Prolegomena to the Study of
Jews Who Hate Israel
Not to
Weep or to Laugh, but to Understand
Broadly speaking, Jews who hate Israel fall into
three categories: a) the famous,
of which Noam Chomsky is about the only one; b) the well-known, like Norman Finkelstein and Tony Judt,
and c) others who are not known beyond their immediate circles but who do lurk
in various crevices of the
Internet. Altogether, as I will
explain below, it is not likely that there are more than a few thousand of
these haters active worldwide, say fewer than 10,000 and probably no more than
half that number. Considering that there are more than 13 million Jews in the
world at the moment, the proportion of those who activel hate Israel, about
0.04 of one percent, might well be considered to be modest indeed.
[For a recent worldwide overview of the
phenomenon, see Manfred Gerstenfeld,
"Jews Against Israel." (2005)]
Whichever way we may wish to evaluate the
Jews-against-Israel movement, there has been little dispassionate investigation
of it. Here I offer a few comments that may serve as a backdrop to such
studies.
First of all, it seems obvious that there is no
overall organization or central direction to the movement. To borrow a term from the study of
religious groups, this movement seems to be strictly congregational in its polity. For this and other reasons, I will suggest
the need to distinguish among different types of individual Jews who are
against Israel and different types, also, of groups who are devoted to this
cause. There is a variety of ideological motivations; a variety of styles of
participation in the movement; a variety of statuses (prominence, follower,
etc.); and finally a variety of generational groupings.
0) Prehistory
Obviously there have been Jews who hate Israel since
before Israel was even established.
The moderately anti-Zionist, conservative, largely Reform and often
Republican ÒAmerican Council for JudaismÓ of the 1940Õs and 1950Õs can hardly
be accused of Òhating,Ó but some of its graduates, notably the very strident
Alfred Lilienthal (1915-2008), certainly can. On the left, the American Communist Party of the late 1920Õs
demanded that its Yiddish-speaking functionaries adopt an attitude of hatred to
the Jews of then-Palestine. It found no more passionate advocate for this
purpose than the editor of its Freiheit, Moissay
Olgin (1878-1939). OlginÕs life and activity as a (ÒprematureÓ) anti-Israel
activist is described in the classic work by Melech Epstein, ÒThe Jew and
Communism,Ó 1956. (When I lived in
Vancouver during the 1970Õs, the Yiddish-speaking club of the Communist Party,
by then again strictly anti-Israel,
was officially called the Olgin Club.) But overall, outside of the circle around Lilienthal on the
right and that of the 1920Õs Communists on the left, it would be difficult to
find Jews who invested any real emotional energy into hating Israel until,
roughly, the early 1970Õs.
1) There is the question of the social geography
of the movement. I would assume
that there are more Jewish haters of Israel, proportionately, in the
universities and among the chattering classes, i.e. wherever leftist and
left-liberal ideologies are stronger. I would also assume that there are more such people
where individual Jews interact most intensively with non-Jews -- again the
universities – than where they interact more with other Jews. All such ideas would need to be tested
empirically.
2)
There would seem to be a difference between an occasional Jewish hater of Israel, to whom this interest is just one
of many, and a totally devoted Israel hater, who seems
to be occupied by this pursuit to the exclusion of all others. So in Chomsky, for instance, we can see
many topics to which he devotes himself, while in Norman Finkelstein it is
difficult to find anything other than Israel hatred.
3)
Since I use the word ÒhateÓ for my topic, I include only those who bring
a considerable amount of mental energy, or passion, to their anti-Israel
activity. Nonetheless there are
degrees of passion, so we must distinguish between relatively mild and
relatively strong hatreds.
4) Ein
Bunter Hund.
This German expression means literally 'a bright-and-many-colored dog,'
in other words a phenomenon that is unexpected and thereby entertaining. An anti-Israel Jew stands out and is
newsworthy because of his oddity. I would suggest caution against attributing
too much importance to a grouping primarily for its oddity, or to put this
another way, primarily because of its nuisance value.
5)
How much influence do these folks wield ? They are regularly quoted and praised by Arab groups, but
these hardly need the occasional Jewish ally to determine their attitudes
toward Israel. Outside the Arab
world, Chomsky wields a certain amount of influence on academic matters, and no
doubt also on attitudes toward Israel.
But the extent to which he and the other Jewish haters have an
independent influence, over and above what his audiences would think without
their intervention, remains a matter to be investigated.
