This Fortnight in Jews
This column will be a new semi-regular feature here, with assistance from our Middle East and Washington bureaus.
Story Number One: The American Studies Association (what is that?) loses its goddamn mind.
There have already been dozens of quality articles written on the absurdity of the ASA's boycott of Israeli academic institutions. I don't feel the need to rehash the absolute insanity of how an open, democratic, multiethnic country comes to be boycotted academically (one of the most ironic elements of this boycott, of course, is how liberal Israeli institutions are and how Israeli universities are mixing bowls of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, Bedouins, and cover the complete spectrum of ideologies), while Israel is literally surrounded by genocidal dictatorships and military juntas. The leader of the ASA, a leftist idealogue named Curtis Marez, said to the New York Times of the boycott:
"He did not dispute that many nations, including many of Israel’s neighbors, are generally judged to have human rights records that are worse than Israel’s, or comparable, but he said, “one has to start somewhere.”
He argued that the United States has “a particular responsibility to answer the call for boycott because it is the largest supplier of military aid to the state of Israel.”"
So let's parse this out. Captain Hamas says that Israel receives massive amounts of military aid, so thus should be boycotted for its actions. Interesting note about US military aid: it goes to lots of terrible regimes. In October, the Pentagon notified Congress of 10.8 billion dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia (the most oppressive, backward, misogynist, racist, evil, fundamentalist regime on Earth, and the main sponsor of 9-11) and the United Arab Emirates, a veritable fiefdom of Islamic fundamentalism, oppression, forced prostitution, and human slavery. In 2011, America (through Boeing) sold 30 billion dollars worth of F-15 warplanes to Saudi Arabia, part of 66 billion in overall foreign arms sales that our country carried out that year. American companies sold more than 28 billion in the following year. We also sell our weapons to Turkey (the country which arrests more journalists than any other), give them to al-Qaida fighters crossing into Syria, sell them en masse to the military junta coup-plotters currently murdering citizens by the hundreds in Egypt, and to the royal family of Bahrain, currently torturing and imprisoning its freedom-hungry citizens in that Gulf state.
So basically, of all the countries to whom we supply arms, the one most worthy of boycott is the most democratic one, with the most advanced economy, freest press, and warmest relations with the American people. "Starting somewhere" can either be interpreted as anti-Semitism or classical Orientalism, meaning that Marez and his brigade of leftist, self-loathing, hypocritical scumballs have lower standards for Oriental people because he believes they are somehow less intelligent and less capable than Europeans. Either way, it is an embarrassment and a blight on not only the ASA, but on America as a whole.
So basically, of all the countries to whom we supply arms, the one most worthy of boycott is the most democratic one, with the most advanced economy, freest press, and warmest relations with the American people. "Starting somewhere" can either be interpreted as anti-Semitism or classical Orientalism, meaning that Marez and his brigade of leftist, self-loathing, hypocritical scumballs have lower standards for Oriental people because he believes they are somehow less intelligent and less capable than Europeans. Either way, it is an embarrassment and a blight on not only the ASA, but on America as a whole.
This is not to say that Israel should not be criticized, and sharply. The policy of settlements in the West Bank is both morally heinous and counterproductive to the survival of Israel. The Netanyahu government is caught between a rock and a hard place given the makeup of Bibi's coalition. Netanyahu tries to placate Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas by releasing murderers, and then to placate the pro-settlement ministers in his coalition, announces new settlements in the West Bank.
Jews have a responsibility to open their eyes to the acts being perpetrated in their name (though not necessarily with their complicity). The subjugation of a people abandoned by the world is principally (although certainly not solely--Palestinians have been mistreated in Kuwait, Libya, Jordan, and worst of all in Lebanon) due to the existence of Israel. It is not a comfortable sentence to say, but we must acknowledge the truth of the matter if we are ever to resolve the conflict. Having said that, the existence of Israel as the Jewish state is not a debatable issue. There has been a de facto population transfer between the Arab world and Israel, with roughly 1,000,000 Arab Jews fleeing their ancestral homelands, never to return, leaving behind all they own so as to not be murdered. A similar number of Palestinians fled the 1948 war.
I have Arab friends who advocate for a binational state, which is a complete and utter joke. The idea that millions of Israeli Jews could be integrated into what would be an Arab-majority state, is ridiculous and borders on encouraging war. After the last 80+ years of hatred (following thousands of years of relative co-existence--with Jews as dhimmis, however), the two peoples must be separated. That entails painful territorial concessions by Israel, and an acceptance by Palestinians that they will never "liberate" the land of Israel. As long as Palestinians double-speak, saying in English they support the two-state solution while saying in Arabic that they will liberate all of the land, the Palestinian people and their descendants, often living in squalor in refugee camps throughout the region, will continue to cling to false hope. The unelected dictators/monarchs (same thing) of the region (which is almost every Arab leader except escaped ex-con Muhamed Morsi) will continue to champion the Palestinian cause out loud but deny Palestinians basic rights, such as job opportunities, citizenship, and ability to own land. Similarly, as long as Israel preaches its support for a two-state solution while taking more land in the West Bank, preventing Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank from moving freely, and crushing the Palestinian economy, there will never be peace.
Academia is an arena in which there should be a free-flowing exchange of ideas; to boycott the academics of a country does not foster compliance in that country; it fosters mistrust, hatred, and paranoia. Those opposed to Israel's expansionism in the West Bank should speak with their voices and pocketbooks, not shamefully eliminate Israeli ideas from public view.
Story Number 2: Death of a Titan.
For secular diaspora Jews, the death of Ovadia Yosef this year and the subsequent outpouring of emotion (800,000 Israelis attended his funeral) was not necessarily an overly important moment. For those of us who grew up with Judaism not as a religious system but as a culture and history, the most important Jewish loss this year was that of Edgar Bronfman, Sr. Mr. Bronfman was a tireless advocate of Jewish causes, from chasing down and unmasking Nazis, to pushing the Soviet Union to allow the emigration of Jews to Israel and America. His unyielding pursuit of Swiss bankers to bring about the restitution of the stolen life savings of Holocaust victims was the stuff of legend. Mr. Bronfman's support of the Birthright Israel program brought thousands of diaspora Jews to Israel, where they finally saw Hebrew not just as a language forced upon them in Hebrew school, but as a living, breathing expression of Jewish identity. RIP to a true Jewish champion. 
