He Has Their Measure: An Australian Jewish Academic on anti-Zionist Jews

Associate Professor Philip Mendes is a left-leaning Aussie Zionist and a much-published historian of the Jewish Left in Australia.  I've referred to him on this blog before, here.

In an op-ed, entitled "The BDS movement and the opportunistic exploitation of self-denying Jews," on the website of the ABC, he writes, inter alia:

'[T]here is little doubt that a Greater Palestine is the ultimate political objective of the international Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel (BDS). Not surprisingly within the BDS movement, the opinions of the small minority of anti-Zionist Jews loom larger than life. For example, Federal Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon has claimed that "many Jewish communities support this work." In fact, no Jewish communities support the BDS. Similarly, the Mayor of Marrickville, Fiona Byrne, proudly cited support from the NSW Jews against the Occupation group which has about 10 members, and also claimed support from "a growing number of Jews from all over the world." In fact, the only organized Jewish community group in Marrickville, the Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance which is left-oriented and strongly supportive of a two-state solution, devoted considerable time and resources to opposing the Marrickville BDS proposal during the 2011 NSW State election campaign.

Similarly, BDS campaigner Professor Jake Lynch, head of Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, has responded to accusations of discrimination against Israeli Jews by citing talks at the Centre by anti-Zionist Jews such as Ilan Pappe and Noam Chomsky as evidence of a non-racist policy. But Lynch is disingenuous in not acknowledging that virtually all the Jews hosted by the Centre have been fanatical anti-Zionists, and that the Centre has specifically excluded any pro-Israel Jews.

Some conservative Jewish commentators label anti-Zionist Jews as "self-hating" Jews in an attempt politically to discredit their arguments. Self-hatred is an alleged psychological condition which involves members of despised low-status racial, religious or sexual minority groups identifying with the values and prejudices of the majority group and internalizing their stereotypes.

But quantifying these views in such psychological terms is arguably problematic.... However, there is evidence that many anti-Zionist Jews have no interest in or knowledge of Jewish history, values and culture. They really don't care what most Jews say or do. Those whose sole identity is a political one rather than a Jewish one can hardly be accused of self-hatred when they reject something to which they had no attachment in the first place. I personally prefer the term self-denying Jews, since anti-Zionist Jews mostly reject ethnic or cultural connections with the Jewish community, and eschew feelings of solidarity with other Jews who are oppressed or attacked.

So why does the BDS movement highlight the views of this small group of anti-Zionist Jews who are so unrepresentative of collective Jewish opinion? There are two reasons.

The first is a continuation of malevolent historical practice.... 

The second factor is that the BDS movement attempts to use Jewish anti-Zionists as an alibi against serious accusations of anti-Semitism by arguing that Jews also share their views....'

Read the entire piece (and be amazed at the intemperate comment it's attracted from Professor Jake Lynch) here

The Aussie Anti-Israel Arena Acquires A Star Performer

Compare and contrast these two letters, which appeared in the same British newspaper (one not noted for its love for Israel) on the same day:

'The real problem with the Gerald Scarfe cartoon [which, of course, appeared in another British newspaper, the Sunday Times, on 27 January, sparking outrage] is that it perpetuates the "big lie" about the Jewish state.

Not the blood, not the hook-nose: that's what all his cartoons look like. It promotes the idea that Zionism/Israel/Netanyahu/Jews (take your pick) are singularly at fault for the plight of the Palestinians.

Israel is not blameless, but what about Palestinian division and rejectionism? The ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Arab world? The rabid anti-Semitism throughout the Middle East? Last Monday, the day after the cartoon was published, 10 Palestinians were killed just as Scarfe had prophesied... but they were murdered in Syria, a conflict that has claimed more lives in two years than the entire Arab-Israeli conflict.

That is why the cartoon could be described as anti-Semitic even though its author is not.'

A reasoned and entirely reasonable view of the matter, written by a Jewish individual in Hertfordshire.

