Iran’s Attack on Israel
9 min read
I stood up to Jewish Voice for Peace and was accused of being a front for some shadowy clandestine Jewish organization.
As a writer who delves deep into the online world of hate groups, I pull no punches. I’m a hardcore liberal, but I play no favorites. Antisemitism is the equal opportunity hatred. It permeates factions both left and right. I know my stuff. When I see something antisemitic, I call it out, no matter what source. That gets me noticed.
There are two comparable times when virulent antisemites pushed back at me. The first was few years ago, in an online hate group’s assessment of my writing. The second was this past January, from a seemingly opposite source: a local peace organization after I questioned their upcoming forum hosting the anti-Zionist advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
The hate group and the peace organization had a lot in common. They both loathed me for the same reasons. Both claimed that I distorted facts. Both claimed I chose them as a carefully selected target. Both claimed I was outright lying. And both accused me of being a stealth soldier for some ominous Jewish confederation to ply its agenda-driven talking points.
Both claimed I was outright lying and accused me of being a stealth soldier for some ominous Jewish confederation to ply its agenda-driven talking points.
I have lifelong passion for fighting antisemites. My book Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund is a comprehensive exposé of 1930s American Nazis. I’ve spent years studying and writing about the commonalities between historic and modern Jew-haters. I’ve been interviewed numerous times across many platforms, and I give speeches and participate in panel discussions at colleges, universities, museums, community organizations, history conferences, and more.
In my judgment, JVP is an antisemitic hate group operating under the guise of anti-Zionist/pro-Palestinian Jewish advocacy. JVP, as quoted from their website, declares, “We are Jews and allies speaking out against injustice, according to Jewish values and following in the footsteps of Jewish social justice traditions of anti-Zionism.” This is nice and outwardly commendable—and deceptive.
In community forums, JVP members position themselves as reasoned thinkers with compelling reasons to oppose Zionism. That’s their public face. Off stage it’s quite different. JVP uses Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to spread malicious antisemitism. They falsify Jewish history, holidays, and solemn observations, claiming our faith and heritage are really components of an international Zionist conspiracy. JVP propaganda stands on the edge of Holocaust denial. My deep dive into JVP’s social media revealed a much different story from what you’d think would be an authentic Jewish voice for peace.
Consider a 13-part Twitter thread JVP posted in May 2022, wherein JVP says that Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day, was founded as a vital cog for an Israeli subterfuge. It begins: “The Israeli state calendar sequentially commemorates the Holocaust, Israeli soldiers, and the creation of the state, promoting the false Zionist narrative that the Holocaust justifies the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.” This “false Zionist narrative,” it continues, is part of “a sequence of fabricated, secular holidays, tim(ed) to fall just after Passover on the Jewish calendar…to establish a mythical pattern of Jewish history as recurring cycles of oppression and freedom.”
This is the real JVP talking, not the one “speaking out against injustice, according to Jewish values.” They use the same vernacular of other online hate groups. Four thousand years of Jewish history is dismissed by JVP as a “false Zionist narrative.” Slavery in Egypt. Babylonian destruction of the first temple. Jewish exile from Jerusalem. Roman conquests. Hellenist conquests. Destruction of the Second Temple. The Crusades. Jews expelled from England, France, Spain. Mass murder of Jews throughout medieval Europe. Russian pogroms and the Holocaust. All of this, JVP asserts, is part of that “mythical pattern of Jewish history.” Israel uses the “fabricated secular holiday” of Yom HaShoah to perpetrate the government’s “false Zionist narrative that the Holocaust justifies the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”
This intricate strategy inspires Israelis to think “that Jews, especially in diaspora, are doomed to persecution — but a Jewish apartheid state with a strong army can save us.”
Exploitation of the Holocaust for nefarious means is an antisemitic trope. But JVP doesn’t see it that way. As the Twitter thread unfolds, we learn that Yom HaShoah is part of a master plan by Israel’s leaders to “secularize and modernize Passover's oppression-to-freedom story.” This intricate strategy inspires Israelis to think “that Jews, especially in diaspora, are doomed to persecution — but a Jewish apartheid state with a strong army can save us.”
As a closer, JVP reminds their social media audience that Israel’s machinations “reinforces the myth of Jews as perennial victims who need a militarized state to protect us.” JVP takes it one step further linking the Palestinian Nakba to the Shoah via Yom HaZikaron, as a “contrived, sinister connection.”
The endgame? As JVP tells it, Jews need this “militarized, colonial, apartheid state to keep us safe at Palestinians' expense.”
