To the editor:
I don’t expect non-Jewish Cazenovians to care about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more than the many other issues that press in upon us: some quotidian, others, like the presidential election, of historic importance. But I do think Cazenovians care that their community remain a haven where we relate to each other with mutual respect, decency, and civility — a place where we are safe.
Pat Carmeli, since she came to town, has subverted these expectations. She has brought to Cazenovia a series of extremist speakers who revile Israel, and by extension Jews, as “racist,” “genocidal,” and “illegitimate.”
It’s one thing to catalyze lively debate about a topic on which people of good will can, and do, have sharply divergent views. Were Ms. Carmeli doing this, she would be performing a public service. But Ms. Carmeli isn’t doing this. Instead she is inviting to Cazenovia extremists who assert, among other canards, that the Jews harvest body parts to wreak vengeance on Christians. This is the ideological equivalent of inviting the Klan to Cazenovia to burn crosses.
One speaker Carmeli brought to Cazenovia is Alison Weir. In a recent letter to The Republican, Weir included excerpts from an article she wrote. She claims this article is “fully cited.” No, it’s not. Although replete with footnotes for other quotes, the article contains no footnote for a “quote” in which a doctor supposedly asserts that Israelis harvest human organs not only for profit but also for “Revenge, restitution – reparation for the Holocaust.”
Weir’s lunatic claim resonates with the ages-old “Blood Libel,” the toxic myth that Jews use the blood of Christian children to make their Passover matzoh. Weir herself proudly makes this connection. She titles one of her articles: “The New ‘Blood Libel’? Israeli Organ Harvesting.”
In April of this year, Stanford University’s Students for Justice in Palestine, a strongly pro-Palestinian group, objected to the presence of Weir on their campus because she “has made a number of remarks that blatantly attack the Jewish people as whole. In addition, Ms. Weir has also made derogatory remarks about Arabs, endorsed speech by a former head of the KKK … and referred to communism as a Jewish conspiracy.”
There are other ways to support the Palestinian cause and to condemn Israel for its policies: rational ways which eschew racist hatred. For example, although I am a Zionist, I often find the policies of the current, right-wing Israeli government reprehensible – as do many American Jews. And, for that matter, as do many liberal and centrist Israelis. I know of a Jewish Cazenovian who is an activist in a peace group strongly supportive of the Palestinians and severely critical of Zionist policies. But this group, for all its pro-Palestinian fervor, never denies Israel’s right to exist and never crosses the line Carmeli and her extremist friends constantly cross: on the other side of which lies medieval Jew hatred.
Barry Schreibman
Cazenovia
