What a fantastic piece. I want to send it to all the anti-Zionist Jews I know.
My wife is writing a novel that peripherally takes up the holocaust. How appalling that she has had to worry about that part of the book. I myself—a mischling—have lost complete faith with the left because of its virulent antisemitism.
I am against Zionism because I'm against all forms of ethno-centric ideologies and all forms of identity politics. It's why I signed up with FAIR. Equating Zionism with being supportive of Jews, and opposition of it as being anti-Semetic, is ridiculous. I support all ethnic groups but oppose any form of ethno-centrism or usage of the Victim Complex to justify exceptional treatment for any group.
That's your definition of Zionism. "Zionism" now has been redefined just like "woman" has been redefined, so you have your definition, and every other person has their own definition. Before all these new definitions and redefinitions, "Zionism" just means Jews having a piece of land they can call their own nation. Not that different from Irish having Ireland, Germans having Germany, Greeks having Greece, and Chinese having China, etc.
there have been many pseudo ethnic sects in the world such as the klan, nazis, the nation of islam, and black Hebrew Israelites.Zionism is also one. they all commonly believe their members share an imaginary race. Nazism and Zionism also claim that they have the right to conquer a particular set of land and that they are indigenous to that land. and that they have the right to ethnically cleanse to rule it. Zionism derives that from the Torah itself where moses is commanded by the god character yahweh to commit genocide and ethnically cleanse the land of Canaan aka Palestine.ben gurion used the book of Joshua from the tanakh as a blueprint for the ethic cleansing zionists carried out in 1948 according to a speech he gave.
Nazis did not believe jews were a pseudo ethnic sect. they believed jews were a true race and not a religion. if you think what I said sounded nazi in the sense that it's something a nazi would have said you have it backward and your belief might be more nazi. study your history.start questioning zionists propaganda.
here is a direct quote from mein kampf:
"From time immemorial, however, the Jews have known better than any others how falsehood and calumny can be exploited. Is not their very existence founded on one great lie, namely, that they are a religious community, where as in reality they are a race? "
nazis murdered people for being in an imaginary Jewish race even when those people had joined a different religion. I am claiming that jews are not a race. that would be blasphemy to Nazism. and a lot of zionists.
How about we use the definition of Zionism that was established along with the state of Israel? In its Declaration of Independence, it recognizes itself as Zionist, which at the time was a pseudo ethnic sect Judaism that viewed Palestine as being rightfully ruled by Jews, which it still is. Zionism only came into existence as a sect of Judaism to conquer Palestine for the exclusive privilege of Jews as an imaginary race / ethnic group. That is historical; whatever your definition of Zionism is is a political tool of Zionism itself.
And a “German” is anyone who is a German citizen. The notion that “Germans” as a race have a right to rule land is Nazi stuff.
Fair is clearly a Zionist gig and it has shown that its concern for challenging racialist ideology ends once the interests of Zionist Israel are put on the table.
Thank you, Ms Wald!!! I am feeling paranoid compared to my fellow jews around me, but I worked, until recently, in education and the Jew Hatred is palpable, persistent, and excused by most leaders. We owe no one a reason for our existence. Keep up the difficult work of exposing the antisemitism and putting out pro Jewish art!
Yikes. The American version of the Yevsetskaya episode is accelerating faster than thought.
Shroedinger’s race indeed 👏
I knew once my ‘best friends’ in Seattle turned their back, that the jig was up. (I dropped out of engineering for a minute and did production design for a feminist theater collective).
Well, to be fair, we left in 2010. My husband and I are both in construction type jobs (architect and engineer) and the company he worked for closed and I couldn’t find work on the west side of the cascades (got a job at the Hanford cleanup, I do structural/environmental). I cried over having to leave Seattle. Now I’m so grateful.
But yes. It hasn’t really been a place artists could afford in decades. My friends lived in hives like bees - in their 30s at the time.
I can't imagine how you feel. I have been shunned and shamed for political views by friends and family but to have the same done for an immutable characteristic such as heritage would be frightening. Let these words encourage your drive to create and keep you on your path of self-expression. May God bless and keep you. May he hold you in his embrace and make his countenance to shine upon you.
Educate the dimwits about the fact that Jewishness has existed for millennia but Israel has only existed since 1948. And the circumstances why Israel came to exist in the first place....
Thank you for saying this, David. Why are some members of FAIR supporting Zionism? Even Monica Harris, one of my heroes, is doing that! Aren't we supposed to be against identity politics?
Some people might think I was Jewish because of my surname; I'm not. (My father came from that background, but my mother didn't, and so I'm Gentile). So I have feared some sort of retaliation due to my being thought of as a Jew, which should not happen at all.
Because, in Canada, where I live, anti-Semitic crimes and harassment have been occurring far more than they should, and I can't stand that.
Why do you define yourself as “gentile” based on Jewish religious ideology? A person’s “Jewishness” is entirely based on their own adherence to the ideology and religious tribe of Judaism, just like a person’s “Christianness” is based on entirely their own adherence to the ideology and religious tribe of Christianity. If you had a Jewish mother, but you renounced Judaism, you wouldn’t be a Jew either.
I’m not a Christian even though both my parents (and their parents etc etc) were raised Christian. Judaism is a religion . Period. It just happens to be one with racialist ideology. Which makes FAIR shilling for Zionism, the apex of that racialism, a huge disgrace and contradiction to their supposed purpose.
And I think crimes of actual antisemitism will continue to occur as long as the ethno-centric war-mongering state of Israel continues to equate Zionism with the Jewish ethnicity and religion.
