Sharon, Le Pen, and Anti-Semitism

Naomi Klein

knew from e-mail reports that something new was going on in Washington,
I D.C., last weekend. A demonstration against the World Bank and Interna­
tional Monetary Fund was joined by an antiwar march, as well as a demonstra­
tion against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. In the end , all the
marches joined together in what organizers described as the largest Palestin­
ian solidarity demonstration in U.S. history, 75,000 people by police estimates.
On Sunday night, I turned on my television in the hopes of catching a glimpse
of this historic protest. I saw something else instead: triumphantjean-Marie Le
Pen celebrating his newfound status as the second most popular political leader
in France. Ever since, I've been wondering whether the new alliance displayed
on the streets can also deal with this latest threat.
As a critic both of the Israeli occupation and of corporate-dictated global­
ization, it seems to me that the convergence that took place in Washington last
weekend was long overdue. Despite easy labels like "anti-globalization," the trade­
related protests of the past three years have all been about self-determination:
the right of people everywhere to decide how best to organize their societies
and economies, whether that means introducing land reform in Brazil, or pro­
ducing generic AIDS drugs in India, or, indeed, resisting an occupying force
in Palestine. When hundreds of globalization activists began flocking to Ramallah
to act as "human shields" between Israeli tanks and Palestinians, the theory that
has been developing outside trade summits was put into concrete action. Bringing
that courageous spirit back to Washington, D.C., where so much Middle East­
ern policy is made, was the next logical step.
But when I saw Le Pen beaming on TV, arms rai sed in triumph, some of
my enthusiasm drained away. There is no connection whatsoever between
French fascism and the "free Palestine" marchers in Washington (indeed, the
only people Mr. Le Pen's supporters seem to dislike more than Jews are Arabs) .
And yet I couldn't help thinking about all the recent events I've been to where
anti-Muslim vi olence was rightly condemned , Ariel Sharon deservedly blasted,
but no mention was made of attacks on Jewish synagogues, cemeteries, and
community centers. Or about the fact that every time I log on to activist news
sites like Indymedia.org, which practice "open publishing ," I'm confronted
with a string of Jewish conspiracy theories about 9/11 and excerpts from the
Protocol of the Elders of Zion.
The globalization movement isn't anti-Semitic; it j ust hasn't fully confronted
the implications of diving into the Middle East conflict. Most people on the
left are simply choosing sides and in the Middle East, where one side is under
 The Jewish Question: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Anti-Semitism 267

occupation and the other has the U.S. military behind it, the choice seems clear.
But it is possible to criticize Israel while forcefully condemning the rise of anti­
Semitism. And it is equally possible to be pro-Palestinian independence with­
out adopting a simplistic "pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel" dichotomy, a mirror image
of the good-versus-evil equations so belm•ed by President George W. Bush.
Why bother with such subtleties while bodies are still being pulled out of the
rubble in Jenin? Because anyone interested in fighting Le Pen-style fascism or
Sharon-style brutality has to deal with the reality of anti-Semitism head-on. The
hatred of Jews is a potent political tool in the hands of both the right in Eu­
rope and in Israel. For Mr. Le Pen, anti-Semitism is a windfall, h elping spike
his support from IO percent to 17 percent in a week. For Ariel Sharon, it is the
fear of anti-Semitism, both real and imagined, that is the weapon. �fr. Sharon
likes to say that he stands up to terrorists to show he is not afraid. In fact, his
policies are driven by fear. His great talent is that he fully understands the depths
of Jewish fear of another Holocaust. He knows how to draw parallels between
Jewish anxieties about anti-Semitism and American fears of terrorism. And he
is an expert at harnessing all of it for his polit ic al ends .

The primary, and familiar, tear that l\fr. Sharon d ra ws on, the one that al­
lows him to claim all aggressive actions as dcfe nsi\ e ones, is the fear that Isra el s
' '

neighbors want to drive the Jews into the sea. The seconda ry fear �Ir. Sharon
manipulates is the fear amongJcws in the Diaspora that they will e\·entually be
driven to seek safe haven in Israel. This fear leads millions of J ews around the
.

world, many of them sickened by Israeli aggress ion to shut up and send their
,

checks, a down payment on future sanctuary.The equation is simple : the more

fearful Jews are, the more powerful Sharon is. Elected on a platform of p ea ce "

through security," Sharon's adm inist ra tio n could barely hide its delight at Le
Pen's ascendancy, immediately calling on French Jews to pack their h ags and
come to the promised land. For Sharon.Jewish fear is a guarantee that his power
will go unchecked, granting him the impunity needed to do the u nthinka ble:
send troops into the Palestinian Aut horit s education m inistr to steal and destroy
y' y

records; bury children alive in their homes; block ambulances from getting to
the dying.
Jews outside Israel now find themsel\'es in a ti gh te ni ng \'ice: th e actions of
the country that was supposed to ensure their future sa fety arc making them
less safe right now. Mr. Sharon is deliberately erasin g distinctions between the
terms "Jew" and "Israeli," claiming he is fighting not for Israeli territor:· but for
the survival of the Jewish people. And when anti-Semitism rises at least p a rtly
as a result of his actions, it is Sharon who is positioned once again to collect
the political dividends.
And it works. Most Jews arc so frightened that they are now willing to do any­
thing to defend Israeli policies. So at my neighborhood synagogue, where the
humble fa.;:ade was just badly scarred by a suspicious fire, the sign on the door
doesn't say, "Thanks for nothing, Sharon." It says, "Support Israel.. ..Now more
than ever."
268 Wrestling with Zion

