Sharon's best weapon
Anti-semitism sustains Israel's brutal leader - the fight against it
must be reclaimed
Naomi Klein
Something new happened in Washington DC last weekend. A demonstration
against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund was joined by
an anti-war march, as well as a demonstration against the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian territory. In the end, all the marches
merged into what organisers described as the largest Palestinian
solidarity demonstration in US history (75,000 people by police
estimates).
On Sunday night, I turned on my television in the hope of catching a
glimpse of this protest, historic in North America if not in Europe. I
saw something else instead: triumphant Jean-Marie Le Pen. Ever since,
I've been wondering whether the new alliance displayed on the streets
can also deal with this latest threat.
As a critic both of the Israeli occupation and of corporate-dictated
globalisation, it seems to me that the convergence that took place in
Washington last weekend was long overdue. Despite easy labels like
"anti-globalisation", the trade-related protests of the past three
years have all been about self-determination: the right of people
everywhere to decide how best to organise their societies and
economies, whether that means introducing land reform in Brazil, or
producing generic Aids drugs in India or, indeed, resisting an
occupying force in Palestine.
When hundreds of globalisation activists began flocking to Ramallah to
act as "human shields" between Israeli tanks and Palestinians, the
theory developing outside trade summits was put into concrete
action. Bringing that courageous spirit back to Washington DC, where
so much Middle Eastern policy is made, was the next logical step.
But when I saw Le Pen beaming on TV, arms raised in triumph, some of
my enthusiasm drained away. There is no connection whatsoever between
French fascism and the "free Palestine" marchers in Washington (indeed
the only people Le Pen's supporters seem to dislike more than Jews are
Arabs). Yet I couldn't help thinking about the recent events I've been
to where anti-Muslim violence was rightly condemned, Ariel Sharon
deservedly blasted, but no mention was made of attacks on Jewish
synagogues, cemeteries and community centres. Or about the fact that
every time I log on to activist news sites like Indymedia.org which
practise "open publishing", I am confronted with a string of Jewish
conspiracy theories about September 11 and excerpts from the Protocol
of the Elders of Zion.
The globalisation 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 and in the
Middle East, where one side is under illegal occupation and the other
has the US military behind it, the choice seems clear. But it is
possible to criticise Israel while forcefully condemning the rise of
anti-semitism. It is equally possible to be pro-Palestinian
independence without adopting a simplistic
"pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel" dichotomy, a mirror image of the
good-versus-evil equations so beloved of President Bush.
Why bother with such subtleties while bodies are still being pulled
out of the wreckage in Jenin? Because anyone interested in fighting Le
Pen-style fascism or Sharon-style brutality has to confront 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. For Ariel Sharon, it is the fear of anti-semitism, both real
and imagined, that is the weapon. Mr Sharon likes to say that he
stands up to terrorists to show he is not afraid. In fact, his
policies are driven by fear. His great talent is that he fully
understands the depths of Jewish fear of another Holocaust. He knows
how to draw parallels between Jewish anxieties about anti-semitism and
American fears of terrorism, and he is an expert at harnessing all of
it for his political ends.
The primary and familiar fear that Sharon draws on, the one that
allows him to disguise all aggressive actions as defensive ones, is
the fear that Israel's neighbours want to drive the Jews into the
sea. The secondary fear Sharon manipulates is the fear among Jews in
the diaspora that they will eventually be driven to seek a safe haven
in Israel. This leads millions of Jews around the world, many of them
sickened by Israeli aggression, to shut up and send their cheques, a
down-payment on future sanctuary.
The equation is simple: the more fearful Jews are, the more powerful
Sharon is. Elected on a platform of "peace through security", Sharon's
administration could barely hide its delight at Le Pen's ascendancy,
immediately calling on French Jews to pack their bags and come to the
promised land. For Sharon, Jewish fear is a guarantee that his power
will go unchecked, granting him the impunity needed to do the
unthinkable: send troops into the Palestinian Authority's education
ministry to steal and destroy records, bury children alive in their
homes, block ambulances from getting to the dying, sabotage all
international attempts to get at the truth of what happened in Jenin.
Jews outside Israel now find themselves in a tightening vice: the
actions of the country that was supposed to ensure their future safety
are making them less safe right now. Sharon is deliberately erasing
distinctions between the terms "Jew" and "Israeli", claiming he is
fighting not for Israeli territory but for the survival of the Jewish
people. When anti-semitism rises at least partly as a result of his
actions, it is Sharon who is positioned once again to collect the
political dividends.
It works. Most Jews are so frightened that they are now willing to do
anything to defend Israeli policies. So at my neighbourhood synagogue,
where the humble facade was badly scarred by a suspicious fire
recently, the sign on the door doesn't say, "Thanks for nothing,
Sharon." It says, "Support Israel - now more than ever."
There is a way out. Nothing is going to erase anti-semitism, but Jews
outside and inside Israel might be a little safer if there was a
campaign to distinguish between diverse Jewish positions and the
actions of the Israeli state. This is where an international movement
can play a crucial role. Already, alliances are being made between
globalisation activists and Israeli "refuseniks" - soldiers who refuse
to serve their mandatory duty in the occupied territories. The most
powerful images from Saturday's protests were rabbis walking alongside
Palestinians.
More needs to be done. It's easy for social justice activists to tell
themselves that since Jews already have such powerful defenders in
Washington and Jerusalem, anti-semitism is one battle they don't need
to fight. This is a deadly error. It is precisely because
anti-semitism is used and abused by the likes of Sharon that the fight
against it must be reclaimed.
When anti-semitism is no longer treated as Jewish business, to be
taken care of by Israel and the rightwing Zionist lobby, Sharon is
robbed of his most effective weapon in the indefensible and
increasingly brutal occupation. And as an extra bonus, whenever hatred
of Jews diminishes, the likes of Jean-Marie Le Pen shrink right down
with it.
www.nologo.org
This column first appeared in The Globe and Mail.
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-- The most important aspect of [Israel's] policy must be our ever-present, manifest desire to institute complete equality for the Arab citizens living in our midst ... The attitude we adopt toward the Arab minority will provide the real test of our moral standards as a people. -- Albert Einstein
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