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December
6 / 7, 2003
CounterPunch Special
Toronto Globe and Mail Kills
Review of "The Politics of Anti-Semitism"
Hello, CounterPunch,
I was asked to write a review of two
recent books on anti-Semitism for Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper.
The two books are "The Politics of Anti-Semitism" and
Phyllis Chesler's "The New Anti-Semitism." I filed
the review a week ago, and was sent an email earlier this week
from the editor, who expressed "real problems" with
the review. The "real problems" seem to stem from the
fact that I didn't slam "The Politics" (and its "out
of the same litter contributors") but instead praised it
while ridiculing (justifiably, I believe) the Chesler book. I
have written many reviews for the Globe, as well as for the Toronto
Star and other publications. (My day job is writing plays.) They
have never spiked a review of mine before. I should add that
I approached the Globe with the idea of reviewing "The Politics"
(before I'd read it), and that they agreed, but only if I would
also consider the Chesler book.
I wonder if you'd be interested in looking
at the review, as well as the correspondence relating to it.
Yours, Jason Sherman,
Toronto.
[The review, filed Thursday, Nov 13.]
You're Either Against Us, or You're Not
For Us
By Jason Sherman.
The Politics of Anti-Semitism
Edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair
AK Press, 178 pgs. (US$12.95)
The New Anti-Semitism The Current Crisis
and What We Must Do About It
By Phyllis Chesler Wiley, 305 pgs, $38.95
It doesn't take much to get yourself
called an anti-Semite these days. A few years ago I wrote a play
that questioned some cherished notions about Israel. My "self-hating
Jew" badge arrived in the next edition of the Canadian Jewish
News. Not that I was surprised. After all, Noam Chomsky once
wrote that "Left-liberal criticism of Israeli government
policy since 1967 has evoked hysterical accusations and outright
lies." Oppose the Israeli occupation and its treatment of
the Palestinian people, he noted, and you risked being labeled
"a supporter of terrorism and reactionary Arab states, an
opponent of democracy, an anti-Semite, or if Jewish, a traitor
afflicted with self-hatred."
As two new books make clear, little has
changed in the last 35 years, except perhaps that the mud is
thicker, the slinging fiercer, the cry of "anti-Semite!"
louder (and less credible) than ever. Muckraking journalists
Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair co-edit a newsletter
and website called CounterPunch (I visit the latter daily, and
twice on Sunday), from the pages of which they have gathered
eighteen brilliant essays on the Middle East. It's a sort of
greatest hits package, called The Politics of Anti-Semitism.
Among its short, sharp blasts are those by Robert Fisk, foreign
correspondent for The Independent, a fierce critic
of authoritarian rule wherever he finds it, who expresses
genuine disgust over the hate mail he regularly receives ("Your
mother was Eichmann's daughter" is among the most pleasant);
American writer Norman Finklestein, whose trip to Germany to
promote his controversial book The Holocaust Industry
leaves him not a little soiled; and American economics professors
M Shahid Alam, whose call for a "moral stand against the
oppressive and unjust behaviour of Israel" leads the Boston
Herald to claim: "Prof Shocks Northeastern with Defense
of Suicide Bombers."
The editors contribute a couple of memorable
pieces. Cockburn, easily the sharpest and funniest political
commentator around (among other things, he regularly makes mincemeat
out of the pompous Christopher Hitchens), recounts the morality
tale of Cynthia McKinney, a black congresswoman who made the
mistake of calling "for a proper debate on the Middle East,"
after which "American Jewish money [was] showered upon her
opponent." St. Clair's brilliantly retells the tale of the
1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, which killed 34 Americans
and wounded 174 others, and which more and more evidence suggests
was not an accident but a deliberately planned operation ordered
by war hero Moshe Dayan, and covered up by American Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara.
St Clair's is one of many pieces that
look at Israel's influence on American politics. This is not
an issue over which every contributor agrees. Jeffrey Blankfort,
a radio show host at KPOO in California (would I make that up?)
does something, for example, that not every leftist does: he
takes on Chomsky. 95% of Chomsky's critics seem to think he goes
too far in his arguments. Blankfort argues that Chomsky doesn't
go far enough, at least when it comes to assessing the power
of the famed Jewish lobby. (Chomsky prefers to go after the corporate
elite, no matter their faith.)
Blankfort seems obsessed with proving
that the Jews, and ultimately Israel, control America's wealth,
media, and policy decisions. He is joined by Kathleen and Bill
Christison, former CIA officers, who point fingers at a Bush
administration "peppered with people who have promot[ed]
an agenda for Israel often at odds with existing US policy."
