Jack Salzman, Cornel West Struggles in the Promised

AFRICAN AMERICANS AND ISRAEL
GARY E. RUBIN
n 1993, the prominent Jewish writer Cynthia Ozick reviewed the course of
African American—Jewish relations in the twenty years since the publication
of her essay, "Literary Blacks and Jews." She claimed that "uninformed assaults
on Israel by black Americans (who are certainly not alone in this), and a willed
misunderstanding of Middle Eastern events since 1967, have done more to
destroy Jewish confidence in black goodwill and fairness than any number of
homegrown 'Hymietown' quips." 1 Ozick there made a claim found frequently in
recent Jewish analyses of Black-Jewish relations since the heyday of the civil
rights movement in the mid-1960s. Several writers have argued that hostile
African American attitudes toward Israel were a major factor in increasing tensions
between Blacks and Jews in the late 1960s and remain a serious impediment
to coalition today.
This assertion rests on a simple syllogism: Criticism of Israel is wrong and
hostile to Jews. Important Black leaders have criticized Israel. Therefore, important
Black leaders are wrong and hostile to Jews.
In attempting to evaluate whether this syllogism holds up to logical and factual
analysis, this essay will ask three questions: Which statements by which leaders
have caused some Jewish writers to conclude that there exists a "willed misunderstanding
of Middle Eastern events" among African Americans? Second, to
what degree do the opinions of some Blacks, whose pronouncements on Israel
have generated wide public attention, reflect the attitudes of African Americans
in general? Third, what objective political and social facts influence Black attitudes
toward Israel and how are they likely to change in the near future?
I
seventeen
The timing and motivation of African American hostility toward Israel, as several
recent Jewish analysts have perceived it, is well summed up in a 1995 history
of Black-Jewish relations as follows:
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