Delegitimization of Israel: the New Antisemitism

Yesterday evening, David Olesker spoke to us about delegitimization of Israel. He introduced Natan Sharansky's 3-D heuristic for assessing when anti-Israel arguments become anti-Semitic. Legitimate criticism of Israel is fine, but it crosses a line if it holds Israel to double standards, demonizes Israel, or delegitimizes the Jewish state.

Like every country, Israel has political, social, and economic issues which its citizens struggle with. They debate the wisdom and morality of actions taken by the government. But no matter what that Israel does, it does not undermine the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their homeland.

Here in Berkeley, we frequently hear arguments which deny the historical Jewish connection to the land of Israel and the right of the Jewish people to a sovereign state, deliberately take facts about Israel out of context to make Israelis out to be monsters, or hold Israel to a different standard than any other country. And all too often, they are defended in the name of dialogue. These arguments are bigoted and fail the 3-D test. Tikvah strives to educate the campus community that this type of discourse about Israel is not acceptable criticism, it is antisemitism.

Bigotry, racism, and discrimination against Jewish students at Rutgers

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but our Jewish friends at Rutgers are once again the victims of antisemitic hatred. BAKA: Students United for Middle Eastern Justice, an anti-Israel group at Rutgers with a history of using hateful tactics to defame Israel and intimidate Jewish students, has shocked us again.

On January 29th, Jewish students came out to protest an antisemitic BAKA event "comparing Israelis to Nazis" called "Never Again for Anyone." Aaron Marcus, one of the organizers of the protest, said "We came out because the mere accusation that Israeli acts of self-defense are in the smallest amount comparable to the systematic genocide of more than 11 million people is deplorable."

To make matters worse, the Jewish students who were speaking out against the hateful rhetoric were harassed and intimidated. An admission charge to the event was unequally applied to the Jewish students, while the event organizers set out to "pompously and racially find anyone looking like an anti-Israel supporter and give them green wristbands, telling the Jews huddled together that they were event staff and security."

After publishing a column in the school newspaper, the Daily Targum, expressing his disgust with the hateful BAKA event, Marcus himself was threatened on facebook by a fellow student, who posted the status: "As I was reading the Aaron Marcus column this morning I realized how Im a pretty angry person. Id be happy to see him beat with a crowbar. Violence doesnt solve problems but it shuts up people who shouldnt speak". The post was 'liked' by at least seven others, including one who commented: "Or makes them martyrs, furthering the strength behind their beliefs. And skinning them alive so they see the afterlife."

This incident is another disturbing reminder of the growing antisemitism on American college campuses. Anyone who claims that the Jewish people do not have a right to self-determination and self-defense in their historic homeland is applying a bigoted double standard to the Jews. While publicly calling oneself an antisemite has fallen out of fashion, hatred of Jews is back, this time masquerading as anti-Zionism.

Jewish students at UC Berkeley have witnessed similar hateful anti-Israel rhetoric, as well as harassment and intimidation. Tikvah: Students for Israel, the Zionist voice on campus, is a student group which speaks out against the defamation of Israel and stands up for Jewish students.

In solidarity with our colleagues at Rutgers,

Brian Maissy
Co-president
Tikvah: Students for Israel

BAKA must end hateful tactics, Daily Targum
Admission changes cause controversy, Daily Targum

Extreme Antisemitism in the Daily Cal

Today, Friday November 19, a shocking and unacceptable op-ed appeared in Berkeley's student newspaper, the Daily Cal. In the article, entitled "War With Iran: New Excuse, Same Conclusion", Matthew Soldad makes the claim that American Jews "aligned with Israel" with a "lust for domination" are behind a scheme involving "subversion of the Republican party" and "baiting American leadership" into going to war for economic gain.

This type of language draws directly from classic antisemitic blood libel, tapping into the themes of subversion, dual loyalty, and control of the economy.

The author, Matthew Soldad, has apparently been at work contributing antisemitic articles to school newspapers before, with an article about Hitler being a Jewish Zionist in the CSUN Daily Sundial in September of this year.

It is absolutely deplorable that the student newspaper at the University of California, Berkeley would print such bigoted dribble. The Daily Californian must immediately apologize to the Jewish community, ensure consequences for the editor responsible, and take steps to ensure that this kind of blatant racism is never published again.

Please email a letter to the Daily Cal at dailycalifornian@dailycal.org, and clearly make your voice heard that this is completely unacceptable.

Antisemitic Vandalism at Berkeley