There is a way out. Nothing is going to erase anti-Semitism, but Jews outside
and inside Israel might be a little safer if there was a campaign to distinguish
between diverseJewish positions and the actions of the Israeli state. This is where
an international movement can play a crucial role. Already, alliances are being
made between globalization activists and Israeli "refuseniks," soldiers who refuse
to serve their mandatory duty in the occupied territories. And the most power­
ful images from Saturday's protests were rabbis walking alongside Palestinians.
But more needs to be done. It's easy for social justice activists to tell themselves
that since Jews already have such powerful defenders in Washington and Jerusa­
lem, anti-Semitism is one battle they don't need to fight. This is a deadly error.
It is precisely because anti-Semitism is used by the likes of Mr. Sharon that the
fight against it must be reclaimed.
When anti-Semitism is no longer treated as Jewish business, to be taken care
of by Israel and the Zionist lobby, Mr. Sharon is robbed of his most effective
weapon in the indefensible and increasingly brutal occupation. And as an extra
bonus, whenever hatred ofJews diminishes, the likes of Jean-Marie Le Pen shrink
right down with it.
Wrestling with Zion
Progressive Jewish-American Responses
to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Edited and wi th an In troduction by

Ton y Kushner and Alisa Solomon

.....
•
Grove Press
New York
Copyright © 2003 by Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon

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brought to the publisher's attention will be corrected in future editions.

"Sh'ma• and "Birkat Shalom, Blessing of Peace" by Marcia Falk. Excerpted from The Book of Blessings: NewJewish
Prayers/or Daily Life, tht Sabbath, and the New Moon Festival ( H arper, 1 996; Beacon, 1 999) copyright © 1996 by Marcia
Lee Falk. Used by permission of the author.

"Morning News" by Marilyn Hacker. From Desesperanto by Marilyn Hacker. Copyright © 2003 by Marilyn Hacker.

"Separating Spiritual and Political, He Pays a Price" (copyright © 2002 by The New York Times Co . ) and "A Skeptic
About Wars Intended to Stamp Out Evil" (copyright © 2003 by The New York Times Co . ) by Chris Hedges.
Reprinted with permission.

"Rescuing Private Lynch, Forgetting Rachel Corrie" by Naomi Klein. Published May 2003, copyrigh t © Naomi Klein.
"Sharon, LePen, and Anti-Semitism" by Naomi Klein. Published April 2002, copyright Naomi Klein.

"Deal Breakers," by Michael Massing. The American Prosptct, vol. 1 3 no. 5, March I I, 2002.

"The Fundamental Truth" from The An ofBl.ssing the Day by Marge Piercy, copyright © 1 999 by Middlemarsh, Inc.
Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

"lmman Square Incantation" and "Immature Song" by Robert Pinsky. "l mman Square Incan tation" was originally
published in Ploughshares. "I mmature Song• was originally published in The Threepenny Revuw.

"Living with the Holocaust" by Sar� Roy. Copyright © 2002 by Institute for Palestine Studies; Reprinted from Journal of
Pakstint Studus: Vol. 32 No. I Issue: Autumn 2002 pp. 5- 1 2.

"Prayer" from Days of Wondn-: New and Sekcted Ponns by Grace Schulman. Copyright © 2002 by Grace Schulman.
Reproduced by permission of Houghton Miffiin Company. All rights reserved.

"Dislocated Identities: Reflections of an Arab:Jew" by Ella Shohat. Originally published: Movement Research:
PerformanceJournal #5 (Fall-Winter, 1 992) p.8.

"Intifada Diptych" by Alisa Solomon was first published in a special issue of the Michigan Quarterly Review, ed ited by
Sara Blair and Jonathan Freedman, on the theme of "Jewish in America,• vol. XL!, no. 4 , Fall 2002, pp. 634-650.

"If We Really Care about Israel: Breira and the Limits of Dissent" by Michael Staub. Portions of this essay appeared
in different form in Torn at the Roots: The Crisis ofJewish Liberalism in Postwar America. Copyright © 2002 Columbia
University Press. Reprinted with the permission of the publisher.

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FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wrestling with Zion : progressive Jewish-American responses to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict I edited and with an in troduction by Tony Kushner
and Alisa Solomon.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-802 1 -4 0 1 5-7

I. Israel and the diaspora. 2 . Zionism-Public opinion. 3. Arab-Israeli

conflict-Public opinion.
5. Public opinion-United States.
Israel. I . Kushner, Tony.
DS 1 32.W74 2003
956.9405'4-dc22
4 . lsrnel-Foreign public opinion, American .
6. Jews-United States-Attitudes toward
II. Solomon, Alisa, I 956-
200306 1 78 7

Gro\'c Press
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