A world on fire versus whatabouttery on Gaza
When I first read Sunny’s declaration against whatabouttery, I wasn’t convinced. Some of what he says, about the painting of ‘baddies’ and ‘goodies’ by the blogosphere made sense, but crucially it ignores that one side is creating far greater atrocities than the other. 
There might be an argument against measuring moral responsibility by body count on the basis of historical context, but there too, matters swing against the Israelis. Whether or not one believes Israel has a right to exist, in Gaza they are invaders.
I have been reading Harry’s Place today, which seems to be frequently ‘Recommended’ over at B4L, first for an article praising a leader of Die Linke for speaking out against pro-Palestinian protesters, and second for querying whether or not those of us who are anti-Zionist have the right to criticize the actions of Israel, without equally or more strongly criticizing the words of Al-Qaradawi who has apparently called for a second holocaust against the Jews.
Read the second article again, if you can believe your eyes. Is it possible for the words of one Muslim cleric (however important or irrelevant) to be equally or more reprehensible than the death of several hundred Palestinians, many of whom were not guilty of attacking Israel or supporting Hamas? I know it is traditional for HP to be provocative around the time of any Israeli conflict, but even I had trouble understanding how anyone can seriously pit those two occurrences against each other.
According to Sunny’s declaration, Harry’s Place are guilty of whatabouttery.
However, I have my own point of view on the subject, especially when considering the first linked-to article at Harry’s Place. Klaus Lederer, who, according to the Jerusalem Post, slammed pro-Palestinian protesters for providing an opportunity for anti-semitic sentiment to emerge, is a fool. That’s hardly the fault of the protesters, the vast majority of whom aren’t anti-semitic. They’re just not in favour of the wholesale oppression of the Palestinians by the Israeli armed forces.
Pro-IDF sides may argue that oppression isn’t what goes on – and however mistaken I think that point of view, they are entitled to think I in turn am mistaken. They are not entitled to lump me and others like me in with whatever baying minority shout anti-semitic or Islamist slogans.
Isn’t this another descent into whatabouttery however? Our judgment even of secondary issues, such as this chap Lederer, rely upon our fundamental interpretations of the scenes in Gaza, Israel, southern Lebanon etc. This is why I can’t get on board with Sunny’s declaration; we need the space to criticize authors such as those at Harry’s Place not merely for being assholes about the death of several hundred people, but also because their viewpoint is wrong, it is biased and in order to say so, we have to show how.
This still involves whatabouttery, by Sunny’s definition, however less objectionable it may be to what sites such as Harry’s Place have posted.
David, unlike you, my first reaction to Sunny’s post was positive: a need to get away from simplistic black and white goodies vs baddies positions. But you are right that we need whataboutery in politics to, as you as you say, clear the space to articulate a better a position.
I disagree with you, though, on Lederer. Why is he a fool for saying that shouting “”Kill, kill Israel” is wrong? The pro-Hamas left is poisoning the politics of Palestine solidarity and, as he says, creating an “antisemitic soup” in Germany.
I sort of agree with you on the other HP post: to say that Al-Qaradawi is equally or more condemnable than Israel is to indulge in the same sort of ridiculous moral calculus that compares Gaza to the Holocaust. However, HP are right to utterly deplore him, and to criticise the leftists (like our Ken) who are his buddies.
If that had been all he said, or all he was reported as saying, then I’d have no problem with that. I’m against people yelling “Kill, kill Israel” as much as the next person, provided I’m not standing next to Al-Qaradawi, evidently.
The following, however is the paragraph from the JP:
“The head of the Left Party in Berlin, Klaus Lederer, a sharp critic of his party’s anti-Israel positions, told the Israel supporters that the slogan “Kill, kill Israel,” used at demonstrations across Germany, was “intolerable.” Lederer slammed the protesters for using the Gaza conflict as an opportunity to “make an anti-Semitic soup” in Germany.”
The protesters didn’t make an anti-semitic soup. Unfortunately the nature of the Israeli state and its location mean every march will have some element of anti-Semitism or Islamism. But to slam all protesters for this, even the ones who are neither Islamist nor anti-Semitic, is foolish in my opinion. I don’t have his remarks to hand, only what JP said and what Harry’s Place said – and it sounds very much as if (like HP), Lederer was condemning all pro-Palestinian protest.
This seems a bit semantic to me. Yes, of course ALL protesters did not make the said soup, but SOME protesters certainly did, so it’s a question of what he meant by THE protesters. The protests in themselves are not in any sense wrong, but the climate in the Palestine solidarity movement (especially in mainland Europe) is pretty poisonous.
P.s. thanks for comment at my blog: my blood boiled too!