Jack Salzman, Cornel West Struggles in the Promised

Introduction \\ 15
of the power elite in this country, and their actions are defined more by their
whiteness than their religion. (Shaw, of course, does not ask what is perhaps best
asked by a secular Jew like me: if Jews have become white, if they are no longer
primarily defined by their Otherness, and have lost their impetus for social justice,
what is the moral principle that distinguishes Jews from those around them?
Assimilation, so desperately wanted, may come at too high a price.) For Jews,
Shaw argues, the idea of "meritocracy" works. But for African Americans, race—
no, skin color—still overshadows merit: to be Black in America is, in large part,
to have merit redefined. Jews and Blacks come to affirmative action and voting
rights issues from different experiences, from different places in America. The
stakes for African Americans—in jobs, politics, and education—is much higher
than it is for Jews. And recent court decisions, such as the Supreme Court's 1993
decision in Shaw v. Reno (which has led to "a widespread attack on political
empowerment of African Americans and Latinos"), as well as the more conservative
attitudes of American Jews, suggest that more difficult days are ahead for
African America.
Perhaps not as contentious an issue as affirmative action, the position of
African Americans toward Israel nevertheless is a dramatic flashpoint in Black-
Jewish relations. Various aspects of this complex matter are explored by Waldo
Martin and Gary Rubin. Martin puts into historical context the importance of
Black Nationalism, and explores the ways in which the redefining of coalitions
among Black radicals led to the unraveling of traditional intergroup coalition ties.
As Israel aligned itself with the First World and revolutionary Black nationalists
like Stokely Carmichael and Willie Ricks aligned themselves with the Third
World, Martin notes, "the die was cast." The call for Black Power in 1966 was a
defining moment in the history of the United States: the civil rights movement
would never be the same, nor would the relationship between Blacks and Jews (or
for that matter, the relationship between Blacks and other whites). Increasingly,
tension arose between Jewish Power and Black Power. Black nationalists supported
the revolution in Cuba and saw the war in Vietnam as an imperialist struggle
against people of color. Israel, on the other hand, was seen as little more than
a tool of American capitalism whose existence was predicated on the repression of
Palestinians. There was little room or interest in the rhetoric of Black nationalists
for the historical plight of Jews that made Israel so essential to a diasporic people.
Just how influential the anti-Zionist stance of Black Nationalism has been outside
the realm of Black activists remains somewhat unclear. What is more certain
for Martin is that the moral authority emanating from the histories of both Blacks
and Jews has been diminished "by the narrow and often stultifying demands of
nationalism."
Gary Rubin takes a very different approach to African Americans and Israel
than Waldo Martin. Rubin notes that several writers—Cynthia Ozick and Paul
Berman, for example—have argued that the hostile attitude of African Americans
toward Israel was a major factor in developing tensions between Blacks and Jews