The Other McCain

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MSNBC Guest Noura Erakat: ‘You Can Support Israel and Hate Jewish People’

Posted on | November 29, 2023 | Comments Off on MSNBC Guest Noura Erakat: ‘You Can Support Israel and Hate Jewish People’

Let’s start by agreeing that the ability to nod along with left-wing pretzel logic is pretty much Joy Reid’s only qualification to be on national TV, but then we have to proceed to asking the question, “Who is Rutgers University Professor Noura Erakat?” From her official profile:

Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and an Associate Professor at Rutgers University, New Brunswick in the Department of Africana Studies and the Program in Criminal Justice. Her research interests include human rights law, humanitarian law, national security law, refugee law, social justice, and critical race theory. Noura is an editorial committee member of the Journal for Palestine Studies and a co-Founding Editor of Jadaliyya, an electronic magazine on the Middle East that combines scholarly expertise and local knowledge. She is the author of Justice for Some: Law and in the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019). . . .
Noura served as Legal Counsel for the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the House of Representatives from 2007-2009. Prior to her time on Capitol Hill, Noura received a New Voices Fellowship to work as the national grassroots organizer and legal advocate at the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

So, she was a Democrat congressional aide, after having previously worked for something called the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, which has since changed its name to the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and I’ll bet most readers will have no problem guessing who one of their major donors is. Anyway, here’s some more interesting information about Professor Erakat:

In June 2020, Erakat’s cousin Ahmed’s car collided with a military checkpoint in the West Bank near Abu Dis, following which he was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers.

Yes, Professor Erakat’s cousin was a Palestinian terrorist who deliberately rammed into a border checkpoint, injuring one of the guards. Do a bit of research, and you’ll find that getting rammed by Palestinian terrorists is a fairly common risk for Israeli border guards. You will probably not be surprised to learn that, despite video clearly showing that the ramming attack by Professor Erakat’s cousin was deliberate, she claims he was an innocent victim. And so this is the person whose words Joy Reid was nodding along with, and I’ll quote the whole thing, just so it can’t be claimed I’ve taken her out of context:

JOY REID: Let me show you a picture. I want to show you a picture. I’m very curious to know what you think of it. This is the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, giving a tour at one of the kibbutz that was attacked on October 7, to one Elon Musk. What is happening here? Why is Elon Musk, who has made some pretty heinous anti-Semitic statements on his version of Twitter, and has been accused of anti-Semitism, what is he doing in Israel? Why would he be received by the prime minister at this time?
NOURA ERAKAT, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL STUDIES PROFESSOR: Well, I’m not really sure why Elon Musk is there. I will say that it points out to a phenomenon we have seen, which is the conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, where we can have very explicit anti-Semites like former President Donald Trump who appointed to a room of Jewish Americans and referred to Israel as their country, highlighting this trope of dual loyalties and nationalities, who said that — refers to their wealth and their power in a way that hits on classic anti-Semitic tropes and yet is hailed as Israel’s, you know, number one ally. And this points to this phenomenon of the difference between support for Israel and support and protection for Jewish life. Those are not the same thing.
The opposition to Zionism and the idea that you oppose, you oppose an ethnonational state that is contingent on maintaining a Jewish demographic majority that requires the ongoing removal of Palestinians and the confiscation of their lands is not the same thing as bigotry towards Jewish people, and that’s precisely why you see a very robust, diverse coalition including Jewish voice for peace and other anti-Zionist Jews who are part of this movement.
When we see Elon Musk there and you’re scratching your head saying wait a minute, I thought he actually has said very anti-Semitic things, it’s precise because these are not the same thing. You can support Israel and hate Jewish people, and that’s the sad truth here, is that many of us who are fighting to free Palestine are fighting for all people’s freedom, including for Jewish liberation, which we see as part and parcel of our human emancipation, and we find our safety in solidarity.

Notice the unqualified assertion by Joy Reid that Elon Musk has made “heinous anti-Semitic statements” — heinous! — and the equally unqualified assertion that Trump is a “very explicit” anti-Semite, as if no one could argue with these crude slanders. But then consider that Professor Erakat defended her own cousin’s attempt to kill Israeli border guards, and weigh that in the balance against whatever you may think about Musk and Trump. Say what you will about Elon Musk, he never rammed into any border checkpoints, as far as I know.



 

Category: Israel, MSNBC

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