Article in Tablet: "How to Be a Better Ally"
The dark roots of hostility towards Israel
I’m in Tablet again, this time talking about anti-Israel sentiment across the world. My argument is that unfortunately there isn’t much you can do. Antisemitism, anti-Western sentiment, and third worldism are powerful forces, and they all converge on hating Israel. That doesn’t mean all is lost, because outside of the region America is the only country that matters, and on this front there is hope to be found in pushing back against metanarratives that are hostile to civilization.
Instead of starting with the beginning of the article, I’ll quote the ending here, where I explain why Israel is worth defending.
The war in Gaza has captured the attention of the world because Israel, due to the kinds of tragic choices it must make, has emerged as the main avatar of Western civilization. This is one thing that the campus left gets correct. Throughout human history, most peoples have accomplished nothing most of the time, sulking in poverty, stagnation, tyranny, and sloth. Just as the United States forged a new civilization out of a wilderness, 75 years ago a people that had been stateless for over two millennia took over a small strip of land that had practically no natural resources, all the while being surrounded and outnumbered by hostile neighbors. Yes, in both stories, atrocities and injustices were committed along the way. But this is fundamentally less important than what these nations have accomplished and the necessity of making sure they continue to survive and prosper. As recent campus protests have made clear, the left sees these connections and knows what the stakes are. Israel and its allies must similarly understand that the real public relations battle is a struggle over the metanarrative of Western Civilization.
Read the whole thing at Tablet, and comment here.
Israel does have some moral and PR failings. Namely, its settlements efforts in the West Bank, which are unnecessary for its security and do infringe on Palestinian terrority that was agreed to be theirs. As well, the incidents like Israeli soldiers shooting Israeli hostages that came out with white flags, or blowing up the World Central Kitchen aid workers after saying they want WCK to take over from the UN in distributing aid. I think Israel has reasonable Rules of Engagement; their problems come when they don't enforce those RoE. The US does have reason to put strings on its aid, aid shouldn't be unconditional. But those conditions should be like minimizing unnecessary deaths like attacks in the West Bank, not trying to avoid necessary deaths like an invasion of Rafah. This is often something leftists don't consider, because they just zero in on what has the highest death numbers, but it's important to differentiate between just and unjust killings. All of Hamas' killings were unjust, and most of Israel's killing were just, but Israel has had some unjust killings.
This is good and I agree 99%. The 1% I don't agree with is the suggestion that the US "forged a new civilisation". Though now vastly more powerful, the US is far more a continuous offshoot of Britain than anything new. It's not even Rome to Britain's Greece - the language, the rule of law, the system of democracy are essentially identical in civilisational terms.