These tweets are cynical and contemptuous. JVP conjures up a contrived Israeli government operation, developed by unnamed leaders, as emotional blackmail to foist a global Jewish persecution complex. Brainwashed Jewry will let out a collective whimper, until we realize that our deliverance is only possible with a fully-armed Israel suppressing and killing Palestinians.
These grotesque claims are not the words of “Jews speaking out against injustice.” They are the obscenities of a hate group.
Then there’s JVP’s modern twist on the ancient blood libel, via a meme posted in June 2022 on the organization’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds. JVP explains that the graphic was created by a UK-Bahrain cartoonist “(whose) daily caricatures focus on corruption, power, occupation and human being.” The meme is a crude drawing of a man and a woman guzzling blood of dead Palestinians. The two figures, depicted in generic military garb, are framed by blue-and-white flags. One holds a rifle. They are not expressly “Jews,” but I call that a simple technicality. There’s no mistaking this meme for anything other than what it’s supposed to represent: an archetypal blood libel caricature designed to foment antisemitism. It looks like something that could have been copied out of the pages of Der Stürmer.
With 168,600+ JVP followers on Twitter, 377,000+ on Instagram, and 668,000+ on Facebook, this meme had legs and went viral. JVP offered no rationalization for their sharing this new version of the blood libel. There was no statement and certainly no apology.
Screenshots taken by the ADL and other watchdog organizations were made public, exposing this hate meme to the world outside of JVP’s social media bubble. The caricature was seen for what it really was: dissemination of hate speech by an experienced social media team. The meme remained on JVP’s various feeds for a few days, then vanished. It was if it never existed. But nothing really disappears from social media platforms. JVP’s blood libel message is still out there and easily found.
After the upcoming JVP presentation in our neighborhood was announced, members of our Jewish community reached out via email to the peace group, expressing our concerns. Each of us spoke as individuals. To a person, we emphasized that we were not offering a blind defense of the Israeli government. What we asked for was a face-to-face meeting to explain our heartsick reactions to JVP’s antisemitic social media, its vast Jewish conspiracy theories, their denigration of Yom HaShoah, and that blood libel caricature dating back to medieval times.
We were turned down flat. Through a series of emails, members of the peace group told us that they had worked with JVP many times. They told us that we were slandering an upstanding anti-Zionist organization. We were told that our concerns were groundless. We were told by people who are not Jewish that our Jewish voices don’t matter.
On the morning of January 27, JVP tweeted “On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, we mourn the Jewish, Romani, disabled, and queer people murdered in the Nazi genocides. We draw strength from their resistance as we fight antisemitism, racism, fascism, xenophobia, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia in our own era.” Coming from JVP, these sentiments felt disingenuous at the very least. Unlike Yom HaShoah, JVP did not call International Holocaust Remembrance Day a “fabricated secular holiday.” There was no mention of any “false Zionist narrative that the Holocaust justifies the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians”
That evening, a Palestinian terrorist killed seven Jews and wounded ten more at a Jerusalem synagogue. Within hours, JVP posted a second January 27th tweet: “The Israeli government’s domination and oppression of Palestinians is the root cause of each of these senseless, tragic deaths” JVP said, “Jewish tradition commands action in the face of grave injustice and the time to rise in solidarity with the Palestinians is now.” Not a single mention of the seven Israeli Jews murdered by a Palestinian terrorist, nor the ten who were wounded.
On February 2, our rebuffs from that peace group took an unexpected turn. One person wrote to us, “(Your) tactics are common among AIPAC, ADL, and other apologists for the Netanyahu regime. While free in your criticisms and name-calling (of JVP), you refuse to say what you do support. Therefore, we were left to wonder who you are working for and where you get your talking points and tactics from. The tactics of name-calling and division have not and will not work on us.”
Who were we working for to defame JVP? Where did we get our talking points and tactics? Forget our concerns about antisemitism. Forget the tweets of Jews drinking blood, the “myths” of Jewish history, the exploitation of the Holocaust as pretext for violent domination of Palestinians. And forget those seven dead Jews gunned down on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We are just parroting AIPAC, ADL, and other “apologists for the Netanyahu regime.”
Forget that we were Jews with real concerns. Rather, this man—who is not Jewish—showed his own antisemitism to his Jewish neighbors. His email was anything but peace from a “peace” group member speaking in defense of another “peace” group.
Despite having no nefarious cabal backing me up, I will continue to speak out against JVP, JVP enablers, and their vile antisemitism, with anger that stems with the unwavering determination that comes from my Jewish pride.
Why isn't anyone using Leviticus 19:16 to call this group what it really is: An Anti-Jewish Group! It is not antisemitic. It is ANTI-JEWISH. It is against an important Jewish code of law!
Where is the anti-defamation league or similar organizations (UJF force.g.) with a PR campaign to stop these people from being affiliated with Judaism and Jews.