I didn't say it was *THE* source of antisemitism. I said the existence of an ethno-centric Jewish state that behaves as it does, and acts as an arm of the U.S. Military Industrial Complex, is *A major* source of it in the modern world. As an Italian, the last thing I would ever want to see is an ethno-centric nation-state purporting to be based on "protection" for Italians to be created and then display the behavior of Israel. Linking such a state to being Italian and Roman Catholic would be hazardous to all Italians and Roman Catholics across the planet.
I think Israel would fare much better if it promotes peaceful co-existence between Jews, Palestinians, and anyone else who wants to live there, under a true democratic framework that gives no exceptional treatment to any ethnic group; and which disallows Zionism, Sharia Law, or any other type of ethno-centric or religio-centric ideology to be writ into law.
That is the form of egalitarianism that FAIR is supposed to represent, and it is in no way indicative of "hatred" towards Jews or favoritism towards any ethnic or religious demographic. And it is also strongly against using armed warfare to achieve goals.
Crimes of antisemitism do not happen in a vacuum. They do not happen because hatred against Jews is somehow "wired into" human nature. The worst thing to do to "eliminate" bigotry against Jews -- or any other ethnic or religious demographic -- is create an ethno-centric nation-state that claims to be a "protection" bulwark for Jewish people that basically behaves the exact same way towards other groups that real anti-semites behaved against Jews. And then claim the actions of that state are taken in the name of all Jews.
All forms of bigotry are based on power discrepancies in society between different demographics, with some blaming others rather than blaming the system of class rule itself. That is the basis -- and curse -- of identity politics. And FAIR was supposed to have been formed to combat identity politics.
The claim that Israel "behaves the exact same way towards other groups that real anti-semites behaved against Jews" is adding to the slanders already appearing on this page. Readily available facts contradict this claim and you can find them if you're willing.
Class doesn't explain everything, particularly not theocratic Islam, and Marxist class analysis failed to illuminate many things to which it was supposed to pertain. Zionism is an attempt to preserve a particular ethno-religious cohort. That does not make it "identity politics" in the sense with which FAIR is concerned. The only contradiction here is the one you created by mislabeling Zionism as such.
The most powerful centers of American society are (pro) Zionist. Congress. The national security state. The White House.
“We are, after all, “Schrodinger’s Race,” where the question of Jews and our proximity to whiteness depends on if you ascribe to right-wing or left-wing flavors of Jew-hatred. “
No — Jews aren’t a race. Jews are a religious tribe, just like Christians or Muslims or Buddhists. But Jews are the only major religious tribe that commonly irrationally views and portrays itself as a racial / ethnic group — and Zionists, a particular sect of Jews, are the epitome of that.
Which is why FAIR should have no business publishing your equivocating tribal racialist essay — at least without publishing something that challenges your misconceptions. Otherwise FAIR is being… well unFAIR and violating its own mission statement at challenging racial tribalism.
It seems FAIR is Zionist and apparently thinks Israel has a right to defend its apartheid from attack with genocide. Extremely disappointing. Happy I never signed its bullshit “pledge.”
Anti-Semitic artwork? You mean, those people of any ethnicity who do not support Zionism, which is an ethno-centric form of identity politics? FAIR is supposed to be against identity politics, so this bizarre exception made for Zionism by some in our organization is just bizarre, and it is going to cause a lot of internal fighting.
Since Zionism is only "an ethno-centric form of identity politics" by an extremely tendentious reading, the organization is making no exception here. It is adhering to a liberal view of tolerance that suffers more than one view on the matter to exist. FAIR will be fine, but as an avowed enemy of liberalism, it may not be for you.
Here's the thing, Franklin. I'm not a liberal. I'm an egalitarian socialist who is very much against identity politics. Any ideology that favors a specific ethnic and/or religious group over others, demands exceptional treatment for said group(s), and justifies/rationalizes any type of behavior any organization or government allegedly enacts on said group's behalf, and then dismisses all criticism of said behavior to hatred/bigotry against that demographic, is a textbook example of identity politics.
That description fits Zionism quite well, so there is nothing tendentious about it. Demanding an exception for that form of politics for an ideology claiming to be acting an behalf of *all* Jews, and then justifying anything Israel does, or the U.S. government passing laws to ban criticism against Zionism on university campuses, is doing exactly what FAIR is supposed to be against. As these threads make clear, this is creating a huge conflict within FAIR that calls the genuine commitment to its actual purpose into question.
So, yes, so attempting to insert Zionism into FAIR is going to cause a lot of problems. I would only be considered a liberal if I was demanding exceptional treatment for Palestinians and Sharia Law. But I'm not.
I have been involved in this organization for years, and Zionism has only today become a source of conflict because a self-described socialist with a worthless definition of Zionism - that would be you - showed up and started one. Since the vast majority of Jews support Israel, this organization recognizes that much anti-Zionism is in fact second-order antisemitism, that even principled anti-Zionists would have no business antagonizing and deplatforming Zionists in the manner chronicled above by Wald, and that speaking out against this is entirely keeping with FAIR's mission, which I recommend you re-read.
The classical liberal values espoused in the Vision are not compatible with socialism. Socialism disdains individual rights in favor of collectivist obligations, and the fact that identity politics and socialism have dovetailed so cleanly in Western politics is not an accident.
Zionism has been largely accepted for years in an organization dedicated to combating identity politics and demands for exceptional treatment by a certain demographic based on past injustices until I started critiquing such an obvious disparity and conflict of interest? I find that hard to believe, Franklin.
