As a jew, I find it profoundly disturbing that anyone uses "anti-Semitic" as a phrase referring to anyone who is anti-Israel.
I just want to make this point.
I am Semitic. And I am a general supporter of Israel. I believe that the sympathy for the Palestinian cause with a near-exclusive focus on Israeli behavior misses the mark. It is more complex than that.
However, it is my personal belief that since Meir Kahane's extremely conservation and Jewish-protectionist views became a dominant force in Israeli politics in the 80s, that Israel has not acted as a straight-forward democracy. Since Kahane, a number of important Israeli leaders have died in the pursuit of turning the country back towards its best self.
I am sympathetic to the feeling of desperation inside Israel that by population, Israel would stop being a jewish state in the near future had they not changed the rules of what was once a pure(r) democracy. My generation and the next didn't live through the jewish holocaust and do not carry the same fear of "never forget" and being a tribe without a homeland. We live in a world full of biases, including anti-semitism, and we do not see our oppression as being that much more important than the oppression of others. I see that as progress. Some see it as being short-sighted... that we should continue, as a culture, to fear the hatred that has been so much a part of our history.
So it is not an easy issue.
Still... having even severe anti-Israel views is not the same as being an anti-Semite. And listening to the views of severe anti-Israel views without leaving a room or throwing a drink in someone’s face is not a sign being anti-Israel.
My best friend in this world is a guy who thinks that Israel has no right to exist in the first place… that it is simply a reflection of England’s overreaching idea that it had a right to abuse the sovereignty of others. And lo and behold… we became friends in the evil burg of Chicago (albeit on the north side, in Evanston).
The challenge of coming to peace with all of this, without demonizing others, is a part of what this election is all about.
I have never been more embarrassed for a fellow jew than when Michael Goldfarb appeared on CNN Newsroom today, spouting off that Obama regularly pals around with anti-Semites and people who are anti-Israel. When the host qualified (I think too easily) Khalidi as an anti-Semite and asked Goldfarb to name one other anti-Semite that Obama has hung around with, Goldfarb went silent, then added, “I think you know who I am talking about.” Presumably, he was referring to Reverend Wright, who is the only tactical reference that McCain has continued to disallow in his campaign. But he sat there in silent, smirking, unable or unwilling to offer a name.
And that is the level to which we have sunk. Association politics that can’t even be named… and even if it could be, the count would be up to TWO people that the McCain camp things are anti-Israel… and this, my friends, is how you define smearing.
CNN, I am happy to say, offered “fact check” information after this interview, as they felt they had to after the McCain interview last night. They pointed out that McCain’s committee supporting Khalidi’s organization was no indicator that McCain was a supported of Khalidi… and that there is also no indication whatsoever that Obama, a friend and colleague of Khalidi in Chicago, agrees with any of Khalidi’s anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian politics.
I disagree, profoundly, with mysteryperfecta and other right wingers who come in here in support of the extreme right and/or Palin and/or McCain ’08. But I honor their right to take a position, no matter how intensely I disagree. And when they offer talking points, often false, we debate them, sometimes ferociously.
But this stuff is real bottom of the barrel. And I don’t actually believe that McCain actually believes any of this ***. But I do think he has been convinced that he can at least close the margin significantly and avoid a blow out. And he is taking that advice and running with it. He is also showing his true stripes and bending his message backwards repeatedly. He confirmed that there were internal comments against Palin a day after his campaign claimed that these reports were lies. He admits now that Obama is not a socialist… and that Obama never really compared Sarah Palin to a pig with lipstick. He is clearly choking on the rhetoric. And more power to his slow return to humanity. Some day, he should be forgiven.
But the is just keep rolling out, get batted down, and die off. Today, leaving Iraq is a “retreat dividend.” Scummy.
Anyway… all of this started with me hating the loose use of “anti-Semitism” and “Holocaust” as political fodder in an election where non-jews are throwing this stuff around to scare older jews in Florida. It would be unacceptable on either side of the political aisle. A serious discussion of Israel? Sure. But this? No. I would even be okay with a guy like Goldfarb going one-issue and pushing McCain because he honestly felt that he wasn’t sure enough about Obama… without the abusive embellishment.
Onward…
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2008/10/antisemetic_vs.html