A scholar defends Israel from biased criticism
+ enlarge image
Michael Curtis says an attack on Israel is an attack on every democratic country.
Sidebar
Advertisements
January 30, 2013
The United Nations gets an inordinate amount of attention in Michael Curtis’s new book, Should Israel Exist? A Sovereign Nation Under Attack by the International Community.
That’s because, Curtis acknowledged in an interview with NJJN, he considers the UN to be the most egregious offender of justice where Israel is concerned. Few UN agencies escape his critique, from the UN Human Rights Council to UNESCO to the Security Council.
Curtis will be a keynote speaker at the Israel Advocacy Summit on Sunday, Feb. 3, at the Aidekman campus, Whippany (see sidebar).
“There are 193 nations in the UN but Israel is the one that is picked out incessantly,” said Curtis, a distinguished professor emeritus of political science at Rutgers University. “The rest of the world is barely material at all, and that includes places like Syria, Burundi, and Congo. In Syria, where 10,000 people have been slaughtered, one would have thought the UN Security Council would step in, but no. The UN Security Council has 47 people on it, and two-thirds of the resolutions condemn Israel for human rights violations.”
Curtis wants to make it clear that he doesn’t believe Israel is above criticism.
“It is totally appropriate to criticize Israel for certain things, but to criticize Israel to the exclusion of other nations is inappropriate,” he said.
Curtis’s book, published in January 2012 by Balfour Books, is an impassioned indictment of those who single out Israel on charges of racism, apartheid, and colonialism.
Of all the charges, the “apartheid” label offends him the most. The book started as an article he wrote in 2011 for the on-line magazine American Thinker “destroying” that charge.
“After 30-40 pages, I decided to go on to work on other allegations against Israel that need to be dispelled,” he said.
He also takes on “lawfare and universal jurisdiction” — the strategy of using international law and agencies in the fight against Israel.
“In a speech the head of Hamas made in Istanbul recently, he said, ‘We won’t attack Israel militarily, but we will act by diplomatic pressure and proper means.’ In other words, we will continue with non-military means, making use of all international law possible to attack Israel,” Curtis said.
Although many of his arguments have been taken up by the “hasbara” camp — organizations focused on improving Israel’s image and fighting its delegitimization — he argues that his book is an “objective scholarly effort” and not “Zionist propaganda.”
“I don’t think I’m targeting the usual choir, but those who might be intellectual people, open to thinking about Israel being under attack.”
Curtis said he believes there is even more at stake in the debate over Israel than its survival. “An attack on Israel is an attack on every democratic country, and an attack of this kind eventually leads to attacks on the United States and other democratic counties.”
At Rutgers, Curtis specialized in political theory, comparative government, European politics, and the Middle East.
Among his approximately 30 books are Three Against the Third Republic, an analysis of the rise of anti-democratic and anti-Semitic ideology in France after the Dreyfus affair, and Religion and Politics in the Middle East. For many years, he was the president of American Professors for Peace in the Middle East and editor of the Middle East Review.
In addition to his 37 years at Rutgers — he retired in 2000 — Curtis has taught at Yale University, The Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, and University of Bologna and given lectures at hundreds of institutions.
Originally from London, he lives in Princeton and is a member of The Jewish Center there.
Advocating for Israel
The Step Up for Israel Advocacy Summit, a forum presenting tools to counter assaults on Israel’s legitimacy, will take place on Sunday, Feb. 3, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Alex Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus, Whippany.
In addition to Michael Curtis, Itamar Marcus, founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, will be keynote speaker.
An authority on Palestinian ideology and policy, Marcus represented Israel in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority on incitement in 1999. He has presented analyses of Palestinian ideologies to members of the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament and to the parliaments of such countries as Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Australia.
At the summit, experts from leading advocacy organizations will take part in panel discussions focusing on responses to misinformation and false accusations about Israel at the UN; the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement; college campus advocacy; media monitoring; and advocacy at the local, state, and national levels.
Panelists will include Lauren Applebaum, The Israel Project; David Dabscheck, Israel Action Network; Rabbi Noam Marans, American Jewish Committee; Elliot Mathias, Hasbara Fellowships; David Michaels, B’nai B’rith International; and Steve Stotsky, CAMERA.
The summit is free and open to the public. It is being sponsored by the Community Relations Committee of Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ and AJC/NJ in partnership with area synagogues and organizations.
Registration is requested; visit jfedgmw.org/summit or jfedgmw.org/sufi or call 973-929-3064.
Comments
ROSENBERG
January 31, 2013
I AM CALLING FOR A NATIONAL BOYCOTT BY JEWS OF ANY INTERFAITH HOLOCAUST PROGRAM WHERE HATIKAVAH IS INTENTIONALLY EXLUDED DUE TO MUSLIM PRESSURE OR CLERGY WHO SUPPORT THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE. PLEASE GET THE WORD OUT. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG
. I have bowed out of the local interfaith Holocaust service, because it was a custom to include Hatikvah at the end, but now some Christian groups object as they support the Palestinians and the Muslim Imams would either sit or leave during the Hatikvah. Perhaps interfaith Holocaust programs no longer make sense, at least to me. I do not need the stress of seeing disrespect being afforded to Israel and nor do I wish to compromise by leaving Hatikvah out. This is a personal choice and I DO NOT ADVOCATE ANYONE NOT PARTICIPATING IN ANY INTERFAITH HOLOCAUST SERVICE. I INTRODUCED INTERFAITH HOLOCAUST SERVICES IN 1974 AND WAS ONE OF THE FIRST IF NOT THE FIRST TO DO SO. This was a difficult decision for me based on personal principle. The interfaith Holocaust memorials started as well intentioned way for the Jewish people and other groups to pause and reflect on man’s capacity to perpetuate unbelievable cruelty against his fellow and to commiserate as a group and oHolocaust survivors and athers, with the Jews and hopefully prevent this nightmare from reoccurring. Over the years it was understandably modified to include other victims of genocidal mass killings, though these mass killings were not really analogous, as the Nazis were obsessed at not just killing Jews as a competing group, but Hitler desired to eliminate our creed and it’s pervasive influence on humanity, particularly Christian doxy. As a result of Muslim participation and twisted liberalism, this is morphing into a twisted canard where Israel is being blamed for perpetuating ethnic killings against the Palestinians as the Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis. One can understand the Islamo-Nazis belief system with a quote from the Talmud. We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG, CHILD OF refugee born in a D.P. camp.
GP
February 15, 2013
In short, so far as Palestine is concerned, the Powers have made no declaration of policy which, at least in the letter, they have not always intended to violate…
(Doreen Ingrams. Palestine Papers 1917-1922 Seeds of Conflict. London1972. pp. 61 and 73).