[During a Hanukkah event at the White House, he claimed that
“were there no Israel, there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who is
safe.”]
[[link removed]]

DID BIDEN JUST SAY THE U.S. CAN’T PROTECT JEWS?  
[[link removed]]


 

The Wire
December 12, 2023
Jewish Voices for Peace
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ During a Hanukkah event at the White House, he claimed that “were
there no Israel, there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who is
safe.” _

,

 

Yesterday, President Biden reiterated one of his favorite defenses of
an indefensible policy: arming a state committing genocide. During a
Hanukkah event at the White House, he claimed that “were there no
Israel, there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who is safe.”

This is a stunning thing to say for a man leading a country with 7.6
million Jews, the world’s second largest Jewish population. 

Even if this statement were true, we reject any notion of safety that
requires the murder and displacement of Palestinians. But it’s also
hopelessly false; in fact, this rhetoric puts both Palestinians and
Jews in more danger. 

For the president of the U.S. to claim that it is only the existence
of another country that keeps Jews safe is to imply that the seven
million Jews who live in the U.S. are not at home here, and cannot
hope to be kept safe by their own government. 

_THIS_ IS ANTISEMITISM: INVOKING THE IDEA OF THE JEWS AS NOT REALLY
BELONGING, DEGRADING THE HOMES THAT WE HAVE MADE IN THE DIASPORA FOR
MILLENIA. And this is how antisemitism is exploited, and Jews are
ultimately used as political pawns — a sitting U.S. president
invoking Jewish fear and trauma in order to defend the U.S.
government’s arming of a genocidal state, all in order to further
U.S. imperialism.

At the exact same time, we’re watching a new McCarthyism play out in
real time, one carried out in the name of “fighting antisemitism”
— but which will make Jews much less safe.

THE NEW MCCARTHYISM?

During a congressional hearing last week, the Presidents of Harvard,
UPenn, and MIT were called to testify — and asked whether calls for
the genocide of Jews would violate their universities’ code of
conduct.

The subsequent exchanges quickly went viral, with members of Congress,
anti-Palestinian groups like the ADL, and even the White House
condemning the university presidents for what they claim was their
failure to protect their Jewish students.

There’s just one problem: No one is calling for the genocide of Jews
on university campuses. 

As Israel carries out a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,
right-wing forces in this country are using the specter of
antisemitism to crack down on calls for ceasefire, and to crush campus
activism. And we know all too well that when the right attacks some of
us and succeeds, it’s not long before they come for the rest of us.

Even more dystopian was the resolution
[[link removed]]
introduced in the House on December 4, which would establish a
congressional commission tasked with combating antisemitism, and with
the power to issue subpoenas requiring “witnesses” to testify and
produce evidence — effectively a modern-day House Un-American
Activities Committee.
[[link removed]]

A controversial and dangerous definition of antisemitism

On the same day of the congressional hearing, the House passed a
dangerous resolution that equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
[[link removed]]
This resolution was wildly right-wing and off-base in a number of
ways, but here are the highlights:

* THIS RESOLUTION IS AN EXPLICIT THREAT TO ANYONE CRITICIZING THE
STATE OF ISRAEL. Palestinians would be especially targeted, but it
would apply to Jews and others.
* IT DISTRACTS FROM THE WORK OF FIGHTING REAL ANTISEMITISM. The
right-wingers leading the witch hunt against student activists are
decidedly less interested in combating the rise of white nationalism,
the greatest threat to Jewish safety. That’s not a coincidence.
* IT PUTS A TARGET ON THE BACK OF ALL JEWS. Blaming all Jewish
people for the actions of the Israeli government is antisemitic. Now,
our elected officials are doing the inverse by insisting that the
state of Israel, which is currently carrying out as genocide in Gaza,
is synonymous with Jews and Judaism.

This is what we know: There is no Jewish safety that comes at the
expense of the Palestinian people. Nor can it be found in state
surveillance, censorship, more funding for the police, or arms for an
apartheid state. All people deserve to be safe in our homes — and
there is no freedom to be found for any of us by instrumentalizing the
lives of some people in order to kill others.

===

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]