Alan Wald's Response

The statement endorsed by a meeting of the Ann Arbor Chapter of New Jewish Agenda (NJA) accuses me of "betraying" the ideals exemplified by Ben Linder; of using the Klaus Barbie trial "to attack the Jewish community"; of employing a method that "smacks of the good Jew/bad Jew comparison used to rationalize anti-Semitism, or more generally, racism of all stripes"; and of "Israel-bashing and Jewbaiting." These are rather harsh charges to be leveled at a member of Ann Arbor's leftwing community, who is also of Jewish background and who frequently writes for scholarly Jewish publications on the subject of Jews and internationalism. No effort was made by Gurk et al to contact me to learn anything more about my motives or intentions in preparing the tribute, prior to their announcing my excommunication from "Progressive People, Inc." The size and composition of that particular NJA meeting are unclear as well. In any event, the offending references to the state of Israel and U.S. official Elliot Abrams are clearly not tangential but absolutely essential to the theme of the essay: Ben's choice of internationalism. The political lesson presented is that members of groups who have suffered persecution and oppression should unite with other oppressed groups to end the social causes of the oppression of all - rather than allying with powerful exploiters who may favor them at the expense of others at one particular moment. Ben's choice exemplifies the former position. The state of Israel followed precisely the latter course when it served as a pro-Somoza surrogate for the U.S. in Nicaragua. So did Elliot Abrams, son-in-law of neo-conservative Commentary editor Norman Podhoretz, who is regarded by many as the "real" head of the Nicaraguan Contras - the obvious person to counterpose to his victim, Ben. Thus we have two modes of response to oppression exemplified by members of the same religious culture. Jews, like everyone else, have a political choice and may even end up on opposite sides of the barricades depending on whether one chooses to side with the haves against the have-nots, or visa-versa. Nowhere do I "attack the Jewish community," as Gurk says; I explicitly criticize only "some elements" (shame on Gurk et al for omitting the qualifier, thereby reversing the meaning!) of the Jewish community who use the horrifying Nazi atrocities against Jews (as well as gypsies, Communists, Socialists, homosexuals, and German Ben Linders) to justify atrocities by the Israeli state. The evidence is overwhelming that defenders of the Israeli state have for almost forty years used the memory of Nazi atrocities to justify Israel's policies and to accuse critics of the Israeli state of "anti-Semitism." This was precisely the theme of the notorious December 1972 "Danger on the Left" manifesto of the Anti-Defamation League, the prototype of the Jewish establishment's response to Jewish internationalists. There is no reason to believe that the reaction to the Barbie trial will reverse this trend. What, then, are the real issues that bring forth Gurk's own sad effort at defamation? Clearly they are political. In the last paragraph Gurk makes it obvious that my two statements -- the sharp political characterization of Israeli state policy and my explicit opposition to an Israeli "nationalist" response to anti-Semitism -- are regarded not as merely "inappropriate" but in some unstated manner politically "offensive." However, Gurk is either afraid to or incapable of defending his alternative views in AGENDA- so he resorts to calling me a Jewbaiter and linking me to racists and anti-Semites. Apparently Gurk and some misled members of NJA think it clever to smear a harsh critic of Israel as an "anti-Semite" rather than seriously discuss the arguments presented. Sadly, this precedent not only poisons political debate but will also hasten the day when the right wing of the Jewish community will use the exact same tactic against Gurk and other liberals in NJA themselves.

Tell everybody what you think. Write a letter to: AGENDA, P.O. Box 3624, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106