The Thursday rant #4
This week’s ranter: The Moai is a recovering socialist who doesn’t like offending people but realises some of them need it. S/he blogs pseudonymously at Kalahari Lighthouse.
The hand-wringing racists of the Left
Over the past few years, I have begun to question all of the left-wing political assumptions I once had. Many of these assumptions, I maintain. A few I have discarded, such as the strongest and most unquestionable shibboleth of the European Left: anti-Israeli sentiment.
Anti-Israeli sentiment is the acceptable face of anti-Semitism. It is the last hatred that right-on, patchouli-scented hand-wringers allow themselves, and they revel in it. I have heard a woman sporting an Anti-Nazi League badge say “they shouldn’t even fucking be there in the first place”, before tearing into a rant worthy of Goebbels. This hatred is divorced from the horribly complicated facts of Middle Eastern politics  it is simple, naked hatred of the state of Israel, for the crimes of continuing to exist and of being Jewish. It is easy for Guardianistas to hate the Israelis: they are unashamedly Jewish, jingoistic in the face of threats, and technologically advanced. While the nations around them languish under despotic kleptocrats and fundamentalist clerics, the Israelis have built a successful nation, and have even had a female leader, Golda Meir (“Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us”).
There are many good reasons to support the efforts of the Palestinians to found a stable democracy of their own, but hatred of Jews is not one of them. The world needs a functioning Arab democracy, desperately, and the Palestinians have undeniably been treated abominably in some cases. I blame the media. It seems every image of Palestine shown on the BBC is of weeping mothers  perhaps we should see some more shattered Jerusalem buses spattered with childrens’ blood? The politics are reduced to one dimension  suffering Arab, Jewish oppressor. Arab freedom fighter, murdering Jew soldier. Until the Palestinians and Arabia as a whole disavows the ancient mission to “drive the Jews into the sea”, no progress will be made. There are very few innocents in this battle, on either side. Seeing how it is depicted by the Left in this country makes my Gentile blood boil.
I notice nowhere in that post is an attempt made to justify how being anti Israel is being anti Semite. Are Jews who think that Israel shouldn’t exist (or who criticise Israeli policy) anti Semetic.
I think you can criticise Israel without being anti-Semitic.
Carl: I think you can criticise Israel without being anti-Semitic
As does every fair-minded and intelligent person, Carl. I criticise the British government a lot, but that doesn’t make me anti-British, does it? People who try to equate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism are probably mativated by a desire to neutralise justified criticism of Israel’s illegal and immoral occupation of the West Bank, and the attendant land-grabs, ethnic cleansing, etc.
On the other hand, it is also true that some people hate Jews and whose criticism of Israel is caused by that hatred.
I don’t understand the argument that the occupation of territory acquired during the Arab-Israeli war is illegal. This isn’t due to an objection; I’m just lacking a clear idea of the chain of jurisdiction that leads to that conclusion.
National self-determination of Jew and Arab (and those who can’t / don’t want to be so clearly defined!) seems to be at the root of the conflict. Is a Jewish state something that will ever be accepted? For that requires such a state to exclude or disenfranchise those that would dilute it.
Aside from baldly asserting that ‘anti-Israeli sentiment is the acceptable face of anti-Semitism’, The Moai makes a further unsupported assertion, blaming the media, specifically the BBC, for misrepresenting the Israel/Palestine situation. If The Moai cared to investigate, s/he would find that this assertion flies in the face of serious work that has investigated the bias of the media using more objective criteria than whether it makes your blood boil when your own (presumably fairly strong, given the bias found by research) prejudices are not reflected back at you.
http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/sociology/units/media/israel.htm
Thinking like Melanie Phillips is no substitute for actually thinking.
It’s difficult to deny the truth of this though.
Until the Palestinians and Arabia as a whole disavows the ancient mission to “drive the Jews into the seaâ€Â, no progress will be made.
How long, after they got back in there, was it before Palestinian militants launched 33 missiles from the Gaza Strip into Israel? A couple of days?
