Neve Gordon is one of my favorite commentators, and has appeared many times before on this site. He reviews a recently published book by Norman Finkelstein, and the controversy around that book.
“Two important implications can be drawn from Finkelstein’s study, one political and the other academic. Politically, Beyond Chutzpah reveals how Israel has defied the rule of law in the Occupied Territories by providing a condensed and precise summation of literally thousands of pages of human rights reports. In this way, Finkelstein does a great service for those who long for a better Israel, since one is left with the conclusion that the only way of putting an end to the violations of Palestinian rights is by ending the occupation. There is no other option.”
“Academically, the section discussing Israel’s human rights record raises serious questions about intellectual honesty and the ideological bias of our cultural institutions, since it reveals how [Alan Dershowitz] a prominent professor holding an endowed chair at a leading university can publish a book whose major claims are false. The significant point is not simply that the claims cannot be corroborated by the facts on the ground — anyone can make mistakes — but that any first-year student who takes the time to read the human rights reports would quickly realize that though The Case for Israel has rhetorical style and structure, it is, for the most part, fiction passing as fact.”
One point professor Gordon makes that I would like to elaborate on. He notes how Finkelstein attacks those who claim anti-Israel rhetoric is the “new anti-semitism.”
“Finkelstein…exposes how the rhetoric of the new anti-Semitism is used as a political tool to ward off and delegitimize all criticism of Israel. He writes: ‘The consequences of the calculated hysteria of a new anti-Semitism haven’t been just to immunize Israel from legitimate criticism. Its overarching purpose, like that of the “war against terrorism,” has been to deflect criticism of an unprecedented assault on international law.’”
Gordon argues Finkelstein goes too far in his criticism, since he seems to be blaming Israel’s policies for creating anti-Jewish feelings.”
“…while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the state of Israel should be held responsible for oppressing the Palestinians, they are not responsible for anti-Semitism, and I take issue with Finkelstein who insinuates that they are to blame for fanning the flames of anti-Semitism. No one is to blame for anti-Semitism except the anti-Semites. Finkelstein in a number of places blurs this crucial point, and therefore unwittingly provides an excuse for anti-Semitism. The crux of the matter, as Sartre cogently observed, is that anti-Semitism ‘precedes the facts that call it forth,’ so that even if Israel were the most law abiding state on this planet, anti-Semitism would still exist. History has proven Sartre right.”
I have written on the topic of anti-semitism in the past. I wrote:
“…there are those in the Arab world as well as supporters of the Palestinian cause, (far too many perhaps), who ironically (since they too are Semites) have adopted modern anti-semitic rhetoric and mix it into the political dispute with Israel. Besides being despicable, it’s also counter-productive, because it undermines legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies. But it seems that such attitudes are inversely related to the distance these people are from Israel. Most specifically, Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank or Gaza (except for the Islamic extremists) rarely, if ever, use anti-Jewish rhetoric in their political attacks on Israel. On the contrary, blatant anti-Arab and anti-Islamic attitudes are quite prevalent and commonly used in political arguments by Jewish Israelis and Israeli politicians.”
Since that was written a couple years ago, the Hamas has become far more powerful and mainstream in Palestinian politics. And the Hamas’ rhetoric is blatantly anti-Jewish. On the Israeli side, unbridled anti-Arab rhetoric has become commonplace. So sadly, both sides are pretty intensely hatefully xenophobic these days.
I would emphasize the point that just as Jews use the cry of anti-semitism as a political tactic to silence critics, some real anti-semites use the politics of Israel as a tool to justify their anti-Jewish sentiments. Because of their political leanings, not infrequently those who oppose Israel’s policies, ignore this anti-Jewish rhetoric. Doing so provides fodder for the Dershowitz types who then claim that “the left” is at best blind to or at worst complicit in anti-Jewish propaganda.
