Anti progressive Jews pile on cancelled progressive Jew

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The shopworn journalists’ adage that if you’re upsetting everybody, you must be doing something right applies, in spades, to journalist and author Joshua Leifer.

A Brooklyn bookstore employee canceled his launch event last week for his new book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, because he was to appear alongside a Zionist rabbi. The decision prompted a deluge of serves-you-rights, I-told-you-sos and jokes-on-yous from Leifer’s fellow Jews who object to his criticisms of Israel.

The employee of Powerhouse Arena bookstore took issue with the fact the Leifer was set to appear with his friend, Rabbi Andy Bachman, who has made comments defending Israel.

“We don’t want a Zionist on our stage,” the employee told Leifer.

If you thought Jews of all political stripes would unite and rush to Leifer’s defense against a clear act of discrimination, you’ve never been online. We Jews have become as indentured to the internet’s ruling outrage algorithms as everyone.

After news of the ban hit social media and various news outlets, the bookstore’s owner, Daniel Power, apologized and fired the employee, who he said acted without permission and against store policy.

But news of the lockout and the image of a hapless Leifer and Bachman standing outside their suddenly closed event space provoked a cackling roar of social media finger pointing from Jews who disagree with Leifer.

“I guess life comes at you fast when you spend your career making dizzying academic arguments against the existence of a Jewish state, only to be told, ‘Nice words, Jewboy, leave the store immediately,’ wrote Suzy Weiss in a Free Press essay entitled, “A Reality Check for Woke Jews.”

“Ha ha. An anti-Zionist Jew and a barely Zionist rabbi and they still don’t let you in,” tweeted the owner of an Israel-based PR firm.

Numerous people posted screenshots of a tweet Leifer wrote five years ago saying, “Boycotts, divestments and sanctions are peaceful strategies of resistance to oppression.”

“Care to revisit your priors?” tweeted one poster.

There were some noble responses, like that of Mizrahi Bookstore in Brooklyn, which sells used religious and secular Jewish books and instantly offered to host the event. But most of Leifer’s fellow Jews piled on with glee.

If you read Leifer’s book, all of the cruel snark from fellow Jews in response to his event cancellation underscores his key points, and makes Leifer’s voice even more important.

Despite what his critics suggest, Leifer does not ignore the antisemitism that is the root of, or has taken root in, the “Death to Israel” crowd.

“The reactions of some on the left to the October 7, 2023, attack revealed with disturbing clarity the extent to which antisemitic thinking had found a home in my own political camp, even among erstwhile allies,” he wrote. “Antisemitism on the left takes a different form than on the right, but it is no less real.”

“American Jewish life is perhaps more contentious, more incoherent, and more disorganized than at any point in the last seventy-five years,” he writes.

The three pillars that upheld a vibrant American Jewish life — Americanism, liberalism and Zionism — have cracked, according to Leifer. The belief in America’s promise and exceptionalism was shaken by the rise of right- and left-wing antisemitism. The post-war Jewish liberal consensus faltered in the face of neoconservatism from the right and more strident civil rights activism on the left, leaving Jews divided or ideologically adrift. And Zionism, which became the primary expression of American Jewish life and identity following Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six Day War, evolved into a source of deep division as Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its recurrent wars in Gaza dragged on.

“What the American Jewish establishment fails to understand,” Leifer writes in Tablets Shattered is that far more than Hamas’s rockets, or left-wing pro-Palestinianism on U.S. campuses, the real threat to Israel’s survival is a return to the status-quo ante—to the undemocratic one-state reality. The October 7 attacks proved that the occupation-management paradigm is unsustainable and guarantees only the loss of future lives.

If you care about Israel, Israelis and American Jewish life, this is the core, uncomfortable truth. It may be that some of the anti-Israel crowd are funded by Iran or report to Chinese overlords. It’s true the campus protesters ignore atrocities against hundreds of thousands of innocents in Sudan, or against Uyghur Muslims in China. There’s a special place in hypocrisy hell for undergrads camping out against Israel in tents made in China.

But none of that changes the demographic and moral calculus that Israel faces, something that the Internet hyenas have failed to engage with.

The best hasbara in the world, the greatest army, the cleverest tweets, won’t change the immutable fact that 14 million Jews and Arabs live between the river and the sea, and no one is going anywhere, and the only road forward involves compromise.

It’s the message Vice President Kamala Harris delivered during her acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for President — to thunderous applause — and it’s the message courageous Israelis and Palestinians want us American Jews to share.

“The overarching necessity to separate from the Palestinians remains as great as ever,” Gen. (Ret.) Yair Golan, one of the heroes of Oct. 7 and now the head of the Democratic Israel party, wrote this week in [ijHaaretz[/i], “and contrary to the common wisdom, the fundamental idea behind the Oslo Accords and the Gaza Disengagement was correct — the need to divide the land and separate from the Palestinians.”

Leifer makes that same point in his book’s conclusion, not as the anti-Zionist caricature he’s been turned into on social media — he is not anti-Zionist — but because that’s where logic and a true love of Israel inevitably leads.

In this situation, the bookstore people still look worse to me. Although a lot of it has to do with semantics. I guess I'll have to admit that if a bookstore exists to flog a particular agenda, they shouldn't feel obligated to accommodate those who disagree. There is a similar sort of bookstore in Baltimore called Red Emma's. A customer was once harassed there simply for wearing a yarmulke, and that was well before 10/7.