The great majority of Jewish people who are subject to constant propaganda about Zionism and Israel obviously feel obliged to support it, but a significant minority do not. Just because the majority of any specific demographic supports identity politics that they believe offers them certain privileges based on calling the Victim Card doesn't make it right any more than any other group who may be doing it for other forms of identity politics or ethno-centric or theocra-centric reasons.
That should *not* be a reason for an org with the mission statement of FAIR to support any type of identity politics just because the majority of a certain demographic supports it. The majority of the world population outside of Jewish people do not support Zionism, which is also important to consider. What Israel does in the name of identity politics, which is identical to what other groups do in favor of such ideologies, should be enough for the org to condemn it, not support it.
Secondly, Franklin, no one here is talking about deplatforming Zionists. Opposition to Zionists having political & economic power to wage war on its behalf and de-platform or arrest people on its behalf or write support for it into the actual legal framework of nations is not the same thing as demanding silence on the issue. And we have every right to insist that an organization that purports to be against identity politics not to promote any form of identity politics because that calls the validity of their entire mission statement into question.
As for not having the right to "antagonize" Zionists? Sorry, but people should have every right to criticize what we disagree with, both publicly and especially within an organization that is supposed to be against identity politics in general. It is Zionists and all proponents of any form of identity politics that demand people be de-platformed or penalized legally or fired from jobs etc for critiquing identity politics.
And "socialism" as you describe it is not the same thing as what was promoted in its classical form by Marx and Engels. We are entirely in favor of civil liberties, which is what a classless economy would provide -- no bureaucrats or capitalists to control and regulate speech or decisions. And which would be bereft of the forms of material-based competition that results in identity politics. Classical Marxian socialism in no way dovetails with identity politics, because the latter is a creature of class ruled society, the proof being that it is promoted and financed by uber-capitalist firms like BlackRock, State Street, J.P. Morgan, and Disney... and yes, ultra-wealthy lobbyist groups like AIPAC. It doesn't matter if said sources claim to espouse left-wing or right-wing values of any sort... both the Left and the Right have their own iterations of identity politics that one favors but the other does not.
So no, I do not think that criticizing Zionism is tantamount to second-order antisemitism any more than trying to connect liberalism and its forms of identity politics is indicative of being racist or sexist or homophobic. Latching an ideology onto a demographic of people and demanding no criticism of the ideology because of it is what identity politics are all about.
Fine, don't believe it. So long as you characterize Zionism as identity politics, which FAIR does not and should not, understanding about that and much else will continue to elude you.
Marx disdained civil liberties as "the rights of egoistic man" and similar in an odious tract titled "On The Jewish Question."
In that case, FAIR needs to specifically define what it means by identity politics, and then explain how Zionism deviates against it to the point that it should be heavily promoted, including the war-mongering activities of Israel and the control AIPAC has over the government. I have already explained how Zionism is textbook identity politics.
Marx never disdained civil liberties because a classless and stateless system -- which the Soviet Union most certainly was not -- would not possess the apparatus to enforce the authoritarian dictates of a few. Opposition to Zionism gaining power within a government is not the same thing as banning people following it socially on a personal level. If someone wants to promote Jewish art, that is fine, just as promoting Hindu art is fine. Or wearing traditional Jewish beanies to signify that you're of that religion. Also fine. But trying to impose Zionism or Sharia Law etc on a national level is inherently authoritarian, as is trying to ban criticism of either.
I agree 100% and I would like to add something. I am NOT trying to distract from the central point of this article. I am saying that this is tearing us *all* apart *my suspicious mind thinks that was the plan all along).
This wave of anti- semitism is ripping apart the social fabric of Western nations after decades of progress, Jews & Gentiles stopped 'othering' each other but our unity is being undone... it is tearing apart more than the obvious: it is forcing everyone in Western nations to 'pick sides' with a big hint which side is 'the right one.' (I have had students ask me 'Which side are you on?' and I reply 'I side with humanity' and walk away)
Western societies are being torn apart by the Hamas attacks as well as social media campaigns. We must ask some questions:
Who would most benefit from Western Nations crumbling into divisiveness? Putin
Who does Hamas take marching orders from? Iran, Putin's BFF
Who has been caught launching influence campaigns via social media? Putin
When did Hamas strike Israel? Oct 7th, Putin's birthday.
Some of you may ask "Would Vladimir Putin throw all the Jews under the bus for his ambitions?"
I loved reading this piece, except for the blindered repeating of Israeli propagandist talking points. Just as this artist’s personal experience around anti-semitism is important for me to hear and feel empathy for. There is so much about the events on the ground on and before Oct. 7&8 that are glossed over here or misrepresented.
Any objective analysis of these intersecting struggles and the genocide happening in the Palestinian territories, and now in Lebanon must be founded on demonstrable facts. Artists are not exempt, and, will be rightly criticized for errors and omissions.
“Bachman believes Israel has a right to exist.” Yes, and so do most people concede this to be true, including progressive Palestinians. It is the basis of the peace that must be established. Zionists leaders want to take it all, as demonstrated by their words and actions.
followed by “cancel the talk an hour before the launch because they were unwilling to platform a Zionist voice on-premises” Platforming Zionist voices is problematic, because Zionism as illegally realized through violence and occupation is the problem. Resistance to it is an honourable responsibility.
“it’s normally the Jewish state that is singled out as the one nation that doesn’t have a right to be recognized.” No reasonable person says Israel doesn’t have the right to exist.
“When my peers start questioning the legitimacy of the nations of Pakistan, Liberia, or Jordan—three countries with similar backstories and struggles to Israel” Similar struggles? Israel is a genocidal state oppressing the legitimate rights of others.
