This week's AJN carries an article, "The intellectual war against Israel" by one Dvir Abramovich. The article is a hard-hitting critique of Jacqueline Rose's recently published book The Question of Zion. A footnote to the piece notes that Abramovich is a lecturer at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Jewish History and Culture.
Leaving to one side whether the criticism of the book Abramaovich makes is valid [I happen to say not] one can only hope the writer brings more "intellectual" rigor and logic in his lectures than his article displays. At the end of the article Abramovich says it all when he writes:
"As Hillel Halkin wrote in an article entitled "The return of anti-semitism": "One cannot be against Israel or Zionism, as opposed to this or that Israeli policy or Zionist position, without being anti-semitic. Israel is the State of of the Jews. Zionism is the belief that Jews should have a state. To defame Israel is to defame the Jews..."
What balderdash! It is evident that the "intellectual" lecturer at Melbourne University who so critically attacks the "intellectual" Professor Rose is either wilfully ignorant or disengenous. One has to only turn to the ongoing and vigorous debates underway in Israel and in the Israeli press to readily see that which is said to be anti-semitic in the Diaspora is being debated inside Israel. Perhaps Abramovich hasn't, for example, read some of the articles appearing in Ha'aretz lately.
Leaving to one side whether the criticism of the book Abramaovich makes is valid [I happen to say not] one can only hope the writer brings more "intellectual" rigor and logic in his lectures than his article displays. At the end of the article Abramovich says it all when he writes:
"As Hillel Halkin wrote in an article entitled "The return of anti-semitism": "One cannot be against Israel or Zionism, as opposed to this or that Israeli policy or Zionist position, without being anti-semitic. Israel is the State of of the Jews. Zionism is the belief that Jews should have a state. To defame Israel is to defame the Jews..."
What balderdash! It is evident that the "intellectual" lecturer at Melbourne University who so critically attacks the "intellectual" Professor Rose is either wilfully ignorant or disengenous. One has to only turn to the ongoing and vigorous debates underway in Israel and in the Israeli press to readily see that which is said to be anti-semitic in the Diaspora is being debated inside Israel. Perhaps Abramovich hasn't, for example, read some of the articles appearing in Ha'aretz lately.
Comments