Jewish Anti-Zionists

Here is another article to go with the recent slew of articles regarding Jewish leftists who oppose Israel. "The anti-Israel lobby" by Jonathan Spyer:

This week saw the launching of the Independent Jewish Voices initiative by a group of prominent left-of-center Jews in the U.K. The initiative intends, according to its founding statement, to "promote the expression of alternative Jewish voices." Its sponsors believe that "individuals and groups within all communities should feel free to express their views on any issue of public concern without incurring accusations of disloyalty." The signatories wish to contend that voices critical of Israel are receiving insufficient attention in British discussions of the Middle East. The claim is a strange one.

Do opponents of Israeli government policy in the U.K., Jewish or non-Jewish, truly feel that their arguments are not being heard? Is it really their contention that the British Jewish leadership is setting up "unwritten laws," which establish the boundaries of what may or may not be discussed? If the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the main U.K. Jewish communal body, is indeed attempting to create unwritten laws and to foster anxiety to silence opponents of Israeli policy, it is doing a remarkably poor job. The public debate on Israel in the U.K. affords willing space to the most extreme of anti-Israel positions

These anti-Israel Jews are certainly entitled to their opinions - no matter how out of touch with reality and ludicrous they are. At the same time this brings up many interesting issues, such as:

• Why do they feel that they have a right to criticize from a distance?
• How representative are they?
• Are they self-hating Jews?
• What difference does it make that they are Jewish? (Especially since most of them are marginally so at best.)

Personally, I find the last question the most interesting. Why does it even matter that they are Jewish? Certainly it is sad to see a lack of solidarity among the Jewish people, but Jews are notoriously fractious and this is nothing new. You could argue that the majority of Jews were opposed to political Zionism until the Holocaust changed their point of view. Indeed, only last month, we were subjected to the shameful image of Jews participating in a Holocaust denial conference.

The reason it is newsworthy that a group of Jews is opposed to Israel has to do with the fact that as far as our detractors are concerned, a Jew is a Jew (by his/her very nature). This after all, is why Hitler's minions felt they had to destroy each and every last one of the Jews. This is also the view of the Arab street that speaks about what it would like to do to the Jew (rather than the Israeli or the Zionist). After all, aren't all Jews the same and aren't we all just part of the Jewish Borg? I believe that the the polite term to be used in mixed company is that Jews are "cliqueish".

It is thus with schadenfraude that I read about these Jews who think that they can talk their way out of this one. We have seen this movie in the past and I am afraid that we already know how it will end.