The Politics of Anti-Semitism

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Edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair

AK Press

Due/Published November 2003, 192 pages, paper

ISBN 1902593774

"Antisemite!" How did a term, once used accurately to describe the most virulent evil, become a charge flung at the mildest critic of Israel, particularly concerning its treatment of Palestinians? One answer is that there's no more explosive topic in American public life today than the issue of Israel, its oppression of Palestinians and its influence on American politics. Yet the topic is one that is so hedged with anxiety, fury and fear, that honest discussion is often impossible.

Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair have here assembled 18 articles -- from 9 Jews and 9 Gentiles -- from CounterPunch, a print and online journal, that examine this set of issues. Starting with analysis by the Canada-based philosopher Michael Neumann, What is Antisemitism? continues with pieces by Lenni Brenner, Scott Handleman, and Linda Belanger.

Essays by Robert Fisk and Norman Finkelstein, among others, offer first hand accounts of just how destructive or crazy "antisemite!" baiting can be. Alexander Cockburn offers a memoir of his own experience of being attacked as an anti-Semite, following his criticisms of Israel. Shaheed Alam describes the campaign against him.

Other essays offer ground-level accounts by those who have been part of the opposition to Israel's conduct and to the US role in sponsoring it with political, military and budgetary muscle. In "Jews Like Us" Bruce Jackson, for example, offers a spirited dissent from the notion that American Jews form a single voice in endorsing Israel's conduct. Will Yeomans describes the divestment campaign he helped launch.

After 9/11 it became apparent to many that Sharon's government was exploiting the new political terrain to further its own objectives, and that senior members of the US government had long career histories as promoters of the Israeli interest in Washington DC. Essays by a senior congressional staffer, and by former senior CIA analysts, Bill and Kathy Christison, cover this issue of dual loyalty.

So powerful is the Israel lobby that it was even able to bury a US congressional investigation into the deliberate attack on the USS Liberty by the Israeli Air Force, a attack that left 34 US sailors dead and 172 wounded. Jeffrey St Clair recalls this demonstration of the clout of the Israel lobby in official Washington.

The bottom line in this book is Israel's denial of Palestinians' right to a nation, living within secure borders. Many of the contributors to this book, like the veteran peace activist and journalist, Yuri Avneri, have born witness to the savagery of that denial. Just how terrible the occupation is, and how cruel the onslaughts on the Intifada are described by Edward Said, and an Israeli Jew, Yigal Bronner. Both nourished a vision of a future in which Israeli Jews and Palestinians live peaceful and tolerant lives, side by side.