Jonathan Siegel suggested that a few of us write about the meaning of Zionism in the wake of the recent Israeli elections. There are few things I like talking about less than “what Zionism means to me.” But since you asked…

Zionism is an example of what the great British socialist and cultural historian Raymond Williams called a “keyword, ” a word that is either blessed or cursed with a multiplicity of shifting definitions, words that often find themselves on the historical barricades, passionately defended and equally passionately attacked. As Williams put it, keywords have “a history and complexity of meanings; conscious changes, or consciously different uses; of innovation, obsolescence, specialization, extension, overlap, transfer.”   Zionism is a keyword and trying to give it a neat definition is a fool’s errand. It is a zombie term, a term that has outlived its usefulness, but refuses to die. And “progressive Zionism” is even more obscure, its two parts becoming more oxymoronic every day. In response to Jonathan Siegel’s excellent post, I would only say that if Rabbi Eric Yoffie is a progressive Zionist, then the term has been emptied of all meaning. Reading the same Haaretz articles as Siegel, Yoffie comes across as a tepid, timid Zionist centrist, clinging to a third way that no longer exists, a plague on both your houses politics, Netanyahu bad, left-wing Zionism bad; BDS unmentionable and beyond the pale. It is the sort of politics that was decisively rejected in the recent election, a nostalgic “make Israel great again” politics for a pre-1977 and pre-Begin Israel. read more

My dear fellow white people in Pittsford, Brighton and across the U.S.,

As a white man, I understand the farther situations are from my personal responsibility, the easier it is to call things what they are — almost as if it’s a law of physics. I can spot racism and a racist a mile away; but inches away, my eyesight gets blurry.

So when I hear children in the Pittsford school district (and where does this not happen?) are being called the “N-word,” degraded and mocked for their black-ness, I can recognize that as racism. And when I hear white district authorities fail to call those behaviors specifically “racism” and “racist,” I also recognize that as white fragility and racism. read more

In the aftermath of the Israeli elections, American-based Progressive Zionists need to do some deep soul-searching about the viability of their enterprise. Within Israel the left—with whom Progressive Zionists are aligned–is as far, if not farther, from political power as ever, with no real chance of obtaining it in anything like the foreseeable future. Only an existential threat to the state caused by right-wing Zionist overreach seems likely to change that, and perhaps even then only for as long as it takes for the crisis to resolve itself. read more

I am a dual citizen of the Unites States and Israel and I exercise my rights to vote in both places. I arrived in Israel for the election nine days before the vote took place. Full disclosure: I have been a supporter of Meretz for many years, having been a member of a kibbutz and an activist in the peace movement. I am biased towards Meretz of course.

Here is some background information on the four election lists that are generally considered as being the Israeli left, although there is not full agreement on this. The groups/parties are: Meretz, Labor (Avoda), Hadash-Ta’al, and Balad-Ra’am. When I refer to Arabs in this article, I am speaking about Palestinians who are Israeli citizens and have the right to vote in Israeli elections. read more

A whisper in the ear of the king, a decree sent throughout the land, women oppressed and plans are made to annihilate an entire population.  What a story.  Years ago I learned how to chant chapter 7 of  Megillat Esther .  As I went over the lines hundreds and hundreds of times I became impressed how in chapter 7, Esther finds her voice and was emboldened to take matters into her own hands and save the Jewish people. This year I committed myself to learning to chant verses 16-21 in chapter 1.  Learning the chanting is difficult for me, first I have to pronounce the words and then learn the chanting going over it again and again. When I listen to the Megillah as a congregant, I usually am challenged just to hear the words as the seasoned rabbi reads them so quickly. When I learn it, it is different. I stumble over and over the words and meaning jumps out at me.   read more

Until this past week Kahanism was largely banned from the political process. Meir Kahane’s party, Kach, was banned from the Knesset in 1988, was outlawed as a terrorist organization in Israel in 1994, and still appears on the US State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.  Netanyahu, in a blink of an eye, just lifted the ban.

