Juan Cole - Anti-Semite?
The question mark in the title is for fun.
I'm not saying that Juan Cole is a model of the intellectualized, New anti-Semitism - but the last time I tried to bet on whether he could go a day without dark, lunatic ravings about shadowy, omnipotent Israeli lobbies, Vegas told me to get lost. And he's such a sweetheart:
This fascist point of view is privately shared by many of the strident Zionist organizations that are so influential with the press and the US Congress in the United States. David Steinmann of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs has stridently denounced anyone who supported the Oslo peace accords. JINSA in turn has been important in politically forming Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and Bush's nominee as UN ambassador, John Bolton. If you want to know what is behind Campus Watch, the Middle East Forum, the David Project, Frontpagemag and other shadowy organizations that have mobilized to attack US academic specialists in the Middle East that don't toe the Settler line, this is it.
The Jews are everywhere!
But Cole wants you to know that if you even imply that he's close to anti-Semitism, you're complicit in attacking him for not toeing the Settler line. "Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic" is such a tired excuse - and why is it that the people who sound most like anti-Semites are always the ones using that excuse?
It's also probably a bad sign for the, uh... robustness of his position that the first example he trots out for pervasive Zionist influence is that David Steinmann opposed the Oslo Accords. Opposing the Oslo Accords doesn't make you a radical - it makes you right. Then again, Cole isn't really an expert on the contemporary Middle East, which is why he makes vague and conspiratorial statements. In fact, whenever he tries to be specific, he often makes an ass of himself.
The problems with picking apart Cole's subtle and not so subtle lies about Israel are at least two-fold: (1) it takes a really, really long time (i.e. "The US has never taken any practical steps to stop or roll back Israeli land theft on a grand scale."... how about Eisenhower forcing Israel to give up the Sinai? How about Bush I blackmailing Israel on settlements?), (2) it distracts from pointing out the subtle and not so subtle anti-Semitism of his conspiracy theories.
Just to prove to everyone that he doesn't hate all Jews, Cole even titles his post "The Good Israelis". I think that the title is more revealing than he intends - it's worth asking what kind of Israeli Cole thinks is a good Israeli, and what that says about how Cole views that proper place of an Israeli Jews (we already know what he views as the proper place of an Israeli Arab). Now, I think it's generally acknowledged that Sinclair Lewis's Babbit is one of the most scathing - and accurate - portraits of mundane and intellectualized bigotry ever written. Here's how he has character talks about the proper place of blacks:
"That's a fact. They're getting so they don't have a single bit of respect for you. The old-fashioned coon was a fine old cuss -- he knew his place -- but these young dinges don't want to be porters or cotton-pickers. Oh, no! They got to be lawyers and professors and Lord knows what all! I tell you, it's becoming a pretty serious problem. We ought to get together and show the black man, yes, and the yellow man, his place. Now, I haven't got one particle of race-prejudice. I'm the first to be glad when a nigger succeeds -- so long as he stays where he belongs and doesn't try to usurp the rightful authority and business ability of the white man."
For Cole, it's a fact that there are some "good Israelis" and "good Jews", which is why he says he just can't be an anti-Semite. But he also thinks that, the way things are going these days, the Israelis just don't do what the UN tells them to do. Sure, the old-fashioned Israelis were fine - they were too weak to disobey the Europeans or their activist friends in the United States - but these Jews demand security and diplomatic respect. Nonetheless, Cole still wants you to know that he doesn't have one particle of anti-Semitism, and that he's going to be the first to be glad when Jews have a nice state - so long as they stay weak and obedient, and don't try to control their own domestic or foreign policy. Although Cole seems to believe in security for every state except the Jewish state, that has nothing to do with anti-Semitism.
The striking relationship between Juan Cole's rhetoric and the rhetoric of everyone else who rationalizes away their racism doesn't prove Cole is an anti-Semite. His obsession with talking about the Likud lobby that controls the United States, on the other hand, is more suggestive.
[Cross-posted on IsraPundit]
UPDATE: Let me tell you how unexcited I am about the kind of Google hits that the Babbit quote is going to give me.