“Jews are no longer seen as rootless cosmopolitans who subvert the autonomy of European nations, but as white colonial oppressors butchering the indigenous Levantine population on stolen land.” Yes, because that is what has been happening since before May 14, 1948.
I could go on…but Zionist exceptionalism is the inherent problem in this perspective.
In other words, these aren't "propagandist talking points" so much as assertions from a perspective that accepts the founding and continuation of Israel as a legitimate project. Clearly you disdain that perspective, in favor of the conception of Israel as a "genocidal state oppressing the legitimate rights of others." That puts you in the company of the vicious racists whom Wald cites throughout the essay.
It's true, no reasonable person says that Israel has no right to exist. Sadly, the anti-Zionist movement is full of unreasonable people who insist on exactly that, based on this same libel that Israel is a genocidal state. That vaunted genocidality justifies the verbal and physical abuse of Jews in their minds, which is why we've seen the explosion thereof in the last year. Whether they constitute the majority of anti-Zionists is unclear, but they certainly characterize them.
Good luck with that commitment to empathy you mentioned. I hope the rest of us see evidence of it one day.
I don't think the founding and continuation of Israel is legitimate any more than the founding of a state offering exceptional recognition for any other ethnic or racial group would be. It has resulted in extremists like Netanyahu to wage a genocide on "behalf" of Jewish people and the Israel project, and multi-billionaire lobbyist organizations like AIPAC to coerce the U.S. government into funding it. Israel is an extreme threat to the world and a major component of the U.S. Military Industrial Complex, and that has *nothing* to do with Jewish people or Judaism. It's an example of what happens when identity politics or ethno-centrism of any sort takes over a whole nation.
If those complaints had nothing to do with Jewish people or Judaism, then it ought to be tolerable to you and your fellow socialists to let them assemble, speak, and create as they see fit, regardless of whether they agree with said complaints. And as Ms. Wald demonstrates, you do not.
These complaints are against a form of identity-based ideology that purports to speak for *all* members of a specific ethnic & religious demographic. So, that makes it of direct concern to someone who is against identity politics & the politics of exceptionalism, and the type of conflicts that result for the world when a whole nation gets behind it. And by that, I mean not only Israel, but also the United States and the U.K., so this is not about Jewish people or Judaism, but opposition to power-hungry people and war-mongers who try to create and hide behind a virtue shield that allegedly serves the interests of a whole demographic but is in actuality a power grab for just a handful of the world population so they can behave as they please free from criticism or opposition.
Understand that I and other socialists have no problem with members of any ideology getting together to assemble, speak, and create organizations for this or that group, or this or that ideology. My problem is these groups gaining disproportionate levels of economic and governmental power within one or more states and using them to justify war-mongering and exceptionalist legislation for proponents of that ideology. Which is exactly what too many Zionists are doing. This is not about Jewish people or Judaism because there are many Zionists who are not Jewish just as there are many proponents of identity politics in favor of PoC, women, and LGBTs who are white heterosexual men. And opposing those forms of Woke politics is no more anti-PoC or anti-woman or anti-LGBT than opposition to Zionism is anti-Jewish.
If you want to be a Zionist and form an organization to promote the ideology, then be my guest. But you cross a line when you entrench it into government and try to legally ban criticism of it, or acquire the power to ban people from universities or social media for opposing it, or give special legal protections or privileges to members of a certain demographic only, or create a state based on it that wages war on other states who do not share the ideology. I am against any other type of identity politics from doing the same thing, which is why I am a member of FAIR.
Agreed, Blake, and unfortunately, the issue of Zionism is going to rip FAIR apart. How is it that Zionism got accepted by so many members of an org ostensibly designed to combat the excesses of identity politics and racial/gender/ethnic exceptionalism?
Anyone who describes the war in Gaza as a “genocide,” a term invented to describe the near extinction of the Jews in the Holocaust, is by that fact alone a gaslighting psychopath.
(repeatin' my comment as I see this was the original postin'!)
fantastik piece! "acteur" performer-filmmacher here, canceled (outta work) fer not bein' woke AND fer not complin' with the plandemic proty-culls--livin' without income with two kids (all outta da loop fer not complyin') not bein' a "walk in the park" (Central or otherwise) we had ta leave our hometown of NYC fer the boonies (NYC havin' gone ta hell in a handbasket--when we left my younger daughter knew SEVEN (!) kids that decided they were trans--an' of course NYC went full-out anti-joo...). I could beef more but fer the sake of brevity, those that cannot act--write! Ergo, if I cannot act, I stack!
(and write in the vernacular in the tradition of Al Capp/Lil'Abner--Al was also chewish--an' of my nom-de-chicken-feather namesake Daisy Mae Moses):
What a fantastic piece. I want to send it to all the anti-Zionist Jews I know.
My wife is writing a novel that peripherally takes up the holocaust. How appalling that she has had to worry about that part of the book. I myself—a mischling—have lost complete faith with the left because of its virulent antisemitism.
I am against Zionism because I'm against all forms of ethno-centric ideologies and all forms of identity politics. It's why I signed up with FAIR. Equating Zionism with being supportive of Jews, and opposition of it as being anti-Semetic, is ridiculous. I support all ethnic groups but oppose any form of ethno-centrism or usage of the Victim Complex to justify exceptional treatment for any group.
That's your definition of Zionism. "Zionism" now has been redefined just like "woman" has been redefined, so you have your definition, and every other person has their own definition. Before all these new definitions and redefinitions, "Zionism" just means Jews having a piece of land they can call their own nation. Not that different from Irish having Ireland, Germans having Germany, Greeks having Greece, and Chinese having China, etc.
