The Israel haters are in a blood-fueled frenzy this week. As divestment resolutions were being forced through the senates of UC Davis and the University of Washington, the BDS movement unveiled the latest tactic in their war against the Jewish state. Anti-Israel student groups are pressuring student leaders to sign a pledge against visiting Israel with any non BDS approved program. “Are you now or have you ever been on an Aish Hatorah sponsored trip to Israel?” Those who refuse to sign are subjected to a brutal public shaming.
Avinoam Baral, a native of Seattle and student leader at UCLA learned the consequences of refusing to sign the anti-Israel pledge. A coordinated and ferocious assault on Baral’s integrity and very decency has been let loose under the aegis of BDS student groups, and even one of the student newspapers.
Despite this disturbing news, the greatest bellwether of these turbulent times is a speaking engagement next week at the University of Washington by anti-Israel radical, Ali Abunimah. Abunimah is an anti-Semite. That is not me labeling him as such (although I happily would), it is virulent Israel critic MJ Rosenberg. Said Rosenberg of Abunimah in a blog post in October of 2013.
His feed is one hateful tweet after another. Yeah, yeah, I know he is careful to scream about Israelis or Zionists and not Jews, but he doesn’t fool me. Or any Jew who doesn’t want to be fooled.
But there is one good thing about Ali Abunimah. There is a tendency among Jews on the left, including myself, to argue so vehemently that being anti-Israel does not make one an anti-Semite that we don’t notice when being anti-Israel coexists with anti-Semitism, that one just feeds the other. We should.
Bottom line: I believe that Ali Abunimah would be ecstatic if Israel was destroyed, blown off the face of the earth, along with every one of its people because, after all, the Jews in Palestine are, by definition, Zionists, even the kids. Settlers, colonialists, baby killers, torturers, invaders and all the other labels he uses that exempt no Jew in any part of Israel or Palestine.
So, thanks, Ali. As long as there are people around like you, I will never lull myself into believing that anti-Semitism is a thing of the past. It isn’t.
But here is the shocker. Abunimah’s Israel-hating screed at a public funded University will be paid for by mine (and if you are a US citizen your) tax dollars! The event is co-sponsored by The University of Washington Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity.
That is correct, a flaming Jew hater will be speaking against Jews and the Jewish state at a Public University, and we, the targets of his animus will be helping to foot the bill. Nice.
