In a wanton display of Jewish antisemitism, prominent Jews worldwide, who have been outspoken critics of Israel ever since Hamas’s massacre of some 1,200 of our citizens and the kidnapping of 251 hostages, sent a letter this week to UN Secretary General António Guterres and other selected world leaders, demanding that Israel be held accountable for “grievous violations of international law.”
Among other things, the letter urges “businesses, labor unions, civil society,” and the United Nations’ member states to take four specific steps: (1) Comply with decisions of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year; (2) impose sanctions and arms embargoes on Israel; (3) ensure humanitarian aid reaches Gaza; and (4) “refute false accusations of antisemitism.”
It is more than depressing to note that nowhere in their demands to sanction and punish Israel for fighting a defensive war in response to an attack against our very survival here is there any call to hold Hamas to account. Not a single one. Nothing. Nada.
Do the signatories to the letter perhaps believe that Hamas was justified in their unprovoked attack on the citizens of Israel? Do they not place any responsibility at all on the perpetrators of the worst assault on Jews since the Holocaust?
Is their animosity toward Israel or their embarrassment at our military success in having cleansed the region of Iranian proxies so great that they can no longer identify the main culprit in this war? Seriously?
The few Jews that stand against the rest
And who are these people who demand that Israel be penalized for defending itself?
They include: Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov, Emmy Award-winning actors Ilana Glazer and Hannah Einbinder (who could not resist yelling out “Free Palestine” recently upon accepting her Emmy), Canadian trauma guru Gabor Maté, and Oscar winners Jonathan Glazer and Yuval Avraham, who co-directed the documentary No Other Land.
Added to this list are New York Times opinion writer and editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, Peter Beinart; former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg; former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy; New Israel Fund’s Vice President for Public Engagement, Libby Lenkinski; British activist Em Hilton; and former Belgian member of parliament Simone Susskind.
In defense of the letter, Burg said: “We launched this initiative because the deeds of Israel’s government in Gaza have been an affront to collective Jewish consciousness worldwide.”
Really? Tell that to the mothers, fathers, spouses, siblings, and children of the almost 1,000 members of the IDF who gave their last full measure of devotion so that the rest of us could survive.
I am really sorry that the IDF’s actions in Gaza, which sought to eliminate any future threat to our survival by Hamas, was an affront to the consciousness of Burg and his co-signatories.
AVRAHAM BURG, who, in 2007, published the book Defeating Hitler, in which he claimed that Israeli society is fascist and violent as a consequence of the continuing trauma related to the Holocaust.
Others on the list also have checkered records when it comes to their relationship with Israel:
Ilan Volkov, who, two months ago, after a concert at Royal Albert Hall in London, condemned Israel’s war in Gaza as well as the resultant destruction and high civilian casualties.
Ilana Glazer, who is a signatory to the Film Workers for Palestine boycott pledge that was published this past September.
Gabor Maté, who in an interview with broadcaster Piers Morgan a month after October, 7, stated that he had cried daily for two weeks following a visit to Gaza. He called for an end to the “occupation” and the persecution of Palestinians and for the return of land “occupied” since 1967.
Jonathan Glazer, when accepting the award at the 2024 Oscar presentation said: “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.”
Peter Beinart, whose fourth book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, was released earlier this year, argues that “Jewish texts, history, and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation” in Gaza.
Em Hilton is a Jewish organizer and writer based in London and cofounder of Na’amod: UK Jews against Israeli occupation and apartheid.
These kinds of Jews simply don’t have the required agency to demand that we be held to account and be sanctioned.
During this period of rampant and increasing antisemitism worldwide, we need Jews who are proud of their heritage, who understand the historical ramifications of what we are experiencing today, and who appreciate the special place that Israel occupies in the collective psyche of the Jewish people.
Frankly, if they cannot be supportive in light of all of the challenges that face us as a people yet again, it is better that they remain silent and keep their thoughts to themselves rather than display their ignorance of the realities that confront us.
The writer, an international business development consultant, is the founder and chair of the American State Offices Association, former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, and a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.