In his latest Substack essay, author Peter Beinart talks about Medhi Hasan’s recent interview with Dean Phillips, a member of Congress who ran for president on the Democratic side just this year.
It’s impolitic to compare Israelis to Nazis, though I continue to show parallels between Israeli society and Nazi Germany. I think it’s important to show the connections between the two.
As I understand it, the calling of Israelis as being like Nazis was considered highly offensive because it was a way for certain folks to throw the Holocaust back in the faces of Israelis (as well as Jewish people in the Diaspora). It was seen as a cheap shot. But when we see Israel today committing the same crimes (though on a different scale and through a different medium — bombs instead of crematoria), it is hard not to make the comparison. And it’s really important that we do draw those parallels, so we recognize what it is we’re seeing.
Oh, you didn’t have to do that! Though, of course, you are free to amend your words as you wish.
I guess I’m still trying to navigate this rhetorical minefield that faces us. We need to be able to criticize Israel’s actions on just this front. I guess I’m still trying to figure that one out. Perhaps being impolitic is unavoidable.
Tricky territory, indeed! That’s the whole thing in a nutshell.
I guess also (and this is something I might delve into at a later date) is the fact that nationalism and all ideologies are self-selected and thus they can be renounced. I tried my hand at articulating this some time ago, in a very progressive forum, but many people did not like what I had to say.
People can change. We need not destroy our enemies. There is great power in redemption.
I despise Nazism, as I despise all exclusive ideologies and cults of superiority. But the individuals caught up in the ideologies have the ability, and we should afford them the chance, to change their minds.
I think Beinert is simply stating out loud a sentiment that has been obvious to anyone who is supportive of the Palestinian cause, namely that they are considered unsympathetic because they are non- white and non-Western. The fact of the matter is that white Europeans (preferably some flavor of Christian) are considered the default version of humanity. The extent to which someone is considered human depends on how much they fit or don’t fit this model. As much as the future of the Zionist project remains uncertain, one of its primary goals - that of making white European Ashkenazi Jews accepted as white Westerners in their own nation state - has been wildly successful. Israel is accepted as part of the West and enjoys all the privileges that entails, namely the ability to abuse, kill, and exploit non-whites/non-Westerners with no consequences. To paraphrase Kos and other Western commentators, it’s not a tragedy when Palestinian children are slaughtered en masse, because no actual people were harmed.
You’ve encapsulated things much more concisely than I have.
One aspect that I didn’t truly explore here but to which I am devoting much thought is that Israel is very much like a Western power in training. The nation has been entrusted with many elements of power but it itself is very young. So the more established powers are attempting to negotiate and navigate a path for it. So Israel feels it should have the same experience of domination over what is considered a “lesser” people, and what I’ve seen over these last nine months is that the West, in the main, is overseeing that very process.
I mean, all of the other great powers of the world have enacted a genocide, and none of them suffered consequences from it. At the moment, the United States is ushering Israel through its rite of passage, and it is doing all it can to ensure that Israel does not pay a penalty. Then it will be all grown up and join the other Western powers.
I am showing my cynicism with my use of infantilizing language, but that’s how I truly see what’s going on here. There is no good reason why the United States and the other Western nations have not intervened (in fact, such an intervention should have happened in November or even late October). Biden et al. see this military (mis)adventure as necessary growing pains of an adolescent country.
And part of why I say that is because there are some Israelis (and even Jewish Americans who are emotionally tied to Israel as an idea) who gripe that the Allies bombed Dresden into smithereens, or that the US went into Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11, so why can’t Israel do the same? And then they pull out the anti-semitism charge to claim that their critics simply don’t want Jewish people to be able to commit such acts(!?). It’s not sane. I’ve heard this, however, from actual people, and it really speaks to a deep sense not only of insecurity (even an inferiority complex) but a sense of supreme entitlement. “We should be able to kill these people! It’s our right to commit mass murder!” It is mind-boggling.
Such an important interview, and still more, such an essential expansion of it! I’ve been asking this question for years: are Palestinians human? If so, why aren’t they entitled to basic human rights? It’s really just that simple. Israel can only getaway with what it does to Palestinians by denying their basic humanity.
Not just that: those listening to those denials have to accept the premise of the assertions. So by the time you have someone like Rep. Phillips making excuses and apologies for the inordinate slaughter of hundreds of innocent people, the audience who is receptive has already incorporated the base assumptions of who is and isn’t to be counted.
You’ve been asking the question for years; I’m just (so late!) coming to the issue. But, in my own exploration of exploitation in the American context, all the lessons are relevant, so I am fortunate to be able to apply a similar analysis. That is to say, I see parallels between the treatment of Palestinians today with the historical treatment of Black Americans throughout American history, and it floors me that many others simply do not see — truly, they are blind.
