Diana Applebaum: Our Own Worst Enemies

I was on the web site of the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles reading an article about anti-Semitism at U C Irvine where Muslim cleric Amir Abdel Malik Ali, a recidivist guest speaker of the Muslim Student Union, has been talking about the “apartheid state of Israel” and warning Muslim students against interacting with “Zionist racists.” Jewish organizations have not attempted to stifle Malik Ali, merely they have asked for the University administrators to state publicly that this sort of language is anti-Semitic, which University officials have declined to do.

While I was reading this, a sidebar flashed a photo of young men in knitted kippot holding automatic weapons. The caption read, “Let the Gaza Disengagement Fail.” I scrolled up and realized that the full caption read “Don’t Let the Gaza Disengagement Fail.” The photo of the gun-carrying Jews alternated with a photo of head band-wearing jihadis brandishing automatic weapons.

It is the kind of moral equation between Jews armed in self-defense and Arabs armed to murder Jews that I am ordinarily tempted to consider unfair to the point of being borderline anti-Semitic. Jihadis, after all, belong to organizations that deliberately plan and carry out the random mass murder of civilians. And although we have now witnessed lone-wolf Israeli terror attacks on Arabs, there is nothing in Israeli society comparable to the well-funded, broadly-supported terrorism of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade. Nothing. Any organization claiming that these two threats are equivalent, is suspect of bearing an irrational animus against Jews.

The ad was sponsored by Brit Tzedek v’Shalom. Brit Tzedek claims to be “deeply committed to Israel's well-being,” others call them “Anti-Zionist Zionists.” The Forward (a proudly left-wing newspaper) describes Brit Tzedek as part of “A new generation of left-wing Jewish groups siding with the Palestinian cause.” Certainly, you have to doubt the judgement of an organization that can blithely equate the religious Jewish settlers who peacefully evacuated Gaza this week, with the jihadis who filled the streets of Palestinian towns brandishing weapons and celebrating the evacuation as a victory for the terrorists who have murdered innocent Jews.