What Does It Feel Like To Be A Gaza Denialist?

By PAMELA OLSON

EARLIER this month Ezra Klein interviewed an internationally respected expert in war crimes and genocide, Phillippe Sands. It’s a good discussion but was hard for me to listen through. It’s painful to contemplate all the people I know who are ‘Gaza denialists.’ One of them, a rabbi, is an acquaintance I made a couple years before he immigrated to Israel with his family. I’ve followed his very public evolution since 8 October and condensed it below.

To defeat an enemy, you must first know him as he knows himself –  Sun Tzu

First, when some of your leaders express a desire to commit crimes against a group of people, you say that they are hotheads with a small following – and can be safely ignored.

Then, when acts of disproportionate state violence against civilians on a large scale take place, you claim that all of it is justified by military necessity.

Then, when credible¹ reports emerge showing that crimes are taking place and even celebrated, you admit that they exist but minimize their scale and significance.

Then, when the massive scale of those crimes becomes clear, you deny that Israel is to blame – because the other side started it, and this is what happens in war. FAFO, right?

Then, when most of the world and substantial portions of the Israeli and American Jewish community start to express horror and speak out against what is happening, you point the finger at them. The fools don’t realize they are being played. Only total victory will end the carnage and efforts to hasten an end to the fighting or decrease its effectiveness will only prolong the war.

Then, mainstream Israeli society becomes so morally corrupt that the same people deny the crimes while defending them. “Let them starve, there is no famine” is the logic of the day. Taking seriously what critics have to say is the root cause of treachery; they are fools or genocidal anti-Semites, and probably both.

Then, when the cognitive dissonance grows so extreme that you finally admit to having some doubts about what Israel is doing, it’s time to be brave. In other words, to showcase your humanitarianism and restrict blame to Netanyahu or the crazy right wing. They are bad leaders; but Israeli soldiers and Jewish tax paying, reserve duty serving citizens are only ever responding to the trauma of 7th October. Wouldn’t you?²

Then, the horror just grows and grows. The videos and photos of starving, homeless refugees are moving previously supportive world leaders to publicly chastise Israel. The case for war crimes is overwhelming, as is the significant public support for those crimes. You’re a modern, educated Jew and understand that something has gone very wrong, right under your nose, and without you have raised the alarm. The thing is, that’s the fault of those who used the word ‘genocide’ so early, or cried wolf again and again. Those gullible outsiders are guilty of making it harder right now to interrupt the excesses of war. All the more reason to ignore them, now and in the future.

Then, the accumulation of doubt and horror start to eat away at you, from the inside. Denial is no longer possible. No excuse will cover up the reality of what Israel is doing. And you recognize that the motivation isn’t military necessity, but Netanyahu’s political survival and his right-wing allies dangerous messianism. It’s time for decent people – like yourself – to lift the banner of opposition. Today, not yesterday. Now, not before. And let the nations of the world see the ultimate benevolence Israeli society, or at least a big chunk of it. Only a moral society would be willing to navigate its own responsibility during war. Anyone who does so is proving that they are decent after all. And despite any incidental responsibility for the cheerleading and propaganda you took part in the not distant past.

All this mature taking stock of things, empathy for the innocent children in Gaza, and responsible analysis is difficult emotional labor. Time to make dinner, after just one more social media post.

That’s the journey of Rabbi Joe Schwartz, formerly of Brooklyn. And he’s not alone. In fact, he’s a near perfect archetype of what we’re seeing these days. More and more Jewish and Israeli leaders are finally ready to speak out in defense of our values. You might ask, ‘what were they thinking, waiting this long?’ Now you know. This is the ‘I was one of the good Germans’ phase of denial. You can’t deny what is happening any longer, that’s clear. Now it’s time to deny your responsibility in helping things get this bad.

What they – Israelis above all, but also her institutional supporters in the Jewish community – have accomplished will be mourned for generations to come. Bechiya l’dorot. The setting on fire of all the humanistic and justice-oriented principles of our faith for the whole world to see. They won’t forget. And neither will we.

They are akin to the Zealots of ancient Jerusalem who courted disaster after disaster until all was lost. The Romans burned everything to the ground, killed and enslaved and ground us into dust. Well not everyone. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai escaped, made peace with the Romans, and survived. May he serve as an example to us all in this trying time. Rabbi Schwartz however, can go to hell.

¹“Credible” here means that Israeli and mainstream Jewish publications acknowledge the facts. Usually occurs long after initial reports.

²No, I would not. While a minority, thousands of Israeli Jews were somehow able to resist the temptation and accurately assess what was happening and what would happen.