And I’d be interested to see what anyone’s response is to Peter Clay’s comment above. And, remember, before you quote UN Resolutions, that those resolutions were dependent on the Arab countries accepting Israel’s pre-war borders and being responsible for not breaching those borders…
I do wish The Moai hadn’t mentioned anti-Semitism though. That’s like saying that, because I think that Mugabe’s a shithead, I’m automatically a racist.
DK
I generally try not to get involved in Israel/Palestine arguments, because the whole debate’s too heated, the views too entrenched, and the people who get impassioned about it too barking mental, most of the time. From the nice, white middle-class morons who wander around London wearing the scarves of Palestinian terrorist groups to those who cry “anti-Semite” every time anyone mentions that knocking down people’s houses with tanks is a little off, there seems to be something about the whole affair which prevents any kind of rational thought.
I do, however, lean towards calling a spade a spade – if the Israeli government does something mental, they should be called on it, just as if the Palestinian authority start pissing about they should have their wrists slapped. The fact that the Israeli government’s Jewish means precisely tit all, is not an excuse for any illegal/violent actions, and when used to accuse their critics of anti-Semitism actually does more to stir up anti-Jewish feeling than anything, as people begin to see “You can’t say that about me, I’m Jewish” as irritating and illogical, and Jews as irritating and illogical by association.
Not that I’m a fan, but it is surely no coincidence that the creator of Ali G, with his “is it ‘cos I is black?” catchphrase is actually Jewish… That’s basically what anyone who throws accusations of anti-Semitism at critics of the Israeli government is saying, after all.
You’re not really suggesting that Glasgow report was objective, are you Andrew? I mean, it was good, thorough stuff, and made some interesting observations. But you don’t need to read much past the abstract to see that it’s as biased in the opposite direction to the one you’re accusing our anonymous writer of being.
I am glad I have stirred up some debate!
I’d like everyone to bear in mind I had only 350 words to deal with. I am not discussing the reality of the conflict here – I could never hope too – merely how it is used as ideological fuel by certain sections of the British chattering classes.
One certainly could criticise Israel for perfectly valid reasons, and, as Carl points out there are Jews who have expressed deep disquiet with Israel’s behaviour in some situations.
Nosemonkey’s right. Rational thought is not easy to come by in this debate.
Andrew – I have read the Glasgow Uni report – and can only agree with its assertion that ‘TV news says almost nothing about the history or origins of the conflict.’ The coverage has taken on a life of its own, beyond the conflict. I would also note that the report was published by Pluto Press, who describe themselves thus on their site (verbatim): ‘Pluto Press has always had a radical political agenda. Founded in 1969 as a publishing arm of International Socialism, the forerunner of the Socialist Workers Party in the UK….’ Patchouli tea, anyone?
Seriously, thank you all for reading and commenting.
Peter Clay: I don’t understand the argument that the occupation of territory acquired during the Arab-Israeli war is illegal. This isn’t due to an objection; I’m just lacking a clear idea of the chain of jurisdiction that leads to that conclusion.
The argument is that the West Bank constitutes an occupied territory within the meaning of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 which forbids many activities of the Israeli government e.g. annexation, collective punishment, Israeli settlements, etc. See for example here.
Nosemonkey: I generally try not to get involved in Israel/Palestine arguments, because the whole debate’s too heated, the views too entrenched, and the people who get impassioned about it too barking mental, most of the time.
You’re right, the debate does tend to generate more heat than light. But never mind the quality, feel the pageviews (I wonder how many extra pageviews the abortion thread got).
No, Jarndyce, I said more objective. The Moai’s assertions were based on his/her blood boiling when seeing pictures of Palestinians weeping, while the Glasgow University research was a thorough analysis.
Whatever your stripe, it takes someone who is lying/hasn’t watched the news/is talking out of their arse/delusional to suggest that Palestinain deaths receive more coverage than Israeli deaths, or that voices supporting the Palestian ‘side’ receive as much air-time as those of the Israeli ‘side’.
The Moai can choose the category that s/he wants.
One certainly could criticise Israel for perfectly valid reasons, and, as Carl points out there are Jews who have expressed deep disquiet with Israel’s behaviour in some situations.