“Pseudo ethnic sect” sounds awfully Nazi to me.
there have been many pseudo ethnic sects in the world such as the klan, nazis, the nation of islam, and black Hebrew Israelites.Zionism is also one. they all commonly believe their members share an imaginary race. Nazism and Zionism also claim that they have the right to conquer a particular set of land and that they are indigenous to that land. and that they have the right to ethnically cleanse to rule it. Zionism derives that from the Torah itself where moses is commanded by the god character yahweh to commit genocide and ethnically cleanse the land of Canaan aka Palestine.ben gurion used the book of Joshua from the tanakh as a blueprint for the ethic cleansing zionists carried out in 1948 according to a speech he gave.
Nazis did not believe jews were a pseudo ethnic sect. they believed jews were a true race and not a religion. if you think what I said sounded nazi in the sense that it's something a nazi would have said you have it backward and your belief might be more nazi. study your history.start questioning zionists propaganda.
here is a direct quote from mein kampf:
"From time immemorial, however, the Jews have known better than any others how falsehood and calumny can be exploited. Is not their very existence founded on one great lie, namely, that they are a religious community, where as in reality they are a race? "
nazis murdered people for being in an imaginary Jewish race even when those people had joined a different religion. I am claiming that jews are not a race. that would be blasphemy to Nazism. and a lot of zionists.
How about we use the definition of Zionism that was established along with the state of Israel? In its Declaration of Independence, it recognizes itself as Zionist, which at the time was a pseudo ethnic sect Judaism that viewed Palestine as being rightfully ruled by Jews, which it still is. Zionism only came into existence as a sect of Judaism to conquer Palestine for the exclusive privilege of Jews as an imaginary race / ethnic group. That is historical; whatever your definition of Zionism is is a political tool of Zionism itself.
And a “German” is anyone who is a German citizen. The notion that “Germans” as a race have a right to rule land is Nazi stuff.
Fair is clearly a Zionist gig and it has shown that its concern for challenging racialist ideology ends once the interests of Zionist Israel are put on the table.
It’s possible— thread had become Byzantine! Meant it for the comment above here
You really are a nutter.
Looks like you replied to the wrong commenter?
Thank you, Ms Wald!!! I am feeling paranoid compared to my fellow jews around me, but I worked, until recently, in education and the Jew Hatred is palpable, persistent, and excused by most leaders. We owe no one a reason for our existence. Keep up the difficult work of exposing the antisemitism and putting out pro Jewish art!
Congratulations on this! Well done!
Yikes. The American version of the Yevsetskaya episode is accelerating faster than thought.
Shroedinger’s race indeed 👏
I knew once my ‘best friends’ in Seattle turned their back, that the jig was up. (I dropped out of engineering for a minute and did production design for a feminist theater collective).
you’re a Seattle refugee too!? how many of us are out there…
Well, to be fair, we left in 2010. My husband and I are both in construction type jobs (architect and engineer) and the company he worked for closed and I couldn’t find work on the west side of the cascades (got a job at the Hanford cleanup, I do structural/environmental). I cried over having to leave Seattle. Now I’m so grateful.
But yes. It hasn’t really been a place artists could afford in decades. My friends lived in hives like bees - in their 30s at the time.
Your last paragraphs hit with a sonic boom. I haven’t been able to paint in a year. Thanks for the (loving) kick in the ass.
Simply brilliant. Thank you Julia!
I can't imagine how you feel. I have been shunned and shamed for political views by friends and family but to have the same done for an immutable characteristic such as heritage would be frightening. Let these words encourage your drive to create and keep you on your path of self-expression. May God bless and keep you. May he hold you in his embrace and make his countenance to shine upon you.
just shows got how evil the so called arts community is.
It’s weak and cannibalistic. Yes, evil covers it. Julia is the shit!! 🤩
Educate the dimwits about the fact that Jewishness has existed for millennia but Israel has only existed since 1948. And the circumstances why Israel came to exist in the first place....
Thank you for saying this, David. Why are some members of FAIR supporting Zionism? Even Monica Harris, one of my heroes, is doing that! Aren't we supposed to be against identity politics?
Some people might think I was Jewish because of my surname; I'm not. (My father came from that background, but my mother didn't, and so I'm Gentile). So I have feared some sort of retaliation due to my being thought of as a Jew, which should not happen at all.
Because, in Canada, where I live, anti-Semitic crimes and harassment have been occurring far more than they should, and I can't stand that.
Why do you define yourself as “gentile” based on Jewish religious ideology? A person’s “Jewishness” is entirely based on their own adherence to the ideology and religious tribe of Judaism, just like a person’s “Christianness” is based on entirely their own adherence to the ideology and religious tribe of Christianity. If you had a Jewish mother, but you renounced Judaism, you wouldn’t be a Jew either.
I’m not a Christian even though both my parents (and their parents etc etc) were raised Christian. Judaism is a religion . Period. It just happens to be one with racialist ideology. Which makes FAIR shilling for Zionism, the apex of that racialism, a huge disgrace and contradiction to their supposed purpose.
And I think crimes of actual antisemitism will continue to occur as long as the ethno-centric war-mongering state of Israel continues to equate Zionism with the Jewish ethnicity and religion.
That you think Israel is the source of antisemitism tells me all I need to know about your understanding of the matters at hand.
I didn't say it was *THE* source of antisemitism. I said the existence of an ethno-centric Jewish state that behaves as it does, and acts as an arm of the U.S. Military Industrial Complex, is *A major* source of it in the modern world. As an Italian, the last thing I would ever want to see is an ethno-centric nation-state purporting to be based on "protection" for Italians to be created and then display the behavior of Israel. Linking such a state to being Italian and Roman Catholic would be hazardous to all Italians and Roman Catholics across the planet.
