STICKS AND STONES

“FALSELY ACCUSED” OF ANTISEMITISM FOR CRITICIZING ISRAEL? THE QUESTION IS: WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH?

So you keep saying … and saying … and saying …

When the suggestion is raised that someone might be exhibiting antisemitism in the context of their approach to Israel, the reaction is almost invariably something along the lines of, “Oh, so I’m not allowed to criticize Israel?” or “You are trying to silence me by falsely smearing me as an antisemite!”

There are a few problems with this approach. The most obvious: This is not how progressive or antiracist people respond to concerns expressed by any other group but Jews. It’s a sort of paradox of denial, proof by contradiction, an inadvertent confession. As Shakespeare would have put it, they doth protest too much. Or as the kids say: total self-own.

Rather than doing the work of introspection, the “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism” approach (or the “I’m being smeared / falsely accused / silenced” extravaganza) is a demonstration of (usually self-proclaimed progressive people) leaping over even the remotest possibility that they could carry bias, jumping instantly to the conclusion that they don’t carry any bias (a weird position for a progressive, put mildly), and, for good measure, they accuse the accuser of bad faith.

I shouldn’t have to point out that some of the core characteristics of centuries of antisemitism are exemplified in this very process: The assumption that Jews are behaving deviously (manipulating non-Jews and trying to gain advantage through false testimony); crying wolf (alleging discrimination where none exists); “playing the victim card” and so on and so on.

In other words, in responding to the accusation that they are in an antisemitic hole, they just keep digging.

Think of it this way: Before you ask, “Am I not allowed to criticize Israel without being accused of antisemitism?” ask yourself this instead: Am I allowed to criticize immigration policy without being called a racist? Can I critique affirmative action without being called a misogynist or a bigot? Can I comment on inner-city crime without being “smeared” as anti-Black?

Well, maybe. Maybe not. But that’s almost beside the point.

Given the history of bigotry, misogyny and racism around these topics and these groups, you do have some obligation to demonstrate the goodwill of your position. This should not raise defensive hackles.

But here’s the bigger picture. Did your parents ever teach you about sticks and stones?

Today, we recognize that words matter a great deal, that words can incite violence (although I emphatically and angrily reject the false but increasingly popular idea that words can themselves be violence, but that is for another time).

We understand that words have power in themselves to cause harm, even when they do not incite violence. We know this.

However, let’s weigh impacts against one another here.

On the one hand, a group of people (Jews) say that they are experiencing discrimination and racism. That’s a thing we should probably take seriously. Especially if we call ourselves antiracists. Or decent people.

Instead, the people they accuse of perpetrating these acts respond with blanket denials and intransigent rejection of introspection, an absolute refusal to “do the work” expected of us at the first hint that we might carry bias toward an identifiable group. (Any group other than Jews, that is.)

But let’s say that you do “do the work.” You do engage in some introspection and you conclude that you are not motivated by antisemitic bigotry. Let’s say, even, that there was some empirical measurement, like an infallible polygraph, by which it could be scientifically and irrefutably proven that your opinions and comments have no roots in biases about Jewish people. You are free of a bigotry that has infected a hundred generations of your ancestors. Congratulations.

What does this prove?

Well, it would prove that you have been falsely accused of racism.

So what?

If you have ever engaged in an argument on social media or maybe over beers, and things became heated, you have probably been accused of this or worse. Hell, your spouse has probably accused you of worse things than antisemitic bias.

If you are, on the one hand, so concerned about Palestinians that your vociferous defense of their rights leads some people to “falsely” accuse you of bias against Jews, why should you even care? If you know that they are wrong, and you are right, what difference does it make in the bigger picture what they say?

Why do these “false allegations” set you off so much?

To put a finer point on it: If you are so concerned about the plight of Palestinians, why are you wasting so much of your limited energies and resources defending yourself against (what you are absolutely, unequivocally certain are) lies? Haven’t you got bigger fish to fry? Like freeing Palestine?

Because this isn’t really about Palestine at all, is it? (Or, at least, not much.) It’s about your self-perception and how others see you.

I am writing this from Rome, where an entire generation of people are at this moment tossing their hair, pursing their lips and adjusting their heads just so to get the perfect selfie in front of the Coliseum and from the top of the Spanish Steps.

What these tourists are doing literally, “pro-Palestinian” activists are doing figuratively.

Like the aspiring influencers vamping at the Vatican and primping at the Pantheon, the social media feeds of “pro-Palestinian” activists are basically a succession of ducklips for divestment, glamming for Gaza, thirst-trapping for terrorism, preening for Palestine.

From the river to the see how woke I am? Look at me over-the-shouldering against the occupation.

If there is any doubt that this is more about the activists and less about the Palestinians, consider this …

If you are so sure that the Evil Zios are lying when they call you an antisemite, why not just ignore them? What insecurity makes you abandon the main issue (your brilliant job freeing Palestine — LOL) to refocus on what would seem, in the context of world events, a pretty minor transgression (some meany falsely calling you a bigot)?

Here’s why. Because, maybe, having not “done the work,” the very people who most vocally insist that they are being “smeared,” that Jews are “falsely accusing” them of racism in order to “silence criticism of Israel,” actually know deep down that there is something to the claim.

To make a crude analogy, if somebody said that the reason I am gay is because I hate women, I would just laugh in their face, because I know that’s not true. Rather than throw all my resources, which could be used instead to combat homophobia, misogyny and all the other ills of the world, I instead devoted practically all of my activism to “proving” that I don’t hate women and that my alleged hatred of women has nothing to do with why I am gay, what a stupid waste of time and resources that would be.

So why do activists devote such extraordinary amounts of time and resources to “proving” that their anti-Zionism is not antisemitism?

Because, deep down, there is something there and they damn well know it.

Of course, we’re talking about some screwed-up psychological crap, so any theory is unprovable and — even if it were provable — probably provides only part of the answer.

So, of course, I have another part of the answer, another piece of the puzzle.

It goes back, again, to the fact that this is not so much about Palestinians or overseas events, but about these activists themselves. Rather than freeing Palestine or making the world a better place, there is a whole lot of performative psychodrama going on.

For all their wailing about overseas events, much or most of the tsunami of activism we are seeing strikes much, much closer to home. It is less about Palestinians (or Israelis) than it is about how these activists see themselves — and their obsessive fixation about how others view them.

Which is the topic of my next post.