The firestorm over the assertion made last week by Howard Gutman, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, that one must draw a distinction between Arab Jew-hatred and “traditional” anti-Semitism won’t be put out by his disingenuous attempt to explain himself. Gutman distinguished Arab anti-Semitism from other variants of this prejudice because it is caused by Israeli policies rather than stemming from the demons of the Muslim world that have given rise to extremist and terrorist groups.
In a subsequent statement, Gutman failed to apologize and merely claimed his remarks were “taken the wrong way.” He then said his status as the son of a Holocaust survivor gives him impunity on the subject. But there was no misunderstanding here. He directly blamed Israel for anti-Semitism in Europe and said Arab hate of Jews was different from that of previous generations of haters. Gutman also explicitly said “every new settlement announced in Israel” and “every retaliatory military strike” undertaken by the Israelis “provides a setback for those fighting hatred and bigotry in here in Europe.” That he coupled his condemnation of Israel along with swipes at Palestinians doesn’t get him off the hook. By doing so, he treated Israeli home building with murder and its right of self-defense with terrorism.
Gutman’s placing blame on Israel for European anti-Semitism was not a matter of interpretation or even an off the cuff remark. He opened his remarks last Wednesday to the European Jewish Congress announcing he was going to say things they might not like. He was not wrong. According to the original account of the speech published by Ynet, the “audience was visibly stunned.”
It should also be pointed out that Gutman is not an ingénue when it comes to expressing his views. A Washington “superlawyer” who bought his title of ambassador with massive contributions to President Obama’s campaign, he is an experienced and highly successful litigator. His smear of Israel was a considered opinion that was part of his prepared remarks.
It also bears mentioning that Gutman’s “credentials” as the son of a survivor cannot be allowed to excuse his egregious smear of the Jewish state. Any attempt to try and differentiate the hate that took the lives of six million European Jews during the Holocaust from the current vision that seeks the murder of six million Israeli Jews provides a rationale for Islamist extremism. Attempts to blame Israel for the ideological anti-Semitism that has found a new home in the Arab and Muslim worlds in the last century is no more justified than those who sought to blame European Jews for their victimization. That Gutman would not point out that those who wish to deny Israel’s right to exist or self-defense are bigots pure and simple shows how out of touch he is with the nature of this hatred. But it is consistent with Obama’s record of treating Israeli policies as the cause for the continuance of the Middle East conflict.
If the administration is paying attention, Gutman will be quickly recalled. A failure to do so will provide fodder to Republicans who are already poised to exploit the ongoing tension between Obama and Israel in next year’s presidential election.
But, as I wrote yesterday, coming as it did only a couple of days before the secretary of defense made it clear he blamed Israel for its isolation as Islamist parties grew in influence in the Arab world, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that Gutman’s comments represent the opinion of this White House. Just as the president’s off-hand comments insulting Prime Minister Netanyahu in an open microphone exchange with French President Sarkozy revealed the depth of his animosity, so too do Gutman and Panetta’s blasts demonstrate that this administration instinctively blames Israel for the hatred of those who seek to destroy it.
As a child, I watched Eichmann's trial and was horrified, but comforted that the horrifying events were history, and that history had provided justice, not only in the punishment of Eichmann, but the establishment of Israel. n nNow it is clear that progress is illusion. Cowardice rules in high places, and the hearts of ordinary citizens. Jew hatred is, like other bigotry, a craven inability to accept one's own failings and instead seek an other to blame. The West's capitulation to Islam's intrinsic hatred of Jews may mean the end of Israel and with the pogroms to follow such a catastrophic conflict, a world finally Judenrein. nFor this we lose, our souls, if they are not gone already. And then those picking through the ruins of our civilization will blame the vanished Jews.(so says this non Jew ) n
A new generation of Court Jews trained by chomsky? n nThe real puzzle is why the Panetta+Gutman remarks are coming NOW? nIs it because of the policy preference for a Sunni crescent to contain the Shi'a crescent in Syria and Iraq west of the Euphrates is the "lesser of two evils choice"?
n nWhile he thinks being the the son of Holocaust survivors gives him some sort of immunity, most actual Holocaust survivors would think it should give him a bit of historical perspective and wisdom. n nWhat Gutman's statements do, however, is give license to all sorts of ill intentioned people to use his words against the Israelis. n nHis claiming the 'son of Holocaust survivors prerogative' only further empowers the haters in their exploitation of his words. n n"Look", they will say, "Even the son of Holocaust survivors think Israel is bringing this hatred down on themselves." n nGutman the fool. Gutman the tool.