I think Israel would fare much better if it promotes peaceful co-existence between Jews, Palestinians, and anyone else who wants to live there, under a true democratic framework that gives no exceptional treatment to any ethnic group; and which disallows Zionism, Sharia Law, or any other type of ethno-centric or religio-centric ideology to be writ into law.
That is the form of egalitarianism that FAIR is supposed to represent, and it is in no way indicative of "hatred" towards Jews or favoritism towards any ethnic or religious demographic. And it is also strongly against using armed warfare to achieve goals.
Wrong. It would flourish as it has for millennia with or without Israel. Which is exactly why Israel exists.
"Crimes of actual antisemitism" far predated the creation of Israel and will persist after whatever reforms Israel might make to your liking.
Crimes of antisemitism do not happen in a vacuum. They do not happen because hatred against Jews is somehow "wired into" human nature. The worst thing to do to "eliminate" bigotry against Jews -- or any other ethnic or religious demographic -- is create an ethno-centric nation-state that claims to be a "protection" bulwark for Jewish people that basically behaves the exact same way towards other groups that real anti-semites behaved against Jews. And then claim the actions of that state are taken in the name of all Jews.
All forms of bigotry are based on power discrepancies in society between different demographics, with some blaming others rather than blaming the system of class rule itself. That is the basis -- and curse -- of identity politics. And FAIR was supposed to have been formed to combat identity politics.
The claim that Israel "behaves the exact same way towards other groups that real anti-semites behaved against Jews" is adding to the slanders already appearing on this page. Readily available facts contradict this claim and you can find them if you're willing.
Class doesn't explain everything, particularly not theocratic Islam, and Marxist class analysis failed to illuminate many things to which it was supposed to pertain. Zionism is an attempt to preserve a particular ethno-religious cohort. That does not make it "identity politics" in the sense with which FAIR is concerned. The only contradiction here is the one you created by mislabeling Zionism as such.
Thank you for this. I wish I had the slightest hope it would do anything. The world is willfully blind.
The most powerful centers of American society are (pro) Zionist. Congress. The national security state. The White House.
“We are, after all, “Schrodinger’s Race,” where the question of Jews and our proximity to whiteness depends on if you ascribe to right-wing or left-wing flavors of Jew-hatred. “
No — Jews aren’t a race. Jews are a religious tribe, just like Christians or Muslims or Buddhists. But Jews are the only major religious tribe that commonly irrationally views and portrays itself as a racial / ethnic group — and Zionists, a particular sect of Jews, are the epitome of that.
Which is why FAIR should have no business publishing your equivocating tribal racialist essay — at least without publishing something that challenges your misconceptions. Otherwise FAIR is being… well unFAIR and violating its own mission statement at challenging racial tribalism.
It seems FAIR is Zionist and apparently thinks Israel has a right to defend its apartheid from attack with genocide. Extremely disappointing. Happy I never signed its bullshit “pledge.”
Years ago, a Jewish friend of mine told me that a Jew always has an up to date passport. If you are a Jew, and not paranoid, you are crazy.
Anti-Semitic artwork? You mean, those people of any ethnicity who do not support Zionism, which is an ethno-centric form of identity politics? FAIR is supposed to be against identity politics, so this bizarre exception made for Zionism by some in our organization is just bizarre, and it is going to cause a lot of internal fighting.
Since Zionism is only "an ethno-centric form of identity politics" by an extremely tendentious reading, the organization is making no exception here. It is adhering to a liberal view of tolerance that suffers more than one view on the matter to exist. FAIR will be fine, but as an avowed enemy of liberalism, it may not be for you.
Here's the thing, Franklin. I'm not a liberal. I'm an egalitarian socialist who is very much against identity politics. Any ideology that favors a specific ethnic and/or religious group over others, demands exceptional treatment for said group(s), and justifies/rationalizes any type of behavior any organization or government allegedly enacts on said group's behalf, and then dismisses all criticism of said behavior to hatred/bigotry against that demographic, is a textbook example of identity politics.
That description fits Zionism quite well, so there is nothing tendentious about it. Demanding an exception for that form of politics for an ideology claiming to be acting an behalf of *all* Jews, and then justifying anything Israel does, or the U.S. government passing laws to ban criticism against Zionism on university campuses, is doing exactly what FAIR is supposed to be against. As these threads make clear, this is creating a huge conflict within FAIR that calls the genuine commitment to its actual purpose into question.
So, yes, so attempting to insert Zionism into FAIR is going to cause a lot of problems. I would only be considered a liberal if I was demanding exceptional treatment for Palestinians and Sharia Law. But I'm not.
I have been involved in this organization for years, and Zionism has only today become a source of conflict because a self-described socialist with a worthless definition of Zionism - that would be you - showed up and started one. Since the vast majority of Jews support Israel, this organization recognizes that much anti-Zionism is in fact second-order antisemitism, that even principled anti-Zionists would have no business antagonizing and deplatforming Zionists in the manner chronicled above by Wald, and that speaking out against this is entirely keeping with FAIR's mission, which I recommend you re-read.
https://www.fairforall.org/about-us/
The classical liberal values espoused in the Vision are not compatible with socialism. Socialism disdains individual rights in favor of collectivist obligations, and the fact that identity politics and socialism have dovetailed so cleanly in Western politics is not an accident.
Zionism has been largely accepted for years in an organization dedicated to combating identity politics and demands for exceptional treatment by a certain demographic based on past injustices until I started critiquing such an obvious disparity and conflict of interest? I find that hard to believe, Franklin.
