Jerrod Tanny
Jewish Journal, Aug. 9, 2023
“They want Zionist Jews to know their message is being received by anti-Zionist activists, politicians and the larger academic community: Israel is not kosher, there are good Jews and bad Jews, and we, the bad Jews, are tainted by the stain of Jewish supremacy; we are no better than the ever-expanding circle of “fascists” and “racists” who are bringing America to its knees.”
In May 2021, at the height of the most recent Israeli-Gaza war, over 250 Jewish studies scholars signed a statement placing all blame on Israel for the ongoing ethno-national conflict, using language that presents Israel as little more than a racially supremacist project produced by European imperialism. The document not only ignored the threat that such inflammatory rhetoric could pose to diaspora Jewry, but also actually ignored the violence already occurring against diaspora Jewry—random Jews who were being attacked by Palestinian social justice activists in the United States and Europe because they might be Zionists and are thus responsible for Israel’s alleged war crimes.
At the time I spoke out against this statement because it was saturated with such dangerous rhetoric. I subsequently gave public lectures explaining why such language, coming from self-professed experts in Jewish studies, does little more than embolden genuine antisemites on the intersectionalist social justice left, people who pontificate in public that Zionism is a “global threat” needing to be quashed along with imperialism, capitalism and racism. Such a statement could not possibly end the conflict in the middle east. And two years later, its ultimate worthlessness is apparent to any observer of Israel.
Accordingly, Jewish studies scholars have struck again this week, issuing another such statement and attempting to call out the “elephant in the room,” which they see as the “direct link between Israel’s recent attack on the judiciary and its illegal occupation of millions of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” They have learned from their previous statements and have dropped much of the superfluous academic jargon, which does not serve their interests. It is far better to present Israel’s criminality in plain English should they wish to provoke anger among larger segments of the American public against diaspora Jewry. Thus far the statement has accrued over 500 signatures. Like all such documents, it contains grains of truth couched in outright lies and bigoted dog whistles because they know this is the best way to get their voices heard. I would like to highlight some of these falsehoods and dangerous claims below.
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