 |
| Do
you not see the difference between anti-Israeli sentiment and the
negative view of Israel's actions that are held by supporters of Israel?
People like me are pro-Israel but oppose Israeli cruelty and theft
of the land of the indigenous Arab-Palestinian people. |
James
Holton
Asheville, NC, U.S.A. |
|
| David
Landau: |
| Absolutely.
I thank you for the question because it is important to establish,
from the outset of this discussion, the distinction between criticism
of Israel - justified or even unjustified - and anti-Semitism, which
is a very different thing. It is worth noting at the outset, too,
that two dangers exist side by side: the danger of treating all criticism
of Israel as anti-Semitism; and the danger of discounting unequivocally
anti-Semitic outpourings as mere "criticism of Israel." (A similar
question was asked by T. van den Berg from Tiel, The Netherlands;
Matthew Weaver, Magdalena, USA) |
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| Israel
is a regional and occupying superpower. Why shouldn't this be expected
to create hostility? Why is this different from "anti-Americanism,"
of the kind presented in William Lederer's 1957 bestseller "The Ugly
American"? |
James
Adler
Boston, Mass., U.S.A. |
|
| David
Landau: |
| This
question brings us to the core issue: the definition of anti-Semitism.
I would suggest a test of irrationality. Hatred of Jews - or for that
matter of Israelis - that is rooted in irrational, inexplicable, visceral
sentiments, and not backed by rational argument (no matter how extreme)
qualifies as anti-Semitism within this definition. By the same token,
therefore, an irrational and visceral hatred of another nation or
object, American for instance, comes out of the same dark recesses
of the human condition - and they can be compared to anti-Semitism. |
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| History
is rife with instances of anti-Semitism. Do you think this current
surge is a mixed blessing in that it is a reminder to all Jews that
the fate of Israel is inseparable from that of the Jews of the Diaspora?
|
Julian
Kaye
El Cerrito, U.S.A. |
|
| David
Landau: |
| At
present, the rise of anti-Semitism around the world, especially in
Western Europe, has indeed enhanced Jewish solidarity worldwide. But
there is no guarantee that this situation will prevail indefinitely.
It has been argued that to the extent that Israeli actions and omissions
trigger or exacerbate anti-Semitic mainifestations, Jewish communities
suffering such manifestations may with time grow weary of this form
of victimhood by association. |
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| Is
there really an increase in the 'old anti-Semitism'? Or is it Arab/Muslim
anti-Semitism reflecting the emotions built up from the never-ending
Palestinian-Israeli soap opera? |
Daniel
Goldwater
Auckland, New Zealand |
|
| David
Landau: |
| What
seems to have happened in many countries over the past 32 months of
intifada is that the "old (Christian) anti-Semitism" of both the far-right
and far-left variety, have been powerfully exacerbated by "new" Muslim
anti-Semitism linked to the Middle East situation. Not only have the
left and right varieties been boosted, they have been fused by the
impact of the new variety, so that the upshot is an alloy of the most
poisonous and pernicious nature. |
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| At
precisely what point does the 'anti-Zionist' discourse become 'anti-Semitic'
in nature? |
Matt
Aberman
California, U.S.A. |
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| David
Landau: |
| This
is a very difficult question to answer - particularly as a member
of a newspaper which itself is sometimes accused of anti-Semitism
by irate readers (presumably Jewish). My own rule of thumb, which
I offer with diffidence, is that the line is crossed when Israel's
right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state is challenged. I feel that
when people argue against the very validity of the basic Zionist premise
- that the Jews have the same right as any nation to a homeland of
their own - then one is veering into anti-Semitic territory. |
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| Do
you really think that aggressions from excited hooligans watching
the situation in the occupied territories is anti-Semitism? Are you
seriously suggesting that France is anti-Semitic? |
Marcel-Francis
Kahn
Paris, France |
|
| David
Landau: |
| Didn't
Dreyfuss seriously think that France was seriously anti-Semitic -
and that was a few decades before any excited hooligans started watching
the situation in the occupied territories. |
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|
| Since
Germany has the second largest Jewish community in Europe, does the
Israeli public still think there is anti-Semitism in Germany? And
if so, what do you think has to be done to change that? |
Stefan
Kiel, Germany |
|
| David
Landau: |
| The
Israeli public, to the extent that I can represent it, is acutely
aware - and appreciative - of the constant vigilance of the German
authorities against any anti-Semitic excesses in that country. German
politicians have traditionally maintained a frank sensitivity to the
particular danger still present in their country. A man like Joschke
Fischer never misses an opportunity to reiterate the lessons of the
Holocaust and the need to inculcate them into the younger generation.
