There’s a fundamental inconsistency in the neo-bundist embrace of identity politics and strident rejection of “ethno-states”. Doubly so, since they celebrate the ethno (Ashkenazi) socialism of the Bund, but mischaracterize the multiethnic Jewish state, consisting of Ashkenazim, Mizrahim, Sephardim and AfricanJews as ethno particularism. The justly venerated hero of the Warsaw ghetto revolt, Marek Edelman, was also an unreconstructed Bundist and an Ashkenazi chauvinist. He characterized Israel as an Arab state with a Jewish religion.
You’re completely correct. The same people using idiotic terms like “Ashkenormativity” to paint American Jews as ‘racist’ idolize a group of Ashkenazi socialists known for their hostility to Arabs and Mizrahi Jews. The ranks of Anzi Jews to this days are the whitest rich-kid socialists of Ashkenazi origin, while Israel is a vibrant, multicultural state, with a far more diverse Jewish community than anywhere else, especially North America and Australia. Israel is a longer democracy than most European countries and more multicultural than any of them. Anzis are not just ignorant but also racists.
I've given up analyzing the various ideological fantasies and word clouds of the Jewish Anti-Zionists on the basis of their content and just consider their form (or really their social purpose). As for the content, people arguing "Arabs and Israelis really hate each other, we should dissolve all borders and have them share a state" might be a funny reality show, but this is basically telling someone that they and their families need to bleed and die for your theories and their campus cachet; and as for the posited great savior of multiracial liberal democracy, that's starting to give some serious 1930s "The country of Heine and Goethe could never do such a thing" vibes, especially as the West fills up with Muslims, who are putting major cash, zeal and muscle into the vehemently anti-Zionist Islamo-Left alliance.
Instead I think of Western Jewish Anti-Zionists as modern Conversos, Jews who need to publicly dissasociate from their people in order to maintain their exalted status and positions in Christian society. Conversos were forced to convert if they wanted to retain various businesses, concessions and places at court and the same applies here: it's not a coincidence that all the most passionate Jewish Anti-Zionists are in either academia or Left politics, as these are both ruled by the reigning faith of Social Justice, the newest universalist spin-off of Christianity that demands total obedience and loyalty. There is extraordinary social pressure on Jews in all "Left spaces", especially the Ivy League and Dem Party, to perform their conversion to the new faith by renouncing their old one and publicly stating some type of opposition to the state of Israel. I think this helps explain why just about every Jew in Congress and every Israeli in the Ivy League has signed onto the genocide slander and joined the mob that proclaims Israel as the new Nazi Germany. It's simply the beliefs they must have (and be known to have) if they want to maintain everything from their careers to friends to futures.
This is far from the first time that one cohort of Jews has needed to publicly renounce another cohort of Jews in order to save their skins and income, and as a way to ease the fears and anxieties of their Christian hosts. Of course all these moral contortions and rhetorical pleadings are just more evidence for the need of a strong, safe and sovereign Jewish state, but this is another simple fact the Jewish Anti-Zionists can't bring themselves to accept.
I always found it funny that the term 'ethno' was appended to 'nationalism' as if the idea of the nation wasn't based on the same basic premise of the idea of ethnicity. Both are imagined communities made real by the voluntary association of individuals who share common values, historical narrative, and culture. Even French nationalism -- which one could argue is the most anti-ethno -- works hard to assimilate non-ethnic french into the French culture, history, and values (that is why they have anti-hijab laws and french language laws, etc). Seems like the whole intellectual framework is a sham.
Great piece. Antizionism ultimately shows itself to be hollow because it is not serious about Jewish continuity. Caring about Jewish continuity is what brings together the oddest bedfellows - Jewish Republicans and Democrats in the US; and Left and ultra orthodox in Israel.
And when you raise continuity, you are accused of being a Jewish supremacist.
Not to mention, the repeat and continued erasure of Mizrahi Jews, the disapperance of any systems analysis or post-colonial analysis when it comes to Jews/Mid East/Islam.
Switzerland is not a multi-national country, it is a multi-lingual country. French-speaking, German-speaking, and Italian-speaking Swiss all think of themselves as Swiss, not as Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians. Since the Swiss have had centuries of shared history prior to the age of nationalism, I doubt that it could be replicated today.
By calling it multinational, I meant that Switzerland is composed of different nationalities (sub-nationalities if you want to be precise) and cantons. These groups are defined linguistically in the Swiss context and share a deeply rooted civic identity that predates modern nationalism. This model couldn't be replicated in Lebanon (once called "the Switzerland of the Middle East") and is extremely unlikely to work for the Israelis and Palestinians.
The ignorance and disingenuousness of antizionists, especially Anzi Jews like Beinart, is unbearable. No progressive is demanding that the seven European countries that emerged from the Yugoslav civil wars of the 1990s be forced back into a single “multicultural democratic political entity”. Not one of these clowns has said a thing about Czechoslovakia choosing to split into two countries for two distinct ethnic groups. Not one of them is demanding that Pakistan, India and Bangladesh be forced back into a single country.
But when it comes to destroying the one democratic Jewish state among 22 non-democratic Arab countries, anything and everything needs to be tried. The bigger liars like Beinart will claim they want a “peaceful multicultural democracy”. Most of them don’t even hide that they’re excited for an inevitable genocide for Israeli Jews.
