JUNE 2 • 2022 | 11
— and “the Squad” itself —
so quick to accuse anyone
and everyone of racism
on the slightest pretext,
remained all but completely
silent throughout.
This pogrom did not erupt
merely because Israel was
involved in a conflict with
Hamas at the time. It was
the product of years, decades
of work by these activists
and organizations. The idea
that their incitement and
defamation did not poison
the Muslim-American
community against not only
Israel but all Jews is absurd.
And that it resulted in mob
violence — a pogrom —
should be no surprise. For
this alone, the Muslim-
American establishment, the
anti-Israel progressive left,
the numerous activists who
support them and the Squad
itself stand condemned.
Tlaib’s resolution should
not be seen, then, as mere
anti-Israel politics, nor
as a simple expression of
pogromist ideology. It is the
pogrom. It seeks to further
the pogrom on another level.
It attempts to institutionalize
the pogrom, to enshrine
it in American law and,
through it, American society.
We have seen, in other
words, the emergence of
the Congressional Pogrom
Caucus.
This is all quite monstrous,
of course, but it also reveals
an important truth: The
pogromists know that
they cannot break the
State of Israel without also
breaking the Jews. Especially
American Jews, who they see
as the true source of what
they genuinely believe to be
Israel’s omnipotent power.
They are prepared to do
almost anything in service
of this goal and will not
stop unless they are stopped
by any and all legal means
necessary.
This means, above all, that
American Jews must wake
up. Often sympathetic to
progressive politics, they do
not want to believe that such
a thing could happen among
those they view as admirable
allies. But denial never
works, and now it represents
an existential danger.
American Jews may be in
sympathy with the ideology
of “the Squad,” but they
must understand that these
people hate you. And however
progressive, compassionate,
empathetic and idealistic
they may seem, when the
chips are down, they will eat
you alive.
So, remember their names:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib,
Betty McCollum, Marie
Newman, Jamaal Bowman
and Cori Bush. They are not
finished. They will be back.
And you must be ready for
them.
Benjamin Kerstein is a writer and
editor living in Tel Aviv.
MIDDLE EAST from page 8
agreed, live-happily-ever-after
two-state solution.
The rest of the world, we
easily forget, is not like the
U.S. The assumption that
other peoples, in their heart
of hearts, really want to be
like Americans, that they
instinctively favor Western
political institutions, underlay
the disastrous U.S. nation-
building exercises in Vietnam,
Iraq and Afghanistan. In every
case, American intervention,
rather than promote peace
and compromise, dramatically
increased violence, extremism
and suffering.
That the PA, not to mention
Hamas, could embrace
compromise and democratic
norms is very unlikely.
Both organizations, military
dictatorships, refuse all free
elections, routinely torture
and/or execute political
opponents, and forbid free
speech or civil liberties. The
most respected ranking of
global democracy, the British-
based Economist Democracy
Index (with No. 1 the best,
No. 167 the worst) ranks Israel
No. 23, the U.S. No. 26 — and
Palestine No. 109.
What then is to be done?
Rather than declare, “After 75
years our patience is finally
exhausted, and we are going
to settle this problem now
once and for all”; rather
than penalize Israel for an
impasse rooted chiefly in
Palestinian refusal to accept
Israel’s right to exist; rather
than ask Palestinians to
tolerate something they
have long regarded as
intolerable, America should
seek to modify the status quo
gradually and quietly.
BIDEN’S APPROACH
In fact, this is a rough
description of President Joe
Biden’s approach. Specifically,
the U.S. should build upon the
Abraham Accords, promote
economic development in
Palestinian territories, and
do what it can to strengthen
the PA in the hope that
moderation somehow might
ultimately prevail.
But blithely to wish away
the past, to penalize the
party that has been most in
favor of compromise while
rewarding the party most
opposed, can only whet
Hamas’ ambition and convert
chronic low-level violence
into yet another massive
explosion. (Space precludes
discussion, but any attempt to
impose a one-state solution,
which even Congressional
advocates of sanctioning
Israel deem unrealistic, would
almost certainly hasten that
explosion.)
If history teaches anything,
it teaches that America
cannot impose solutions
on peoples of very different
cultural background without
risking unforeseen, deeply
unwelcome consequences.
The Two-State Solution
Act, though perhaps well-
intentioned, promises to
do precisely that. Some
problems, history avers all
too sadly, can be contained,
but are not amenable to rapid
solution.
Victor Lieberman is the Raoul
Wallenberg Distinguished University
Professor of History at the University
of Michigan, where he teaches
a course, the most popular in the
department, on the Arab-Israeli
conflict.
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