If the Left were as intolerant of antisemitism as it is of racism there would be far less antisemitism in the world. At the Durbin II Conference on Racism, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has made some of the most vile antisemitic remarks uttered since the days of the Third Reich. And the outcry from the Left is next to non-existent. Indeed, President Barack Obama has expressed nothing resembling outrage against vitriolic remarks of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Jews. I mention this about President Obama because he prides himself in having particularly astute moral sensibilities. Indeed, the constant apologizing for America during his most recent European tour is thought to stem from his deep moral sensibilities.
It is an incontrovertible truth that what people say has a lot to do with what they know they can get away with saying. Nowadays, for instance, I can barely get a white student to repeat the so-called N-word—that is, the word “nigger”—even when the context for doing so is perfectly legitimate, as in the case of reading the word “nigger” as it appears in a legal document. Uttering this word has become so associated with being racist that white students refuse to utter it even in contexts where it is manifestly not racist to repeat the word.
If the vast majority of the nations of the earth made it unequivocally clear that they find antisemitism simply unacceptable, I am as confident as the night follows the day that President Ahmadinejad’s remarks at the Durbin II Conference would not have been so unapologetically antisemetic. Given the way in which he denounced Jews and the State of Israel, one would have thought that he was condemning the war crime of rape.
I recall with great admiration the near unified stance that the nation’s of the world took against the Apartheid of South Africa. It is precisely that unified stance that brought Apartheid to its end.
Thus, it is reasonable enough to hold that were the nations of the world to take an equally unified stance against antisemitism, then speeches like Ahmadinejad’s would not occur at, of all places, a conference against racism.
I am, of course, well aware that many delegates of the European Union walked out and that the President Nicolas Sarkozy, himself, denounced the speech. I admire Sarkozy for this. Still, what is true is that that the European Union is rather divided over what its stance should be to President Ahmadinejad. And that, alas, is just the point. Had the nation of the world been equally divided over Apartheid, it most certainly would have endured longer than it did.
Evil exploits ambiguity; and fact of the matter is that there is sufficient ambiguity over inappropriateness of antisemitism that at the very least a man likes Ahmadinejad supposes that it will not be too costly for him use vitriolic antisemitic remarks at a conference on the wrong of racism.
My experience has been that every time I write something in defense of Israel there is someone who will remind me that Israel is not perfect, and they will cite some wrong that Israel has committed. Well, if I may be permitted to invoke the words a man who was born a Jew: “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”
First of all, Israel does not have to be flawless in order for it to be true that antisemitic remarks are absolutely inappropriate. Blacks around the world are hardly flawless. Yet, no one thinks for a moment to suppose that the moral flaws of blacks suffice to excuse racism, let alone virulent racism.
The deeper problem, though, is this. In terms of values and social customs and ideals of equality, Israel is much more like the West than nearly all of the Arabic nations. Feminism and homosexuality are striking examples of this point. The ideology of feminism flourishes in Israel in a way that it is not possible for it to flourish in most, if not all, of the Arabic world; and with regard to homosexuality, the points holds all the more so. To hear many on the Left defend homosexuality one would think that it is an ideal to which we should all aspire.
So in view of the fact Israel is much more like the West—the European Union, Japan, Canada, and the United States—than the Arabic world, the question that obviously arises is this: How can it be that the Western nations have so much difficulty taking a strong and immutable stance against the antisemitism that flows from members of the Arabic world? This is rather like a Jew preferring a Nazi for a friend or a Black preferring a KKK-person for a friend. Needless to say, any such person or preference structure exhibits considerable moral schizophrenia.
The Left’s tolerance of antisemitism from the Arabic world is worse than merely a form of horrendous cowardice. The Left’s intolerance of antisemitism from the Arabic world reveals that in the end there remain deep, deep antisemitic sentiments on the part of the Left. President
Lest there be any misunderstanding here, I do not think for a moment that a person is open to the charge of antisemitism if she or he does not agree with Israel. Indeed, it does not occur to me think that one is antisemitic for criticizing Israel. Thinking of this sort is just so much nonsense.
Notice, though, that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has for all intents and purposes denied the reality of the Holocaust and neither women nor gays in Iran have the basic human respect that they should have. Yet, the Left cannot seem to bring itself to denounce Ahmadinejad. What would he have to do in order for that to happen?
I know, I know: Ahmadinejad need only claim that Blacks are nothing but Niggers. Folks on the Left would then trip over themselves denouncing him. And when Ahmadinejad announces that all Blacks are Niggers, Jews should simply claim that they are Black! Done.
Who knows, perhaps even President Barack Obama, with his extraordinary moral sensibilities, might be moved to speak on behalf of Jews. With the utterances of vile antisemitism, Obama’s posture seems to be: Let us try to understand where the “folks” who make these horrible antisemitic remarks are coming from. Of course, President Obama would not tolerate vile racist remarks from the Arabic world.
As for the idea that Jews are Black: I am really beginning to like it.