His letter followed this one, authored by 28 Jewish and apparently Jewish individuals, plus (or are they all members of?) the Brighton-based Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, which reads:

'The suggestion by Zionist supporters that Gerald Scarfe's cartoon in The Sunday Times was anti-Semitic is a classic example of the abuse of the term. It drains the term of all meaning and, like the boy who cried wolf, desensitises people to anti-Semitism when it does rear its head.

Jennifer Lipman's grudging defence ... of Gerald Scarfe described the cartoon's portrayal of Palestinian blood cementing the Separation Wall as "profoundly offensive" because the intention of the Wall was to prevent suicide bombing. We disagree. Palestinian blood is being shed and the security pretext for the wall was a means of further confiscating Palestinian land. That was why the wall didn't follow the 1967 Green Line.

On 23 January, without warning or excuse, Israeli soldiers killed student Lobna Hannash, 21, outside al-Arroub Agricultural College. On 17 January a boy of 16, Saleh al-Amareen, was shot in the head at a refugee camp in Bethlehem. These are but two examples of why the cartoon was extremely pertinent.

Those who constantly raise the bogus cry of "anti-Semitism" whenever Israel is criticised are trading on the memory of the past oppression of Jews in order to justify the current oppression of the Palestinians.

As Jewish opponents of Zionism and racism we wish to declare that we do not believe that there was a trace of anti-Semitism in Gerald Scarfe's cartoon. Holocaust Memorial Day was indeed a fitting time to signal the evils of racism. As the Prophet Micah said: "They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity." (Micah, 3:10).'  [My emphasis]

Several of the signatories to that putrid statement are seemingly ubiquitous anti-Israel activists.  Their names appear on most if not all "as-a-Jew" denunciations of the imperilled little Jewish State.  At least two participated in the despicable disruption of the IPO concert in the Albert Hall in 2011, and, if my memory serves me correctly, have been involved in similar stunts.  The signatories include three out of the four academics who recently implored Cliff Richard to cancel his forthcoming visit to Israel.  Another signatory has addressed Al Quds Day crowds in London as a featured speaker.  Yet another posts anti-Israel messages on a certain social networking site with almost manic frequency and zeal, messages which are sometimes so shockingly intemperate (and attract shockingly intemperate messages of support in return) that the mind boggles at the discovery that the person in question is a Jew.

There's a stand-up comedian on the list, the halachically Jewish son of Communist parents.  His name appears immediately below that of the first signatory, the well-known actress Miriam Margolyes.

Ms Margolyes, the subject of this memorable post by blogger Ray Cook, needs little introduction to readers in either her native Britain or in Australia, where she has maintained a home for some years.  An inveterate critic of Israel, she took part Down Under  in Caryl Churchill's controversial Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza, a play seen by many as antisemitic.  That performance, which also starred the well-known Aussie actor and comedian Max Gillies (husband of a prominent critical-of-Israel Jewish publishing executive whose academic press has published anti-Israel works by Antony Loewenstein and Jacqueline Rose) was held to raise money for Australians for Palestine.

Last month, Ms Margolyes (pictured, receiving her naturalisation certificate from prime minister Julia Gillard), became an Australian citizen, and told the Sydney Morning Herald:

'Her desire to become a citizen crystallised when she wanted the right to vote against the former prime minister John Howard [whom I, Daphne, once had the privilege of meeting and who is, incidentally, outstandingly pro-Israel], whom she described as a ''pillock''.

On her agenda as a new citizen are joining the Australian Labor Party, getting to know more indigenous Australians and improving her knowledge of the ''other Australia'' beyond the middle class.

Quoting John F. Kennedy's famous line, ''Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country'', Margolyes said she wanted to help ''Australia become a nation of thinkers''....

She is also worried about the surge of nationalism and ugliness towards foreigners. While she plans to be a loyal citizen, she does not plan to follow blindly.

''This sheila is not going to shut up,'' she said ....'