The problem with semantics has mostly to do with the idea of Anti-Zionism. Pro-Palestinian commentators often equate Anti-Zionism with criticism of Israel. However, as Zionism is the basis for the foundation of the State of Israel, saying one is Anti-Zionist can be logically understood to mean one believes that the State of Israel shouldn't even exist. I am not saying that such people want a 2nd Holocaust, but they somehow seem to think that current citizens of Israel should vote their own state out of existence and hand it over to the UN to be disposed of as the UN sees fit. I will editorialize a little bit by saying I think that the culture of the UN has been hostile to Israel since the UN was founded, even though I've often seen the opinion expressed that the UN is somehow beholden to Israel, but I happen to believe the opposite. So such a vote on the part of Israelis is highly unlikely. Or else they assume the entire world will turn against Israel and the world powers e.g. NATO, China, Russia, Iran, and so forth will set aside their differences and terminate Israel by force. Unfortunately, for all you Anti-Zionists out there, neither of those two things is going to happen.

OTOH Jews, most of whom identify as Zionists, and particularly Israelis, criticize Israel or to be more specific Israel's political and military policy constantly. Just take a look at current events if you don't believe that. Unfortunately coming out as Anti-Zionist, you're saying that none of this actually matters because the State of Israel can't legitimately exist in any form anyway. At that point, you're preaching to the choir, but public discourse has gotten to a point where the average person can't see that. News coverage of the war in Gaza is limited to depictions of the suffering of civilians. When before has a war ever been covered this way?

Although few will agree, I happen to think there is a definite link between Anti-Zionism and traditional pre-WWII European Anti-Semitism. This does not mean that all Anti-Zionists are necessarily Anti-Semites, but whenever somebody with no personal ties to Palestine becomes obsessed by their hatred of Zionism, I can't help wondering whether they may be more Anti-Semitic than even they realize.

However, as Zionism is the basis for the foundation of the State of Israel, saying one is Anti-Zionist can be logically understood to mean one believes that the State of Israel shouldn't even exist. I am not saying that such people want a 2nd Holocaust, but they somehow seem to think that current citizens of Israel should vote their own state out of existence and hand it over to the UN to be disposed of as the UN sees fit.

I would say the “wokeness” with emphasis on group privilege has traditional anti Semitic tropes about nefarious Jewish power baked in.

... unless you are aware of the other sources of the U.S.A.'s support for Israel besides wealthy Jewish lobbyists.

For example, Christian Zionists, some of whom are very wealthy too, vastly outnumber Jewish Zionists. (See separate thread on Christian Zionism.)

Many anti-Zionist leftists don't seem to be fully aware of Christian Zionism. But even these leftists tend to analyze Zionism (and the U.S. government's support for same) in terms of how they see it as serving the interests of U.S./Western imperialism, rather than as just the creation of a bunch of wealthy Jewish lobbyists.

My point here is not to deny that anti-Jewish bigotry exists in leftist circles. Of course it exists. But it is not necessarily "baked in," and it can be resisted within an anti-Zionist leftist context.

In the US, support for Israel is not restricted to some wealthy Jewish cabal or extreme Christian millennialists. If it were, people like Joe Biden and John Fetterman wouldn't be pro-Israel.

... unless you are aware of the other sources of the U.S.A.'s support for Israel besides wealthy Jewish lobbyists.

For example, Christian Zionists, some of whom are very wealthy too, vastly outnumber Jewish Zionists. (See separate thread on Christian Zionism.)

Many anti-Zionist leftists don't seem to be fully aware of Christian Zionism. But even these leftists tend to analyze Zionism (and the U.S. government's support for same) in terms of how they see it as serving the interests of U.S./Western imperialism, rather than as just the creation of a bunch of wealthy Jewish lobbyists.

My point here is not to deny that anti-Jewish bigotry exists in leftist circles. Of course it exists. But it is not necessarily "baked in," and it can be resisted within an anti-Zionist leftist context.

While I am aware of Christian Zionism I was replying to MaxE’s statement “Although few will agree, I happen to think there is a definite link between Anti-Zionism and traditional pre-WWII European Anti-Semitism.” Christian Zionists are by definition Zionists so why would I bring them in to reply about Anti Zionism?

I honestly don't know much about Christian Zionists, but I should address another concept that is at least implied by all this, which is that wealthy people, Jewish or otherwise, automatically support right-wing causes.

I won't go into specifics, but I can see how some wealthy Jews may support or have supported AIPAC simply because they support Israel, but that doesn't necessarily mean they love Netanyahu. I should point out here that supporting Israel doesn't necessarily equate with supporting Netanyahu.

While I am aware of Christian Zionism I was replying to MaxE’s statement “Although few will agree, I happen to think there is a definite link between Anti-Zionism and traditional pre-WWII European Anti-Semitism.” Christian Zionists are by definition Zionists so why would I bring them in to reply about Anti Zionism?

I tried to do some quick research on Christian Zionism but from what I could find, it seems a slippery concept to get one's brain around.

It seems some of the same people have also sent missionaries to the Middle East to try to convert both Jews and Muslims.

I really don't know how the "typical" Christian in America thinks about this, but the Christian Zionists being held responsible for the fact that the US government has not embraced a pro-Palestinian agenda look to me like extreme dogmatists, and if anything I see the influence of such people declining, even most of Trumps' supporters don't much go for that sort of thing.

I tried to do some quick research on Christian Zionism but from what I could find, it seems a slippery concept to get one's brain around. It seems some of the same people have also sent missionaries to the Middle East to try to convert both Jews and Muslims. I really don't know how the "typical" Christian in America thinks about this, but the Christian Zionists being held responsible for the fact that the US government has not embraced a pro-Palestinian agenda look to me like extreme dogmatists, and if anything I see the influence of such people declining, even most of Trumps' supporters don't much go for that sort of thing.

Agreed. Zionists are not a monolith. There have long been, for example, left-leaning Zionists who support the two-state solution.