The question many supporters of Israel ask is one that Israelis struggle to explain, says JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin. How can a leading Israeli institution like the Haaretz newspaper justify its role in spreading blood libels against the Jewish state, which help to bolster the efforts of those who are working to eradicate it and kill Israelis? He is joined in this week’s episode of “Think Twice” by Israeli historian and writer Gadi Taub, who has an explanation.
According to Taub, who wrote about this dilemma in JNS, Israelis who think of themselves as “progressives,” as is the case with the staff of Haaretz, must turn on their own country to maintain their standing with other leftists. Their only strategy for not being included in the antisemitic boycotts of their country is to join in. It generally doesn’t work since those who hate the Jewish state and wish to isolate it don’t grant exemptions to Israelis who validate their false accusations.
But as Taub explains, that doesn’t deter Israeli leftists. They don’t seem to connect the dots between their turn toward anti-Zionism and false accusations about Israel committing “genocide” in Gaza with the fact that the people they are aiding want to commit actual genocide against all Israeli Jews, including those who hate their own country.
They justify it, Taub says, by imagining that the Palestinian Arabs are mirror images of Israelis and that their threats are either meaningless or justified. They look beyond the fact that they are embracing genocidal terrorism, such as the Hamas-led atrocities that occurred on Oct. 7, 2023, as “resistance” rather than mass murder, rape and kidnapping.
For many years, Haaretz and the extreme left in Israel stuck to critiques of the “occupation” and the measures of self-defense undertaken by the country’s government and military. But in the weeks before Oct. 7, the publishers of the newspaper dropped the pretense that they were merely liberal Zionists and instead have embraced efforts to erase the country’s identity and purpose.
Taub believes the Haaretz approach to the conflict is linked to the effort to prevent reform of Israel’s out-of-control judiciary. They know that the project to essentially dismantle the Jewish state will never gain the approval of Israel’s voters. However, 15 unelected judges of the Israeli Supreme Court, who have arrogated to themselves absolute power over the government, do have the ability to advance the demise of Zionism, he argues.
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