{"id":93074,"date":"2022-02-09T17:05:37","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T15:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=93074"},"modified":"2022-02-09T11:54:57","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T09:54:57","slug":"17-05-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=93074","title":{"rendered":"Antisemitism Envoy Nominee Lipstadt Attacks Branding of Israel as \u2018Apartheid\u2019 State During Senate Confirmation Hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Antisemitism Envoy Nominee Lipstadt Attacks Branding of Israel as \u2018Apartheid\u2019 State During Senate Confirmation Hearing<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Ben Cohen<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Prof. Deborah Lipstadt addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her confirmation hearing for the role of US antisemitism envoy. Photo: Reuters\/Rod Lamkey<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Deborah Lipstadt, US President Joe Biden\u2019s nominee for the post of antisemitism envoy, warned a confirmation hearing on Tuesday that the effort to brand Israel as an apartheid state was part of a larger delegitimization campaign, as wary Republicans took issue with what they depicted as her partisan positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Addressing her confirmation hearing seven months after Biden nominated her for the State Department position, Lipstadt told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that antisemitism globally was a growing challenge. \u201cIncreasingly, Jews have been singled out for slander, violence and terrorism,\u201d she said. \u201cToday\u2019s rise in antisemitism is staggering.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of the hearing canvassed Lipstadt\u2019s view of the recent Amnesty International report that accused Israel of practicing the same form of racial segregation that prevailed in South Africa for most of the 20th century.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBranding Israel an apartheid state is more than historically inaccurate,\u201d she said. \u201cI believe it\u2019s part of a larger effort to delegitimize the Jewish state. Such language, I see it spilling over onto campuses where it poisons the atmosphere, particularly for Jewish students.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lipstadt \u2014 a professor of Jewish studies at Emory University in Atlanta who famously defeated the British Holocaust denier David Irving in a 2000 libel case at the High Court of Justice in the UK \u2014 emphasized that criticism of Israeli government policies should not be classified as antisemitic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCriticism of Israeli policy is not antisemitism,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you want to hear criticism of Israeli policies, I suggest you sit yourself down in a cafe in Tel Aviv or in Jerusalem, whatever part of the country, depending who is in the government. It\u2019s the national sport in Israel, second only maybe to soccer or maybe more than that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lipstadt cited the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance\u2019s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism as a helpful instrument for determining whether a statement or action is antisemitic. The definition considers statements such as \u201cIsrael is a racist endeavor\u201d to be antisemitic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very important to be nuanced there because, you know, it\u2019s sort of Chicken Little \u2018The sky is falling,\u2019 \u201d she told the hearing. \u201cIf you call everything antisemitism, when you have a real act of antisemitism, people aren\u2019t paying attention.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While Democrats fulsomely welcomed Lipstadt in Washington, DC \u2014 with committee chair Sen. Robert Menendez telling her, \u201cI\u2019m truly disappointed it took this long to schedule your hearing, and I look forward to your swift confirmation\u201d \u2014 Republicans were more circumspect, charging her with adopting an uncompromisingly partisan approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin who took the greatest exception to Lipstadt, as he recalled that she had\u00a0accused him<\/a>\u00a0of \u201cwhite supremacy\u201d in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attempted insurrection on Capitol Hill by supporters of defeated President Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did you go on social media and level these vile and horrible charges against people, including me that you don\u2019t even know?\u201d Johnson asked her. \u201cYou have never talked to me, you have never met me. You don\u2019t know what is in my heart. Do you feel bad about that at all?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In response, Lipstadt apologized to Johnson and stressed that she was an \u201cequal opportunity foe\u201d of antisemitism. \u201cWhile I may disagree with what you said specifically, and I think that\u2019s a legitimate difference, I certainly did not mean it, and I\u2019m sorry if it was taken, and I\u2019m sorry if I made it, in a way that it could be assumed to be political,\u201d she said. Johnson answered that while he appreciated Lipstadt\u2019s apology, he would not vote for her confirmation nonetheless.<\/span><\/p>\n

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida also raised concerns over Lipstadt\u2019s alleged partisanship, insisting that the envoy\u2019s post \u2014 which was elevated to ambassadorial level in Jan. 2021 \u2014 required a \u201cnon-partisan approach\u201d in order to \u201cto develop and implement the department\u2019s policies to address the ancient and evil poison of antisemitism around the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

US Jewish groups have been pressing for Lipstadt\u2019s urgent confirmation, arguing that the US response to global antisemitism will be muted for as long as the post remains unfilled. A date for a vote on Lipstadt\u2019s confirmation has not been set.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em>
\nani te\u017c webmastera Blogu Reunion’68, chyba ze jest to wyra\u017anie zaznaczone.
\nTwoje uwagi, linki, w\u0142asne artyku\u0142y lub wiadomo\u015bci prze\u015blij na adres:
\n<\/em>webmaster@reunion68.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antisemitism Envoy Nominee Lipstadt Attacks Branding of Israel as \u2018Apartheid\u2019 State During Senate Confirmation Hearing Ben Cohen Prof. Deborah Lipstadt addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her confirmation hearing for the role of US antisemitism envoy. Photo: Reuters\/Rod Lamkey Deborah Lipstadt, US President Joe Biden\u2019s nominee for the post of antisemitism envoy, warned a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93074"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93092,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93074\/revisions\/93092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}