Ten Secrets to Academic Success | Distinguishing Fair Criticism of Israel from Anti-Zionist Antisemitism

Others in the series:

#1: Remember Why You’re Going to College

#2: Give Yourself the College Orientation You Deserve

#3: Great Debates About Great Books Yield Deep Knowledge, Sharp Minds and Constructive Citizens

#4 Make for Yourself a Teacher – Acquire a Friend

#5 Turn It Off! Managing Social Media, Middle East Minefields, and Political Difference

#6 Fighting Educational Malpractice Personally: What Do I Do with a Politicized Prof – or Teacher

#7 Fighting Educational Malpractice Institutionally: A Consumer Rights Issue

The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre supposedly said: “The antisemites will accuse a Jew not because they think the Jew is guilty but because they want to force the Jew to turn out his pocket.” He actually wrote: “Never believe that antisemites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it’s their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words.” Satre’s 80-year-old insights decipher today’s college discourse about Jews, Zionism and Israel.

 That’s why we must transcend the anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hysteria. Anti-Zionism has become this generation’s Uber-fetish. The “enlightened” of Generation Uber prove their political correctness by wearing keffiyehs and masks while “privileging” hating Israel over other commitments to feminism, liberalism, non-violence, decency.

 This onslaught makes most Zionists too defensive, especially on campus. We insist: “No, we’re not settler-colonialist or racists or committing genocide or imposing mass starvation…” Now, the latest, negating his efforts to fight campus antisemitism and broker a Middle East peace, is: “We’re not pro-Trump or even grateful for anything he’s done for Jews, Israel, the world – and America – that Kamala Harris never would have done.”

 We’re so busy denying, turning out our pockets, we’ve forgotten to wave the flag to show who we are and how proud we are of Israel’s successes under impossible circumstances. And, reflecting our deep Diaspora-honed need to be liked – we buy the claims of many hypocritical, obsessive, Bash-Israel-Firsters: “I’m not antisemitic, I’m just criticizing Israel.”

 Pause! Cue up the virtue signal to say, “There’s much room for legitimate criticism of Israel.”

 But why be so apologetic? Israel is a democracy and a Jewish state. Patriotic Israelis and proud Jews constantly debate what Israel does – without rejecting that Israel is.  Patriotism doesn’t mean blind allegiance. It means loving your country because of its politicians sometimes – but despite its politics always.

We’re just not that stupid. Reasonable people can distinguish reasonable criticism from unreasonable contempt. Signs of anti-Zionist anti-Semitism include:

•  Saying “Happy Oct. 7,” as was said last year;

•  Justifying Hamas’ anti-Zionist antisemitic rampage;

•  Championing Palestinian nationalism and accepting every other national identity, except Jewish nationalism, meaning Zionism;

•  Negating the deep Jewish ties to their homeland;

•  Generalizing about “the Jews” and “the Zionists”;

•  Shrieking, bullying canceling others, in an anti-Israel frenzy.

Follow two guidelines: First, my Black, feminist, and LGBTQ+ friends put the burden of proof on the bigot, not the victim. True, I advise Jewish students not to be hyper-sensitive – give others the benefit of the doubt. Still, I don’t know of many conversations in other targeted communities, anguishing about just when their detractors become haters.

 Many campus communities even reject micro-aggressions – the “everyday slights, indignities, insults, put-downs and invalidations,” Dr. Derald Wing Sue writes —coming from “well-intentioned individuals who are unaware that they are engaging” in “offensive or demeaning” behavior. Yet precisely on these hair-trigger campuses, Jews have to justify feeling victimized by intentional macro-aggressions.

 Second, hatred, and especially Jew-hatred, is three-dimensional. Most focus on words, images, deeds – and there are so many explicit attacks these days. But the hysteria reflects an anti-Jewish mania.  Israel-bashers’ hysteria, exaggeration, intensity, and obsessiveness fail the smell-test. Equally revealing are the “dog-whistles,” the coded words, the not-well-hidden slights and accusations making Jews feel unwelcome – especially on campus.

 In my new “Essential Guide to Zionism, anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, and Jew-Hatred,” I echo my friend Professor Judea Pearl that Zionophobia, obsessively hating Israel and Zionism, is bad enough. Hating any national grouping is unacceptable.  Zionophobia’s dip into reservoirs of Jew-hating stereotypes only makes it even more repugnant.

The “Essential Guide” proposes the T E S T test to expose Zionophobes, perpetually escalating from standard criticism to bigotry.  Ask:

• Do they Totalize?: Indulging in essentialism, finding everything related to Israel, Jews, Zionists, evil. A University of Kentucky law professor crossed into hate-filled incitement by “calling for the end of the Israeli state today,” adding: “I ask for an international coalition of forces to go to Gaza and eliminate every last one of them.”  

• Do they Exaggerate?: The more extreme the criticism, the more it smacks of bigotry. A Cornell class on “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance,” uses “the case of settler colonialism in Palestine/Israel” and the Gaza “genocide” to prove that “Indigenous people are involved historically in a global resistance against an ongoing colonialism.” The anti-intellectual heavy-handed rhetoric demonizes rather than illuminates.

• Is it Sweeping?: Turning any Israeli misstep into justification for outright denial, not just attacking what Israel does, but that Israel is. In fall 2023, University of California at Berkeley students hung a banner with a Palestinian flag from a 307-foot bell tower proclaiming: “Cease fire now. Free Gaza.” A year later, their banner featured the inverted red triangle Hamas uses to identify Israeli targets and declared: “Glory to the Resistance.” The first banner criticized Israel’s war and policies – the second repudiated Israel – and liberalism itself.

• What’s their Tone?: The more intense the criticism, the more it smells like bigotry. A Jewish professor spread Jew-hatred by tweeting shortly after Oct. 7: “Free Gaza, free Palestine, stop the ongoing genocide by the Israeli and American war machines.” She added a post to her Instagram forwarding the message from a Palestinian American: “Do not cower to Zionists. Shame them. Do not welcome them in your spaces. Do not make them feel comfortable. Why should those genocide loving fascists be treated any different than any other flat out racist?”

 Whether to punish students and professors for expressing reprehensible views is for another article.

 These examples acknowledge a vast universe for robust debate about Israel’s actions. The trendy, categorical assaults on Israel, which inspire Jew-hating violence, reflect a mania that’s as fresh as today’s headlines, but as old as pagan and medieval Jew-hatred. That such demonizing, pigeon-holing, and fanaticism not only exists on campus but thrives, betrays every student, reflecting a deep rot undermining higher education – in America and beyond.

Gil Troy, a senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute, is an American presidential historian. Last year he published, “To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream” and “The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath.” His latest, “The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and Jew-hatred” was just published and can be downloaded on the JPPI Website.