ANTI-ZIONISM KILLS

The obsession with Israel and Palestine allows actual genocides and ethnic cleansings to go ignored.

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Photo of African children distracting from Palestinian priorities.

Among well-intentioned people who oppose antisemitism, there is an unfortunate inclination to extrapolate the dangers of Jew-hatred, to imply that the only (or main) reason to oppose antisemitism is because it might eventually harm non-Jews.

This is most evident in two of the most common narratives invoked to oppose antisemitism — Rev. Martin Niemöller’s poem and the “canary in a coalmine” motif.

The “canary in the coalmine” treatment implies that antipathy toward Jews is often the first sign of a society going off the rails. Of course, that’s absolutely true. Even so, it implies that opposing antisemitism for its own sake is less imperative than opposing it because, to do otherwise, could harm everyone.

This is far more evident in the Niemöller poem. You know the one: First they came for the socialists, the trade unionists, etc. “Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Jew. / Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”

This “poem” really grates me for so many reasons, not least the assertion that there was “no one left to speak for me.” The implication that everyone — literally everyone — was imprisoned (or killed or whatever) distracts from the reality that, no, it was always a very limited targeted population. The implication that, if you don’t speak out for minorities, they will eventually “come for” the majority is almost never true. How about defending minorities for their own sake? You get my point.

And yet, the predominant argument for opposing antisemitism, to this day, is that if you don’t stand up for the Jewish people, “they” will eventually come for someone you actually give a damn about.

Put mildly, this is hardly a ringing endorsement for standing by your principles. Sadly, most people do not seem motivated to take a stand against antisemitism. So maybe self-interest is the best motivator.

But that’s actually not the point of my post today.

Literally billions of words have been spilled on the parallels between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. And yet, weirdly, I have never heard anyone make the parallel “canary in the coalmine” case about anti-Zionism. While the impacts of antisemitism on non-Jews is hard to quantify, the impacts of anti-Zionism on non-Israelis is more tangible — and has horrific implications for people all over the planet.

Since nothing seems to stanch the global tsunami of irrational Israel-hatred these days, maybe we should actually take a page out of the self-interest manual and apply that to the fight against anti-Zionism.

First and foremost: consider the Palestinians.

Were it not for the almost chromosomal opposition among most Arab and Muslim societies to oppose the very concept of Jewish national self-determination, there would be two states, probably living in peaceful coexistence, in Israel and Palestine. In other words, Zionism isn’t the reason Palestine isn’t “free.” Anti-Zionism is.

Even barring that idealistic outcome, were it not for the anti-Zionist mania of isolating Israel in its geographical neighborhood —  called “denormalization” — the Palestinians would no doubt have benefited over the past 75 years from proximity to the most innovative, successful, forward-looking economic powerhouse in the region.

Critics love to point out examples of Israeli wealth juxtaposed with Palestinian poverty. In doing so, they inevitably misplace blame directly. It is not Zionism that is to blame for this economic disparity. It is anti-Zionism.

Had the entire Arab world (until the Abraham Accords) and effectively the entire Muslim world not quarantined Israel from interacting with its neighbors, the entire region would be more economically and socially advanced. This is more true for Palestinians than any other group.

So anti-Zionism harms Palestinians and the broader region. But anti-Zionism hurts people all over the world. The mindless obsession with Israel eclipses every other natural and human-made catastrophe on the planet. The United Nations has been appropriated and delegitimized by anti-Zionism, wasting vast time and billions of dollars exacerbating, rather than resolving, the Palestinian problem.

North American trade unions, liberal churches, campus protesters, street activists, commentators and all other bien pensants of the developed world rail against Israel. Meanwhile, Muslim Uighurs in Western China are rounded up and put in concentration camps for “reeducation.” In Sudan, ethnic conflict has displaced more than 3 million people. More than 70% of the people in South Sudan are experiencing humanitarian crises. Conflicts and climate change exacerbate deadly crises in Ethiopia. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 25 million people need humanitarian assistance. In Somalia, about 7 million need humanitarian assistance, of whom more than 4 million people face food insecurity crises. More than 18 million in Myanmar face humanitarian disaster, with 2 million internally displaced.

