My thanks to Ivan for posting this:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/275755-disruption-ends-sanders-event-on-tense-note
What I found disturbing is not the brute anti-Semitism —
Jews control everything, the banks, the media, etc.. The existence of such
sentiments and beliefs should be regarded as a given, though they are not
nearly as preponderant or lethal here in these United States as in other
historical circumstances.
What's disturbing is Sanders's effort to deflect the
discussion into a dialogue about Israel and Palestinians.
But the remarks did not pertain to the Israel/Palestinian
issue. They were directed at Jews, per se, here, there, anywhere.
They were directed at Bernie Sanders.
And Bernie didn't step up and say, wait, this is pure and
simple anti-Semitism. I oppose it, and hope everyone in this audience does too.
He didn't say that.
He ducked. The bullet was aimed at him, Brooklyn Jew that he
was, and he ducked.
The left generally prefers to duck issues of anti-Semitism,
and divert toward deep discussion about Israel, as did Bernie.
As, in fact, do many Jews, leftist or not, who express
themselves vicariously and passionately about the Middle East, but are pretty
much inert or helpless when it comes to anti-Semitism in the "Diaspora"
where they happen to live.
I support the existence of the State of Israel, but its
existence and the complications with regard to it, have in many ways blinded or
distracted the rest of us.
In some ways, and in some cases, we are more helpless than
we were before there was an Eretz Israel.
Israel exists and yet so does anti-Semitism. It doesn't seem
to go away. Sometimes we are dumbfounded, blinded and without response.
(Let me indulge the following fantasy. If, in response to the
Jew-killing attacks in Paris, Netanyahu had not said, make aliyah, we love you,
but instead, we'll arm you where you are, and send in elite Israeli fighters to
train you, well, I would have quite enjoyed that response. The gap between
Israel and Diaspora is too wide. Israel fights, rightly or wrongly, just the right
amount or too much, whereas we, out here, mostly just argue about Israel.)