THE CONUNDRUM OF THE AMERICAN JEW

What infuriates us, what unites us, what scares us

One day long before October 7, I was listening to friend’s podcast when I heard her refer to a woman in New York as an “Israeli Karen.” Shocked, particularly given that the host is Jewish, I looked over at a mutual acquaintance and said “What did she just say?” He smiled, not only unperturbed but apparently sort of impressed by her blatantly misogynistic, racist remark about a Jewish woman.

In the years since, such outright antisemitism has become commonplace. Antisemitic hate crimes are at an all-time high. Jewish contributions are erased from established historical record. Children at elementary schools face antisemitic taunts from seven-year-olds. Jewish parents remove the Mezuzah from their door, afraid it might prove a danger to their children. In fact, it’s becoming eerily reminiscent of some of the darkest chapters in human history. People say things about Jews that ten years ago they’d never have said - things which they’d never say about any other ethnic, racial or religious groups without being roundly criticized by those who think of themselves as non-racist. But hey, as author David Badiel says in the title of his very illuminating book: Jews Don’t Count,

So was all that Jew hatred always lurking there, in some deep dark cave of the antisemite’s psyche? My father used to tell us, “Even if they’re being nice to us now, never take it for granted. Make sure you’re always on the side of the oppressed. The oppressors usually come back around to us.” I thought he was overstating. He was not.

For the record, I think Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal and belongs before a tribunal in the Hague. My passionate and public critique of him goes back decades, and even as a Presidential candidate I made my thoughts about Israeli injustice towards Palestinians very clear. It was totally possible to be completely horrified by the events of October 7, and at the same time aware that sometime, somewhere, something was bound to blow.

Still, the U.S. killed up to a million Iraqis in the Iraqi War and I was never treated as though as an American I was personally responsible. Nor did I hear people say that the United States — given its history of abuse towards many groups in our history, including genocide of Native Americans — therefore has no right to exist. But the admittedly atrocious behavior of the now far right-wing Israeli government is apparently, in the minds of many, a reason to hate, to even attack, all Jews everywhere. This is not an enlightened political perspective. This is not a stand for social justice. It is insanity. It is antisemitic evil.

I was raised at a time when many Jewish parents taught their kids, “Better to keep your head down and not talk too much about being a Jew. It helps keep antisemitism at bay.” In the first years of my career, I rarely mentioned publicly that I was Jewish though I certainly never denied it! And now is not a time to cower before the wave of Jew hatred which threatens not only Jews but the very fabric of our society. I think no matter who we are, we should be proud of who we are. No people, no color, no religion, no ethnic group, no gender identification, no sex, no nationality should ever feel afraid.

One problem, and there are quite a few, is how many antisemites don’t think they’re antisemites. For many Jews, one of the most galling aspects of the nouveau antisemitism is how people with zero understanding of our lives now explain to us that we were taught a big lie when we were kids, see, but we can realize this now and be reeducated! It’s all okay - all is forgiven - as long as we’ll wear a keffiyeh, shout “Genocide” at the top of our lungs, and disavow any belief that Israel has a right to exist. Oh no, wait, correction! It has a right to exist, they say, but only as a non-Jewish state. I love how a bunch of supposedly anti-Imperialist (mainly) white people feel they have a right to tell Israel it can’t be an “ethno-state,” when there is one Jewish state in the world and 56 Muslim ones. Does Jordan not have a right to be Muslim? Does Egypt not have the right to be Muslim? Does Indonesia not have the right to be Muslim?

And again, this is not to justify injustice. While twenty percent of Israel’s population is Arab, they have rights but they do not have the full rights and freedoms that they should have. And that needs to change. The occupation of the West Bank is a profound human rights atrocity, and that needs to change. I’ve long been on the side of the Israeli Left, and I will continue to be. But given our ICE raids and the recent shredding of the Voting Rights Act by SCOTUS, Americans should think long and hard before pointing the finger at others as though we’re doing so well ourselves.

Jimmy Carter tried. Bill Clinton tried as well. In those days, the official position of the United States was to be “an honest broker” in the Middle East. Once George Bush became President, however, the Neo-cons in charge changed America’s official policy. From that point forward, they said, any friend of Israel’s would be considered our friend and any enemy of Israel would be considered our enemy. After eight years, however the Democrats won back the White House. When Obama became President he had the change to say firmly to Bibi, “NO WAY, NO MORE!” The United States could have used its considerable influence to stop the rise of the right-wing Jewish Supremacists, namely the settlements, at that time. He did not, however; as with so many issues, Obama complained about the right things while refusing to use his political capital to make a difference.

The painful irony is that on one hand, Israel was founded to protect us. On the other hand, the behavior of the Israeli government — too often with help from the United States — has further endangered us. Both things are true. Antisemitism has lurked beneath the surface for well over a thousand years, yes. But Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have activated and nursed it. With crimes against Palestinians ranging from the West Bank to Gaza etc., they’ve made it far less safe for Jews throughout the world.

American Jews face a difficult balancing act, discerning what’s true and what’s not true at any given time. Most importantly, we need to articulate those truths - often difficult to do in the face of social media propaganda that rains down on us like sheets of mud. The question of the “Jewish lobby” is an example. It’s certainly true that AIPAC is awful. It used to not be, but now it is. It is not however, nearly as big an influence on U.S. policy as is the aggregate corporate hegemony of Big Oil, Big Ag, Big Food, Big Tech, or the Big War Machine. If the Israel lobby is being thrown back on its heels, I have no problem with that. But to name it as the scourge that has ruined and is ruining America — as many on social media would have you believe these days — is an antisemitic trope no different than thinking that Jews eat non-Jewish babies. And even the most preposterous lies can have power. There’s even the new one from Candace Owens, have you heard…? Jews were behind the slave trade! That’s the kind of disgusting murk so much of this stuff comes from. A woman with six million social media subscribers can influence a lot of people to think, “Well, were you?”

By the way, the answer is a resounding no.

That’s what makes antisemitism different than other forms of racism. It’s not a superiority complex, it’s a conspiracy theory. It’s a rewrite of our history (I saw it on Tik Tok!), a perversion of our beliefs (modern Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to a home in Judea; it does not mean Palestinians don’t), and a delegitimization of the very idea that Jews have a right to self-determination. People who say “Globalize the Intifada” with gleeful abandon may or may not know that they’re calling for globalized violence against innocent people. I had a huge falling out, I’m sorry to say, with a colleague who has a problem with the fact that I have a problem with that. From Bondi Beach in Sydney to a synagogue in Manchester, how many Jews who have nothing to do with Israel’s politics will be asked to pay the price for its sins? Of course I have a problem with that. A big problem indeed. And in my mind, everyone should.

The Abrahamic Family House

Several weeks ago, I visited Abu Dhabi. There is a place there called the Abrahamic Family House — a park in which stands a mosque and a church and a synagogue, celebrating a vision of the common humanity at the heart of all three Abrahamic religions. The United Arab Emirates is a Muslim country, of course, yet as a Jew I felt very welcomed there. Having talked to many people, I felt less antisemitism in Abu Dhabi than I do in my own country. And while we certainly haven’t achieved it yet, I know in my bones that the vision of a world in which all of us can be who God created us to be, children of the same Father, living alongside each other in justice and in peace, is a light that the dreamers of the world will not stop chasing. The dream itself is our common bond. Our love will become so incredibly strong that hate will be no more.