This militant organization is as “Jewish” as so called messianic Jews (or JFJ as it was originally labeled by the recruiting arm of the Baptist church. )
This article is difficult to digest but a much needed nutrient. Awareness is essential as this group garners more national attention via violence. They fuel hatred. . The news organizations must announce this groups agenda. And anti/Semitic roots.
I could not tell: Is JVP actually Jewish? Or just pretending?
My question exactly
I think it is anti-Jewish, not really antisemitic. They are both bad. But, this particular group cuts at the heart of Leviticus 19:16.
I am aware that we all do our best to keep as many Mitzvots as possible, and none of us are perfect. But, this is an extreme case of going against Jewish teachings.
JVP is an anti-Zionist Jewish organization. Anti-Zionism has been a perspective within the Jewish community for as long as the Zionist movement has existed. The anti-Zionist General Jewish Labor Bund was founded the same year as the first World Zionist Congress was held, the year after Herzl published Der Judenstaat. Jews who fail to understand that our community has always encompassed a diversity of voices on this topic need to get out of their bubbles and gain a better understanding of the history of our people. By failing to appreciate and create space for diverse opinions without our community, we drive young people away from a sense of Jewish belonging and towards assimilationism.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/jewish-anti-zionism-israel-palestine-colonialism-annexation-apartheid
Sorry, withIN our community.
Stop. Just stop. I am an assimilated Jew. I come from a highly observant family, though. Sometime in the 1930s-40s it became fashionable for observant Jewish-Americans to assimilate. My paternal grandparents did enough only to blend in with outsiders but they still were deeply committed to Judaism. My grandmother, whose father's last name was Friedman and whose mother's last name was Horowitz, had a strong Jewish education but a poor secular education. She taught me better than the people who fall prey to JVP.
Observant Jews were not into Zionism but they were not anti-Zionists when the movement started. They just weren't into it. This all changed after the Holocaust when European countries decided that Jews did not belong living there.
Not being into a movement is not Anti-Zionism.
Adam,
I know they just weren't into it because my grandmother taught me Jewish code of laws regarding speech. Her words: The world is highly antisemitic so it is important to never speak badly about what another group of Jews are doing because YOU will become part of the problem.
People who were not into making Israel a recognized country were NEVER anti-Zionists in the sense that JVP is today. They plainly were just never into it.
Leviticus 19:16 because this is how Ultra Orthodox Jews are raised. Everything they say can be traced to Jewish Law.
JVP is an Anti-Jewish group.
I made a mistake of only tacitly supporting Israel before sending my kid off to a college where JVP is active. I spent his winter break screaming Jewish LAW at him. He knows better now.
More on the Jewish tradition JVP upholds.
https://aish.com/uncovering-the-real-voice-of-jewish-voice-for-peace/
Let's forget Hertzl and all the original Zionists names. The Black Sheep of my agreat-grandfather's Chasidic family ran away from home, became a Yiddish writer and was heavily involved in Yiddish theatre. He entered the secular Jewish world that was lively in Odessa. There, he learned about Zionism, returned to his hometown and started an early Zionist paper in the 1870s.
So, when my grandparents told me that they just weren't into it, they had experiences with Zionism, at least on my grandfather's side.
NEVER, in all my life, did they ever say anything badly about the State of Israel.
continued below...
To a Holocaust survivor stuck in a Displaced Person's camp, don't you think it felt like G-d's hand was involved in sending him home, to Israel? It is why the observant Jews weren't into Zionism pre-Holocaust--it felt too manmade. It needed to come from G-d. I am sure observant Jews, hearing stories of friends who returned to their Eastern European homes and being murdered, felt like Israel was a gift from G-d.
JVP is Anti-Jewish. It plainly is Anti-Jewish. It goes against Jewish Code for Speech.
Adam,
Please show me where these words colonialism, apartheid and all these other Marxist words that are sponsored by the Qatari government in our colleges are in the Torah. The Jewish Bund is fairly secular.
The difference between Anti-Zionism pre-Holocaust and Anti-Zionism post-1948 is that MILLIONS of Jewish lives living in Israel are at stake. JVP needs to stop with this nonsense propaganda and follow Jewish Laws regarding speech. The world is a highly antisemitic place so, JVP is poison. It is food for the antisemites. It is horrible. It is clearly an anti-Jewish group.
Please stop giving credence to an Anti-Jewish group that feeds into world antisemitism. It is shameful.
What is not poison is criticizing the government of Israel. What is not poison is having varying opinions on a two-state solution (My opinion: Not right now but hopefully, in the future when the Palestinians are living under a better government--you can have a different opinion on this).