6)
How many Jewish Israel-haters are there in the world ? The propaganda work of these people has
spurred a polemical literature against them (to which I have contributed,
especially concerning Chomsky), which, in its zeal, has sometimes exaggerated
the number and importance of these haters. I would not include all the individuals mentioned by my
friends Edward Alexander and Steven Plaut in their various publications, nor
would I evaluate those included in the ÒcollaboratorÓ series of FrontPage in quite
the way that it is done there. In my view, there is a line between those who
criticize more or less rationally, even in a biased way, and those who truly
hate. Obviously this line is not
always clear, and reasonable people will disagree on individual cases.
Among well-known and fairly well-known writers,
there may be thirty or forty individuals who are clearly Jewish haters of
Israel. There would seem to be
more Jewish murderers and more outstanding Jewish crooks, or for that matter
more outstanding Jewish scientists and artists. I think that such comparative quantitative considerations can help us in gaining
perspective on the phenomenon.
Among the hatersÕ rank and file, we can count
the people who sign, as self-identified Jews, anti-Israel manifestos on the
Internet. One of the most
representative collection of such names is the recent ÒJewish Appeal
to Support the Goldstone Report,Ó containing 935 signatures,
world-wide. Another recent
petition, ÒOpen
Letter to Israeli SoldiersÓ (calling for refusal to obey orders), contains
926 signatories from 41 countries.
There are a number of such initiatives to be found on line, almost
invariably graced by the names of Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein, but
rarely do they have as many signatures as the two petitions to which I link
here. Granted, not every Jewish
hater of Israel can be reached for each of these efforts. But surely, given the apparently
tireless energy of the organizers, I cannot image that they will fail to obtain
the very modest effort of a signature from fewer than ten percent of their
constituents. From this I guess
that there cannot be as many 10,000 active Jewish haters of Israel worldwide.
Surely we have that kind of Jewish participation in Buddhism, or the teachings
of the Reverent Moon, Scientology, the Mafia ?
Ideally, we should find out how much overlap
there is among the signatories of the various petitions that are available on
the Web. The lists I have looked
at are not easy to collate, partly because they are not alphabetized and also
for other reasons having to do with their presentation on line. But with the expenditure of some
moderate clerical effort, it would be possible to construct a masterlist of such
signers. That could give us a much
better idea of the (quantitative) importance of the movement.
In regard to the rank-and-file: how can we find out whether, and to
what extent, a given individual partakes of this movement ? An internet search will reveal his or
her participation, at least insofar as he/she has signed one of the public
pronouncements. Since, as I said,
Chomsky seems to sign most of statements, a Google search will generally give
the answer if worded as follows:
ÔChomsky, ÒpersonÕs nameÓÕ. You can also try an additional search: ÔÓNorman FinkelsteinÓ, ÒpersonÕs
nameÓÕ.
7)
Little is known about the culture of (self-identified) Jewish
anti-Israel organizations. At
least some of these groups seem cult-like. The website of VancouverÕs Jews
for a Just Peace, for instance, supports the idea of random terrorist
attacks on Israeli civilians. Such
views, apparently common among the adepts of the group, are certainly odd by
most standards. We need the kind
of ethnographic study of such groups that we have for many religious sects and
cults.
The ideological-cultural roots of the Jewish
anti-Israel movement are diverse, each, it would seem, requiring careful and
separate attention.
8)
Of all these groups, the most colorful by far are the Neturei
Karta, the quasi-Hasidic sect that regularly
denounces Israel and ÒZionism.Ó In
New York, about twenty of these invariably appear at Salute to Israel parades,
decked out in Hasidic garb, waving Palestinian flags, and insisting that ÒtrueÓ
Jews must be against Israel. The
group also obtained much recent publicity by accepting an invitation to Tehran
to take part in a Holocaust-denial conference. Since Hasidism is generally defined by a relationship to a
given rebbe, the NKÕs Hasidic credentials do not seem clear. It is also not entirely clear whether,
and to what extent, the NK are associated with Satmar Hasidim. Most of all, it isnÕt clear whether
there is much significance to this extremely tiny group beyond its obvious Bunter
Hund value.
9)
There are relationships between these groups and extreme leftist groups,
particularly the Trotskyists, particularly in Britain (the Socialist Workers
Party) and in France (the various Trotskyist groups). Trotskyist groups
traditionally were largely Jewish in membership, but this seems to be no longer
true. In any case, the Trotkyists
seem to present a special case in the movement. I have discussed the history of
the Trotskyist relationship to Jews in an older essay.
