#JSIL and the Hypocrisy of its Advocates

In recent/days weeks the hashtag #JSIL has been trending on Twitter. It has become popular amongst anti-Israel activists to the use the hashtag to promote the idea that the actions of Israel are similar to those of the so called “Islamic State” (ISIL). Users of the hashtag did not have anything particularly interesting or intelligent to say and on the whole contented themselves with pointing out the fact that both Israel and ISIL commit human rights violations which include killing civilians.

This is, of course, an unhelpful observation. Every single country in the world does this and and to simply draw attention to two of them does not do anything to further the debate about what should be done about their crimes. The more thoughtful promoters of the the hashtag also pointed out that it is not uncommon for Jews living in the diaspora to go to Israel to serve in the military and thought this equivalent to the people in the West going to fight for ISIL in an attempt to establish an Islamic Caliphate. There is an interesting and serious debate to be had concerning both the legality and moral character of the decision of  foreign nationals to go and  serve in the IDF where it is entirely possible they will be expected to commit violations of international law. Yet to compare this phenomenon to those going to fight a holy war stretches the bounds of credibility. Whatever wrongs Israel does commit (and I am not defending any of them), it is still a recognised nation-state and is therefore entitled to have an army (which, just to be absolutely clear, commits many war crimes, but nonetheless does perform many necessary functions and has a right to exist).

The conceptual deficiencies of the hashtag is not however my main point here. My main motive for this piece is to point out the unabashed hypocrisy of many who promoted it and the obtuseness of those who defended them.

Last week, the Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu gave a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in which he said that, “ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree.” To my mind this is similarly ridiculous thing to say as well as being unduly antagonistic and encouraging fear for political ends. He was rightly attacked on such grounds by many writers and activists. See for example @RaniaKhalek:

Now, while I don’t agree with @RaniaKhalek on many things, I happen to agree with this tweet as it stands on its own (and ignoring the conflation between Palestinian resistance and Hamas). Many other high-profile anti-Israel and Pro-Palestinain activists where similarly unimpressed by Netanyahu’s comparison of the two entities and complained of exageration and ascribing to Hamas crimes which they have never committed.

Yet just a few days later these same people who were complaining about Netanyahu’s political use of ISIL were using the #JSIL hashtag to promote the idea that Israel is the same as ISIL. How is this not exploitative of the beheadings? How is this not also ridiculous hyperbole? On what logical basis does it make sense to compare Israel to ISIL but not Hamas? Do a Twitter search for #JSIL and you will see its prevalence, especially by those who criticised Netanyahu for doing just that days earlier (note in particular both @RaniaKhalek and @MaxBlumenthal). Of course there are some similarities between ISIL and Hamas and ISIL and Israel but they are uninteresting and unhelpful and to say one is similar without the other is absurd. I tweeted to such effect:

Which resulted in the following exchange:

My interlocutor, @The_Separatist, clearly did not understand the very simple point I was making and was clearly more intent on making me “understand” that Israel commits terrible crimes (something I had already conceded) and hence is as bad as ISIL (a logical step which is a textbook example of a syllogism). So intent on making this point that he refused to listen to anything I was saying. “….still denying the similarities?” he asked in horror, when just three tweets earlier I had said “Of course there are similarities”. I just happen to think all these similarities are not a strong as people like @RaniaKhaled, @The_Separatist and Benyamin Netanyahu think. Yet, more importantly, they are extremely unhelpful in these important debates which we should be having in good faith using the constraints of logic. I probably got angrier than I should have, but I did not see any point in continuing the discussion.

I want more than anything for the Palestinians to be set free from the bondage that has been imposed upon them by Israel and for Israelis to be freed from the bondage of leaders the like of Netanyahu, but I do not think either of these dreams becomes any closer to being a reality by the illogical arguments I have drawn attention to. Pro-Palestinian activists (something I consider myself to be) do themselves no favours when they act so hypocritically; it makes them look more like mere propagandists than moralists and they run serious risks of being charged as being conceptually inept. This helps no one’s cause except that of the very people they are trying to undermine. Shape up.

A version of this post originally appeared on the author’s blog.