Useful To The Enemy: Ben Cohen On Anti-Zionist Jewish "Dissidents"

'Throughout the greater Middle East, opposition to the concept and existence of a Jewish state is an idée fixe for hundreds of millions of Arab and non-Arab Muslims. A hatred of Jewish political sovereignty that frequently dovetails with more traditional anti-Semitism animates café discussions and street protests as surely as it prohibits regional political progress. Yet the strand of anti-Zionism that has lately come to attract the most attention in the West is the one articulated by a tiny minority of left-wing Jews at a handful of websites....' writes New Yorker Ben Cohen in a searing indictment of prominent leftwing Jews whose stock-in-trade is persistently to attack Israel.

'Dissident voices? Properly understood, the word dissident describes intellectuals and activists operating in oppressive societies. What they do frequently results in imprisonment, torture, and even death. The dissidents ... are not silenced, but rather celebrated, by media establishments ranging from the Huffington Post to the BBC.

The persistent inclusion of these "dissident voices" in discussions of America, Jews, and Israel has proven very useful indeed, since their membership in the tribe is deemed to give them special standing in presenting their indictment of Israel—and, somewhat more subtly, inoculates Gentile critics of the Jewish state against the charge that their attacks on Israel might be anti-Semitic. How can they be if they are merely echoing the arguments made by such passionate, such moral, such fearless, such dissident Jews?

In an Internet age characterized by instant, rolling comment, they have helped to reactivate a set of ideas that many thought had perished with the grubby pamphlets published in the old Soviet Union, screeds that bore titles such as "Zionism: A Tool of Reaction". Whereas the true dissidents of the Cold War era introduced words such as samizdat into the vocabulary of the West, the ersatz dissidents of the Jewish left have popularized a host of expressions—Judaization, Israel-firster, Zionist apartheid, and so forth—that were once relegated almost entirely to the openly anti-Semitic fringe....

 Mass-movement anti-Zionism will be happy to incorporate Jewish anti-Zionists and march onward. Hatred of Israel is a malleable doctrine of false justice that welcomes all comers and provides for unlikely bedfellows. These days, the burden of proof is increasingly, and perversely, placed on those arguing in Zionism’s behalf. But, ironically, charting both the writings and the career trajectories of devoted anti-Zionists makes a uniquely strong case for the continued existence and protection of the Jewish state.'

Read the entire article here

Aussie Expert Mendes On The Israel-Bashing Jewish Left

A trio of "Ashamed Jews" in the United States

Philip Mendes is a senior Australian academic who has published widely on the Jewish Left in his own country.  At a Limmud-Oz panel discussion in Melbourne on 11 June he made remarks that succinctly capture the essence of what British novelist Howard Jacobson, in The Finkler Question,  dubs "Ashamed Jews".

Mendes's remarks focused on Australia, yet the issues he raises are relevant to the situation outside Australia, and certainly to Britain.

His insights are enhanced by the fact that he's no rightwinger himself.

I reproduce the remarks below (hat tip: reader Shirlee), cross-posting them from J-Wire.

Says Philip Mendes:

'The great strength of The Finkler Question is that its depiction of what are called "ashamed Jews" so closely matches the reality we all know: There are in Australia and elsewhere a small group of anti-Zionist Jews, who hate Israel, who hate the vast majority of Jews who support Israel, and who often reserve a special venom for the many other Jews on the Left who are not ashamed of Israel.

Personally, I have experienced defamatory letters sent to my university and numerous other public misrepresentations of my views and opinions – nearly all emanating from anti-Zionist Jews (sometimes backed up by "useful idiots" in local non-Zionist organizations such as AJDS [Australian Jewish Democratic Society]) who wish to censor and silence left-wing Jews who think Israel has a right to exist.

This group of anti-Zionist Jews seem to have increased in numbers in the last decade. The question is why?

