Response to a letter by David Drimer
David Drimer lives in an alternate universe, where Israel "wants nothing more than to be at peace," and is willing to build "an independent Palestinian state, to see that dream come to fruition." I don't really think that Drimer believes all that. How could he? Israel is an apartheid state, with separate laws, roads, and housing settlements for its Jewish population, and nothing but bullets for its five million Palestinians living under occupation. So all the evidence in the world isn't going to change Drimer's mind.
In fact, any attempt to point out how brutal Israel is to Palestinians gets put in that grand, amorphous category of antisemitism. Suddenly, one is labeled a proponent of "ZOG," whatever that is, and Drimer is back to familiar territory. We can argue about what antisemites do beside yelling "Zog" to other white supremacists. And whatever criticism of the extreme racism used to ethnically cleans the Holy Land gets identified as just another "trope." It seems like there is a trope for almost any criticism of Israel. In fact, pointing out that there are a lot of tropes is probably another trope.
So I am not going to descend into trope land. If Drimer can argue about what antisemitism is, why then he doesn't have to talk about what Israel actually does to its Palestinians living under brutal occupation. That behavior is simply indefensible if one cares at all about human rights.
For it is indefensible to drive millions of Palestinian from their homeland. It is indefensible to destroy 170,000 Palestinian homes since 1948. Indefensible to cut down 9,300 Palestinian olive trees last year alone. Indefensible to murder civilians with drone and sniper attacks, with an average of 6 Palestinian children killed each month in 2021. No, Drimer would prefer not to go there. He can't really defend Israel; the American people know too much.
Fred Nagel
Jul 2022 Hudson Valley 1
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Drimer’s letter from January 2022
Pro-Israel policies not the work of ZOG
The Jewish Federation of Ulster County agrees with Fred Nagel that it’s wrong for religious extremists to “inject their holy directives into all our lives.” (Our Founders did not favor religious extremism, December 24.) But Nagel further proclaims a theocratic element has “taken over our (US) foreign policy,” they declare “Israel has the right to steal land in Palestine,” and Israel commits “genocidal attacks in Gaza.” It’s not true, and it cannot be sourced except in anti-Semitic propaganda.
The claim references the most pernicious anti-Semitic trope: Pro-Israel US policies are the work of “ZOG.” ZOG is a white-supremacist acronym for “Zionist Occupied Government,” which reflects the belief the US government is controlled by Jews. This has resulted in slogans such as “Smash ZOG” or “Death to ZOG.” That’s simply loathsome hate speech, and it should be shunned by civilized society.
Israel does not steal land in Palestine. If Nagel means Judea and Samaria, often called the West Bank, it’s “disputed territory” under international law, annexed illegally by Jordan after the 1948 War with Israel. When the entire Arab world again attacked in June 1967, and Israel emerged victorious just six days later, Israel seized control of those “disputed” areas for security purposes. Subsequently, Israel has provided security, water and utilities and has supplemented food and health care on a massive scale for the benefit of area residents, even during armed conflict.
Israel has offered to support the creation of an independent state there no less than three times. Those offers have been rebuffed by Arab governments seeking to benefit politically from keeping the Palestinians trapped in permanent refugee status.
There is no “genocide” of Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis. Israel has every right to protect itself from violence at the hands of Palestinian entities which divert funds to build terror tunnels, fire rockets at residential Jewish neighborhoods and pay stipends to the families of terrorists who kill Israelis. Look no farther than the streets and football stadiums named after convicted terrorists to prove the truth of that.
Israel wants nothing more than to be at peace, and it’s willing to help build and assure the prosperity of an independent Palestinian state to see that dream come to fruition. The rest of the region is waking up to it, too. Israel is in varying stages of negotiations to normalize relations with the greater Arab world, primarily due to their common security interests. They all see Iran – the largest state exporter of international terrorism in the world – as a looming threat to peace. But Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist faction ruled by a dictator who refuses to call elections in violation of its own Constitution, is supplied with money, arms and rockets by Iran. A permanent peace remains elusive.
Nagel’s opinions are based on hyperbole and easily dismissed, but he is shockingly inappropriate in embracing the most sinister of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
David Drimer
Executive director, The Jewish Federation of Ulster County