11-16-2019 Even Bernie can’t square the circle of ‘progressive Zionism’ - Joseph Levine Mondoweiss

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/11/even-bernie-cant-square-the-circle-of-progressive-zionism/

…His piece… is a paradigmatic example of the twisted logic underlying so-called "progressive Zionism", a position that attempts to "square the circle" with reasoning that descends into what I can only call intellectual and moral dishonesty.  One passage in particular stands out:  "We must also be honest about this: The founding of Israel is understood by another people in the land of Palestine as the cause of their painful displacement. And just as Palestinians should recognize the just claims of Israeli Jews, supporters of Israel must understand why Palestinians view Israel's creation as they do."…Bernie never tells us what he considers the "just claims of Israeli Jews" to be… if he did spell them out he'd have to face the incompatibility of his democratic socialism with his Zionism.  Does he mean their right to live in peace and security?  Well, I support that claim, but of course that is not a claim Palestinians reject.  Rather, the claim at issue is the Israeli Jewish claim to hold sovereignty in a Jewish state and maintain a Jewish majority in that state, thus requiring the subordination of one part of the citizenry to the other.  Elsewhere I have argued at length that there is no legitimate moral basis for such a claim.  So there really is nothing legitimate to ask Palestinians to recognize that they don't already recognize…What I object to, however, is the idea that there is a spectrum along which criticism of Israel can be placed and when it gets too extreme – veering into denying "the right of self-determination to Jews" – then it's gone over the line into antisemitic territory.  For one thing, as I've already stated, the supposed right to self-determination that Bernie clearly means here is one that no ethnic or religious group possesses, so therefore not Jews either…

 

Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

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