There is an old joke about a young Jewish boy who comes home after an exciting day at Yankee Stadium. “Grandpa!” he says, “Today A-Rod hit a home run!” “Tell me,” the single-minded old man asks, “was it good for the Jews?”
Given a recent report by the Anti Defamation League identifying 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents in the US in 2017, given the 182% increase in anti-Semitic incidents across the country after white supremacists in Charlottesville chanted “Jews will not replace us”, and given the horrific shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last October, many might see the world today as a new Book of Esther, complete with new Hamans and new genocidal edicts.
Of course, such comparisons are misguided and simplistic. First, the politics of anti-Semitism today are much more complex than the politics back in ancient Persia. Second, the actors of modern politics don’t conform to clear archetypes or narratives.
Take Representative Ilhan Omar, for example. Is she a Haman or a Vashti? Or possibly, in her own way, an Esther? What about President Trump? Is he King Ahasuerus or Haman? Or perhaps one of the eunuchs? It’s all jumbled up, and last month’s political shenanigans didn’t help.
First was Rep. Omar, whose antipathy toward Israel and support of BDS culminated in her comment in February that support for Israel among members of Congress was “all about the Benjamins.” She did apologize for her remarks, but she dug herself in deeper when she questioned the pro-Israeli lobby in American politics, saying, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country” and then compared the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to the NRA, the fossil fuel industry, and big pharma. More than anything, I was disappointed in Rep. Omar, partly because she pulled attention away from her own progressive economic agenda, but mostly because as a Somali-born Muslim-American, she has undoubtedly had to unfairly prove her allegiance to this country many times over. To suggest that Jews have dual allegiance to the US is beneath her.
The response to Omar’s comments was swift and severe. Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared her support for Israel, her support for legitimate criticism of Israel, and her condemnation of Omar’s “use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel's supporters.” Two Jewish House Democrats, Josh Gottheimer and Elaine Luria, circulated a letter, which was signed by 25 House Reps condemning anti-Semitism from “certain members within our Caucus."
Although the letter did not name Omar specifically, the implication was clear, and Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren immediately came to Omar’s defense, warning that targeting Omar was stifling debate. House Democrats drafted a resolution to decry anti-Semitism which was proposed, pulled, reworked, and finally passed as a resolution against, “anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry.” It was beautifully written and, in my opinion, totally unnecessary.
In the end, Jews were made to look like both victims and aggressors, Muslims were made to look like both aggressors and victims, and House Dems were made to look like idiots. No, Grandpa, it wasn’t good for the Jews. Worst, all it did was distract from an honest discussion of the role of Israel in American politics and the hypocrisy of the BDS movement.
According to its Website, the BDS movement calls for “boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel until it complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights.” The movement targets civilian and corporate as well as political Israeli institutions. Its stated goals are to 1) end occupation and colonization of all Arab lands, 2) recognize the fundamental rights of Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and 3) allow Palestinians to return to their lands as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
Never mind that “all Arab lands” include countries who lost land after attacking Israel. Never mind that the six Arab league countries back in 1948 voted against UN Resolution 194. Never mind that BDS does not support a two-state solution, simply a removal of Israel. Never mind that Hamas is given a free pass for both firing rockets on Israeli civilians and, as Amnesty International reported, torturing and killing Palestinians during the 2014 conflict.
It is notable that no country with a worse human rights record is called out by the BDS movement, which is why many have complained about the unbalanced, anti-Semitic nature of its vitriol. To put this into context, one need only look at the annual report by Freedom House, a US-based nonpartisan non-governmental organization that researches political freedom and human rights. In 2018, Freedom House rated 210 countries with aggregate scores of their political rights and civil liberties. Finland, Norway, and Sweden tied with top scores of 100. Eritrea, North Korea, South Sudan, Tibet, and Syria came out at the very bottom. Israel rated an aggregate score of 78, which put it in the top 35%, compared to the US (86) which just barely squeaked by in the top 25%. Israel scores higher than all of its Middle Eastern neighbors, and it even comes out better than many of our “friends”, such as Brazil (78), India (77), Peru (73), and Hungary (72). And yet BDS complains about Israel alone.
Some have argued for different standards because of the combined $3.2 billion in US aid Israel receives annually (according to USAID’s 2018 figures). True, but shouldn’t this call to question the $5.7 billion in US aid given to Afghanistan and $3.7 billion given to Iraq? In fact, out of 158 countries each receiving over $1 million total aid from US in 2018, 85% have composite Freedom House scores lower than Israel. In other words, we give a lot of money to a lot of countries a lot worse than Israel.
But all this high-minded rhetoric on balanced criticism and relative culpability is complicated by the fact that Israel has been behaving very badly. Above and beyond the governmental decisions to extend construction into Palestinian territories and perpetuate a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu has added even more gasoline to the political dumpster fire. In 2018, he pushed through a largely symbolic “Nation State Bill” that, among other things, justified further Israeli settlement-building and denigrated the position of non-Jews in the county. If there was any doubt about Netanyahu’s intentions, he recently commented, “Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People - and them alone." Netanyahu is no longer ignoring Israel’s brand, he is actively working to undermine it. Once again, Grandpa, this isn’t good for the Jews.
Not surprisingly, President Trump is trying to drive a wedge between the American Jewish community and the Democratic Party. Knowing that 69 percent of Israelis express confidence in Trump (according to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz), Trump recently told a group of Republican National Committee donors, “the Democrats hate Jewish people.” He went on to say that he didn’t understand how any Jew could vote for a Democrat these days, noting his decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Whereas such blatant grandstanding is unlikely to take hold in the U.S., it only helps the BDS community equate every decision Trump makes to Israeli politics and by proxy to the Jewish people. Whoever wins this ideological fight, I fear it won’t be good for the Jews.
Frankly, Israel and the American Jewish public need better spokespeople, people like actresses Rotem Sela and Gal Gadot who can challenge the policies of the Israeli government and yet raise up the image of the Israeli people. Sela recently posted on Instagram, “when will someone in this government broadcast to the public that Israel is a country for all its citizens. And every person was born equal. Arabs, too, God help us, are human beings. And so are the Druze. And so are gays, by the way, and lesbians, and…shock…leftists." Gadot also commented on Instagram, “This isn't a matter of right or left. Jew or Arab. Secular or religious. It's a matter of dialogue, of dialogue for peace and equality and of our tolerance of one towards the other."
Imagine that. Beautiful, powerful, intelligent women reframing the conversation and saving the Jewish people. Maybe this is the Book of Esther after all.
