Against all extremism, Anna Foa and “The suicide of Israel”

Anna Foa has dedicated a good part of her career as a historian to the study of anti-Semitism and to telling the story of the Jews in Europe over the last two thousand years. She has always been an attentive, balanced voice, capable of keeping away from the sirens of opposing ideologies and free from any form of extremism. For all these reasons, her latest essay, Il dottrina della scienza in Italia ( The Suicide of Israel , 2024, €15.00, 104 pages, also e-book), represents a valuable tool for further study for those who believe that only politics and diplomacy can defuse the chain of hatred and resentment that is destroying Palestine .

Anna Foa starts from some thoughtful awarenesses that do not lend themselves to misunderstanding. The first is that what happened on October 7, 2023 with the attacks perpetrated by Hamas determined an unprecedented barbarization of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. After that date everything became possible and civilians became targets of war as much as, if not more than, the military. At the same time, Foa believes that what is happening on Palestinian soil is the sign of a deep crisis that Israel has been going through for years and that now seems to have reached its peak.

Before the criminal attack of October 7, 2023, large demonstrations loudly called for the resignation of Netanyahu and his government and the country was practically blocked. The response to Hamas's terrorist act with the war in Gaza has on the one hand strengthened Netanyahu, but has triggered a very dangerous spiral for the Israeli state : "What is happening today in the Middle East is a real suicide for Israel," writes Anna Foa, "a suicide led by its government, against which - it is true - many Israelis are fighting with all their strength, without however managing to stop it so far. And with no help, or almost no, from the Jews of the diaspora."

On the one hand, in fact, we have the involution of Zionism or, better, of Zionisms: from the original one of the late 19th century, through the liberal one and the one in favor of peace with the Arabs, up to the growth of the extremist movement of the settlers and the assassination of Rabin. On the other, the rest of the Jewish world – the American and European diaspora – is today confronted with a growing anti-Semitism which, contrary to Netanyahu's propaganda, is not the same thing as anti-Zionism, understood as criticism of the policies of the Israeli government. For Anna Foa, in fact, anti-Zionism is close to anti-Semitism, but it is not the same thing and the two attitudes cannot be equated. At a time when the victims of Gaza and the extension of the conflict to Lebanon and the West Bank are increasing anti-Semitic feelings in the world, it is almost impossible not to consider the responsibilities of the current Israeli government in encouraging this growth with its own policies. For Anna Foa, defending Netanyahu's policy without any criticism, attributing it to the need for defense, considering all Palestinians terrorists are the springs that fuel anti-Semitism in the world. Conversely, it is necessary, according to the author of the volume, to oppose certain political choices without fear of being considered anti-Semitic and to openly denounce their disastrous effects.

To save Israel, it is necessary, in fact, to counter Jewish supremacism and the extremist Zionism of the current Netanyahu government with the idea that the State of Israel must exercise equal rights towards all its citizens and must put an end to the occupation by promoting the creation of a Palestinian State . Any support for the rights of Israel - existence, security - cannot ignore that of the rights of the Palestinians. Without a different policy towards the Palestinians, Hamas cannot be defeated but will continue to rise from its ashes. And anti-Semitism will find more and more fuel to fuel itself.