It always fascinates me how, in the context of the Arab Israeli conflict, Jews who err on the side of Israel in all things suddenly become immediate arbiters of ethnic authenticity, as Marty Peretz does here, going after, among others, my colleague Ezra Klein and roll dog Spencer Ackerman, as a result of their criticisms of Israel's Gaza operation:
I pity them their hatred of their inheritance. Actually of both their inheritances, Jewish and American. They are pip-squeaks, and I do not much read them. But when any one of them writes a real doozey it is likely to come to my attention.
I guess I find this fascinating because when Jews do this, they sound like no one more than Malcolm X divvying up black folks into Field Negroes and House Negroes. In the minds of folks like Peretz, any Jew who does not acquiesce, without criticism, to whatever military actions Israel deems necessary is caught, like a house slave, in the throes of their own self-hatred. They are unable to unshackle themselves from centuries of anti-Semitism and self-loathing, and are doomed to justify whatever viciousness undertaken against their people out of a twisted desire to be accepted by those who hate them. Rather than looking after massa, self-hating Jews look after Hamas.
Of course, these same hawkish Jews, who police their own with such viciousness, love it when past TNR contributor Shelby Steele eviscerates the "totalitarian" arbiters of black identity, while placing on their shoulders the enduring problems of the black community. From a 2006 C-SPAN interview on Steele's book, White Guilt:
Well, now I've come to realize that almost every oppressed group that comes into freedom does this, they're shocked, humiliated by it, they then form an identity that is much more intense, that is in fact totalitarian, that demands that you not only be black but that you be black in a certain way, that you make your bond with the group and that you put that identity above your individuality.This is absolutely correct, and Steele's faults here are in failing to acknowledge that he is not exempt from this process and overemphasizing the effect of identity politics on black problems. Peretz and the like demand that Jews be Jewish in a certain way, that they make their bond with the group and put this conception of Jewishness above all else. It is, in my view, entirely defensible for oppressed people to place a premium on ethnic solidarity. But once again, it resembles nothing more than a particular kind of black identity politics Peretz refers to as a "racket." In place of white people, Jews must define themselves in opposition to global anti-Semitism, which includes justifying any and everything Israel does to protect itself, even if one believes such actions are not in Israel's long term interest.
Since I come from both black folks and Jews I sometimes have a tendency to see connections where there aren't any. But it looks to me like Peretz's arguments, and those of his ideological cohorts closely resemble the kind of identity politics he and his ideological cohorts claim hinder black advancement.
-- A. SerwerNote: this post has been edited for clarity.
