bad as that of Mr. Putin or Mr. Bashar al-Assad? But is that the bar we now set for our allies? They aren't the worst government out there? I hope not.
Stop painting me as someone looking to erase Israel from the map. I DO expect people we give political, military and economic support to NOT to use it to forward their ultra-religious and xenophobic policies.
You want to cherry pick individuals from the boycott to show everyone there as anti-Israel? Now your bias is showing. I just don't want my money helping Netanyahu behave like a Putin wannabe. So save your outrage over progressivism and start looking why so many progressives who DO support Israel are angry at how it's behaving right now.
Need another analogy? It's like allies of America around the world who work against some of our polices because the guy in charge is a flaming jerk that has a soft spot for dictators and authoritarians.
Small world I guess.
9
You totally lack credibility to hold the left accountable for anything as you repeatedly advocate anti-democratic positions and blame the left for everything.
As a civil rights attorney with over 20 years of experience I just held Marco Rubio to task for his article "Marco Rubio: The Truth About B.D.S. and the Lies About My Bill" (S. 1) as B.D.S. is protected speech. Further, you can't expect anyone to revile Trump and not Netanyahu as the two men are indistinguishable. However, while some on the left are concerned with Israeli human rights violations, far too many in B.D.S. are in fact anti-Semitic.
I never thought I'd have anything to do with Israeli politics, but even doing civil rights work entirely unrelated to Israel gets one pulled into it. I happened to meet a large group of B.D.S. leaders nearly a decade ago while working on an unrelated domestic civil rights case. It was one of the most disturbing conversations I've ever had.
The B.D.S. leaders knew I was generally supportive as there's nothing inherently bigoted about refusing to do business with a state if it discriminates. However, even if B.D.S. doesn't officially seek the destruction of a Jewish state, the B.D.S. leaders told me it did, stating: "Our position is maybe the Jews can live if they all leave now." "Jews" mind you, not "Israelis," and "maybe can live," and "all leave now."
They meant the "Jews" wouldn't be alive if they didn't leave, and might be killed even if they did. That's anti-Semitism.
7
Sadly, the left now shrugs off anti-semitism the same way the right shrugs off racism. Their mantra that anti-zionism is not anti-semitism is theoretically true, but man, there's a lot of overlap.
Just as on the far right, facts have been replaced by feelings. There are many worse human rights offenders than Israel, so what? Israel has twice in the last 20 years offered the Palestinians a state only to be completely rebuffed, so what? Israeli Arabs have far more rights than Arabs in any other Middle eastern country in the world, so what? Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, hoping to find a partner in peace and wound up with terror tunnels and missiles launched at kindergartens, so what?
The left's singular obsession with obliterating a tiny country that inhabits less than a quarter of 1% of the world's population and an even smaller percentage of its land is seen as a sacred call for justice, rather than what it actually is, the latest incarnation of centuries old anti-semitism.
15
Zionism and Judaism aren’t the same thing. America is free today because its founders — all people of faith — understood that theocracy and freedom are incompatible. State religion corrupts the state and the church equally. Which church doesn’t matter.
For the sake of our civil society, we should all be afraid of what Netanyahu and his friends in the Republican Party stand for.
9
Nothing new here. But one notes the reappearance of a statistical straw man that had seemingly been dropped in recent fulminations by knee-jerk "supporters of Israel". He states: "Nearly 1,300 Israeli civilians have been killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks in this century: That’s the proportional equivalent of about 16 Sept. 11’s in the United States." No: the death of an Israeli civilian is equal to the death of anyone else: 1,300 "Israeli civilians" are not "equivalent" to 33,000 other people. How many Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in this century? What is that number "equivalent" to in Mr. Stephen's opinion?
3
Jews have been subject to hatred and murder for millennia. They have been the convenient scapegoat for so many different political entities that it scarcely matters what the rationale is. By the time the Nazis were rounding them up throughout Europe, the idea of doing so was not novel, it was just that the technology and the will achieved critical mass so that it could be achieved. Making distinctions between anti-zionism, vs. antisemitism is splitting a hair on a bald man's head. As long as Israel, Jews and Zionism is subject to the disproportionate criticism for all that is wrong, the beat goes on. The abstraction known as the Jewish people exists as the distinctive target upon which Arabs, Christians and now even LGBTQ and other marginalized people can cite as anathema to their pursuit of peace and acceptance. History, as Twain noted, does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. Having LBDTQ or other marginalized populations seek to separate itself from associations with Jews now, is similar to the repudiation and attack that Jews were subject to in the late 1960's and early 1970's when African Americans civil rights leaders sought to separate themselves from Jews who historically advocated for equal rights. The NAACP cleaned house of its Jews even though they were instrumental in forming the organization. American Jews were in the forefront of LGBTQ rights, the first denomination to support Gay rights in the 1970's and now these progressives are cleaning house.
17
Mr. Stephens, let me reiterate: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."
Good enough for American Jews but not good enough for your brethren over there? Why this public insistence that Israel can only be a Jewish state?
4
Mr. Stephens has got to stop with carrying water for the pro-Israel lobbies.
Since when denouncing Apartheid-like policies has been objectionable? Why would Israel be any different from other nations that follow racist ideologies?
The BDS movement is both peaceful and necessary action. Awareness in America is growing, and this is the reason why AIPAC and friends are getting very nervous.
Forget Jewish Americans, even Israelis have grown tired of the racist policies of their own government. This goes beyond a moral stain: Israel's public image has become an embarrassment.
And Mr. Stephens's finger pointing and misleading accusationss against brave US Congress men and women only underscores the moral and political limits to any support of Israel. Isn't time he woke up to a new reality?
5
The land of Canaan was already occupied when the Israelite nation (formerly from Iraq according to Genesis and DNA) left Egyptian captivity and conquered the area which is now known as Israel. When the Romans drove the Israelites out after the Jewish War, leaving only a remnant, others became a majority, only to be ruled by changing empires for more than a thousand years.
In the early 1900s, the British gave a portion of the land they took from the defeated Ottomans and gave it to the Jews despite the fact that the Jews were a minority in the area which was already occupied, and most had come from Europe fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. What right did the British have to give land, which was already occupied, to someone else? Obviously, it is because the British had more guns and might makes right.
The only reason that the U.S. or any other country has a right to exist is if they have more or better weapons than others. Do you think that the Union won the Civil War because they held the moral high ground or because they had a better military?
Israel is no different. What will happen when the U.S. stops supporting Israel and their opponents have more guns?
If the American Indians, Spanish or French had a better military, the U.S. would not have become a British colony. And if the British had not lost the War of 1812, the U.S. would still be one.
Rights emanate from the barrel of a gun.
1
1492=invasion
1776=formalized occupation (creating judeochristian "white surpremacy" on paper or into "law")
1
Progressives fighting for those against Israel are being duped.
Israel isn’t perfect. Especially surrounded by enemies, perfect is not an option.
But don’t think for once that those against Israel are our friends.
Progressives, you are being used as pawns.
15
@Jane
There are many friends of Israel who support the BDS movement. I, for one, hope to help take Israel off the path to self-destruction.
2
@Jane
There are many friends of Israel who support the BDS movement. I, for one, hope to help take Israel off the path to self-destruction.
Sadly, articles like this that tend to conflate "antisemitism" with criticism of the government of the Jewish State of Israel don't help. Yes, there is a Jewish State of Israel just as there is an Islamic Republic of .... They are nation-states and, as such, can (and must be) allowed to exist *and* to be held accountable for their actions. But that is not the same as the Jewish State of Israel (or the Islamic Republic of ...) speaking for an archetypal "Jew" (or "Muslim"). Archetypes exist only to be exploited; nation-states exist only to further the interests of *all* of their citizens.
1
I'm curious about why the BDS movement isn't as outspoken about Saudi Arabia's involvement in Yemen....
8
Merriam-Webster defines anti-Semitism as "hostility toward Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial minority group often accompanied by social, economic, and political discrimination." I read the tweets by Representatives Tlaib and Omar that you linked to, and they are not anti-Semitic. I will quote them here:
"They forgot what country they represent. This is the U.S. where boycotting is a right & part of our historical fight for freedom & equality. Maybe a refresher on our U.S. Constitution is in order, then get back to opening up our government instead of taking our rights away." -- Ilhan Omar on Twitter
"Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. #Gaza #Palestine #Israel" -- Ilhan Omar on Twitter
Criticism of Israeli policy toward the Palestinian people and their own Arab population is not the same thing as anti-semitism.
Facts matter. Words matter. Definitions matter.
3
The Egyptians used to write everything. Yet.
The logics here are so twisted to a point where in the same parargaph of 9 lines, there are at least 4 major "contre sens " .
Philosophically speaking. And no shame at using the most horrible amalgams and reversals of logic.
Which does not seem to bother the author for citing as well Arendt at his side ...
Did anyone in the comments section actually read the article? It seems that just a headline with the word "Israel" is enough for people to spout many of the exact excuses and attitudes in the comments section that Stephens carefully dismantles, with evidence, in each paragraph of this article. Our problems with antisemitism in the Democratic party won't be solved if we jump to such massive conclusions without doing due diligence...
14
Well, as evidenced by these comments, the brainwashing of the "Palestinian narrative" has taken hold even here in the USA. Apparently there is no shortage of those who will condemn Israel for surviving against great odds. Amazingly most of these comments ignore historical facts but why study those when it is easier to vilify the victim.
13
I would ask this of leadership of the B.D.S. organization; Let's say that the boycott of Israel is successful and Israel is compelled to receive hundreds of thousands if not a million former Palestinian refugees. Now answer where will they all be housed, fed, work and be educated? How will they be assimilated into Israeli society? What political party will accept them and what rights and privileges will they demand? What will happen to Jewish homes, Jewish businesses, Jewish institutions and Jewish neighborhoods? What will become of the Jewish people of Israel?
Would B.D.S seek the total dismantling of the Jewish state? What would happen to borders that Israel currently defends against the Arab nations as well as Hamas and Hezbollah?
What would become of the Jewish state that was created, not as a consolation prize at the end of World War II, but as an independent nation on lands that were recognized as the homeland of the Jews since before the times of the Romans? Where would the Jews be safe from annihilation? Take note too that B.D.S fails to recognize the Jewish population that lived in Judea and other Jewish lands for more than 2,000 years.
B.D.S. asserts it is on a moral crusade for refugees of 1948. But what of the 9 million Jewish refugees that would be created if B.D.S is successful?
The 5 Arab armies of 1948 drove out the Palestinians and put them in camps refusing to absorb them. B.D.S. needs to acknowledge the Jewish people and their nation, Israel.
8
See for example, https://blog.sami-aldeeb.com/2018/07/25/noam-chomsky-on-israel-a-hideous-atrocity-much-worse-than-apartheid-in-south-africa/, for a well documented alternative point of view.
Stephen's examples are about as compelling as Princeton admitting a single "Jew from Philadelphia", when approximately 21% of the Parliament are Arab and they are made part of governing coalition one can say that they have some representatives in government. Same for the Universities, show Arabs are the same as show Jews, simply propaganda for the Israeli governments.
No ones saying that Israel hasn’t done some undesirable stuff. But in the context of history and situation on the ground, it’s quite understandable. Taken OUT of context, well, it’s what all the progressives are running with.
He sad truth is that taken IN context the anti Israel comments and sentiments displayed by politicians are incredibly anti-Semitic. Why? Because these people are actually objectively Antisemitic based on their affiliations and actions. They just figured that slamming Israel is now ok, so it’s their way of exercising it.
The “progressives” have created this back door into anti-semitism. That’s how it always starts...
10
Bret Stephens is deliberately trying to link the word "progressive" to an extreme position on Israel and link that position to moderate liberalism in general. It's a hoax. This tactic is roughly equivalent to me saying all conservatives are pederasts because fringe Republicans support Roy Moore.
Should Democrats be mindful of antisemitism within in their ranks? Absolutely. However, Republicans really can't point any fingers. For every bad example on one side, there are ten on the other.
To answer the central question though: Is Israel entitled to a culturally and religiously monistic state? I think most liberals and progressives would agree the answer is no. That doesn't make them antisemitic. As I've pointed out before, Judaism isn't necessarily involved at all. See Mormon Zionism for reference. You can oppose Zionism without being antisemitic.
Zionism is in fact oppressive to anyone who belongs to an outside group. If you support freedom of religion, the First Amendment of the Constitution, you are by definition anti-Zionist. That's how logic works.
2
Bret Stephens should do more than a cursory reading of the concepts, people, and movements he writes about before he tries to publish an opinion piece in the New York Times. There are so many factual errors and misconceptions strewn throughout this piece, it would take more space than is allotted here to address them all. At the heart of his piece, however, are misconceptions of Zionism, anti-Zionism, and the notion that Israel is or should be a "Jewish State." Zionism is the ongoing movement to create an *exclusively* Jewish state in territory that has had for millenia a non-Jewish majority. From the founding of Israel in 1948 to the present day, Zionism in practice has thus meant the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish Palestinians out of their homes in Israel (and increasingly, out of their homes in occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank). Anti-Zionism is the rejection of such a state where one ethnic or religious group is privileged over another. Just as an anti-apartheid stance was neither anti-white nor anti-South Africa, anti-Zionism is neither against Jews nor against an Israeli state, so long as that state equally represents, is represented by, protects, and provides for all its inhabitants, not just some of them.
2
He talks about South Africa, and there are certainly parallels - in the process though displaying typical ignorance of the history of this country. Whites here were forced, by international pressure, to give up control of the country we created, handing it over to Bantu migrants from central Africa, who have in reality no more rights to this region than we do. Massive population increase as a result of the good conditions created by the European colonists meant 'majority rule' was demanded by liberals in the west, and the generally willfully ignorant.
"Anti-Zionism proposes nothing less than the elimination of that identity and the political dispossession of those who cherish it, with no real thought of what would likely happen to the dispossessed. Do progressives expect the rights of Jews to be protected should Hamas someday assume the leadership of a reconstituted “Palestine”?"
Quite so - anyone thinking the rights, property or otherwise of the Israelis will be protected should they be forced to relinquish power needs their head read - witness the myriad discriminatory laws, threat of property expropriation, farm killings, and general and increasing demonisation being directed at the white minority in South Africa to find out the answer to the question he poses.
