Moshe Zuckermann, an Israeli historian and one of the “new historians,” deals in this book with the question whether criticising Israel is anti-Semitic. According to him, those who identify with the State of Israel use the accusation of anti-Semitism uncritically in order to prevent the free discussion of the Middle East conflict. A son of Holocaust-survivors Zuckermann alleges that their position actually has nothing to do with Israel or with the commemoration of the Shoah. They misuse the term “anti-Semitism” while at the same time claiming that they combat anti-Semitism.

Zuckermann has divided his analysis into two sections: Israel and Germany.

The first, devoted to Israel, critically analyzes its special perspective which is based on the principle of Zionism. Zionism is presented as one outcome of the increasing anti-Semitism in the nineteenth-century Europe which finally culminated in the Shoah. According to Zuckermann, the goal of Zionism is to end the Jewish Diaspora by promoting mass immigration to Israel. Cynically he adds that this would mean that Jews who prefer to live in the Diaspora should not complain about being exposed to anti-Semitism. Finally, the Shoah provides the indisputable proof of the need for Zionism and consequently of the existence of Israel. Zuckermann concludes that the Shoah has become an integral part of the narrative of Zionism and pressed into service to justify Israel’s politics of occupation. Thus, according to Zuckermann, Israel and its government are appropriating the guilt feelings of the Western World to their own advantage. This first part of the study also deals with Israel’s immigration politics and its goal to obtain, as he says, a Jewish majority in its territory. This argument is also used with regard to the mass-immigration of Jews from Arab Countries after the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948, while playing down the fact that these Jews fled or were expelled from the Arab Countries. His judgement of the present situation of Israel is based on his contention that Israel has abused the memory of the Shoah for political purposes.

In the second part of his book, Zuckermann analyzes the relationship between Germany as successor to the State which perpetrated the Shoah and Israel, the country that received the surviving victims. He notes the influence of the concept of the “Country of the Victims” versus the “Country of the Perpetrators” on Germany’s assessment of political events and the interpretation of public statements. He concludes that this leads to universal accusations of anti-Semitism. That is, at the expense of combating real anti-Semitism. People who pursue anti-Semites are called “professional hunters of anti-Semitism” (professionelle Antisemitismusjäger ). Formerly anti-Semites were considered to be found mainly within right-wing movements. Now, according to Zuckermann, leftist critics of Israel become increasingly suspicious of anti-Semitism from other quarters. Thus, Leftists searching for anti-Semites within the left contribute to its fragmentation and, according to the author, move continuously to the political right which even approaches tendencies toward islamophobia. Zuckermann adds that the anti-Semitic structures in the Arab World have nothing to do with hatred of Jews in the Western World and with modern anti-Semitism. They have their roots in the more than a century lasting conflict in and about Palestine. Here, he wilfully ignores the results of the recently published academic scholarship of Jeffrey Herf[1] or, for the same matter, of Martin Küppers and Klaus-Michael Mallmann[2]

It is a weakness that a book that deals with the question of anti-Semitism does not offer a definition of anti-Semitism. Not the least, Zuckermann intentionally ignores the definition of antisemitism given by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC).[3] Zuckermann thus supports those who are questioning this definition, like, most recently, the British University and College Union (UCU) which approved a motion to “dissociate the union from the so-called EUMC working definition of anti-Semitism, expressing concern at its use in attempts to ban speakers and prevent free speech on campus.”[4] It is possible that similar thinking may well have contributed to the imminent closure of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism[5]

On occasion of the presentation of this book at the Institute for Contemporary History of the University in Vienna, January 10, 2011 ,Zuckermann claims to have presented an analysis of the discourse.

Is has already been shown how Zuckermann ignores important publications on the subject. Many of his statements are not properly documented, and there is a need to know the primary literature. The reader gets the impression that this author took a random selection of literature for the purpose of confirming his preconceptions. For example, he takes position on Israel’s response to the threat of Qassam Missiles from Gaza and writes that Israel’s response, the operation Cast Lead in December of 2008, took place in a period of “relative calm,” persistently ignoring a reality which was quite different. [6] Equally uncritically, he accepts the Goldstone Report[7] as an authoritative source, but it has since been re-evaluated, even by Goldstone himself[8].

In sum, Moshe Zuckermann presents an opinionated and misleading interpretation, which is supported neither by disciplined reasoning nor scholarly documentation.

[1] Jeffrey Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, Yale University Press New Haven & London 2009, 335pp. ISBN: 978-0300168051

[2] Martin Cüppers, Klaus-Michael Mallmann (Hrsg.): Halbmond und Hakenkreuz Das Dritte Reich, die Araber und Palästina, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN-10 3534197291, ISBN-13 9783534197293

[3] http://www.fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/material/pub/AS/AS-WorkingDefinition-draft.pdf viewed May 30, 2011

[4] BRICUP welcomes votes at UCU Congress,” http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JustPeaceUK/message/31438 viewed June 3, 2011-06-03

[5] Abby Wisse Schachter: Yale’s latest gift to anti-semitism, New York Post, June 6, 2011, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/yale_latest_gift_to_anti_semitism_MVRL7G363U30EcMrxe15UM viewed June 8, 2011

[6] See for example. The Six Months of the Lull Arrangement http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e017.pdf , viewed May 30, 2011

[7] http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.PDF, viewed May 30, 2011

[8] Richard Goldstone: Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes, Washington Post, April 2, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html, viewed May 30, 2011