Peter Beinart flunks basic logic in pretending to prove that Zionists are antisemitic

Peter Beinart writes in his Substack:

The evidence suggests not only that anti-Zionism doesn’t equal antisemitism but that while some anti-Zionists are indeed antisemites, Jew-hatred in the United States and Europe is more prevalent among supporters of the Jewish state. 

Let's look at his evidence:

In the US, the data suggests that—contrary to what you hear from politicians and Jewish leaders—Zionists are probably more likely than anti-Zionists to hate Jews. Poll after poll shows that, in the US today, hostility to Israel is far greater on the left than the right. And while surveys generally ask for people’s views on Israel, not Zionism, it stands to reason that if leftists are more likely to condemn Israel, they’re more likely to oppose Zionism. Studies of antisemitism, however, suggest that it’s far stronger on the American right. Earlier this year, the political scientists Eitan Hersh and Laura Royden asked Americans a series of questions traditionally used to measure antisemitic attitudes—for instance, “Jews in the United States have too much power” and “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America.” They found that, “While antisemitism in the U.S. is often written about through a “both sides” lens, our evidence — the first of its kind in testing hypotheses through experiments on a large representative sample — suggests the problem of antisemitism is much more serious on the right than the left.” Unless you define anti-Zionism as antisemitism, in which case you’ve created a tautology, the Americans most likely to dislike Jews and the Americans most likely dislike Zionism are different people.

Beinart's logic is:

A. The American Left is more likely to be anti-Israel.

B. The American Right, who are mostly Zionist, is more likely to be antisemitic.

Conclusion: Zionists are more likely to be antisemitic.

This is quite false. 

Let's say that 70% of the Right - an overwhelming majority - are pro-Israel and 30% are anti-Israel. It makes sense that most of those 30% also have anti-Jewish attitudes. (Think Pat Buchanan or Ron Unz, both prominent conservative haters of Israel and purveyors of antisemitism.)

Now, what percentage of Americans altogether have antisemitic attitudes? A 2019 ADL survey says that 24% of Americans say that Jews are more loyal to Israel than America and 15% say Jews have too much influence in business. If most of the anti-Israel Right agree with those statements, that would mean that the majority of those with overtly antisemitic attitudes are right wing anti-Zionists - and not one right-wing Zionist! 

The only conclusion you can draw is that members of the Right are more likely to be overtly antisemitic than the Left - but it even imply that Zionists are antisemitic! Very few Zionists would answer those survey questions in the affirmative. The relatively small number of Americans who harbor explicit antisemitic attitudes mean that a minority of the Right - the anti-Zionists  - can easily be the majority of the proud Jew-haters. 

Beinart flunks Logic 101.

To claim that Zionists are more likely to be antisemitic is purely Beinart's bias. It's part of the fantasy among socialist Jews that Christian Zionists are really antisemites, even though they cannot point to a poll that shows that.

Beinart chooses the surveys that support his thesis both in the US and Europe. But the American Left is going in the direction of the British Left, and the British Left is actually attracting overt antisemites. In a 2019 survey that Beinart would never quote, 58% of those who strongly liked Jeremy Corbyn held two or more overtly antisemitic views, and 35% held four or more such views - a huge amount that was not seen in other politicians.  Will the American Left go in that direction? Do Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib attract overt antisemites? It is not a far fetched concern. And it is not one that concerns Peter Beinart.

Not to say that there are no antisemitic idiots who admire Israel. Of course there are. Israel haters love to point to white supremacist Richard Spencer as if he represents the Zionism of the Right (and often they make the even more egregious logical error that if a hater says he loves Israel, Zionists must support hate.)

I wouldn't call those antisemites Zionists. They are just bigots who look at Israel as an ally in their own xenophobia against Muslims. Saying that you want Jews you hate to leave your country and go to Israel is not Zionism. Saying that you want to treat minorities horribly and falsely using Israel as a model is not Zionism. But Beinart pretends that it is, redefining the meaning of the word "Zionist" itself to prove his points.

One more point: Beinart says that defining anti-Zionism as antisemitism is creating a tautology. Indeed it is. But what if it isn't a definition - but an observation? What if, in reality, saying that Jews do not deserve self-determination, and other peoples do, is prima facie proof of antisemitism? What if holding Jews to standards that are way beyond those that other peoples are expected to adhere to is actual antisemitism? What if obsessive criticism of only one state, the only one with a Jewish majority, indicates antisemitism? What if boycotting only the one Jewish state indicates that there is something going on beyond legitimate criticism? Beinart and his crowd brush aside these questions, coming up with elaborate excuses why Israel deserves to be singled out. 

But there is only one thing in history that is remotely comparable to today's obsessive hate of Israel  - and that is the age-old obsessive hate of Jews. 

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