5
This article is a poor excuse for trying to muzzle Americans from criticizing the netanayu government. It is simply laughable to equate equal service for gays with opposing netanayu's racism. And what's more, Bret et al have shamefully tied Israel to the gop, with racist sneers at president Obama to boot. The reckoning to israel, as a us client state, will be unpleasant. One final thing: as the recent skadden arps case showed, Bret really should be registering as an agent for a foreign government.
In reality-land, there can be victimizers who were once victims. There can be victims who are in other ways unappealing. There can be two right sides to a story, or two wrong sides, or both at once. There are myriads of progressive American Jews who absolutely deplore what Israel is doing to the other semitic culture living within its borders, what does that make them?
Authors such as yourself, who have reduced this complicated story to bad guys and good guys do everyone a disservice.
Bret Says "More than a half-century of occupation of Palestinian territories is a massive injustice that fair-minded people can no longer ignore, especially given America’s financial support for Israel. Continued settlement expansion in the West Bank proves Israel has no interest in making peace on equitable terms. And endless occupation makes Israel’s vaunted democracy less about Jewish self-determination than it is about ethnic subjugation."
Yep, exactly. He claims that this is not true, but not a thing he says actually argues any of these realities. Further he says some entirely ridiculous things:
"Israel has voluntarily relinquished more territory taken in war than any state in the world." Ha ha ha! Psst -- Bret look at World War II. The US relinquished Japan, more arguably relinquished most of western Europe.
Talking about Sharon in 2005 merely highlights what today's government won't do.
"Nearly 1,300 Israeli civilians have been killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks in this century" -- look here:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/comprehensive-listing-of-terrorism-victims-in-israel
11 in 2018. 14 in 2017. 16 in 2015. 37 in 2015.
This list includes Israeli soldiers killed in combat in operations like "Protective Edge" as "terrorism victims" ... these are neither civilians nor victims. neglecting these,
19 in 2014
8 in 2013
8 in 2012, 4 of whom were soldiers in the occupied areas
19 in 2011, one of whom was a tourist from the UK
3
Classic Republican "whataboutism" once again. Certainly, this has been explained a thousand times, but here's one more:
Israel is not "the Jews." Israel is a country, partly populated by Jews, and partly populated by Palestinians. Palestinians wanting a voice in their government are not "anti-Semites."
Read a book and try again.
1
@Randall. Palestinians are not Israeli citizens, it's not their government at all. Israeli Arabs have full voting rights and have elected many current members of the Israeli parliament.
The Palestinians deserve their own state where they will have full voting rights. They were offered this twice in the last 20 years and both times rebuffed the offers without negotiating or countering.
The Palestinian people are first and foremost victims of a corrupt, incompetent, unelected leadership that refuses to accept any reasonable solution. If democracy were not abolished by Hamas and Fatah, perhaps a change in leadership would be possible.
3
As a Jew who grew up in apartheid South Africa and has lived in Jerusalem for the past five decades, allow me to assure people who equate Israeli policies and practices, deplorable as they may be, with apartheid simply do not know what they are talking about. Visit any hospital or university in Israel, or indeed the Knesset, and see that Israeli Arabs enjoy equal rights with the Jewish ones. Palestinians are the victims of their own leadership's refusal to accept reasonable solutions to the conflict, and unfortunately this suits the current land-grabbing Israeli leadership, unlike its predecessors,right down to the West Bank's ground.
12
Bret, as usual, tries to cow meaningful opposition to Israel with the club of the anti-Semitic label.
There is a glaring fact he refuses to address. Israel controls the lives of the Palestinians in the West Bank but gives them no democratic voice in shaping the very policies that control their lives. It is oppression without representation. There is no denying this.
He repeats the claim that the singling out of Israeli's harsh oppression is anti-Semitic. But Israel singles itself out. Americans taxpayers fund the very means by which Israel is able to oppress the Palestinians; more foreign aid is given to Israel than any other single country, in fact more foreign aid that is given collectively to all other countries. Prominent columnists run pro-Zionist commentary daily in the important newspapers and TV channels the US. (Which other country receives this adulating treatment?) Netanyahu achieves permission to address a joint session of Congress to promote the Israeli agenda to American lawmakers and citizens at large, with the billionaire Sheldon Adelson watching from the balcony to decide which legislators leap to their feet the fastest to clap to dump upon his millions in campaign contributions. What other country is singled out for this privilege?
Bret's columns must be seen for what they are: cheerleading to single out Israel as a country beyond any meaningful criticism and the single one that we are not allowed to boycott.
2
@Lew Williams. There is also no denying that the Palestinian leadership of the West Bank also refuses to give the Palestinian people any say over who represents them. If Fatah would allow elections, I suspect they would lose in a landslide.
I'm constantly surprised why those who advocate so zealously for the Palestinians are so casual about the fact that their leaders have no democratic legitimacy. Surely, their civil rights include representation by those who they have selected.
3
Very well-written and cogent piece. The left needs to do some self-reflection when it comes to Jews and Israel or they risk loosing even more voters to the Republicans.
9
Indeed. I think it's odd when you see some people of this movement support countries that so awfully discriminates and openly hates the Jewish people (and I'm not even talking about the Israeli government). Just a quick research on the statements given by some politicians of the countries around Israel will show you that
7
When it is convenient Israel is a Jewish state. At other times it is democratic state. Stephens obviously supports a Jewish state which is by definition discriminatory against the Muslims and Christians. When is Stephens going to espouse Palestinian rights? What Stephens is actually exemplifies is anti-Semitism against the Arab Semites as he identifies with the Jews who emigrated from Europe.
@Denis. Stephens is advocating for Palestinian rights by supporting a two state solution which would create an autonomous state of Palestine.
When will the Palestinian leadership accept the same? Why won't they accept a state of their own? Is it because they believe they will eventually get the entire country from the river to the sea?
There are scores of majority Christian nations, dozens of majority muslim nations. Why is it so offensive that there be one tiny little majority Jewish nation?
With the Jews singular history of persecution, is it really so outlandish that they want a place where they are not in the minority?
2
Two wrongs don’t make a right. But 22 Islamic states certainly make Israel a pragmatic option for Jews who can’t live in those countries.
3
What Bret Stephens needs to do is live a year in Palestinian shoes and watch walls being built through olive orchards and witness Palestinians only source of jobs as building Israeli houses on their land. Of course, he's aware of decades of land-grabbing and yet is not surprised at uprisings of the oppressed? There is nothing surprising here--only that the Zionists continue to keep their heads in the sand. Of all the peoples of the world, it should the Israelis who understand persecution the best--yet they have now become the oppressors. I see no solutions here.
This conservative columnist is strangely deaf when it comes to the anti-Arab, anti-Muslim policies on his own side of the fence Do Donald Trump's treatment of immigrants and refugees sound familiar?
1
There's a difference between antisemitism and not willing to support financially a country that regularly engages in war crimes.
I fail to see what makes any of these groups progressive or liberal.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is a rallying call of Hamas which calls for the destruction of the entire State of Israel in all forms and in all boundaries, or at least Jewish forms.
Sounds like good old anti-Semitism to me. Or shall we call it progressive anti-Semitism.
11
Enough of this nonsense. No more treading lightly. Israel needs to tell the Palestinians that they can forget about an independent state on the West Bank. They had their chance. They didn't take it. That ship has sailed. Bye bye!
The West Bank needs to be incorporated into Israel-proper. West Bankers should get full Israeli citizenship and rights. Palestinians who lost land, money or businesses should get Just Compensation as under the legal Doctrine of Eminant Domain.
No "right of return". They get cash instead. You want your land back, take your cash and buy it back if it's available.
West Bank Palestinians can get some autonomy as French Canadians do in Quebec. And that's it. Case closed. With the huge influx of Jews since 1948 the region alloted to Jews in '48 is too small to support a viable state for Jews, much less two states.
The UN should declare Gaza an independent state whether Gaza wants it or not. Israel vacated Gaza years ago. Egypt has no claim on Gaza. Independence is the only viable outcome.
There's your Palestinian State. Gaza!
4
As a current resident of Israel I remain amazed at the diversity of the inhabitants. I’m a blue eyed blonde but the rest of the color spectrum is represented. And in the ice cream shops of Yafo who is what is unclear.
One hears French and Russian on the streets of Tel Aviv. Those are constant reminders of the sad fact that Jews remain endangered. As a kid I marched on behalf of freedom for Russian Jews. But the French? And now I hear that the next wave of immigrants will be from Britain. As a baby boomer I never expected to see this in my lifetime. Nor did I ever expect to hear elected officials from places like NY espouse anti Semitic viewpoints.
Talk about intersectionality- in the early 1960’s my father wouldn’t let me participate in a minstrel show ( not sure if it ever was performed and I was shocked when he explained what that meant). It seems that tolerance is only expected in one direction.
I cannot understand why any wrong action by Israel is subject to international disapproval while everyone else gets a free pass. Oh yes, it’s antisemitism.
10
I see this whole anti-Zionist movement as a coequal movement that the left rails about on the right—a “let’s just tear the whole thing down” ideal. It’s a lack of understanding and a lack of responsibility for delving into the gray areas of any topic. How much easier it is to just declare something or someone good or evil. People are so terribly lazy and frustrated with ambiguity that it’s easier to declare Israel another evil empire rather than thinking about all of the consequences of its destruction, or even whether it’s justified.
4
Rubio earlier this week in the NYT, and Stephens now, have attempted to demonize the BDS movement. This means BDS is working, and working well.
3
“Nearly 1,300 Israeli civilians have been killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks in this century...”
The number of Palestinians killed in the same period, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, is over 10,500.
The extreme lopsidedness of casualties and suffering belies the framing of a “conflict” or “war,” and is more than sufficient reason to power a progressive cause.
1
Yet another disappointing example of accusations of anti-Semitism being used to suppress urgent discussion of Israeli injustices. This is a dangerous conflation that renders unspeakable any legitimate criticisms of Israeli actions toward Palestinians. Given the author's purported defense of "complexity," one would think even he might see the dangers in labeling any reproach of Israel 'anti-Semitic.' The numbers are haltingly clear: Palestinians are far more likely to be killed by Israelis than Israelis are by Palestinians. How are we supposed to talk about this without being dismissed as rabid anti-Semites?
1
I'm bloody sick and tired of the efforts to conflate opposition to Israel's policies with anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. It's nothing more than an attempt to shame and silence the opposition. I'm sure that there are some anti-semites in there, but there are lots of Jews too.
You can ignore, paper over, and justify what the government of Israel is doing to your heart's content Bret, but we don't have to.
These attempts to shut people up, to wave them away with a "nothing to see here or complain about, folks" has exactly the opposite effect.
1
"Both have also written tweets with distinctly anti-Semitic undertones."
The tweets linked to the sentence are displayed below.
Could someone explain why they are "distinctly anti-Semitic"? This is not a rhetorical question, I understand there might be coded words or expressions I am not aware of.
"They forgot what country they represent. This is the U.S. where boycotting is a right & part of our historical fight for freedom & equality. Maybe a refresher on our U.S. Constitution is in order, then get back to opening up our government instead of taking our rights away."
"Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. #Gaza #Palestine #Israel"
1
The BDS movement and their allies are blatantly anti-Semitic. They show no concern for the many oppressed peoples the world over (including the Muslim women who are treated as lower than dirt), and focus their energy on tiny Israel. They portray Israel as the aggressor and the Palestinians as victims. It's just not accurate. The fact of the matter, as clearly stated by Mr. Stephens, is that the Palestinians have been offered their own state at least 3 times, including by the UN when it partitioned the land and the modern State of Israel was created. They have rejected all of those offers and used violence to try and accomplish what they really want: to drive the Jews into the sea. The Palestinians can have their state if they eschew violence and accept the generous offers made by the Israelis and the UN in 1948. They want 100% of what they want, and continue to throw violent tantrums to try and achieve their ends. Never again.
8
This piece, Mr. Stephens, is one of the largest helpings of tar and feathering of sociopolitical groups I've seen in The New York Times in a long time. Maybe it's time to have some of your sociopolitical connections examined to this degree.
Mr. Stephen's opinion that U.S. Jews can be counted upon cast Democrat ballots merits a historical qualifier. During several decades of the nineteenth century, the majority of Jewish voters cast Republican ballots. In part, that was due to antisemitic prejudices within the Democratic ranks so severe that at one national convention, presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan denounced such sentiment from the speaker's platform.
Given subsequent changes in the demographics of American Jewry and the Republican Party's foreign policy during the 1930s, that voting pattern changed. Given the current trends in the Democratic party, the pattern may reverse again and this time in a Republican direction.
2
@Ben And I recall Israel using chemical weapons on Palestinians during its 2009 war (I was there, living in Israel at the time; our neighborhood even got shelled by a Katyusha rocket launched from Gaza). Israel denied using white phosphorous at the time, but then admitted it 4 years later. This was a huge scandal that was widely discussed and condemned by most Israelis.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/25/israel-white-phosphorus-gaza
1
1492 equals invasion and 1776 equals formalized occupation!
Thank you! I pray that the members of my former synagogue, which claims progressiveness, will read and grasp this important article and contemplate how they and their sister organizations of other faiths are alienating otherwise progressive members. Actually, I shouldn't have said "otherwise" for the rhetoric and actions coming from those sources is anything but progressive -- it is regressive in some of the worst possible ways.
I and others have plenty to say in criticizing Likud and some of its allied parties in the Israeli government; but I refuse to ally myself with those protesting in America who cry (sometimes in Arabic) "Jewish dogs" or "Slaughter the pig Jews" or the genocidal call of "from the river to the sea" or who in English and to my face insist that people who are Jewish don't need and are not to be allowed to exercise self-determination. Can you imagine a "progressive" saying that about Black folks or Muslims? I will not ally myself with Likud or Israel critics who liken me to a cockroach, who tell me Hitler should've finished his job, who claim Judeophobia doesn't exist, that the family of a Jewish friend, that has lived in or near Jerusalem for at least 600-700 years had no legitimate ties or claim to their home, or who blindly assume that all Jews, including all Jewish Israelis, are rich, white, and European (though I sometimes wish the white supremacists who hate us would so think) and, in so doing erase Jews of Color in a dazzling display of racism.
