Psychologist Dr. Phyllis Chesler’s latest
book is a marked departure from her previous 12 – which included
the ground-breaking "Women and Madness," published
in 1972.
With publication of "The New Anti-Semitism: The Current
Crisis and What We Must Do About It" (Jossey-Bass, a Wiley
imprint, $24.95), the 63-year-old Park Slope resident enters
the explosive Isaeli-Arab conflict decisively on the side of
the Jews.
Chesler, raised in Borough Park and a Zionist since she was a
young girl, says she’s lived in both the Islamic and Jewish worlds
and has worked in Israel as a feminist. She is co-founder of
the Association of Women in Psychology and the National Women’s
Health Network.
Her decision to write "The New Anti-Semitism" came,
she says, after years of listening to anti-Israeli sentiments
among fellow activists and feminists – even before the start
of the latest Infitada in 2000.
"I tried to be a moderate voice," Chesler told GO Brooklyn.
"But when they lynched the two reservists in Ramallah [in
2000] and the Western media did not draw back in horror, I just
wept. I realized Jewish history was repeating itself.
"After 9-11, I thought everyone would understand. But that
didn’t happen."
Chesler is referring to an incident in which two Israeli reservists
were beaten to death and, according to Chesler, "The Palestinian
crowds cheered when the smiling murderers proudly displayed their
hands smeared with Jewish blood."
So when Chesler’s agent asked her in September 2002 what she
would most like to write about next, she answered, "There
is really only one subject that is on my lips, and in my heart
and on my mind. And it’s anti-Semitism."
Chesler finished "The New Anti-Semitism" in March,
after "working around the clock, reading, learning, administering
the research and doing the writing in a white heat." The
result is a passionate, highly personal and well-documented polemic
about the new anti-Semitism, which she maintains is the last
acceptable prejudice in a politically correct, multicultural
world.
Chesler says she is most troubled by "Islamic fascism against
Israel," followed by terrorism against the West and Western
values; what she believes is a betrayal of Jews, Israel and the
truth by intellectuals, both Jewish and non-Jewish; and the failure
of Jews to recognize and refrain from what she described as the
demonization of the Jewish state.
According to Chesler, a small part of Arab suffering is due to
humiliation and war, but "90 percent is due to Arab leadership."
On the other hand, she says, Islam has "a long history of
persecuting non-Muslims," which, she maintains, continues
today.
"You can’t become a citizen of Jordan if you are a Jew,"
she points out. "But intellectuals are not saying, ’Let’s
not invest in Jordan.’"
Anti-Arab feeling among Jews in Israel is not due to racism,
Chesler says, but rather a result of the Arab decision in the
1920s not to accept a Jewish presence in the region and the years
of fighting that followed.
"Arab Israelis have more freedom and a higher standard of
living than their counterparts in Arab states," Chesler
says, but admits that they are not treated as first-class citizens
(they are not accepted into the army, and thus ineligible for
certain loans and scholarships), a situation she says needs correcting.
"In 1948 the State of Israel was officially launched in
the world in part of what was once the Jewish biblical homeland,"
she writes. "This geographic area was also inhabited at
the time by Arabs, who had also lived there for generations.
The Arabs refused to accept the Palestinian state that the British
and the United Nations offered them. Instead, the Palestinians
and five Arab nations attacked the new and tiny nation of Israel."
Chesler believes the criticial nature of much European opinion
about Israel is a new form of Holocaust denial.
She quotes New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman as writing,
"The anti-Semitism coming out of Europe today suggests that
deep down Europeans want [Israeli prime minister Ariel] Sharon
to commit a massacre against Palestinians so that the Europeans
can finally get the guilt of the Holocaust off their backs and
be able to shout: ’Look at these Jews, they’re worse than we
were!’"
She rants against people she describes as "intellectual
Jews," who she says often express anti-Israeli sentiments.
She says many Jews have "a real ambivalence about their
Jewish Identity." The psychologist speculates this ambivalence
may "include a real fear of terror and post-Holocaust shame
they can’t deal with" or a belief that "if they’re
the first to criticize religious Judaism, Zionists and other
Jews, they’ll be the first ones spared." She equates this
behavior to that of secular German Jews in pre-Nazi times who
were integrated in German society.
Chesler lambastes Noam Chomsky (a linguist at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, who is Jewish) and Edward W. Said (a
professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University,
who is Muslim) both of whom have compared Israeli policies to
those of Hitler during the Third Reich.
Another sign, she says, that anti-Israeli sentiments are really
anti-Semitism, is that many people who protest Israeli actions
are not terribly concerned about abuses in China, Bosnia or Rwanda.
"If someone has a global perspective, I have no problem,"
she says.
Chesler says Jews need to talk with other Jews who hold a variety
of opinions – "with no intimidation, no bullying and no
heart attacks." Critics of Israel should not be approached
like "cult members" who need to be "de-programmed."
"If this book and other books [like ’The Case for Israel’
by Alan Dershowitz, with whom she has lectured] can get into
college campuses and synagogue libraries, can lead to teach-ins
and lectures and classes that are not hijacked by PLO supporters,
then we have a shot at getting to youth, the uninformed, the
misinformed, and especially to Jewish youth who are intimidated
by their peers," says Chesler.
Although her previous books, "Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman,"
"Sacred Bond: The Legacy of Baby M." and "Women
and Madness" have gotten ink in the New York Times, and
she has been a frequent guest on National Public Radio, both
have declined to either review "The New Anti-Semitism"
or interview Chesler.
She charges that both media organizations have shunned her because
they share the same anti-Israeli agenda that she criticizes in
her book.
NPR spokesperson Jessie Sarmiento told GO Brooklyn that Chesler
made a "wrong assumption," because "a decision
[on whether or not to interview or review] would not be made
for that reason."
"Lots of books come out every year. Obviously, not all of
them can be reviewed," said Sarmiento. "We are a news
organization that follows the standards of other respected news
organizations in this country, not only providing for a balanced
coverage, but providing a variety of voices."
GO Brooklyn received a similar response from Times spokesperson
Toby Usnik. "We receive thousands of books each year and
cannot review all of them," Usnik said in an e-mail. "We
don’t have an anti-Israel agenda."
"The New Anti-Semitism: The Current
Crisis and What We Must Do About It" by Phyllis Chesler
(Jossey-Bass, $24.95) can be ordered at local bookstores including:
BookCourt [163 Court St. between Dean and Pacific streets in
Cobble Hill, (718) 875-3677], Barnes & Noble [267 Seventh
Ave. at Sixth Street in Park Slope, (718) 832-9066] and A Novel
Idea [8415 Third Ave. at 84th Street in Bay Ridge, (718) 833-5115].
