THE GASLIGHTING
Since October 7, 2023, antisemitism everywhere in the Diaspora has skyrocketed by astronomical percentages. When we express concern over the antisemitism characteristic of the overwhelming majority of pro-Palestine protests, anti-Zionist Jews and non-Jews alike frequently gaslight us with talk of “collective liberation.” They argue that Jewish safety from antisemitism can only be found in solidarity with others — namely, in this case, with Palestinians.
Jews will not be safe, they insist, until Palestinians are free, appropriating a quote from a proto-Zionist poet, Emma Lazarus, “Until all of us are free, none of us are free.” Ironically, in her letter, Lazarus was arguing that until all Jews were free, no Jews would be free.
This argument that anti-Zionists make is an absurd fallacy backed up by zero data whatsoever. In fact, empirical evidence demonstrates exactly the opposite: that what most of these people deem “liberation” for Palestinians endangers Jews. These are the same people, for example, that described (and celebrated!) the October 7 massacre as the day that “Palestinians broke out of prison.” In “breaking out of prison,” these Palestinians carried out the largest antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust.
Not only that, but the antisemitism that Jews in the Diaspora are facing — including, but not limited to bomb threats, arsonist attacks, stabbings, shootings, kidnappings, rape, and even murder — is overwhelmingly coming from people who claim to be acting on behalf of the liberation of Palestinians.
WHAT EMMA LAZARUS ACTUALLY SAID
“In defiance of the hostile construction that may be put upon my words, I do not hesitate to say that our national defect is that we are not ‘tribal’ enough; we have not sufficient solidarity to perceive that when the life and property of a Jew in the uttermost provinces of the Caucuses are attacked, the dignity of a Jew in free America is humiliated. We who are prosperous and independent have not sufficient homogeneity to champion on the ground of a common creed, common stock, a common history, a common heritage of misfortune, the rights of the lowest and poorest Jew-peddler who flees, for life and liberty of thought, from Slavonic mobs. Until we are all free, we are none of us free. But lest we should justify the taunts of our opponents, lest we should become ‘tribal’ and narrow and Judaic rather than humane and cosmopolitan like the antisemites of Germany and Jew-baiters of Russia, we ignore and repudiate our unhappy brethren as having no part or share in their misfortunes — until the cup of anguish is held also to our own lips.”
If you need a translation: Lazarus was chastising American Jews for not looking out for their fellow Jewry enough. She was not, in any way, suggesting that in prioritizing the liberation of everyone else, at the expense of our own, Jews would finally find safety.
WHAT IS "COLLECTIVE LIBERATION," ANYWAY?
Collective liberation is the theory that, because “all systems of oppression are connected” (an overly simplistic, western-centric view, in my opinion), the liberation of one group is bound to the liberation of all other groups. While solidarity across cultures against oppression is certainly a positive thing, there are zero studies and zero data suggesting that what the collective liberationists propose is true.
Here’s the issue: collective liberationists never seem to take into account that liberation and freedom can mean many different — oftentimes opposing — things across many different societies, cultures, and belief systems. What is liberation to me can be in direct opposition to what is liberation to you.
For example, in 1943, notorious Nazi Heinrich Himmler wrote to Haj Amin Al-Husseini, the father of Palestinian nationalism, to assure him that Nazi Germany’s alliance with the Arabs would “free” the Muslim world. Free it for whom, exactly? Certainly not for Jews, as the Nazis were already contemplating their plans to exterminate Middle Eastern Jewry, and Jews in Axis-occupied North Africa were already being rounded up into labor camps.
Likewise, for Jews, the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 was the harbinger of an era when, for the first time in 2000 years, Jews would always have a safe home to flee to when faced with genocidal persecution. But Palestinians view Israel’s establishment as a “Nakba,” a catastrophe, and the beginning of their oppression.
Another example: the supporters of the 1979 Iranian Revolution hailed the newly-established Islamic Republic in Iran as a “liberation” from the forces of western imperialism. But this so-called “liberation” came at the costly expense of the freedom for Iranian women and ethnic and religious minorities in Iran.
IS IT SOLIDARITY OR IS IT A HIERARCHY?
The myth of “safety through solidarity” has been busted multiple times over in the past year, because a lot of times, what has been described as X minority’s solidarity with the Palestinian cause has actually been “X minority must put the Palestinian cause above everything — even their own interests — or else.”
A few months ago, for example, there was a major controversy when various Palestinian TikTokers disparaged Black American allies who decided to vote for Kamala Harris, accusing said Black allies of being “complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people.” In other words, for this to be true solidarity with the Palestinian cause, these Black folks would have to forego their vote or vote for a third party, even if that resulted in policies that would be harmful to the Black community in the United States.
That’s not solidarity. That’s saying “you must sacrifice your well-being because my cause is more important than yours.”
Another example? Recently, a global LGBTQ rights group, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (also known as ILGA World), suspended all Israeli LGBTQ organizations, on account of their being Israeli, which allegedly makes them, by virtue, complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. Among the organizations suspended? Aguda, the Israeli organization that helps gay Palestinians seek asylum in Israel. It’s the only such organization in the region which provides these services to gay people whose own identity is essentially a death sentence. In prioritizing the Palestinian cause above all else, ILGA World threw not only queer Israelis, but queer Palestinians, under the bus.
Is this really what solidarity is supposed to look like? Is this really liberating all of us?
ARE JEWISH SAFETY AND PALESTINIAN LIBERATION INTERTWINED?
Again, it depends on what we mean by “liberation.” If what we mean is what the Palestinian cause has historically regarded as “liberation,” then the answer is an emphatic no. After all, the original “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is “from water to water, Palestine is Arab.” That’s a pretty clear message.
