Chabad Intown hosts Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur
Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur is speaking at Chabad Intown on Wednesday, May 21, in a discussion moderated by Atlanta Journal-Constitution political correspondent Greg Bluestein. Gur is a senior analyst at the Times of Israel. Last week, Gur talked to Rough Draft about his views on American Judaism, protestors, anti-Zionism, antisemitism, and more. Here’s an abbreviated version of our interview.
Rough Draft: What will you talk about in Atlanta?
Gur: We’ll be diving into the relationship between American Jews and Israeli Jews, between America as a country and Israel as a country. I can bring some perspectives from Israel and from the Middle East that can help American Jews think about how to discuss challenges, problems. A lot of the crisis the American Jewish community is going through is a function of the conflict in the Middle East.
RD: How do you approach a general audience, like at Chabad, differently than talks with leaders and rabbis?
Gur: We owe each other loyalty and protection. We still disagree with each other, we still criticize each other vehemently and loudly. But there’s this fundamental sense of affinity and solidarity, and in a larger audience, it’s much more of just an educational seminar. They’re not there to find out how they can help, right? They’re there to learn what the hell is going on.
RD: The Atlanta Jewish community is divided on Israel. Some people who support Israel staunchly believe that saying anything critical of Israel is anti-Zionist or even antisemitic. Your thoughts?
Gur: I don’t think the criticism of Israel is antisemitic unless it’s driving impulse; unless the only people you’ve ever criticized in your entire life are Israelis; or unless you’re criticizing Israelis intensively for things America does, too. The thing I do think is antisemitic and totally illegitimate is the argument that Israel shouldn’t exist and millions of people should not have essentially survived the 20th century.
RD: How do you approach the possibility of protests being outside of your event?
Gur: It doesn’t interest me. If they’re saying something legitimate, great, there’s a war. There are suffering civilians. If that is the impulse that drives them, I don’t oppose it. There’s a lot of ignorance on their side. If a pro-Palestinian rally is pro-Hamas, then it’s not anti-war. You’re not pro-Palestinian if you’re pro-Hamas. But that’s a problem for Palestinians, not for me, as long as long as they’re not interrupting me speaking, which is a kind of tyrannical, close minded shuttering of a debate, because you think you’re so righteous in your ignorance that no no other words can ever be spoken again. Let them protest and let them enjoy it.
RD: What’s the perception of the American Evangelical right in Israel?
Gur: There’s a sense that they’re our friends, our allies. There’s a sense of kinship. There’s a sense that we’re on the same side of a great culture war. If you ask Israelis, ‘What do evangelicals believe? Why do they support Israel?’ You’re not going to hear answers. They don’t quite know why, but it’s nice to have a supporter because the people who hate us are so loud. It’s nice to have someone who likes us.
By the way, the Christian evangelical Zionist leaders I have known – I have interviewed some, I’ve spoken to groups of them, and I’ve visited in America Christian Zionist communities – they’re smart, they’re clever, they’re critical. They wish Israel didn’t do bad things, because they want to love it more easily.
RD: How do the Jewish people maintain or protect their history during this conflict?
Gur: There is now a campaign to rewrite Jewish history … the great tragedy is that Jewish kids in America, by and large, are profoundly ignorant of their story. They don’t know their history. They’re facing this mass ideological onslaught on new platforms that the older generation doesn’t even know about. What Jewish institution is run by 60-year-olds who are on TikTok or Instagram, or YouTube? But that’s where our kids are … Our kids will take the fight to TikTok in ways that I don’t know how.
Gur will present “Beyond the Stalemate: Rethinking Israel’s Role in Shaping a Peaceful Future” at Chabad Intown on Wednesday, May 21 at 6 p.m. Tickets are available.
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