10
Israel's enemies were committed to its destruction long before it occupied a single inch of Gaza or the West Bank. In proportion to its size, Israel has voluntarily relinquished more territory taken in war than any state in the world.
Israeli prime ministers offered a Palestinian state in 2000 and 2008; they were refused both times. The result of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza strip in 2005 allowed Hamas to seize power two years later and spark three wars. Nearly 1,300 Israeli civilians have been killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks in this century: That’s the proportional equivalent of about 16 Sept. 11’s in the United States.
There is much to dislike about Israel’s current leadership, just as there’s much not to like about America’s. But nobody claims the election of Donald Trump makes America an illegitimate state.
It’s theoretically possible to distinguish anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism, just as it’s theoretically possible to distinguish segregationism from racism. But the striking feature of anti-Zionist rhetoric is how broadly it overlaps with traditionally anti-Semitic tropes.
But the most toxic assumption is that Jews, even in Israel, can never really be thought of as victims or even as a minority because they are white, wealthy, powerful and “privileged.” This relies on a simplistic concept of power that collapses on a moment’s inspection. Jews in Germany were economically and even politically powerful in the 1920s. And then they were in Buchenwald.
5
Magnificent!
As for Jeremy Corbyn, does it surprise? England expelled Jews for 350 years, beginning in 1290. Nor did Jews enjoy rights underwritten by the Magna Carta.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is flirting with disaster.
I refer you to Robert Wistrich’s book-length study on antisemitism.
How is it that the Arab nations, with all that oil revenue, have not achieved what Israel has achieved?
The United Nations needs paladins like Hillel Neuer, Brigitte Gabriel, and Bret Stephens.
6
Please excuse me for being naive or perhaps for having lived under a rock up here in Canada but what on earth have the Jewish people done to deserve the widespread hatred they are subject to? Certainly the present day state of Israel has not always behaved well but there is so much guilt to go around when it comes to the sad state of the Middle East that it is unfair to single out any single player. Almost all nations throughout history have interfered with other states to their own advantage when possible and Israel (and the USA, Britain, France, Russia, China ....) is no exception.
6
Mr. Stephens consistently conflates opposition to Israeli policies towards the Palestinians with anti-Semitism. The fact is that the Israel lobby has had a stranglehold on US policy towards Israel and there are few ways to register opposition short of support for BDS. No doubt there are anti Semites within the BDS movement but I am certainly not one, nor are the dozens of others I know who take the same position.
Israeli behavior towards the Palestinians is atrocious and worthy of condemnation by thoughtful, moral and democratically inclined peoples. Why can't you acknowledge that instead of damning all who offer opposition as anti Semites?
1
Absolutely.
are you boycotting Saudi Arabia for their treatment of Shia minorities? For their treatment of women? For executing Christians?
Are you boycotting Turkey for their treatment of Kurds, women, gays and Jews?
Are you boycotting Iran for their treatment of Kurds, women, gays and Jews?
Are you boycotting UAE for their treatment of Kurds, women, Shia, Alawites, gays and Jews?
It is some weird linkage, that we have to "oppressed" people that happen to create headlines with their own poor choices.
The PLO treatment of their own people and suppression of rights, deserves the boycott.
8
The writer should recognize that we who are not Jewish and have no ties to Israel see both sides and angry and irrational. From my chair, I see defenders of each making the case that they were horribly wronged. Of course I recognize the holocaust. But I have never understood how that excused colonizing someone else's land.
So I wish the two sides could agree. But we outsiders have the right to consider Zionism and abuse. So was the destruction of the native American lifestyle. I cannot do much about our native Indians, but the Palestinians are still there.
Ah, Bret , freedom of speech but not freedom of religion? Are we speaking of Israel or US? Should Italy be exclusively Catholic? 14,000 American Rabbis opposed the Israeli constitution because they claimed an exclusive Jewish state was an anathema to freedom & democracy. Are we as Americans supposed to oppose equality & universal suffrage? Look at Israel’s record between Ashkenazi,Sephardic & Ethiopian Jews ,let alone the fact America pays for defense of Israel as ethnically cleanses areas. How many Jewish Isreallies have had their homes confiscated for crimes their children have committed. This is not a Jewish or anti-Semitic issue , this is a Jewish Isrealli issue. 14,000 American Rabbis opposed the Israeli constitution because it used the same logic as Adolf & Eichman did. Instead of Nuremberg or Jim Crow laws, they are Tel Aviv & Jerusalem laws. Hannah Arendt identified prejudice as prejudice ,whether it is emanated from a German ,a Jew , a Catholic or an Arab. Laws should protect everyone ,equally. By not doing so , we condemn ourselves to past atrocities. Just different victims. On & on & on. Shalom.
1
It is remarkable how almost everybody reacts to the issue of whether Israel can be criticized objectively. That is not my concern; it must. Simply, Israel is opportunistic and the Palestinians are too incompetent to create even a semblance of good governance. Dialog has been crushed. What is my concern is the dog whistle and the self righteous nature of the US left and their blatantly one-sided anti-Semitic hateful approach. To me, this is the same rot that started now 40 years ago with the Zionism is Racism slogan. It did not help the Palestinian cause then and never will until the Palestinians start taking responsible ownership. I dropped my Democratic party registration.
3
To all concerned readers, please go back and read this outstanding NYT article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/books/review/steven-weisman-chosen-wars.html
Then go out and read the book written by Tal Keinan, outlined in the article.
If you are a Jew, put it into action. You will then and only then fulfill your dual mandate as a Jewish-American.
For decades, Israel has systematically stolen Palestinian land and, when it deems it convenient, killed thousands of Palestinians, "mowing the grass" in an effort to keep these people oppressed and hopeless. There is no argument to be made for Israel's illegal settlements and violent expansion, all at the cost of the lives and well-being of the indigenous people of Palestine. Pointing out the obvious parallels between Israel and every other colonial enterprise is not anti-Semitic, it's common sense. I've long since determined that the reason for hysterical columns like this one lies in the fact that the arguments that can be mustered in favour of Israel are remarkably weak. There is no defense of Israel's current actions.
1
Gratifying that Bret Stephens's foolish ideas are rejected by most readers.
1
The “Jews killed G-d” theory of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism has lost some of its explaining power in recent years, as the hold of religion over many people declines.
Now it is largely a matter of jealousy.
Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism differ from other types of prejudice because practitioners of it have deluded themselves over the course of centuries into believing that Jewish people are smarter and more financially astute than they are and receive greater social recognition and rewards than they deserve.
This is why George Soros and other rich Jews get as much attention as they do.
This is why Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are persisting so long over time.
This is why Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism appear in odd places like Poland, Japan, Greece and Botswana where not many Jews live.
And this is why political activists on the far-left and the far-right in countries far-apart have come to regard defaming Israel as a simple and effective way of gaining more attention for themselves.
6
The wrong way to support Israel is for government to police the speech of its contractors.
1
The height of absurdity in the antiZionist movement might be the "pinkwashing" movement -- an academic group that condemns Israel's well-established LGBTQ tolerance as a PR masquerade to distract from its conflict with the Palestinians.
In effect, the obsessive hatred of Israel is so strong that they are quicker to call out the Jewish state for "pinkwashing" rather than even question the ghastly homophobia in places like Gaza and Iran, where gays are routinely persecuted, even violently, under administrative sanction.
Unsurprisingly, these professors question the very notion that Jews, of all the many peoples of this planet, have a right to self-determination.
One might say that these hypocrites are perpetrating their own masquerade, cloaking an ancient hatred in the cloth of righteous progressivism.
4
What's clear here is that everything about israel is too complex to be discussed in a few words. A long conversation should be had, and during it no one should be allowed to equate anything with anything else--Nazis with Zionists, anti-likud sentiments with bigotry, etc.
It's Ok that the solutions here are messy, but Mr. Stephens really does need to acknowledge the paucity of effort Israel has been putting in towards finding a solution.
In the US the conversation is far too unsophisticated to allow for solutions to this mess, and this is made extremely clear by the way no one wants to cede any ground in their arguments. I don't think I have ever heard an argument pro or con anything about the mess around Israel that didn't at some point become disingenuous and tendentious. Perhaps a better way to go is to start with a list of observations that, without judgement, can ring true. As in:
Israel is a democracy.
Israel was created on properties that belonged to others.
Israel has a right to exist.
Other states should be condemned for advocating Israel's demise.
Occupied Territories are a bad thing.
Unquestioning friendship isn't friendship.
The current state of things cannot go on forever.
Israel will never control territory all the way to the Jordan River.
Palestinians are real people with real history and a homeland.
1
Israel won control over Judea & Samaria (the West Bank) by preempting a multi-front attack by a coalition of Arab states whose goal was to wipe off the map (again) in ’67. Judea & Samaria is center of biblical Jewish history (Jews are people from Judea). These are not “occupied territories” because prior to ’67 no other sovereign state had legitimate or recognized sovereignty over them. This is the center of the Jewish Nation.
Israel’s weakness has turned out to be its deep desire for peace, in service of which it allowed Judea & Samara to be designated as “disputed territories” after ’67, which opened the door to a 50- year narrative of “occupation”, resistance and ultimately allegations of apartheid. Nonsense.
Time for Israel to finally declare victory in the Six Day War and stop apologizing for settling the biblical homeland. Everyone’s lives will be better off, especially, the Palestinians, who will fully enjoy all of their human rights under Israel’s Declaration of Independence and, if they live peaceably, all of the economic benefits of Israel. They can govern their own municipal communities in Israel but they cannot have a right of nationhood in the Jewish homeland; their citizenship and national homeland is in Jordan, where they are a demographic majority (and the Hashemite King needs to recognize and find a way to legitimize that, starting with restoring West Bank Palestinians their Jordanian citizenship suspended by Jordan in 1988).
6
We don't have to compare Israel to Russia or Syria. Our tax dollars are not sent to those regimes. We don't have to support Israel. Period. They can cry all they want about antisemitism - so convienient, but no longer effective. Israel walked from peace when it invited Arafat back to the territories. It needed an internationally recognized opponent because the Palestinians were ready to settle, and that meant less land for Israel. But regardless, its now clear what Israel is - an oppressive state that hungers for more land and demands that only Jews can be full fledged citizens. The day Netenyau addressed the congress during the Obama administratuin was the last day I stood neutral on Israel. We must cut all aid to Israel. They do not represent our values or our interests. There are enty of aces to spend that money in the US.
The blind "progressive" PC is stupid and simplistic, and in part biased, yes (and likely stoked by Israeli and American rightist provocateurs). But I find few Jewish commentators able to be objective about the conflict, and it's the same here with a "limited hangout" appearing objective but acknowledging only some of hegemonic Zionism's sins. Presented is sanitized Israeli history, overlooking mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the naqba of the 1940s. To present terrorism as one-sided is hypocritical, and seeing only one side's violence cannot heal the strife.
The lack of objectivity is understandable, but cannot be dismissed by the excuse of historical genocide of Jews in the Holocaust and other times. You don't get a free pass for bad behavior post-trauma. Measured understanding, yes. Free pass, no.
But an end-justifies-means free pass is what Likud et. al. long controlling Israel insist from the world. It is galling when it poisons American foreign policy and the domestic political calculus as well. Stephens claims most American Jews vote Democratic. The other side of the coin is my experience of liberal attitudes of Jewish friends and acquaintances hardening at the mention of Israel. Ben Cardin is a Democrat and yet authored an anti-BDS bill that essentially codifies no-criticism-of-Israel as a repressive formal US government policy. That is very disturbing. The US cannot be an honest broker with its bias; it's party to calcification. And the violence continues...
1
This article is a hot mess. It conflates every legitimate argument against Israel's evolution into an apartheid state with binary antisemitism. It ignores or whitewashes Israeli actions against the Palestinian people (e.g., turning Gaza over "led to 3 wars" without any mention of the shockingly disproportionate use of force in each against a people ring fenced in strip of land they could not exit.). Defenders of Israel can continue to conflate any criticism with antisemitism; in doing so they should not be surprised by the accelerating loss of support for their country. Telling people they are bigots b/c they call out immoral actions of a nation state is a losing strategy.
5
As a supporter of Israel and a two-State solution, I am no longer shocked by the anti-Israel advocates who claim their hatred has nothing to do with Jews - it actually does. What most troubles me most is the profound ignorance of history of most of these people, who claim that Jews have nothing to do with ancient Israel. I note the earliest written mention of Israel from a non-Jewish source. The Mernephta Stele (an inscribed monument) from about 1213 B.C. in Egypt states,
"The Canaan has been plundered into every sort of woe:
Ashkelon has been overcome;
Gezer has been captured;
Yano'am is made non-existent.
Israel is laid waste and his seed is not;"
Israel has belonged to the Jewish people for close to 4000 years and it is not about to disappear, no matter how the Jew haters feel about it..
7
If Bret Stephens supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict, supported the Gaza withdrawal and the Oslo Accords and rejects the "Likud Narrative" that the Palestinians are just a bunch of ingrateful, untrustworthy terrorists (whose own roots in the land don't go back any further than those of Israel's Zionist founders), then he is accepting the indictment of Israel's behavior as partially true - maybe even half-true. In which case he ought to criticize the sources of that behavior just as much as he criticizes progressive myopia on Israel and Zionism.
218
@Can you not see the difference between acknowledging flaws that need to be repaired and saying the whole country has to go? The USA certainly has flaws in racism and economic equality, should we boycott ourselves or lose our right to exist? Has the world become so stupid that only extremes can be recognized, and people can’t acknowledge any wrongs in order to address them, without being seen as admitting to complete evil? Or does this only apply when talking about Jews?
61
@Judy
I take your point, but like the first commenter, think Stephens is and has exaggerated the positions of American Jews without requisite balance. He has not placed himself in the middle. His centrism rewards only power and inertia.
So he spends an entire column attacking the left, but nothing on the right, and is hardly self-critical when inertia is the result? How about you?
24
I am not an anti Semite. I do not believe that criticizing the actions of the Israeli government makes me an anti Semite.
I believe that you conflate legitimate criticism with Anti-Semitism because you have no valid argument for the Israeli government's horrific treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories and Israel's blatant violation of U.N. Resolutions.
Please try to understand that we can love Israel and still disagree with some of her policies, just as you can love the United States and occasionally disagree with our policies.
8
Many of the most 'recommended' comments in this article are from people who either did not read the article closely enough or are just willfully ignorant. They also prove Mr. Stephens' point.
