The courage to admit that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism
In his latest essay, Pierluigi Battista, Italian chief columnist for "Corriere della Sera", meets all the prejudices against the Jewish people and the Jewish State head on. Those who lash out against Israel then have nothing to say about what’s going on in China and in the Darfur.
The new book of Pierluigi Battista "Lettera a un amico antisionista" (Letter to an anti-Zionist friend) (Rizzoli, 120 pages, € 17.50) is an extraordinary event. The European and American élites are competing with each other in a crazy, unprecedented and illogical spiral of criticism against Israel. This is aimed at giving the idea, embellished by studies and numbers and clothed in fine words and nebulous statements, that Israel is a country which has no right to exist. And actually tomorrow it might not exist, as so many want to destroy it Battista, in contrast, destroys this intellectual/political mass perversion of anti-Zionist hate in five burning chapters, revealing it for what it is: anti-Semitism.
Why is Battista’s work so exceptional? Because we can count on the fingers of one hand the non-Jewish intellectuals who have systematized the scandal of hate for Israel that contaminates the world, the UN, the European Union reducing them to a circus of lies; this hatred safeguards the violators of human rights, does not object to the Chinese bullet in the back of the head, or to the Sudanese carnage, and condemns, with the pornographic label of «Nazis», the Israeli check points designed to ward off terrorist attacks. Not considering the Christians for Israel, we can quote only upright intellectuals such as Robin Shepherd, with "A state beyond the pale", Bruce Bawer, who deals with this question as well in his book "While Europe slept", Neill Lochery with "Why blame Israel?", and among Italian writers, Angelo Pezzana and Magdi Allam. Then there are the distinguished names of politicians and journalists such as, in pride of place, José Maria Aznar and Giuliano Ferrara.
Recently the large event «For the truth, for Israel» held in Rome, that I personally contributed to organizing, and which was attended by many intellectuals and leading politicians, is the evidence that something is changing. Some people are no longer willing to submit to the most dangerous perversion of the European mind. But the members of the élites who have produced a book such as Battisti’s are few. Generally, in contrast, the opinion makers who speak from newspapers, books, TV screens, from their university desks, from the world of cinema and show business, have been instrumental in feeding public opinion with ignorance and silent agreement. They pass off the idea that it is just pure common sense delegitimizing the existence of Israel, imagining it as an apartheid state or as a country guilty of war crimes, describing it as a «shitty little country» bound to die – the words of the French ambassador in London – using a double standard that exonerates the worst dictators, and even denying its right to exist.
Battista fights on two fronts: that of the identification of anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism and that of the «lethal obsession», the exaggeration, the fever described by Robert Wistrich in his anthology on anti-Semitism. It is clear that the obsession is driven by anti-Semitism, and Battista brings this to the fore. But this is not all: Israel is judged, explains Battista, on the basis of an ideological system that harks back to the Cold War, in which poor countries are good and Western countries are wicked and imperialist. Israel is one of the latter. But this method of judgment has a central logical flaw: the double standard, which Battista grabs by the horns: «...no Somalia, no Eritrea, no Sri Lanka, no Kashmir, no South Ossetia... your appalling double standard prevents you from speaking out in defense of the millions of displaced persons that fill the world, but for which Israel is not responsible... Are you going to take to the streets for the Uyghurs?... Are you going to demonstrate in chains for Darfur, or march for the liberation of Tibet and Kyrgyzstan?».
And on the human rights issue: «Everything that concerns freedom and democracy is of no interest to you.. If a Palestinian collaborationist is murdered... if Hamas oppresses women... if Palestinian homosexuals flee from the land where they are condemned to death to seek asylum in Israel... You accept, without the slightest dignity, blind as you are, that the attendance of Israeli homosexuals (is boycotted) in Madrid… Capital punishment is no longer capital punishment, torture is no longer torture: in a weak world, it is just a right. And if this world is weak, the blame goes all to the rich, colonialist Western world of which Israel is the cornerstone, the outpost, the front trench of the Middle East». This form of corruption, which is the order of the day at the UN, undermines the Western mind. We, together with Israel, are the injured party.
Battista denounces all of this, arguing with front line Italian opinionists like Sergio Romano and Barbara Spinelli, and with the translated texts of intellectuals like Tom Segev or Edward Said.. Battista sees them as the sources of covert anti-Semitism, the champions of the right to «criticize Israel». But he explains it well: «criticizing Israel» doesn’t mean a thing – this is just like saying that you can criticize Italy, or France. It is quite acceptable to disagree with this, that or the other government, but it would be absurd to criticize Italy as an entity: criticize what? Ancient Rome? Riccione? Venice? Berlinguer? Berlusconi? Those who claim the right to «criticize Israel» – and this is the underlying theme of the book – claim an abominable right, that history made unacceptable: the right to anti-Semitism.