Being survivors progeny is no shield against antisemitic views as the case of Norman Finkelstein clearly shows.
Gutman is a typical leftist Jew who understand nothing about the middle east conflict. Israel has done everything in its power to have peace with her neighbors. It is the so called Palestininans who don't want any peace at all. Israel has been defending itself for a long against the Muslims who want to destroy her. Overall Islam can not call itself a legitimate religion until Israel is gone. This is what the Muslims believe. There can never be a two state solution when your neighbor want to destroy you for being Jewish.
In some ways this Administration is no better than Israel's enemies. When things go wrong, they blame the Jews. Looking around the region one sees only one epic failure after another. Obama's touted "outreach" to the Arab and Muslim worlds has come to naught. Relatively moderate Morocco and Tunisia recently voted in Islamists. They're coming to power in Egypt as well, and soon in Libya. Obama's favorite leader in the region is not Netanyahu but Turkey's Racep Erdogan, who's practically threatened war against Cyprus and Israel. Lebanon is now dominated by Hizbullah. US requests to the PA fall on deaf ears, Saudi Arabia rejects US requests for even the smallest gesture toward Israel and Iran laughs at US threats. n nA wiser administration might think, "Maybe we're doing something wrong." But it's so much easier to say "Israel is ruining everything."
Shame on you. You know good and well he wasn't trying to justify any sort of anti-semitism, but to make the completely obvious point that anti-semitism in the muslim world is exacerbated by muslims' perceptions of Israel. Every observer not in the service of the GOP-Likud alliance says this sort of thing all the time, and you know it. n nNo one is denying the hideous anti-semitism that mars much of arab and muslim cultures today; Gutman was making the completely self-apparent point that it is different in its historical origins from previous versions of the oldest hatred. Is it so important to Commentary to tell a story of Obama the Israel-hater (and maybe anti-semite; who knows?) that the lowest common denominator is the default?
Your Ynet quote is wrong. Wrong. Your statement: n nGutman distinguished Arab anti-Semitism from other variants of this prejudice because it is caused by Israeli policies rather than stemming from the demons of the Muslim world that have given rise to extremist and terrorist groups. n nis wrong. Wrong. Easily evaluated against a transcript of the remarks as wrong. Standing on it as wrong makes you a hack. n nHack. n nGutman should not apologize. His remarks were not "taken the wrong way"–they were distorted in order to make a political point against, well, everybody who cares about accuracy and diplomacy and truth and a sustainable and reasonable government. n nDistorted. n nice9 n
Here are Gutman's actual remarks, as opposed to the misleading Ynet paraphrase and subsequent misquotations: n n"There is and has long been some amount of anti-Semitism, of hatred and violence against Jews, from a small sector of the population who hate others who may be different or perceived to be different, largely for the sake of hating. Those anti-Semites are people who hate not only Jews, but Muslims, gays, gypsies, and likely any who can be described as minorities or different. That hatred is of course pernicious and it must be combated. We can never take our eye off it or just dismiss it as fringe elements or the work of crazy people, because we have seen in the past how it can foment and grow. n nIt is the problem within Europe of tension, hatred and sometimes even violence between some members of Muslim communities or Arab immigrant groups and Jews. It is a tension and perhaps hatred largely born of and reflecting the tension between Israel, the Palestinian Territories and neighboring Arab states in the Middle East over the continuing Israeli-Palestinian problem. n nIt too is a serious problem. It too must be discussed and solutions explored. No Jewish student – and no Muslim student or student of any heritage or religion – should ever feel intimidated on a University campus for their heritage or religion leading to academic leaders quitting in protest. No high school or grammar school Jewish student – and no Muslim high school or grammar school student or student of any heritage or religion – should be beaten up over their heritage or religion. n nBut this second problem is in my opinion different in many respects than the classic bigotry – hatred against those who are different and against minorities generally — the type of anti-Semitism that I discussed above. It is more complex and requiring much more thought and analysis. This second form of what is labeled “growing anti-Semitism” produces strange phenomena and results." n nHopefully certain parties will apologize for their mistaken reactions to a nonexistent slur.
Also, his "defense of Arab Jew-Hatred" was no such thing, unless you're ignoring his actual words in favor of Ynet's misleading summary. But don't let that keep you from a juicy headline.