Antisemitism is wrong, but criticizing Israel is NOT antisemitic

Liberals must not allow antisemites to delegitimize criticism of Israel

In the New York City mayoral race, Democratic frontrunner Andrew Cuomo and former Democratic incumbent Eric Adams are both vying for the Jewish vote by denouncing antisemitism. The former’s brother, NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo, responded to the recent shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers at Washington DC’s Capitol Jewish Museum, attacked critics of Israel for supposedly stimulating the antisemitism that led to the double homicide.

I cannot stress this enough: Cuomo, Adams and Cuomo are gentiles, and they are doing the bidding of other gentiles. The main organization linking all criticism of Israel to antisemitism is Project Esther, which was primarily founded by and continues to be mainly run by Christian right-wingers. They are happy to perpetuate antisemitic conspiracy theories and stereotypes that further their ideological interests — vilifying Jewish billionaires like George Soros and JB Pritzker, refusing to push back against the alt right, accusing American Jews of “complacency” if they are not loyal to Israel — but support Israel because a Jewish-run Palestine fits their religious opinions.

Jews like me, of course, are supposed to ignore the fact that these Christian Zionists ultimately believe will be forcibly converted to Christianity or else put to the sword. (When I asked Vice President Mike Pence’s daughter about this in 2018 while she praised Israel, she demurred.) Yet I refuse to do so, especially as even ostensible liberals like Cuomo ape the Christian right-wing line on Israel.

Dr. Richard Wolff breaks down the dynamics of this erroneous conflation in one of his recent videos.

“Here's now a game plan: They are — and they have a name, Zionists — they believe in a state for the Jewish people. They run one of those. Israel, they have their problems, their strengths and weaknesses, like other countries. But they are trying now to say to the world that if you are against antisemitism, you must be a supporter of Israeli policy in the West Bank in Gaza, vis-a-vis the Palestinians in general, and that's an abuse of the movement against antisemitism.”

He added, “What's going on in those parts of the world is not about protecting Jews from antisemitism, it's about protecting Israel from its enemies. And that's a different project.”

At roughly the 10 minute mark of this video, Wolff also astutely points out that conservatives aren’t attacking pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses to protect Jews. They’re doing so to punish liberals on those campuses in general by targeting Palestinian activists specifically.

“Are their residues of antisemitism in universities? You bet!” Wolff says. “Are there residues of antisemitism in virtually every other institution in this country? You bet! They're not choosing the universities because it's more antisemitism there than anywhere else. No one should be fooled. This is an effort to shut down pro-Palestinian agitation among students, and it's not working. This country will discover that intimidating people with those points of view never shuts them up.”

To be clear, I am not disclaiming any Jewish involvement in this militant Zionist movement. When I spoke with Rick Perlstein, the legendary historian behind the definitive work on President Richard Nixon’s presidency (“Nixonland”), Perlstein correctly observed that Jewish religious beliefs help fuel the Zionist project. Without massive support from Jews — especially in the aftermath of the pogroms and the Holocaust — who believed their people had a religious destiny to return to the so-called “Promised Land,” there would be no Israel today.

Yet as Perlstein also pointed out, the Jews who forge alliances of convenience with Christian right-wingers should remember that these are the kinds of allies who can never really be friends.

“When just speaking broadly about people who are bigots, right, there is always an exception made for the ‘right’ kind of Jew or the ‘right’ kind of black person or the ‘right’ kind of woman,” Perlstein said. “It's if they know their place and if they behave in a certain way… I mean, one word for it is tokenism, right?”

Tokenism, indeed. And personally, as a Jew, I feel much safer with a political movement that values me as a human being than with one that props me up as a token.

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Back Seat Socialism

Column by Matthew Rozsa who is a professional journalist for more than 13 years. Currently he is writing a book for Beacon Press, "Neurosocialism," which argues that autistic people like the author struggle under capitalism, and explains how neurosocialism - the distinct anticapitalist perspective one develops by living as a neurodiverse individual - can be an important organizing principle for the left.

Twitter (X) @MatthewWRozsa