The Tokenization of Anti-Israel Jews

This week’s column was prompted by the recent visit of Norman Finklestein to our campus, sponsored by anti-Israel outsiders, and encouraged by on-campus student groups who took one look at his discography and deemed him the perfect pawn. For those of you who do not know who this man is, please allow me to enlighten you. 

The son of Holocaust survivors, Finklestein sells himself on the idea of a “Holocaust Industry”, that Jews have been ‘using’ the Holocaust as means of self-victimization and perpetuating antisemitism. These views are not only heartbreaking, but simply untrue. On October 7th, 2023, Finklestein tweeted that the “heroic resistance in Gaza”– also known as Hamas’ brutal slaughter of Israeli men, women and children– “warms every fiber of [his] soul”, and that he is happy to see the “arrogant Jewish supremacist oppressors” be “humbled”. We could talk forever about how Finklestein has built an entire career off of his internalized antisemitism and an insatiable thirst for the validation of thousands of people who, when it comes down to it, are the same people who have a hard time finding the difference between hating a ‘Zionist’ and just hating a Jew for being a Jew. Unfortunately, this event was well-attended by an audience that consisted mostly of community members, which seems to prove that attending the University of South Florida as a Jewish student means that even escaping campus does not mean that you can outrun antisemitic views in the surrounding area. For that, you may have to run all the way down to Boca. 

This brings up the idea of tokenization within itself. Anti-Israel groups and individuals often take people like Norman, as a way of ‘legitimizing’ their cause. We have seen views similar to his rampant on campuses through student organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace. JVP is a notorious group within the Jewish community, who are extremely anti-Israel and oftentimes were major players in the encampments littered all over the nation last semester. So, you ask, how does a Jew turn to false idols like these? Well, dear reader, there are many explanations for this, but the most simple one is a lack of education. SJP and other global anti-Israel organizations have been so loud and using every marketing resource known to man to force-feed the rest of the world false narratives. An uneducated Jew would see these ‘facts’ and soon fall victim to this story. They would become a character, a pawn, within the larger game of the oppression Olympics and glance down at lighter skin and perhaps a cushy lifestyle and assume the role they were assigned as immediate oppressor. Of course, this does not account for Jews of color or Jews who did not grow up knowing where their next meal would come from. Yet, a quick glance in the tents of the encampments and the Jews who are consistently pulling the “As A Jew” card, it is the socially frustrated Jew who may genuinely believe that they would be fine without an Israel. That when Hamas’ charter declares their want for the death of all Jews worldwide, they just mean ‘Zionists’. These are the Jews who haven’t researched the term or history of Zionism, who could probably not name one historical event in Israel. 

Israel is fighting a harsh war right now, but Jews in America are also fighting an ideological one. And how, dear soldier, can you prepare for your life-long service? Know your history. Ask questions, sure, but do your own research. Follow people online who know what they are talking about, fill your bookshelves with non-fiction and have real conversations with Israelis. Tokenization is a horrible cycle, and we cannot allow these people to speak for us. The only Jewish individuals who believe they do not need Israel are so far disconnected from the reality of being a Jew, and so incredibly privileged to even be able to push that narrative. Jews in America have only been ‘safe’ because of the existence of Israel. These individuals do not hold Jewish values, and if they do, they most definitely are not expressing them authentically. When we say ‘never again’, we must be aware that we are not simply talking to the world, we are talking to ourselves. 

The most dangerous Jew is the one who does not know their own history.