Thank you for writing this … so I don’t have to. I heard an interview on The NYer Radio Hour last weekend (my goodness, how agonizing it must be for Coates to feel so shut out … he should try being a Jewish artist these days … or just any kind of Jew). And I was just about to through the little Bluetooth thing against a wall. I came away with the same observations: conflation, imposition and redefinition by an external entity on what it means to be Jewish, an Israeli and a Zionist and ya, progressive. His blatant double standards, hypocrisy and let’s just call it what it is, antisemitism, is, unfortunately, old hack. It’s what I experienced decades ago from the goys in my progressive uni circle, many of whom felt perfectly at ease being patronizing at best, downright genocidal in their ideas about the Jewish Nation at worst. An old very WASPy flame sent me articles by Pappe and Hobsbawm “They’re Jewish! And an Israeli!”
What is it with each new wave of rebel-yelling hipster intellectual and cultural resisters that their first and worst and longest tantrum starts and ends with Jews.
I refuse to use the Anti-Z word. It’s their word and it lends some kind of credibility when we utter or tap it out. Nobody tells Italians they are “anti-Italy” (except during the World Cup) and that they should cease to be. No one tells Saudi Arabia they should cease to be. No one is telling Iran, Russia, Guatemala, South Africa, France, Portugal, Tahiti, Japan, Canada or China that they should cease to be and that all their people must leave? And anyone who tells First Nations in the “Americas” that they should leave are, rightly called all the worst name since the book.The contorted logic of Coates’ comments and presented with the arrogance of his unacknowledged ignorance and inherent and wrong-headed bias was jaw-dropping.
So toda, for this important piece. I encourage you to send it to David Remnick and Jon Stewart and Jon Oliver and inky Bill Maher (who is good on this topic so would love to see you and Coates go at it on that show). Shana shalom tova shalom u’mitukah.
P.S. If you have the stomach and haven’t already addressed it, a piece about David Remnick (especially the NYer’s antisemitic bias and erasure of Jewish experiences … except only particular ones. The entire miserable hour he dedicated to the campus mobs a few months ago is a prime example of hoping for my thirst for something of substance and coming away having had to drink nail. He was harsher on the former Harvard Pres, Lawrence Summers (including his intro of him), than he was on the Palestinian antisemitic campus mob leader. Thankfully, Summers was excellent. It was just heinous. Oh, ya, and not a single Jewish student voice … go figure. Was just looking at some of the articles on the page … sigh … https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/israel-gaza-and-the-turmoil-at-one-american-university
Thank you for writing this … so I don’t have to. I heard an interview on The NYer Radio Hour last weekend (my goodness, how agonizing it must be for Coates to feel so shut out … he should try being a Jewish artist these days … or just any kind of Jew). And I was just about to through the little Bluetooth thing against a wall. I came away with the same observations: conflation, imposition and redefinition by an external entity on what it means to be Jewish, an Israeli and a Zionist and ya, progressive. His blatant double standards, hypocrisy and let’s just call it what it is, antisemitism, is, unfortunately, old hack. It’s what I experienced decades ago from the goys in my progressive uni circle, many of whom felt perfectly at ease being patronizing at best, downright genocidal in their ideas about the Jewish Nation at worst. An old very WASPy flame sent me articles by Pappe and Hobsbawm “They’re Jewish! And an Israeli!”
What is it with each new wave of rebel-yelling hipster intellectual and cultural resisters that their first and worst and longest tantrum starts and ends with Jews.
I refuse to use the Anti-Z word. It’s their word and it lends some kind of credibility when we utter or tap it out. Nobody tells Italians they are “anti-Italy” (except during the World Cup) and that they should cease to be. No one tells Saudi Arabia they should cease to be. No one is telling Iran, Russia, Guatemala, South Africa, France, Portugal, Tahiti, Japan, Canada or China that they should cease to be and that all their people must leave? And anyone who tells First Nations in the “Americas” that they should leave are, rightly called all the worst name since the book.The contorted logic of Coates’ comments and presented with the arrogance of his unacknowledged ignorance and inherent and wrong-headed bias was jaw-dropping.
So toda, for this important piece. I encourage you to send it to David Remnick and Jon Stewart and Jon Oliver and inky Bill Maher (who is good on this topic so would love to see you and Coates go at it on that show). Shana shalom tova shalom u’mitukah.
P.S. If you have the stomach and haven’t already addressed it, a piece about David Remnick (especially the NYer’s antisemitic bias and erasure of Jewish experiences … except only particular ones. The entire miserable hour he dedicated to the campus mobs a few months ago is a prime example of hoping for my thirst for something of substance and coming away having had to drink nail. He was harsher on the former Harvard Pres, Lawrence Summers (including his intro of him), than he was on the Palestinian antisemitic campus mob leader. Thankfully, Summers was excellent. It was just heinous. Oh, ya, and not a single Jewish student voice … go figure. Was just looking at some of the articles on the page … sigh … https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/israel-gaza-and-the-turmoil-at-one-american-university