the human province

In today's Los Angeles Times, Rosa Brooks makes the obvious point that in the US, anyone who criticizes Israeli actions is pilloried as an anti-semite. The latest case being Ken Roth (whose father fled Nazi Germany), the executive director of Human Rights Watch:

But what's most troubling about the vitriol directed at Roth and his organization isn't that it's savage, unfounded and fantastical. What's most troubling is that it's typical. Typical, that is, of what anyone rash enough to criticize Israel can expect to encounter. In the United States today, it just isn't possible to have a civil debate about Israel, because any serious criticism of its policies is instantly countered with charges of anti-Semitism. Think Israel's tactics against Hezbollah were too heavy-handed, or that Israel hasn't always been wholly fair to the Palestinians, or that the United States should reconsider its unquestioning financial and military support for Israel? Shhh: Don't voice those sentiments unless you want to be called an anti-Semite -- and probably a terrorist sympathizer to boot.

How did adopting a reflexively pro-Israel stance come to be a mandatory aspect of American Jewish identity? Skepticism -- a willingness to ask tough questions, a refusal to embrace dogma -- has always been central to the Jewish intellectual tradition. Ironically, this tradition remains alive in Israel, where respected public figures routinely criticize the government in far harsher terms than those used by Human Rights Watch.

In a climate in which good-faith criticism of Israel is automatically denounced as anti-Semitic, everyone loses. Israeli policies are a major source of discord in the Islamic world, and anger at Israel usually spills over into anger at the U.S., Israel's biggest backer.

It's really a shame that this even needs to be brought up, but people in the US seem incapable of making the distinction between being Jewish and being Israeli. For some strange reason, this relationship seems to only exist for Israel. No one accuses anyone of being anti-islamic when Iran or Saudi Arabia is the object of criticism, so why should it be different for Israel?

In today's Los Angeles Times, Rosa Brooks makes the obvious point that in the US, anyone who criticizes Israeli actions is pilloried as an anti-semite. The latest case being Ken Roth (whose father fled Nazi Germany), the executive director of Human Rights Watch:

But what's most troubling about the vitriol directed at Roth and his organization isn't that it's savage, unfounded and fantastical. What's most troubling is that it's typical. Typical, that is, of what anyone rash enough to criticize Israel can expect to encounter. In the United States today, it just isn't possible to have a civil debate about Israel, because any serious criticism of its policies is instantly countered with charges of anti-Semitism. Think Israel's tactics against Hezbollah were too heavy-handed, or that Israel hasn't always been wholly fair to the Palestinians, or that the United States should reconsider its unquestioning financial and military support for Israel? Shhh: Don't voice those sentiments unless you want to be called an anti-Semite -- and probably a terrorist sympathizer to boot.

How did adopting a reflexively pro-Israel stance come to be a mandatory aspect of American Jewish identity? Skepticism -- a willingness to ask tough questions, a refusal to embrace dogma -- has always been central to the Jewish intellectual tradition. Ironically, this tradition remains alive in Israel, where respected public figures routinely criticize the government in far harsher terms than those used by Human Rights Watch.

In a climate in which good-faith criticism of Israel is automatically denounced as anti-Semitic, everyone loses. Israeli policies are a major source of discord in the Islamic world, and anger at Israel usually spills over into anger at the U.S., Israel's biggest backer.

It's really a shame that this even needs to be brought up, but people in the US seem incapable of making the distinction between being Jewish and being Israeli. For some strange reason, this relationship seems to only exist for Israel. No one accuses anyone of being anti-islamic when Iran or Saudi Arabia is the object of criticism, so why should it be different for Israel?

In today's Los Angeles Times, Rosa Brooks makes the obvious point that in the US, anyone who criticizes Israeli actions is pilloried as an anti-semite. The latest case being Ken Roth (whose father fled Nazi Germany), the executive director of Human Rights Watch:

But what's most troubling about the vitriol directed at Roth and his organization isn't that it's savage, unfounded and fantastical. What's most troubling is that it's typical. Typical, that is, of what anyone rash enough to criticize Israel can expect to encounter. In the United States today, it just isn't possible to have a civil debate about Israel, because any serious criticism of its policies is instantly countered with charges of anti-Semitism. Think Israel's tactics against Hezbollah were too heavy-handed, or that Israel hasn't always been wholly fair to the Palestinians, or that the United States should reconsider its unquestioning financial and military support for Israel? Shhh: Don't voice those sentiments unless you want to be called an anti-Semite -- and probably a terrorist sympathizer to boot.

How did adopting a reflexively pro-Israel stance come to be a mandatory aspect of American Jewish identity? Skepticism -- a willingness to ask tough questions, a refusal to embrace dogma -- has always been central to the Jewish intellectual tradition. Ironically, this tradition remains alive in Israel, where respected public figures routinely criticize the government in far harsher terms than those used by Human Rights Watch.

In a climate in which good-faith criticism of Israel is automatically denounced as anti-Semitic, everyone loses. Israeli policies are a major source of discord in the Islamic world, and anger at Israel usually spills over into anger at the U.S., Israel's biggest backer.

It's really a shame that this even needs to be brought up, but people in the US seem incapable of making the distinction between being Jewish and being Israeli. For some strange reason, this relationship seems to only exist for Israel. No one accuses anyone of being anti-islamic when Iran or Saudi Arabia is the object of criticism, so why should it be different for Israel?

