Friend and mentor of dcat, the respected historian Jeffrey Herf, has an important
piece that he has written along with the comparativist German Studies scholar Andrei S. Markovits at
The New Republic online. In it they take issue with
John Judis' downgrading of what constitutes anti-semitism. Here is the concluding paragraph:
Israel's critics in this country have the freedom to say what they wish, including the freedom to exaggerate vastly the power of Jews and the Israel lobby. We who criticize some of their views also have the freedom and obligation to explain why we think such arguments are false, dangerous, and bear comparisons to older anti-Semitic traditions. In a period in which Iran's president threatens to wipe Israel off the face of this earth and Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al Qaeda seek its destruction as well, a weakening of American support for Israel would be a catastrophe of the first order not only for Israel, but for its supporters in this country. It would also be both a strategic blunder and moral debacle from the perspective of U.S. national security in the conventional sense of that term.
But do read the whole thing.
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