6
Notice that every single commentator here, who so ardently defends the BDS movement (as well as the disgusting comments made by now US Representatives) offer nothing of any substance or reality as to how to solve the entrenched conflict. All that is said is that Israel must stop interfereing with Palestinian autonomy. They have stopped in the past, giving away portions of their own tiny country -- as a good faith offer of peace. That resulted in more war. And that's because one side doesn't want peace with Jews.
15
I am still anti-anti-BDS because I think it is wrong for government to tell corporations that they cannot take a political stand. The analogy to the bakers not wanting to make a cake for a gay wedding does come close--and in the end the bakers retained the right to not do business.
Other than that, I completely agree with the article. The Republican Party has nearly destroyed itself pandering to its xenophobes, racists, populists and paranoids. Much of the left somehow seems blind to the same forces on their own side.
7
Is anti-Zionism anti-Semitism? In certain cases undoubtedly. Is BDS anti-Semitic? Some of its supporters and defenders probably are. Does Israel deserve boycotting and sanctions? On some level, perhaps. Does Israel deserve our support? Of course, as do the Palestinians. Is Israel strategically indispensable to the US? Definitely. Will there be a two-state solution- yes, there already is, Gaza is the Palestinian State. Is that unfair? Yes. Could the Palestinians have got more by smarter strategy? Almost certainly. Is it too late for anything more? Yes, most likely, the board has been captured by Israel. Will Israel survive as a Jewish State? I would bet on it. Even with a majority of non-Jewish Israelis after the acquisition of the West Bank? Good question. Will Israel somehow hound out or buy out the excess Arabs? I’m guessing it will. I could be wrong.
There is no answer in this problem without another, opposite answer applying with equal weight.
But Americans dare not judge Israel, lest we be forced to answer to the Navaho.
6
Israel is running scared. The call for boycott is a call for non-violent resistance to decades of oppression, dispossession. Palestinians' land has been stolen, children incarcerated for throwing stones, water diverted to settlements, health care destroyed. Boycott is a time-honored way of protesting injustice. Saying BDS is antisemetic is crying wold. It has finally been exposed for what it is: an insidious diversion from just criticism. My German Jewish parents would be rolling over in their graves if they knew how opportunistically Israel has leveraged their experience to justify racism against Palestinians.
4
You can try as hard as you want to conflate my critique of a states action with a blind prejudice of an ethic group but it will not work. Being against Israel’s ridiculous policy towards the Palestinians is not anti Semitic. If I criticize China’s prosecution of Tibetans, am I called Sinophobic? No. And the Israeli government goes not deserve that cover.
7
Stephens reminds us of where American Jews stand, seventy years after the Holocaust. Caught between a demagogue on the right (even if Jews are not the current target) and anger, resentment, anti-Semitism of the left. It evoked comfort and pride that Israel, with its faults, has been able to eke out, in a mere lifetime, a piece of real estate where it has been able to exist, endure and thrive, and maintain democratic ideals, principles and standards even under the constant stress of annihilation. Israel can and should be criticized, but certainly one has to appreciate its pressures, struggles and accomplishments.
3
Israel to me is in an impossible dilemma. No matter how many concessions it makes, there will be those calling for its total elimination and erasure. And yet its human rights abuses of the past few decades are indeed abohorrent. The Palestinians deserve a state of their own and so does Israel.
2
As an American Jew I can be anti-Netanyahu government without being anti-Israel. Mr. Netanyahu and his allegedly corrupt administration of the State of Israel is a danger to long-term stability in the region.
Of course it's easy for you to opine that all Jews are the same. We're not.
4
The opinions expressed herein are perhaps the most Widely argued positions in the Media. One should point out that Noam Chomsky, Max Blumenthal and others express a very contrary point of view, see for example, https://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/8/noam_chomsky_what_israel_is_doing. Chomsky, has written may books on the subject and takes a very critical point of view. He believes Israel's treatment of Palestinians is far worse than South Africa's treatment of blacks.One major difference between Israel and South Africa is that Israel derives its identity from being a Jewish State, The total Palestinian population is 4.7 million and the total Israeli population is 8.7 million. With Jews soon becoming a minority because of difference in Birth Rates, Israel will soon have to cease being Democratic or Being Jewish. South Africa was never totally committed to being a Boer State.
4
Bret Stephens writes a profoundly intelligent appraisal of why the demand for a boycott of Israel and the rejection of Zionism is unfair and illogical. Unfortunately, progressives of the Democratic Party are doing what Trump is expert at doing--simplifying a very complex problem and stating that it is very easy to solve. Then he offers a non-solution that only his duped followers rally around. Trump's arguments are accepted by his base because they conflate with their innate racism. Their prejudices makes it easy for them to believe Trump's falsehoods and solutions. They come to believe that only a solid wall will keep murderers away from us and that migrants are very evil.
Just as Trump uses the innate hatred of the migrants to gain acceptance for his hateful message and extreme solution, so it is with the anti-Zionist, pro-boycott movements ; underlying their acceptance of a simplistic explanation of Israel's evils , of the oppression of Arabs, lies the specter of anti-Semitism, sometimes as blatant as that of Louis Farrakhan's , openly admired by some leaders of these progressives. To simplify the complexity of Arab-Israel relations and to suggest that all Israel needs to do for peace is to give away even more land and to allow more Arab return is a pathway of ending Israel as a haven for Jews.
I am frightened by the prospect of Jews losing their rights in America as they have been denied rights in almost all Arab countries--from which they fled to Israel.
7
I hardly know anything about the boycott of Israel so I do not have a position on it. In researching it just now, I came across an article which said that Ilan Omar told Jewish residents of the district that she was campaigning to represent that a boycott would be counterproductive. It would discourage people from coming to the table to discuss a two-state solution. Then, after she was elected, she came out in favor of the boycott.
The below is from an 11/13/18 article in the Forward titled
"Muslim Trailblazer Ilhan Omar Admits She Backs BDS - Now That Election Is Over"
During the primary debate, held before a capacity crowd at Beth El about a week before the election, Omar never mentioned that she was not only a defender of the right to boycott but a supporter of boycotts herself. “I believe right now with the BDS movement, it’s not helpful in getting that two-state solution,” she said in response to being asked “exactly where you stand on” BDS. “I think the particular purpose for [BDS] is to make sure that there is pressure, and I think that pressure really is counteractive. Because in order for us to have a process of getting to a two-state solution, people have to be willing to come to the table and have a conversation about how that is going to be possible and I think that stops the dialogue.”
https://forward.com/news/national/414050/muslim-trailblazer-ilhan-omar-admits-she-backs-bds-now-that-election-is/
3
Well perhaps if Israel didn't treat the Palestinians as less than human, walled into ghettos, made to be searched on demand, didn't confiscate their land, bulldoze their houses, and shoot with impunity, then perhaps things would be different. But things aren't different. No one, in any country, least of all in a country that was founded because of those very actions taken against their people, should have to live like that. It's not a progressive problem, it's a human rights problem.
4
My stated goal is to “drive you into the sea” and has been since you were born. Let’s talk soon!
4
Saddest for me is the righteous boycott BDS applies to building bridges between Israelis and Palestinians—and across the world—through exchanges of culture, academia, science, religion or sports. My historical reference point of USA-Soviet or Chinese exchanges was an attempt to connect on a human level, transcending politics and conflicts. And building a bridge to the future. Often, participants were those with more liberal views and influence on their societies. MLK didn’t blow up pizza parlors or buses, nor did he celebrate those who did. He understood that he wasn’t just freeing blacks but moving white society from hate. My values and hopes are rooted in these examples. If we aren’t more committed to bridges than boycotts, then we’re acknowledging that the other side has no worth, and the goal is not peace at all. BDS and it’s rabid supporters in context of this and the points laid out by Stephens can only be explained by antisemitism.
6
Please read Bishop Elias Chacour’s memoir “Blood Brothers.” His ministry is all about reconciliation. Jews and Arabs and his people, Melkite Christians, once lived side by side. He advocates small steps to bring people together to share the land. Inflammatory accusations, like those advanced in this article, promote the us or them mentality that has made Israel a tragic place. I have been to Israel and seen the settlements. The are huge and intimidating. How will the country ever see peace with the antagonism that people see all around them? Critics of Israel should seek to build bridges not walls. The Israeli government must learn to do the same.
3
Jews were oppressed in the Roman Empire and then throughout Christian countries for fifteen centuries after that. Basically, they were rejected because they insisted upon keeping their identity. So when they wanted a country of their own and the people in Europe and America were sick of the racist and tribalistic attitudes that led to World War II, support for Israel as a Jewish State was popular.
Today, the tribalism dominating Israeli politics is sustaining opposition to sharing the lands of Ancient Palestine with non-Jews. To continue this informal national policy means oppressing the Palestinian Arabs. The protests against this choice to oppress others as Jews were oppressed for twenty centuries is not bigotry.
4
Conflate much, Mr Stephens?
One can be critical of Israel and not be anti-Semitic.
The current government of Israel is worthy of sanctions and the attempt to restrict the free expression of Americans in some attempt to quash criticism of any foreign country is antithetical to this nation’s founding principles not to mention our Constitution. Whether by statutory ban or by economic coercion, the effort to use law or policy against Americans speaking their minds against the apartheid regime under Netanyahu is wrong.
2
There are those that want to tell us the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very complicted. It is not.
The law is clear. The UN resoultions are expilicit. It's all there in black and white. One side of the conflict accepts the articles of the law and the resoulutions of the UN. The other side does not.
What's complicated about that?
2
I have no sympathy for Israel as long as they continue to build settlements on disputed territory.
3
I agree with a lot of things in this article but still few things needs to be clarified: at the moment there 17 arab members out 120...while there are 21%Arab and soon 25%...which is a bit more than a minority as you mentioned in your article. also between Mediterranean and the Jordan river the overall number of Arabs has caught up with that of Jews,soon to overtake.How do you solve this?
You can expect more like this in the media over the next couple of months. It's all intended to lay the groundwork for the Netanyahu-Kushner "peace plan" that will try to rob the Palestinians of their rights under international law. The idea is to have mass numbers of ignorant people support a blatant violation of international law and common morality.
2
So in his last paragraph Mr. Stephens maligns the political party that most strongly supports Israel while wishing the other political party supported Israel more. Perhaps more columns like this will get those nasty Republicans to turn against Israel too.
1
There is no question that many hide behind the label of anti-zionist and are clearly anti-Semitic. There is also no question that many Jews across the globe along with none-Jews feel that Israeli policy, particularly the expansion of territory and the continued plight of Palestinians is a blight on all of us. It's also reprehensible how other Arab states treat Palestinians.
Because of the US close relationship with Israel that includes Israeli lobbying of US foreign policy that's backed by US taxpayers and our military volunteers, US citizens and our political parties have every right to push back on Israeli policy that directly or indirectly impacts US citizens.
I'm concerned about the growing anti-Semitism across the globe and also support the Iranian Nuclear agreement, the cutting off of arms to Saudi Arabia and tying our relationship with Israel in part to them stopping their settlement expansion and a meaningful peace process.
I don't for a minute believe that the Republican part backed by the Christian rights support of Israel isn't steeped in anti-Semitism. At the end of the day I reject the Republican pandering to Israel as somehow pure in its love of Jews.
I share the authors concern about the growing anti-Semitism.
5
China is practicing cultural genocide against the Turkic Muslims (Uighurs), including mass incarceration in concentration camps ("re-education centres"). Not a word from the the progressive American left, not even from Muslims.
The al-Assad regime has practiced repression against the Sunni majority in Syria, killing hundreds of thousands and driving millions into refugee camps, and not one word from the "left."
Russia has annexed the Crimea and parts of Eastern Ukraine, but deathly silence from the "progressives."
Initially, the Palestinians demanded that Israel observe the pre-war (1967) borders in conformity to the US resolution to that effect. Then the call was for Israel to be confined to the pre-1948 borders - that were not recognized by Arab countries which then launched a war to eliminate Israel. Now there are cries of a "Palestine from River to Sea," effectively eliminating Israel as a state as well as a nation. Had the Arab nations and the local Palestinians not waged a war in 1948, there would be no need to claim a right of return to the nth generation today.
"Anti-Zionism" is really a call for the end of Israel, the only Jewish homeland in the world. One might conclude that the anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist pose that marks much of the progressives in the US is just a veil to cover the blatant anti-Semitism that is their true calling.
7
Stephens presents the case against self determination for the Palestinians with the excellence of an erudite advocate for Israel but just as would such an advocate would do he ignores all the efforts made by Israel to prevent a two state solution to be implemented. Israel does not want to live do closely with a fully armed and independent state that longs to invade and to send all the Jewish people back into exile.
1
As a recovering Zionist and lifelong progressive,I insist that all nation's owe their citizens life, liberty, justice and equality under the law. In the highly unlikely event Israel meets this standard, this Jew will celebrate. Until then all criticism and political action is 100% justified. Israel is her own worst enemy.
3
The issues are complex because the Zionist made them complex. With the backing of the Balfour declaration the Zionists slowly but deliberately worked toward a Jewish home land that did not included the indigenous Arab peoples. After the declaration of statehood the Zionists expelled Arabs from their villages and bulldozed them out of existence. There was never any attempt the work with the indigenous population to share political,economic or social cooperation. The Zionists wanted a Jewish only state. Thus we have the present situation. Before the formal declaration of the state of Israel, many in the U.S. department of state were against the creation of a Jewish only Palestine because they for saw the present day turmoil. Only when Israel revisits it’s past and agrees to some reconciliation with the displaced indigenous Arabs can we start to work towards a peaceful end to the turmoil.
I am
Neither Jewish nor Arab/Muslim. As an outsider just looking at facts has lead me to believe Israel was a colonial project where outsiders created a nation state backed by colonial powers. The fact is the Zionist project was born in Europe lead by those prosecuted by Christian programs. Unfortunately the Arab inhabitants had to pay the price for British and French duplicity. On the other hand there was no Palestinian state either. The inhabitants were ruled by the Otoman Turks until the Brit’s took over again with the help of the Arab tribes who they quickly betrayed. The only solution now is one multi ethnic state where the Palestinian refugees and their descendants from 1948 and 1967 wars can return. It is ridicules that Jewish settlers can move from
Australia and America while descendants of Palestinian refugees from that land can’t return. This to me smacks of racism and bigotry.