Theoretically, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state should mean the end of Palestinian terrorism. In reality, the Israeli unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005 — that is, the end of the Israeli occupation, prior to the blockade — turned Gaza into a missile launching pad. Every single time Israel has loosened restrictions in the West Bank, including closing down checkpoints, an uptick in terrorism has followed. As long as the mainstream Palestinian movement sees Palestinian liberation as synonymous with the destruction of the Jewish state, home to half of the world’s Jews, then no, Jewish safety and Palestinian liberation will not be intertwined.
Still, some insist, a singular “democratic” Palestinian state, from the river to the sea, will bring safety and liberation for all. This is, to put it simply, an ahistorical delusion. Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, the governing Palestinian entities, have made it abundantly clear no Israelis will be tolerated in a future Palestinian state. This is a euphemism for “Jews,” because there are zero Jewish Palestinian citizens. Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority frequently incite against Jews — not just Israelis or Zionists — in political discourse, the media, the education system, and more. Jews have never once, throughout 1,400 years of Arab rule, lived as free equals anywhere in the Arab world. It’s a delusion to think that this time will be the first, and a suicidal risk no Jew should be obligated to accept.
"SAFETY THROUGH SOLIDARITY" OR SELF-SACRIFICE?
“Safety through solidarity!” anti-Zionist Jews tell us when we express concern over violent anti-Zionist antisemitism. This is plain gaslighting. Most social justice movements wouldn’t exist today — certainly not as they do, anyway — without the widespread, groundbreaking participation of the Jewish community. To tell us we aren’t safe because we haven’t demonstrated enough solidarity is not only ahistorical, but it’s victim-blaming.
Antisemitism is not a valid punishment for a lack of solidarity. It’s an ancient bigotry that has taken millions of lives.
Drawing from the Jewish experience of thousands of years of oppression, persecution, and marginalization, as well as from Jewish values, American Zionist Jews have been at the forefront of just about every cause associated with progressive politics. In the 1970s and 1980s, American Jewish environmentalism was largely influenced by Zionism’s revival of “back-to-the-land” values. Zionist Jewish women were disproportionately represented in the American suffragette movement, and Zionist Jewish women led the feminist movement, with icons such as Gloria Steinem — who, while highly critical of the Israeli government, has identified as a proud Zionist for decades — at the helm. Rabbi Abraham Herschel’s vocal support for the Civil Rights movement is well known, as are Harvey Milk’s contributions to the fight for gay rights. Though not American, Magnus Hirschfeld is largely considered the father of the modern LGBTQ+ movement, establishing the first trans healthcare clinic in 1919. He was a Zionist.
Interestingly, however, while American Jews loudly advocated for other progressive causes, until the 1970s, they were largely hesitant to make too much noise about antisemitism. Following hundreds of years of violent persecution in Europe, the community had been conditioned to keep their heads down. In fact, after the Holocaust, this was an enormous source of shame for the American Jewish community — the idea that perhaps they could have done more on behalf of their Jewish brothers and sisters in Europe.
SOLIDARITY IN ACTION
I’m not discounting the importance of inter-cultural solidarity. I think it’s deeply important. I just don’t think that what many of these collective liberationists describe as solidarity is solidarity at all, but rather, a hierarchy of causes. Those whose causes aren’t deemed the most important — in this case, anything that’s not the Palestinian cause — are then forced to sacrifice their well-being or they lose their status as “allies.”
Sincere solidarity between groups can look like many things. It can look like marching together, as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel did during the Civil Rights Movement. It can look like language revitalization projects, as Hebrew revivalists have helped with the revitalization of a number of Indigenous languages, such as the Sámi languages or Barngarla. It can look like life-saving rescue missions, as Jewish philanthropist Steve Maman recently pursued the rescue mission of a 21-year-old Yazidi woman, Fawzia Amin Saydo, who was held as a sex slave in Gaza after being captured by ISIS 10 years prior. It can look like cross-cultural exchanges, learning programs, and so much more.
What it shouldn’t look like? Solidarity shouldn’t be about putting your safety and the safety of your people last. Rather, it should be about uplifting each other up — mutually, and without self-sacrifice. You shouldn’t demand that other marginalized people put their oxygen masks on last for them to prove their allegiance to your cause.
THE TRUTH
Antisemitism continues to be a problem, and it has been one for 2000 years. Jews have never been entirely safe to live as Jews, but historically, the safest we’ve ever been is when we’ve looked out for ourselves, not when we have depended on the goodwill of other people. This is a fact.
In 1929, the ancient Jewish community of Hebron declined protection from the Haganah, the main Zionist paramilitary in Mandatory Palestine, because their Arab neighbors, whom they’d lived among for hundreds of years, assured them that, should the antisemitic riots characteristic of the period spread to city, the Jews of Hebron would be protected. Instead, the opposite happened; the community was massacred and decimated by their very own neighbors.
On the eve of World War II, the entire world closed its doors to Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Jews in America who pleaded on behalf of their brethren in Europe were accused of being “war agitators.” Ships with Jewish refugees were turned around the shores of America and Palestine. As the Holocaust was unfolding, the Jews begged the Allies to bomb the death camps and/or the train tracks to the death camps. The Allies refused. Non-Jewish partisans often sold out Jewish partisans to the Nazis. After the war, non-Jewish neighbors slaughtered Jewish refugees who came to reclaim their old homes. The lesson was loud and clear: we were on our own.
The Holocaust, however, was not an anomaly, but rather, the culmination of two millennia of this kind of behavior from the non-Jewish world.
On the other hand, the 76 years since the State of Israel’s establishment, when the Jewish state has carried out rescue operations of Yemenite, Iraqi, Moroccan, and Ethiopian Jewry, for example, have been statistically the “safest” decades in history to be a Jew.
For a full bibliography of my sources, please head over to my Instagram and Patreon.