Progressive Jewish Thought and The New Anti-Semitism - Other News Coverage

Other News Coverage

In early February 2007, Stacey Palevsky observes, in a report for the Jewish News Weekly, that "Everyone seems to be talking about it:"

Journalists and Jews alike apparently are all trying to figure 'it' out – when does criticism of Israel evolve from legitimate to anti-Semitic? Why are progressive, liberal organizations increasingly tolerant of anti-Zionist language and actions? What does the rise of “new anti-Semitism” mean for Jews and for the Jewish state? And are Jews themselves contributing to anti-Semitic rhetoric? Or is such a charge contrary to the Jewish tradition of freethinking?

Ben Harris, in a late February 2007 report for the Jewish News Weekly, writes that "the essay may be having the opposite of its intended effect" instead galvanizing "progressive" Jewish groups who feel "it is immoral to remain silent in the face of what they see as Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians." Harris quotes Philip Weiss: "Things are changing.... My perception is that the Jewish community, the Jewish progressives, are feeling licensed and rising up." Weiss himself notes two recent developments: the launch by Jewish Voice for Peace of the Muzzlewatch Project dedicated to chronicling the alleged suppression of criticism of Israel, and the failure of the Zionist Organization of America to oust a liberal Jewish group from a national pro-Israel alliance.

Reporting for The Forward, Rebecca Spence writes that "in the United Kingdom, a similar debate is raging in Jewish circles. Saying that Britain’s mainstream Jewish groups have stifled a free discourse on Israeli policies, about 130 generally leftist Jews have formed their own group, Independent Jewish Voices."