I think about the prohibitions on certain forms of speech that are being considered to protect Zionism, and I am left to wonder: would those same apologists today have been campaigning for the rights of plantation owners not to be criticized in the public square? It staggers me.
what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians in Gaza right now does not say much for the so called "humanity" of the Israelis. If that is humanity, maybe we would be better off without it.
Part of what’s going on with Israeli culture is that they are undergoing what’s known as a “reversal of morality.” This invariably accompanies the onset of genocide, on the perpetrator’s side.
The perpetrator group, so insular and so inward-facing, considers that anything done in order to protect the group is the highest good. This means that all means can be pressed to that end. There are no limits, because the group is the ultimate good. Thus murder, rape, torture, even genocide pales in comparison. Indeed, committing atrocious acts no longer seem atrocious, because they’re seen as acts of protection and heroism. This is why we see Israeli soldiers posting evidence of their own committal of war crimes. To them, they don’t seem like crimes.
So their idea of humanity, at least at this historical moment, is turned completely upside-down. I’m speaking very generally, of course — Israel is a variegated society with pockets of real opposition to what the country is turning into. Witness Gideon Levy, for example, who has turned a critical eye on his culture for decades. But he is a lone voice at the moment: even he has spoken about how long-time progressive voices in Israel since October 7th have fallen silent. The country has a single-minded focus, and that is to crush what they view as their enemy in pursuit of absolute security (a chimera).
My concern, on the Israeli side, is whether they will regain equilibrium and turn their humanity back rightside-up, and how long that might actually take. It’s unclear whether any of that will come to pass.
I wonder what makes some able to see the inhumanity and hypocrisy involved in dehumanizing one group of people in order to lift up another group while others just go along with the cruelty. In the same way, I wonder why some see being rich as being successful, while others realize that being rich only means you exploited someone or won the lottery.
What you say about perceptions of being rich is especially true as most people inherit their wealth. They don’t earn it themselves. Some entrepreneurs exist, but many if not most still come from money. So why the perception abounds that wealth is indicative of perseverance or ingenuity is odd, almost certainly a relic in itself.
Maybe it's because of what I read and see on social media, but I feel like the Palestinians are just like us and Zionist Israelis are not.
It’s impolitic to compare Israelis to Nazis, though I continue to show parallels between Israeli society and Nazi Germany. I think it’s important to show the connections between the two.
As I understand it, the calling of Israelis as being like Nazis was considered highly offensive because it was a way for certain folks to throw the Holocaust back in the faces of Israelis (as well as Jewish people in the Diaspora). It was seen as a cheap shot. But when we see Israel today committing the same crimes (though on a different scale and through a different medium — bombs instead of crematoria), it is hard not to make the comparison. And it’s really important that we do draw those parallels, so we recognize what it is we’re seeing.
I changed my comment to make it less offensive.
Oh, you didn’t have to do that! Though, of course, you are free to amend your words as you wish.
I guess I’m still trying to navigate this rhetorical minefield that faces us. We need to be able to criticize Israel’s actions on just this front. I guess I’m still trying to figure that one out. Perhaps being impolitic is unavoidable.
I know I didn't have to, but I felt some discomfort when I actually posted it. And your comment confirmed it.
I agree: it's tricky territory to navigate, but I don't want to throw gasoline on the fire, as much as I want Israel out of Palestine right now.
Tricky territory, indeed! That’s the whole thing in a nutshell.
I guess also (and this is something I might delve into at a later date) is the fact that nationalism and all ideologies are self-selected and thus they can be renounced. I tried my hand at articulating this some time ago, in a very progressive forum, but many people did not like what I had to say.
People can change. We need not destroy our enemies. There is great power in redemption.
I despise Nazism, as I despise all exclusive ideologies and cults of superiority. But the individuals caught up in the ideologies have the ability, and we should afford them the chance, to change their minds.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/2/2155683/-For-recruiters-white-power-is-word-power
I think Beinert is simply stating out loud a sentiment that has been obvious to anyone who is supportive of the Palestinian cause, namely that they are considered unsympathetic because they are non- white and non-Western. The fact of the matter is that white Europeans (preferably some flavor of Christian) are considered the default version of humanity. The extent to which someone is considered human depends on how much they fit or don’t fit this model. As much as the future of the Zionist project remains uncertain, one of its primary goals - that of making white European Ashkenazi Jews accepted as white Westerners in their own nation state - has been wildly successful. Israel is accepted as part of the West and enjoys all the privileges that entails, namely the ability to abuse, kill, and exploit non-whites/non-Westerners with no consequences. To paraphrase Kos and other Western commentators, it’s not a tragedy when Palestinian children are slaughtered en masse, because no actual people were harmed.
