SURGING ANTISEMITISM AS REACTIONARY TO ISRAELI POLICY
Since October 7th – and long before then, for those of us who have been paying attention – Jews have been told, ad nauseum, that Israel bears at least some responsibility for the concerning surge in global antisemitism.
Most recently, Jewish actor and longtime activist Mandy Patinkin argued in a New York Times interview that the antisemitism we are seeing around the world today is a reaction to the policies and actions of the Israeli government and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the past, I have shared many of Patinkin’s criticisms of Israeli policy. But this particular argument is neither “criticism” nor, in my view, at all legitimate – at least not if we hold Jews to an equal standard as any other human being on the planet.
Unfortunately, Patinkin is hardly the only one who holds this view. A recent Anti-Defamation League survey found that one out of every four Americans think that the recent antisemitic attacks are “understandable,” and 27% think that Jews should collectively answer for Israel’s actions.
HOW TO SPOT A BIGOT
There are many, many governments around the world that are deserving of harsh condemnation. Millions of people certainly argue that Israel is among them. Condemning the policies, rhetoric, and behavior of any particular country is not bigoted in and of itself. In fact, it’s important if we want the world to become a better, fairer place. What’s not legitimate, however, is to project our criticisms of any given country onto the country’s citizens as a whole.
For example, those who project their hatred of the Chinese Communist Party onto all Chinese individuals – or even all East Asians – are not criticizing the Chinese government. They are bigots – specifically, racists and xenophobes. When Asian Americans were targeted in hate crimes during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us rightfully blamed the perpetrators, not the Chinese government or the virus.
The very same logic should apply to those who lash out against Israelis – or even all Jews, about half of whom are not even Israeli citizens. Antisemites – and no one else – are responsible for antisemitism, no matter what Israel does or doesn’t do.
ANTISEMITISM AS AN INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCE OF JEWISH BEHAVIOR
Blaming Jews – or groups of Jews – for antisemitism is the oldest trick in the book. Antisemitism, after all, moves through conspiracy theories. At the heart of these conspiracy theories is the idea that Jews are somehow capable of manipulating the behavior of others.
For thousands of years, the Christian church justified antisemitic persecution on the basis that Jews had rejected Jesus on the cross. In other words: it was Jewish behavior that supposedly justified bigotry against us.
For a more recent example, take the pogroms of the Russian Civil War, during which some 250,000 Jews were slaughtered in what historians recognize as a pre-Holocaust genocide, primarily at the hands of anti-Bolshevik forces.
These antisemitic slaughters, too, were allegedly “reactionary.” After all, the anti-Bolshevik pogromists were simply responding to the conspiracy of Judeo-Bolshevism.
ANTISEMITES HAVE AGENCY
There are many, many governments around the world that are deserving of harsh condemnation. Millions of people certainly argue that Israel is among them. Condemning the policies, rhetoric, and behavior of any particular country is not bigoted in and of itself. In fact, it’s important if we want the world to become a better, fairer place. What’s not legitimate, however, is to project our criticisms of any given country onto the country’s citizens as a whole.
For example, those who project their hatred of the Chinese Communist Party onto all Chinese individuals – or even all East Asians – are not criticizing the Chinese government. They are bigots – specifically, racists and xenophobes. When Asian Americans were targeted in hate crimes during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us rightfully blamed the perpetrators, not the Chinese government or the virus.
The very same logic should apply to those who lash out against Israelis – or even all Jews, about half of whom are not even Israeli citizens. Antisemites – and no one else – are responsible for antisemitism, no matter what Israel does or doesn’t do.
LET'S UNPACK THIS
(1) Whether Israel claims to represent worldwide Jewry or not is irrelevant. When a Jewish business is vandalized in Athens or a Jew is bludgeoned in Los Angeles, it is the perpetrator of the crime – and only the perpetrator of that crime – that bears responsibility for their actions.
(2) Jews sure as hell were not “safe” prior to October 7, 1967, or 1948. To argue that the key to Jewish safety is Palestinian safety is a flawed and blatantly ahistorical argument at best.
(3) “Jewish people in diaspora have become a proxy for the world’s frustration with the leaders of a nation state” is textbook xenophobia. And yet this creator seemingly resents Israel for this more than they resent the xenophobes in question.
IS ISRAEL...ANTISEMITIC?
Another ridiculous argument that commonly circulates social media is that it is actually Israel that is “antisemitic,” not the antisemites who engage in antisemitism, either because:
(1) Israel’s behavior “provokes” antisemites.
But again, in this context, whatever Israel does or doesn’t do is irrelevant. Antisemites are human beings who have agency over their own actions...regardless of what Israel does or doesn’t do. Just like a woman’s short skirt doesn’t “make” a rapist rape, Israel’s behavior doesn’t “make” an antisemite carry out antisemitic hate crimes.
(2) Israel gives Jews and/or Judaism a bad name.
Again, even if you believe that to be true, you still have agency over your own thoughts and behavior. Do you think bigotry and/or hate crimes against Muslims are justified because ISIS – which claims to embody true Islam – gives Islam a “bad name”? And if not, why is it that you do not apply the exact same logic to Jews, whatever your feelings toward Israel?
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