Some of the obvious factors include the advent of the Internet, which has made it far easier for minority groups to promote their views independent of mainstream media, the increased acceptability on the Left of expressions of ethnic and other forms of minority group identity, and the massive shift within mainstream Jewish organizations to support for a two-state perspective which has opened up major new spaces for Jews of diverse opinions to articulate a range of strategies to promote that outcome.

But most significantly it seems to me that everyone wants to be part of a community. Anti-Zionist Jews are generally excluded from the mainstream Jewish community because the views they hold are considered offensive by the majority who mostly regard them as Uncle Toms. It is, however, perhaps a grey question as to whether they are overtly excluded because the majority are intolerant of their views, or rather they exclude themselves because they are intolerant of any views on Israel other than anti-Zionism.

Many find an alternative home in the Left community. Some are happy with this because their political views have little or nothing to do with their Jewish background. But others still feel a need to express their Jewish identity even if only on political issues. Hence the formation of alternative groups or communities with titles such as Independent Jewish Voices or Jews for Justice for Palestinians. These communities appear to give them a sense of belonging and mutual support that was denied to them in the mainstream Jewish community.

None of this means that a degree of opportunism or expediency is not involved. Some as noted in The Finkler Question only claim a Jewish identity as a convenient means of bashing Israel, and deflecting allegations of antisemitism. The most offensive use of a pseudo-Jewish identity arguably occurs when Jewish anti-Zionists (including some of the most extreme BDS advocates) highlight and exploit the Holocaust survivor background of their parents or family in order to justify their attacks on Israel (see, for example, the flier promoting Avigail Abarbanel’s book). Yet any serious survey of Holocaust survivors and their families would almost certainly find that the vast majority furiously reject these statements, and offer strong support for the State of Israel.

But others to varying degrees genuinely seem to believe that Jewish values or teachings underpin their political beliefs as is evident from the two recent sympathetic (and mostly uncritical) books on Jewish anti-Zionism from Avigail Abarbanel and David Landy.

This attempt to develop a Jewish (as opposed to solely political) anti-Zionist identity poses a number of questions which remain largely unanswered:

1)     What if anything distinguishes their anti-Zionist beliefs from the views of anti-Zionists who aren’t Jewish?
2)     What it is about their Jewish experiences that has lead them to express views diametrically opposed to most Jews on Israel?
3)     How can they apply Jewish social justice teachings exclusively to the Palestinians, and completely ignore the national and human rights of the approximately six million Jews who live in Israel?
4)     Did their anti-Zionism only develop after they joined far Left groups? This is an important question as we know that many Left groups today and historically have compelled Jewish members to conform to an anti-Zionist position.
5)     Can anti-Zionist Jews be viewed in any way whatsoever as promoting Jewish concerns and interests? Do they campaign against forms of antisemitism that are not related to the Middle East conflict? What events if any would lead them to show their solidarity with other Jews.'

Cross-posted from here

In Oz, Aid & Comfort For The Enemy At Balaclava: Jewish Fringe Groups Attack The JNF

Balaclava Railway Station lies in the heart of Jewish Melbourne, in Carlisle Street.

Like a number of thoroughfares in the district, Balaclava is a neighbourhood named after battles in the Crimean War, which was a very recent memory when the district, some miles beyond central Melbourne (founded in  1835) was being developed and settled.

The other day, a vicious flyer was handed out during a rally at the station, held jointly by the Melbourne cell of a fringe group known as Jews Against The Occupation (of which Sydney flotilla/flytilla activist and occasional PressTV interviewee Vivienne Porzsolt is undoubtedly the best-known (some would say "notorious" representative) in conjunction with an apparently new group called Jews Against The JNF (pictured here with the BDS crowd last September).

The flyers, choc-a-bloc with the usual tropes against Israel, call for "the charity status of the JNF to be revoked in Australia" and "for Australians to break ties with the JNF".