1
It seems to me that how people forget how the Palestinians walk out of the Clinton Accords. The Palestinians would have received at least 90% of the West Bank, along with administrative control East Jerusalem. Though full independent control was not on the table, it could of lead to it once the peace was established.
Aarfat and Abu Mazen walked out, they said it was not enough. They manly cited right of return. Everyone knows that right of full return was never on the table and never will be. Yet at the accords, the Israel offered the return of 100,000 or 700,000 that were displaced in 1948 (For those you that say it is not enough, over 1,000,000 Jews had to flee Arab nations. Where are those of you calling for reparations and their right of return. By UNRWA standards, more Jews would have the right to go back to Arab states than Palestinians have the right to back to Israel).
When Abu Mazen walked, he said to whole world the Palestinians were not interested in an equitable settlement. They told the Israelis it is all or nothing. Sad to say it looks like the Palestinians may get nothing.
9
If I said hating black people is not the same as believing that Africans we’re better under colonialism, would I still get a pass? What about if I said I don’t hate Palestinians I just don’t think they deserve a country? Would that make sense? Because that’s the same argument people are making about anti Zionism not being anti Semitic. You can’t say you’re not against the human when in the same breath you are saying you’re against that humans rights. Simple logic here people. Define Zionism how you want but at end of the day it simply means Jewish human rights. The right like all people to govern their own affairs, elect their own governments and determine the fate of their people being against that is inherently anti semetic just like being pro colonialism is inherently racist. There is no separating the two. This has nothing to do with the current israeli administration. Israel was there before Bibi and will be there after. Deal with it.
4
I am for the Israelites. I do not support their gov't. Netanyahu is just 45 in another suit, running his country with heavy fear about "the other"......is under more than 1 investigation by his own gov't, and linked with fundamentalist rabbi's, who really run the country who are hate filled and brittle. I support any divestment boycott of Israel until a new and fair minded, peace seeking gov't is elected by the people, and i am a jew and a democrat.
They want to treat Palestinian's the way Trump wants to treat Mexican's but really anyone of color. How can i support that! We do need to support them militarily. That's all.
Progressives haven’t opposed “Trump” while supporting the rest of America’s imperial legacy. From Jackson’s genocide against the Seminole and Cherokee to McKinley’s and Roosevelt’s unprovoked aggressions against Hawai’i and Spain, Wilson’s, Truman’s, Eisenhower’s, Kennedy’s, Reagan’s and now Trump’s adventurism in the Caribbean and Latin America, and the Kennedy/JohnsonNixon violent response towards Vietnamese nationalism, Progressives have a long history of supporting America’s noble urges whilst opposing American imperialism, and it’s sensible to expect them to respond similarly to Israeli aggression. There is nothing new or exceptional about Progressive opposition to Trump or Netanyahu and Stephen’s attempt to mislead readers by suggesting that either of these two leaders are an aberration inconsistent with broader historical forces insults their intelligence.
The difference between Israel and apartheid goes way beyond what the writer says. Israeli law prohibits racism, whereas in South Africa, the opposite was true, the law mandated racism, and non-racism was considered criminal behavior. The West Bank is not part of Israel, and the majority of its non-Israeli inhabitants have no desire to become Israeli citizen. Jordanian law still applies there, administered either by Israeli authorities, or the PA, depending on whether a particular area is in zone A, B, or C. Israeli Arabs are citizens, with all the rights of citizens. South Africa under apartheid legally disenfranchised the majority of its population. As a former South African who served as an ANC intelligence officer, I think I speak with some authority on this matter.
6
The only 'thing' as or more disconcerting than the implacable Israeli-Palestinian-and-Pan Arab 'conflict' is the certainty that Israel can never be both a democracy and a Jewish state.
2
I am a semi-radical deconstructionist. Neither pro-Palestinian nor anti-Semitic, I lean toward anti-Zionism. To have based the formation of a nation: Israel on land that had been inhabited by Palestinians for decades prior to the decision to take it from them on a book—centuries-old, born of an oral tradition of passing histories and myths reported by illiterate peoples who repeated rules and tales issued from faceless voices and dreamers and prophets from one generation to another, were written down centuries later by scribes with questionable motives, translated from one language to another multiple times (insuring mistakes and ambiguities), heavily edited and redacted by biased religious literate groups and individuals, the authenticity and meaning of which continue to be debated today—seems an ill-advised and illogical decision. Yet the decision was made after two horrendous wars which had left world leaders filled with guilt for having been responsible for the destruction of multiple countries and the killing of millions of civilians and military personnel because they either ignored or denied political situations and activities around the world until war became inevitable. Nonetheless these leaders took-on the onerous and for-the-most-part impossible task of trying to right the many wrongs and assuage the guilt thereby creating a nation of Israel.
Let's be smarter in righting this situation, wisely deconstructing the issues and acting accordingly. No one getting hurt
Delegitimization of Israel via denying the Jewish people their own history in their own indigenous homeland....and worse, assigning that history to Israel’s enemies who’ve appropriated it...is the height of deceit. After centuries of forced exile, inquisitions, pogroms, genocide, and war perpetrated against them, the Jewish people have won the right to self-determination upon a fragment of their own historic ground.
The days of dhimmitude and Islamic supremacy in that little corner of the Levant are over and they’re not coming back.
Condemnation of the mendacious BDS movement that seeks Israel’s destruction is long overdue. Thank you, Mr. Stephens.
7
Bret Stephens writes that "American Jews are comparatively wealthy." This is an understatement. American Jews are the richest ethnic community by far in America. Read Forbes magazine's annual list of America's wealthiest people and billionaires. This is important because those who donate the most to political candidates dictate foreign policies.
Israel has a right to exist. Period.
In the late 1940s, the U.S., the Soviet Union, and other nations supported the recognition of the State of Israel, implicitly or explicitly as the world's response to the Holocaust and as a refuge for European Jewish DPs. The Israeli government, especially in the Likud era, has frittered away much of the country's original moral capital in its creeping annexation of the West Bank through "settlements" and its stranglehold on Gaza.
There are far more oppressive governments in the world than Israel's. But because of America's close emotional ties, unflinching political and diplomatic support, and economic and military aid, Israel is more our problem than are many nastier tyrannies.
What's wrong with the U.S. saying to the Israeli government - we support who you are, but oppose many things you do, and will no longer subsidize the things we oppose?
Many conservatives opposed government economic sanctions on South Africa in the 1980s. Is the same impulse behind conservative opposition to private economic sanctions on Israeli companies? Is there an conservative imperative to support oppression of people not like "us" (black South Africans, Palestinians) by people "like us?"
Palestinian leadership has often been violent, corrupt, and incompetent (not a uniquely Palestinian characteristic, as we know to our sorrow). Is that a good reason to support policies that continue their people in perpetual second-class status?
2
I cannot forget the film of the Israeli bulldozers about to run over Palestine women who were on foot defying them. Long ago war but memory is permanent. How can a persecuted people persecute. Israel is like my Catholic Church. The message of the founders is forgotten
"What’s unsettling is that the far-left’s hostility is now being mainstreamed by the not-so-far left......;it is churning up a new wave of nakedly anti-Jewish bigotry in its wake,..."
It IS unsettling. It is also unsettling that the Jewish community is standing back and letting it happen. It is unsettling, but not unsurprising; This is what the right wing extremists in Israel are imposing on the world's Jewish community.
2
There have been several academic studies from reputable organizations, such as Yale University, that show that while anti-Israel sentiment is not always aligned with anti-Semitism,at the extremes it is. If you support BDS that aims to destroy Israel or condemn Israel as an apartheid state, odds are about 90% that you agree with at least some classic antI-Semitic beliefs. There has not been a single academic study that even questions this correlation. As a Jew who had been active in progressive social justice movements for decades, I find myself unwelcome. They don’t want my participation and I’m not willing to align myself with people who hate Israel and the Jews who support it.
7
“But the most toxic assumption is that Jews, whether in Israel or the U.S., can never really be thought of as victims or even as a minority because they are white, wealthy, powerful and “privileged.”” Stephens raises an important point. Ideally, progressivism stands against all forms of hatred directed at minorities. Yet, while strongly protective of the rights of specific minority groups, Jews are not among them. This was spelled out in the Women’s March mission statement: “We must create a society in which women, in particular women—in particular Black women, Native women, poor women, immigrant women, Muslim women, and queer and trans women—are free and able to care for and nurture their families, however they are formed, in safe and healthy environments free from structural impediments.” Another statement driving this point home was by Columbia University regarding the Tree of Life tragedy, which mentioned anti-LGBT and anti-black hatred, but not antisemitism. Stephens mentions other examples, and there are many more.
If progressivism is to remain true to its core beliefs, this hypocrisy must not continue. Israel should not be a factor, because Jewish opinion on Israel varies widely, with some of Israel’s harshest critics being Jews. There is no excuse for selectively excluding Jews from the progressive umbrella of protection for minorities, especially in light of the recently alarming rise in antisemitism on college campuses and across the US.
5
There is no viable political space for the opinion held by the majority of Jews: we oppose Netanyahu and his policies AND we support Israel and its right to exist. Indeed, our only choice is whether to align with anti-semites on the left as described in this article, or to align with anti-semites on the right:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/07/13/anti-semitism-doesnt-bother-benjamin-netanyahu-if-it-comes-from-his-political-allies/?utm_term=.3421075443ad
I am proud to call myself a liberal American Jew. We have a noble history of accomplishment, of standing up for the oppressed, and, for that matter, of helping to create and nurture Israel, which we all continue to support in many ways including materially through our taxes. We cannot allow ourselves to be sidelined and lulled into false choices, especially since we're now the prime targets of the growing wave of anti-semitic violence whose flames are being fanned as much by Netanyahu as much as they are by Farrakhan. To find ourselves vulnerable to such atrocities as the Pittsburgh massacre just to have the increasingly powerful ultra-Orthodox tell us we're not "really" Jews is be in a situation that can only get worse and isolate us even further, as our days of enjoying a privileged position in the West are numbered. There is no one to speak for us, and even our identity is being stripped from us, simply because we feel that the Palestinians deserve a voice too.
2
Israel and Palestine can do whatever they want. But I’m not interested in paying for their fiasco anymore.
it's so cute watching a conservative trying to criticize others for intolerance and bigotry. I know how much american conservatives love their good old racism, but don't worry little guy, some day you'll learn why progressives would be critical of a state driven policy of ethnic discrimination
1
How many times is this article going to be written? The Venn diagram linking anti-Zionism and antisemitism looks a lot different from the one linking anti-LGBTQ policies and homophobic people. While there certainly is some overlap in the former, the latter is almost a single overlapping circle.
Israel is an illegal occupier harshly oppressing much of the Palestinian population and steadily appropriating the best land in the West Bank. It is illegally bombing neighbor nations. Israel continues to ignore numerous UN resolutions on settlements and related issues. And yet their leaders are granted sycophantic treatment literally at the pulpit in Congress here in the US. That’s the long and short of why opposing Israel’s behavior has become a progressive cause. Israel’s behavior is anti-progressive on core issues. Change the behavior and progressive attitudes toward Israel will change.
The former province of ‘Palestine’ already exists as an Arab state....except it’s called ‘Jordan’. Any map of the region circa pre-1920 will confirm that fact. And it’s 3 times the size of Israel.
3
Thank you for taking this on, Bret. I have no doubt the reaction is going to be fast and vitriolic.
It is beyond my understanding why it has become fashionable in liberal circles to support these groups. Yes, Netanyahu is a megalomaniac who will do anything to stay in power and is pals with Trump but these two are no reason for the Liberals of today to decide that they can turn a blind eye to calls for the destruction of the Jewish state and blatantly anti-semitic behavior masked as expressing one's views.
Tlaib's posing with a map of Israel with the country replaced with Palestine is abhorrent behavior. The statement she was making was clear - the only Jewish state on this planet has no right to exist. Not a call for a Palestinian homeland, or self government (which was once on the table for those who have so quickly forgotten) but a clear call for the destruction of Israel.
Criticize Israeli politics, decry illegal settlements, demand better living conditions for Palestinians, better government in Gaza - I am with you all the way on these issues. But these issues are being high jacked by many of these groups who are blatantly anti semitic and work to intimidate and threaten those who disagree with their message
Honestly, the NYT is adding fuel to this fire with the recent skew in one sided coverage of these groups, their behavior on US campuses towards Jewish students and their vilification of Israel. The editors need to take a good hard look at recent coverage
4
Please zoom out of the land of Israel and notice all the neighbors surrounding this tiny country. They have all aspired to one thing since the partition in 1947: the annihilation of the state of Israel. Where is the outrage? Again Israel is the ONLY real democracy in the region, mind you where free speech is law, women are equal to men and Arab Israelis have seats in the Knesset. In fact, it is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women may vote! The irony...
There is nothing simple or white or black about this conflict. But first one must be willing to dig into history and geo politics to grasp the intricacies of the conflict. Oh and please watch FAUDA on Netflix.
6
The article doesn’t mention one aspect of neo anti Semitism I have run into. I ask one thing of anti-Israel progressives: please don’t conflate the actions of the currently right wing Israeli government with “Jewish people” as a whole. One is a political entity. The other is a very diverse, very dispersed, religious and cultural group. More Jewish people live outside Israel than in it. When people say “Jews are committing crimes against humanity in Palestine” that is anti-Semitic and also hate speech, because it spreads bias against all Jewish people, not the actual responsible entity - Likud.
1
I think that the settlements are a bad idea. But a worse idea was implemented when the Arab armies invaded the new state and invaded the Jewish sector in Jerusalem, removed all the Jews, and desecrated or destroyed the Jewish holy places there.
If Israel goes that far in the Old City, I would say that to do unto others what they have done to you is understandable but not admirable. Everything short of that is Israel treating Palestinians better than they treated Israelites.
If the Palestinians actually want peace with Israel, they should come forth and say so, and not try to destroy it through hare-brained and demonstrably ineffective schemes.
If giving up my support of LGBT aims is the price of opposing anti-Semitism and the intended destruction of the State of Israel, then that is where I will be.
3
All of the comments that I have read were written by people who don't live in this country which I chose to move to 3 decades ago when I left the US.
