Israel Matzav

The anti-Semites' useful idiot

On Tuesday, September 11, the city of Frankfurt, Germany will Jew-wash the last vestiges of acknowledged anti-Semitism by presenting its Adorno Prize for excellence in philosophy, music, theater and film to Judith Butler, an American philosopher and anti-Israel activist. The term 'Jew-wash' refers to those Jews who provide cover for anti-Semites by making the same criticisms of Israel and Jews that the anti-Semites themselves make. In other words, one who allows themselves to be used to Jew-wash anti-Semitism might be said to serve as the anti-Semites' useful idiot.

The choice of Ms. Butler is quite controversial, as Richard Landes and Benny Weinthal report in the Wall Street Journal.

The choice of Ms. Butler has been controversial, to say the least. Critics argue that a German city should not honor a woman who virulently condemns the state of Israel, where Buber and so many others fled for shelter from the Nazis. The controversy is the latest in a series of recent strains in the "special relationship" between Germany and Israel: Germany's circumcision bans, Berlin sending submarines to a newly belligerent Egypt, and ugly revelations of German behavior in the Munich Olympics terror attack.

Felix Semmelroth, a deputy mayor of Frankfurt, insists that the award committee recognized Ms. Butler's academic work alone, and that the political issues did not even arise. He says the "incriminating evidence" about her politics will not change the decision.

But the controversy has proved vexing. Germany's central council of Jews and Frankfurt's Jewish community have openly objected, saying they will not participate in the ceremony. Frankfurt Mayor Peter Feldmann, the first Jew to hold that office since the Holocaust, announced that he has travel plans that will prevent him from appearing. Jacques Schuster, a journalist with Die Welt, pulled out of moderating a discussion with Ms. Butler later this month at the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

Those who chose Ms. Butler to win the prize argue in favor of separating her academics from her politics. Alas, that's just not possible.

Her theory views Western civilization as a peculiarly sinister form of imperial domination, and believes that "subverting" that "hegemony" constitutes an act of liberation. Postcolonial theory tells her that Israelis are imperialists, using apartheid laws to oppress Palestinian "subalterns." Her interpretation of diasporic Judaism tells her that Jews should "oppose violence of all kinds, including state violence."

Therefore she favors dismantling the Jewish state as we know it, in favor of "multi-cultural co-habitation," reminiscent of Buber's "bi-national democratic state." In her latest book, "Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism," she nods to the prodigious forces of hatred and intolerance militating against her solution: "It may be that binationalism is an impossibility, but that mere fact does not suffice as a reason to be against it."

Would that Ms. Butler contented herself with abstruse publications. She is also a highly vociferous public critic of Israel. Participating in an "Anti-War Teach-In" at Berkeley in 2006, Ms. Butler answered a question about Hamas's and Hezbollah's place "in the global left." These are two of the most belligerent movements within the warmongering, anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynistic world of Islamist jihad. Yet while criticizing violence and "certain dimensions of both movements," Ms. Butler told the students that "understanding Hamas [and] Hezbollah as social movements that are progressive, that are on the left, that are part of a global left, is extremely important."

Maybe if Hannah Rosenthal doesn't continue as the State Department envoy on anti-Semitism in a second Obama term, the White House could consider appointing Butler instead. Butler would fit right in with the Obama administration's culture.

Read the whole thing.

Professor Landes has a much lengthier and more personal rebuke to Butler here.

Labels: Germany, Hannah Rosenthal, Jewish anti-Semitism, Judith Butler

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:42 AM