BARRY ORINGER

Terrorism Chic

A CURRENT LAMENT: You can’t even blow up Jews these days without being labeled an anti-Semite.

That isn’t funny, is it? But maybe a touch of the noir is in order, given the twisted state of discourse on the Arab-Israeli tragedy.

“Of course, the suicide bombings are terrible,” one hears, “but the Palestinians are in despair over the occupation.” Except . . . except so much. Except it is the peace camp in Israel, not the occupation, that has been destroyed by the insane Intifada. Except that the suicide bombings are not intended to end the occupation. They are intended to end Israel.

Some of my fellow liberals don’t want to know that. In a state of denial that would alarm their therapists, they tune out the words of the terrorists themselves: no peace until the last Jew is driven out, not just from the West Bank, but from all of the land. Writing in The Guardian, Naomi Klein apparently hasn’t processed this message. “The primary, and familiar, fear that [Israeli Prime Minister] Sharon draws on . . . is the fear that Israel’s neighbors want to drive the Jews into the sea.” As if that fear has no rational foundation.

For others on the left, in the romantic thrall of terrorist chic, the long and complex history of the Jews and the Arabs is displaced by theater—a fictionally constructed drama in which the Jews are the assigned villains, the Palestinians the assigned heroes. No need to learn history, ancient or recent, or to look closely at current events. Sufficient to cheer on the good guys, the Palestinians, whose every crime is explained and forgiven, and hiss at the bad ones, the Jews, whose every claim is negated and despised.

Amid all this, the anti-Semitic beast stirs, an unpleasant surprise to Klein. She is shocked—shocked!—to find Jew-haters among her colleagues of the left. The silence of her comrades in the face of synagogue and cemetery attacks, the revival of mad Jewish-conspiracy theories—aren’t we all in the same struggle? Whence this unseemly visitation of the old hatred?

She thinks she knows: contemplating the burned façade of her own synagogue, she disapproves of the sign the Jews have erected there: “Support Israel: now more than ever.” She thinks the sign should read, “Thanks for nothing, Sharon.”

I think Klein’s fellow congregants had it right.

Klein is concerned that Jews be approved of. Sharon is concerned that Jews live. The message of the Israeli counteroffensive: You won’t terrorize us out of our state, you won’t kill Jews without paying a price. I’m with Sharon on that one.

I was in Israel some decades ago, when all the Arab states were declaring the Three No’s: No Peace, No Compromise, No Recognition of Israel. The first Jewish settlers, taking advantage of their enemies’ rejectionism, established themselves— I believed unwisely—at Hebron. The Palestinians have suffered, partly because of their own awful leaders, partly because of my own people’s failings. Yasser Arafat drove the Israeli peacemakers out of office, first Peres, then Barak. He wanted a violent uprising. He got it—and he got Sharon.

As to anti-Semitism, whether fueled by anti-Israel hatred, covered up by it, or standing on its own, here’s my take: AntiSemitism isn’t the Jews’ problem. Anti-Semitism is the anti-Semite’s problem. If you don’t like Jews, fine with me. It’s a free country—like and dislike whom you please. Stay away from me, though, because I’m a Jew. If you become a menace to me or my fellows, I’ll defend myself against you, by whatever means necessary. Otherwise, feel free to enjoy your ignorance and your stupidity in peace.

The same goes for the trendy hate-Israel brigade. If you’re one of these brain-dead lunkheads protesting fabricated stories of Israeli “massacres” while excusing the very real and deliberate massacres of Jews, then the distinction you imagine to exist between yourself and the anti-Semite is a false one. If you grant people license to murder my people, if you deny my people’s right to defend itself against murder, your distinction has no sane meaning at all.

Innocent Palestinian civilians tragically died in the battle for the terror center of Jenin. So, equally tragically, did Israeli soldiers who gave their own lives in fighting the terror network that sends forth the murderers. But if you fit the above definition, in your repugnant moral calculus the Palestinians suffered “genocide,” the Jews got what they deserved. Whatever your motive—if you even comprehend your motive—you are a purveyor of the blood libel, a carrier of hate and ignorance, a disgrace and a burden to the very people you claim to care about.

Let’s pray for something better for all of us.