Dissent in the North American Jewish Community
By Michael Benazon

The recent election campaign in Israel has, despite its outcome,
highlighted a number of the failures of the government of Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, the foremost of which are a looming collapse of the Israeli
economy, Sharon's inability to bring about the promised security, and the
moral collapse within the Likud Party. The effects of Sharon's policies
abroad have received less attention, but for Diaspora Jews they are of
great concern.

The public relations campaign waged by the Likud government abroad
has been a mixture of success and abject failure. Its greatest success has
been to persuade the Bush administration and large sectors of the American public to lump the Palestinian leadership together with Al Qa'ida as terrorist organizations that must be ruthlessly crushed. The Sharon government has also been successful in persuading Jewish communities abroad to support its campaign to discredit the Oslo Peace Agreement and the present Palestinian Authority. However, Sharon has failed to convince the public in most Western countries of the justice and wisdom of Israel's present course. Sharon's policies have led to diplomatic isolation for Israel and may yet prove to be a colossal strategic error.

The situation in Canada is a case in point. The Canadian Jewish Congress, dominated by Likud supporters, gives solid backing to the Sharon government. Yet there are many Canadian Jews who have misgivings about Israel's current policies. Certain ultra-Orthodox groups-the Satmar Hasidim, the Lev Tahor, and the Neturei Karta, for example-have never recognized the legitimacy of the State of Israel and are appalled by the injustices committed in its name. Other Canadian Jews have joined such opposition groups as Peace Now, Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation, Jews for a Just Peace, Women in Black, or the New Israel Fund. Many more Jews remain silent for a variety of reasons: disgust with Palestinian suicide attacks on civilians; lack of confidence in the validity of their own moral perceptions; a desire to maintain Jewish unity in the face of attempts to discredit the State of Israel; reluctance to cause dissension among friends or family members; ignorance of the real motives behind Sharon's determination to crush the Palestinian Authority; a naïve trust in the wisdom of the present Jewish leadership; timidity in the face of Jewish community opinion; intimidation from community officials; reluctance to do anything that might give aid and support to antisemites or detractors of Israel; fear of losing status or even one's job in the Jewish community; or simply a reluctance to become involved in any kind of political activity.

The Jewish establishment tries to muzzle dissent by refusing to
allow it expression in its organs and institutions. One also notes the
general absence of dissenting views in most of the Jewish-owned newspapers and magazines, or in papers read by a largely Jewish audience. But the Jewish community is not monolithic, and attempts to suppress or discredit those who oppose the Sharon government are beginning to look like attempts to negate the principles of free speech and free association. There are, however, good reasons for arguing that the North American Jewish leadership should not try to promote a unity which does not exist. Jews have traditionally been an argumentative people, much given to disputing dictates and commands coming from on high. Many North American Jews are now challenging the myths and dogmas being promoted by the leadership. The claim that North American Jews are solidly behind the Israeli government is
already manifestly false.

Israel has traditionally regarded its Diaspora as a valuable resource to be
respected, valued and, when necessary, protected, while the Diaspora has always been Israel's most trusted and loyal ally. Yet Jews all over the
world are now paying a heavy price for Sharon's irresponsible and dangerous policies. It is not simply the emergence of a latent antisemitism but rather the degradation of the credibility and status of Jewish communities abroad. The traditional devotion of Jews to justice, human rights, and democratic practices, once widely admired, has now been tarnished by the Israeli government's evident disregard of these values in its treatment of the Palestinians. North American Jews cannot continue to ignore the suppression of Palestinian human rights in Israel while insisting on human rights for Jews in the Diaspora. The contradiction has become obvious.

The deafening silence of rabbis and Jewish civil rights advocates, with a
few notable exceptions, is disillusioning to the independent thinkers,
idealists, and intellectually inclined among Jewish youth. Many of them
were taught to believe in the universal stream in Jewish thought (e.g. "For
out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of God from Jerusalem," or "I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness . . . for a light unto the
nations.") It would be a matter of grave concern for the future of Jewish
communities if significant numbers of the most sensitive and intellectually
gifted of Jewish youth were to become disillusioned by the contradiction
between what they have been taught and what community leaders are now preaching. Despite the vast amounts of money poured into the Hillel
organizations across North America, many Jewish students have rejected its propaganda line, and opposition groups of students and professors are
gradually springing up on campuses all across North America.

