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Anti-Israel Israelis

By M.J. Roseberg
Israel Policy Forum
Posted on Friday September 24, 2004

The other day I was asked if I thought that a particular Member of Congress was “anti-Israel” because he publicly and frequently takes positions at variance with the policies of the Sharon government. I responded that the legislator in question is not anti-Israel. He simply feels that the Israeli government’s current course will not lead to permanent security for a country to which he feels a deep attachment. One did not have to agree with the Congressman but, in fairness, he should not be deemed anti-Israel.

It was only a short time later that it occurred to me that the very term “anti-Israel,” when used to describe those who differ with the Israeli government, has become anachronistic. Most people in the pro-Israel community now understand that it is not “anti-Israel” to criticize Israeli policies. They understand that the term “anti-Israel” should be reserved for criticism which seeks to delegitimize Israel as a state. Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the ADL puts it best: “Even harsh condemnation of Israeli policy is not on its own anti-Semitic, and it is irresponsible to brand every critic of Israel as an enemy of the Jewish people.”

Criticizing Israeli government policies is no less acceptable than criticizing policies of our own country, or of France or of Japan. But the line is crossed when criticism moves from differences over policy to the suggestion that the state and its institutions are illegitimate.

Of course, that kind of criticism has rarely been directed at the United States, or Japan, or France – until recently. But that is precisely what Al Qaeda is doing when it declares permanent war against the West and its people.

In general, however, that kind of attack has been limited to Israel and is essentially hate speech rather than politics. That is why Israel was right not to negotiate with the Palestinians until the PLO recognized Israel’s right to exist. It was only following mutual recognition that negotiations began. And, despite the past four years of violence, it is that mutual recognition which makes future negotiations not only possible but inevitable.

Of course, we can’t ignore the Palestinian factions that continue to delegitimize Israel and wage war even on school kids. And they have counterparts throughout the Muslim world, and even outside it. They continue to pose a threat to Israel although, in large part due to the security barrier, a diminishing one.

Ironically, however, some of the most dangerous manifestations of delegitimization come not from abroad but from within Israel itself. They come from far right elements determined to thwart Prime Minister Sharon’s plan to pull out of Gaza. These threats delegitimize the state, its government and its army. And unlike libels thrown about in foreign capitals, these attacks can succeed in undermining Israel in a very fundamental way.

In a sense, they already have. Think about it. The elected leader of Israel has decided that it is in Israel’s best interests to withdraw from Gaza. Withdrawal has the support of the vast majority of Israelis who understand that retaining Gaza, and its one million Palestinians, threatens Israel’s ability to survive as a Jewish state. But a significant part of the anti-withdrawal forces do not recognize Sharon’s authority or the right of the majority to decide Israel’s future.

They do not accept that, as prime minister in a parliamentary democracy, Sharon has every right to act, so long as he retains his majority. They respond that action by the Israeli government to evacuate settlements is, as an ad in Ha’aretz put it, “a crime against humanity” and is therefore illegal. For them, there is a Higher Authority than the law or the state. They will answer to that authority and no other.

There are Members of Knesset, religious leaders, and local officials who hold this view. Unlike extremists here, Israeli fanatics are not confined to the fringes of society but have voices that are heard and heeded. The last time the United States experienced a phenomenon like this was prior to the Civil War. And it is precisely civil war that many Israelis fear: a civil war fought over the settlements.

Item: According to the Jerusalem Post, the Hebron settler community has distributed a letter to IDF soldiers urging them to leave the army. “Jewish soldier, the time has come to choose: where do you stand. Arik Sharon is putting his final touches on the expulsion plan. Will you continue to serve in an army that carries out these crimes or will you do the right thing and not serve in an army that acts against its own people.”

Item: Zev Chafets reports in the New York Daily News that the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security force, is deeply concerned that radical settlers will assassinate Prime Minister Sharon to thwart Gaza withdrawal. Shin Bet estimates that there are several dozen would-be assassins living in the West Bank who idolize Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, and would like to emulate him as well.

Item: Nadia Matar, the head of Women in Green, a large pro-settlement organization publicly attacked Sharon’s plans to remove settlers from Gaza as “chillingly similar” to Nazi Germany’s deportation of Jews to death camps during the Holocaust. “All you have to do,” she said, “is change the date from 1942 to 2004 and the place of expulsion from Berlin to Gush Katif and you’ll have a ready made [expulsion] letter.” She likened Sharon’s appointed head of the disengagement administration to Jews who cooperated with the Nazis and hinted that he might face retribution for his actions.

These are just a few examples of the assault on Israel from within Israel. There are many others: rabbis calling for Sharon’s death, a Monopoly-like board game in which the goal is to successfully resist the Israeli government, a well-known rabbi calling on settlers to fight the army with “bare hands or sticks.”

All this over Gaza, a place most Israelis are eager to leave.

But the issue is larger than Gaza. The issue is Israel’s legitimacy. Ugly libels from abroad are one thing. They can be painful but as the old saying goes, those sticks and stones will not lay a glove on Israel. But the attacks from within already have.

Who would have dreamed back in 1967 that the Six Day victory that produced Israeli control over the West Bank and Gaza would bear this fruit? Actually, Levi Eshkol, Israel’s prime minister at the time of the ‘67 war did. He believed that the only value the territories had for Israel was as a bargaining chip. Israel would give them back in exchange for peace and as soon as possible. But the Arab world was not ready for “land for peace” then and the Palestinians were treated by all sides as if they didn’t exist. Eshkol died in 1969 and, following his death, the settlements took off. Thirty-five years later, Israel is being torn apart over them.