Then there is gobsmacking gender inequality almost everywhere in the world, as well as female genital mutilation and too many degradations of women to enumerate. There are forced child marriages, sickening child labor, and child combatants forced into wars. Millions of refugees live without the vast array of privileges Palestinian refugees uniquely enjoy. Almost anywhere one looks in the world, there is food insecurity, intolerable levels of maternal mortality, drought, disease and famine.

There are 50 million literally enslaved people in the world today. Did you even know that? 

The list goes on and on. Yet all you ever hear about on social media, TV news, the front pages of daily newspapers, campus protests and graffiti everywhere you turn in European and North American cities is Palestine! Palestine! Palestine!

The problem in creating lists like these is that one never knows when to stop or how to prioritize the crises. This may be part of the reason for the irrational focus on Israel-Palestine. We literally can’t wrap our heads around the panoply of disasters, so we focus on just one. The one with the Jews.

The obsession with Israel and Palestine does not only eclipse other crises. It actively and aggressively coopts and misappropriates them. Water crisis in Flint, Michigan? Let’s talk about water in Palestine, instead! Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada? Let’s use that as a jumping off point to refocus attention on (not actually) indigenous people in Palestine. Refugee crisis at the United States border with Mexico? Forget that. There are Palestinian refugees to overshadow those people. Police shootings of African-Americans? Let’s talk instead about misuse of authority by Israeli soldiers and cops! In fact, let’s take it a step further and actually blame Israel for police shootings in the United States.

While anti-Israel activists rant about made-up “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing,” actual genocides and ethnic cleansings go ignored.

Anti-Zionists’ myopic obsession with Israel has allowed the world to ignore, almost entirely, every other conflict and catastrophe on the planet.

Imagine how different the world might be if the unbelievable amount of person-hours and resources devoted to hating Israel were devoted to fighting climate change or something positive.

The worst fact in all of this is that, for all the global screeching and hysteria against Israel, all of this activism does precisely nothing to advance the cause they claim to be promoting. It does not advance peace or Palestinian self-determination. That will come only through the Palestinian willingness to coexist next door to — rather than instead of — Israelis.

Everything that overseas activists do to polarize people into an intolerant anti-Israel position (“From the river to the sea …”) makes it more difficult for Palestinians to come to the negotiating table. And that table is the only avenue through which peace and Palestinian self-determination will ever come.

Of course, anytime you raise the obsession with Israel when literally billions of people worldwide are experiencing worse conditions than Palestinians, you will be accused of “whataboutery.”

The hypocrisy and irony is jawdropping. It is the parrots of Palestinianism who are guilty of whataboutery. No matter the issue, conflict or catastrophe, along come activists to divert attention from the problem and refocus it on Palestine! Palestine! Palestine!

I know, I know. I am an unfeeling monster who is trying to deflect from the horrific deaths of thousands of Palestinians. Except, I’m not. I grieve every death — Palestinian and non-Palestinian. Which is more than those activists can say. Anti-Zionist activists grieve deaths only when it serves their political goals. Indeed, they don’t even seem to grieve deaths at all — they relish them. They wave dead Palestinians around like trophies, precisely as the monsters who head Hamas knew they would. That’s why Hamas maximizes the numbers of dead Palestinians.

The accumulated global impacts of this hysterical, myopic obsession with one comparatively minor conflict, eclipsing everything else on earth, can be explained only by one human characteristic. It is so unbelievably obvious I am not even going to name it because if you can’t see it, you are the problem.

As I said at the beginning, there is a long-standing tradition to dismiss antisemitism unless and until it has the potential to harm non-Jews.

As unprincipled and unfortunate as that might be, it may well be the most effective approach to the problem, sadly.

As much as I dislike that line of argument, I absolutely think we are overdue to apply it to anti-Zionism.

Anti-Zionism allows floods and famines, authoritarian dictatorships, child slavery, female genital mutilation, the imprisonment of Chinese Muslims in concentration camps and too many other crises to count to go almost completely overlooked because all we care about are the sins of Israel.

The bottom line is simply this: anti-Zionism kills.

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