Israel Matzav

When being accused of anti-Semitism is a badge of pride

I stayed out of the battle between Leon Wieseltier and Andrew Sullivan earlier this month, in which Wieseltier published a lengthy post that much of the blogosphere saw as accusing Sullivan of anti-Semitism. I didn't comment on it because I haven't been reading Sullivan long enough or often enough to back up anything I would say, but you all know I have done a couple of posts ripping individual things Sullivan has written, and on one occasion even called him an anti-Semite myself (that last post even drew an email from Jeffrey Goldberg).

After reading this post by the Fingerman (Hat Tip: Shmuel Rosner), I may avoid using the words "anti-Semite" in reference to people whose writings are on the Internet, in order to deny them the satisfaction that they apparently seek.

In fact, the whole Wieseltier-Sullivan episode has served to illustrate an emerging trend among critics of Israel: Their eagerness to allege that they've been accused of being an anti-Semite. I do agree that some of Israel's defenders are too quick to throw out charges of anti-Semitism or "self-hating Jew," and that's lamentable and a problem. But it seems that among many of Israel's critics, claiming that you've been accused of being an anti-Semite has become some sort of bizarre badge of honor. And quite a few of those that have allegedly been accused of being an anti-Semite, according to Wieseltier's critics, either were never smeared with such a term or were only accused of making a specific problematic remark and not tarred with some broad brush of disliking Jews, as they claim.

The best example of this overheated "He called me an anti-Semite" charge is a column by Glenn Greenwald last week. Early in the article, he writes: "As Charles Freeman can attest, frivolous anti-semitism accusations can still damage those seeking high-level political positions, but those accusations no longer pack any real punch in virtually any other realm" and later gives us this paragraph:

If The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan, and Time's Joe Klein, and Foreign Policy's Stephen Walt, and the University of Chicago's John Mearsheimer, and Gen. Wes Clark (a TNR target), and Howard Dean, and former President Jimmy Carter, and a whole slew of others like them are "anti-semites," then how terrible of an insult is it?

So let's examine a few of Greenwal'd alleged victims.

You should read the whole thing, but for those of you who won't click through, I'll leave you with the Fingerman's questions at the end of his piece:

Why exactly has claiming you've been called an anti-Semite become so cool lately? Could it be that those claiming they've been called anti-Semites find it easier to do that that actually defend their positions with facts?

I'd bet on it. Eric Fingerhut says he'll have more about it later in the week. By the way, three years ago, David Bernstein wrote something similar to what Fingerhut wrote.

Hmmm.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:37 PM