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How is Harvey Canal a good poaster?
Selectively lobbing "anti-semitic" at Israel's critics = A SoulStrut Staple Since 2003
It's THE technique for deflecting often-legitimate criticism of the Israel government and military, just as for a few years there it was "un-American" to question anything that came out of the mouths of Bush, Cheney, etc.
I don't necessarily write that in defense of Harvey and whatever went down here, I'm blissfully unaware of all that... but as someone who once rec'd multiple death threats at my home address as a result of a one-paragraph, favorable review I wrote about a gentle, human-rights-oriented documentary about Palestinian children, I have some sensitivity to how itchy some folk's trigger fingers can get re: the anti-semite card.
there's no doubt some folks have the tendency to abuse that.
but when a country the size of New Jersey, which is embroiled in a conflict that has claimed the lives of a fraction of a percent of the number killed in largely-ignored conflicts raging across the globe, but which nonetheless has entire movements, websites, political groups, magazines, editorials, TV specials, movies etc. devoted to criticizing it (and which also happens to be the one homeland of a global minority that has suffered horrific persecution since pretty much the beginning of recorded history)...well, you can forgive some Israel-supporters for occasionally jumping to conclusions.
fucked up about the death threats though; there's no excuse for that.
I do hear what you're saying, but here's a simple method to determine if anti-semitism is present in many, many instances:
a)criticism of policies of Israeli military or government and/or expressions of sympathy for the at-least-equally-suffering Palestinian populace = not anti-Semitic
b)hateful generalizations about Israeli people or Jewish people = anti-Semitic.
sure, many times a given writer/speaker doesn't neatly limit themselves to just category A or B. but when so many people get called out as anti-semitic when they DO limit themselves to reasonable, calmly expressed notions of category A, things are out of hand.
just as there are organized, hateful anti-semitic web sites, books, campaigns, etc, there also exist presumably unorganized but equally loathsome people/groups in the US who get their kicks spending their free time hatefully attempting to silence all criticism of Israeli gov/army. Ergo, the death threats I rec'd... the vibe of which was "because 'my people' have suffered, I cannot tolerate any mention of -- let alone questions about or criticism of -- situations in which some of 'my people' inflict suffering on others."
This is a sad form of entitlement I do not understand... what a better world it would be if anyone who has suffered emerged from that experience w/ an even deeper investment in the elimination of all human suffering, not just an end of suffering for themselves and/or for people of their race/culture/gender/creed.
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How is Harvey Canal a good poaster?
Selectively lobbing "anti-semitic" at Israel's critics = A SoulStrut Staple Since 2003
It's THE technique for deflecting often-legitimate criticism of the Israel government and military, just as for a few years there it was "un-American" to question anything that came out of the mouths of Bush, Cheney, etc.
I don't necessarily write that in defense of Harvey and whatever went down here, I'm blissfully unaware of all that... but as someone who once rec'd multiple death threats at my home address as a result of a one-paragraph, favorable review I wrote about a gentle, human-rights-oriented documentary about Palestinian children, I have some sensitivity to how itchy some folk's trigger fingers can get re: the anti-semite card.
