Jerry Seinfeld, you are a war criminal country’s court jester
Genocide? Mass starvation? The wholesale, indiscriminate, and deliberate killing of innocent Palestinian civilians? Seinfeld doesn’t give a stuff. ■ Seinfeld compares the Jews in Israel to the Jews who suffered from the racism of the Klan. It’s the other way around, Jerry. The Jews in Israel treat the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza the same way the KKK treated blacks and Jews
By Rogel Alpher • Translated by Sol Salbe
Jerry Seinfeld is now the most famous influential Jew in the world. Moreover, thanks to his show, he is also the global cultural icon most associated with Jewish ethnicity. Therefore, it is time to express the disgust and disappointment that his Kahanistic attitude to the war crimes that Israel is committing in Gaza inspires. Seinfeld is about as interested in the suffering of the Gazans as his character in the show is in the pain of others. Meaning, he doesn’t care at all. Genocide? Mass starvation? The wholesale, indiscriminate, and deliberate killing of innocent Gazan civilians? He doesn’t give a stuff.
At an event in February to mark the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, he commented: “Palestine doesn’t interest me.” As if he were Yair Lapid or Gadi Eisenkot flattering the Bibiists. A few days ago, when he spoke at Duke University, at an event put on by the messianic Chabad organisation in honour of survivor of captivity Omer Shem Tov, he compared the Free Palestine movement to the Ku Klux Klan. According to him, the KKK is preferable because at least they have the integrity and decency to honestly and openly declare their hatred of blacks and Jews, unlike pro-Palestinian protesters, who hide behind arguments that are intended to obscure the basic antisemitism that guides them.
Seinfeld has a lot of empathy for Shem Tov and rightly so, but zero empathy for the tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians that Israel is killing in Gaza, and for the Gazan masses suffering from hunger. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government certainly represents Seinfeld.
Therefore, he should be denounced for his moral blindness and tribal loyalty. He is mixed up. It is the Kahanist Netanyahu government that bears a sickening resemblance to the KKK. Those blacks whom the KKK terrorised in the US south were the underprivileged, disenfranchised who lived under the Jim Crow form of Apartheid. The Hilltop Youths violence with guns and batons against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is very reminiscent of the violence of the Klan gangs against blacks. The protection that the Klan gangs received from local law enforcement authorities is reminiscent of the protection that the violent settlers receive from the IDF. The police in Mississippi and Arkansas also did not arrest suspects after a night of pogroms against blacks. They were also friends and relatives of the rioters. Just like in the West Bank.
Seinfeld compares the Jews in Israel to the Jews who suffered from the racism of the Klan. It’s the other way around, Jerry. The Jews in Israel treat the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza the same way the Klan treated blacks and Jews: with murderous racism founded on racial superiority. The Jews in Israel believe they are the chosen people, just like the white Rednecks in Alabama and Louisiana. They are convinced that their superiority is anchored in a divine, biblical promise. Just like the Klan.
It turns out that the moral indifference that was funny on the Seinfeld TV show isn’t funny when applied to dead Palestinians. What does “Palestine doesn’t interest me” mean? Are you only interested in Jews, Jerry? How can you remain indifferent in the face of the numbers of starving and dead Gazans, in the face of the unprecedented destruction that Israel has wrought upon Gaza, in the face of the Transfer plans and the continuation of the war solely for the purposes of vengeance and Netanyahu’s political survival?
What are you, a monster? Are you incapable of objecting to the October 7 massacre and displaying humane treatment to the Palestinians at the same time? Because at this point, Jerry, you are some sort of a war criminal country’s court jester (and still a funny person).
