November 1, 2023

The global banner of anti-Semitism is once again being unfurled in a rage of rhetorical madness unleashed by the flailing Iranian theocracy. The growing success of the Abraham Accords that is slowly and steadily undermining the pathological consensus among Arab nations that there is something politically legitimate about denying the existence of the one Jewish state: Israel — threatens the smaller axis of anti-Semitism anchored by Iran. As more nations join the logical global dialogue of nations that is inevitable, the fringe extremism of Iran and its surrogates of Hezb’allah and Hamas are prominently exposed. This is why they launched the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust on October 7 and now are appealing for the aid of traditional American academic allies to rally global forces for deadly anti-Semitism. Jewish intellectuals understandably lift their voices against this pathology, but it is a moral duty now — especially with regard to American academic life — to stand up alongside our Jewish brothers and sisters against this deadly rhetoric.

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“There is one battle — in Darfur, Iraq, in Gaza, in Somalia, in Afghanistan — against the Jews and we are fighting one enemy.” These are the words of former genocidaire and sovereign leader of Sudan, Omar Bashir, spoken at a political rally in Khartoum in 2009. The rhetoric is emblematic of a global 21st-century concert to promote injustice and genocide by pointing to the recurring global scapegoat — the Jews. Bashir was a huge proponent and practitioner of the new tool for rationalizing anti-Semitism: colonialism. Monday, October 9, was indigenous persons day, a holiday created largely by American and European academics to attack the historical holiday of Columbus Day. In this 21st-century mythology, human beings fall into one of two binary categories: indigenous and colonizer. It is not a coincident that on the Monday after the attack, that intellectuals celebrated their holiday with hardly any homage to the idea that Jews are the indigenous people of Israel. Though the Jewish community has better historical, anthropological, rhetorical, archeological, and sociological evidence for its origins in Israel than almost any other human community, it is excluded largely by academics from this community of preferred “indigenous.” This is an essential part of the new rhetorical mask for anti-Semitism: the colonialism critique. The idea that any human being is not indigenous is plainly absurd. The effort to create a moral binary of indigenous/colonizer is an arbitrary rhetorical act mediated by the power of academics wielding this rhetorical sword.

Rhetorical scholar Kenneth Burke described at length the deadly dangers of this type of rhetoric in his formative essay “The Rhetoric of Hitler’s ‘Battle‘.” We must organize our minds against this propaganda. At the heart of the present deception is a similar but disingenuous dichotomy: opposition to anti-Semitism is support for injustice against Palestinians. In reality, anti-Semitism is what is killing Palestinians and a wide range of Arab Muslims and Persians around the world. The creation of a common enemy as eloquently described by Burke, allows the oppressor to direct the oppressed toward an artificial scapegoat. Sadly, one of the world’s most enduring stereotypes is humanity’s addiction to hatred of Jews. This scapegoat allows Arab governments to rally the public toward the distraction of Jews mistreating their co-religionists in Gaza. Omar Bashir, Ali Khomeini, Tayyip Erdogan, and many other leaders kill Muslim dissidents in their authoritarian and democidal habits while using the Jewish scapegoats as a distraction from their fratricide. In the four sovereign spaces Palestinians primarily find themselves: 1) the West Bank, 2) Israel, 3) Gaza, and 4) refugee camps in Jordan — Israel treats Palestinians best and their life expectancy and general well-being is much better. Gaza is a hellscape as designed and required by the sovereignty of Hamas.

In a college debate elimination round here in Dallas this past weekend I heard the affirmative speaker tell the gathered audience that Israel took the Gaza strip from Hamas in 2005, creating the injustice against Palestinians. The opposing debater made no challenge to the absurd error. This error among some of our most intelligent, is symptomatic of the absurd polling showing 51% of 18-24 year olds think the killing of 1,400 civilians by Hamas is justified. In reality, the government of Israel took Gaza from Israeli and Jewish inhabitants and gave the Gaza Strip to Palestinian inhabitants — including vast infrastructures such as profitable greenhouses. In 2007, Palestinians voted into power Hamas over the former Fatah. Hamas celebrated by throwing family members of Fatah off the highest buildings in Gaza City. It all ‘made sense’ in a world where only Jews are the enemy. That is undoubtedly why Mahmoud Abbas recently let slip in a conversation with the anti-Semitic leadership of Venezuela in a phone call: “‘Hamas’ policies and actions do not represent the Palestinian people, and the policies, programs and decisions of the (Palestine Liberation Organization) represent the Palestinian people as their sole legitimate representative.” This is the unvarnished truth about Hamas. Abbas and Fatah political leaders have since removed this statement from the public record. It does not change the reality of the rampant killing Hamas practices toward Palestinians.

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This is why there is no rhetorical dialectic between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. The eradication of anti-Semitism is the surest step we can all take to improve the human conditions of Arabs and Muslims. Until non-Jewish intellectuals rally to the promise they made not so long ago of “never again,” the cycle of genocidal violence will escalate around the world precisely as envisioned by the supremacists of Iran. Now is the time to stand against anti-Semitism — especially as expressed on college campuses. It was not that long ago that experts feared that Omar Bashir would rule the Islamic state of Sudan forever. His insidious appeals to hatred of Jews alongside his anti-colonial rantings seemed insurmountable. But in 2019, the public rose up against him and removed him from power. We can continue to imagine and enact a world without anti-Semitism and its ugly rhetorical fruit of genocide.

Dr. Ben Voth is a professor of rhetoric and director of debate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Image: Ted Eytan