Behind the judgments of organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch is a belief in Israel’s ineradicable wickedness. Russ Roberts analyzes this belief, which can also be found in the rhetoric of anti-Israel demonstrators:
The protests aren’t about criticizing or reforming Israel. They’re not about the settlements on the West Bank. They’re not about getting Israel to improve the daily life of Palestinians in Gaza. They’re not about pressuring Israel to accept a two-state solution. They’re not even about delegitimizing Israel. They’re about erasing Israel.
In Roberts’s interpretation, this attitude only makes sense when Israel is seen through the lens of “settler colonialism,” as understood by contemporary academics—the “only sin that negates the legitimate existence of a country.”
Some . . . of the animus toward Israel is simply Jew-hatred. But settler colonialism gives more than sheep’s clothing to that wolf. It motivates many casual observers against Israel. If I am right, we have been fighting the wrong battles when we explain that many Gazans lived fairly well on October 6 or that Hamas inflates the death toll in Gaza by including the deaths of Hamas fighters. The real intellectual battle is over the legitimacy of the state of Israel.
While Roberts is certainly correct, his contention only begs the question: why is Israel singled out as the epitome of settler colonialism? Israel, Roberts adds, “is a remarkably dishonest example of settler colonialism.” So while he may be right that some “casual observers” can be talked out of their hatred of Israel by understanding its history better, there will no doubt be others unreachable by reason. The latter may or may not hate Israel because they are anti-Semites, but for them hatred of Israel fulfills the role traditionally played by hatred of Jews.
That being said, Robert’s conclusion cannot be dismissed: “we ignore the doctrine of settler colonialism at our peril.”
Read more on Listening to the Sirens: https://listeningtothesirens.substack.com/p/can-you-cancel-a-country