Kahanism is an American export to Israel. Peter grew up in a neighborhood in southeastern Queens where Meir Kahane was the rabbi of the local orthodox shule, before Kahane became notorious. In the late 1960s he attended a few Bar Mitzvahs in the shule. It was almost a normal synagogue except that it was surrounded by razor wire and a high fence, as if it was an auto parts store in a high crime neighborhood. When he founded the Jewish Defense League in 1969, after the bitter teacher’s strike that raised Jewish and black tensions, some of its earliest members were his acquaintances. Its initial targets were not Palestinians but African Americans. The appeal of the JDL was, to those Peter spoke to, that blacks had been pushing Jews around, and the next time black kids wanted to fight, they would be ready.

Kahane had a Betar and Revisionist background, and around 1970 he turned his attention to Israel, where he found an even bigger scope for his racism, in a situation that was even more violent, and where Kahane’s victims had even less legal protection. He and his followers wanted to expel all Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinians in the territories. They often plastered the word Transfer, a euphemism for ethnic cleansing borrowed from Nazi Germany, in places with large Israeli Arab population.

Kahane was murdered in 1990 in New York City but Kahanism in Israel survived, and engaged in a series of terrorist acts. In 1994 Baruch Goldstein, a member of Kach, originally from Brooklyn, massacred 29 Palestinians praying in Hebron, in what remains probably the most notorious episode of Jewish terrorism. Kahanism combines two virulent strains of racism, American and Israeli. Much of vigilante terrorism against Palestinians has been traced to followers of Kahanism legacy. Kahanists today oppose Jewish-Palestinian marriages, and call for the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and the territories.

There is hard right wing politics, the sort followed by Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett, and Miri Regev, to stick to current Israeli politics, and then there is fascism. The main difference is that fascism takes right wing politics to its logical conclusion; its politics are only the politics of repression, and eliminating the targets of their hate by any means necessary. With this move, Netanyahu has openly aligned himself with Jewish fascism, and those who aid and abet fascism are fascists. And people of good will cannot have any dealings with fascists.

Israeli politics is indeed very complicated. Every election cycle, there are new parties and new names. It is too complicated for most Americans; even most American Jews who care about Israel, to follow closely. Two party democracies have their limitations but at least most people know the names of the two parties. But most American Jews know who Kahane was and what Kahanism is.

It is heartening that Netanyahu’s move has been condemned across the political spectrum, from the usual left of center Jewish groups to the center and center-right organizations like American Jewish Committee and AIPAC. More than 90 Orthodox rabbis have issued a fierce denunciation of Netanyahu’s invitation to Kahanists. While encouraged by this first step, we must prepare for the next, to make sure that Netanyahu and the Likud are unacceptable. And American Jews have a role to play. We all need to tell our representatives that any government with Jewish fascists is illegitimate, and should be treated as such.

There is a practical dimension to this. For the first time, with the merger of the lists of Gantz and Lapid, Netanyahu seems beatable. We do not know what sort of government the Gantz/Lapid ticket lead, but it would probably have to be a center-left coalition of some sort (Probably, these things can get tricky.) We do not have much faith in Gantz, but one thing is absolutely clear; if the two state solution is to have any chance, Netanyahu cannot be the PM. And Democrats that control the House need to chart their own foreign policy, and a pro-Israel, anti-Jewish fascist position seems broad enough to attract a number of Democrats, even those who previously have been defenders of Netanyahu. And if Democrats and American Jews make their views heard clearly and loudly enough, perhaps this might have an effect on the Israeli elections.

But whatever happens in the election, we must be clear about where we must be. We have a key role here, in every synagogue in America, in every Jewish organization in America, Jewish fascism, and Netanyahu’s embrace of Jewish fascism must be loudly condemned and anathemized. Kahanism, an American-Israeli species of Jewish fascism is a unique menace to the Jewish people. It must be fought, banned, and rejected. This fight is deeply rooted in a clear Torah Jewish position, “One law shall be there for you, for sojourner and native alike” and in the Founders’ Proclamation that the state of Israel “will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”

Where do I stand when I hear Ilhan Omar? By Ayala Emmett

Shortly after the 2016 election I talked to an acquaintance who was active in social justice about justice activities in my synagogue; I spoke of the Jewish obligation to help the marginalized that is often emphasized in the Torah and throughout Jewish history. Her response was that she was surprised to hear that Jews were committed to charity and while she was not familiar with the Torah, Jews were rich and could afford giving money.