The great majority of Jewish people who are subject to constant propaganda about Zionism and Israel obviously feel obliged to support it, but a significant minority do not. Just because the majority of any specific demographic supports identity politics that they believe offers them certain privileges based on calling the Victim Card doesn't make it right any more than any other group who may be doing it for other forms of identity politics or ethno-centric or theocra-centric reasons.
That should *not* be a reason for an org with the mission statement of FAIR to support any type of identity politics just because the majority of a certain demographic supports it. The majority of the world population outside of Jewish people do not support Zionism, which is also important to consider. What Israel does in the name of identity politics, which is identical to what other groups do in favor of such ideologies, should be enough for the org to condemn it, not support it.
Secondly, Franklin, no one here is talking about deplatforming Zionists. Opposition to Zionists having political & economic power to wage war on its behalf and de-platform or arrest people on its behalf or write support for it into the actual legal framework of nations is not the same thing as demanding silence on the issue. And we have every right to insist that an organization that purports to be against identity politics not to promote any form of identity politics because that calls the validity of their entire mission statement into question.
As for not having the right to "antagonize" Zionists? Sorry, but people should have every right to criticize what we disagree with, both publicly and especially within an organization that is supposed to be against identity politics in general. It is Zionists and all proponents of any form of identity politics that demand people be de-platformed or penalized legally or fired from jobs etc for critiquing identity politics.
And "socialism" as you describe it is not the same thing as what was promoted in its classical form by Marx and Engels. We are entirely in favor of civil liberties, which is what a classless economy would provide -- no bureaucrats or capitalists to control and regulate speech or decisions. And which would be bereft of the forms of material-based competition that results in identity politics. Classical Marxian socialism in no way dovetails with identity politics, because the latter is a creature of class ruled society, the proof being that it is promoted and financed by uber-capitalist firms like BlackRock, State Street, J.P. Morgan, and Disney... and yes, ultra-wealthy lobbyist groups like AIPAC. It doesn't matter if said sources claim to espouse left-wing or right-wing values of any sort... both the Left and the Right have their own iterations of identity politics that one favors but the other does not.
So no, I do not think that criticizing Zionism is tantamount to second-order antisemitism any more than trying to connect liberalism and its forms of identity politics is indicative of being racist or sexist or homophobic. Latching an ideology onto a demographic of people and demanding no criticism of the ideology because of it is what identity politics are all about.
"I find that hard to believe."
Fine, don't believe it. So long as you characterize Zionism as identity politics, which FAIR does not and should not, understanding about that and much else will continue to elude you.
Marx disdained civil liberties as "the rights of egoistic man" and similar in an odious tract titled "On The Jewish Question."
In that case, FAIR needs to specifically define what it means by identity politics, and then explain how Zionism deviates against it to the point that it should be heavily promoted, including the war-mongering activities of Israel and the control AIPAC has over the government. I have already explained how Zionism is textbook identity politics.
Marx never disdained civil liberties because a classless and stateless system -- which the Soviet Union most certainly was not -- would not possess the apparatus to enforce the authoritarian dictates of a few. Opposition to Zionism gaining power within a government is not the same thing as banning people following it socially on a personal level. If someone wants to promote Jewish art, that is fine, just as promoting Hindu art is fine. Or wearing traditional Jewish beanies to signify that you're of that religion. Also fine. But trying to impose Zionism or Sharia Law etc on a national level is inherently authoritarian, as is trying to ban criticism of either.
I agree 100% and I would like to add something. I am NOT trying to distract from the central point of this article. I am saying that this is tearing us *all* apart *my suspicious mind thinks that was the plan all along).
This wave of anti- semitism is ripping apart the social fabric of Western nations after decades of progress, Jews & Gentiles stopped 'othering' each other but our unity is being undone... it is tearing apart more than the obvious: it is forcing everyone in Western nations to 'pick sides' with a big hint which side is 'the right one.' (I have had students ask me 'Which side are you on?' and I reply 'I side with humanity' and walk away)
Western societies are being torn apart by the Hamas attacks as well as social media campaigns. We must ask some questions:
Who would most benefit from Western Nations crumbling into divisiveness? Putin
Who does Hamas take marching orders from? Iran, Putin's BFF
Who has been caught launching influence campaigns via social media? Putin
When did Hamas strike Israel? Oct 7th, Putin's birthday.
Some of you may ask "Would Vladimir Putin throw all the Jews under the bus for his ambitions?"
Does a bear poop in the woods?
dang! never occurred ta me but ya may be onta sumthin' here!
I loved reading this piece, except for the blindered repeating of Israeli propagandist talking points. Just as this artist’s personal experience around anti-semitism is important for me to hear and feel empathy for. There is so much about the events on the ground on and before Oct. 7&8 that are glossed over here or misrepresented.
Any objective analysis of these intersecting struggles and the genocide happening in the Palestinian territories, and now in Lebanon must be founded on demonstrable facts. Artists are not exempt, and, will be rightly criticized for errors and omissions.
Please point out the "Israeli propagandist talking points" that the author "repeated" in a "blindered" fashion or any other.
“Bachman believes Israel has a right to exist.” Yes, and so do most people concede this to be true, including progressive Palestinians. It is the basis of the peace that must be established. Zionists leaders want to take it all, as demonstrated by their words and actions.
followed by “cancel the talk an hour before the launch because they were unwilling to platform a Zionist voice on-premises” Platforming Zionist voices is problematic, because Zionism as illegally realized through violence and occupation is the problem. Resistance to it is an honourable responsibility.
