2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBernie Sanders and the Plight of Jews Who Criticize Israel
When youre a Jewish person who is willing to criticize the State of Israel, you quickly discover three things:
1. To many other critics of Israel, the authenticity of your position will be constantly questioned. Indeed, whereas a non-Jewish critic of Israel can easily acknowledge that the situation is complicated, a Jewish critic is often held in suspicion if he or she makes any concessions whatsoever to points made by the Israeli government or pro-Israel camp. If you arent as radically anti-Israel as possible, in their eyes, youre a covert Zionist.
2. Even if you dont initiate conversations about Israel, frequently you will be expected to discuss it by simple virtue of your heritage. Because you are a Jew, the expectation is that you should be held particularly accountable for the actions of a government on the other side of the Atlantic.
3. None dare call it anti-Semitism.
This issue came to mind because of a recent incident at a Bernie Sanders rally. Apparently a staffer ordered that several activists from Boston Students for Justice in Palestine be ejected from the event after they were seen holding a sign saying, Will Ya Feel The Bern For Palestine? Although the campaign immediately apologized and explained that this was an error from an individual stafferand Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver has since removed the staffer from his position, reiterating that the Sanders organization has always been open to proteststhis didnt stop Murtaza Hussain of The Intercept from condemning Sanders as a not-entirely-progressive supporter of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
To paraphrase Daniel Patrick Moynihan: Hussain has the right to his own opinions, but he doesnt have the right to his own facts. Hussain starts by claiming that during a town hall meeting last year, Sanders told audience members to shut up when they tried to question him about U.S. support for Israel and accuses him of attempting to change the subject to ISIS. If you watch a video of the event, what youll actually see is Sanders offering a nuanced analysis of the Israel-Palestine conflicthe criticizes Israel for its overreaction and bombing of UN facilities but acknowledges their legitimate security concerns about Hamas and only getting frustrated when hecklers tried to make it impossible for him to answer their questions.
http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/bernie-sanders-plight-jews-criticize-israel-mrzs/#sthash.1mIt07VG.dpuf
dougolat
(716 posts)'verbally mined territory' so to speak, with the booby-traps and mines coming from all sides.
That's a problem because matters like Gaza need attention, but good luck covering that, since derailing disruption seems inevitable, if not immediate.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Sanders has handled it well thus far, in spite of the challenges.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)At the same time, when a Jewish person who recognizes these things is automatically assumed to be pro-Israel simply because of their background, that is anti-Semitic. It may not be chic to say as much (I am certain, if nothing else, that I will receive considerable backlash for being a Zionist for making this point, despite my own views on Israeli policy) but its true nevertheless. Whether they realize it or not, the people who can look at the record of a Jewish critic of Israel be it Bernie Sanders or anyone else and only see evidence that theyre too pro-Israel is operating from a bigoted assumption.
This kind of prejudice needs to be called out. The time to start is now.
Thank you for posting this, oberliner.
artislife
(9,497 posts)Nothing big, no drama..hardly any impact from what I could tell.
Chitown Kev
(2,197 posts)Remember, Dr. West hesitated for a bit on a formal endorsement of Sanders because of the Israeli-Palestinian issue and even mentioned it in his formal endorsement.