My friend Laura is quoted in this Jerusalem Post article: Yale students 'end' US-Israel relations
Judging by the comments, I have a feeling a lot of very angry Jews (and the occasional Evangelical Christian who's really only supporting Israel to make way for J.H.C.) who are reading this didn't get far past the headline, which implies that the Yale Political Union last week somehow debated ending U.S.-Israel relations. Mostly because, well, that's what the headline says. But no, it's deeper than that - the actual topic was "Resolved: End America's special Relationship with Israel" (emphasis mine), and all that guest speaker avowed anti-Semite was really saying was that Israel sometimes does bad things and things against American interests and we shouldn't be afraid to disagree with them, and also that Israel really doesn't need the enormous sums of money we're throwing at it. All of which seem to be pretty true statements, and I'm a libertarian so I can, you know, throw that argument out there too. But the comments (read for yourself) get grotesque, ranging from the ignorant ("How about a discussion on whether we should end relations with Russia, China, Egypt or Saudi Arabia?") to the downright mean ("Yashir Koach, Rabbi Marcus. Good job. Please don't accept a position in a synagogue around me!!!") to the completely uncalled-for ("in physics, Yale is considered to be a school for sloggers, not for bright intelligent students" - ouch!). It can get very difficult to support Israel and be taken seriously when people are so used to getting emotional reactions saying that Israel can do no wrong instead of real discussion.
At the end of the first student rebuttal, a rather mediocre summary of pro-Israel-lobby talking points, a group of students with Orthodox garb stood up in the back and started clapping loudly and seemingly non-stop, to the point of sheer rudeness as the Speaker was trying to get on with the debate. It seems funny to me that the people who support Israel the loudest are not just Jews (yay identity politics!) but American Ashkenazi Jews. It's they who are so irked when any criticism of Israel or tangentially-Israel-related phenomena is offered - not the Israelis themselves, who by and large have no problem criticizing Israel when it deserves criticism. I've wondered why this is - I think the (usually more religious) non-Israeli Ashkenazis idealize Israel in a way that the (largely Sephardic) folks who live in Israel don't. If you've grown up in a religious community an ocean away, Israel is the Holy Land, the place we waited 2000 years for and finally got [back], whereas if you've been born in Israel or lived there most of your life, it's another country - home, sure, and home with a few thousand years of history, but a home capable of sinning. Like that really cute girl you idealize for months and months until you work up the courage to talk to her, and she snorts when she laughs or something. I often talk about Jewish as ethnicity and Israel as an ethnically (rather than religiously) self-determined country, and that almost certainly applies much more for the Israelis than for the "foreigners." Put it like this, folks: when the Israelis are cool criticizing Israel, just calm down and don't be afraid to do the same thing. You won't turn into an anti-Semite.
Full disclosure: I'm half Sephardi and half Ashkenazi, but I tend to lay claim on the former because the Sephardis are so much more...well...chill. And they have way better music. And food. And women ('cause shiksas are for practice).