“it’s normally the Jewish state that is singled out as the one nation that doesn’t have a right to be recognized.” No reasonable person says Israel doesn’t have the right to exist.
“When my peers start questioning the legitimacy of the nations of Pakistan, Liberia, or Jordan—three countries with similar backstories and struggles to Israel” Similar struggles? Israel is a genocidal state oppressing the legitimate rights of others.
“Jews are no longer seen as rootless cosmopolitans who subvert the autonomy of European nations, but as white colonial oppressors butchering the indigenous Levantine population on stolen land.” Yes, because that is what has been happening since before May 14, 1948.
I could go on…but Zionist exceptionalism is the inherent problem in this perspective.
In other words, these aren't "propagandist talking points" so much as assertions from a perspective that accepts the founding and continuation of Israel as a legitimate project. Clearly you disdain that perspective, in favor of the conception of Israel as a "genocidal state oppressing the legitimate rights of others." That puts you in the company of the vicious racists whom Wald cites throughout the essay.
It's true, no reasonable person says that Israel has no right to exist. Sadly, the anti-Zionist movement is full of unreasonable people who insist on exactly that, based on this same libel that Israel is a genocidal state. That vaunted genocidality justifies the verbal and physical abuse of Jews in their minds, which is why we've seen the explosion thereof in the last year. Whether they constitute the majority of anti-Zionists is unclear, but they certainly characterize them.
Good luck with that commitment to empathy you mentioned. I hope the rest of us see evidence of it one day.
I don't think the founding and continuation of Israel is legitimate any more than the founding of a state offering exceptional recognition for any other ethnic or racial group would be. It has resulted in extremists like Netanyahu to wage a genocide on "behalf" of Jewish people and the Israel project, and multi-billionaire lobbyist organizations like AIPAC to coerce the U.S. government into funding it. Israel is an extreme threat to the world and a major component of the U.S. Military Industrial Complex, and that has *nothing* to do with Jewish people or Judaism. It's an example of what happens when identity politics or ethno-centrism of any sort takes over a whole nation.
If those complaints had nothing to do with Jewish people or Judaism, then it ought to be tolerable to you and your fellow socialists to let them assemble, speak, and create as they see fit, regardless of whether they agree with said complaints. And as Ms. Wald demonstrates, you do not.
These complaints are against a form of identity-based ideology that purports to speak for *all* members of a specific ethnic & religious demographic. So, that makes it of direct concern to someone who is against identity politics & the politics of exceptionalism, and the type of conflicts that result for the world when a whole nation gets behind it. And by that, I mean not only Israel, but also the United States and the U.K., so this is not about Jewish people or Judaism, but opposition to power-hungry people and war-mongers who try to create and hide behind a virtue shield that allegedly serves the interests of a whole demographic but is in actuality a power grab for just a handful of the world population so they can behave as they please free from criticism or opposition.
Understand that I and other socialists have no problem with members of any ideology getting together to assemble, speak, and create organizations for this or that group, or this or that ideology. My problem is these groups gaining disproportionate levels of economic and governmental power within one or more states and using them to justify war-mongering and exceptionalist legislation for proponents of that ideology. Which is exactly what too many Zionists are doing. This is not about Jewish people or Judaism because there are many Zionists who are not Jewish just as there are many proponents of identity politics in favor of PoC, women, and LGBTs who are white heterosexual men. And opposing those forms of Woke politics is no more anti-PoC or anti-woman or anti-LGBT than opposition to Zionism is anti-Jewish.
If you want to be a Zionist and form an organization to promote the ideology, then be my guest. But you cross a line when you entrench it into government and try to legally ban criticism of it, or acquire the power to ban people from universities or social media for opposing it, or give special legal protections or privileges to members of a certain demographic only, or create a state based on it that wages war on other states who do not share the ideology. I am against any other type of identity politics from doing the same thing, which is why I am a member of FAIR.
Agreed, Blake, and unfortunately, the issue of Zionism is going to rip FAIR apart. How is it that Zionism got accepted by so many members of an org ostensibly designed to combat the excesses of identity politics and racial/gender/ethnic exceptionalism?
Christofer Nigro…ikr
Anyone who describes the war in Gaza as a “genocide,” a term invented to describe the near extinction of the Jews in the Holocaust, is by that fact alone a gaslighting psychopath.
(repeatin' my comment as I see this was the original postin'!)
fantastik piece! "acteur" performer-filmmacher here, canceled (outta work) fer not bein' woke AND fer not complin' with the plandemic proty-culls--livin' without income with two kids (all outta da loop fer not complyin') not bein' a "walk in the park" (Central or otherwise) we had ta leave our hometown of NYC fer the boonies (NYC havin' gone ta hell in a handbasket--when we left my younger daughter knew SEVEN (!) kids that decided they were trans--an' of course NYC went full-out anti-joo...). I could beef more but fer the sake of brevity, those that cannot act--write! Ergo, if I cannot act, I stack!
(and write in the vernacular in the tradition of Al Capp/Lil'Abner--Al was also chewish--an' of my nom-de-chicken-feather namesake Daisy Mae Moses):
https://thcsofdaisymoses.substack.com/
have covered Israel & jooish themes too:
https://thcsofdaisymoses.substack.com/p/if-israel-falls-we-are-next
https://thcsofdaisymoses.substack.com/p/jewish-heroes-of-the-plandemic-a?
(the above covers the comics ya mention indirectly ;-)
https://thcsofdaisymoses.substack.com/p/puttin-on-sum-passover-alls
former lefty myself, natch ;-)
mebbe yer idear ain't so crackpotty--a forum fer jooish creativity? -- wull A Funny Thing Happened on the Way...