Pro-Palestinian is Not Antisemitism

You’ve gotta hand it to the Republican-led House of Representatives. They certainly know how to put on a good show.

Such was the case this week when they voted Articles of Impeachment against Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security. His “high crime” is failure to adequately protect the border, which the very same Republicans protected from protection by heeding Trump’s call to reject border protection legislation. It’s rather like completely defunding the police department then firing the Chief for failing to fight crime. The hilarious cherry on top of this farce was watching the solemnity with which House members, led by Marjorie Taylor Greene (!), delivered the Articles to the Senate, where they will die a well-publicized death..

The show continued on Wednesday with the oh-so-serious grilling of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik and several trustees over their failure to control antisemitism at the school. Watching the hearing was an exercise in masochism and my laptop screen is spattered with spittle from my uncontrollable need to yell at the participants, including Shafik.

Pandering, sanctimony and cowering were the order of the day. Among many standout GOP performers, Georgia’s Rick Allen deserves special mention. He expressed bewilderment that Columbia’s leaders didn’t understand that the Biblical God is really pissed at them. He emphasized that “In God We Trust” is on lots of things and is the official motto of our God-fearing nation. Neither Shafik - a Muslim woman - nor her companions had the courage to push back on his offensively unconstitutional Christian hegemony. Allen seemed quite sincere, which makes him all the more frightening.

In another bit of higher education cowardice, the University of Southern California canceled a planned commencement address by the very valedictorian they chose, Asna Tabassum. They cited “safety concerns” long before safety might have become a concern. Tabassum is known to hold pro-Palestinian views and they feared that she might actually express a belief or two during her speech. USC Provost Andrew Guzman wrote, “To be clear: this decision has nothing to do with freedom of speech. There is no free-speech entitlement to speak at a commencement.” Technically true, but intellectually and ethically bankrupt.

The GOP crusaders against antisemitism are a whole new breed of Republicans. It seems like only yesterday that Marjorie and her daft colleagues were big fans of the “Jews will not replace us” marchers in Charlottesville. Among the more genteel (and gentile) GOPers, it was their Republican predecessors who managed to keep Jews out of the private clubs in the Cleveland of my youth. And if I remember clearly, it is right-wingers who believe that Jews control the media, that the Rothschilds control the world’s wealth and that the Jewish-born George Soros is running the Democratic Party.

GOP fervor for Israel seems to have two roots. One is planted in evangelical beliefs about the “end of times.” In other words, their “support” is based on their Christianity, not on Israel’s Judaism. The other root is firmly tethered to the fact that Israelis are not Muslims. There is a crude saying that “shit slides downhill.” Conservatives partially shield Jews so that the excrement can be visited on Muslims - Palestinians in particular.

I suppose I will inevitably offend someone by offering this perspective. I stipulate, in the form of a preemptive disclaimer, that antisemitism is real, ugly, indefensible and tenacious.

But allowing the reality of antisemitism to distort the truth is also indefensible. There are 6.3 million Jews in America. There are an estimated 255,000 Palestinians. Many who identify as Jewish, often so-called secular or cultural Jews, enjoy economic prosperity and have great social and cultural influence. Palestinians - Muslims writ larger - not so much.

Hamas’s attack was horrid, but the disproportionate slaughter in Gaza is exponentially more horrific. Palestinians have been marginalized and ghettoized for decades. At this time, it is the Israeli government, not Palestinians or their supporters, that refuses to consider the only possible long-term reconciliation - two independent, sovereign states.

There is a concerted campaign underway to silence Palestinian voices by conflating “pro-Palestinian” with “antisemitism.” The protests in support of Palestinians are not against Jews. They are against the unconscionable acts of the Israeli government, now and before. And they are speaking against the unconscionable complicity of the United States, not against their own Jewish neighbors or classmates.

The shameful sideshow in Congress and the silencing of intelligent voices like USC’s valedictorian are unproductive distractions.

Our collective energy should be directed toward peace. We should insist that our economic and geopolitical influence be used to forcefully demand a ceasefire. We should insist that our government not supply another bullet in support of Netanyahu’s brutal slaughter, dislocation and starvation of more than a million humans in Gaza.

If that’s the sin of being pro-Palestinian, count me in.