Does Fighting Antisemitism Shield Israel from Scrutiny Over Gaza?

MY PERSPECTIVE - If you listen to Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, the United States is now suffering an epidemic of anti-Semitism, a claim not back(ed) up by data, according to the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry.

Nevertheless, it is impossible to make the argument that American Jews, especially in cities like Los Angeles, are subject to record levels of anti-Semitic discrimination.  This is why:

• Social discrimination against Jews ended over 50 years ago in the United States. 
• 61 percent of non-Orthodox Jews were married to non-Jews in 2021, an astounding figure since a generation before American Jewish intermarriage with non-Jews was not only rare but subject to disapproval from relatives and friends.
• The same patterns now apply to where people live. The Jewish population of the United States is spread out over the entire country, with Jews living in all 50 states.
• As for where people work, discrimination, too, is thing of the past.  Real employment bias, as opposed to theoretical discrimination from surveys, is strictly anecdotal.  This is why the two traditional American Jewish “defense” organizations, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, have dropped workplace bias from their reports.
• A final location of potential discrimination is academia.  This too is a thing of the past.  Whether the topic is employment or admissions discrimination, the Jewish defense organizations, especially the American Jewish Committee or the Anti-Defamation League, no longer bother to measure discrimination in higher education.

What then is meant by rising anti-Semitism in the United States?  My answer is that it now refers to criticism of Israeli-government committed genocide in Gaza.   It has nothing to do with social discrimination against American Jews.

The central question is whether accusations of antisemitism are being used to deflect scrutiny of Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Criticism of the Israeli government should be evaluated on its evidence and merits, rather than automatically treated as hostility toward Jews.

Antisemitism must be confronted wherever it occurs. But protecting American Jews from discrimination and holding the Israeli government accountable are compatible goals. Neither should be used to undermine the other.

As for the lack of popular support Israel, 60 percent of the American public now have an unfavorable view of Israel.  As for the US Congress, opposition to weapons transfers is building more slowly, a result of heavy lobbying and major financial contributions by Israeli partisans.

Will US public opinion or Israeli-related interests prevail?  I doubt that public opinion will prevail in the near future.  But, the long run is a different story.  I don’t expect Congress to change on its own, but the United States government already manages a debt of $40 trillion dollars, with more debt quickly accumulating.   

In the long run -- even if the Democrats regain control of Congress and even the White House – these financial IOU’s will prevail.  They will eventually force the government to reverse its policy of shipping cost-free weapons to Israel.  US public opinion will ultimately prevail because of these external circumstances.

(Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner who mostly writes about planning issues in LA.   He is a member of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA).  Previous columns are available at the CityWatchLA archives.)