Because of Jesus?

What we can learn from the history of claims made against the Jews, in order to fight anti-Zionism

A friend’s husband owns a boutique, artistic hotel in Europe that was recently boycotted because, in addition to his American citizenship, he was born in Israel. When he tried to explain to the association that called for the boycott that the hotel has no connection to the land of his birth, he was shouted down for “artwashing” his connection to what the boycotters determined was a genocide.

His story is, of course, not unique. Artists and chefs and authors and academics worldwide who happen to have either been born in Israel or who live in Israel or who have an affinity towards Israel have suffered under the increasing momentum of a boycott movement that has succeeded in convincing otherwise educated people that every Jew, everywhere, is responsible for the actions of Israel.

All this, from personal experience, is in stark contrast to what I experienced in the Middle East as a peace activist in the late 1990s. Then, the standard opening statement when you met someone from the other side was, “You and I, we aren’t our governments. Our problem is with each other’s government, not the people. We can make peace together, and then work to spread that peace among our people.”

This shift – from blaming the governments for the conflict to blaming each and every individual member of a people – is a return to the age-old relationship the Western world had with the Jews: a relationship best described by the belief that “The Jews” killed Jesus.

There is, of course, no logic to such a claim, even if one does accept the narrative that it was Jews who turned Jesus over to the Roman authorities. Jews today obviously are not the Jews who lived in Jesus’ time, and even the Jews in Jesus’ time did not all have a relationship with the Roman governor. Only a small group in power did. And, to be blunt, Jews have killed lots of Jews over the years – some saviors, others traitors. At worst, only those who conspired to commit a particular crime share responsibility for the act.

All thoughtful people should agree that it makes no sense to extend blame onto each and every Jew throughout the generations. Just as it makes no sense to attack a Turkish person for Erdogan’s Turkey’s dedication to wipe out the Kurds, or a Chinese person for the brutal ongoing erasure of Tibet, it is preposterous to forgive an attack on Jews because it may have been motivated by the “situation in Gaza.”

Which, of course, is what we need to realize: the boycott movement is not a rational movement. It cannot be defeated with facts and figures. Arguing with claims made by adherents of the anti-Zionist faith has as much of a chance of success as the Disputations in the Middle Ages, when Jews were called up to debate Christians and often punished afterwards for doing so. Similarly, today, attempts to properly define “genocide” will fail to convince the Amnesty true believers. No matter how much we spend on Hasbara, no amount of facts will dispel myths rooted in religious fervor. No amount of editorial letters will dissuade a member of the faith that Hamas’s casualty numbers may be purposely inflated.

Nor will an accommodationist approach to anti-Zionism work, similar to that tried by the Reform Jews in German society in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and tried by some liberal Jewish groups today. No matter how many times Israelis and Jews share that the majority of Israelis oppose this current government, and have for months called for an end to the war to bring our loved ones home – organizing weekly mass protests for nearly two years – adherents of the anti-Zionist faith will still blame each and every Jew for the decisions Benjamin Netanyahu and his full-Right coalition makes. We can dialogue with Amnesty until our faces turn blue, and the anti-Zionists will still say we killed Palestinian Jesus.*

Understanding anti-Zionism as an element of faith is important if we are ever to address the rising tide against the Jews and the Jewish state. As Yossi Klein Halevi deftly argues, it is irrelevant whether anti-Zionism is antisemitism: any faith that holds every Jew punishable for the actions undertaken by others is inherently wrong and must be confronted. Which is why we should stop imagining ourselves to be in a debate, and instead understand ourselves to be in a battle for souls. For adherents. For converts.

What that means, practically, I admit I do not yet understand. Fighting faith with faith I believe should be left to the faithful. Just as the Evangelicals have a far greater chance of convincing Christians that the pope’s recent comments about Israel are wrongheaded, so too human rights activists who recognize the blindness of anti-Zionism would do better than the Israeli government to win souls. Our job as those outside those circles should be to support, encourage, amplify. To bless those that bless us, and curse those that curse us.

Can it be done? I believe so. Once, Christmas was a dangerous time of year for Jews. Now, it is a time where many Jews join in the celebration. The most wonderful time of the year, as a Jew once wrote. Jews were able to universalize Christmas not through theological argument, not by arguing facts and figures about Jesus and his birth, but rather by engaging in sustained cultural work. So too, I’m sure, there are ways to deemphasize and defang anti-Zionism while maintaining the good intentions of many of its adherents. Investing in that process should be our top priority, because if we do not convert adherents away from the anti-Zionist faith, their grip on international institutions will only grow stronger. And inquisition will follow.

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(*And if you believe that Jesus was a Palestinian, as the pope seems to accept given his recent statements, it stands to reason that you should believe that it was Palestinians who killed Jesus. In which case, I would still advise you to forgive contemporary Palestinians for the killing of Jesus. Because frankly, it’s not their fault. Just as it isn’t the fault of the Jews.)