10)
It seems that in the United States, even after all the years that have passed
since the quasi demise of Communism, the old Stalinists, their octogenarian
remnant as well as their red-diaper offspring, are often still effective in
inspiring anti-Israel sentiments among certain kinds of Jews. (It will be remembered that the American
Communist Party of StalinÕs time was more Jewish in its membership than any of
the leftist groups today.) This heavy hand of a Stalinist past is certainly
noticeable in Vancouver, where former members of the Olgin club, and even more
so their children, are now active in JJP.
And it is also true in the pages of The Nation, the only publication of any significant circulation with a
Stalinist heritage, and one that takes a consistent anti-Israel point of
view. It would seem that, at least
in some cases, the old Communism has been passed to newer generations in the
form of anti-Israel ideas.
11)
I have had the privilege of knowing a number of Jewish Israel-haters
personally, allowing me to make some observations that could serve as
hypotheses for more scholarly inquiry.
The people I have known are rarely of completely Jewish origin, or, if
they are, are rarely living in Jewish families. Many are offspring of a Jewish and a non-Jewish parent, and
many of them are married to non-Jews.
It remains to be seen to what extent such marginal Jewishness
contributes to anti-Israel commitment.
It is certainly true that at least some of those who represent
themselves as Jews on the nominally Jewish anti-Israel petitions, etc., have no
ascertainable relationship to the Jewish community.
Among the people I have known in this group,
many seem to be secretive about their commitment to this movement, even when
they allow their names to be listed in public declarations. And most of these people that I have personally
encountered are very reluctant to discuss the matter, seeming to have given up
on persuading those who are not like-minded. Would such observations hold for a more representative
sample of the group as a whole ?
12)
In some cases of young people, anti-Israel activity seems to have begun
as part of other personal developments, in particular changes in sexual
orientation, all, perhaps, being part of a personal radicalization in which
family and ÒbourgeoisÓ values are rejected.
In general, it would be good to learn more about
the various ways in which an individual may become socialized into the world of
Jewish haters of Israel. Some
suggestions may be gleaned from other areas of sociology. The classic criminologist Edwin
Sutherland, for example, developed a theory of "differential
association" to account for ways in which individuals, by associating
with some and avoiding association with others, become initiated into the world
of criminals.
13)
The phenomenon is not static;
it has a historical dimension.
While no more than a curiosity in the past, it seems to have connections
to wider circles today, especially circles considered liberal, Òenlightened,Ó
or, as the French say, bien-pensant.
One way to observe the changing status of such
sentiments is to observe that during the first half of the twentieth century,
support for Israel and Zionism was expected among the left-leaning. Shortly after Israel was established,
Pete Seeger, not Jewish himself but an icon for left-leaning Jews, sang
enthusiastically of that new Òlittle country.Ó And in David CauteÕs authoritative 1973 account of The
Fellow-Travellers, no anti-Israel statements are recorded at all.
Tony Judt today is counted as one of the
stalwarts of Jewish Òanti-Zionism.Ó
But this was not always the case.
He came upon the scene of Òpublic intellectualsÓ some twenty or thirty
years ago, as an anti-Communist.
How did he get from there to here ? A detailed study cases like that might yield some
understanding of the historical dimensions of the phenomenon.
I have offered a historical analysis for one of
the strains of Jewish anti-Israelism, the Trotskyist movement (for link, see
under 9), above).
14)
Finally, the available and future public opinion data on the Jewish
community might yield better information on the quantitative strength of
anti-Israel ideas in the Jewish community.
No matter how significant or otherwise the issue
might turn out to be in retrospect years from now, it does seem to hold
sufficient intrinsic interest to warrant more attention from the social
scientists. Obviously, we would
expect such scholarly interest to be conducted more or less dispassionately and
with civility.
Disclaimer: I do advocate more study of this problem, hoping for more
insight through research.
But I am not particularly hopeful that more insight will enable us Òto
doÓ much about the problem, let alone solve it. Jesus, a realist, thought that the poor will always be with
us. And I am afraid that, to one extent or another, those who hate us will too.
Bibliographic note (8/20/10):
Two very important new books on anti-Semitism
have extended discussions on Jews who hate Jews:
1)
Anthony JuliusÕs Trials of the Diaspora. See pp. 544, ff., ÒJewish anti-Zionism.Ó
2) Robert
WistrichÕs A
Lethal Obsession. See Chapter
Fifteen, ÒJews Against Zion.Ó
Werner Cohn
December 26, 2009
Last revision August 20, 2010
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