This coming Friday, August 6, we’ll be joined on our weekly Zoom call by The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer, author of the bestselling new book, Cruelty is the Point. Adam is one of America’s most important commentators about Trumpism and its historical antecedents. He also writes brilliantly about Jewish politics and Black-Jewish relations. I’d particularly recommend this incisive
I naively supported the BDS movement when it first started, thinking that it would be a way for the Israeli Government to. Visibly feel the displeasure of Diaspora Jews over its increasingly right wing policies. That did not happen. The Israeli leaders became ever more entrenched and convinced of their own righteousness and the BDS movement became more and more involved with people who hated me instead of maintaining their focus.
Now, I am horrified at the broad brush of Anti Semitism being used to paint Ben and Jerry's. In the past, these two activist Jewish men would have been lauded for taking a stance. Now they are being vilified. I am absolutely appalled at the reactions of people that I generally admire such as David Harris, at not allowing any iota of diversity of thought..especially since this is such a narrowly targeted stance. Ben and Jerry's are not against Israel..they just can no longer keep silent about the Illegal settler movement which was given life by Netanyahu.
Mr. Beinart, thank you for the excellent article. Just to comment that the real value of boycotting Israel in general, and of the specific example of B&S boycotting the West Bank, is not economic. It is that boycott steals the narrative away from Israeli monopoly. It forces the question to the public forum of WHY one would want to boycott Israel, WHY an innocuous ice cream company would stop selling in parts of land under Israeli control.
I think American citizens have one more defense against accusations of 'double standards': no other nation receives so much aid annually (c. $3.6 billion in military aid) + many billions in loan guarantees as does Israel. So for Americans (such as myself), this is coming directly from my taxes. And yes, there are other much egregious violators of human rights globally (Saudi Arabia, for sure), but are the military activities of those countries subsidized by American taxpayer money to such an extent?
In 1947, Ben Gurion asked the UN Security Council to send forces on the ground to "give teeth" to the UN partition plan. Had they accepted, do you really think that the Yishuv would have launched a war against Western armies? You project on the past Israel’s current might.
I do not blame the Palestinians for having rejected the UN partition plan (even though Edward Said himself said that they should have renegotiated it instead of going to war, as they were not strong enough to defeat the Yishuv).
This conflict is a clash of rights. Jews had nowhere else to go, and the Palestinians saw no reason to pay for a problem that wasn’t theirs.
Anti-Zionists who claim that Jews should have remained a minority in Palestine fail to understand that it was impossible to predict back in the late 40s that antisemitic persecution would gradually cease during the second part of the 20th Century. Hence, ending Jewish immigration to Palestine while Jews were still threatened was unthinkable for a majority of Jews. As for those who claim that a Jewish state should have been established in Germany, they obviously forget that a semi-autonomous Jewish society already existed in Palestine (with an entire generation of people born or raised there). Radical anti-Zionism may not be antisemitic, but it is very childish, no less than the idea of a Greater Israel…
BDS is to the 21th Century what Stalinism or Maoism was to the 20th!
You need to be honest with people and say that, since my conversion, I am now coming at the B&J point and all the rest from the decision that Israel is an original sin. (Not always, but often). II am now beyond discussing matters with Zionists to a large extent, and am focus on exploring and learning truth that comes when I reject Zionist. That is why FMEP has not proper zionists. Because that is to step backwards and we crossed that bridge. so when I argue about B&J - I am coming out of graduating from Zionism. I am still legacy friends with some Zionists and respect some, but outside of personal relationships, I am beyond and they are living in Jalahiyaa. You are saying that Jewish mainstream is deeply immoral and unknowing of thyself. The quirky Jewish guy on the upper west side that support Israel is actually supporting apartheid. The supports iof Israeli apartheid are very tolerant but somehow support apatheid. This is why it is different from South Africa. The supports dont think at all like those in south africa did. They love black people. They are zionist, know about checkpoints etc and living in jalahiyya. progressives prefer orwell language. You need to be honest when you talk about current issue. if you did not think Israel was original sin, then your conclusions of the same facts--B&J etc--may be different. You are not symphatic to the way jewish porgressive zionists see the world any more. You are beyond. That is some fiucking self rightious bullshit.
on double standards, FIRST AND ONLY permanent UNHRC investigation is for Israel. And FIRST AND ONLY B&J boycott? Screams to make whataboutism, generally a weak, deflecting argument, as true as E=MC2. Most logical whataboutism in history of whataboutism! That is a very good point. I would say usually double standards is always a bullshit point. Easier than going through facts. But if you think Israel is original sin, not much to argue about. It is kind of -- just walk away. I am writing for the others who may visit this page.
