Haaretz: There is no evil crime of which Israel cannot be accused:
It's an outlaw state, a pariah state, a demonic force.
Calls for an end to the occupation are now regarded as merely propping up Zionism, an apartheid system.
The right of return is sacred; the law of return is a racist abomination.
In the British media, critical pro-Israel voices are drowned out by pro-Palestinian ones and the angry American Zionist right. Either you're a supporter of apartheid or a self-hating Jew.
- 11.06.10
Liberal Diaspora Jewry afraid to talk, afraid to be silent
in Britain, for the most part, ordinary people don't care about the complicated story of the Middle East. They don't buy the line that Israel stands on the front line of the war against terror.
By
Linda Grant
Pro-Palestinian students protest at Manchester University in the U.K., March 4, 2009
Here in Britain, for the most part, ordinary people don't care about the complicated story of the Middle East. They don't buy the line that Israel stands on the front line of the war against terror. They may know of the impoverished city of Sderot and the rocket fire it faced over time, but in the balance sheet of life and death - when, in a densely packed strip of earth blockaded from all directions, children are made to go without food, toys and medicines - human sympathy has little difficulty attaching itself to the victims.
This is the tight place in which liberal Jews in the Diaspora find ourselves, and we can hardly breathe, let alone speak. Wanting to articulate the same critique of Israeli policy as Israeli critics, we find ourselves adding our voices to a condemnation of the Jewish state, which is turning into hate speech here. There is no evil crime of which Israel cannot be accused: It's an outlaw state, a pariah state, a demonic force. Calls for an end to the occupation are now regarded as merely propping up Zionism, an apartheid system. The right of return is sacred; the law of return is a racist abomination.
In the British media, critical pro-Israel voices are drowned out by pro-Palestinian ones and the angry American Zionist right. Either you're a supporter of apartheid or a self-hating Jew.
In such a climate, it is very difficult to speak at all. To critically support Israel is to discredit your own progressive values - to be a pariah in the artistic and intellectual communities that are your natural home.
Linda Grant is the author of "When I Lived in Modern Times" (Granta Books, 2000 ) and "The People on the Street: A Writer's View of Israel"Read more at www.haaretz.com
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