Craving for a kosherstamp

About Jewish Crown Witnesses against Israel

The funny thing about those antisemites who hail from an alleged anti-fascist pedigree is how they try to deceives others as well as themselves that they have nothing against Jews per se but only take issue with the Jewish State or with everything that the government of this state does to protect it. They often try to legitimise their position by pointing at Jewish voices who echo their own views on Zionism. Occasionally they may get somewhat shocked when they end up in bed with the likes of the Neturei Karta who are fresh from the latest Holocaust revisionism conference in Teheran, but they will compulsively fall back into the habit of looking for “other Jewish voices“ from a somewhat less bizarre ideological background. And without having to make too much of an effort they will find thousands of them. Perhaps tens of thousands, maybe even several hundred thousands. But that‘s about it. Given the roughly 14.5 million Jews worldwide, their number thus pales in comparison. So to be clear: To go with this anti-Zionist minority (remember: that’s the folks who revel in painting Israel as an apartheid or Nazi state and who have a propensity for theatralic gestures, BDS and hysterical fits) means to go against the vast majority of Jews worldwide, who do support Israel and its right to defend itself, and to smear them as supporters of apartheid or Nazi-like attrocities.

But irrespective of the mere numbers, shouldn‘t this be about the quality of an argument rather than about quantities of those who are for or against it? Well, if this is the case, the entire logic of adducing „other Jewish voices“ to provide one’s antisemitism with a cover of “humanitarian decency“ appears even more ridiculous, given that it shouldn‘t be relevant who the person making a particular argument actually is: an orthodox Jew, a secular one, a convert, my Jewish German shepheard or a non-Jew. It is the argument alone that counts for right or wrong and nothing else. Quoting a Jew who agrees with you to prove your point about the Jewish State doesn‘t make you kosher. It only shows your antisemitism and even more so your lack of education, for Jewish history has been replete with Jewish chief witnesses who - under duress, for financial or social reasons or out of mere crankiness - provided testimony against Judaism or Jews as a collective. It would be ahistorical to assume that this has stopped with the rebirth of a Jewish State less than 80 years ago. And moreover: Why shouldn’t Jews as a group be entitled to their own share of crackpots (including those with academic tenures)?

So when it comes to the concrete arguments raised against Israel, quoting Jewish witnesses for the mere reason that they are Jewish and attributing to them a purported authority on matters pertaining to Israel reeks of bias. Neither are they natural-born authorities on the Middle East nor have they attained any moral refinement through the suffering of the Holocaust. To argue otherwise would mean to imagine all Jews as laborious students of Middle Eastern Studies or to attribute a quality of purpose or benefit to the Holocaust which amounts to a trivialization of the crime itself.

To sum up: Having to rely on someone Jewish to ennoble your argument against Israel and highlighting this fact thus betrays not only its feebleness but also your anti-Jewish slant.

But the story doesn’t stop here: You are not only antisemitic but in fact also racist. (Yes, the two are distinct from each other despite certain overlapping aspects and a strong correlation.) For approaching the world from a perspective that groups people into boxes according to who they are rather than what the argument that they bring forward as individuals is, looks very much like racism. Little surprise then that Palestinians whom you don’t otherwise give a damn about are denied any human agency i.e. the ability to act as independent individuals and to take responsibility for their decisions. Where “other Jewish voices” play the role of Queens, Palestinians function as mere pawns on your anti-Jewish chessboard. If ever the Palestinians had a true enemy: it’s people like you