Let’s Keep Criticism Honest
I submitted this to the Brookline TAB in response to Skip Sesling’s attack on my column last week about Joel Kovel’s talk. The editor declined to publish it. So here it is.
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Skip Sesling’s op-ed last week recycles old personal attacks about my efforts to make sense of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unfortunately, he’s not alone. Some of the comments under my recent column on the TAB website also resort to character assassination, stereotype, and smug sefl-assurance. I don’t mind criticism of what I actually write, but it seems unfair to attack me for things I didn’t say and don’t believe.
Sesling is right about one thing, though. I no longer think the state of Israel can ever be both officially Jewish and substantively democratic. This painful awareness, which began to nag at me even when I was a young Zionist four decades ago, was central to my seminar at Ben Gurion University in 2006, when my students described with much regret their country’s inability to make democracy meaningful.
It is a very big leap, however, from my pessimism about Israeli democracy to Sesling’s absurd insistence that “Fox rejects all that is Jewish, which he calls self-enlightenment.” There is nothing in my column or anything else I’ve ever written to justify this mocking claim.
There is also nothing to justify his statement that “the one state Fox advocates is strictly a Muslim Arab state.” I would object to any outcome legitimizing official supremacy of one religion over another or denying the legitimate rights of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
The most mystifying part of Sesling’s column is his accusation that “Fox finds that Israel, Jews, Judaism and Zionism are all one entity.” He continues: “He should know better. Instead, he chooses to paint everyone who does not agree with his anti-Israel views as evil.”
Sesling has it backwards here: It is the Zionist movement that insistently conflates Israel, Jews, Judaism, and Zionism, as illustrated by the title of his own op-ed, “Anti-Zionism equals Anti-Semitism.” Zionists repeatedly claim that the Israeli state is an essential aspect of Judaism and that its actions are carried out in the name of the Jewish people. Indeed, Israel, which defines itself as the nation of the Jews, does not even recognize “Israeli” as a nationality.
In contrast, it is Israel’s critics, especially perhaps its Jewish critics, who insist that Jewishness and Zionism are not identical. Whether Jewish identity, Jewish culture, and Jewish safety are inextricably linked to Jewish statehood is an important question deserving discussion rather than dogma.
Sesling is also wrong when he says I paint those who disagree with me as evil. I rarely ascribe evil motivation or character just because someone sees the world differently than I do. Perhaps reflecting my training in social psychology, generally I think most people try to do the right thing given their understanding of the world and the circumstances in which they find themselves. The problem is that sometimes we’re wrong.
Our motives and assumptions do not always stem from the sources we ascribe them to. We find ways to justify beliefs and actions that neutral outsiders might think are erroneous or simplistic. We may distort or overlook even the meaning of words to avoid obvious inconsistencies. How else could we call Israel democratic despite the Jewish state’s refusal to endorse the principle of legal equality for all citizens? What does democracy mean, as my Israeli students understood, if not that?
And, sometimes, even decent motivations and accurate perceptons lead to bad outcomes. Israel’s domination of Palestinians is a bad outcome.
Although Sesling’s personal nastiness is annoying, more troubling is that his latest historical account is no more accurate than his similar attacks several years ago. That’s when he ridiculed my proposal that Brookline residents with differing viewpoints meet to talk things over. If you don’t share Sesling’s distaste for learning about alternative views, you can easily find lots of sources. One place to start is this Q&A: html://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/101conflict.shtml.
My column two weeks ago urged Brookline residents to hear what Joel Kovel had to say. From what I could tell, few who protested outside the Coolidge Corner Theatre bothered to go inside. That did not surprise me. But Kovel’s articles are available online. You might find his analysis interesting. You might not. But please — don’t let Skip Sesling tell you what’s worth thinking about.
Technorati Tags: Israel, Joel Kovel, Skip Sesling, social psychology, Zionism
January 25th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
[...] dennisfox wrote an interesting post today on Letâs Keep Criticism HonestHere’s a quick excerptPerhaps reflecting my training in social psychology, generally I think most people try to do the right thing given their understanding of the world and the circumstances in which they find themselves. The problem is that sometimes we’re … [...]
February 1st, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Your blog and Joel Kovel remind me of those Jews in Germany not that long ago, who thought that they were more German than the Germans. Many of them havd even converted. They disdained this “Jewish Tribalism” that you claim to despise as well. Much to their dismay, the Garmans saw them just as much a parasitic Jew as the ones in the Shtetel with payis and shtreimel. You and Kovel and that rat Finkelstein are “learned academics” but you know NOTHING about history and human nature. If we Jews depended on people like you we would all be up in smoke, just like my mothers extended family did in Auschwitz.
Unlike you, I chose to move to Israel, joined the army in the paratroops and served 7 years in military/security related work. I do not live in an Ivory tower where one thinks that if we just ask nicely and do whatever the Arab/Muslim world wants us to do, there will be peace and harmony in the Middle East and in the World. What is really galling however, is that you and Kovel and the likes walk hand in hand with those who would butcher us. In fact, often you lead these people in their vilification of Jews/Israelis. That is the behaviour of either a deluded individual with no sense of the real world or a Kapo. You deserve nothing but contempt.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Dennis, your link to the Q/A has a typo, “html://” when you meant “http://”
I am an Israeli born dual citizen (US and Israel) and have spent most of my life in the US. Naftali’s view of the world is a caricature that bears little resemblance to reality, but sadly is it not uncommon.
