Arts I Entertainment
each other, and blaming one another
for the Islamo-fascist terrorism that is
upon us, we will be destroyed, as we
are busy squabbling.
The Big Lie
In a new book, author dissects "the new anti-Semitism"
and the necessary actions to combat it.
DON COHEN
Special to the Jewish iVews
p
hyllis Chesler has had
enough of the politically
correct crowd excusing or
promoting anti-Semitism in
the guise of anti-Zionism. A commit-
ted Jew, feminist and human rights
activist, her new book, The New Anti-
Semitism: The Current Crisis and What
We Must Do About It (Jossey-Bass;
$24.95), attempts to explain and
counter this growing phenomenon.
What's new about "the new anti- -
Semitism"?
The historical strain of the "old anti-
Semitism" continues, she says, but in
the last 50 years it has also metamor-
phosed into "the most virulent anti-
Zionism, which in turn has increasing-
ly held Jewish people everywhere, not
only in Israel, accountable for the mili-
tary policies of the Israeli government."
Today, according to Chesler, "the
Jews are experiencing four intifadas:
one in the Islamic world, a second in
Europe, a third on North American
campuses and a fourth directed at
America and the West by AI Queda."
In the new anti-Semitism, she
asserts, a worldwide coalition of
Islamic terrorists, pro-Palestinian stu-
dents, right-wing fascists, left-wing
ideologues, pious academics, feminists,
opportunistic European politicians
and media have joined together in the
worst plague of violence against Jews
since World War II, as well as terror-
ism against America.
And what must be done to combat
the new anti-Semitism?
Jews — and non-Jews, says Chesler,
must "fight
the Bic,
Big Lies,"
b against
. ‘.:,
avoid rigid, dogmatic ideologies and
focus on the world's real problems —
disease, poverty, illiteracy,•violence.
"Be fair to Israel. Form Jewish-
Christian, Jewish-Muslim and Jewish-
Palestinian alliances. Initiate interfaith
dialogue among women as well as
men. Restore campus civility. Honor
our dreams of peace but understand
that peace must include truth and jus-
tice," she says.
A political and social progressive,
Chesler has lectured and organized
8/22
2003
64
political, legal, religious and human
rights campaigns in the United States
and in Canada, Europe, the Middle
East and the Far East.
She is an emerita professor of psy-
chology and women's studies at City
University of New York, a psychother-
apist, an expert courtroom witness,
and the author of the landmark femi-
nist classic Women and Madness.
She serves on the advisory board of
Nashim: A Journal of Jewish
Women's Studies and, in
1998, was the first scholar
appointed to the
International Research
Institute on Jewish Women
at Brandeis University. She
maintains a Web site at
www.phyllis-chesler. corn.
Chesler's first husband
was a Muslim from
Afghanistan, her second a
Jewish Israeli, and she has
lived in both the Islamic
and Jewish-Israeli worlds.
Recently, the Jewish News
spoke to Chesler about her
new book and the hair-
raising issues it raises.
ly merges with the anti-Semitism
against Arabs in this country, and pro-
filing and civil liberties. So we're talk-
ing about Jew-hatred, and I want peo-
ple to understand that Jew-hatred is
racism and that we must wrestle with
it.
The second thing I'd like this book
to do is build bridges among commu-
nities of faith. That means I have no
problem working with conservatives,
JN: How do you explain what you
called a "blind spot" among progres-
sives toward Jews and Israel?
PC: I lifted the term "Islamo-fascist ter-
rorism" from many of the European
intellectuals because the liberals and
leftists — and the feminists and the gay
liberationists — in America and all over
Europe are embracing this cleansing
force [of Islamo-fascist terrorism] just as
they embraced the cleansing force of
Stalin or Mao.
I saw in a demonstration [a sign that
read], "Queers for Palestine."
Nov, my son is just studying for the
bar. He had been volunteering at an
center for gay and
d lesbian
immigrants, and he heard [stories] from
Palestinians about wanting to get out of
town because they'll be killed — and
have been killed and tortured — for
being homosexuals.
And I
coni-
b , where is this cogni-
tive disconnect coming from? Why are
tive
these relatively free lesbians and
homosexuals in America, or in the
capitals of Europe, donning romanti-
cally the kafilych (Arab heacovering)?
Do they not understand that their
version of the Palestinian as underdog
is one that will kill them by dawn?
What kind of self-destructive foolish-
ness is afoot?
I'm not saying that every one of the
points they may make is wrong, or not
important, or I disagree with them.
But there is such an unbalanced psy-
chology on the subject of the Jews and
Israel. I don't think the American cam-
pus intellectuals or student activists
understand the surreal post-Nazi level
of Jew-hatred that is the daily fare in
the Islamic world today.
L.
JN: Who do you hope to
reach with this new book,
and what impact would
you like it to make?
PC: I first hope that intel-
lectuals, academics, pro- •
The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It
aressives, Democrats and
moderates will understand
that Israel has been unfair-
UILI
ly demonized and danger-
ously isolated.
Acts of violence against Jews and anti-Semitic words
And that anti-Zionism
and
deeds are being uttered and pelf-brined by politically
— which is so politically
correct
people in the name of anti-colonialism, anti-
correct these days and has
imperialism,
anti-racism and pacifism," writes Chesler.
been, actually, since the
early '70s, if not the late
'60s — that anti-Zionism is anti-
moderate conservatives, religious
Semitism.
Christians, religious Muslims who
[I'd like them] to take a good hard
agree with me on the issue of the Jews
look at the blind spot among progres-
and Israel.
sives, including feminists. I'd like them
The third thing I would very, very
to begin to wrestle with Judea-phobia.
much like to do is bring Jews, who are
apart, more together at this time. [For
JN: Judea-phobia?
some] it is as if the definition of being
PC: I don't want to. just say merely
a good Jew is to criticize Israel.
anti-Semitism because that very quick-
If we are going to be turning on
Q
JN: Some would understand the term
"Islamo-fascist" to be anti-Muslim,
anti-Arab or racist.
PC: But only by those precise Western
intellectuals who insist on romanticiz-
ing terrorism and insist on forgetting
about Arab honor killings, cliterodec-
tomies, stoning to death for adultery
and the veiling of women.
I do not think I am being racist, or
anti-Arab, or anti-Islam or anti-Muslim
about those specific forces in that cul-
ture — fascistic authority or totalitarian
or terrorist. I want to call things, as
much as I can, by their right names.
(11ESLER
JN: Jews are reticent to be seen as
victims. Israelis see it as a galut