A letter on Gabriel Schoenfeld's "The Return of Anti-Sematism"

The book is available online at Amazon

Schoenfeld, G. (2004). The Return of Anti-semitism, Encounter Books. (http://www.politicospublishing.co.uk/titles.php/itemcode/125)

Thank you very much for the book! I read it over the past couple of days. It seems to be an interesting argument. Unfortunately its quite clear to me that the author is far more interested in promoting his own political agenda than presenting an extremely important issue in its true light.

Please excuse my pomposity in saying that: authors, and books, like this are guilty of many sins against the academy but the most important one is that they have a tenancy to paint over with a roller that which requires the finest brush and the most delicate touch (Fukuyama, Huntington and Kaplan are also famous names who similarly inclined to do this).

Schoenfel fails to define the term 'Anti-Semitism' anywhere in his book, although he implies throughout that any and all criticisms of Israel, Jews and Jewish society (particularly pro-Israel lobby groups in the US) are anti-Semitic. This raises two significant problems.

First it means that proper and accurate analysis of this phenomenon is hindered by the lack of clarity in discussion. Just as there is an obvious and fair distinction to be made between legitimate criticism of British or American culture and policy and racism, there must also be a distinction between legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and the actions of AIPAC (and the like) and Anti-Semitism. It is not Mr. Schoenfel's (or anyone else's for that matter) right to deny that Israel, AIPAC or any other organization or individual should be accountable for their actions just because they happen to be Jewish (or from any other cultural background for that matter).

The Second problem is that Schoenfel's analysis of the Israeli-Palestine conflict is obviously confused and very vague. He talks about 'Muslim anti-Semitism' starting in Malaysia and ending in Palestine without even stopping to draw breath. He argues that the manner of killing etc. that are performed by armed organizations in Palestine are reminiscent of the Nazis killing of European Jews. He also refers to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as 'Governance'. All three of these claims are obviously absurd.

Not once in my time in the OPTs did anyone compare Palestine to Malaysia. in fact I have never heard of such a comparison before reading Schoenfel's book. This is probably for a good reason. Malaysia and Palestine have hardly anything in common. Indeed, none of the comparisons nor conflations that Schoenfel seeks to make i.e. that all Arabs are the same or that all Muslims are the same, should really be taken very seriously. The reasons for this are obvious: for Palestinians Islam and Arab nationalism might well be important underlying concerns. But the overriding concern that affects people every single day of their lives is that their land is under military occupation by a foreign army. Anti-Semitism in Malaysia may well be rife, and it might be an important underlying factor in the 'Arab world' and it might be linked to Islam. I can't tell you, because I am not an expert in either Malaysian politics or Islamic doctrine. But even if it is (and even if they are...) to confuse these trends which are a world apart from life in the OPTs, and Palestinian resistance is frankly just silly and Schoenfel should know better.

The idea that there is a comparison between the armed resistance and the Holocaust is also a problem in the author's account. It is worthy of note that the author's claim is based on the way in which murderers laughed after killing an IDF trooper is apparently similar to the way in which Nazi's laughed while killing Jews. There is no comparison that is possible between these two. Nazi's sought to slaughter Jews purely on racial grounds. They wanted to kill as many as possible; they were a superior military force fighting an internal minority civilian population and they did so across Europe. Palestinian armed resistance is one element of a wide ranging resistance movement by a stateless people against an occupying military force (the 4^th largest in the world), where this armed resistance takes the form of terrorism (the attack on civilians) then it deserves to be condemned of course. Attacking military units, however, is something else.

The 4^th of July celebrates the military defeat of British forces bases in what was to become the United Stated of America. Many of us in Europe celebrate the resistance of French resistance in Germany and Israeli's themselves celebrate that armed resistance in mid 1940s that eventually lead the withdrawal of British troops, … Palestinian military resistance against the armed forces of a foreign power occupying their land is no less legitimate than these examples from history.

With reference to the occupation as 'governance', well this is frankly the most obvious method of manipulating the facts of all. The occupation (as you will see from my dissertation) is an all-pervasive very obvious military infrastructure that attacks/prevents/undermines Palestinian life on every level. It is this which is the very of the basis for legitimate criticisms of Israel. Beyond Israeli intervention and occupation of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine everything else may well be anti-Semitism. Of reactions to this, and hatred because of these specific acts of military oppression and ignorance of basic human rights, this is not anti-Semitism this is basic reaction that you and I (or anyone) would be likely to feel if they were put into the position that Palestinians face every day.

Attached is the dissertation (with all the stupid beaurocratic bits removed). Please let me know what you think. If you get a chance you might want to watch this: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-1476609219299277245&q=paddy+ashdown&total=19&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

I have an enormous amount of respect for Paddy Ashdown and I definitely identify with his position. Also Shlomo Ben Ami (former Israeli foreign minister) is excellent in this interview on the Canadian show 'Democracy now': http://www.democracynow.org/finkelstein-benami.shtml

Thanks again for the book. I'm obviously keen to learn more!

Best Wishes,

Phil