9-2-2019 ‘Zionism is at the core of Jewish identity, so anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic’ — A response – Joseph Levine Mondoweiss

 https://mondoweiss.net/2019/09/zionism-identity-response/

 

…for Pearl and many Zionists the point isn't to defend Zionism at all.  The point is to structure the public debate so that criticisms of Zionism cannot be aired in the first place.  Pearl wants critics of Zionism to be prohibited from making their arguments on the grounds that doing so would violate the identity-rights of Jews.  But if he admits, as I imagined he would, that identity-rights can't immunize a genuinely-unjust doctrine from public criticism, how do you prohibit criticism of Zionism in the public realm until you've shown that it's not unjust?  And how do you do that if you don't allow those who claim it is unjust to make their case publicly?  It seems as if there's a Catch-22 here.  If it's morally kosher, then Zionism cannot be legitimately criticized because of its role in Jewish identity.  But we can't know if it's morally kosher unless we subject it to the critique of anti-Zionists first, which, according to Pearl's argument, we're not allowed to do…

 

Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

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