If you write this shit, that means you think your fellow Jews arer living in Jahaliyaa. We are blind and can weigh facts and diluted. It is possible that we are scarred and that make us Jim Crow supporting Jews who see ourselves as blacks. so self righteous to believe you have found truth and rest of us in denial and blind and morally backward. it could be. does fit fact set of progressive zionists who have read and appreciate every bit of Rashid Khalidi, etc etc. They way you talk means you think we are bankrupt. Feel bad for your fellow Jews as you betrayed us by using the fact that you are a an anti-Zionist Jew and giving it to people who hate Jews and Israel. Energy seems to be with left and critics of Israel. Not so sure even though demographics going against pro Israel jewish americans. Liberal Zionist have jobs They will be late in the game. One reason why the DC rally flopped--one of several--is that progressive zionists have big jobs and think everything is dandy until its not. we are waking up and realize we have to fight like it is pre Reagan.
These comparisons with South Africa are forced. Israelisnwant the land. Most don't believe blacks and brown people or are not interested in believing it. South Africans though blacks were inferior. Israelis don't go around thinking we are better than Kenyans etc. They want land for various reasons. Feels good for woke people to call Israel like South aAfrica. Lazy and don't care about jews. Care about ideology. Don't care about jews. Beinhart only says bad shit about Israel. So they want land. Israel is 9 miles wide. They should care about Palestinians and get out. But way too much to go from there to licking rashid khalidis balls. Even though he is amazing. Beinhart is about Beinhart.
Most Israelis don't go around believing black and brown folks are inferior. They want the land as refugee or scared ofb9 miles or ancient homeland. All that is not South African stuff. They don't go to Christian Kenyan and think it is horrible if a white person dates a Kenya. Or they should eat a different restaurant or send kids to different school...in theory. They don't give a shit. Most want to preserve culture. Many not care about Palestinians but that is not a South Africa look. It is something else. There are a million Muslims. Of course a lot of people are going to see world and ethics in anti Israel way. You went with woke crowd or are self righteous. Both bad. Beinhart is for Beinhart.
This is some tortured shit. The UN has created an ongoing investigation just into Israel. There is some warped treated jews and Israel differently in general. You are about yourself and have the zeal of a creepy convert.
"It receives more US military aid than any other country except Afghanistan, and yet there are, in practice, no human rights restrictions on that aid at all."
Your link points out that 97% of military aid to Afghanistan goes to the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund. This money is for U.S. forces and Afghan security forces working together, so it's not just gifts to the government of Afghanistan. Notice that the graphic on your linked page also shows Syria as being among the top recipients of U.S. military aid, but the $252.2 million listed there doesn't go to the Syrian government; most if not all of it goes to enemies of the Syrian government!
The statistics I like to point to are for U.S. foreign military financing. Of this, more is spent on Israel than on the entire rest of the world put together:
Foreign military financing is simply gifts of military weapons to foreign governments. The list of countries receiving FMF is given on page 159. Israel is by far the richest of them, by GDP per capita.
There's also the fact that it is written in U.S. law that any export of weapons to any Middle Eastern country must not adversely affect Israel's "qualitative military edge" over its neighbors.
No other country gets any similar treatment under U.S. law. And Israel is not even a treaty ally bound to the U.S. by a mutual defense pact, the way our NATO allies and Japan are.
horrible points. Israel needs the aid to survive. OMG, awful that Israelis are scared to give up land and think they need to flesh out West bank to survive! awful. Yes, they need to leave, but after years of Palestinians telling them they want to destroy Israel, not as morally horrible as you think. Too much with one dimensional morality. If you believe Israel is an original sin, then nothing else really matters. It is all just looking at the nooks and crannies of how the original sin played out, and you end up writing articles on how horrible it is that Israelis call hummus Israeli--how evil that is. If you believe Israel is original sin, everything else is commentary. Your brain is going to lean in that direction. Checkpoints will be poison fruit and not self-defense. settlements will not be about fear of 9 mile neck or cliche love of ancient homeland, but turning Ben gurion into Pizzaro-lite.