People can believe that “all men are create equal” and still own slaves, and people can believe Israel is a democracy while (like in Animal Farm) some are “more equal” than others.
Let’s not be unfair to Israel: after all the US suffers from the same syndrome which our (mis)leaders in Washington work overtime to perpetuate. So people in say Belgium or New Zealand or Brazil feel more safe than the people in the Lone Superpower which spends so much on militarism that its budget is equal to about the rest of the planet earth’s countries combined…yet our fellow citizens are more afraid, not less, because of a regime (including complicit Democrats as well as the Republicans) intent on terrorizing their citizens: keeping us terrified.
Similarly you have a country in the middle east which unlike any other country in the world has this level of Protection from the Lone Superpower, which none other have. On top of that, this country has 100 or 200 nuclear weapons. On top of that, for “conventional” power, it boasts of having the strongest airforce outside of NATO, no actually, more advanced than even any NATO power, aside from the US. Yet the citizens of this country are similarly kept in terror by their leaders, kept afraid, kept in a constant state of anxiety, which is what the leaders want.
Meanwhile the fact that during the 1930s some Jews argued against “tribalism” is, insanely, equated with “it’s all their fault the holocaust happened” Really?? The fact that some felt German first and Jewish second is another silly argument to try to Shut Up any critic of modern Israel. Do you have survey results or polls showing who felt that way? Maybe more right-wing militarists felt “I’m german first, Jewish second” and maybe fewer left-wing felt that way? The left if anything leans towards internationalism rather than nationalism. I have no data to support this, the point is no data is given (nor, apparently, necessary) to lump eveyrthing together, conveniently:
Anyone who ever argues for less tribalism “equals” anyone who did so back in the 1930s “equals” anyone who wasn’t “Jewish enough” back then “equals” the only reason (according to this line of insanity) why the Holocaust happened “equals” anyone who today criticizes the state of Israel. When you spell it out it’s clear how mad this is, but it’s much worse than that.
At least progressives understand that it’s insane to lump “being against GW Bush’s policies” with “Being against the US” however even progressives sometimes, buy into equating “Criticizing the Israeli state” with “anti-Israel”, which is equally insane. Bush is harming the American people, his policies, so are those of the Israeli state. I stand up and say,”no, those of you are for Palestinian rights and for democracy and against militarism and criticize the state of Israel’s policies, you are NOT anti-Israel, you are pro-Israel” The militarists are the ones whose policies are anti-Israel, harming Israelis as well as Palestinians, harming the welfare of the people, the environment, harming democracy, and even risking the survival of Israel in any state (whether “Jewish” or not) as a country, if they keep on their war-mongering path.
Militarists have always put the world on its head. The most famous example is “what about those who appeased Hitler in WWII” and I’d love to write a long, long essay about that, maybe DF has or will some day, but guess what? Who ran US policies or UK policies during the 1930s? Ghandi? A 5 year old Martin Luther King JR? The Quakers? The peace movement? I didn’t think so!!
The militarists did, they appeased Hitler, and for the ugliest of reasons. There is nothing wrong with anti-communism, I’m “anti” the Soviet system as much as I am “anti” the corporate feudalism that goes by the pretense of “Capitalism” in today’s economy..but that certain brand, namely right-wing anti-communism, is the kind that does not mind the human rights of communism (after all the fund human rights abusers all over the planet) but see it merely as competition, and they Loved to appease Hitler, these militarists and right-wingers, in part to let Hitler and Stalin “go at each other” This is the mentality that funded both Iran and Iraqi in the 1980s and who suffered? The leaders of these countries? No, Washington’s policies tortured killed and caused misery for millions in both those countries. Of course the right-wing militarists also refused to use bombing for one useful thing: against the Nazi’s ability to continue the death camps; these right-wing militarists refused to let Jews to the US, these right-wing militarists even liked much of what Hitler did (you know, killing union leaders, etc)
IF there was time, we should all write and public long essays to publicize and expand on this, every time that sick ugly slander comes from the right pretending it was somehow the peace or left which did the appeasing which these rightwing militarists did. You know who funded Saddam? The CIA. Who funded Noriega? The CIA. Who funded the parent group of Al Qaeda? The CIA, and related rightwing militarist branches of Washington who then have the Chutzpah to try to smear the left with the “you’re soft on [the bad guys]. Maybe putting these rightwing militarists on trial for crimes against Jews and crimes against humanity, up to and including Bush, Cheney, Bush Sr, the WWII militarists still alive, Condi Rice, Rumsfeld, Colin Powell (who’s far from innocent no matter the soft treatment he gets) and give them the Nurember Trials they deserve.
Now part of me feels better having vented…another part is just sickened, not sure what’s more sickening, the ugly crimes of the right, or the hypocrisy with which they then present themselves as the angels? Time for a walk outside to cool off..