I shouldn’t have to expound on this, as the news and rhetoric from college campuses, academia, Black Lives Matter and “The Squad” ought to make the case. I’ll just note this, among many equally persuasive examples:
York City Mayor Eric Adams has appointed as the chair and executive director of the city’s Commission on Racial Equity Linda Tigani, previously acting chief equity and strategy officer for the city’s Health Department. Tigani has posted pro-Hamas propaganda on social media, including the slogan “From the river to the sea,” which is explicitly anti-Semitic, a call for the elimination of Israel.
Nice. But she is hardly an anomaly. “Never again!” sounds hollow when Jews willingly ally themselves with those who seek their destruction.
Ethics Alarms 
On a related note.
https://groups.google.com/g/uk.legal/c/x5e0q7x0Sw0/m/dXIbO2jMAQAJ
Frankly, I think most American Jews would just as soon Israel kind of just sort of went away.
And then there’s evidently Jews for Ceasefire in Grand Central Station: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12685419/Seattle-Hamas-Israel-Zionist-Gaza-War-protest-march.html
Your Host here, Ol’ Jack Marshall! I’m setting a new precedent by for once leaving up an unauthorized comment by a banned commenter! The occasion is his amusing repeat, in this comment, of the same delusion he acted upon when he banned himself, in that case, threatening to quit the field (the field being here) if I didn’t restore commenting privileges for another commenter even more obnoxious than he is. This illustrates what I mean when I occasionally write about flat learning curves.
Today’s version is, in response to esteemed if occasionally prickly veteran commenter “Old Bill,” ne “Other Bill,” making the provocative remark on this post, “Frankly, I think most American Jews would just as soon Israel kind of just sort of went away,” THIS:
“That is a disgusting remark, and I demand that the host of this blog either repudiate it or remove it.”
As anyone paying attention should know, I do not respond positively to threats, demands, or those who tell me how to run Ethics Alarms, or, indeed how to do anything at all. In my various leadership and management positions, subordinates quickly learned that the quickest way to get fired was to threaten to quit.
Same here. As AF, more than anyone, should know. Since he has already been fired, the efficacy of this demand should have been obvious.
Such a funny use of the word “friend.” It has kind of a mobbed-up meaning, as in a mobster addressing they guy they’ve just decided to whack as, “my friend.” If anyone ever ends a conversation with you by using “my friend,” watch the hell out.
Thanks Jack. I’d welcome any discussion of my hypothesis. It’s based on various comments I’ve heard from Jewish friends over the years.
I found Old Bill’s comment to be cold-blooded but not a priori offensive.
I don’t think you could call it “anti-Semitic.” Perhaps you could call it tasteless. And a provocation. And what’s worse is that the case can be argued. It’s not a priori impossible.
“Two Jews, three opinions”–as the old aphorism goes.
Who knows what “most American Jews” really think! Even if you could get good polling data and honest discussion from focus groups where all the participants were granted anonymity, that wouldn’t tell you what people really think. Opinions are often labile. That’s probably a good word. Labile.
#1. One stereotype with a probable basis in fact is that Jews have a tendency to be disputatious. It’s probably a cultural tendency among Ashkenazi Jews in the US, at least. Who knows what people believe in an ethnic sub-culture with disputatious tendencies. For evidence of the disputatious tendency, find the YouTube video in which Jonathan Haidt guesses what sort of answers you might get if you ask ten random Jewish American professors “Do you believe in God?”
#2. Israel is a tough country to characterize. I once heard a conference presentation (Association of American Geographers, 10+ years ago) in which Israel was characterized, somewhat facetiously, as having various contradictory characteristics. For example, given license to engage in free association, the country could be interpreted as being, just possibly…
* Part of Europe
* Part of Asia
* “The Center of the World”
and
* “The 51st American State.”
Because of this, people expect a lot from the place and its inhabitants, and it can’t stay out of the news. “Jews are news” as the saying goes. I’m not certain where that expression comes from. Bernard Lewis has quoted it without attribution.
#3. The founding of Israel looks to me like a low-probability event. Someone said that if Napoleon had never existed, nobody would believe his biography. To my mind, equally improbable was the founding of the modern State of Israel culminating in independence in 1948. Though long awaited, the actual event seems improbable to me personally. Maybe I lack faith. My mindset is way too secular.
#4. I’m sure a lot of American Jews simply want to be left alone. Some people probably don’t want to leave Jews alone. The existence of Israel makes it even harder for American Jews to be left alone. There is always news, controversy, solicitation of donations, calls for support, invitations to send your kids there for summer camp or “Birthright,” people who are largely ignorant of international affairs asking you what the whole thing is about, people who want to argue with you about Israel, excitable Muslims who hate Israel and therefore you too, Evangelicals seeking to hijack your faith in hope of accelerating the arrival of the End Times.
In that sense, Old Bill may have hit on something.
Charles W. Abbott
Rochester, NY
Yes, but hasn’t Amy Schumer been making pro-Palestinian posts or at least ‘Israel needs a cease-fire posts’? Is she even supporting Israel? Many people are trying to say they are just anti-Israeli, not anti-S emetic. I think this makes that assertion very difficult.
Hard core radical lefty Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/opinion-nothing-has-prepared-me-for-the-antisemitism-i-see-on-college-campuses-now/ar-AA1j2Zyj
He essentially comes pretty close to saying it’s Israel’s fault. Israelis are essentially just Jewish Republicans. The Palestinians need to be given full rights, etc. Not sure what that means. There are purportedly two million Arabs living in Israel. What rights are they supposed to get? Sharia law becomes the law of Israel? How do you negotiate with someone who wants to kill you?
I’ll give him some credit for speaking out about rank antisemitism on campuses and weak administrators, but he’s been a major contributor to the sewer that academia has become.
An understatement. He’s another one of the many disgraceful law school deans.
That brings up a point. If Israel can’t give full rights to Arabs in Israel because they would not honor the state of Israel and its values, can we do the same thing in the US? We have brought in a lot of people who hate the US, hate US values, but we make them citizens, give them full rights (not necessarily in that order), and let them make decisions in this country. We allowed people who hate the US to take over our education system and indoctrinate our children in hatred of everything this country stands for. How many people in Congress believe in the liberties and freedoms ‘guaranteed’ in the Constitution anymore? Despite their oaths, what percentage of federal judges do either?
How do we deal with the fact that we have invited the enemies in and given them the ability to destroy the US just as certainly as Muslims would destroy Israel?
Instead of repudiating the statement, you want a comment stricken. Do you have anything to say?
Oh, I’m sure he does, but since he was banned many months ago yet keeps trying to sneak back on while I’m sleeping or arranging mu sock drawer, you’re not going to see whatever it is.
Linda Tigani has restricted her Twitter account, but for what it’s worth, the pro-Palestinian tweets were made well before October 7th.
Thanks, my sources weren’t clear on that, but one “From the river to the sea” is signature significance. I’ll fix it….