by Michael Brenner
One of my favorite political commentators is Yoel Marcus of the left-wing
Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. He
used to publish columns called "Comments on the Situation." This is my version.
1. Is it possible to
talk about what happens outside of the West without talking about the West? We're myopically obsessed with ourselves, and
Joshua Schreier is the most nearsighted among us. Gay people are jailed in 21st-century
Egypt, stoned in 21st-century Iran, and deported from 21st-century
Bahrain, but Josh wants to talk about 19th-century French
homophobia. Sorry, Middle East LGBTQ
community. The academy has sacrificed
you on the altar of post-colonial political correctness. Rainbows require sunshine, and Joshua
Schreier has focused all of his on Israel.
2. As long as we’re
talking about color, Black Lives Matter.
As my people say, Bimherah V’yameinu, may justice come speedily
and in our time. But what did Schreier
mean when he compared American racial justice campaign to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Is the
United States the subject of an intensive international campaign to demonize
its people and effect its dissolution?
Israel is. Is the United States
the subject of structural discrimination at the UN, where states with human
rights records inferior to its own line up to condemn it? Iran condemns Israel as it stones gays to
death. China condemns Israel as it
occupies Tibet. Russia condemns Israel
as it persecutes Muslim Chechens. Israel
faces far more opprobrium than any of these countries. Tell me, Vassar students. Why is that?
(Hint: It’s not just about the occupation.)
3. By the way, does
Vassar have any actual students? None of them were quoted in the Misc's
coverage of Bret Stephens. Instead, we
got a long quote from some mensch who gave a beautiful Talmudic dissertation
about respecting one another's strongly-held views and an even longer quote
from some other guy who called Stephens a racist, misquoted him, repeated
discredited BDS talking points, and suggested that people who support dialogue
and a two-state solution weren't making a positive contribution. The professor is the Talmud guy, right? If not, he should be.
4. Speaking of mensches,
Bret Stephens seems super-nice. Without
raising his voice once, Bret called on people to respect each other's
viewpoints, and even apologized for expressing concern about being
disrupted. His concern was
legitimate. SJP, with Josh Schreier's
support, had chosen to preemptively slander him as a racist and had encouraged
their members to attend his event. They
even pre-planned a post-Stephens whine-fest to complain about the invasion of
Vassar's commune by a non-lefty Pulitzer Prize winner. And it's not like SJP chapters across the
country aren’t known for shouting down speakers and storming stages, when they
aren’t forcing disinvitations or scaring speakers away, as they did at Brown,
where SJP forced Janet Mock, an African-American trans speaker, to withdraw
because her appearance was co-sponsored by Hillel, the Jewish students
organization.
5. Of course, I josh,
and my terrible puns are always intended.
The real Bret Stephens was terrible, horrible, even. Stephens said that the two-state solution was
the best moral outcome in a conflict where both peoples have strong political
and ethnic identities. Terrible. He encouraged grassroots, rather than
top-down, activism. Horrible. He even encouraged people to take small
gestures to help build trust between Israelis and Palestinians, and he asked us
to recognize the humanity on both sides.
Despicable. He also encouraged
students to think critically and to reject those calling for Israel’s
dissolution, something virtually every major BDS activist supports, or, in the
case of Vassar’s SJP, regards as a desirable outcome. Stephens also took lots of questions. Curiously, none came from Josh Schreier. He waited until he was among other BDSers to
speak.
6. Speaking of BDS
scholars-cum-shills, can gay Palestinians in Israel be openly gay? Of course
they can; sexual orientation freedom is covered by Israel's Basic Law: Human
Dignity and Liberty and by Israel Supreme Court precedent, and it’s been that
way for more than 50 years. The Israeli
health system covers sexual reassignment surgery. Do gay Palestinians living in the West Bank or
Gaza have these rights? No, because
their civil rights are determined by Article 9, Section II, of Palestine's
Basic Law, which, like similar legislation throughout the Middle East, does not
cover sexual orientation, and it’s not because they forgot to put it in. It’s just not safe to be gay and out in
Palestine. That’s why gay Palestinians
take refuge in Israel, and no, it’s not because the Mossad signs all of them up
as collaborators. It’s because they want
to survive.
7. Speaking of gay
people in the Middle East, Schreier seems to think that criticizing the lack of
LGBTQ rights in the Middle East is the same as assuming that their cultures
have always been this way and always will be.
Stephens didn’t say this, and neither do I. Unfortunately, change moves in more than one
direction, and the same-sex relationships that may have been tacitly accepted
in the Middle East two centuries ago have given way to a culture of fear and
repression today. Again, Bimherah
V’Yameinu, it should change speedily in our time. But it sounds like we have a long way to
go. This year, the Grand Imam at Al-Azhar
University, generally considered Sunni Islam’s most prestigious educational
institution, called homosexuality a “moral disease” that undermines the innate
quality of humanity, http://bit.ly/2dxce3D. But who cares about that
guy? No one takes him seriously,
right? Josh Schreier doesn’t seem
to. How could he? The venerated clergyman did not even mention
19th-century France.
