Even if Jews are actin' shady, that's not the issue confronting the Left on Israel

Re: Philip Weiss and the straw man of Jewish “separatism”

In my experience, folks on the Left generally tend to botch things when it comes to the issue of multiculturalism vs. cultural homogenization, leaning towards homogenization as the solution to ethnic and religious intolerance, without recognizing that such a view itself is a form of intolerance and perhaps even an expression of latent racism and xenophobia.

More often than not, I find it to be a cop-out invoked by those who see fomenting a truly pluralistic society as too daunting or impossible a task to surmount. Getting people to respect one another’s differences is too difficult, so rather, we should strip them of their differences.

“Why can’t we just abolish religion and ethnic identity?” is a question I often encounter on the Left.

The view has precedence in at least two forms of 20th century political thought: Communism and Nazism. The Communists sought to eliminate all forms of religious and ethnic cultural identity, replacing all the tiles comprising the mosaic of an individual’s identity solely with that of allegiance to the commonwealth of the state. The Communists would go so far as to purge those who failed to comply with the state’s directive. Likewise, the Nazis sought to eradicate those whom did not share, not only their national identity, but their physical ethnic identities. By eliminating the non-Aryans and homogenizing the German cultural landscape, they hoped to eliminate internal conflict and achieve peace among themselves.

It is at once a pipe dream and a slippery slope.

All self-selecting groups (religious, ethnic, ideological or otherwise) are entitled to self-determination without having to qualify themselves. In a civil society, an individual or community should be free to do as he, she or it so pleases, so long as they do no harm to the person or property of a non-consenting other. That means that they should be free to worship whatever god, practice whatever religion, build whatever communities and pursue whatever political action they desire, so long as it does not jeopardize the well-being of another person or their belongings.

As such, the question of America’s support for Israeli policies considered to be detrimental to the well-being of the United States and its citizens should be an issue restricted solely to the efficacy of the policies in question and not deal with any issues pertaining to the essential character of Jewish people, nor the manner in which they choose to express themselves socially, religiously or politically.

The sole question at hand is “Are the policies presently being carried out by the United States truly beneficial to the United States, Israel and the Palestinian people?” From there you can examine the results of the current policy, and if found to be deficient, explore better possible policy approaches.

You want two states? How is this policy helping bring about a two-state solution? Are matters advancing or regressing?

You want to fight terrorism? How successful are these policies in reducing the amount of terrorist activity? Are they effective, or counter-productive?

To enter any other line of discussion beyond that — whether it’s about the essential character of Jews or Arabs, or the potentially dangerous beliefs of extremists Jews, Christians or Muslims — is to derail the conversation, evade the heart of the matter as it beats exposed before your eyes, and to infringe upon the self-determination of our communities.

The matter of whether or not the Jewish community is supporting destructive policies out of a warped sense of self-interest is a matter for internal Jewish debate, and one that is presently thriving and progressing. That discussion is happening in forums like my own websites Orthodox Anarchist and Jewschool, as well as in real-world spaces within Jewish communities internationally. It is not a matter of discussion for those outside or merely tangentially connected to the Jewish community. By tradition, the Jewish community is a meritocratic democracy. It is neither the place of someone consciously disinvolved from the community, who has not earned the kavod of his fellows, to impose his will upon the community; nor is it the place of a vanguard within the community to impose its will upon the rest with manufactured consent.

Those, such as Mr. Weiss, who would deny the Jewish community its right to cultural self-expression, are free to express themselves on such matters, but they ought not expect that their opinion hold much weight in its disregard for our self-determination.