I feel such hatred and ignorance of historical fact from some of the commenters. I agree with much of what Bret Stephens writes and remind commenters that Palestinian leadership rejected offers of statehood and masses of pro-Palestinians actively denounce Israel's right to exist. "From the river to the sea..." is all of Israel, not a 2 state solution.
Come to Israel if you consider it an Apartheid state and have your eyes open. Arabs are everywhere, in the Knesset, working as doctors in Israeli hospitals, pharmacists, social workers, clerks, etc. Only Jews are not allowed to go to certain Arab areas where their security may be threatened.
And why is Israel held to different standards than more oppressive countries? Anti-zionism sounds a lot like anti-semitism from where I sit.
4
I moved to the U.K. from NYC to live and work in 1999 and the first weekend there I found myself in the midst of a huge, peaceful demonstration in Trafalgar Square. It was pro Palestinian. I had never seen such a thing. Like many other commenters I had always supported Israel and its existence. I even fell in love with a sabra in NYC; I am not Jewish.
But... when the current Israeli PM appeared before the Congress of America, in what seemed an attempt to embarrass our then sitting President, I decided Israel had taken a turn.
While I know the arguments about the billions surrounding tiny Israel.., the ‘just look at a map argument’..., I have also read of the misery in which regular Palestinians daily live.
I do truly believe the land now called Israel that once belonged to Palestinians and Jews needs different leadership and a different direction. If there is a God, what must it think?
1
Thank you, Bret Stephens. Your cogent and comprehensible essay covers much complicated material in compact space. I will print out your essay as a primer for those I encounter who either naively or bigotedly subscribe to the anti-israel and antisemitic fervor on the progressive / left. The historical ignorance and lack of concern for Jewish rights chills me. You rightly ask why it is only one state in the world that is deemed unworthy of existence, a Jewish state.
Democrats who allow this hateful and truly ignorant point-of-view to become established powerfully in the party are contemptible.
2
Delegitimization of Israel via denying the Jewish people their own history in their own indigenous land....and worse, assigning that history to Israel’s enemies who’ve appropriated it...is the height of deceit. In fact, evil. After centuries of forced exile, inquisitions, pogroms, and genocide, the Jewish people have won the right to self-determination upon their own historic ground. The days of dhimmitude are over and they’re not coming back.
Condemnation of the mendacious BDS movement that seeks Israel’s destruction is long overdue. Thank you, Mr. Stephens.
3
Would you rather have been born a Jew in Israel or a Palestinian in the occupied territory? Are not all men created equal?
1
Thank you. The anti-semitism and misogyny of the left have always shocked and baffled me.
The other day I was having dinner with lesbian feminist friends and Alice Walker came up. I said something about her recent display of anti-semitism and the immediate response of one friend was an objection to Israel's actions toward Palestine. She simply didn't get it that this was a racist response.
3
Good points, although Gaza should've been a sober lesson about how a two-state solution is destined to turn out. "Palestinian" leaders have spent decades preparing their constituents for war, not peace, and this social engineering cannot be undone by a piece of paper.
As to the gays, progressives and others embracing the weirdly trendy chic demonization of Israel, one has to wonder how they talked themselves into opposing the state which shares their values, while supporting the side which stands directly opposed to those same values. Ilhan Omar's tweet about Israel "hypnotizing the world" would've made more sense, if it were directed at the massive "Palestinian" propaganda machine.
2
I agree with Bret. Some questions for those who don’t:
1. What do you think the US would do if Mexicans started launching rockets at New York? Whatever your answer, it is what Israelis actually deal with. Many homes and city blocks in Israel have bomb shelters. That’s insane!
2. Do you think the use should “BDS” it’s other middle eastern allies? If not, why? What about Israel bothers you more than Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen?
3. If you want to BDS Saudi Arabia, why isn’t that a rallying cry at left wing political events?
1
Israel cannot inoculate its horrible policies by hiding behind demands that it is beyond reproach based on its belief that it is a Jewish State. It is a modern democratic state and it must abide by the basic tenets of democracy. Its very founding was based on the separation of families and the "walling-in" of its own communities during the horrors of the mid-twentieth century. There seems to be a special level of meanness in the way Israel has punitively divided up the occupied territories. Palestinian farmers cannot access their own fields. People cannot get to work or even visit their own families. Properties are divided in two destroying the property value. I spent time in Jerusalem last summer and I was stunned by some of the open racism I encountered. Jewish Israeli taxi drivers openly described their Arab neighbors as "animals" as we chatted during taxi rides. They refused to drive me into areas dominated by Arab populations even though there are no obvious barriers between communities. I loved Israel and all of its people, but it was very eye opening to experience the arrogance of some Israelis against their neighbors and fellow citizen Arab Israels.
I fully understand the need to actively and carefully protect itself from terrorism, but these policies propagate even more terrorism and a never ending vicious cycle of hatred and recrimination.
369
The Israeli taxi drivers don't drive you to the Arab areas because there is a large chance of getting their cars stoned and totaled.( I've only had Arab taxi drivers drive me personally to those areas) They can also get physically harmed.
Arab taxi drivers can drive freely all over Israel because the chances of getting stoned or physically harmed are close to 0%.
It is very unfortunate situation for all those affected.
@Tim Prendergast
55
@Tim Prendergast
We exprienced the same when we went to Israel. A Palestinian citizen of Israel, told our group that the Jews are still taking over the homes of the Palestinians in Jerusalem. They just push the owners out without any consequences. We also saw racism in the way they treat Arabs in general.
25
@Tim Prendergast You clearly arrived in Israel with prejudices and selectively saw only things that confirmed your prejudices.
I'd assume there are some Arab areas where a Jewish taxi driver won't go because he has a well grounded fear of being attacked there. This isn't a racist fantasy, just a realistic reflection of what happens on a regular basis in certain places.
43
The anti-Zionist voices all too often ignore the Palestinians' or other Arab's role in creating the Palestinians' plight. That said Israel, especially since Netanyahu has become Prime Minister, has treated the Palestinians and chances for a fair peace disgracefully. Today we have people like Sasour and Stephens who mirror each other. Both would help their side by telling them off.
122
Bret, those are not progressives, rather regressives.
Use your dictionary.
6
If I am in a crowd and someone talks about providing for an independent Palestine and I applaud, that doesn’t mean that I want the destruction of the secular state of Israel. Since you missed that point, I think there is little point in reading the remainder of your article.
As for me, I will never provide support for anyone that wants to attack Israel (the Bible and subsequent history discourages it). However, I have also seen the systematic unlawful settlement of the occupied territories and I am happy to support ways of putting pressure on the State of Israel to stop this. What do you recommend in place of BDS?
14
As a committed progressive and atheist, I just think that any state that elevates one religion over all others is wrong. Since a two-state solution is becoming more and more impossible, predominantly because of expansionist Zionists, a single state future is more likely. This state can be democratic or it can Jewish, but it cannot be both.
13
And do you think for a minute, given what happened and still happens in Gaza, that there can be a "democratic" state there that is not Jewish? That would remain genuinely democratic and protect its Jewish citizens, all of their rights, their self-determination? And guarantee safe and free access for all Jewish people everywhere and Christians, too, to their holiest sites?
I wonder your opinion of Saudi Arabia and whether you would think it proper for, say, Christians or Hindus to run a dominantly Christian or Hindu "democracy" in and over Mecca?
2
So how about fighting Christian hegemony here at home? Did you bother to read about how the Christian majority on the bench of the US Supreme Court Just rubber-stamped Alabama's denying non-Christians being killed by the state the right, given to Christians, to have a member of their religious clergy with them, guiding them through last rites, as they die at the hands of he state? And when was the last time you demanded banks and government offices be open on December 25th and January 1st? And on Sundays. And when did you last protest Muslim domination of Zoroastrians, Baha'i, Jews, Christians, and Buddhists in Afghanistan, The "democracy" that is the (expantionist!) Islamic Republic of Iran?
You, like so many others, probably don't care much about one religion dominating all others if it's Christianity or, in the case of most from the non-Israeli Middle East, Islam. Or, from your comment, any other group except that of Zionists (people who think that Jewish people -- as not just a religious group but also a people, a cultural group -- have as much right to self-determination as anyone else.
2
Bret Stephen hit the nail on the head. In trying to opening the minds of those who advocate BDS against the Jewish State, I have encountered ignorance, and no intellectual curiosity to even listening to the points Mr. Stephen and others so clearly laid out. My many attempts to present the facts and reasons against BSD to its proponents, have inevitably leave me thinking the the BSD movement is simply the current iteration of “the oldest hate”.
17
“The oldest hate” - what a silly phrase.
BDS is not automatically hate for Israel or anti-semitism, both of which I reject. Making such a statement reveals an unwillingness for any reasonable discussion. Many Jewish people also support BDS without wanting an end to the State of Israel. Stop this polarizing.
1
i still say the Israeli government is continuing to use a false ruse to deny the palestinian people their right to statehood in order to create a "greater israel". it has nothing to do with the fear of the palestinians and their stone age technology. whether israel should be there is an open question which will never be fully resolved. i personally don't deny the unbelievably cruel treatment that the jewish communities received during the second world war was unforgivable - true for sure. but did that in any way justify giving non-responsible peoples land for what the germans did. where is the logic?
5
Mr. Stephens bemoans Democrats who support BDS, suggesting that they are " people who would never support the elimination of any other country in any other circumstance."
BDS supporters want equality for all. They do not support eliminating Jews in Israel. They want to change the privileged status of one group over another. There is no way that any seeing person can walk through the Qalandia checkpoint, walk down the street in Hebron where nets must be placed overhead to keep the garbage thrown by settlers from falling on Palestinian children , or see a destroyed Bedouin home in the Negev with pots and pans and clothes strewn on the ground after the home has been bulldozed by the IDF for planned Jewish homes and not understand something is wrong with our support of Israeli policies. Just as progressive voters want to take some privilege from the wealthy in the form of taxes to help the inequality gap in the US, we must work to change our policies toward Israel and Palestine. The fact that Eliot Engel is opposed to Congresswoman Tlaib bringing a delegation to actually see the occupation in the Weat Bank is telling. What does he want to keep delegates from seeing there?
18
@pennie albany
Oh, dear friend, what you say is patently untrue and unless you've never been to a public gathering of Israel supporters or of BDS proponents, then you know it isn't true that no one in the BDS movement and not even a sizable minority of the BDS movement in US and locally and the majority worldwide aren't seeking, ultimately, to have a Palestine free of Jews or Jewish self-determination and, for some, that means from the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) sea = All of Israel.
I have been to gatherings in the Bay Area, your home, and have heard and experienced blatant judeophobia and ethnic hatred from BDS supporters there, including from some who are Jewish (some in name only) and have never stepped foot in the Middle East.
Congratulations, neighbor Pennie, by joining BDS against Israel, you have joined a nearly century-old brotherhood of states such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, the Arab Emerates etc (all so very not friendly to women's rights, queer human tights, the poor, etc) who have been boycotting and isolating Israel and Israelis since the get-go and maintain societies that are themselves either Jew-free, actively persecuted and/or expelled all or much of its Jewish population during modern Israel's first years and few decades of existence, and/or remain places that are largely unwelcoming of if not hostile to Jewish people and absolutely rejectionist toward a Jewish person with an Israeli passport stamp. Gear company for a progressive, eh?
1
@penney albany
A One State Solution is the outcome desired by BDS.
Zionism which is nationalism for the Jewish People, is the only answer for the Jewish People to the persistent curse of anti-Judaism.
2
This is one of the best op-eds on the issue I have ever read. Thank you.
44
BDS is being portrayed as a well organized group of anti-semites who are planning the destruction of Israel. It is not. It is a loose collection of individuals from all over the world. Some may be anti-semites, but I think most are not.
I support the BDS movement and I have no knowledge of any other person who supports the movement. I do not seek the destruction of Israel. I seek justice for the Palestinian people and Israels conformance with international law.
18
Actually, my understanding from those who know, from both sides of BDS opinion, is that it IS a well-organized campaign, with possible origins with people seeking to delegitimatize Jewish historic claims and current presence in the area.
And my personal experience had been that many, many (though definitely not all) people towing the BDS line are in fact otherwise antisemitic and slightly fewer than many, many openly say things or make gestures that are clearly hateful of Jews or Jewishness.
(I myself am NOT involved in or supportive of BDS of Israel, but have encountered people who are.)
3
@Greg
“Definitely, most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine."
- Omar Barghouti, founder BDS
2
@Greg
The outcome desired by BDS is a One State Solution ... this is NOT a reasonable outcome for the Jewish People. The State of Israel was created as a Homeland for the Jewish People.
2
Many of these comments that refer to Israel's policies as expansionist are either ignorant of, or overlooking the historical context in which Israel came to possess the West Bank and Gaza, along with the Golan heights and the since relinquished Sinai Peninsula. In 1967, Israel, whose exisiting borders were only 23 miles wide at the country's center, was attacked on all sides by four countries simultaneously. It would not have taken much effort for invading armies to divide the country in the center and proceed to destroy the crippled result. I was a child then, but acutely apprehensive that, with colective memories of the holocaust fresh in the minds my parents and their survivor friends, we were about to witness another one. Israel has made peace with Jordan and Egypt since then and both countries recognize Israel's right to exist. The issue is an existential one for Jews. We may disagree with the politics of the moment, and there is surely just criticism to go around, but we cannot disagree with the right of a people to exist.
20
23 miles? I thought it was more like just 10-15 miles. In either case, akin to or substantially less than the average American's commute to work.
People really do need to go there to realize how small the scale is.
13
@Doug
The Palestinians have formally recognized Israels right to exist in more than one agreement. When Hamas joined the unity government in 2014 it adopted the same position.
Conversely, Israel refuses to recognize the State of Palestine.
2
@Doug, please do not assume ignorance of those who disagree with you. It is possible to reject demands for the destruction of Israel while feeling a need for opposing the unilateral seizure of land in the occupied territories.
Yes, Israel is small. I have driven through it. Adding the occupied territories does not make it much larger or safer. Peace would, however, make it safer.
