ANALYSIS/OPINION
Are Cornel West and James Zogby anti-Semites? Here’s how you can tell.
Some bigots are easy to spot. They know who they hate, and make no effort to hide it. Obvious anti-Semites include those Trump supporters who tweet death threats (with Auschwitz imagery) to journalists who happen to be Jewish. White supremacists, self-identified neo-Nazis…these folks are pretty easy to recognize.
But there are anti-Semites who deny their hatred with rationalizations so skillful they fool others as well as themselves. They may protest, ” of course I’m not an anti-Semite, (my son in law/ my dentist/ or the old favorite…) some of my best friends are Jews!”
Sometimes denial will take a form that at first glance seems undeniable:” how can I be an anti-Semite when I’m Jewish myself!” As if we have never seen a woman who is sexist, or an African American racist. Group membership is no protection against bigotry.
Denial can get quite sophisticated, and sound superficially plausible. One of the more popular expressions of denial on the political left is, “I am not anti-Semitic, I am anti-Zionist!” But Judah Pearl, whose son Daniel Pearl was beheaded by Islamists for being a Jew and an American, put that rationalization to rest once and for all. He explained:
“Anti-Semitism targets Jews as individuals; anti-Zionism targets Jews as a people. Anti-Semitism would deny Jews equal standing as human beings; anti-Zionism would ban Israel from equal membership in the family of nations.”
So here are few guidelines to help you recognize the anti-Semite next door.
You may be an anti-Semite…
1…… if you are only concerned about Arab human rights when Israel is involved.
Women are restricted in Saudi Arabia, where public executions are routine. Gays are hanged in Iran. Journalists are locked up across the region from Egypt to Turkey.
Individual freedoms have no legal protections in most Middle Eastern countries. Where is your outrage?
2…. if you condemn terrorism around the globe but sympathize with and “understand” the motivation of terrorists whose victims are Israelis.
“Frustration” cannot justify a murder in London or New York, Paris or Jerusalem.
3…. if you are solely interested in Palestinians when they live under Israeli rule, and you are indifferent to Palestinians who live under Jordanian, Saudi Arabian, Lebanese, Syrian or Palestinian rule.
4…. if you think it’s natural and right for every people to have autonomy, independence and sovereignty in its historic homeland, but think the Jewish state is colonial and imperialistic.
5…. if you are anti-Israel, but not anti-Russia, nor anti-China, anti-Iran, or in fact not “anti” any other country in the world, regardless of its policies and practices.
Natan Sharansky, whose expertise in human rights was honed in 9 years of Soviet imprisonment, including hard time served in the Gulag for the crime of wanting to emigrate, offered a simple device for recognizing when criticism of Israel is really anti-Semitism, and not legitimate criticism. He called it the three D’s.
• Double Standard
• Delegitimization
• Demonization.
The 3-D dynamic can be seen most clearly in the work of the United Nations, which condemns Israel more often than the rest of the world combined!
Anti-Semitism has a long and ugly history. Its legacy of deep mental and emotional disorder takes the shape of the cultural narrative of its time. When the world was religious, Jews were targeted by the Inquisition. When genetic science dominated, Jews were targeted by Nazi racism. Today anti-Semitism takes a political form, suited to the 21st-century.
It is the same old devil in a different disguise. Watch out for it.
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