Enough of all this blather and chattering

(JNS) — We Jews are in the worst of times. We are in an age of foolishness and of incredulity. We are in a season of darkness; in a winter of despair. We are challenged, to borrow from Neil Mach in his “Ask Phyliss Fannock,” with so much “malicious blather [that] craves a gullible audience.” We are under an onslaught from without, and we are being undermined from within. Truth is twisted; facts are meaningless.

One recent example is the appearance of a website promoting the Antizionist Legal Studies Movement. This particular group is devoted to a policy of “ending Israel.” Its commitment is “to an intellectual style that emphasizes clarity of exposition, internal coherence of argument, and attention to premises in tackling the problem of ending Israel and liberating Palestine.”

On its blog, founder and leader Ramsi Woodcock, who teaches at the University of Kentucky, thinks that what’s needed is his idea of an International Coalition to Declare War on Israel Right Now. There are 7 million Zionists in Israel — a state that has been a member of the United Nations since 1949 (and proposed by it in 1947 and by the world body’s predecessor, the League of Nations in 1922), and that had existed as a tribal federation, a commonwealth and a monarchic period to which Jews returned constantly. It serves as the focal point of Jewish religious practices, customs and culture, supported by many millions of non-Jews. It is the crux of their identity.

But there is Woodcock, for whom “the lesson is clear … the world must go to war against Israel” to halt a ‘genocide’ that isn’t and who calls “for the dismantling of all organizations that support Zionism.”

In England, we viewed the power of rap to emotionally whip up a mass of the ignorant at the Glastonbury Music Festival, broadcast live thanks to the BBC. Luckily, no identifiable “Zionist” was in the crowd, and so his/her life was spared.

Still over in England, the country’s Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has questioned why nobody has been fired at the BBC over its decision to air a Gaza documentary that featured the son of a Hamas official. Moving over to Australia, there has been a spate of synagogue torchings, restaurant sackings and Jewish property daubed. Back in Europe, antisemitic incidents are high, especially in all the “cultured” countries.

Many non-Jews see very clearly what is developing, like Tom Slater, editor of “spiked” magazine, who noted British Jews are becoming aware they are lacking solidarity from their fellow citizens and that “the sane, truly anti-racist majority — those who can see what is going on and are quietly horrified by it — [need] stand with their Jewish brothers and sisters, loudly and proudly. This really isn’t their problem. It’s ours.”

Indeed, anti-Zionism has been proven to be not just a political ideology but a sociological prejudice, rewrapping classic antisemitic conspiracy theories and outright lies, so as to get at the Jews. As Micha Danzig, formerly an officer in the New York City Police Department, tweeted: “Setting synagogues on fire is pretty classic antisemitism — from medieval times through the Holocaust. Just like lying about Jews intentionally murdering non-Jewish children, or claiming Jews are uniquely responsible for the problems in a society or conspiratorially blaming Jews for controlling governments or financial institutions. All claims ‘antizionists’ routinely make about Israel & ‘Zionists’ today.”

Take away from the Jews their Zionism, and you denude the Jew. You remove his religion, you strip away his culture, you negate his history, and more importantly, you deprive him, his family, his fellow Jews — indeed, the Jewish collective — of their future history.

In a classic stand-on-your head rationalization of the most illogical of positions, Michelle Goldberg, in her June 27 column in The New York Times, promoted a line worthy of Stalin by suggesting that Israel’s recent behavior will justify it being “reviled for reasons that have nothing to do with antisemitism … throwing around accusations of bigotry only lend it the frisson of forbidden truth.” She is convinced there is “something miraculous about New York City, which is, for all its tensions and aggravations and occasional bursts of violence, a place where Jews and Muslims live in remarkable harmony.” Ah, that occasional violence.

Goldberg, however, does not provide any explanation of why Jews in Melbourne, Berlin or Boulder need to be physically attacked, unless it is more a matter of Islam and Muslims, rather than Israel. That, of course, is insufficient a rationale as there are also far-right political strategist Steve Bannon (of “Israel is not an ally. They’re [sic] a protectorate”) and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson (who invited as guests Holocaust revisionist Darryl Cooper and antisemitic conspiracy theorist Candace Owens), among others of the right who brandish their own form of “Let’s-hate-the-Jews” policy. Unless, that is, it is just plain old antisemitism seeking another reason to convince folks Jews are bad.

What is perturbing is that whereas in the past it wasn’t at all difficult to point out antisemitism, identify it and make an effort to combat it, what’s happening today is more challenging, especially among fellow Jews. Deaf, blind and dumb they’ve become.

They’ve exchanged liberalism for progressivism and applaud every neo-Marxist political configuration. Previous generations sought out the American melting pot; today, they seek diversity, except for being a Jewish nationalist. What is perfectly logical in affairs of state becomes, when “Palestine” is involved, vapidly hollow reverberations in their emptied-out heads.

They will blather and chatter themselves into oblivion, and with so much unnecessary collateral damage as well.

Yisrael Medad is an American-born Israeli journalist, author and former director of educational programming at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center. A graduate of Yeshiva University, he made aliyah in 1970 and has since held key roles in Israeli politics, media and education. A member of Israel’s Media Watch executive board, he has contributed to major publications, including The Los Angeles Times, The Jerusalem Post and International Herald Tribune. He and his wife, who have five children, live in Shilo.