Some thoughts regarding the recent treatment of Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib at the hands of the legion of fanatically pro-Israel commentators that police public thought and opinion regarding the object of their affection: In their sycophantic adoration of Israel, they have utterly ruined the meaning of a term used to legitimately designate the many people who have held, and expressed, actual anti-Semitic views. “Anti-Semite” has been a legitimate accusation in many instances, but aiming it at every single critic of Israel has done nothing but cheapen it, doing a disservice to Jewish people who have suffered from actual anti-Semitism. Israel’s government isn’t all Jews, it’s a government. And it has committed crimes no different than many other incarnations of that evil institution throughout history. Its crimes deserve to be pointed out, just as the crimes of all governments do. But criticism of Israel’s crimes can be, and have been, blunted by throwing the race card at anyone acknowledging them. No one wants to be called a racist, especially an anti-Semite. So the task of pointing out Israel’s crimes against Palestinians, both historical as well as present-day crimes, falls to the few writers who don’t mind being called a racist. Back to Tlaib. A person of Palestinian descent, Tlaib described in an interview with Yahoo a “calming feeling” regarding the creation of Israel, knowing her Arab ancestors provided a haven for the Jewish people in the wake of the Holocaust. Here are her words:
“There’s kind of a calming feeling I always tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports…
I mean, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time, and I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, right, and it was forced on them. And so when I think about a one-state, I think about the fact that, why couldn’t we do it in a better way?”
The modern State of Israel has to be one of history’s greatest ironies: that out of the Holocaust, a select few of the survivors could exploit the world’s goodwill in such a way as to build their own ethnic Apartheid State
I, for one, wouldn’t feel “calm” the way Tlaib does, in regards to my family’s treatment by a group of thugs. I’d be pissed off, and would probably never fail to mention it in casual conversation. But it speaks to the depth of her character that she can make peace with it while still retaining the capacity to criticize it in a very measured way, unlike many religions, and governments, that pass down historical grudges like heirlooms. Also, Israel isn’t the only safe have for Jews. Jewish people do very well in the United States. The Hasidic Jews of New York are thriving, despite the recent bout of actual, real anti-Semitism that flared up during the idiotic Great Measles Freak-Out of 2019.
Yet Tlaib has been unceasingly dragged in the deluge of editorials that followed her comments. They have nothing to fortify their arguments against her, so of course they brandish the race card, and how many people really take it seriously anymore? Tlaib was mild in the extreme regarding the founding of Israel. She could’ve mentioned the slaughter at Deir Yassin, where the Irgun and Lehi terrorist groups slaughtered hundreds of Arab families. The slaughter had an aim: to frighten the surrounding villages so much that they would leave. And they did leave. The massacre triggered the 1948 Palestinian Exodus.
Lehi was also the terrorist group that assassinated Swedish WW2 hero Folke Bernadotte, the man who, ironically enough, negotiated over 31,000 imprisoned Jews from Nazi concentration camps. He was unanimously chosen by the UN Security Council as the ideal candidate to mediate the Arab-Israeli conflict. He was apparently being too even-handed for the extremists on the side of Israel, and they murdered him! His killers were later pardoned, decades later. They are celebrated by Israel now as heroes.
The accusation of anti-Semitism deserves to remain unblemished. There have been, and will be, people deserving of the accusation. Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar, are not among them. They are legitimate critics of the government of Israel, and that government’s crimes against other people. That accusation, though, appears to have been irredeemably cheapened by its careless use.
