If we want to know where we are headed, we need only look to Britain, where in intellectual and artistic circles it has gotten to the point where it may no longer be possible to identify as a Jew without also disavowing any support for Israel.
A group of British Jewish celebrities, including actor Stephen Fry and playwright Harold Pinter, recently signed a joint statement lambasting official British Jewish institutions for continuing to support Israel. Since they agree with the slander that Israel is an oppressor, incredibly, they see support for it as justifying anti-Semitism.
Those who want a more in-depth look at this phenomenon of growing Jewish anti-Zionism than that provided by Rosenfeld’s slim pamphlet should go to the recently published The Jewish Divide Over Israel: Accusers and Defenders, a collection of essays on the topic published last year by Transaction Books. In it, authors such as literary critic Edward Alexander (who edited this important volume along with British writer Paul Bogdanor) and Rosenfeld himself contribute essays on this puzzling and deeply dangerous trend.
It is not innuendo to note, as Rosenfeld does, that calling Israel a “Nazi state” and urging its dismantling is not unrelated to the attacks on Jews in Europe or to the verbal violence against Israel that is becoming bolder here. That anti-Zionism has established a beachhead among leftist intellectuals and academics in this country cannot be denied.
What is yet to be determined is whether more Jewish liberals and centrists are prepared to fight back and answer this insidious trend with the sort of plain talk it deserves or if, afraid of being branded as “intolerant” as was the case with Rosenfeld, they will back away from the fray.
If the pasting Rosenfeld and AJCommittee has taken does serve as a deterrent to frank discussions about the abandonment of Israel by the hard left and its impact on academia and our political culture, the consequences will not be inconsiderable.
Despite their braying about martyrdom, it takes no courage to run, as some “progressives” do, with the pack of media and academic jackals who defame Israel or whitewash its foes. But while these ideological zealots brazenly disavow the Jewish state, many other Jews have simply disengaged from the cause because they do not wish to be identified with an “illiberal” Israel. The result is an increasingly open field for the haters and a new growth of anti-Semitism – just as Rosenfeld and others have asserted.
It is an encouraging sign that a mainstream group like the American Jewish Committee was prepared to publish Rosenfeld’s piece and stand by it despite the abuse it has absorbed. The question that remains unanswered is whether the AJCommittee and other groups will continue this necessary fight.