Young people have seen nothing from the Israeli government but violence against and dehumanization of the Palestinians; no wonder antisemitism is on the rise.
Thank you Andy. I agree with what you are saying. I think the way to fight antisemitism is for Jews to be more assertive in applying moral scrutiny to Israel's actions and being more outspoken. The effort to cancel criticism of Israel - whether it be through anti-BDS laws (I don't support BDS, but I do think the concept has a right to exist) or through definitions of antisemitism that encompass all anti-Zionist thought - is hurtful, not helpful to reducing global antisemitism. We should be equally vigilant, however, in calling out clear antisemitism where anti-Israel bias far too easily slides into Jew hatred and fomenting of historic tropes and conspiracy theories.
You make a fine point regarding why many political actors and Israelis turned away from the peace process, especially after the Camp David summit in summer of 2000 when Ehud Barak made the most expansive offer Israel has ever made to the Palestinians, it was rejected by Arafat, and and then the Second Intifada began in Septemeber. I was thinking about getting into that, but that would have added another big complexity and the piece gets longer and longer.
As you know, there is a “looking through it at Israel” lens and “looking at it through the Palestinian lens” on every single aspect of Israel-Palestine history since 1948. In many pro-Israel circles, it is common to say the Palestinians were given virtually everything they asked for by Ehud Barak at Camp David in 2000 and still said no and then responded with violence, so there was no reason to continue seeking a negotiated agreement to settle the conflict.
I also recommend the link in my piece to Fareed Zahakaria’s GPS 360 show two Sundays ago (click on “the history of this period” to find it).
Moreover, keep in mind that even after the Second Intifada, which led to the death of over 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians, there were still peace initiatives pursued by all parties involved. I am not going to include Sharon's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza since this was not negotiated, nor his plans for possibly separating and withdrawing from the West Bank which never came to fruition because of his stroke. But Ehud Olmert, under the Kadima Party banner, did offer a substantive peace plan and was open to continued negotiations from 2006-2009. President Bush offered a "Roadmap for Peace" in 2002 along with the EU, Russia, and the United Nations. The Saudis also reoffered their Arab Peace Initiative in 2007.
It wasn't until Netanyahu came to power in 2009 that we can mark this sharp break in policy that I describe in the post. This was at the beginning of the Obama's term. He was determined to revitalize the peace process and appointed former majority leader George Mitchell has his envoy. Mitchell's efforts got nowhere and there was a big fall out over the question of a settlement freeze. The whole thing pretty much fell apart when Netanyahu intentionally announced an expansion of settlements when VP Biden was visiting Israel.
When I was a teenager in Germany in the 1960s, helping to pack oranges on a kibbutz was one of the desirable adventures for after high school… My father went to Israel to report on the six-day war (for Der Spiegel). He came back adoring Israel. Just as you say, it all changed over the past 20 years. The sooner Netanyahu is gone, the better.
Excellent article. This is the first piece that I have seen that alludes to the likelihood that Israel's escalating crimes against the Palestinian people will fuel anti-semitism globally, and for a long time to come. In the US I think that an even stronger impetus for anti-Semitism is the ugly hypocrisy of those American Jews aligned with AIPAC who assert that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. Ironically they are bringing it on themselves, and also on us as collateral damage. The younger generations are learning from what they hear and see on the news to take a more critical view of Israel, and of Jews in general, than we older folk. I grew up in the forties and fifties, in the shadow of the holocaust. Young people now have grown up in the shadow of Netanyahu. The moral credit accrued to the Jews and to Israel from the holocaust has long been exhausted. Andy Silver, Durham
Thank you for providing the facts and analysis that support my feelings, including the response to Glenn Simon. Today’s overreaching, indiscriminate, apparently open-ended response to the October 7 Hamas atrocity will further isolate Israel, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The one area that I see pushback on is that the Palestinians and their leadership (plus the greater Arab world) appeared to fail to “grab the gold ring” when it did come around on occasion, which seemingly signaled a reluctance on their part to accept realpolitik and a 2-state solution. There is plenty of blame to go around as an explanation of how we landed here today, but certainly Israel’s shift right has moved the needle as you rightly point out.