1
So for the record, like Stephens, I support a two-state solution. Israel - a Jewish majority state (about 75% Jewish) that is also a sanctuary for all Jews of the world, where anti-Semitism has never died and is on the rise - of course, has the right to exist, but that Palestinians also have a right to their own state (no it’s not Jordan or another Arab country nor that Palestinians should live under permanent military occupation nor in some form of an Apartheid system). What was Mandatory Palestine (British and later League of Nations entity), now has about 6.5 million Jews and 6.5 million non-Jews. From 1948 and 1967 borders, Israel is 78% of that territory and Palestine would be 22% of the land. West Jerusalem would be Israel’s capital, East Jerusalem would be Palestine’s capital. Some land swaps (2 to 5% of the land) would be required. I agree with Stephens, that’s all easier said than done. It is excruciatingly complicated. Yet, there were offers from Israeli PM’s Barak and Olmert can came close (of course, the devil is in the details) to just that solution. Arafat (former terrorist) was a disaster, Abbas (former terrorist) is corrupt and ineffective, Hamas are terrorists. But Likud - Begin (former terrorist), Shamir (former terrorist), now Netanyahu (soon could be longest serving Israeli PM) - have always rejected a two-state solution.
Wanting a just solution for BOTH Israelis and Palestinians does not make one an anti-Semite or call for the destruction of Israel.
8
@MC
there are some flaws in your history and argument.
"mandatory palestine" included what is now israel, the palestinian territories, AND jordan (at the time known as transjordan).
while it may not be politically correct to say today, the fact remains that the palestinians do actually have a country today—and it's called jordan.
they are the exact same people. the population of jordan is around 75% palestinians.
(but the leadership of jordan is not palestinian. it is hashemite.)
in addition, it may be interesting to note that the area of transjordan, aka jordan, is much larger than the area of palestine (meaning west of the jordan river).
further, the people known today as "palestinian" never had their own country or even autonomy. ever. before the british took over, they were under the control of the ottoman empire (turkey)for 500 years.
in those days identity was defined in terms of religion, not nation-state. a hundred years ago, local palestinians would have defined themselves as "muslim". only the most modern of them would have called themselves part of "greater syria."
there was no "palestinian" national identity. that developed only in reaction against increasing numbers of jews moving to the area.
even the name "palestine"—is not palestinian! it's roman. that demographic group doesn't even have it's own name for themselves!
that means there was no historical national identity. at most, just part of "greater syria".
3
Under Bibi Netanyahu Israel has clearly chosen to become ‘Republican’ instead of bipartisan or non partisan in its relations and dealings with the US. His insulting and demeaning treatment of President Obama certainly didn’t endear him or Israel to any Democrat or Progressive. Look no further than Bibi Netanyahu and Likud policies to understand why Israel has lost and will continue to loose support of people around the world including Progressives in the USA. Accusing progressives of being anti Semitic is a recipe to lose even more support, sympathy and goodwill.
8
The historical record says that Palestine was never a country, and was rarely ever an intact entity. At most it was a geographic entity like Scandinavia.
In 1917 Great Britain issued the Balfour Declaration for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". In 1922 Britain allocated nearly 80% of Palestine to Transjordan. In other words, Jordan is the Arab portion of Palestine.
Those plans were entirely unacceptable to the Arab leadership, and they fought a war to exterminate the Jewish state just three years after the German effort to exterminate the Jewish people had come to an end.
The great irony is that the leadership of the Arabs of Palestine consistently rejected the two-state solution in the belief that they could have everything; the result was that they ended up with nothing.
The imperatives of modern innovation and Israel's phenomenally successful economy combined with the Saudi's understanding that Iran is far more dangerous has suggested a slow but steady progress towards a more productive relationship though initially unfolding behind closed doors. The Palestinians cause is no longer a top priority for the Saudi's, especially among the younger generation, who believe that an independent Palestinian state would become the extreme source of instability in the region.
The history of the region is steeped in an almost unfathomable roster of claims but even more unfathomable is the unrelenting grip of anti-Semitism.
22
@Arizona: if you are going to quote the Balfour Declaration, you should also quote the act that the British had promised the land to the Arabs.
While there was no state of Palestine, there were inhabitants who were under a foreign colonial power (Turkey) who were looking for liberation. Under your rationale there would be no Greece when that area was liberated from the Turks. There had never been a country of Greece before.
@Arizona
It remains astonishing...and puzzling....that the international community still refuses to acknowledge that “Jordan is the Arab portion of Palestine”.
The ‘Arabs of Palestine’ did NOT end up with nothing. They ended up with 80% of the territory...because the reality is that there is no real distinction between the Arabs of Palestine and the Arab rulers of Jordan. They are historically, linguistically, culturally, and in every other way the same people.
The word ‘Palestinian’ refers not to a separate, distinct ethnicity, but to an Arab nationalist movement...the aim of which was to delegitimize Israel by promoting the ultimate fiction of a distinct displaced nation of indigenous people called ‘Palestinians’. And the international community bought into it lock, stock, and barrel.
3
Mr. Stephens, I do not share many of your political beliefs. I am a liberal. But I share your respect for reasoned argument based on facts. That is why I think you have accurately described the deeply biased -- at times even deranged -- attitude toward Israel held by many so-called progressives. Unfortunately I don't think this will make the slightest dent in their thinking. I doubt that many of the people in the photo have the vaguest idea of Israeli history, geography or demographics. That, at least, has been my experience with BDS supporters and anti-zionists. I appreciate your willingness to be a voice of reason. You must feel very lonely though.
26
@jo rausch
" I doubt that many of the people in the photo have the vaguest idea of Israeli history, geography or demographics"
I would bet that they have far more knowledge and understanding of the issues in the ME than your average American voter.
2
This is a rather minor nit-pick about Mr Stephens' excellent column. I would like see the Israeli pull-out from Gaza held up for what it really was: an ill-thought-out blunder that was doomed to failure. It is a model of how not to end a post-war occupation. Ariel Sharon blundered into Lebanon and blundered out of Gaza. Maybe the American post-war occupation of Japan would be a better example (but, of course, the Japanese learned a strong lessen from their defeat, whereas Hamas seems incapable of thinking constructively and peacefully). And maybe there are other models of how to gradually and step by step build a bridge to a stable post-occupation. The Israeli sudden pull-out from Gaza certainly did not.
7
Bret
You are right on about this. It’s what happens when we lurch from devaluing a group to overvaluing it, and when we divide the world into victims or victimizers. It’s a shame that few have read” The Open and Closed Mind” by Milton Rokeach about the totalitarianism of the right AND the left. The idea of holding the tension of opposites, an important concept in developmental psychology and psychotherapy just hasn’t made it into the mainstream of life. Do we blame the educational system, psychology for not influencing development to a greater degree or???
I am rapidly becoming a cynic and I don’t like it!
5
As someone who has been to Israel many times and who is familiar with the situation there, there is nothing Israel can do to help the Palestinians achieve their goal of statehood until there are new elections where the Palestinians elect a government that 1) recognizes Israel, 2) has leadership that does not make unreasonable demands.
In 2006, the Palestinians first and only election, Hamas, a terrorist organization according to the EU, US, and Israel was elected. Hamas does not recognize Israel and instead of rebuilding Gaza, has chosen to shoot missiles into Israel instead, causing 3 Israeli-Gazan wars.
In 2010, there were supposed to be new elections, but they never happened. That is, there is no legitimate leadership of the Palestinian people, so there is absolutely no possibility of a negotiated peace.
The current unelected Palestinian leadership has insisted that Israel is not able to use its own troops to keep the peace to protect Israel, and thus aren't serious about a negotiated peace.
The Democrats should be pressing for new Palestinian elections and of a government that will recognize Israel and is willing to negotiate peace. Until that happens, there is absolutely nothing Israel's government can do.
Certainly, Democrats such as Corey Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Kamala Harris understand this and yet they do not speak out against BDS and for new Palestinian elections.
28
@David MD
In 2014 the Palestinians had a unity government willing to negotiate a peace, including full, recognition and normalization with Israel. When this gained American approval, Netanyahu was incensed. Peace seriously threatened his colonization project. So Netanyahu engineered the war on Gaza to destroy the unity government.
3
@Greg
While there have been many efforts to unify Hamas in Gaza with Fatah in the West Bank including by Egypt, ultimately these talks for a unified Palestinian government break down.
A problem is that Hamas is just not interested in negotiating any kind of long term peace with Israel.
The 2014 conflict was started by Hamas using tunnels into Israel to kidnap Israelis. [1]. It was Hamas that initiated the conflict, not Netanyahu. Neither America nor France would allow for terrorists tunneling into their countries, and so Israel couldn't permit that as well.
Instead of using concrete and construction materials intended for housing in Gaza, Hamas has diverted those material into digging tunnels into Israel.
Prior to that, Hamas had been shooting missiles into Israel, but the Israeli iron Dome anti-missile system removed that threat.
The US, EU, Russia, and Arab countries need to pressure the Palestinians to have new elections and then they must elect leadership who are realistic about what they can achieve at the peace table. Only then, will there be a Palestinian state, something the Palestinians turned down over 70 years ago.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israel–Gaza_conflict
3
Very powerful article, Mr. Stephens. I couldn't agree more. Thank you.
37
a logical, well written piece by Brett Stevens.
37
@pirranha299
well written, yes.
logical, no.
Stephens makes countless numbers of logic jumps which follow his biased opinion only.
9
Here we go again. Conflating criticism of Israel's right-wing government with not only anti-zionism, but anti-Semitism.
If you really want to know who is an actual existential threat to the people of Israel one needs look no further than their own corrupt government. Netanyahu and his Likud Party is the Israeli equivalent to our Trump and Republican Party. Having been a long time supporter of Israel, I don't know what, or who, they are now. Their prime minister comes to this country and meddles in our policy debate by addressing our congress. Their cozy relationship with the crazy evangelical Christian zealots and Saudi Arabia. And now the gaslighting campaign to say that one is an anti-Semite should one criticize the policies of the Israeli government. Sorry Mr. Stephens, I'm not buying your argument and neither are a majority of Americans. Israel is losing the next generation of Americans who they will need to support them. And that's not good.
36
@FXQ
"Here we go again. Conflating criticism of Israel's right-wing government with not only anti-zionism, but anti-Semitism"
Except Bret Stephens does the exact opposite in this column. Did you actually take the time to read it, or just post your comment first?
3
In the current geopolitical climate, It's up to you, whenever you speak out against Likud, to clarify that you support Israel's right to be and the right of Jewish Israelis to self-determination in their ancestral home. And it's on you to denounce all who criticize Likud while also denying or working against Jewish self-determination or otherwise speak or act in anti-Semitic anti Jewish ways.
2
He is not saying you can't criticize some of the policies of the Israeli government and not be deemed an anti Semite. But if the policies you attack have to do with Israel's primarily Jewish identity or the legitimacy of its existence or its people's right to their home there, or if you single out the Jewish state of Israel (the only Jewish state in the world) for strong criticism of policies or behaviors that are also exhibited by other states (including your own in some instances), then yes, you are an anti-Jewish anti-Semite and deserve the moniker.
2
This sustained outrage over the BDS and other anti-zionist groups is ridiculous. It's just another propaganda game to confuse the issues and gain support from people who don't have a full grasp of the issue. It's no different than Stephens and his fellow GOPers calling tax increases "socialism" or "communism."
The conclusion that these movements are "anti-semetic" or "hostile towards the Jewish State" relies on two (false) assumptions. First, you need to assume that a vocal and radical minority of people in a movement speak for the entire group. This is clearly false. Steve King, a long-time and (until recently) fairly powerful member of the GOP, supports white supremacy. But does this fact alone mean that the entire GOP is racist? Stephens would of course argue that it doesn't, but here he uses extreme statements to paint an entire movement as "anti-Jewish."
Second, you need to assume that one cannot criticize Israel's governmental policies without also attacking Jews, zionism as a concept, or the state of Israel. This is idiotic. It's not "anti-Muslim" to say that Saudi Arabia should treat women better and respect basic human rights.
I have yet to hear a convincing explanation why criticism of Israel's continued occupation of Palestinian land in violation of international law--the main gist of the BDS movement--is in and of itself "Anti-Jewish." We can criticize American policies without being labeled "Anti-American" and the same is true for Israeli policies
34
@Bill K
The founder of the BDS movement, Omar Barghouti, stated that even if Israel were to retreat to the pre 67 borders, that would NOT make BDS go away. And that it won't go away until Israel is gone.
BDS literally has nothing to do with a palestinian state or human rights. It's just another antisemitic hate movement.
2
I'm going to ignore 90% of Bret's passive-aggressiveness about liberals and dog whistles and just focus on the crux which is that yeah, some prominent liberals are getting weirdly chummy with known anti-Semites. We shouldn't encourage that.
I recognize that the conflict with Palestine is way more complex than the average reader (myself included) is going to be able to appreciate, and that the Palestinians have not helped themselves by remaining violent. That said, it seems the current government is done looking for equitable solutions. It's going to be either second-class citizenship or continued oppression.
13
In the continuing trend to foment more problems and anger instead of trying to have a reasonable discussion, Stephens has gone all-in on this article. Nothing like a bunch of false analogies to up red herring nonsense and categorize all progressives.
12
Bret Stephens is correct. Contrary to many of the myopic letters here, Anti-Zionist is indeed Anti-Semitism and we only need to focus in on one fact, which is is that so many who call themselves progressive only pick on one country. Why Israel? As Mr. Stephens says, why not boycott China which invaded Tibet, or Russia which invaded Ukraine? How about India which still holds on to Moslem Kashmir? Indeed, how about all Americans who are not native? Only when the progressives criticize other states with equal venom will I acknowledge they're not anti-Semitic.
59
Or how about Americans not even being aware that we, too, have continuously occupied territories that receive short shrift - Guam, American Samoa and, glaringly, Puerto Rico among them.
It's telling that so many American "progressives" (and I'm no conservative) are more interested in decrying the alleged second-class status of Palestinians half a world away, but remain almost deafeningly silent, or at most inadequately responsive -- when it comes to Puerto Rican Americans who despite paying federal taxes remain without a voting member of Congress.
You might say this is a case of "what aboutism" but I say peace and justice begin at home.
