Another excellent summary, thank you Matt. Having just been last night to a talk by an organisation that tries to help Palestinians whose houses and land are being destroyed and stolen by the Israeli state, as has been happening for decades. The reference to 'settlers' is a smokescreen when those people are armed and supported by Israeli forces, and are supported by ministers and the Israeli legal system. When Palestinians who resist are brutalised and killed. It is state terror. Resistance to which is then termed 'terrorism'. When an overwhelmingly powerful state brutally imposes its will on those with little or no power, 'terrorism' is the only available response, as you and others have explained with reference to similar situations elsewhere.
You write about how this has undermined the West and its claims to be supporting liberal democracy. It has also profoundly undermined the legitimacy of the Israeli state itself and the credibility and safety of the wider Jewish community. When to be in anyway critical of the slaughter and destruction that we see daily in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank is to be accused of 'anti-semitism', what does that term mean any more? The claim that Israel is somehow justified in any and all of its actions because of the Holocaust and the 'unique' history of the Jews has been fatally undermined. When Israeli Jews are themselves responsible for building a profoundly racist, apartheid state, which is now actively genocidal. Not just in its actions but in the words of its ministers and media, that expose what they have become and their intentions. The wider Jewish community needs to recognise that as indeed some are, along with some extraordinarily brave Israeli Jews who speak out and support the Palestinians. They show an integrity, courage and morality that has escaped the likes of Jacobson and Freedman.
Will check out Levy. Haaretz, +972 and Btselem on my radar. The speaker I heard last night in Guildford was refused permission to speak at the university and the cathedral. Had to find another church, and talk directly to students. Shame on both cathedral and university.
Nick Cohen writing on Substack talking about an explosion of anti-semitism. Like others such as Jacobson, conflating criticism of Israel’s brutality, current and historic, with more narrow racism against Jews in general. They are making the job of the real anti-semites so much easier and deeply alienating those who would have been their allies.
Superb article, Matt. Diaspora Jews like Schama and Jacobson, cheering genocide from the sidelines sicken me. Jacobson, incidentally, regards - or regarded- Israel as a 'lifeboat'. What a disgusting attitude to a country.
Another excellent summary, thank you Matt. Having just been last night to a talk by an organisation that tries to help Palestinians whose houses and land are being destroyed and stolen by the Israeli state, as has been happening for decades. The reference to 'settlers' is a smokescreen when those people are armed and supported by Israeli forces, and are supported by ministers and the Israeli legal system. When Palestinians who resist are brutalised and killed. It is state terror. Resistance to which is then termed 'terrorism'. When an overwhelmingly powerful state brutally imposes its will on those with little or no power, 'terrorism' is the only available response, as you and others have explained with reference to similar situations elsewhere.
You write about how this has undermined the West and its claims to be supporting liberal democracy. It has also profoundly undermined the legitimacy of the Israeli state itself and the credibility and safety of the wider Jewish community. When to be in anyway critical of the slaughter and destruction that we see daily in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank is to be accused of 'anti-semitism', what does that term mean any more? The claim that Israel is somehow justified in any and all of its actions because of the Holocaust and the 'unique' history of the Jews has been fatally undermined. When Israeli Jews are themselves responsible for building a profoundly racist, apartheid state, which is now actively genocidal. Not just in its actions but in the words of its ministers and media, that expose what they have become and their intentions. The wider Jewish community needs to recognise that as indeed some are, along with some extraordinarily brave Israeli Jews who speak out and support the Palestinians. They show an integrity, courage and morality that has escaped the likes of Jacobson and Freedman.
They do indeed, Robin. Gideon Levy, for example. And +972. It takes real courage to say what they're saying, in the current circumstances.
Will check out Levy. Haaretz, +972 and Btselem on my radar. The speaker I heard last night in Guildford was refused permission to speak at the university and the cathedral. Had to find another church, and talk directly to students. Shame on both cathedral and university.
Jewish Currents another source worth following. https://jewishcurrents.org/newsletter/jewish-currents-condemns-the-targeting-of-palestinian-journalists-newsletter
You’re right. I discovered them recently.
Nick Cohen writing on Substack talking about an explosion of anti-semitism. Like others such as Jacobson, conflating criticism of Israel’s brutality, current and historic, with more narrow racism against Jews in general. They are making the job of the real anti-semites so much easier and deeply alienating those who would have been their allies.
Cohen has been doing that for quite a while, hasn’t he? Ever since the early Corbyn years, if I remember correctly.
Superb article, Matt. Diaspora Jews like Schama and Jacobson, cheering genocide from the sidelines sicken me. Jacobson, incidentally, regards - or regarded- Israel as a 'lifeboat'. What a disgusting attitude to a country.
The most comprehensively humane and unvarnished piece on this entire hellscape.
Thank you Matt.
Just found a Gideon Levy piece. https://jacobin.com/2024/07/gideon-levy-interview-west-bank-gaza
Thanks for the recommendation. Extraordinarily brave person.