Hasan Doesn’t Get to Decide Which Jews Deserve Safety
Let me begin with something that should not be remotely controversial: Benjamin Netanyahu has done catastrophic damage to Israel.
I am not a Netanyahu supporter. I believe his government has helped destroy Israel’s standing around the world, prolonged unimaginable suffering in Gaza, empowered extremists, and made Israelis and Palestinians less safe. His political survival has repeatedly appeared to matter more to him than peace, democracy, or Israel’s long-term future.
As a progressive Jew, I refuse to pretend otherwise.
But my disgust with Netanyahu does not require me to become a huge fan of Hasan Piker. It certainly does not require me to ignore rhetoric that treats violence against American Jews as the predictable consequence of Jews having the wrong opinions.
During a recent livestream, Piker said that if American Jews continue presenting themselves as “singularly invested in Israel,” then “eventually someone is going to come around and take action, not against the State of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.”
Piker has defended his comments as a warning, not a threat. But that distinction does not rescue the statement. When you tell a minority group that violence will eventually be directed at them because of how members of that group speak, organize, or identify, you are making their safety conditional.
You are telling Jews that if they do not want to be attacked, they had better distance themselves from Israel in a way you find acceptable.
That is victim-blaming dressed up as political analysis.
The liberal antisemitism........