There's no question that the American administration is full
of "Israelists" (the Jerusalem Post recently named
deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz its "Man of the
Year"), and it's important to discuss the underpinnings
of the US-Israeli relationship, but it's quite a leap to suggest
that the man behind the curtain wears a felt hat and yarmulke
and wants all the world to dance the hora.
Just when the collection is beginning
to sag under the weight of some arcane arguments, two pieces
bring it to a powerful close. Israeli peace activist Yigal Bronner's
memoir of helping to bring food and medicine to a Palestinian
village does more than a hundred essays in evoking the tragedy
of the Middle East war. And no other essay quite rises to the
level of Edward Said's angry and hopeful j'accuse about what
has happened to his people, and what may yet become of them:
"The official Israeli policy, no matter whether Ariel Sharon
uses the word 'occupation' or not or whether or not he dismantles
a rusty, unused tower or two, has always been not to accept the
reality of the Palestinian people as equals or even to admit
that their rights were scandalously violated all along by Israel.
Whereas a few courageous Israelis over the years have tried to
deal with this otherwise concealed history, most Israelis and
what seems like the majority of American Jews have made every
effort to deny, avoid, or negate the Palestinian reality. This
is why there is no peace."
Phyllis Chesler begs to differ. In The
New Anti-Semitism (a phrase she claims to have coined, though
it's been around for decades), the American psychotherapist
and author of Women and Madness sets out to warn the world
about "a virulent epidemic of violence, hatred and lies
that are being touted as politically correct." Touted by
who, she doesn't exactly say, except to point to an amorphous
group of "Islamic reactionaries and western intellectuals
and progressives." (Everyone in the The Politics of Anti-Semitism
would make her list.)
Perhaps this "epidemic" explains
the "fever [that] burned" in Chesler as she wrote:
"Everything had to happen at once: reading, supervising
the research, writing." There's little evidence of any of
that in these overwrought pages: it's poorly researched and horribly
written, sounding for the most part like an earnest book report
by an over-achieving fourth grader. "The world--including
many people in the Jewish world--still seems to have one standard
for Jews and for the Jewish state (and it's a high standard)
and another, much lower standard for everyone else," she
laments, without resorting to facts to support her argument,
and failing to recognize that she herself holds Israel and the
Jews to that very high standard. But don't take my word for it,
take hers (please, take hers). Certain "Arab-Muslims,"
she writes, are "barbaric and primitive; they do not hide
their joy when they kill but I do not think that most American
or many Jews delight in the death of their enemies in quite the
same way." That's us, still chosen after all these years.
Instead of argument, Chesler prefers
to intuit her way through a debate. After citing a Chomsky essay
which quotes Moshe Dayan saying that Palestinian refugees should
be told they will "continue to live like dogs," Chesler
decides that the attribution "does not sound right or in
context to me."
She proves equally adept at trying to
take down the rest of her targets, which include Said, the American
and European Left, refuseniks, the media, feminists--all of them
out to get little Israel, that David among Goliaths.
Not wanting to leave any doubt in the
minds of her readers, the feckless Chesler resorts to an argument
as old as the Jerusalem Hills to prove, once and for all, that
the Jews have the ultimate claim to Israel, for "God promised
the land to the patriarch Abraham and to all the other Jewish
patriarchs and matriarchs."
At this point, I began to understand
just how high a fever Chesler must have had when she scribbled
this nonsense; automatic writing, from God's mouth to her hand.
A book like this always ends up biting the hand that writes it.
Everyone is an anti-Semite--including, it would appear, Phyllis
Chesler herself. Pg 245: "Anyone who does not distinguish
between Jews and the Jewish state is an anti-Semite." Pg
209: "Each Jew must think of himself or herself as the most
precious resource that Israel has at this moment."
I tell you, this new anti-Semitism, no
one is immune from it.
Jason Sherman's plays include Reading Hebron, The League of Nathans and, most
recently, Remnants.
[E-mailed response from the book review
editor:]
From:"Levin, Martin"
Sent:2003/11/18 Tue PM 05:17:25 EST
To:'Jason Sherman'
Subject: Re: review
Hi Jason: I have some real problems with
your piece, largely because it seems more like a lecture from
someone who is parti pris than it does any sort of moderately
objective review. And it's not because I suspect that I disagree
with you about some aspects of the Middle East. for the record,
I think Sharon is almost every bit the disaster for Jews (and
not just in Israel) that Arafat has been for the Palestinians,
that the palestinians deserve a viable state, that the settlement
policy is egregious and that one has the right to be as critical
of israel (but not more so) as of any other state, person or
institution.. But I do not feel these two books, especially the
Cockburn book, have really been reviewed, For one thing, the
title is very misleading; it's not about anti-Semitism, but what
seem like a series of exculpatory screeds about anti-Israel criticism
being labelled as anti-Semitism. It also seems, partly because
of your set-up, that you are predisposed to like the first book,
indeed came at it with a some predetermined position, and to
dislike the Chesler. (As far as I can tell, you're probably right
that it's hysterical, but sarcasm is not evidence, and I doubt
whether her entire focus is, as you seem to suggest, on Israel
and its critics/enemies). I have no sense that the first book
really engages the issue of anti-Semitism at all, other than
to brush it off as a cynical political tool. Yet there's no mention
at all of the anti-Jewishness worthy of the volkische beobachter
now being taught as gospel in Arab schools, or of fundamentalists
making no distinction between Jews and Israelis (witness the
synagogue bombings in Turkey) or of the preoccupation of people
such as Fisk with Israel to the virtual exclusion of other issues.
