July/August 2002

The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: An Open Letter to Pacifists and Progressives

by Murray Polner

When Fellowship's editor asked me to write about anti-Semitism today, I immediately thought of Holocaust deniers and several anti-Jewish imbeciles I encountered during my time in the US Army. Yet I occasionally wonder whether the overwhelming majority of us, acculturated Jews who have long since cast our lot with the United States, may yet one day see a revival of some public anti-Semitism in this country. I do not believe it will happen. But still, think about it–especially after recent events abroad.

We American Jews are, after all, hardly monolithic. We're everything from anarchist to pacifist to warrior, and lots in-between. While for the vast majority of us the State of Israel has never been our surrogate religion, we do care very, very much that it survive and thrive as an independent and humane democracy (for all its inhabitants, and not just Jews) in a Middle East that so far otherwise has independent states, but no democracy.

But first, a brief preface.

Generally, I think progressives and pacifists tend to blame the Israeli occupation and its consequences for the current calamity. I agree. But not too long ago there was a promising resolution when Barak and Clinton offered Palestinians an independent state. Arafat, incompetent and myopic, blundered hugely in rejecting it, reminding me of the dovish Abba Eban's famous comment, "The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." To Arafat's defenders I can only say that the plan, however flawed it may or may not have been, would at least have established an independent Palestinian nation and prevented the deaths of so many Palestinians and Jews.

Disagree or not, Palestinians made yet another monstrous mistake by resorting to violence and dismissing the possibility of nonviolent resistance. Think of it: Thousands of Palestinians marching nonviolently again and again in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, demanding their freedom and human rights and return of lands taken from them by Israeli expansionists. That might have given Sharon, Netanyahu, and their American benefactors serious pause. Shooting down peaceful demonstrators never makes for good coverage on CNN.

Sharon's brutality was matched by the cruelty of Palestinian suicide bombers. We can argue for the rest of the century who started the conflagration and why–my personal feeling is that the occupation and the ubiquitous settlers played a major role, along with arguments over who controlled the Temple Mount–but so did historic Palestinian and Arab adamant refusal to accept Israel as a fact of life. Some, by no means all, added old-fashioned anti-Semitism to their textbooks and publications. In the end, however, for both sides the mutual bitterness made it impossible to reach a rational and reasonably fair compromise. So instead they chose to kill.

All this leaves Jews like me horrified at what our Israeli coreligionists are doing; what I need to see are Palestinians who feel the same about suicidal "martyrs" and the homicidal, unrepentant ultras hiding in Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere. But every Israeli who wants to "transfer" Palestinians out of Israel and the occupied territories is as infuriating to me as Palestinians who teach and preach hatred of all Jews.

What does all this have to do with the resurgence of anti-Semitism, which has cropped up in Europe and on the Internet in this country?

Certainly, resentment of Israeli actions during Intifada II has led to this explosion of fury and hatred. But how can destroying European synagogues, ransacking Jewish schools, wreaking havoc on the dead in Jewish cemeteries, and attacking individual Jews be justified or ignored? What does it have to do with the raging civil war in the Middle East? I don't know if Britain's Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, was overly excited or even accurate in saying that "anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe as a whole," while castigating Muslim radicals "for whipping up" feeling against Jews. All the same, his remarks, widely publicized in Jewish publications, resonate and alarm Jews everywhere, including myself.

Let me be clear: pacifist and progressive pro-Palestinians as well as other political critics of Israel are NOT–repeat, NOT–anti-Semitic. Israel is no more immune to criticism than any other country. Indeed, many American Jews have long dissented from Israel's colonialism. Within Israel, uneasiness and protest by courageous and principled Jewish and Palestinian men and women is still alive and in time will, with hope, grow stronger. And in this country, we peace people–Jews, Muslims, and others–need all the help we can get.

But beating up a European Jew or burning down synagogues does nothing but impel more and more Israeli Jews and Jews worldwide to flock to support Sharon, even those who are appalled by his cruel assaults on West Bank cities and refugee camps. It's an instinctive coming together of Jews throughout the world because most of us carry indelible memories of discrimination, pogroms, and persecution throughout the centuries, not to mention Nazi extermination camps. Supporting Sharon and his apologists has for too many somehow become interpreted as preserving Israel and protecting Jews. Call it tribalism: I prefer memory. I have heard people saying things like, "See, they hate us. Critics of Israel are anti-Semites." It's reflected in Britain too. Naomi Klein's perceptive essay last April in The Guardian, the British newspaper, was titled, "Sharon's best weapon: Anti-Semitism sustains Israel's brutal leader–the fight against it must be reclaimed."

Perhaps this circling of the wagons can be blunted, and with hope, someday reversed by an end to the irrational Israeli-Palestinian war. Failing that, there will be many dark days ahead. Still, American Muslim-Jewish joint condemnation of the violence in Europe and the Middle East might also help a bit, since European Muslims, after all, are targeted far more than Jews in Western and Central Europe.

All the same (and this is my point): it is essential that progressives and pacifist organizations and publications throughout the world address the outbreak and revival of anti-Semitism. Many, I suspect, strongly identify with Palestinians as victims. Obviously, they don't have to love Israel. But what they must do is unapologetically and publicly declare all vestiges of anti-Semitism (not to mention bigotry against Muslims) to be off-limits, beyond the pale, no matter who or what the source. As men and women of conscience in many, many honorable struggles of the past century, pacifists and progressives may not be silent.

Pacifists during World War II fought anti-Semitism and defended Jews in all corners of Nazi-occupied Europe, while assuming enormous personal risk. The circumstances won't be that dire anymore, but please, make no mistake. We pacifist and progressive Jews, who object to Israel's occupation and its treatment of Palestinians, will neither be silent nor intimidated before this new wave of hatred. Nor will people such as myself look kindly on those we have always considered our friends and allies if they choose to remain silent. If pacifists and progressives sincerely want us as allies and friends and not have us retreat into the shell of tribalism, then they must speak out-loudly and clearly–and now.

Murray Polner chairs the Jewish Peace Fellowship, though the opinions expressed here are his own. He co-authored (with Jim O'Grady) Disarmed and Dangerous, A Biography of Daniel and Philip Berrigan, and co-edited (with Naomi Goodman) The Challenge of Shalom: The Jewish Tradition of Peace and Justice. During the early nineties he served two terms as interim editor of Fellowship.

©2002 Fellowship of Reconciliation