You’ve encapsulated things much more concisely than I have.
One aspect that I didn’t truly explore here but to which I am devoting much thought is that Israel is very much like a Western power in training. The nation has been entrusted with many elements of power but it itself is very young. So the more established powers are attempting to negotiate and navigate a path for it. So Israel feels it should have the same experience of domination over what is considered a “lesser” people, and what I’ve seen over these last nine months is that the West, in the main, is overseeing that very process.
I mean, all of the other great powers of the world have enacted a genocide, and none of them suffered consequences from it. At the moment, the United States is ushering Israel through its rite of passage, and it is doing all it can to ensure that Israel does not pay a penalty. Then it will be all grown up and join the other Western powers.
I am showing my cynicism with my use of infantilizing language, but that’s how I truly see what’s going on here. There is no good reason why the United States and the other Western nations have not intervened (in fact, such an intervention should have happened in November or even late October). Biden et al. see this military (mis)adventure as necessary growing pains of an adolescent country.
And part of why I say that is because there are some Israelis (and even Jewish Americans who are emotionally tied to Israel as an idea) who gripe that the Allies bombed Dresden into smithereens, or that the US went into Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11, so why can’t Israel do the same? And then they pull out the anti-semitism charge to claim that their critics simply don’t want Jewish people to be able to commit such acts(!?). It’s not sane. I’ve heard this, however, from actual people, and it really speaks to a deep sense not only of insecurity (even an inferiority complex) but a sense of supreme entitlement. “We should be able to kill these people! It’s our right to commit mass murder!” It is mind-boggling.
Such an important interview, and still more, such an essential expansion of it! I’ve been asking this question for years: are Palestinians human? If so, why aren’t they entitled to basic human rights? It’s really just that simple. Israel can only getaway with what it does to Palestinians by denying their basic humanity.
Not just that: those listening to those denials have to accept the premise of the assertions. So by the time you have someone like Rep. Phillips making excuses and apologies for the inordinate slaughter of hundreds of innocent people, the audience who is receptive has already incorporated the base assumptions of who is and isn’t to be counted.
You’ve been asking the question for years; I’m just (so late!) coming to the issue. But, in my own exploration of exploitation in the American context, all the lessons are relevant, so I am fortunate to be able to apply a similar analysis. That is to say, I see parallels between the treatment of Palestinians today with the historical treatment of Black Americans throughout American history, and it floors me that many others simply do not see — truly, they are blind.
I think about the prohibitions on certain forms of speech that are being considered to protect Zionism, and I am left to wonder: would those same apologists today have been campaigning for the rights of plantation owners not to be criticized in the public square? It staggers me.
Thanks for reading, Mary.
what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians in Gaza right now does not say much for the so called "humanity" of the Israelis. If that is humanity, maybe we would be better off without it.
Part of what’s going on with Israeli culture is that they are undergoing what’s known as a “reversal of morality.” This invariably accompanies the onset of genocide, on the perpetrator’s side.
The perpetrator group, so insular and so inward-facing, considers that anything done in order to protect the group is the highest good. This means that all means can be pressed to that end. There are no limits, because the group is the ultimate good. Thus murder, rape, torture, even genocide pales in comparison. Indeed, committing atrocious acts no longer seem atrocious, because they’re seen as acts of protection and heroism. This is why we see Israeli soldiers posting evidence of their own committal of war crimes. To them, they don’t seem like crimes.
So their idea of humanity, at least at this historical moment, is turned completely upside-down. I’m speaking very generally, of course — Israel is a variegated society with pockets of real opposition to what the country is turning into. Witness Gideon Levy, for example, who has turned a critical eye on his culture for decades. But he is a lone voice at the moment: even he has spoken about how long-time progressive voices in Israel since October 7th have fallen silent. The country has a single-minded focus, and that is to crush what they view as their enemy in pursuit of absolute security (a chimera).
My concern, on the Israeli side, is whether they will regain equilibrium and turn their humanity back rightside-up, and how long that might actually take. It’s unclear whether any of that will come to pass.
I wonder what makes some able to see the inhumanity and hypocrisy involved in dehumanizing one group of people in order to lift up another group while others just go along with the cruelty. In the same way, I wonder why some see being rich as being successful, while others realize that being rich only means you exploited someone or won the lottery.
What you say about perceptions of being rich is especially true as most people inherit their wealth. They don’t earn it themselves. Some entrepreneurs exist, but many if not most still come from money. So why the perception abounds that wealth is indicative of perseverance or ingenuity is odd, almost certainly a relic in itself.