Coogart, I hope you realize that you've already posted 6 times on this page alone, and that your posts are not very coherent. You have made an interesting statement of fact here: "Israel needs the aid to survive." If that's true, then that's an excellent reason to stop the aid, now that you've pointed out that Palestinians want to destroy Israel. You have not given any reason why Americans should continue to prop up Israel with military aid rather than let it be destroyed by Palestinians. The Crusader kingdoms were destroyed, too.
Adam Serwer is one of my favorite writers, and the article whose title is now that of his new book was one of my favorites of his. What a wonderful guest!
I think one could also argue, in response to the 'double standard' criticism, that none of the other countries typically called out for human rights abuses actually hold themselves up as shining pillars of democracy and human rights in the way that Israel does. Given its self-declared moral superiority, isn't it a logical conclusion that Israel should then be held to a higher standard? (קל וחומר?)
I dunno, I think it's fair game, especially when none of the other countries (as far as I'm aware) were specifically founded as a place of refuge for a persecuted people. For that persecuted people to then go on and persecute another group of people in turn seems especially egregious.
(Though I agree that arguments based on objective facts like those you've mentioned are likely more persuasive to a greater audience in the end and are less likely to end up in emotionally charged exchanges that lead nowhere 🙄)
I agree. For 3500 years Jews have held themselves and the world to a higher standard. Even though Israel should be held to the same standard and not to a higher one, the fact remains that Jews gave the world the very notion of social justice. Heightened scrutiny of the world's only Jewish state may be something of an inevitability.
I naively supported the BDS movement when it first started, thinking that it would be a way for the Israeli Government to. Visibly feel the displeasure of Diaspora Jews over its increasingly right wing policies. That did not happen. The Israeli leaders became ever more entrenched and convinced of their own righteousness and the BDS movement became more and more involved with people who hated me instead of maintaining their focus.
Now, I am horrified at the broad brush of Anti Semitism being used to paint Ben and Jerry's. In the past, these two activist Jewish men would have been lauded for taking a stance. Now they are being vilified. I am absolutely appalled at the reactions of people that I generally admire such as David Harris, at not allowing any iota of diversity of thought..especially since this is such a narrowly targeted stance. Ben and Jerry's are not against Israel..they just can no longer keep silent about the Illegal settler movement which was given life by Netanyahu.
Thanks for this
Mr. Beinart, thank you for the excellent article. Just to comment that the real value of boycotting Israel in general, and of the specific example of B&S boycotting the West Bank, is not economic. It is that boycott steals the narrative away from Israeli monopoly. It forces the question to the public forum of WHY one would want to boycott Israel, WHY an innocuous ice cream company would stop selling in parts of land under Israeli control.
I think American citizens have one more defense against accusations of 'double standards': no other nation receives so much aid annually (c. $3.6 billion in military aid) + many billions in loan guarantees as does Israel. So for Americans (such as myself), this is coming directly from my taxes. And yes, there are other much egregious violators of human rights globally (Saudi Arabia, for sure), but are the military activities of those countries subsidized by American taxpayer money to such an extent?
yes, I agree with this. Israel is unique in the amount of aid it receives and the lack of human rights conditions
By the way, thank you for your all your writing. I learn from it all the time.
Mr. Beinart,
In 1947, Ben Gurion asked the UN Security Council to send forces on the ground to "give teeth" to the UN partition plan. Had they accepted, do you really think that the Yishuv would have launched a war against Western armies? You project on the past Israel’s current might.
I do not blame the Palestinians for having rejected the UN partition plan (even though Edward Said himself said that they should have renegotiated it instead of going to war, as they were not strong enough to defeat the Yishuv).
