Jewish Divide over Israel: Accusers and Defenders
Before 1967, Israel had the overwhelming support of world opinion. So long as Israel's existence was in harmony with politically correct assumptions, it was supported, or at least accepted, by the majority of "progressive" Jews, especially in the wake of the Holocaust. This is no longer the case. The Jewish Divide Over Israel explains the role played by prominent Jews in turning Israel into an isolated pariah nation.\ After their catastrophic defeat in 1967, Arabs overcame inferiority on the...
Search in google:
Before 1967, Israel had the overwhelming support of world opinion. So long as Israel's existence was in harmony with politically correct assumptions, it was supported, or at least accepted, by the majority of "progressive" Jews, especially in the wake of the Holocaust. This is no longer the case. The Jewish Divide Over Israel explains the role played by prominent Jews in turning Israel into an isolated pariah nation.After their catastrophic defeat in 1967, Arab regimes overcame inferiority on the battlefield with superiority in the war of ideas. Their English-language propaganda stopped trumpeting their desire to eradicate Israel. Instead, in a calculated appeal to liberals and radicals, they redefined their war of aggression against the Jews as a struggle for the liberation of Palestinian Arabs. The tenacity of Arabs' rejection of Israel and their relentless campaign - in schools, universities, churches, professional organizations, and, above all, the news media - to destroy Israel's moral image had the desired impact. Many Jewish liberals became desperate to escape from the shadow of Israel's alleged misdeeds and found a way to do so by joining other members of the left in blaming Israeli sins for Arab violence.Today, Jewish "progressives" rationalize violence against the innocent as resistance to the oppressor, excuse Arab extremism as the frustration of a wronged party, and redefine eliminationist rhetoric and physical assaults against Jews as "criticism of Israeli policy." Israel's Jewish accusers have played a crucial and disproportionate role in the current upsurge of antisemitism precisely because they speak as Jews. Eager to evade the "moral taint" of justifying Israel's right to self-defense, Israel's Jewish accusers find themselves, in an age of suicide bombers, complicit in the murder of their fellow Jews.The essays in this book seek to understand and throw back the assault on Israel led by such Jewish liberals and radicals as Noam Chomsky, Israel Shahak, Norman Finkelstein, Tony Judt, George Steiner, Daniel Boyarin, Marc Ellis, Seymour Hersh, and many others. Its writers demonstrate that the foundation of the state of Israel, far from being the primal sin alleged by its accusers, was one of the few redeeming events in a century of blood and shame.About the Authors:Edward Alexander is professor emeritus of English at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is author of The Jewish Idea and Its Enemies, The Holocaust and the War of Ideas, and Irving Howe: Socialist, Critic, Jew.Paul Bogdanor is a writer living in London.
From Chapter 3: Israelis Against Themselves:\ To accommodate the abundant production of [the] gallery of post-Zionist/post-Jewish defamers of Israel (both the people and the Land) would require a department store twice the size of Macy's or Harrod's. On bargain day, one imagines the following recitation by the elevator operator: "First floor, Moshe Zimmermann, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, and 68 other members of the progressive and universalist community on Israelis as Nazis; second floor, A. B. Yehoshua on the need for Israeli Jews to become 'normal' by converting to Christianity or Islam; third floor, Boaz Evron in justification of Vichy France's anti-Jewish measures; fourth floor, Idith Zertal on Zionist absorption of Holocaust refugees as a form of rape; fifth floor, Benny Morris on Zionism as ethnic cleansing; attic, Shulamit Aloni on Zionism (also Judaism) as racism; basement, Ya'akov Yovel justifying the medieval blood libel; sub-basement, Yigal Tumarkin justifying Nazi murder of (religious) Jews. Watch your step, please."\ From Chapter 6: The Devil State: Chomsky's War Against Israel:\ In Chomsky's mental universe, there are few questions about Israel and the Middle East that cannot be resolved by equating Jews with Nazis. Does Israel have a right to pre-emptive self-defense? Such arguments recall "Hitler's moves to blunt the Czech dagger pointed at the heart of Germany… Hitler's conceptions have struck a responsive chord in current Zionist commentary." Does Israel face threats to its security? "Hitler and Goebbels… gave a similar justification for their resort to force." Does Israel conduct military operations against terrorists? "Gestapo operations in occupied Europe also 'were justified in the name of combating "terrorism"'…" Has Israel shown a commitment to the peace process? "Does it deserve to be described as a 'peace process'? Hitler's campaign to conquer Europe was also dubbed a 'peace process.'" How much time and effort Chomsky would save if he simply programmed his computer to spew out "Hitler" and "Goebbels" and "Gestapo" and "Nazi" at every mention of the wicked Zionists!