Thank you Andy. I agree with what you are saying. I think the way to fight antisemitism is for Jews to be more assertive in applying moral scrutiny to Israel's actions and being more outspoken. The effort to cancel criticism of Israel - whether it be through anti-BDS laws (I don't support BDS, but I do think the concept has a right to exist) or through definitions of antisemitism that encompass all anti-Zionist thought - is hurtful, not helpful to reducing global antisemitism. We should be equally vigilant, however, in calling out clear antisemitism where anti-Israel bias far too easily slides into Jew hatred and fomenting of historic tropes and conspiracy theories.
Thank you Glenn for this comment.
You make a fine point regarding why many political actors and Israelis turned away from the peace process, especially after the Camp David summit in summer of 2000 when Ehud Barak made the most expansive offer Israel has ever made to the Palestinians, it was rejected by Arafat, and and then the Second Intifada began in Septemeber. I was thinking about getting into that, but that would have added another big complexity and the piece gets longer and longer.
As you know, there is a “looking through it at Israel” lens and “looking at it through the Palestinian lens” on every single aspect of Israel-Palestine history since 1948. In many pro-Israel circles, it is common to say the Palestinians were given virtually everything they asked for by Ehud Barak at Camp David in 2000 and still said no and then responded with violence, so there was no reason to continue seeking a negotiated agreement to settle the conflict.
This is a very incomplete conception of what happened at Camp David and why. I recommend this NYT Magazine section piece to get deeper into this tricky issue. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/20/magazine/israel-gaza-oslo-accords.html
I also recommend the link in my piece to Fareed Zahakaria’s GPS 360 show two Sundays ago (click on “the history of this period” to find it).
Moreover, keep in mind that even after the Second Intifada, which led to the death of over 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians, there were still peace initiatives pursued by all parties involved. I am not going to include Sharon's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza since this was not negotiated, nor his plans for possibly separating and withdrawing from the West Bank which never came to fruition because of his stroke. But Ehud Olmert, under the Kadima Party banner, did offer a substantive peace plan and was open to continued negotiations from 2006-2009. President Bush offered a "Roadmap for Peace" in 2002 along with the EU, Russia, and the United Nations. The Saudis also reoffered their Arab Peace Initiative in 2007.
It wasn't until Netanyahu came to power in 2009 that we can mark this sharp break in policy that I describe in the post. This was at the beginning of the Obama's term. He was determined to revitalize the peace process and appointed former majority leader George Mitchell has his envoy. Mitchell's efforts got nowhere and there was a big fall out over the question of a settlement freeze. The whole thing pretty much fell apart when Netanyahu intentionally announced an expansion of settlements when VP Biden was visiting Israel.
When I was a teenager in Germany in the 1960s, helping to pack oranges on a kibbutz was one of the desirable adventures for after high school… My father went to Israel to report on the six-day war (for Der Spiegel). He came back adoring Israel. Just as you say, it all changed over the past 20 years. The sooner Netanyahu is gone, the better.
Excellent article. This is the first piece that I have seen that alludes to the likelihood that Israel's escalating crimes against the Palestinian people will fuel anti-semitism globally, and for a long time to come. In the US I think that an even stronger impetus for anti-Semitism is the ugly hypocrisy of those American Jews aligned with AIPAC who assert that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. Ironically they are bringing it on themselves, and also on us as collateral damage. The younger generations are learning from what they hear and see on the news to take a more critical view of Israel, and of Jews in general, than we older folk. I grew up in the forties and fifties, in the shadow of the holocaust. Young people now have grown up in the shadow of Netanyahu. The moral credit accrued to the Jews and to Israel from the holocaust has long been exhausted. Andy Silver, Durham
Thank you for providing the facts and analysis that support my feelings, including the response to Glenn Simon. Today’s overreaching, indiscriminate, apparently open-ended response to the October 7 Hamas atrocity will further isolate Israel, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
David,
Great post on Israel!
The one area that I see pushback on is that the Palestinians and their leadership (plus the greater Arab world) appeared to fail to “grab the gold ring” when it did come around on occasion, which seemingly signaled a reluctance on their part to accept realpolitik and a 2-state solution. There is plenty of blame to go around as an explanation of how we landed here today, but certainly Israel’s shift right has moved the needle as you rightly point out.