This conflict is a clash of rights. Jews had nowhere else to go, and the Palestinians saw no reason to pay for a problem that wasn’t theirs.
Anti-Zionists who claim that Jews should have remained a minority in Palestine fail to understand that it was impossible to predict back in the late 40s that antisemitic persecution would gradually cease during the second part of the 20th Century. Hence, ending Jewish immigration to Palestine while Jews were still threatened was unthinkable for a majority of Jews. As for those who claim that a Jewish state should have been established in Germany, they obviously forget that a semi-autonomous Jewish society already existed in Palestine (with an entire generation of people born or raised there). Radical anti-Zionism may not be antisemitic, but it is very childish, no less than the idea of a Greater Israel…
BDS is to the 21th Century what Stalinism or Maoism was to the 20th!
You need to be honest with people and say that, since my conversion, I am now coming at the B&J point and all the rest from the decision that Israel is an original sin. (Not always, but often). II am now beyond discussing matters with Zionists to a large extent, and am focus on exploring and learning truth that comes when I reject Zionist. That is why FMEP has not proper zionists. Because that is to step backwards and we crossed that bridge. so when I argue about B&J - I am coming out of graduating from Zionism. I am still legacy friends with some Zionists and respect some, but outside of personal relationships, I am beyond and they are living in Jalahiyaa. You are saying that Jewish mainstream is deeply immoral and unknowing of thyself. The quirky Jewish guy on the upper west side that support Israel is actually supporting apartheid. The supports iof Israeli apartheid are very tolerant but somehow support apatheid. This is why it is different from South Africa. The supports dont think at all like those in south africa did. They love black people. They are zionist, know about checkpoints etc and living in jalahiyya. progressives prefer orwell language. You need to be honest when you talk about current issue. if you did not think Israel was original sin, then your conclusions of the same facts--B&J etc--may be different. You are not symphatic to the way jewish porgressive zionists see the world any more. You are beyond. That is some fiucking self rightious bullshit.
on double standards, FIRST AND ONLY permanent UNHRC investigation is for Israel. And FIRST AND ONLY B&J boycott? Screams to make whataboutism, generally a weak, deflecting argument, as true as E=MC2. Most logical whataboutism in history of whataboutism! That is a very good point. I would say usually double standards is always a bullshit point. Easier than going through facts. But if you think Israel is original sin, not much to argue about. It is kind of -- just walk away. I am writing for the others who may visit this page.
If you write this shit, that means you think your fellow Jews arer living in Jahaliyaa. We are blind and can weigh facts and diluted. It is possible that we are scarred and that make us Jim Crow supporting Jews who see ourselves as blacks. so self righteous to believe you have found truth and rest of us in denial and blind and morally backward. it could be. does fit fact set of progressive zionists who have read and appreciate every bit of Rashid Khalidi, etc etc. They way you talk means you think we are bankrupt. Feel bad for your fellow Jews as you betrayed us by using the fact that you are a an anti-Zionist Jew and giving it to people who hate Jews and Israel. Energy seems to be with left and critics of Israel. Not so sure even though demographics going against pro Israel jewish americans. Liberal Zionist have jobs They will be late in the game. One reason why the DC rally flopped--one of several--is that progressive zionists have big jobs and think everything is dandy until its not. we are waking up and realize we have to fight like it is pre Reagan.
These comparisons with South Africa are forced. Israelisnwant the land. Most don't believe blacks and brown people or are not interested in believing it. South Africans though blacks were inferior. Israelis don't go around thinking we are better than Kenyans etc. They want land for various reasons. Feels good for woke people to call Israel like South aAfrica. Lazy and don't care about jews. Care about ideology. Don't care about jews. Beinhart only says bad shit about Israel. So they want land. Israel is 9 miles wide. They should care about Palestinians and get out. But way too much to go from there to licking rashid khalidis balls. Even though he is amazing. Beinhart is about Beinhart.
Most Israelis don't go around believing black and brown folks are inferior. They want the land as refugee or scared ofb9 miles or ancient homeland. All that is not South African stuff. They don't go to Christian Kenyan and think it is horrible if a white person dates a Kenya. Or they should eat a different restaurant or send kids to different school...in theory. They don't give a shit. Most want to preserve culture. Many not care about Palestinians but that is not a South Africa look. It is something else. There are a million Muslims. Of course a lot of people are going to see world and ethics in anti Israel way. You went with woke crowd or are self righteous. Both bad. Beinhart is for Beinhart.
