Thread by @RabbiMarkAsherG

There are many complicated reasons why this move by the Trump Administration, which practically will likely have little effect, is symbolically horrible on multiple levels. A thread.
/1

nytimes.com/2019/12/10/us/…

The move reclassifies Jews as a nationality and allows the department of education to withhold funds from universities that fail to police their students for trying to start a boycott of the state of Israel. The word 'problematic' doesn't begin to describe what that is. /2

1- It blurs the line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism in a way that is damaging. It may even be an attempt to move the line - to say any attack on Israel or criticism of its policies is antisemitic. /3

It is not inherently antisemitic to criticize Israel. Jews do it all the time. When Israel's government or officials violate the moral dictum of the Torah - regarding freedom or refugees or the open practice of religion or the rights of Palestinians, criticism is valid. /4

2- Redefining American Jews as a nationality in order to benefit Israel lessens acts of real antisemitism. /5

To put swastikas painted on synagogues in the same category as calling the state of Israel 'racist' may be an attempt to police anti-Zionism on campus, but it might instead have the opposite effect of lessening the seriousness of real antisemitism. /6

3- Redefining American Jews as a nationality allows antisemites to point to Israel, the Jewish state, & declare to Jews 'See? That's your country. This is ours. You should leave.' It's a talking point Jews on twitter have seen from antisemites. This move legitimizes that idea./7

I'm an American Jew. Both of my grandfathers fought for the US Army in WWII. My great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War. My grandmother was saved from the Holocaust by the US Army. We love this country. We're as American as it gets - like a lot of immigrant families. /8

Israel is the Jewish state and I love it. It is *not* my country, and any attempt to redefine me as a 'dual-national', even in a small procedural way, is a slight to my dignity and my patriotism. /9

4- This move, likely a legalistic sleight-of-hand meant to please to the hard-right pro-Israel anti-BDS lobby, actually harms the best interests of Israel by framing and damaging the Israeli-Palestinian debate on campus. /10

The pro and anti Israel, pro and anti BDS lobbies on college campuses have been at war for years about Israeli policy towards the Palestinians. The fights are sometimes legitimate and civil, sometimes nasty and filled with hate and lies. /11

But at the end of the day, it should be the quality of the arguments and the truth that guide the debate, not the fear of government reprisal through a Dept. of Education grant being withheld. /12

Israel is a country that has policies that are unjust - just like every other country in the world. An open conversation about what is right and fair for Israelis and Palestinians, debated on its merits and on facts in open forums at universities, is a good thing. /13

I think Israel makes mistakes, like any country, but I also believe the right for Israel to exist is unassailable. In an open dialogue on campuses, without unnecessary intervention from the Dept. of Education, that argument will prevail. Politicize it, and it becomes murky. /14

In summary:
* All Jews are not Israelis.
* Antisemitism is not anti-Zionism.
* Conflating two different things cheapens them both.
* Free speech is too important for the government to be messing with.
* A good argument doesn't need a bully behind it to win. It wins on its own. /E