The column, which is receiving a great deal of attention, is about how mainstream Jewish groups are alienating liberal Jews through their intolerance of dissent about Israeli policies. Cohen doesn’t seem to notice the irony of how his column starts:
Ira Stup was raised in Philadelphia attending Jewish day school and camps. He found his home in the Jewish community and was “intoxicated with Jewish democracy” as framed in the ideals of Israel’s foundation. Now he has returned deeply troubled from a one-year fellowship based in Tel Aviv.
The worst single incident occurred on Ben Yehuda Street in central Jerusalem. Stup, 24, a Columbia graduate, was returning from a rally with a couple of friends carrying a banner that said, “Zionists are not settlers” [and wound up being verbally and physically harassed by a group of Americans–which is awful, but tangential to the point I make below.]
Cohen portrays the banner as “oppos[ing] the continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank,” but given that, depending on how you define it, upwards of 500,000 Israelis are already “settlers” (i.e., live over the Green Line), what the banner really suggests is that about 1 in 10 Israelis, and their supporters, are not “Zionists.” Calling a Jew a “non-Zionist” in Israel is analogous to saying someone isn’t a “real American,” or is “unpatriotic.” It’s not all that surprising that Strups targets would respond by saying, “well who are you to say so, you’re not a real Jew.” Starting a debate with a grave insult is hardly conducive to reasoned debate.
In short, Strup and his friends were at best (and most likely) being intentionally provocative, and at worst intentionally insulting, much like the left-wing activists who heckled Netanyahu a few weeks ago. I would submit that if you expect tolerance and acceptance of divergent views, it pays to exhibit the same. The fact that Cohen is blissfully unaware of why the Strups of the world aren’t getting very far in mainstream circles doesn’t suggest much short-term hope.