In today's Los Angeles Times, Rosa Brooks makes the obvious point that in the US, anyone who criticizes Israeli actions is pilloried as an anti-semite. The latest case being Ken Roth (whose father fled Nazi Germany), the executive director of Human Rights Watch:

But what's most troubling about the vitriol directed at Roth and his organization isn't that it's savage, unfounded and fantastical. What's most troubling is that it's typical. Typical, that is, of what anyone rash enough to criticize Israel can expect to encounter. In the United States today, it just isn't possible to have a civil debate about Israel, because any serious criticism of its policies is instantly countered with charges of anti-Semitism. Think Israel's tactics against Hezbollah were too heavy-handed, or that Israel hasn't always been wholly fair to the Palestinians, or that the United States should reconsider its unquestioning financial and military support for Israel? Shhh: Don't voice those sentiments unless you want to be called an anti-Semite -- and probably a terrorist sympathizer to boot.

How did adopting a reflexively pro-Israel stance come to be a mandatory aspect of American Jewish identity? Skepticism -- a willingness to ask tough questions, a refusal to embrace dogma -- has always been central to the Jewish intellectual tradition. Ironically, this tradition remains alive in Israel, where respected public figures routinely criticize the government in far harsher terms than those used by Human Rights Watch.

In a climate in which good-faith criticism of Israel is automatically denounced as anti-Semitic, everyone loses. Israeli policies are a major source of discord in the Islamic world, and anger at Israel usually spills over into anger at the U.S., Israel's biggest backer.

It's really a shame that this even needs to be brought up, but people in the US seem incapable of making the distinction between being Jewish and being Israeli. For some strange reason, this relationship seems to only exist for Israel. No one accuses anyone of being anti-islamic when Iran or Saudi Arabia is the object of criticism, so why should it be different for Israel?

In today's Los Angeles Times, Rosa Brooks makes the obvious point that in the US, anyone who criticizes Israeli actions is pilloried as an anti-semite. The latest case being Ken Roth (whose father fled Nazi Germany), the executive director of Human Rights Watch:

But what's most troubling about the vitriol directed at Roth and his organization isn't that it's savage, unfounded and fantastical. What's most troubling is that it's typical. Typical, that is, of what anyone rash enough to criticize Israel can expect to encounter. In the United States today, it just isn't possible to have a civil debate about Israel, because any serious criticism of its policies is instantly countered with charges of anti-Semitism. Think Israel's tactics against Hezbollah were too heavy-handed, or that Israel hasn't always been wholly fair to the Palestinians, or that the United States should reconsider its unquestioning financial and military support for Israel? Shhh: Don't voice those sentiments unless you want to be called an anti-Semite -- and probably a terrorist sympathizer to boot.

How did adopting a reflexively pro-Israel stance come to be a mandatory aspect of American Jewish identity? Skepticism -- a willingness to ask tough questions, a refusal to embrace dogma -- has always been central to the Jewish intellectual tradition. Ironically, this tradition remains alive in Israel, where respected public figures routinely criticize the government in far harsher terms than those used by Human Rights Watch.

In a climate in which good-faith criticism of Israel is automatically denounced as anti-Semitic, everyone loses. Israeli policies are a major source of discord in the Islamic world, and anger at Israel usually spills over into anger at the U.S., Israel's biggest backer.

It's really a shame that this even needs to be brought up, but people in the US seem incapable of making the distinction between being Jewish and being Israeli. For some strange reason, this relationship seems to only exist for Israel. No one accuses anyone of being anti-islamic when Iran or Saudi Arabia is the object of criticism, so why should it be different for Israel?

In today's Los Angeles Times, Rosa Brooks makes the obvious point that in the US, anyone who criticizes Israeli actions is pilloried as an anti-semite. The latest case being Ken Roth (whose father fled Nazi Germany), the executive director of Human Rights Watch:

But what's most troubling about the vitriol directed at Roth and his organization isn't that it's savage, unfounded and fantastical. What's most troubling is that it's typical. Typical, that is, of what anyone rash enough to criticize Israel can expect to encounter. In the United States today, it just isn't possible to have a civil debate about Israel, because any serious criticism of its policies is instantly countered with charges of anti-Semitism. Think Israel's tactics against Hezbollah were too heavy-handed, or that Israel hasn't always been wholly fair to the Palestinians, or that the United States should reconsider its unquestioning financial and military support for Israel? Shhh: Don't voice those sentiments unless you want to be called an anti-Semite -- and probably a terrorist sympathizer to boot.

How did adopting a reflexively pro-Israel stance come to be a mandatory aspect of American Jewish identity? Skepticism -- a willingness to ask tough questions, a refusal to embrace dogma -- has always been central to the Jewish intellectual tradition. Ironically, this tradition remains alive in Israel, where respected public figures routinely criticize the government in far harsher terms than those used by Human Rights Watch.

In a climate in which good-faith criticism of Israel is automatically denounced as anti-Semitic, everyone loses. Israeli policies are a major source of discord in the Islamic world, and anger at Israel usually spills over into anger at the U.S., Israel's biggest backer.

It's really a shame that this even needs to be brought up, but people in the US seem incapable of making the distinction between being Jewish and being Israeli. For some strange reason, this relationship seems to only exist for Israel. No one accuses anyone of being anti-islamic when Iran or Saudi Arabia is the object of criticism, so why should it be different for Israel?