US Ambassador Howard Gutman Apologizes For His Audience 'Misinterpreting' What He Plainly Said

What is it with people who purposely set out to be provocative and then get upset when they are successful?

Following the blowback on his belittling Antisemitism, and holding Israeli policies responsible for it, Gutman blamed his gaffe on his audience:

"I strongly condemn anti-Semitism in all its forms and deeply regret that my words were misinterpreted," Gutman said, according to the US Embassy.

"My personal history and the history of my family testify to the importance I attach to this subject and my unwavering commitment to fight anti-Semitism," Gutman, who is the son of a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust.

This follows the mild White House disclaimer that "There is never any justification 4 prejudice against the jewish people or Israel" (as tweeted by Ben Smith)

Here we have the American Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman's speech on Thinking About Anti-Semitism in Europe: What is Next?

He informed his audience at the start that he was:

not saying what you would expect me to say...So I likely will not just say fully what you expected and or maybe hoped to hear. I respect all of you too much to do that.

And he was right--no one expected him to play down Antisemitism the way he did.


According to Gutman, there are 2 kinds of antisemitism:

There is and has long been some amount of anti-Semitism, of hatred and violence against Jews, from a small sector of the population who hate others who may be different or perceived to be different, largely for the sake of hating. Those anti-Semites are people who hate not only Jews, but Muslims, gays, gypsies, and likely any who can be described as minorities or different.

So according to Gutman, this kind of Antisemitism isn't really Antisemitism at all--these kinds of people who hate Jews actually hate all minorities.

And what about that other kind of Antisemitism Howard Gutman referred to?

What I do see as growing, as gaining much more attention in the newspapers and among politicians and communities, is a different phenomena. It is the phenomena that led Jacques Brotchi to quit his position on the university committee a couple of months ago and that led to the massive attention last week when the Jewish female student was beaten up. It is the problem within Europe of tension, hatred and sometimes even violence between some members of Muslim communities or Arab immigrant groups and Jews. It is a tension and perhaps hatred largely born of and reflecting the tension between Israel, the Palestinian Territories and neighboring Arab states in the Middle East over the continuing Israeli-Palestinian problem.

...the largest part of the solution remains in the hands of government leaders in Israel and the Palestinian territories and Arab countries in the Middle East.

According to Gutman, this form of Antisemitism is a new phenomenon and is purely a reaction to Israel's policies. This of course ignores the long documented history of Islamic Antisemitism that dates back to the Koran, as found for instance in Andrew Bostom's The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History.

Bottom line: The fact that Islamic Antisemitism has existed for well over a millenium, long before Israel was re-established, clearly demonstrates that Israel's existence, not its policies, is what is driving Muslims to attack Jews in Europe.

But then again, Howard Gutman is a major fundraiser for Obama, and is merely doing his job in pushing the White House agenda to apply pressure on Israel to make more unilateral concessions

I found this comment in Gutman's apology particularly cowardly:

My personal history and the history of my family testify to the importance I attach to this subject and my unwavering commitment to fight anti-Semitism," Gutman, who is the son of a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust.

With all due respect, as a Jew I prefer to judge people by what they say or do rather than being told that I should be impressed by the fact they are Jews or by their family history. Tutu's Jewish dentist is not a proof that he is not an antisemite, and Gutman's family history is not proof that he understands antisemitism--let alone makes him a expert worthy of lecturing others about it.

All in all, Gutman still owes us an apology.
A real one this time.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Antisemitism and Howard Gutman and Obama.