Introduction1. Cynthia Ozick, The Modern "Hep! Hep! Hep!"2. Alvin Rosenfeld, Modern Jewish Intellectual Failure: A Brief History3. Edward Alexander, Israelis Against Themselves4. Assaf Sagiv, George Steiner's Jewish Problem5. Benjamin Balint, Future Imperfect: Tony Judt Blushes For the Jewish State6. Paul Bogdanor, The Devil State: Chomsky's War Against Israel7. Paul Bogdanor, Chomsky's Ayatollahs8. Paul Bogdanor, Norman G. Finkelstein: Chomsky For Nazis9. David Roskies, Peter Novick: Blaming Israel For "Too Much" Holocaust Awareness10. Menachem Kellner, Daniel Boyarin and the Herd of Independent Minds11. Alan Mittleman, Marc Ellis: The Torah as Suicide Pact12. Edward Alexander, Antisemitism-Denial: The Berkeley School13. Jacob Neusner, Jerome Segal and the Stockholm Five: The PLO's Jewish Advisers14. Martin Krossel, Thomas Friedman, Diplomat From Chelm15. Rael Jean Isaac, Investigating Seymour Hersh16. Efraim Karsh, Benny Morris and the Myths of Post-Zionist History17. Irving Louis Horowitz, New Trends and Old Hatreds: Antisemitism in the Twenty-First Century
\ From the Publisher"Bad and dishonest argument works, sad to say; especially when it is endlessly repeated by individuals and journals whose academic prowess or cultural standing gives them an apparent authority. The only recourse, for those who wish to oppose the perennial tendency of bad intellectual currency to drive out the good, is, here as ever, to take up the tedious job of patiently teasing out, in detail, sense from nonsense, truth from lies.\ This is the central task to which this admirable book addresses itself.....This book reveals the extent to which Jewish debate about Israel recapitulates and reveals strains, not just within Jewish life, but in the life we all inherit."\ —Bernard Harrison, Ericksen Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Utah "It is to the credit, therefore, of Alexander and Bogdanor that the essays in their volume focus on the stupidity, ignorance, bias, distortion and extremism of the Jewish Israel bashers, rather than on the supposed mental and emotional status which which has propelled them to endorse their preposterous statements. Edward Alexander's introduction to this volume, and his chapter on The Berkeley School, evidence a deep knowledge if views and opinions which he does not share but which he does not hesitate to present and then counter with a wealth of information and keen analytical tools of great precision." - Arnold Ages, Chicago Jewish Star "This book is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand not only why so many Jewish intellectuals turn against Israel, but also the mechanisms by which their otherwise shoddy and superficial scholarship and journalistic work earns so much praise." —Emanuele Ottolenghi, National Review Online "Although some of the essays in the book have been published elsewhere, their inclusion here, together with the new material, is a great service to those who recognize the threat that Jewish defamation of Israel represents and want a better understanding of its nature and roots." — Dr. Kenneth Levin, Jewish Political Studies Review "Edward Alexander and Paul Bogdanor have assembled eighteen essays that strip away the prophetic robes of Israel's Jewish detractors." — Isranet Briefing, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR) "The publication of the collection of essays, The Jewish Divide over Israel: Accusers and Defenders, edited by Edward Alexander and Paul Bogdanor, could not be more timely, given the recent ascent of the unrepentant terrorist organization Hamas, the fevered rantings of the President of Iran calling for the elimination of Israel, and the recent Harvard publication of Professors Mearsheimer and Walt's 'The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.'"—Congress Monthly "Collectively, the essays comprising 'The Jewish Divide' make a significant statement about the lacerating effects of Jewish self-hatred."—The Jerusalem Report "At a moment in history when Israel is again fighting for its survival while being vilified as the aggressor and the villan, many Jewish intellectuals have once again sought the spotlight to state that what Israel is doing is 'not in my name.' This book may not provide a cure for this disease, but it certainly offers a key to recognizing its symptoms and developing an effective antidote."—Emmanuele Ottolenghi, National Review Online "This important and timely essay collection explores the poisonous phenomenon of Jews who fulminate against the Jewish state. Among those it considers are the best-known representatives of this group, many of them ensconced in academia."—Jewish Political Studies "Meticulously studied anthology of the most virulent anti-Israeli and antisemtic views which have been voiced, shouted and published in recent years by, mirabile dictu, a coalition of Jewish writers in North America, Europe, and Israel."—Arnold Ages "Jewish hostility toward the state of Israel is the volume's central focus. In studies of figures on the extreme edge of anti-Israel politics (such as Norman G. Finkelstein, Noam Chomsky, and Marc Ellis) and other more temperate cases (such as Tony Judt, Thomas Friedman, George Steiner, and Peter Novick), the volume offers a survey of left-wing Jewish intellectuals whose stock and trade is calumniation of the Jewish state. Its best essays go beyond cataloging outrageous lies and antics to offer plausible explanations of the psychosocial factors that impel such behavior. Because extreme denunciations of Israel by prominent Jews have played an exceptionally important role in legitimizing hatred of the Jewish state in the Middle East and across the world, this volume is not only timely, it is overdue. —Commentary "One does not have to go back a millennium to find "renegade" Jews eager to level accusations against the Jewish community......Because extreme denunciations of Israel by prominent Jews have played an exceptionally important role in legitimizing hatred of the Jewish state in the Middle East and across the world, this volume is not only timely, it is overdue."\ — Middle East Quarterly "The volume offers a survey of left-wing Jewish intellectuals whose stock and trade is calumniation of the Jewish state. Its best essays go beyond cataloging outrageous lies and antics to offer plausible explanations of the psychosocial factors that impel such behavior.....this volume is not only timely, it is overdue."\ —Gabriel Schoenfeld, Commentary "An extremely important group of essays... Alexander and Bogdanor explain why so many Jewish liberals and radicalscontinually and wrongly undermine the Jewish state. The book is must reading."\ —Alex Grobman, The Jewish Voice\ \ \
