The headline on Jay Fleitman’s June 4 column (“UMass conference prompts questions for Jewish community”) inspired hope that there might be some interesting and constructive thoughts on the recent controversial conference at UMass about the Israel/Palestine issue. But the column disappointed.
Fleitman believes that the BDS, or boycott, divestment and sanctions, movement is an expression of anti-Semitism, and implies that the recent attacks on synagogues are somehow connected to this. He ignores the fact that the Pittsburgh shooter published an anti-immigration screed right before the attacks. Thus it’s much more likely that these shootings were inspired by President Trump, whose hateful rhetoric has given permission to loonies all over America to act on their dangerous passions and fantasies.
He goes on to question why American Jews should lean Democratic when so many in that party have aligned themselves with the Palestinian cause and against the government of Israel.
But the real questions for the Jewish community are much more difficult. How can we reconcile our support for the existence of a Jewish homeland with the heinous policies of its government, which has abandoned the two-state solution and seems determined to embrace the idea of ruling over a Palestinian under-class in perpetuity, thus abandoning the democratic ideals on which it was founded?
And a question for the BDS proponents who claim they are not anti-Semitic: Have you no concern that your allies (whether you like it or not) are Hamas and Hezbollah, whose goal is the destruction of Israel and the murder of its inhabitants?
Joseph Blumenthal
Northampton