Benjamin Netanyahu gave his speech. Now people can analyze what he said and what impact it will have. Personally, I didn’t watch it. Too much crap has gone on in my personal life over the last week, and I didn’t need to add any stress. I’m doing just fine in that department, thank you.
Of course, this means that I don’t have much to say about the particulars of Netanyahu’s performance or the congressional reaction it received.
What I know, I knew before he ever spoke a word. I’ve never seen it so respectable to voice denunciations of Israel on the American left. I’ve never seen an American administration this angry with an Israeli administration.
There is always a danger of lumping. Just like George W. Bush didn’t speak for all Americans, Netanyahu doesn’t speak for all Israelis. And, Netanyahu’s rhetoric notwithstanding, being a Jew is not the same thing as being an Israeli. And, opposing Israel’s policies is not the same thing as opposing or have ill-will towards the Jewish people.
Netanyahu, however, does his best to conflate all of these things so that if you oppose him, you oppose Israel, and if you oppose Israel, you’re an anti-Semite. He makes it harder for people to maintain these barriers between how they feel about each area. So, the result, I think, is that a lot of people respond to Netanyahu by becoming very angry with Israel, and then take his invitation to displace this anger onto all Israelis, and then all Jews.
Now, I’m not Jewish, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t worry about anti-Semitism. Most of my closest friends are at least half-Jewish. And I think they get stressed when they listen to Netanyahu. It’s probably better for people in their situation to talk about how this makes them feel than for me to try to explain it for them. But I sense their discomfort. I know it’s real.