Although at first glance some people might find the platform of Jews Against The Occupation laudable, its platform demands the Right of Return to the so-called Palestinian Refugees, which if enacted would of course spell the end of the State of Israel.  Needless to say, there is nothing in the platform about a reciprocal right, or compensation, for the Jews who fled from or were forced out of Arab countries, the "Jewish Nakba"  which, thanks to people such as the talented person behind the Point of No Return Blog, is beginning to receive the publicity it deserves.

Jews Against The JNF are equally blinkered, indeed mischievous.  "The JNF-KKL [Keren Kayemet LeIsrael] continues to serve as a global fundraiser for for Israeli ethnic cleansing. occupation and apartheid," they inveigh, thus echoing some of the most treacherous canards made against the Jewish State.

Let's hope Jewish youngsters in Australia manage to withstand the propaganda of such groups, unlike some Jewish youngsters in Britain (even pupils of Jewish day schools), on whom a constant drip drip of anti-Israel demonisation in the media is having a deleterious effect, and are being led astray by pernicious but plausible slurs and falsehoods.

For, as its Chief Executive Officer argues here, the campaign against the JNF(and of course the UK Greens are part of it) is misplaced.

Israel Supporter Baits Anti-Israel Vipers (video)

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, a  line of mainly middle-aged protesters spewing out their venom against Israel for having the audacity to respond to the recent attacks from Gaza on its civilians is approached by a good guy.
"What Jewish family?" asks one, when he tackles them regarding hypocrisy and double standards.  (Watch the derisive, dismissive smiles on their faces as the Israel-supporter explains that it was a family "killed the other day".)
"I hate commiters of genocide, so I oppose the Israeli state!" hisses another, wild-eyed with rage at being cornered.
The recent attacks on Palestinians in Syria? No words of condemnation at all.
The vipers' venom is reserved for Israel, of course.
You might have already seen this video on other blogs, including, inevitably, the fastest draw in the west (and not only the west!), Elder of Ziyon.
In showing up the ignorance, spite, and sheer ugliness of the Israel-demonising Left, including Jews who lustly join in the demonisation of Israel, the video is a classic.

 
Regarding Jews in the ranks of Israel's foes, I'm reminded of Isaac Deutscher's "non-Jewish Jews" (deracinated types like revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg, who refused to countenance a separate destiny for the Jewish People or to protest wrongs committed specfically against Jews), as well as of something Isi Leibler wrote recently regarding pro-BDS elements within Israel:

"The Jewish state remains the only country in the world which, since its inception, has been obliged to defend itself from neighbors committed to its destruction, and whose civilians are still subject to ongoing rocket attacks. In a recent poll, the vast majority of Palestinians reaffirmed their desire to kill every single Jewish man, woman and child.

Yet Israel remains one of the most robust democracies in the world. It boasts the highest level of free press. Its leaders, including the president and prime minister, are held to stricter accountability than ordinary citizens. And Israel provides its Arabs citizens (who amount to 20% of the population), the right to elect radical MKs who express the views of those seeking our destruction....

In recent years, much of the Israeli Left seems to have lost the plot. Not so long ago, the dominant Israel Labor party prided itself on representing the essence of the Zionist establishment. Its role models were pioneers and farmers creating settlements and transforming deserts into gardens.

In contrast, today the Israeli far Left has been hijacked by urban post-Zionists. Many left-wing academics seem to have absorbed the cosmopolitan characteristics of diaspora Jewry. Some, like the 19th-century Russian Jewish Social Revolutionaries who regarded pogroms as necessary to create revolutionary consciousness among the masses, today even identify with the Palestinian jihadists and pay tribute to their culture of death.