Muslims living in Germany, unlike perhaps those in other European
countries, understand full well just how intolerant the German establishment
and German society are today to manifestations of anti-Semitism. |
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| When
will Israel and the Jews understand that assimilation is the answer
to anti-Semitism? It's the kid in the schoolyard who tries to be different
who gets beaten up. Can you imagine what it would be like here in
America if every nationality in this country only married their own
kind and thought about their historic homeland more than they thought
about America? |
Frank
Link
Fort Lauderdale, U.S.A. |
|
| David
Landau: |
| I
must say it is incongruous and somewhat jarring to see a question
phrased quite in these terms in this multi-cultural age. No Jew was
more assimilated than Alfred Dreyfuss, but that did not save him from
anti-Semitism. Another totally assimilated Jew, Theodore Herzl, understood
from watching the Dreyfuss trial that, contrary to your assumption
assimilation does not save Jews from anti-Semitism. Not long after,
large numbers of German Jews who, too, were confident that their assimilated
- and in many cases converted - status would protect them, went up
in smoke in Auschwitz. |
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|
| Christian
anti-Semitism was based largely on religion, Nazi anti-Semitism on
race - don't you think that the current political hostility to Israel
(regardless of its rationality or irrationality) is a fundamentally
different phenomenon? |
Walter
Benn Michaels
Chicago, U.S.A. |
|
| David
Landau: |
| Scholars
have suggested, among them the British Chief Rabbi, Dr. Jonathan Sacks,
that hatred of the state of Israel as a Jewish collective, rather
than hatred of individual Jews, is the anti-Semitism of the 21st century.
I am not sure if I fully agree with that thesis. But what I find lends
it cogency, is indeed the irrationality which sometimes characterizes
modern-day Israel bashing and is so reminiscent of classical anti-Semitism. |
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| What
kind of influence are the new Arab media and the highly popular TV
stations in Arabic having on the Arab population and the spread of
hatred against the Israelis in particular, and Jews and Zionists in
general? |
Esteban
Bromberg
Buenos Aires, Argentina |
|
| David
Landau: |
| I
would suggest an alternative outlook on these developments. The Arab
world, before the new media and TV stations came into being, managed
quite well to spread and propagate hatred against Israel. The new
TV stations, such as al-Jazeera, whatever else they disseminate, disseminate
INFORMATION. That cannot be a bad thing. To the contrary, it is in
Israel's interest that the broadest possible Arab audience have at
its disposal the information, the facts, the news in real time, upon
which to make its own assessments rather than be fed tendentious information
from government sources. (A similar question was asked by Eddy in
Toronto, Canada) |
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| What
can the State of Israel do in order to protect Jews in the Diaspora? |
Henryk
Paszt
Paris, France |
|
| David
Landau: |
| It
can exist. It can be strong. It can be right. This very existence
of a strong and just Jewish sovereign state is the surest bulwark
that Jews in the Diaspora can have. Israel's history is replete with
instances when it stepped in to protect or save other Jews. In the
early years of the state whole communities were brought over from
Middle Eastern countries. Later, Romanian Jewry was literally bought
into freedom, and later still the Jews of Ethiopia were airlifted
to safety by Israeli operatives. At the same time, Israeli power and
pretensions are not omnipotent. The massive task of saving Soviet
Jewry, physically and spiritually, was accomplished not by Israel
alone, but by the entire Jewish nation, led by Israel and American
Jewry, working with people and countries of goodwill the world over. |
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|
| Don't
you think that many Israeli officials and many leaders in the Jewish
diaspora use the charge of anti-Semitism to stifle legitimate debate
on Israel and its policies? |
Balint
Molnar
Ottowa, Canada |
|
| David
Landau: |
| I
do think so. And I think, moreover, that your accusation is generally
more validly levelled at Israelis of the right than of the left. The
cry "The whole world is against us," is too often harnessed to serve
an agenda of evading or blurring tough, but legitimate questions levelled
at Israel itself. The purported rationale is this: since the whole
world is against us there is no point, indeed no need, to defend ourselves
or justify ourselves in the face of such questions. However, there
often is a real need to do so and resorting to the anti-Semitism "cop-out"
is a time hallowed way of dodging the issues. |
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|
| In
which country in Europe did you find the highest level of anti-Semitism
and why in that country? |
Uri
Dotan
New York, U.S.A. |
|
| David
Landau: |
| France
has the dubious honor to figure at the head of most observers' lists.
This is generally ascribed to the high number of Muslims - some six
million, mostly from North Africa - living in France at this time.
