Israel's Supporters Are Playing Into the Hands of the Antisemitic Right

"Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League and thus the ostensible leading authority on what constitutes antisemitism, has made crystal clear that he regards anti-Zionism and antisemitism as indistinguishable; on his watch, the ADL has cheered the Trump administration's crackdown on Palestine activism on college campuses, the biggest wave of federal repression against academic speech since the McCarthy era."

"Other alleged authorities-from Joe Biden's former antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to CBS News's Bari Weiss -have consistently asserted that waving a Palestinian flag while chanting "from the river to the sea" is the functional equivalent of an antisemitic hate crime."

"I've certainly encountered my share of antisemitic invective on the internet, and I've been horrified by incidents like the fatal 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and the 2018 Tree of Life massacre, in which a white supremacist murdered 11 Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue. But at no point in my 42 years have I felt seriously threatened or discriminated against as a Jew in the United States."

"I find the idea that federal agents could arrest Mahmoud Khalil and detain him without trial for more than three months-causing him to miss the birth of his first child -to be incalculably more disturbing than anything Khalil ever said about Israel on the Columbia campus (which I don't find disturbing at all), and my attitude toward the many Jewish leaders who disagree is best described as contempt."

Jewish communal leaders and institutions have warned of a sharp rise in antisemitism in the United States. The piece questions that framing, arguing that some labeled antisemitism is energetic opposition to Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. It claims Jonathan Greenblatt treats anti-Zionism and antisemitism as indistinguishable and points to ADL support for Trump-era crackdowns on Palestine activism on college campuses. It also cites assertions by other prominent figures that Palestinian flags and chants like “from the river to the sea” function as antisemitic hate crimes. The author contrasts personal experience of antisemitism with disturbing concerns about federal detention without trial, and expresses contempt for Jewish leaders who disagree.

Read at The Nation