9
money, its taxpayer money. it's always about the money
When a foreign government authorizes one of its companies to license really powerful spyware to other oppressive governments for use on dissidents (project Pegasus, NSO group), I feel angry at that foreign government. I can want Israel to face repercussions, whether a boycott or a change in US policy, without being antisemitic. This article insinuates that anyone with a problem with Israel somehow is thinly concealing antisemitism, but that's simply not the case. Criticizing and boycotting an entity for the awful things that entity does is independent of debating whether that entity should exist. To pretend otherwise is to protect Israel from all valid criticisms or to label every critic antisemitic, which only validates those it actually applies to.
10
This article does little beyond repeating one-sided arguments of the conflict, but I suspect an ulterior motive. If you read carefully, it's clear what Stephens' goal is: to attack the emerging solidarity of the left. Near the end of the piece, he goes after his real target by playing a Six-Degrees of Kevin Bacon game to smear Representative Ocasio-Cortez as a possible anti-Semite. It's so horribly cynical, yet so typical of the Right to lament the atrocities that are required to maintain their controlling stake in the world.
18
The eloquence of the commenters responding to the narrow, cramped reasoning of this column should make Mr. Stephens re-read his own musings and ask himself whether he has addressed the real issues being confronted by the people of Israel.
12
I am not Jewish, but I could not agree more
with Mr.Stephens about the rise of anti
semitism among so called progressives.
they throw all historical perspective out
the window in their rabid desire to cloak
their anti Israel bias in the language of
oppression and victimization. they ignore
the fact that the Palestinians have allied
with Hamas whose stated goal is to drive
Israel into the sea.Israel has bent over
backwards to try and make peace, only
to be rebuffed,lied to and attacked. the
Democratic party needs to be very careful
that the Tlaibs and Omar's and especially
Ocasio-Cortez do not drag it in the mire of
anti semitism. if it does not guard against
this pernicious behavior, it will help elect
Republicans for years to come and, worse,
tar itself in front of the entire world.
40
Good point. Dead ends on peace threaten to lead Israel and moderate supporters to conclude peace isn’t even the desired outcome! BDS locks that in.
2
I find racism and anti-Semitism is treated very differently by the Left. While racist acts are addressed immediately and with great fervor, anti-Semitism is handled in a far softer manner. It’s accepted by the far Left, and the moderate Left is more interested in appearing measured and fair. I don’t recall a march following Pittsburgh. Instead, the usual blame of Trump is pretty much all I heard from the far Left, which includes Hollywood and late night TV. Meanwhile, whites lose their jobs for using a word that blacks use 24/7.
14
This article tears at my insides, but I have to applaud Bret Stephens for trying to wrestle cogently with a very complex topic. I’m just one little Jewish baby boomer who is white, yes, neither wealthy nor powerful, gay in a quiet, non-activist way, and somebody who has lived and worked in countries with a long history of anti-semitism (including the U.S., let’s be real). Currently, I see my own country financially backing all kinds of bad actors all over the world. I’m not a fan of Netanyahu or MBS. I see my own country prosecuting all kinds of wrong-headed proxy wars, and I see a complete absence of a truth and reconciliation process right here in my own land when it comes to slavery and racism. So, I often question why so many rainbow flag hoisting people and feminists are so fixated on the Middle East when neither women nor gay people fare well in that area whatsoever. It’s superficial, learned PC behavior that’s ignorant and, yes, anti-Semitic.
31
Exactly. Thank you, Auntie Social.
2
"More than a half-century of occupation of Palestinian territories is a massive injustice that fair-minded people can no longer ignore, especially given America’s financial support for Israel. Continued settlement expansion in the West Bank proves Israel has no interest in making peace on equitable terms. And endless occupation makes Israel’s vaunted democracy less about Jewish self-determination than it is about ethnic subjugation." By the way it is closer to 70 years than to 50.
You succinctly encapsulated my objections to current and past Israeli state actions. Thank you. I have no idea how you can argue against any of those points. I also agree that Israel having returned the Sinai to Egypt has probably given up more than they received by conquest. However why do you not see that the Palestinians as a people just like the Kurds have a right to govern themselves in an independent country. Possibly if they allowed the creation of a Palestinian state their approaching demographic debacle would be diverted by emigration to that state by some of their inhabitants. You seem to equate denunciation of Israels actions as antisemitism, patently absurd as your assertion is my wife who is Jewish would disagree. You have wasted a lot of newsprint with a screed that denies people the right to object by controlling their investments and their voice. Israel is wrong legally, morally, ethically and historically. They are denying to others the rights that they hold dear.
17
Because a Jew-Free Palestine is the goal of all who fail to denounce "From the River to the Sea" rhetoric and the never-ending calls for anti-Jewish violence that often accompanies it. And with a long history of Christian and Muslim judeophobia and oppression of Jewish people, that doesn't leave Jewish people with many options and leaves them worried for their future existence (did you know that, among other things, Jewish people in Arab-Muslim lands were not allowed to ride horses or donkeys lest they pass a Muslim person along the way and be higher up, even in that literal way, than even the lowliest Muslim person? Do you recall recent US and European Nazi chants and blatantly antisemitic posters, chants, rants, and murders across Asia and the Mideast and Africa?
2
While I do agree that many leftists have a very one-sided viewpoint of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I'm not convinced that this fierce opposition to Israel is Anti-Semitic.
Rather, it originates from a deep-rooted tendency in leftism to see Israelis as "white-skinned and Western and imperialistic" and Palestianians as "dark-skinned, orientalized and colonized". And so all the sympathy goes to the later.
These tendencies have become turbo-charged by the current political moment with identity politics coming to the foreground of leftism.
It's also related to the same reason why so many Leftists are so uncomfortable with calling out Islamists for homophobia or sexism, when they show no hesitation (and in fact are eager) to do with other folks. There is a general fear in the Left of appearing Imperalistic and Islamophobic.
The Left is quick to support Jews from attacks from the far-right not out of hypocrisy, but because those attackers are seen as "more white" and "more Western" than the Jews, so there is no conflicted feelings there.
Also, while I do support Israel's right to exist unequivocally, I have to admit that seeing Netanyahu aligning himself with Far-Right Populists in Poland, Hungary, and the US do make all those "Israel is South Africa!" slogans seem slightly less demented.
3
But it IS antisemitic, and racist, for those on the Left to erase the existence, perhaps primarily in Israel, of Jewish people "of color" such as those whose ancestors were exiled to or in order to survive emigrated to or intermarried with people from places such as India, Ethiopia, China, Persia, Iraq, North Africa, etc. Not to mention the thousands of people who converted to Judaism either in Israel or then emigrated to Israel, such as numbers of people from Thailand, India, Latin America and a variety of American ethnic groups.
It's also intellectually dishonest, and its own form of racism, to see non-Jewish Arab people, let alone all Muslims, as downtrodden "Brown" people. I personally have met numbers of blond or rusty-haired, freckled white skinned people who identify as and are held by their neighbors to be Arab Christians or Arab Muslims. And the Baltic states are/were the beloved home of entire populations of lily-white Muslim people.
I keep wondering how many of our brothers and sisters in the "progressive" movement or the non-Israeli Left have ever spent any time in Israel or elsewhere in West Asia, let alone enough time to really get to know its layers of human and political diversity.
4
"the lie that there is no ancestral or historic Jewish tie to the land."
Mr; Stephens perpetuates the lie that there is no such thing as international law. The rights to the land are based on our laws, not our religious beliefs.
8
International law was written in 1948 when the UN created the State of Israel and it was violated when Arab nations opposed the partition plan and attempted to invade Israel on three separate occasions. Egypt and Jordan renounced their sovereignty over their possessions. Palestinians have no legitimate claim to Gaza or West Bank
10
@Jack Kinstlinger
So why are the likes of Stephens and Netanyahu so afraid of facing international law. The avoid any mention of it because they know the occupation is illegitimate.
2
@Jack Kinstlinge
Let's leave that decision to,the International Court of Justice. It's not yours, mine, or Netanyahu's.
1
This "dog whistle" stuff is PC foolishness. It's an accusation of bigotry and conspiracies. It's nice to see the left now using it on each other. Maybe they'll realize how toxic they make the tone of debate. The left doesn't need a Trump, they're polluting their political climate just fine.
7
After reading this column I realize even more how valuable the
Seeds of Peace organization is...
3
Exactly! It’s not about whether you can or can’t criticize Israel. Israelis criticize Israel all the time. BDS drops a wall between the parties, cutting off cultural, sports or academic exchange. Those participants are most likely to spread moderate views. Cutting them off is a collective statement that building connections is not worthwhile or morally justified. My historic model is US-Soviet exchanges in the 60s-70s, offering some hope for the future. MLK didn’t blow up buses or pizzerias, nor did he celebrate those who did. He even saw his movement’s role to save white bigots from their hatred. BDS’s obsession and absolute, disproportionate position toward Israel can really only be explained by one variable: antisemitism.
2
Israel has "won". It controls the West Bank, it controls Gaza. There will never be a Palestine nor any restitution for 1948 nor '67 nor '82. This situation is demographically unsustainable and a solution politically unattainable. Like two deer engaged in combat, their antlers entwined, both will starve.
One only need visit one of the many ruins, the Philistine buildings, the Crusader castles, the Nabatean towns, the Roman roads, the British forts that dot the landscape and ask what permanence is there in ownership of this land? What right does anyone have to claim as theirs, history is your evidence, history is your judge.
1
A recent poll showed that about three-fourths of Israelis like Donald Trump. Barack Obama, by contrast, was not liked by a majority of Israelis.
That's the difference between American Jews -- about 80 percent of whom are Democrats -- and Israelis, who think it's great that Netanyahu is serving his fourth term as prime minister.
Israelis have very little respect for American Jews. They view as an ATM machine, essentially.
As an American Jew and a member of a Reform Jewish temple, I can say emphatically that I have no trouble distinguishing views that are anti-Israel from views that are anti-Semitic.
15
Israelis face very real security threats that American Jews don’t. That means they have a different perspective on American leaders.
2
A refrain that seems impossible to hear in our current state of politics: it is NOT anti-Semitic to question the political decisions of a sovereign nation that HAS, indisputably, failed to treat the Palestinians with the same respect they demand. It is NOT anti-Semitic to have a critical conversation about whether the Israeli government has (almost always with the support of the US) established racist policies to segregate and subjugate the Palestinian people. It IS possible to support Israel while acknowledging its colonial history and while wanting to secure safety and prosperity for both the Israeli and Palestinian people.
7
But you need to lead off with what you saved only until the end -- that both people are legitimately there and have valid concerns and needs and that they must, to be just, let the other stay where they are.
That said, Israelis are not colonialists, and I am offended by that claim -- I know Israelis, mostly Jewish but not all, whose families have been in Jerusalem or other places in that area for hundreds and hundreds of years, there has never been a time, at least in the last 2000-3000 years, when Jewish people have not lived in that part of the Fertile Crescent, despite numerous attempts to forcibly deport them and/or to repopulate the area by the then-dominant political group (as Han Chinese are doing in and to Tibet). And at least since the rabbinic period, there has never been a time when Jewish people didn't pray facing Israel/Jerusalem/the Temple Mount (their holiest site) or practice Judaism in the area. And Jewish life in the Fertile Crescent and North Africa pre-dates both Islam and Arab nationalism by many, many centuries (and Christianity too). Perhaps Abraham, supposed ancestor of most of the monotheistic groups in west Asia and North Africa, was a "colonist" from Ur (Iraq?), but since his fabled trek, it's been Babylonians (again Iraq), Greeks, Romans (pagan Europeans), Selucids, Ottoman Turks, and others who have colonized" the area, much to the sadness of the local and dispersed Jewish populations.
2
But it is ridiculous to criticize Israel incessantly as the UN and others do and ignore the far more egregious actions of any number of oppressive and dictatorial regimes throughout the world, especially in the Arab Middle East.People who single out Israel for oppressive actions are clearly anti Semitic
2
Why are "progressives" (not Teddy Roosevelt's Progressives) anti-Semitic? One can never be sure (no one has ever explained the long and widespread history of anti-Semitism, in contrast to other hatreds that are generally restricted in time and place). But the success of one people, and Jews have usually been successful in societies where they have had some opportunity, and Israel ranks with the Asian Tigers as a success story, is a challenge to the "progressive" notion that history is a never-ending story of oppression and victimization. In the "progressive" world-view, everyone is either oppressed or an oppressor, and those who succeed don't appear to be victims of oppression.
Maybe it's just envy.
14
The Star of David is a trigger? Anything can be a trigger. What happens when someone decides a rainbow gay rights flag is a trigger (which it actually is for a lot of people). Slippery slope time.
8
What I find really sad here is the complete lack of acknowledgement that there may actually be some anti-zionists out there, myself amongst them, who use their brains. Who are informed, thoughtful, inclusive... in fact, are pretty much insulted by the tone of this article / opinion. It's as if we hadn't thought through our opinions, we jump wildly into what is demonstrably an immensely complex and tragic struggle. No, sir, you may use a broad brush, but your painting is sloppy; it will at some point have to be redone by more skilled hands. We will marvel that it took so long, but the end result will be a thing of beauty!
3
Many of the comments are notable for their lack in dealing with Mr. Stephens’ clearly presented arguments and facts.
22
I don’t agree with Bret’s reference to the GOP. We all know he hates Trump. That doesn’t mean the GOP is racist. In fact, it doesn’t mean Trump is racist. I don’t know why he even had to include the statement in an otherwise well thought column.
I agree with the balance of the column. The Far Left, in its effort to appear fair and measured, falls over itself to support American Muslims. But when it comes to anti-Semitism, not so much. However, which group more closely aligns with freedom, liberty and mutual respect for all races, religions, genders and sexual orientation? We all know the answer.
7
As a non-Jew I'm leaving this very touchy issue of who are anti-Semites and what is Antisemitism to others. However it is never a good sign when members of the B.D.S. activist clique and assorted self-styled "radicals" show up to comment and distort Stephens words and arguments. Address what he said not your rehearsed arguments.
One slightly tangential point is suggested by this piece. What was once seemingly just a few months ago far left radical opinion is being mainstreamed into Democratic party politics. This is dangerous and self-defeating for electoral success of Democrats on every level. You can loathe "Bibi" as I do (the modern day Citizen Genet outrageously interfering in our party politics and international policies and making his hatred of Pres. Obama obvious) without adopting anti-Israel rhetoric.
11
What is this term " progressive " ? About " progressive " taxation ? Or is it about " progress " ? This metonymy of behaviorist psychology for everything is unbearable .
2