And then there are Fisk and Finkelstein. From your throwaway
mentions of their travails, a reader would have no sense that
Fisk is, to put it mildly, a very contentious figure (and I think
at least arguably anti-Semitic; why else the Jenin obsession
when it's clear there was no massacre). Finkelstein is trotted
out by Arab media as a "good" Jew, son of a Holocaust
survivor. But you'd get no sense in the review that he serves
that role or that he is opposed to the existence of Israel. There
is a real "usual suspects" element to them. Finally,
I have no sense that you have really broached the topic of anti-Semitism,
no sense of whether it's a worrisome trend outside the jaunndiced
(in some ways, perhaps rightly jaundiced) purview of the out
of the same litter contributors to The Politics of Anti-Semitism.
best wishes martin.
[Quick back-and-forth:]
From:Jason Sherman
Sent:Tuesday, November 18, 2003 5:33
PM
To:Levin, Martin
Subject:Re: review
Hi martin. You forgot to mention that
I'm a self-hating Jew. Yours,
Jason.
From:"Levin, Martin"
Sent:2003/11/18 Tue PM 05:35:34 EST
To:'Jason Sherman'
Subject:Re: review
Jason: Did I say that? I don't even think
it.
[My response, sent Thursday, Nov 20:]
Martin,
You're right, it wouldn't make sense
to call me a self-hating Jew, but it would be in keeping with
your other ad hominem attacks-against not only Fisk and Finkelstein,
but against me as well (ie, that I was "predisposed to like
the first book, indeed came at it with a some [sic] predetermined
position, and to dislike the Chesler," a ludicrous charge.
My review is based on what I read, not on what I wanted to read.
But your response is very illuminating, and tells me that what
you were really hoping for was an ideologically correct review
that would have unequivocally condemned those "out of the
same litter contributors to The Politics of Anti-Semitism."
(Surely not a sign of a predetermined position on your part?)
You say you "do not feel these two books, especially the
Cockburn book, have really been reviewed." You then demonstrate
what a proper review would have looked like. It would have included
a denunciation of Fisk as "arguably anti-Semitic,"
without a shred of evidence, and a personal attack on Finkelstein
as a favourite "son" of the "Arab media."
In fact, Martin, I did review the two books. I did "broach"
the topic of anti-Semitism-as defined and explored by the works
under consideration. So why, then, did you decide to kill the
review? I won't question your motives, as you have mine, but
I find it telling that you haven't read either book yourself,
yet feel free to write about them as though you have-which, curiously,
is an approach to criticism you share with Chesler. You might
want to ask yourself which of us delivered the real "lecture."
Yours,
Jason Sherman
Alexander Cockburn writes,
Dear Jason, Thanks so much for this.
Amazing how the venom suddenly seeps from his letter. Your responses
are excellent. Of course we'd love to publish this on the website,
but probably you don't want to burn all boats with Globe and
Mail, right? If you are in boat-burning mood, all the better
for us.
On Wednesday, December 3, 2003, at 07:27
AM,
Jason Sherman wrote:
Dear Alexander, I think the Globe scuttled
those boats. So please publish away.
Yours,
Jason.
Weekend
Edition Features for Nov. 29 / 30, 2003
Peter Linebaugh
On
the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone
Gary Leupp
Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos
Saul Landau
Lying and Cheating:
Bush's New Political Math
Michael Adler
Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative
Anthony Arnove
"They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview
with John Pilger
Greg Weiher
Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam
Stephen Banko, III
A Soldier's Dream
Forrest Hylton
Empire and Revolution in Bolivia
Toni Solo
The "Free Trade" History Eraser
Ben Terrall
Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali
Standard Schaefer
Unions
are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes
Richard Trainor
The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay
Bridge
Mark Gaffney
US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again
Adam Engel
The System Really Works
Dave Lindorff
They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool
Susan Davis
Framing the Friedmans
Neve Gordon
Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace
Mitchel Cohen
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
Ben Tripp
Capture Me, Daddy
Poets' Basement
Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith
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