Over the years, the Jewish community has been successful in using its urban locations, its economic power, and the skills of its political lobbyists to advance its interests within the federal and provincial governments. But in the past year we have seen that the Canadian government is reluctant to
accept the interpretation of events advanced by the present Israeli
government and promoted in Canada by the Canada-Israel Committee, the lobby group of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

There are various reasons for this change in attitude. Canada is not keen
to become associated with a unilateral American war on Iraq. Canada has
political and economic links with Muslim countries that it is unwilling to
jeopardize. More important, the Canadian Muslim community is now much larger than the Jewish community, and has also taken to lobbying.
In a few years, the Muslim community will have as much influence with the
various Canadian governments as the Jewish community has now.
Instead of viewing Muslims as rivals in an unseemly battle to catch the ear
of government officials, would it not be in the best interests of the
Jewish community to find ways to succor and co-operate with the Muslim
community? Jews and Muslims are fellow victims of racial and religious
prejudice, with many beliefs, customs, and interests in common. Both are
monotheistic religions with close ties to the Middle East. The religious of
both communities observe dietary laws and a dress code. Both have a strong need for parochial schools to inculcate religious values to their youth.

The position of both communities is today being called into question partly
because of the situation in the Middle East, which many Canadians find
difficult to comprehend, and partly because that conflict has become a
danger to world peace. It is inevitable that Canadians will become
irritated by the practice of bringing foreign conflicts to Canada and
resentful of the fact that both minority communities are becoming
increasingly aggressive in their attempts to lobby the federal government.
Surely it would be wiser for Jewish leaders to enter into a civil dialogue
with the leaders of the Muslim community aiming at reconciliation. Let us
learn from the recent fiasco at Montreal's Concordia University what can
happen if we do not teach our youth how to respect and listen to each
other.

The attempt of the Jewish leadership in North America and Israel to link
the swift rise of anti-Israel feeling to antisemitism appears to be an
example of self-delusion and sloppy thinking. No doubt there are lurking
antisemites, formerly dormant, who feel emboldened to engage in hostile
acts against Jews, just as there are racists who, in the aftermath of
9/11, feel emboldened to undertake hostile acts against Muslims,
immigrants, and visible minorities. The Jewish leadership has meekly
followed the Likud Party line that anti-Zionism is antisemitism-in order to
induce Diaspora Jews to give unconditional support to Israel. This tactic
has been effective in the Jewish community, where almost no one dares to
challenge it. If what we are seeing is really antisemitism, it is a complex
phenomenon that deserves serious study and discussion. It should not be
employed as a bogey to rally Jews around the flag. True, there have been
serious acts of antisemitism abroad, particularly in France, where a large
Arab minority has taken out its frustrations on the Jews. In North America
there appears to have been a rise in random acts of vandalism, beatings,
hate mail, hostile remarks, kippa snatching, graffiti, etc. But there is
little concrete evidence of resurgent antisemitism in schools, in the
workplace, in politics, or in the press. What can be observed is a slowly
mounting hostility and resentment directed at the Sharon government
occurring all over the world. Many people express disillusion and
disappointment with Israel, but this is not antisemitism.

If the North American Jewish leadership is not deliberately manipulating
the bogey of antisemitism to keep independent thinkers in the Jewish
community in line, then that leadership has been taken in by its own
propaganda. It sees antisemitism where there is none, though perhaps if the war with Iraq goes wrong, we will have a resurgence. The general public, told that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, may lose sight of the distinction and blur the two into one. If that observation is correct, it would indeed be an unfortunate development. Surely it would be wiser, as well as more truthful, to acknowledge that the general public can be anti-Likud without being antisemitic, or even anti-Zionist.

Needless to say, the tactic of labeling Jewish dissenters as self-hating or
as antisemitic is not merely an outrageous smear tactic designed to silence
dissent; it is an obvious falsehood, a gross distortion, which can only
alienate young and independent-minded Jews who question the propaganda line being foisted on the Jewish community by a short-sighted and unimaginative leadership.

It would appear, to this onlooker at least, that the North American Jewish
leadership should be concerned with the impact of Sharon's policies on the Diaspora. They should be warning him of the dangers of his policies rather than lending him their support.

MICHAEL BENAZON lived in Israel for fourteen years. While there he lived on a kibbutz, served in the army, and taught at the University of Haifa. He now lives in Montreal, where he works for peace and reconciliation groups and writes frequently on Israel.