I wrote a highly critical "Letter to the Editor" of the left newsmagazine In These Times on an article it published in its November 2024 issue, Shane Burley's "Jewish Institutions Are Purging Their Staffs of Anti-Zionists and Cease-Fire Activists," which can be found here: https://inthesetimes.com/article/anti-zionist-israel-gaza-jewish-institutions. In These Times refused to publish my "Letter," which is not surprising, since In These Times does not publish, it seems, anything critical of its magazine.
Here is my "Letter to the Editor":
To the Editor:
Shane Burley’s article in the
November 2024 In These Times, “Jewish Institutions Are Purging Their
Staffs of Anti-Zionists and Cease-Fire Activists,” elicits the following
reaction as a longtime democratic socialist subscriber and contributor to ITT:
First, I think that these
“pro-Palestine” former staffers at mainstream Jewish institutions are trying to
have their proverbial cake and eat it too.
They want to work there as anti-Zionists and pro-Palestinian activists
when much of the other staff, the leadership, and even much of the clientele of
these mainstream Jewish institutions are going to see them as hostile pro-Hamas
infiltrators into these very Jewish spaces, not as genuine, if critical,
Jews. I think a good example of this is
the person Burley first documents in his article, Dan Fischer, who was fired
for attending an “All Out for Palestine” rally on October11, 2023, a mere four
days after Hamas’s violent killings, mutilations, rapes, and taking of hostages
in Israel, and well before the Israeli government launched its campaign against
Hamas in Gaza. The leadership of the
synagogue where Fischer worked rightly saw this participation as hostile and
pro-Hamas, and said so openly to Fischer.
Also, Fischer stated at the rally he attended that he was “proud to be
in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Palestine,” not even mentioning
Hamas, and in fact, de facto conflating the civilian people of Gaza and
Palestine with blood-stained Islamist Hamas!
Being “in solidarity with” the murderers, mutilators, and rapists of
Jews is hardly a “Jewish value” that commends itself to employment in a Jewish
synagogue!
Second, it’s the same with all
these people who were fired, all of them, tellingly, after October 7, 2023, a
“day in infamy” that ranks with Pearl Harbor and 9/11. All of them will protest, no doubt, that they
stand for “inclusiveness,” yet they deliberately “other” all those Jews and
Israelis who were murdered, raped, or taken hostage, along with their families,
friends, and those who cared deeply about people being victims of such
atrocities—be they either Israelis or Jews of the Diaspora.
As for wearing the keffiyeh, it,
too, changed its meaning after October 7, 2023, and became not just a symbol of
solidarity with Palestine, but, since the Hamas butchers themselves wore the
keffiyeh while committing their atrocities in Israel, it became as well as a
symbol of support for Hamas. But none of
those fired have even one word to say against Hamas! Not one!
No, they all implicitly conflate support for Palestinians with support
for Hamas—and their silence on this very important issue speaks loudly and in
volumes! Keeping on staff those who
cannot even condemn Hamas would indeed be difficult for any mainstream Jewish
institution—it would be akin to employing someone who cannot condemn the
Holocaust!
As for a ceasefire, I’m all for it;
but it cannot be, as so many pro-Palestinian activists want it to be—a
unilateral move on the Israeli side, with no reciprocity from Hamas. While Netanyahu certainly deserves much blame
for there not being a ceasefire, much more blame goes to Hamas, in my
opinion. Hamas’s intransigence in the
face of every ceasefire offer proffered is what has prevented a ceasefire to
date. And when there was one, a brief
ceasefire and hostage exchange in November 2023, Hamas unilaterally broke it.
Last, almost all states have Work
at Will labor laws—in the absence of a labor contract, an employee can be fired
for any reason, or no reason at all.
Similarly, many employers also have dress codes, which one is expected
to conform to as part of employment. A
ban on wearing a keffiyeh would fall under such a code. Same as, where I work, I was formerly banned
from wearing jeans, and had to wear only a company shirt and either black or
tan slacks. One may not like such rules,
but they’re there. And no, wearing a
Magen David, or Star of David, necklace around one’s neck is not “political
clothing.” It’s cultural clothing,
indicating solely that one is proudly Jewish.
The Magen David existed long before the state of Israel, and was also
used by the—Nazis—as a mandatory badge to be worn to mark oneself as
Jewish! If the Magen David means
Zionism, then why doesn’t it also mean Nazism?
Those are some of my thoughts on
Burley’s article from the vantage point of a socialist internationalist
upholding the socialist values of secularism and humanism, opposing all
right-wing religious fanaticism such as that which animates Hamas, and a democratic,
as opposed to an authoritarian, socialist.
George Fish,
ITT long-time
subscriber and
several times
published ITT
contributor,
Indianapolis, IN
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