I'm not saying that Juan Cole is a model of the intellectualized, New anti-Semitism - but the last time I tried to bet on whether he could go a day without dark, lunatic ravings about shadowy, omnipotent Israeli lobbies, Vegas told me to get lost. And he's such a sweetheart:
This fascist point of view is privately shared by many of the strident Zionist organizations that are so influential with the press and the US Congress in the United States. David Steinmann of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs has stridently denounced anyone who supported the Oslo peace accords. JINSA in turn has been important in politically forming Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and Bush's nominee as UN ambassador, John Bolton. If you want to know what is behind Campus Watch, the Middle East Forum, the David Project, Frontpagemag and other shadowy organizations that have mobilized to attack US academic specialists in the Middle East that don't toe the Settler line, this is it.
The Jews are everywhere!
But Cole wants you to know that if you even imply that he's close to anti-Semitism, you're complicit in attacking him for not toeing the Settler line. "Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic" is such a tired excuse - and why is it that the people who sound most like anti-Semites are always the ones using that excuse?
It's also probably a bad sign for the, uh... robustness of his position that the first example he trots out for pervasive Zionist influence is that David Steinmann opposed the Oslo Accords. Opposing the Oslo Accords doesn't make you a radical - it makes you right. Then again, Cole isn't really an expert on the contemporary Middle East, which is why he makes vague and conspiratorial statements. In fact, whenever he tries to be specific, he often makes an ass of himself.
The problems with picking apart Cole's subtle and not so subtle lies about Israel are at least two-fold: (1) it takes a really, really long time (i.e. "The US has never taken any practical steps to stop or roll back Israeli land theft on a grand scale."... how about Eisenhower forcing Israel to give up the Sinai? How about Bush I blackmailing Israel on settlements?), (2) it distracts from pointing out the subtle and not so subtle anti-Semitism of his conspiracy theories.
Just to prove to everyone that he doesn't hate all Jews, Cole even titles his post "The Good Israelis". I think that the title is more revealing than he intends - it's worth asking what kind of Israeli Cole thinks is a good Israeli, and what that says about how Cole views that proper place of an Israeli Jews (we already know what he views as the proper place of an Israeli Arab). Now, I think it's generally acknowledged that Sinclair Lewis's Babbit is one of the most scathing - and accurate - portraits of mundane and intellectualized bigotry ever written. Here's how he has character talks about the proper place of blacks:
"That's a fact. They're getting so they don't have a single bit of respect for you. The old-fashioned coon was a fine old cuss -- he knew his place -- but these young dinges don't want to be porters or cotton-pickers. Oh, no! They got to be lawyers and professors and Lord knows what all! I tell you, it's becoming a pretty serious problem. We ought to get together and show the black man, yes, and the yellow man, his place. Now, I haven't got one particle of race-prejudice. I'm the first to be glad when a nigger succeeds -- so long as he stays where he belongs and doesn't try to usurp the rightful authority and business ability of the white man."
For Cole, it's a fact that there are some "good Israelis" and "good Jews", which is why he says he just can't be an anti-Semite. But he also thinks that, the way things are going these days, the Israelis just don't do what the UN tells them to do. Sure, the old-fashioned Israelis were fine - they were too weak to disobey the Europeans or their activist friends in the United States - but these Jews demand security and diplomatic respect. Nonetheless, Cole still wants you to know that he doesn't have one particle of anti-Semitism, and that he's going to be the first to be glad when Jews have a nice state - so long as they stay weak and obedient, and don't try to control their own domestic or foreign policy. Although Cole seems to believe in security for every state except the Jewish state, that has nothing to do with anti-Semitism.
The striking relationship between Juan Cole's rhetoric and the rhetoric of everyone else who rationalizes away their racism doesn't prove Cole is an anti-Semite. His obsession with talking about the Likud lobby that controls the United States, on the other hand, is more suggestive.
[Cross-posted on IsraPundit]
UPDATE: Let me tell you how unexcited I am about the kind of Google hits that the Babbit quote is going to give me.