Their reaction to the intifada has fed into strong latent strains
of anti-Semitism that have informed French society for more than a
hundred years. Another country that is sometime forgotten, but should
not be left out of the roll of dishonor, is Austria, where anti-Semitism
was rife above the surface before the intifada, too. Austria, which
spuriously claimed victim status for itself after World War Two, never
underwent an expiatory process - and it shows. |
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| Do
you believe that, at times, anti-Semitism may play a useful role in
that it pushes Jews to immigrate to Israel or at least toward greater
Jewish self-awareness? |
Robert
Akkerman
Brooklyn, U.S.A. |
|
| David
Landau: |
| Even
if I do believe that, what practical conclusion might be drawn from
it. After all, you are not suggesting, and nor am I, that Israel or
anyone else foment or provoke anti-Semitism anywhere in order to enhance
aliya or deepen Jewish self-awareness. Of anecdotal interest, one
figure in Jewish history who did accept your thesis was Rabbi Shneur
Zalman of Liady, the founder of the Lubavitch Hassidic movement. He
did everything he could to support the Russians, inveterate anti-Semites,
against Napoleon, who had emancipated the Jews in France and Germany,
on the grounds that emancipation was bad for Judaism. |
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|
| Being
a Zionist student on a college campus in America has been very difficult
these past two years. Is this generation of "Israel haters" the next
generation of "Jew haters"? Or are the two actually unrelated, as
so many students against Israel claim it to be? Is this a threat that
should have students such as myself truly worried? |
Yehuda
Northhampton, Mass., U.S.A. |
|
| David
Landau: |
| I
think the entire Jewish world is aware by now of the really heroic
fight that Jewish student activists have been putting up on campuses
across the U.S. and in many European countries, on behalf of their
loyalty to Israel. It is really tragic that so many intellectuals,
both faculty and students, seem to be stampeded so facilely into positions
which, as I previously suggested, verge on the anti-Semitic in that
they deny Israel's very right exist. |
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| It
seems that us reasonable (left-wing) Jews are destined to be ostracized
by mainstream Jewish opinion in the Diaspora and liberal intellectual
opinion elsewhere? Also, how do we attempt to reverse the perception
of 'Zionism' as a dirty word? |
Neil
Solomons
London, U.K. |
|
| David
Landau: |
| While
your frustrations are wholly understandable, there is no place for
despair. Some brave souls in English intellectual circles are out
there making the case for a humane and moderate Israel and bravely
battling anti-Semitism. I am thinking for instance of Jonathan Freedland,
the Guardian columnist, who hides neither of these lights under a
bushel. |
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|
| Considering
the fact that Israel and Zionists around the world use and abuse the
word "anti-Semitic" in order to gain world sympathy, don't you think
that it is of poor taste to accuse Arabs, who themselves are mostly
Semites, of being anti-Semitic? |
C.
Sirry
Cairo, Egypt |
|
| David
Landau: |
| Your
question is more in the realm of semantics than substantial polemics.
Call it irrational Jew-hatred rather than anti-Semitism since, as
you rightly imply, most Semites aren't Jews. On a deeper level, I
would add, that "Muslim anti-Semitism" is a misnomer. Not just because,
as you say, most Semites are Muslims, but because, for two thousand
years, the primary source of Jew-hatred was Christianity. There is
no inherent conflict between Judaism and Islam and there is much truth
in the assertion that Jews were not historically persecuted under
Islamic rule as they were in so many Christian societies. |
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| You
have extensively written of the importance of maintaining a close
relationship with the diaspora. Why? Why allow Jews in the diaspora
to have a say in what goes on in Israel. |
John
Madrid, Spain |
|
| David
Landau: |
| The
fundamental tenet of Zionism is that the state of Israel is the homeland
of the whole Jewish people. The Jewish people today is divided, essentially,
in three parts. A third live in Israel. A third live in the U.S. and
the rest of the diaspora. And a third are dead because they were killed
in the Holocaust. The affiliation of any individual Jew to any one
of these thirds is purely a matter of accident of birth (or death).
That is why, as I see it, Jews who by accident of birth survived the
Holocaust and now live outside Israel should indeed have a say as
to what goes on inside Israel. |
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| The
media often add to the anti-Israel views of many in the world by tilting
stories against Israel. Haaretz seems to frequently demonstrate these
harmful characteristics, and itself adds to the world's anti-Israeli
attitudes (and perhaps to the world's anti-Semitic attitudes) by the
paper's unceasing criticism. How do you justify such tilted reporting? |
David
Zion
New York, U.S.A. |
|
| David
Landau: |
| I
do not justify "tilted" reporting, but I do not have to justify it
because we in Haaretz do not practise it. To the contrary, we are
scrupulously careful to ensure that our reporting is as untilted as
humanly possible. We cover both sides of the conflict - our own, Israeli
side with sympathy and solidarity, and the Palestinian side with accuracy
and professionalism. We do indeed run critical articles and are ourselves
often critical too of Israeli government positions or Israeli government
actions. We know, moreover, that our very wide reach, especially on
the internet, enables many people, including tendentious traducers
of Israel, to use, misuse and abuse our material for their propagandistic
purposes. We know this, and it troubles us. But we cannot forego our
journalistic mission to report the facts and to articulate the truth
as we see it. |
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