liv | Too much to say (Reply)

Pesach interrupted my good resolution to post every week, and in the month since then I've accumulated too many posts. I'm going to post some links about a political issue, partly because we have an election coming up this week, and partly because pointing you to other people's words helps to break the hiatus without having to choose which of my own words to start with.

I happened to see, fairly close together, two very interesting articles about how Jews fit into the politics of race, written by non-Jewish Black experts. First,

sovay linked to Eric Ward's The evolution of identity politics. Ward is really interesting about intersectionality and and solidarity rather than allyship, not only about the anomalous position of American Jews of European origin. Lots of food for thought, and the article has really stuck with me. I'm quoting the bit about Jews because it ties in to the other links I want to post, not because it's the most important of Ward's many insights:

Jews found themselves in a situation where they were being defined as white not only by white society but also by anti-racists and elements of the political Left as well [...] Jews were forced to suppress their own history and experiences within anti-racist circles. As a result, our society found itself defenseless as white nationalists intentionally used anti-Semitism to form its worldview, develop leadership and fuel its growing social and political power.

To connect this to the UK context, I strongly recommend Ralph Leonard's piece: The Left needs a reckoning with anti-Semitism. Similarly to Ward, Leonard argues that

In the post Second World War era, British Jews have been, for the most part, incorporated into mainstream British identity — or really British "white" identity [...] Nevertheless, the anti-racist left needs to be better equipped in grappling with this virulent form of racism, even if it is not a causal factor for class composition.

Part of why I'm posting these links is to counter a long, thinky, but IMO somewhat muddled post by my Corbyn-supporting brother: Weighing into the disingenuous anti-anti-Semitism debate.

angrysampoet has a lot to say that's worth reading and thinking about, and I don't think he's completely wrong to take the view that accusations of anti-Semitism against Corbyn are being politically manipulated (and yes, there is far worse anti-Semitism that goes unchallenged among right wing Conservatives).

But I also think that

angrysampoet is in danger of falling for the damaging idea that the interests of Jews and Muslims are naturally opposed: pro-Semite discourse looks a lot like coded Islamophobia. I agree that there are some people who pretend to defend Jews just as an excuse to spread bigotry against Muslims. But anti-Semitism isn't good for Muslims, and Islamophobia isn't good for Jews either. Both communities' interests are aligned in that any expression of racism / xenophobia / religious hatred is bad for both of us, and we both need to work for unity and tolerance. I don't entirely agree with Fiyaz Mughal's article (writing as a Muslim journalist for the centre-left Israeli paper Haaretz): We Muslims need to talk about Muslim anti-Semitism, and he's unnecessarily negative towards Corbyn IMO. But he does make some good points:

It's not only extremist British Muslims seeking friends in the hard left, there are also those on the left who are seeking to build a bridge based on anti-Semitism with the Muslim community.

(Haaretz is paywalled but you can read the article if you give it an email address. It's skippable, the point is made much more clearly in the Ward and Leonard articles, but I'm including it for completeness to offer Muslim journalist's view on what should be the priority for the justice-focused Muslim community rather than just my personal opinion.)

If you want my opinion, I don't think Corbyn's supposed anti-Semitism should be a major electoral issue if you're voting in the UK later on this week. I do think that there are many groups on the Left espousing simplistic views of racial and identity politics, which leave them vulnerable to being infiltrated by deeply unpleasant agitators who will readily use excuses like 'you can't be racist against white people' to allow old-fashioned Jew hatred to gain a foothold in their movements. And I do worry that Jews may seek to identify with the white status that has been externally imposed on us, and offer loyalty to people who don't have our interests at heart, instead of solidarity with other groups who experience racism.