Skip Navigation

The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

"Real" Jews

By The Daily Dish
Jul 28 2009, 2:36 AM ET

DiA counters Jamie Kirchick's McCarthyite assertion that Jews who criticize Israel's actions have a "“visceral hatred of [their] Jewish heritage”:

Efforts to win support for right-wing Israeli policies are inevitably going to spin off accusations, like Mr Kirchik's, that Jews like Max Blumenthal who criticise Israel are self-hating or in some sense not real Jews. This is a familiar dynamic in ethnic nationalist politics; it's similar to what Slobodan Milosevic did to Serbian liberal opponents, what Putinists do to liberal Russian politicians, or what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has done to his opponents in Iran. It's actually rather similar, for that matter, to what ethnic nationalists, actual anti-Semites, have always done to the Jews in their countriesclaiming they are not "real Russians", "real Englishmen", "real Frenchmen", "real Americans". If those who are slurring liberal Jews critical of right-wing Israeli policies were thoughtful people, this might give them pause. But, for the most part, they're not, and it won't.

If you don't agree with Jamie Kirchick, you're a self-hater if you're Jewish and an anti-Semite if you're not. I learned that a long time ago. If someone called Jamie a self-hating homo because he bravely takes on the gay left from time to time (and they do), he'd be right to be angry. Why can he not see the parallel? 



Presented by

More at The Atlantic

Using the Internet as Matchmaker: The Drawbacks to Online Dating The Drawbacks to Online Dating
The Global Dangers of Syria's Looming Civil War Syria's Looming Civil War
Can't We Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Mass Refinancing? Can't We Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Mass Refinancing?
Why Does Maine Have a Two-and-a-Half-Month Caucus? Romney Wins Maine's Two-and-a-Half-Month Caucus
The Agony of Nabeel Rajab The Agony of Nabeel Rajab
Special Report
Submit Your Photos of America at Work AP Submit Your Photos of America at Work
Send us your images of friends, family, and neighbors on the job. We'll publish the best. Read more ›
View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

Athens in Flames

Feb 13, 2012

Subscribe Now

SAVE 59%! 10 issues JUST $2.45 PER COPY

Facebook

Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free newsletters

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)