Nihilism, impunity, and flag displays

On March 12th, 41-year-old Ayman Ghazali rammed his car into the front of Temple Israel, a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He engaged in a shootout with synagogue security, injuring one guard before turning the gun on himself. Thankfully, no one else was injured. Earlier in the month, Ghazali’s two brothers, niece, and nephew had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Mashghara, Lebanon. (The Israeli military claimed that one of the brothers was affiliated with Hezbollah, but offered no proof to The New York Times; Hezbollah denied his affiliation.)

After spending years insisting on the absolute intertwinement of Judaism and Zionism, the Anti-Defamation League and other mainstream agents of anti-antisemitism rushed to insist that American Jews must be separated from the actions of the Israeli government. Meanwhile, like many American synagogues, Temple Israel proudly advertised its support for the Jewish state: raising funds, sharing hasbara resources, sponsoring trips, and even featuring an Israeli flag in its logo.

This event raises uncomfortable questions about the interrelationship between safety and complicity in the Jewish diaspora: How do we talk about the material relationships between American Jews and the State of Israel in the wake of attacks on Zionist institutions? And how do we on the Jewish left keep pushing for daylight between Judaism and Zionism given the conflation pushed by the anti-antisemitism machine—a conflation that endangers Jews all over the world? On this episode of On the Nose, editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, publisher Daniel May, news director Josh Nathan-Kazis, and advisory board member Simone Zimmerman parse the Michigan attack and the missed opportunity for American Jewish reckoning.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Media Mentioned and Further Reading

“Suspect in Michigan synagogue attack had lost family in Israeli strike on Lebanon,” William Christou and Richard Luscombe, The Guardian

“The Tangled Knot of Anti-Zionist Violence,” Daniel May, Jewish Currents

“A Poll Muddles the Picture of What American Jews Think,” Josh Nathan-Kazis, Jewish Currents

Ben Lorber on anti-Zionism as an anti-antisemitism strategy

Angela McCahey and Stephen Kent on GBN

“America’s Threat to the World,” On the Nose

“The Right’s Anti-Israel Insurgents,” Ben Lorber, Jewish Currents

“We Need New Jewish Institutions,” Arielle Angel, Jewish Currents