Does anyone expect that every time an admirer of America, or a patriotic American citizen, offers a word of praise for this country, he will and should add, faster than a speeding bullet, this comment, “But of course I am also critical of America; I can be pro-America and also criticize it”?
Isn’t it a given that any thinking person will not see a country he admires as perfect? Does not every citizen understand that there is no perfection in the governance of millions of people? That there is always room for improvement, sometimes drastic improvement, in one policy or another of any country at all?
Why is it, then, that severe critics of Israel must instantly couple their negative comments about Israel with “I’m pro-Israel”? Isn’t this as revealing as someone who would feel the need to say “I’m pro-America” as a necessary introduction to a severe critique of America? Isn’t something off, here? Doesn’t the incessant need to say, “I am pro-Israel but that doesn’t mean I can’t criticize Israel,” really say about Israel: When did you stop beating your wife?
Of course, any thinking person who admires Israel will also criticize one policy or another of Israel. The need to throw in, faster than a speeding bullet, “but that doesn’t mean I can’t criticize Israel,” really means: It’s the severe critique of the country, not my support of the country, that drives me. It’s what’s wrong with Israel that counts. It’s the allegedly terrible things that Israel does that control my perspective. The “I am pro-Israel” is just a politically correct introduction to what Ireally feel. With “I am pro-Israel,” I just want to show that I can’t be accused of wishing Israel to disappear while I launch into my litany of all the terrible things I think Israel is guilty of.
That’s how we take the “I’m pro-Israel” of Bernie Sanders, of some BDS backers (others won’t even pretend to oppose Israel’s disappearance) and their ilk. Nobody who really has an appreciation for any country needs to say, “I’m pro-America.” “I’m pro-Argentina.” “I’m pro-Ghana.” That you don’t hear. There’s no need to. But you do hear all the time, “I’m pro-Israel.” Methinks the lady doth protest too much. “Some of my best friends are Jewish.”
Alas, often enough to be noticed, some genuinely pro-Israel supporters have also fallen into this trap. Some pro-Israel advocates also find themselves saying, “But also I am critical of Israel for this and that.” Of course they are critical of Israel for this or that. When has it ever been otherwise? How could it ever be otherwise?
There is no need to apologize for offering a critique of Israel without the politically correct introduction that typically masks, or is meant to mask, the true intentions of Israel’s enemies. Be careful not to bend over backwards.
Copyright © 2020 by the Intermountain Jewish News
