[Yoshi fwd, Sharon's Best Weapon: The Left Must Confront Anti-Semitism Head-on]:
``...The globalization movement isn't anti-Semitic, it just hasn't fully confronted the implications of diving into the Middle East conflict. Most people on the left are simply choosing sides.... But it is possible to criticize Israel while forcefully condemning the rise of anti-Semitism....
.....Why bother with such subtleties while bodies are still being pulled out of the rubble in Jenin? Because anyone interested in fighting Le Pen-style fascism or Sharon-style brutality has to deal with the reality of anti-Semitism head-on. The hatred of Jews is a potent political tool in the hands of both the right in Europe and in Israel...'' Naomi Klein
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Okay, I'll bite, but just once. This is one of those times that I think tactical questions need serious attention. I vehemently disagree with this idea that the non-Jewish Left needs to re-enforce its anti-Semiticism creditentials. If I was in a meeting with this topic on the table, I would vote it down. Israel and the US rightwing have completely co-opted and corrupted sincere anti-Semiticism movements. The only position I would take is to expose the use of anti-Semitic rhetoric as a crude political cover and manipulation tool of the Right. It is specifically used by the Israeli and US rightwing to obfuscate arguments that support the Palestinians.
For a non-Jew or distinctly non-Jewish lead groups to inject awareness of anti-Semiticism in the US political context in relation to the Palestinian issue is an absolutely stupid mistake.
On the other hand, if I were in a Left, predominately Jewish group to combat anti-Semiticism, then I would strongly support a very vocal and official position that absolutely denounced and attacked those who are using anti-Semiticism as their protection scheme. I would argue that the current uses of anti-Semiticism by the US Right is seriously endangering Leftist Jews, in fact exposing them to covert anti-Semitic reactions. This particularly applies to liberal, left and radical Jews who maintain some traditional roots or identity as Jews. Ironically they are the group most exposed to anti-Semiticism by the US right and exposed most to ostracism and hate crimes by both other Jews in the US and Israel. This is a very bad time to be Jewish and Left in the US or Israel (of course when was it ever a good time?).
Really evil assholes, who are eager to re-construct the final solution for Palestinians (like Sharon and Armey) have co-opted anti-Semiticism as their cover. I would also be on the lookout for US and Israeli reactionaries to covertly support or even engage in hate crimes against Leftist Jews. So, I agree that concern for anti-Semiticism, is itself in deep trouble, precisely because it has been taken over by the US rightwing Christians and Israelis reactionaries as a protection scheme. They might claim to be friends, but they are the enemy of all the Jews I know (if that makes any sense at all).
However, this is one of those topics that I think only Jews and Jewish lead groups within a larger supportive Left coalition can bring forward and articulate with the necessary credibility and conviction it requires---particularly in the face of both Israeli and US reactionaries who are playing Grandma to Little Red Riding Hood.
Personally I have had to argue my way out of nasty accusations of anti-Semiticism too long and too often to ever want to deal with it again. For example, I was fluked in high school English Composition for a term paper I did that came out for a two state solution under UN mediation forty years ago (Mr. Horowitz, no relation to the other asshole). As a result, I had to spend a freshman semester in city college just to get into a state college. I've also had the pleasure of introducing my Jewish girlfriend to my profoundly anti-Semitic father---then the pleasure of going over to her family and enduring those sad eyed, `Oh, why not a nice Jewish boy', looks from her mother who liked me. Her father didn't say a word. I've lost friends who wondered into orthodox sects in search of their roots and got tired of my arguments against it. This kind of shit gets old. It's somebody else's turn.
Chuck Grimes
[Just read Ian's fwd, the Euro-Left and anti-semitism. It's much better on this issue.]