Posted by Ilya Somin:
Why Does Israel Get So Much More Left-Wing Criticism than France?
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_07_08-2007_07_14.shtml#1184049769
[1]Sasha Volokh is right to point out that not all left-wing criticism
of Israel is anti-Semitic or otherwise biased, even in cases where the
critics attack Israel while ignoring other governmetns that are guilty
of similar offenses to a much greater extent. As Sasha puts it:
For instance, one might think that only Israelis are sane,
basically rights-respecting, and receptive to basic Western values
� so that one can appeal to Israelis' basic principles in arguing
that they're acting wrongly. Or one could believe that only Israel
� and not Sudan or China � has a healthy enough democratic culture
that this sort of treatment will change its policies. In other
words, far from being an anti-Semitic policy, the boycott could be
an act of deep respect for Israel, essentially saying: "Only you
guys aren't savages; we think you might actually listen."
I am skeptical that this distinction really does account for the
vastly disproportionate focus on real and imagined Israeli offenses in
many left-wing quarters. The problem is that even other liberal
democracies don't get even a fraction of the criticism that Israel
gets when they enact comparable policies; this, despite the fact that
these countries are presumably just as "receptive to basic Western
values" as the Israelis are.
Consider the case of France, which doesn't get so much as a tiny
fraction of the hostility directed at Israel, even though most of the
same accusations typically made against Israel could just as easily be
leveled at the French government. The French comparison is far from
the only example of anti-Israel double standards. But it has the
virtue of highlighting that double standard with unusual clarity
because the main arguments used to defend the double standard in other
cases simply don't apply to France. The French surely accept "basic
Western values," and have a "healthy democratic culture" at least as
much as the Israelis do.
The French state's likely complicity in the 1994 Rwandan genocide (see
[2]here and [3]here) by itself dwarfs all the human rights offenses
that can reasonably be charged against the Israelis. France's
[4]draconian anti-terrorism laws infringe on civil liberties as much
or more than Israel's do, and much more than those of the US.
For those who believe that occupation is the greatest of all evils,
there is the fact that [5]French troops have repeatedly occupied
various African nations over the last 40 years in order to prop up
regimes that support French economic and political interests or help
overthrow those that don't. This, despite the reality that the
security threat these governments pose to France is negligible
compared to that posed to Israel by its Arab neighbors. When it comes
to the traditional left-wing bete noir of "imperialism," the Israelis
are pikers compared to the French.
Finally, France's treatment of its large Muslim minority leaves - to
put it mildly - a great deal to be desired, and is hardly better than
Israel's treatment of its own Muslim Arab minority (which, I agree,
includes a great deal of unjustified discrimination). [6]France's
restrictive labor policies have led to 14% unemployment among the
country's mostly Muslim immigrant population, with much higher rates
than that among the young. The government has also forbidden Muslim
students to wear veils and other religious symbols in public schools -
a restriction on Muslim religious expression that goes far beyond
anything done by the Israelis.
I do not claim that all these French policies are completely
indefensible (except for the Rwanda case). To the contrary, there are
at least minimally plausible defenses for all of them. For example, I
have some sympathy for French arguments that the regimes their troops
prop up in Africa are often less bad than the likely alternatives. But
similar arguments can be used to defend the parallel Israeli policies;
If French-supported African dictators may be better than their rivals,
there is at least an equally strong case that the Palestinians are
better off under Israeli occupation then left to the tender mercies of
Hamas and Fatah (the realistic alternatives). Despite their many
(often legitimate) grievances against the Israeli government,
[7]Israeli Arabs almost uniformly reject proposals to transfer their
villages and towns to Palestinian rule. The Israeli withdrawal from
Gaza has not noticeably improved the lot of Gaza's Arabs, and may well
have worsened it.
It is, I think, still possible to make a left-wing case that, overall,
Israeli policies are, say, 10% worse than French policies. Perhaps
even 50% worse. I don't agree with such claims, but they are not
wildly implausible. However, it is utterly impossible for a
fair-minded observer with typical left-wing values to conclude that
Israel is 100 or 1000 times worse than France. Yet the ratio of
left-wing criticism of Israel to left-wing criticism of France is far
closer to 100-1 or 1000-1 than 1.5-1.
Perhaps the difference is due to ignorance. Many of those who spend
lots of time and energy attacking Israel may simply be unaware of
comparable French policies. Perhaps it is due to the far greater media
coverage of Israel. But that only begs the question of why left-wing
intellectuals and activists spend so much more time and effort
learning about Israeli shortcomings than French ones, and why a mostly
left-liberal media does the same.
Not even the alleged left-wing bias towards "underdogs" and against
"the powerful" can explain the disjunction. France is much larger and
more powerful than Israel (with about 10 times Israel's population and
GDP), and France's enemies are weaker than Israel's are. From any
objective viewpoint, France's policies are far more important than
Israel's and deserve far greater attention. Perhaps not ten times
more, but certainly at least two or three times.
Is anti-Semitism the only cause of the disproportion between left-wing
criticisms of Israel and those of France? Almost certainly not. But
the other likely causes - bias against a nation perceived as more of a
US ally than France, sympathy for France's (pre-Sarkozy) anti-American
rhetorical stance, an implicit belief that Jews should be held to
"higher standards," etc. - are only marginally more defensible.
References
1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_07_08-2007_07_14.shtml#1183987570
2. http://www.afrol.com/articles/16082
3.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/17/wrwan17.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/17/ixworld.html
4. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17082-2004Nov1?language=printer
5. http://www.cfr.org/publication/12578/
6. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4399748.stm
7.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/13/AR2005081300091_pf.html
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