The Liberal Jewish Majority Must Beat Back the Neocon Jewish Minority

Posted by Spencer Ackerman, Attackerman at 2:03 PM on July 30, 2008.

Last month I wrote about how the right-wing fake-friends of Israel in American Jewry were coming after Joe Klein -- a member of the Tribe -- for saying something that all of us DC Jews acknowledge to be true, which is that a bunch of our neocon co-religionists, out of ignorance or mendacity, seek to steer American policy in the direction of a misguided belief of what's good for Israel. That direction is a warlike one, and often a racist one. And for years, out of a bizarre fear that America is a more antisemitic nation than it is, they've believed that such a proposition can't be uttered in mixed company, and so have succeeded in intimidating the rest of us, Jew and Gentile alike, by intimating that even breathing in that direction is antisemitic. Indeed, they will not stop until they define all of liberalism as antisemitic.

The result of the euphemistic and fearful dialogue that they have cultivated and enforced has been, among other things, an intellectual climate that enabled a war disastrous to both American and Israeli security. Good going, fellas!

So now they've stepped up their attacks on Joe. But Joe, to his great credit, isn't backing down. Instead, he's pushing the bullies back in their flabby chests.

I am not going to make the same mistake twice. I don't think a war with Iran is coming, thank God, but this time I am not going to pull any punches. My voice isn't very important in the grand scheme of things, but I'm going to do my job -- and that means letting you know exactly where I stand and what I believe. I believe there are a small group of Jewish neoconservatives who are pushing for war with Iran because they believe it is in America's long-term interests and because they believe Israel's existence is at stake. They are wrong and recent history tells us they are dangerous. They are also bullies and I'm not going to be intimidated by them.

Nor should the rest of us. These people are liars, fools and stooges. They do not actually have any idea how to protect either America or Israel. Everything they believe has been decisively disproven over the last eight years. Not only do we never need to fear them, we never need to listen to them ever again, except for the purpose of merciless ridicule.

But here's how it stops. I am challenging my fellow liberal American Jews -- the vast majority of us in this country -- to walk point here. Our Gentile friends look to us, as is appropriate, for pushing back on the growing canard that liberalism is antisemetism, peace is antisemetism, coexistence between Israel and Palestine is antisemetism, true security for Israel and America is antisemetism. So we have to be the ones who take the initiative in beating back the rightwing Jewish minority-- something good for the Jews, good for America, good for Israel, good for the Arabs, good for peace, good for the world. Remember, they'd be the ones in the camps collaborating. Let's show them what we do to collaborators.

Update: More from Ezra. More from Yglz.

Tagged as: iran, neocons, israel, racism, palestine, joe klein, american jewish community