They share the outlook of European post-modernists, and classify Israel with European post-colonial guilt. They spew hatred against their own people, demonize the IDF and paved the way for the Goldstone Report. In so doing they were assured instant recognition and standing among their European counterparts. [My emphasis]" http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=230119"

On Jews Who Reject Israel

Very recently I posted Ray Cook's excellent blogpost concerning Jews who profess to be "ashamed" to be so in light of Israeli policy. Now, Avraham Reiss of Jerusalem has given a most interesting insight, from a Religious Zionist perspective, on this issue. Mr Reiss blogs at http://jcwatch.wordpress.com/ but this blogpost of his, entitled "Who Rejects Who?" was posted at the London Jewish Chronicle's blogs (thejc.com) on the evening of 13 November. (I've added the pictorial content):

Rabbi Zvi Yehudah HaCohen Kook was the son of the illustrious Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, first Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael. Rav Zvi Yehudah, as I knew him, was the Rosh Yeshiva of Mercaz HaRav here in Jerusalem until he passed away during the 'eighties. I had the honour of studying under him for a number of years.

Some months ago appeared a book dedicated to him, in which former students (many now well-known rabbis within the Religious Zionist movement) recounted their experiences while studying in Mercaz HaRav.

The book is named Mashmia Yeshua, which translates roughly as "Proclaimer of Salvation", an apt description of the legacy of Rav Zvi Yehudah's father [pictured], which expounded his attributing the 20th century Jewish renaissance in the Land of Israel to the swift approach of the Final Days of Redemption. Rav Zvi Yehuda was a very original thinker, but he subjugated his entire life to publication of the astounding number of books - in the spheres of both Halacha and Jewish Philosophy - written by his father.  I once innocently asked Rav Zvi Yehudah if we are now at "the start of the Redemption" (itchalta d'geula), and he replied "Start? We are in the actual days of the Mashiach" (Etzem yemot HaMashiach).

The book contains 600 pages, and I am in the habit of taking it to shul and reading from it between Mincha and Maariv each day.

Yesterday night, Leil Shabat, on pages 237-238 I read the following story (which originally appeared in a book named Angels as Men), which immediately brought to mind the handful of Israel-haters which the JC is so happy to host and accommodate on these blog pages. I'm telling the story here because I doubt if the book will ever be translated into English (owing to lack of demand), and because I deem the story relevant to these blog pages.

One comment, and my apologies in advance to our lady readers for this sentence: they say that a translation is like a woman – either attractive or faithful, but never both. For that reason I am not translating word for word, but re-telling the story as I read it, in English.

The story was told by Rav Zvi Yehuda once at a shabbat meal in his house. It was told after Rav Zvi Yehudah heard that some Jewish tourists had returned to their country of origin and foul-mouthed the Land of Israel. The story was originally told by Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever [pictured, on an Israeli stamp], a 19th century founder of Religious Zionism and of the Mizrachi movement.

In a certain village there lived a young man who was very rich – and was as uncouth as he was rich. In the same village lived a very poor family, one of whose daughters was a very beautiful girl, who was also possessed of exceptionally good personality traits.

The young man was very attracted to the young lady, but despite his sending a few shadchanim (match-makers) to arrange a meeting between them, the lady was not interested and refused every suggestion. One day her father asked for his sake to meet with the young man just once, so that he would stop pestering her and the family. She agreed, and he was invited for shabbat lunch.

When he arrived, the young lady appeared in an old, not-too-clean dress, no make-up, her hair dishevelled, and in general showed him no affection whatsoever.

The young man left, telling everyone he knew that the stories about her beauty and character were a lie, that she was in fact ugly and ill-mannered.

This, said Rav Zvi Yehudah, is Eretz Yisrael. This is a holy land with special qualities, which will not accept people whose spiritual qualities are not suited for it. In such cases it makes itself appear to them in an unappealing fashion, so while they are going around saying how much the Land of Israel is not worthy of them, in fact it is they who are not worthy of living in the Land of Israel, which has in effect rejected them.

This is how one should react to Israel-haters; they are in fact rejects.