This is some tortured shit. The UN has created an ongoing investigation just into Israel. There is some warped treated jews and Israel differently in general. You are about yourself and have the zeal of a creepy convert.
"It receives more US military aid than any other country except Afghanistan, and yet there are, in practice, no human rights restrictions on that aid at all."
Your link points out that 97% of military aid to Afghanistan goes to the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund. This money is for U.S. forces and Afghan security forces working together, so it's not just gifts to the government of Afghanistan. Notice that the graphic on your linked page also shows Syria as being among the top recipients of U.S. military aid, but the $252.2 million listed there doesn't go to the Syrian government; most if not all of it goes to enemies of the Syrian government!
The statistics I like to point to are for U.S. foreign military financing. Of this, more is spent on Israel than on the entire rest of the world put together:
https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/FY-2022-State_USAID-Congressional-Budget-Justification.pdf
Foreign military financing is simply gifts of military weapons to foreign governments. The list of countries receiving FMF is given on page 159. Israel is by far the richest of them, by GDP per capita.
There's also the fact that it is written in U.S. law that any export of weapons to any Middle Eastern country must not adversely affect Israel's "qualitative military edge" over its neighbors.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-bill/7177/text
No other country gets any similar treatment under U.S. law. And Israel is not even a treaty ally bound to the U.S. by a mutual defense pact, the way our NATO allies and Japan are.
good points
horrible points. Israel needs the aid to survive. OMG, awful that Israelis are scared to give up land and think they need to flesh out West bank to survive! awful. Yes, they need to leave, but after years of Palestinians telling them they want to destroy Israel, not as morally horrible as you think. Too much with one dimensional morality. If you believe Israel is an original sin, then nothing else really matters. It is all just looking at the nooks and crannies of how the original sin played out, and you end up writing articles on how horrible it is that Israelis call hummus Israeli--how evil that is. If you believe Israel is original sin, everything else is commentary. Your brain is going to lean in that direction. Checkpoints will be poison fruit and not self-defense. settlements will not be about fear of 9 mile neck or cliche love of ancient homeland, but turning Ben gurion into Pizzaro-lite.
Coogart, I hope you realize that you've already posted 6 times on this page alone, and that your posts are not very coherent. You have made an interesting statement of fact here: "Israel needs the aid to survive." If that's true, then that's an excellent reason to stop the aid, now that you've pointed out that Palestinians want to destroy Israel. You have not given any reason why Americans should continue to prop up Israel with military aid rather than let it be destroyed by Palestinians. The Crusader kingdoms were destroyed, too.
Also I love how this article ends. It should be read by soldiers in the IDF to help regain that repressed conscience. And become whole again, maybe.
thank you
Adam Serwer is one of my favorite writers, and the article whose title is now that of his new book was one of my favorites of his. What a wonderful guest!
I think one could also argue, in response to the 'double standard' criticism, that none of the other countries typically called out for human rights abuses actually hold themselves up as shining pillars of democracy and human rights in the way that Israel does. Given its self-declared moral superiority, isn't it a logical conclusion that Israel should then be held to a higher standard? (קל וחומר?)
right though i'm not sure it's fair to penalize israeli for having greater moral pretensions. that's why i didn't include that argument
I dunno, I think it's fair game, especially when none of the other countries (as far as I'm aware) were specifically founded as a place of refuge for a persecuted people. For that persecuted people to then go on and persecute another group of people in turn seems especially egregious.
(Though I agree that arguments based on objective facts like those you've mentioned are likely more persuasive to a greater audience in the end and are less likely to end up in emotionally charged exchanges that lead nowhere 🙄)
I agree. For 3500 years Jews have held themselves and the world to a higher standard. Even though Israel should be held to the same standard and not to a higher one, the fact remains that Jews gave the world the very notion of social justice. Heightened scrutiny of the world's only Jewish state may be something of an inevitability.