h/t Max Blumenthal

As long as there has been Jewish dissent and criticism of internal authority there has been the label of “self-hating Jew.” One of the most famous Jewish dissenters, Baruch Spinoza, was excommunicated from his community when he challenged the authority and control of his contemporary Jewish leaders. The leaders of the Jewish Enlightenment, Haskalah, were continuously attacked by mainstream Jewish authorities as self-hating and corrosive for the Jewish community. A form of the debate has now shifted from criticism of Jewish religious and communal authority to Israeli politics. James Kirchick has jumped into the debate about a contemporary Jewish dissenter, Max Blumenthal. He posted an opinion piece in Commentary about Max Blumenthal and our video ‘feeling the hate in Jerusalem”. For some strange reason, Commentary decided to remove the piece almost as fast as it was posted. After reading a cached copy of the article I can understand why. A passage:

“I don’t understand what possesses a Jew like Max Blumenthal to go to Jerusalem, film a handful of drunk American kids spouting stupid racist remarks, put the tape up on YouTube where it attracts 400,000 hits, and then claim that the inebriated ramblings of young tourists on Ben Yehuda St. somehow represents the dark soul of Israel. But then again, I don’t have a visceral hatred of my Jewish heritage, which seems to be a common factor among the Juicebox Mafia set; I don’t feel a need to criticize Israel relentlessly and unfairly in order to earn my keep with the bien pensant Left.”

You can read more of the article here.

The Democracy in America blog at the Economist has an interesting comment

“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 criticize 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 countries—claiming 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.”

Thinking about the self-hating Jew debate reminds me of a briliant article regarding Militarism and Pacism in Israel by Yulia Zemlinskaya. She argues that “Those who criticize, or worst of all denounce the Zionist enterprise are perceived by the Israeli public as traitors who betray both their nation and their own Jewish identity. Criticism of Israeli politics is frequently equated with negation of one’s Jewish identity, while leftist critics of Zionist enterprise are often called ‘self-hating Jews’. In the same context anti-Zionism is often associated with anti-Semitism” Something to think about. You can read the whole document here.

Spinoza’s groundbreaking dissent on the notion of sovereignty and authority in Jewish life has paved the way for many critical Jewish thinkers, like one who immediately comes to mind, the late Amos Elon, whose recent passing was barely covered in Israel. It is the dissenters among us who make us who we are, asking more questions than there are answers.