The Hysterical Overreaction to Jayapal’s ‘Racist State’ Gaffe

I write for a few other blogs (see blog list). When I write something, there is interlinking with other things written in the past. Subjects are connected and it helps that I have written about many things. A suitable item for a controversy of the moment is a review of the book Can We Talk About Israel: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted.

Michelle Goldberg (NYT has a mixture of columnists, some not worth reading, some well worth reading; she is one of the latter) has a good summary.  Her piece is correctly entitled: The Hysterical Overreaction to Jayapal’s ‘Racist State’ Gaffe.

Rep. Jayapal is the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. I'll just provide her summary of things:

Jayapal’s gaffe occurred at Netroots Nation, a progressive conference held in Chicago, where pro-Palestinian activists interrupted a panel she was on. The protesters were targeting Jayapal’s House colleague Jan Schakowsky for refusing to sign onto a bill ensuring that American funding isn’t used in the military detention of Palestinian children. Seeking to placate the demonstrators, Jayapal agreed that Israel is a “racist state” — one of their key contentions — and said that the “Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy, that the dream of a two-state solution is slipping away from us.”

The book CEO of the New Israel Fund.  New Israel Fund defines itself as “the leading organization committed to democratic change within Israel.”  One chapter that was uncomfortable for him to write was to discuss apartheid in Israel.  Basically, he granted that Israeli policies in a broad sense did have an apartheid quality in some sense, at least with respect to the occupied territories.  The word has a lot of baggage, however, and it is best to use it in a nuanced way.  

I try to avoid talking about Israel since it is not something I am too knowledgeable about, which made the book useful too.  But, I think this is the correct bottom line here.  

First, this is another "gaffe" (which is different than saying something untrue) akin to Hillary Clinton in front of an ideological crowd talking about "deplorables."  If we want to actually fairly criticize people (which doesn't happen and it's a dream to think it will, so we have to factor this in), what is said in such contexts will be unedited politically incorrect fodder on a regular basis.  Let's not have the vapors about such things. 

Second, if she said anything "wrong" (and on the merits, I doubt she did), it is a rather nuanced thing.  The thing to do, apparently, is to criticize leadership and not say Israel itself is racist.  Labeling Israel as a racist state "demonizes" Israel and is "anti-semitic."  This is slander though it comes off a tad better than when it isn't Kevin McCarthy (who doesn't care if people say racist things if it is on his side, from Trump down) saying it.

The nation of Israel is not the same thing as Jews as a people. Jews criticize Israel regularly.  (This is somewhat unsurprising; we regularly are more comfortable with criticizing our "family" while being mad when others do it, even if they say the same thing we say.)  It is also not "demonizing" to strongly criticize Israel for certain policies.  From the op-ed:

“Israel is not a state of all its citizens,” Netanyahu wrote in 2019. “According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people — and only it.” He was referring to a 2018 law, which, among other things, downgraded the official status of Arabic, the language of about a fifth of Israel’s population.

The book covers other things Netanyahu has done over his long career, including as prime minister.  We are supposed to at most soft soap these things. This is not the policy of some single group.  Israel -- no matter how much it is an ally and in comparison is better than its neighbors -- has had bad policies, racist policies, like this for some time.

The United States is a racist country.  I might lessen the blow (Mr. White Man) by saying "in some ways," but it would not be some libel to bluntly say it, especially at some ideologically leaning meet-up.  The criminal justice system is systematically racist.  

Politics is about tight-roping. That is fine and realistic to say.  I can understand how various members of the Democratic leadership and others are replying here.  I am not part of that, helping me to note the bullshit quality of all of this.  She "walked back" her comments though people closely reading her statement correctly noted the semantics of it all.

Again, it's useful to quote a portion of the statement. The statement is a reasonable one that shows the type of people I want in power instead of people who want to call conspiracy theorist Robert Kennedy Jr. to testify or who enable Tommy Tuberville to block military promotions to promote radical anti-abortion politics.  

At a conference, I attempted to defuse a tense situation during a panel where fellow members of Congress were being protested. Words do matter and so it is important that I clarify my statement. I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist. I do, however, believe that Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies and that there are extreme racists driving that policy within the leadership of the current government. I believe it is incumbent on all of us who are striving to make our world a more just and equitable place to call out and condemn these policies and this current Netanyahu government’s role in furthering them.

This shows the context and intent of her remarks.  It shows she realizes the importance of carefully expressing oneself.  It shows she is not saying Israel inherently is racist (as some argue; our own nation opposes officially favoring one religion or ethnic group) but currently has racist policies. This is the truth. It does.  It is very well a racist country in that sense as we are.

The current policies are "unacceptable, untenable, and unjust." The realpolitik of President Biden engaging with the PM of Israel is granted. It is a tightrope. If you can engage with China, you can engage with Israel.  There are various ways of doing this.  

Anyways.  As Israel (again) is bombing Palestinians, can we ... to be blunt ... f-ing grow up a bit on how what she said is all so horrible?  Yes, the usual suspects can gleefully comment on how the Dems on in disarray, and certain Republicans can propose some new bullshit resolution while their own house is filled with reprobates.  We are grown-ups here.  

To use an old hashtag, even as Twitter is supposedly (again) dying, #IAmWithHer.  BTW, on that, the newest thing is a Facebook/Meta supported platform that currently can only be done via an app from Instagram.  I saw something that said maybe you can somehow do a workaround on your desktop or laptop (where I write most of my tweets), but realistically it is not practical.  So, you know, I'm still a Twitter guy.

The other options are things like Post, which has a lot less content and is more primitive at this stage.  Or, another thing where you have to be invited to use, and I have not been.  Or, one that is just too confusing to sign on to.  Or ... Twitter is run by an asshole who screwed it up in various ways, but the alternatives are still not better than the current product, which still has a lot of good people with a lot of good stuff on a daily basis.