In search of anti-semitism: what Christians provoke what Jews? Why? By doing what? - And vice versa

On this point Michael Kinsley of The New Republic was in agreement. Daniel Lazare quotes him in the New York Observer (October 1, 1990): Something that sounds like anti-Semitism may not be. Mr. Finsley, for instance, pointed out that Mr. Rosenthal's column was devoid of evidence to back up his assertion that Israel's "amen corner in the United States" was an anti-Semitic codeword: "All the column said was, `J'accuse-I have refrained from saying it, but I can refrain no longer. I hereby say it. There, I've said it.' That was the essence of the column. It didn't have either evidence or argument. I'm not saying there is no evidence or argument to be mustered, but he simply didn't do it." Confronted with this objection, Rosenthal was simply impatient, as already cited: "I didn't attack him because of what he said about Israel or Iraq but because he put it in anti-Semitic language." Raising the question of how to avoid anti-Semitic formulations when criticizing Israeli policy.

The diversity of opinion on Mideast policy among learned Jews comes through briefly but forcefully in a fundraising letter from the editor of Tikkun ("A Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Polities, Culture, & Society"), which once described itself as a "Ieft-wing Commentary." Michael Lerner ("Ph.D.") writes to his supporters,

Iraqi aggression in Kuwait has further complicated the task of the Israeli peace movement-particularly given the foolish action of many Palestinians in supporting Saddam Hussein. My editorial in the September issue attempts to explain their support for Hussein in terms of the continuing frustration they've faced with an Israel that repeatedly asserts its unwillingness to negotiate land for peace. But while I think Palestinian support for Iraq does not provide good grounds to discount their struggle for national self-determination, I must say that personally I find it discouraging that many of them identify with such a destructive and vicious person as Saddam Hussein. I understand why so many Israelis are scared-both by Iraq and by Palestinian support for Saddam Hussein. And it certainly makes things much more difficult for us in the peace camp: we must oppose Saddam Hussein and yet not allow Iraq to become the newest excuse for continuing to deny Palestinians the rights they deserve. In this process, we must also stress our solid commitment to Israeli security and survival. That statement could have been signed by Joe Sobran or Pat Buchanan, but passes unnoticed written by a Jew, addressed to other Jews, in language studiedly sober.

Back to Eric Alterman in The Nation:

"Jewish pressure" is thrown around all the time in Washington and it is done so proudly. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the "pro-Israel" lobby in Washington, has spent the past ten years purposefully building and enhancing its reputation for deploying its "Jewish pressure" on matters it deems to be of Jewish concern, from Egypt to El Salvador. In that regard, anyway, it has done a pretty fair job. Just what did Rosenthal think Aipac director Thomas Dine had in mind back in 1984 when he announced, after the defeat of Senator Charles Percy (who supported the establishment of a Palestinian entity), that "all the Jews in America, from coast to coast, gathered to oust Percy. And the American politicians--those who hold public positions now, and those who aspire--got the message"? Goyish pressure?