Is It Good For The Jews?
New Meaning For An Old Cliche
There are 153 million answers on google to this question, including a 1972 Commentary column from Norman Podhoretz calling it “a question as old, in all probability, as the Jewish Diaspora itself.” And the first item on my search results was from Amazon (of course), promoting a book on Jewish humor by that title.
Today the question doesn’t seem so funny.
It’s being reported that our college campuses are exploding with anti-Semitism, with posters of victims kidnapped by Hamas being torn down and student groups issuing statements like the one at Harvard accusing “the Israeli regime” of being “entirely responsible” for the murder and kidnapping of Israelis.
And a Cornell junior has been arrested for posting threats to an online discussion forum where he threatened to kill Jewish students and “shoot up” a kosher dining hall.
On the cable news morning pontificating session I turned away from to write this, this news is being discussed with sky-is-falling urgency. But two things can be true at the same time, as one of the hosts is fond of saying.
And so can three things.
Hamas deserves unqualified condemnation for its murderous attacks, and Israel has the right to defend itself, and
Civilians, particularly women and children, must not be the innocent victims, and
College students sometimes do
stupless-than-carefully-thought-out things.
But not just college students. Members of Congress can be just as quick to react with anger before taking time to develop something more nuanced. (Nuance is hard).
CNN reports:
Rep. Andre Carson called fellow Democrat Josh Gottheimer a “punk” and a “coward,” saying the two “could get into something else” after they disagreed over a measure aimed at showing support for Israel.
And, according to the Washington Post, Democratic members of Congress who’ve been critical of Israel’s response to Hamas are facing primary challenges, including Representatives Cori Bush (D-MO), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Summer Lee (D-PA) and potentially Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)
The article quotes Summer Lee saying she opposed the measure because it “does not acknowledge the overwhelming loss of life and humanity of Palestinians which moves us further from — not closer to — a just and lasting peace.”
Not every Democratic member of Congress needs to support Israel with the same level of political fervor. Summer Lee has already paid a price for her views—as the Post reports,
In 2022, Lee was elected to Congress despite an ad blitz in the primary by a pro-Israel super PAC. She won the primary by fewer than 1,000 votes, beating a candidate who had, among other things, called for strengthening the relationship between the United States and Israel.
Maybe the smart thing politically for Summer Lee, Andre Carson and their colleagues on the far left side of the Democratic aisle would have been to vote for the resolution, but also stand with innocent civilians in Palestine.
But like I said, nuance is a bitch.