The Need for Tough Jews Robert Weissberg
Robert Weissberg is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois. He is the author of twelve books on politics and pedagogy. He has published numerous papers in leading journals in political science.
Israel has the most powerful military in the Middle East. No Arab state would launch a 1973-style attack and those that do take up arms know full well that a traditional military victory in beyond reach. Nevertheless, you would never sense this intimidating power if one visited today’s university. Beating up Israel—calls for boycotts, disinvestments (the BDS movement) burning the Israeli flag, vandalism and the like have become a way of life and even repeated failure to accomplish anything hardly cools the hatred.
As one who has spent four decades teaching political science and observing Jewish life more generally, let me explain why this powerful nation is the campus punching bag.
The answer is quite simple: at least in the US, nobody physically fears Jews. The disjunction between Israeli military strength and campus weakness is breath-taking. Worse, the campus docility seems virtually hard-wired into American Jewish life. Jackie Mason tells of visiting Israel and for the first time in his life seeing tough Jews. His instinctive reaction: they had to be Mexicans.
Plausibly, such docility, living by one’s wits and business acumen just reflects successful strategies from two-thousand years of survival. I saw it as child—when I told my mother about being harassed by Blacks in 7th grade, her response was genug es genug (enough is enough) and we fled Manhattan for suburban New Jersey. Absolutely unmentionable was (a) learning to fight back, including carrying a knife for self-defense; (b) organizing a protective gang of other Jewish victims (“Heebs from Hell”); or (c) hiring body guards. No Italian family would exhibit such cowardice and I similarly guarantee a different outcome if blacks picked on a little Mexican boy.
Reform Jews in particular eschew anything that even hints of force; most are even embarrassed by Jews calling for an eye-for-an-eye. I can readily envision a situation where Jews were assaulted by blacks and in response, organize a “community outreach” to blacks complete with Jewish-funded after-school tutoring, cultural enrichment trips all topped off with an “Brotherhood” dinner in which the Reform Temple fetes a local black minister for his efforts to promote tolerance, including a $1000 check and bronze plaque in appreciation.
The habitual Jewish flight from physical confrontation continues into campus life albeit with a heightened intellectual flavor. After a few pro-Israeli speakers are harassed into silence, the response might be starting a pro-Israeli website or pressuring the Dean to sponsor a seminar celebrating freedom of speech for everyone, even Palestinians screaming “Death to the Zionists!!” No campus Jew would even imagine inviting some remnants of the Jewish Defense League to join the fray. Who wants to cause trouble? Yak, yak, yak and more yak.
Today’s campuses are acutely sensitive to the threat of physical violence, and once this unspeakable fact is understood, all else becomes clear. But everything depends on who invites trouble. College administrators are terrified that even the most innocuous race-related incident can escalate into a riot not only with campus blacks, but hundred of rowdy sympathizers drawn to the action, myriad Black Nationalist groups (e.g., the Nation of Islam) plus a handful of professional white anarchist agitators. Better to squelch any anti-black activity before it even begins.
By contrast, these functionaries know that Jews, acting as Jews (versus, say members of SDS) will never riot or destroy property. At most, a raucous meeting will be followed by the school President privately assuring Jewish donors that campus anti-Semitism is only the work of a few nut cases and radical faculty.
Like dogs that can smell fear, campus anti-Semites know that they are free to hold anti-Israel demonstrations, make outrageous claims (Zionism is Racism) and otherwise run wild without having to worry about Jewish retribution. Imagine similar events targeting African American students—inviting Charles Murray of Bell Curve fame to discuss low black IQ? That would require calling out the National Guard in advance.
In principle, nothing is fixed in stone. The historical record is incontrovertible: enemies of Israel don’t perform well against tough Jews though, to be sure, these tough Jews might prefer to be studying the Talmud. Yes, punching out those who insisting that Israel is guilty of genocide may bring outrage, cries for campus civility and the like, but such a violent responses would dramatically reduce the anti-Israel fever. Bullies only target weaklings, and when the once weak forcefully fight back, new targets will be sought.
Far more is involved here than importing a few “Starkers” (Yiddish for tough guys). The deeper shift is in altering habits that have proven effective for millennia—avoiding physical confrontation at all costs and fighting the battle with brains, not brawn. It means embracing gun ownership, spending a few hours monthly learning self-defense and otherwise raising the costs to our enemies.
Unfortunately, many highly assimilated American Jews will intuitively see such changes as inimical to the Jewish spirit, a rejection of what has allowed us to survive.
Not true. Toughness is very Jewish. “When Abraham heard that his nephew Lot was taken captive, he took the 318 trained soldiers of his house and pursued the captors,” defeated them, brought back Lot, and exacted retribution with their looted property. (Genesis 14:14). As my deceased mother, bless her soul, told me, genug es genug.
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