A Ray of Light on Jews who are “ashamed” of Israel

In his delicious prize-winning novel The Finkler Question the Anglo-Jewish novelist Howard Jacobson has an anti-Zionist group called ASHamed Jews:

 “The logic that made it impossible for those who had never been Zionists to call themselves ASHamed Zionists did not extend to Jews who had never been Jews. To be an ASHamed Jew did not require that you had been knowingly Jewish all your life. Indeed, one among them only found out he was Jewish at all in the course of making a television programme in which he was confronted on camera with who he really was. In the final frame of the film he was disclosed weeping before a memorial in Auschwitz to dead ancestors who until that moment he had never known he’d had. ‘It could explain where I get my comic genius from,’ he told an interviewer for a newspaper, though by then he had renegotiated his new allegiance. Born a Jew on Monday, he had signed up to be an ASHamed Jew by Wednesday and was seen chanting ‘We are all Hezbollah’ outside the Israeli Embassy on the following Saturday.”

The group is fictional, but it’s got its real-life counterparts, and not only, alas, in Britain. Such Jews – who of course make demonising Israel a central part of their agenda if not their raison d’être  –  are often dubbed “self-hating Jews”. But as Adam Levick observed not so long ago in an essay on the phenomenon:

 ‘To be fair, I always found the term “self-hating Jew” to be at best misleading, at worst a complete misnomer. First, because we typically have no way of knowing these writers‘ inner-thoughts. But, more importantly, I never thought that it was an apt description of the anti-Zionist Jews I’ve met over the years. If anything, most seem to possess a belief that they are indeed “better Jews” for being hyper-critical of Israel, opposing their own community, and rejecting the very idea of a Jewish nation-state.

Many seem singularly focused on being seen as a “progressive”. And, as the progressive movement has moved further and further away from identification with Israel – and, to some degree, further away from identification with Jews as such – the need to be seen as progressive (“righteous”) in the eyes of others, has taken precedence over the seemingly parochial desire to identify with, and defend, their own community.’ (cifwatch.com/.../the-guardians-anti-israel-jews-and-a-letter-to-my-teenage-nephew/)

As well as being models of lucidity and literary merit, British blogger Ray Cook’s posts are always thoughtful and measured. Not for him launching personal attacks, or making extravagant claims or wild accusations. All of which lends his opinions a quiet authority. His latest post is a masterpiece. I’d like to share some of it with you:


Why I’m an ashamed Jew

Yep, you read right.

I’ve had to admit it.

I can’t live a lie any longer.

I’m deeply, deeply ashamed.

Ashamed of being Jewish? No way. I’m very proud to be Jewish and a member of the Jewish people.

Ashamed of Israel? Wrong again. I’m proud of Israel’s achievements. I worry about its policies, sometimes; I’m concerned, sometimes about some of its actions and those of some of its citizens, but I could say the same for Britain and I’m still proud to be British.

So why am I ashamed?

I’ll tell you. I’m ashamed of Jews who say they are ashamed to be Jews or Jewish.

I don’t hear Palestinians coming out to declare they are ashamed to be Palestinian and denounce suicide bombs or missiles.

I don’t hear Arabs writing they are ashamed to be Arabs because of Al Qaeda or Sudan or Yemen.

I don’t hear Muslims forming groups of shame because of what Sunni does to Shia, or 9/11, or 7/7, or Madrid, or Mumbai.

I don’t know of any Ashamed Catholic groups forming because of the paedophilia apparently rife in Catholic clergy.

In fact I know of no other group of people who so often announce their ashamedness to be who they are as Jews do.

And you know what? It makes me ashamed. I’m an ashamed Jew who is ashamed of ashamed Jews. If that’s a paradox, so be it.

And I’m not ashamed to declare my shame.

Shame on me!

I don’t see why Arabs or Muslims or Palestinians or Brits or Americans or Chinese or anyone else should be ashamed of what they are because of the actions of a few.

If I’m ashamed to be a Jew because I don’t like what Israel does that is a form of self-hating, it’s bigotry – by golly, it’s anti-Semitic. If I hate all of a group because of the actions of some, then I am a bigot. And if I am the target of my own bigotry then I’m a pretty sick bigot.

Read the rest http://www.raymondcook.net/blog/index.php/2010/10/31/why-im-an-ashamed-j...