Netanyahu, Israel, and Antisemitism
When I published my recent piece on Kamala Harris and her support of Israel, my goal was to start a conversation that had been lacking within the dialogue taking place that was calling her record into question. I am happy that many people read the piece and that it started some discussions about what is often a forgotten topic in presidential elections, foreign policy. That being said, I should have exercised more foresight into how people would respond, considering most discussions regarding criticisms of Israel in this country descend into debates about whether such critiques are antisemitic, and indeed a few of the comments on my piece went in that direction. Antisemitism is a unique evil, and was responsible for one of the most cerebral and inhumane acts of genocide in human history. According to the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, anti-Semitic attacks against Jews have reached 25 year record highs in 2018. Reports highlight that antisemitism in the UK has reached an all time high, and that one in 20 adults in Britain do not believe the Holocaust happened. This same report also claims that 70% of anti-Jewish attacks were anti-Israel in nature, which is where the analysis of the report could come into conflict with other analysts and observers of trends in antisemitism. This short piece isn’t a contribution to the debate on which criticisms of Israel are antisemitic, but to take the existence of global systemic antisemitism for what it is. Antisemitism, like any other form of systemic bigotry, feeds on what makes such bigotry possible, such as the empowerment of the oppressive groups who perpetuate the bigotry, and the denial or victimization of the crimes committed against the oppressed, among many other things. I argue that one of the most influential peddlers of antisemitism today is none other than the current Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Before venturing down that rabbit hole, I would like to briefly mention something about tokenism. Tokenism in very simple terms means including someone in a group in order to make the group appear more diverse. This kind of tokenism usually takes hold in business, political, or social circles, and the burden of fielding the criticism of tokenism is placed on the entity that tokenizes the person or persons. What if someone becomes a willing token, and that person happens to be one of the most influential people in the underrepresented group? Whether wittingly or unwittingly, Netanyahu, since becoming PM of Israel has become a very important token for antisemites, and his tokenism is largely ignored by those who rail against antisemitism. I mean, the actual head of state for the only Jewish nation on the planet has the kind of power to either be the biggest opponent of antisemitism, or the most influential proponent of it.
Consider for instance, Netanyahu and his outreach towards far right European governments. Recently, Netanyahu warmly embraced the Prime Minister of Lithuania, Saulius Skvernelis, in what is becoming a very controversial form of outreach, even in Israel. Lithuania, like a handful of other European nations, is slowly drifting towards embracing a form of holocaust revisionism, attempting to minimize the tragedy of the holocaust being a unique kind of evil that emerged during World War 2. In this case, the Lithuanian government has been a leading voice when it comes to establishing a joint memorial day that would blur the lines between the crimes of the Nazi’s and the communists who fought them. Lithuania has also embraced antisemitic figures in its history, and has attempted to ban the circulation of books that documented the collaboration between local populations and the Nazi’s. Netanyahu also formed an agreement with Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki that would allow Poland to continue minimizing their role in the holocaust in exchange for closer diplomatic ties between the two nations.
Or consider the stance of the Netanyahu government towards Nazism, the very ideology that birthed the movement which perpetrated the Holocaust. Netanyahu’s government, like other governments, has sent weapons to Ukraine to aid the government’s fight against a separatist movement in the eastern part of the country. The problem is that some of the militias that are now formal units in the Ukraine army are Neo-Nazi battalions, and the possibility that some of those weapons were funneled into their hands is pretty high. One of those militias, the Azov battalion, is particularly guilty of perpetuating antisemitism. The founder of the militia, Andriy Biletsky, is now a member of the Ukrainian parliament, and once said of Ukraine “Our nation’s historic mission at this critical juncture is to lead the final march of the white race towards its survival” and that “This is a march against sub-humans who are led by the Semite race.” It would be one thing if these Neo-Nazi’s were a Ukrainian problem, but it has been revealed that these Neo-Nazi battalions are now training white supremacists in the US, undoubtedly the sort of white supremacists who are capable of spreading antisemitism. Many of these white supremacists are also the kind of “very fine people” that Trump described at the Charlottesville demonstrations.
Now one could argue that diplomatic overtures such as these are based on national interest, which at times supersedes ideology. That is the argument of the Netanyahu government, and the Israeli government has attempted to shore up their dwindling international support by reaching out to unlikely allies. That doesn’t excuse the Israeli PM from espousing similar antisemitic rhetoric himself. Netanyahu took the unprecedented step of using holocaust revisionism in order to gin up hatred against the Palestinian people. During a 2015 speech to the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, Netanyahu placed the primary blame for the ‘Final Solution’, the Nazi plan to physically exterminate all Jewish people, on the Palestinian Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini. Absolving Hitler, Netanyahu said of the November 1941 meeting ““Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews. And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said: ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here [to Palestine].’” According to Netanyahu, Hitler then asked: “What should I do with them?” and the mufti replied: “Burn them.”” A member of the Israeli Parliament said of the statement “This is a great shame, a prime minister of the Jewish state at the service of Holocaust-deniers — this is a first.”
Of course, a plethora of Jewish historians denounced the statement, calling it out for representing a distortion of the facts. Netanyahu’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon even contradicted Netanyahu, albeit slightly saying ““Of course Hajj Amin al-Husseini did not invent’ the Final Solution to the Jewish question’. History clearly shows that Hitler initiated it. Hajj Amin al-Husseini joined him.” He added that “the jihadist movements today are encouraging anti-Semitism and lean on known Nazi heritage.” The last statement is a bit ironic given the recent admission by the Israeli government to arming Syrian rebels, among whom are many of the so called “jihadists” that Ya’alon speaks of.
So why is Netanyahu allowed to get away with perpetuating this form of antisemitism? I think I know why, but that will have to serve as the basis for a future article. For now, I hope this serves as a message, especially to the reactionary Zionists who find fault with any criticism of Israel I may write on this blog. Let this message say….before you come for me, get your leaders, because they are making you look like fools, and hypocrites. I know that Netanyahu isn’t exactly liked by all Israelis, but there is a reason he could soon become the longest serving premier in the history of Israel, and that reason being a large enough segment of the Israeli population co-signs what he represents. Until he is deposed and ridiculed into the dustbin of history, his power and his pulpit is allowing him to act as the biggest Jewish token for antisemitism, so I don’t want to hear that the fault of antisemitism is criticism of Israel. Not on this page.