You need to grasp that nettle a bit more firmly. There are Jews, as well as Gentiles, who oppose the very existence of the state of Israel – who believe that it was founded on fundamentally flawed premises, and that there can only be justice in the region if the current state is replaced with something very different. (There’s room for debate as to what – I’m in the ‘single secular democratic state’ camp, for what it’s worth.) Needless(?) to say, this has nothing to do with driving anyone into the sea. I’m very glad that anti-Zionist Jews exist, as it makes it possible for non-Jews to express anti-Zionist views without automatically being accused of anti-semitism. At least, I thought it did.
Incidentally, what was your precise point about Pluto Press? Does the fact that the press was founded by Trots mean that we can’t believe anything they publish ever, or just anything they publish about Israel? Please clarify.
Phil E: I didn’t want to get accused of being an anti semite because of my ineloquence, and so didn’t elaborate too much. Thanks for expressing my thoughts o my behalf.
One can not deny a sizeable proportion of anti-Israeli sentiment stems from anti-Semitism. It is irrelevant whether then some is justified by an historical quibble over the right for Israel’s existence or its behaviour post-independence.
For the record, no country has a right
to exist (God-given or other). Each country exists due to hundreds of years of battles; conquests and divisions. Each country has a legitimate right to defend itself. Israel does exist and that’s the only justification it requires to continue to exist – Zionism is irrelevant.
It does seem that when a country which appears to forcibly control a weaker segment of its people against their will the Western World acts always to cry for protection of whom they see as oppressed (Tibet, Kurds etc.). However, there’s no genocide in the West Bank or the Gaza strip – no forcible starvations á la Darfur. If we did not see images of children Palestinians throwing stones against armed Israeli soldiers, but instead saw the Palestinian snipers trying to kill the soldiers.. or if we saw more detail of captured Israelis being publicly executed by Palestinian mobs we may adjust our views (say how annoyed we may have been had the SAS guys been killed in Iraq a few weeks ago?)
Israel is not blameless in all her actions but she is no Evil Empire. The “left-wing” hatred toward Israel is despicable and is good to see someone like The Moai demonstrate the courage to speak up.
Guys, gals, come on, I’m no Miss World but why can’t everybody just get on ?, eh ?
Each country exists due to hundreds of years of battles; conquests and divisions. Each country has a legitimate right to defend itself. Israel does exist and that’s the only justification it requires to continue to exist – Zionism is irrelevant.
I entirely agree: I’ll come right out and say that, in my opinion, the nation state of Israel should not be destroyed by force. When you find left-wing critics of Zionism who are saying that Israel should be destroyed by force, let me know and I’ll denounce them.
The Moai’s correct in the assertion that Left wing anti-Semitism is alive and well, and hiding under the cover of anti-Israelism.
Anyone familiar with 1930-1950s Stalinism will recognise the comparable terminology used then and now.
There are many difficult issues to sort out among the belligerents (if only the conflict could be contained within the region). I think media coverage is, on the whole, decidedly pro-Zionist. I think Israel, Zionists, Jews, and organized Jewry benefit from the confusion of terms and overlapping designations. Norman Finkelstein documents how false claims are used by some of the preceding groups to shield themselves from valid criticism. Finally, I think the US has become a vassal state of fifth columnists loyal to a foreign power.
Sorry to break ranks here, but I think that this post is tilting at a bit of a straw man.
Anti-Israel sentiment is by no means universal on the left. Most of the people that I know on the left tend to be largely agnostic on the subject. Many are critical of what is portrayed in the British media as disproportionate Israeli responses to terrorism.
They tend to think that, if the US were slightly less supportive of Israel, then it may be more willing to compromise or negotiate, but for the most part, these views are usually expressed hesitatingly. The SWP, are – of course – anti-Israel and have proved to be the objective allies of anti-semites. But just because they’re a bunch of loudmouths, it doesn’t make them representative of the general Left.
Maybe I’ve just got unusually pro-Israeli friends on the left. But I don’t think so…