Linking Jews and money, is an old anti-Semitic ploy. The recent statement that American Jews pay politicians to support Israel that came from a newly elected Democratic congresswoman was shocking. So where do I stand when I hear Ilhan Omar making a not-so-veiled anti-Semitic remark? On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I stand where I have always been, a peace activist. I oppose Israel’s occupation and I support a two-states solution.

I am not going to rehash the history of the Israeli Palestinian conflict; I have written about it extensively and so have many more erudite writers than myself, on both sides of the conflict. I see the destruction or denial of the rights of one or the other people as senseless and cruel politics. You can’t right the suffering of Palestinians by advocating the destruction of Israel or the other way around. My hope has always been that justice for both peoples will find the right leadership. Israelis and Palestinians need each other because they have to live side by side. None of them is going away. They most certainly don’t need people who stoke more hatred between them. Progressives in America would do well to help those on the ground, like Combatants for Peace, and Women Wage Peace to build bridges across differences.

Instead, under the banner of support for Palestinians what we see now in America is a dangerous blurring of the line between criticism of the Israeli government and anti-Semitism. How far is Ilhan Omar from “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville? Not far enough from where I am standing. People like Congresswoman Omar actually join Trump the chief amplifier of anti-Semitism, an American president who has no interest in ending the occupation or in advancing peace. Ilhan Omar and I may disagree on a negotiated peace resolution between Israelis and Palestinians, on the solution of one or two-states, or on Israel’s right to exist. But I denounce her anti-Semitic tactics.

The Ilhan Omar Problem By Peter Eisenstadt

One of the best things about the new congress is that the Democratic Party seems to be slowly moving out its near total subservience to the political agenda of the Israeli government. This was aided considerably by Netanyahu making clear over the last few years that he hated Barack Obama and admired the corrupt malevolent buffoon who replaced him. There is a small but growing willingness on the part of some Democrats to take a more questioning role to Israel.

One of the most depressing conversations I ever had on Israel was about a decade ago, when, as a member of a J Street delegation, when I was still living in Rochester visiting the late Congresswoman Louise Slaughter in her office. We gave her the standard J Street spiel about two states, etc. Louise said, I know, I know, I’ve been to Israel, and Netanyahu is a son of a bitch. But if I ever said so publicly, AIPAC will start calling my office, demanding meetings, and I’ll never hear the end of it. It would have created too many problems for her, and wasn’t worth it politically. If the Jewish members of the House took a lead on this, she would make her feelings clear, but she would have to be a follower, not a leader. We understood.

And so, Congresswoman Omar, it’s not all about the Benjamins, though money of course greases any efficient lobbying effort. AIPAC has genuine reserves of support, and it has strategically deployed them with great effectiveness. And the way to change this is to do what J Street, Partners for Progressive Israel, and other left of center organizations have done, slowly build a constituency for a different American Jewish politics toward Israel.

You say something stupid and insulting, you apologize, as sincerely, as you can. You accept the apology, and go about your business. The Democratic leadership in the House and Congresswoman Omar handled this appropriately. The case is closed, although the Republicans will try to use this to tar the Democratic party with anti-Semitism, Islamophilia, and as someone accused me on a list I no longer subscribe to, of being a “useful idiot for Palestinian terrorism.” The Republicans of course have no standing to accuse anyone of anti-semitism, they will try to divide Jewish opinion, they will use it, as they already are, as a cover for their own racism, and they will try to make BDS a thought crime. Now is the time for Democrats to say that this episode is finished.

So Congresswoman Omar, be careful what you say; with all the damn human rights violations Israel commits almost daily, there is no lack of real things to talk about, without being needlessly inflammatory. There are real differences on the left on Israel Palestine matters. They will separate us and distinguish us, we have to try not let them divide us and make us enemies. This will take work on all sides. People on the left, Palestinians, and Palestinian-Americans are entitled to feel really, really angry toward Israel, and attitudes toward Israel can never be fully kept distinct from attitudes towards Jews in general, especially if you’re not careful, and Congresswoman Omar, you have not been. You have a unique vantage to make the case for Palestine. You do it in your way, which will be different from my way. I hope you have learned your lesson. Don’t do stupid stuff again.