There’s a fundamental inconsistency in the neo-bundist embrace of identity politics and strident rejection of “ethno-states”. Doubly so, since they celebrate the ethno (Ashkenazi) socialism of the Bund, but mischaracterize the multiethnic Jewish state, consisting of Ashkenazim, Mizrahim, Sephardim and AfricanJews as ethno particularism. The justly venerated hero of the Warsaw ghetto revolt, Marek Edelman, was also an unreconstructed Bundist and an Ashkenazi chauvinist. He characterized Israel as an Arab state with a Jewish religion.
You’re completely correct. The same people using idiotic terms like “Ashkenormativity” to paint American Jews as ‘racist’ idolize a group of Ashkenazi socialists known for their hostility to Arabs and Mizrahi Jews. The ranks of Anzi Jews to this days are the whitest rich-kid socialists of Ashkenazi origin, while Israel is a vibrant, multicultural state, with a far more diverse Jewish community than anywhere else, especially North America and Australia. Israel is a longer democracy than most European countries and more multicultural than any of them. Anzis are not just ignorant but also racists.
I've given up analyzing the various ideological fantasies and word clouds of the Jewish Anti-Zionists on the basis of their content and just consider their form (or really their social purpose). As for the content, people arguing "Arabs and Israelis really hate each other, we should dissolve all borders and have them share a state" might be a funny reality show, but this is basically telling someone that they and their families need to bleed and die for your theories and their campus cachet; and as for the posited great savior of multiracial liberal democracy, that's starting to give some serious 1930s "The country of Heine and Goethe could never do such a thing" vibes, especially as the West fills up with Muslims, who are putting major cash, zeal and muscle into the vehemently anti-Zionist Islamo-Left alliance.
Instead I think of Western Jewish Anti-Zionists as modern Conversos, Jews who need to publicly dissasociate from their people in order to maintain their exalted status and positions in Christian society. Conversos were forced to convert if they wanted to retain various businesses, concessions and places at court and the same applies here: it's not a coincidence that all the most passionate Jewish Anti-Zionists are in either academia or Left politics, as these are both ruled by the reigning faith of Social Justice, the newest universalist spin-off of Christianity that demands total obedience and loyalty. There is extraordinary social pressure on Jews in all "Left spaces", especially the Ivy League and Dem Party, to perform their conversion to the new faith by renouncing their old one and publicly stating some type of opposition to the state of Israel. I think this helps explain why just about every Jew in Congress and every Israeli in the Ivy League has signed onto the genocide slander and joined the mob that proclaims Israel as the new Nazi Germany. It's simply the beliefs they must have (and be known to have) if they want to maintain everything from their careers to friends to futures.
This is far from the first time that one cohort of Jews has needed to publicly renounce another cohort of Jews in order to save their skins and income, and as a way to ease the fears and anxieties of their Christian hosts. Of course all these moral contortions and rhetorical pleadings are just more evidence for the need of a strong, safe and sovereign Jewish state, but this is another simple fact the Jewish Anti-Zionists can't bring themselves to accept.
I always found it funny that the term 'ethno' was appended to 'nationalism' as if the idea of the nation wasn't based on the same basic premise of the idea of ethnicity. Both are imagined communities made real by the voluntary association of individuals who share common values, historical narrative, and culture. Even French nationalism -- which one could argue is the most anti-ethno -- works hard to assimilate non-ethnic french into the French culture, history, and values (that is why they have anti-hijab laws and french language laws, etc). Seems like the whole intellectual framework is a sham.
Great piece. Antizionism ultimately shows itself to be hollow because it is not serious about Jewish continuity. Caring about Jewish continuity is what brings together the oddest bedfellows - Jewish Republicans and Democrats in the US; and Left and ultra orthodox in Israel.
And when you raise continuity, you are accused of being a Jewish supremacist.
Not to mention, the repeat and continued erasure of Mizrahi Jews, the disapperance of any systems analysis or post-colonial analysis when it comes to Jews/Mid East/Islam.
Switzerland is not a multi-national country, it is a multi-lingual country. French-speaking, German-speaking, and Italian-speaking Swiss all think of themselves as Swiss, not as Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians. Since the Swiss have had centuries of shared history prior to the age of nationalism, I doubt that it could be replicated today.
By calling it multinational, I meant that Switzerland is composed of different nationalities (sub-nationalities if you want to be precise) and cantons. These groups are defined linguistically in the Swiss context and share a deeply rooted civic identity that predates modern nationalism. This model couldn't be replicated in Lebanon (once called "the Switzerland of the Middle East") and is extremely unlikely to work for the Israelis and Palestinians.
The ignorance and disingenuousness of antizionists, especially Anzi Jews like Beinart, is unbearable. No progressive is demanding that the seven European countries that emerged from the Yugoslav civil wars of the 1990s be forced back into a single “multicultural democratic political entity”. Not one of these clowns has said a thing about Czechoslovakia choosing to split into two countries for two distinct ethnic groups. Not one of them is demanding that Pakistan, India and Bangladesh be forced back into a single country.
But when it comes to destroying the one democratic Jewish state among 22 non-democratic Arab countries, anything and everything needs to be tried. The bigger liars like Beinart will claim they want a “peaceful multicultural democracy”. Most of them don’t even hide that they’re excited for an inevitable genocide for Israeli Jews.