New Article: +972 Magazine, Ashkenazi Racism, and Mizrahi Boilerplate

[David Shasha]

+972 Magazine, Ashkenazi Racism, and Mizrahi Boilerplate

 

The following article by Almog Behar was first published in Hebrew by Haokets and quickly translated into English by +972 magazine:

 

http://972mag.com/it-is-time-to-rebuild-ties-between-mizrahim-and-the-arab-world/117507/

 

I was curious to see the piece in +972 because for some time now I have been working diligently to have them publish one of my articles, as I explain in the following SHU post:

 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/davidshasha/$2B972/davidshasha/Cg1iZv6W27g/nePmbaxvZcYJ

 

After having this article rejected I submitted two more articles, but to no avail.

 

So it is interesting to see what it is about Almog Behar’s article that is acceptable to the doctrinaire Ashkenazi Leftists at +972.

 

The article presents the usual Mizrahi radical attempt to engage on the Palestine issue, but does so without taking into account the ongoing hostility of actual Israeli Mizrahim to Arabs and Arab culture. 

 

Mizrahim continue to represent the most extreme form of Anti-Arab racism in Israeli society, and deploy the same argument of their rootedness in the Arab world as evidence that Arabs are evil and cannot be trusted.

 

This was the main theme of the article that I submitted to +972, and which was rejected for publication.

 

I have also discussed the issue in my recent article “On the Continuing Failure of Arab Jews”:

 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/WQWd9t7IpKg

 

In that article I look at Roy Hassan and the Rightward leaning “Ars Poetica” group that has expressed the close ties between young Mizrahim and the Settlers, Haredim, and other Anti-Arab elements in Israel. 

 

These young Mizrahim have processed the old Ashkenazi racism in Israel, but see the present in very different terms.  They are deeply disdainful of the political Left and are not at all fond of Arabs and Muslims.  They are indeed very loyal Zionists.

 

The larger issue of Anti-Mizrahi racism in Israeli history is now generally accepted by the mainstream without much resistance:

 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/davidshasha/hazkani/davidshasha/7Zz6wFl-bsw/pJirO2ErCAAJ

 

This acceptance has not at all translated into an adoption of the conciliatory position with the Palestinians and the larger Arab-Muslim world of the Leftists.

 

The new Mizrahi Right Wing consensus has served to undermine the older radical position.

 

But rather than seriously engage with the issue of Mizrahi self-hatred, what we see on the Ashkenazi Left is the promotion of a discourse that fits more comfortably with their stated political ideology, and blithely ignores the complex historical, religious, and cultural issues that continue to plague the Mizrahi community in Israel.

 

In this Ashkenazi-dominated framework there is little room for an open discussion of racism as it applies to Sephardim in the context of the current discourse.  There has been an acknowledgement of the sins and omissions of the Israeli past, but no reckoning with the current breakdown of Sephardic culture as it applies to both Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Israelis.

 

It is important to understand that Israeli Mizrahim know little if anything about their intellectual heritage.  Their vaunted “traditional” religious posture is almost completely disconnected from the classical Sephardic heritage, and remains closely tied to trends and developments in the Ashkenazi Orthodox world.

 

To his credit, Behar makes a very brief mention of the great rabbinical figures of the Sephardic past at the end of the article, but the bulk of the presentation is tied to the current political situation in a way that allows Ashkenazi Leftists to be firmly secure in their hegemonic position.

 

The articles that I have been writing on Sephardi self-hatred and the Anti-Arab racism of Israeli Mizrahim remain anathema to the Ashkenazi Leftists.  The actual examination of the Sephardic past in a pointed and detailed manner is not seen as relevant to what is in essence a lethal deathmatch between the political factions in Israel.  It is the binary division between Left and Right that is seen as primary; the larger cultural-intellectual-religious discussion is not seen as relevant to the Leftists.

 

In this Stalinist context it is critical to be identified with one of the two political factions, and to speak in the language of your preferred group.  It should go without saying that both the Left and Right flanks are controlled by Ashkenazim, and Ashkenazi Jewish culture and intellectual values.  There is little if any room for the substance of the Sephardic tradition in such a “White” discourse.

 

In my recent article “A Tale of Two Israels” I examine the current Israeli sociology as it applies to discussions of the newly-appointed Police Chief Roni Alsheikh, a diehard Mizrahi Right Winger with ties to the Settlers and the Haredim, and the new TV sensation “Shtisel” which promotes the union between Israeli Seculars and Haredim:

 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/XnChao_JYaY

 

In this context the usual Mizrahi boilerplate will not do anymore.  The toxic situation of Israeli Mizrahim and the religious and political dilemmas that have now erased the older Sephardic culture need to be addressed in a serious manner.

 

Ashkenazim must come to terms with the legacy of their racism against Arab Jews and not continue to present the same bland platitudes of co-existence when it comes to the Palestine issue.  The reckoning must get beyond the usual and obvious and begin to engage the problems that now plague Israeli society and the racism of Mizrahi Jews which remains tied to the destruction of the Sephardic heritage.

 

 

 

 

David Shasha