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Israel Breathes. World Condemns. assembles Andrew Pessin’s key writings from the past dozen years, documenting and analyzing the alarming trajectory of increasing hostility to Israel and to Jews on North American campuses over the past two decades. The two volumes thus explain how we got to the point where major campuses would openly celebrate the October 7 massacre, not to mention direct such hostility, with relative impunity, to the Jewish members in their own communities. Together they record for posterity the collective madness which was the campus in the months and two years after October 7, and in elucidating the underlying causes, begin to point the way forward.
Volume 1 focuses on the trajectory to October 7; Volume 2 focuses on the aftermath.
"How did we arrive at where we are today? How did our opponents acquire the beliefs they hold? Those are the questions those of us concerned about the alarming rise of antisemitism worldwide repeatedly ask ourselves and our friends. Andrew Pessin’s compelling essays about our recent cultural and political history give us the essential answers to those critical questions."
— Cary Nelson, author of College Zionists Confront the Abyss: The Aftermath of October 7 in Higher Education and Its Consequences for Progressive Politics
“In this collection of short pieces covering an array of topics around anti-Zionism, Pessin reveals that October 7 had an extensive background. Anti-Jewish hate was only looking for the right occasion to explode. An indispensable resource for everyone, including future historians and others looking back on our era and trying to understand how and why Jews became the prime targets for other processes of civilizational crisis and contradiction.”
— Corinne E Blackmer, author of Queering Anti-Zionism.
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est la Même Chose
Part One
If You Ask Me . . . :
Opinions, Reflections, Contentions, Convictions
(1) ISRAEL BREATHES. WORLD CONDEMNS. (2010)
(2) Tony Judt’s Trojan Gift Horse (2010)
(3) For Pro-Israel Advocates, It’s Time to Be Offensive (2015)
(4) Boycott Me (2015)
(5) An Open Letter to Open Hillel (2016)
(6) Reclaim Student Governments From the Hijackers! (2016)
(7) A New Breed of Israel Divide: A Family v. a School, a Federation, and a Jewish Community (2016)
(8) Two “Historic” Conferences Mark the Start of the Battle Against BDS (2016)
(9) McGill University and How Western Civilization May Just Have Saved Itself—From Itself (2016)
(10) Syracuse, and the Death of the University (2016)
(11) Oberlin Student Senate Condemns Symposium Promoting
Self-Respect and Civil Rights for Jews! (2016)
(12) What They Talk About When They Talk About Israel (2017)
(13) Obama, Trump, and How a Decent, Well-Intentioned, Fair-Minded Person Could Be Against the Two-State Solution (2017)
(14) How to be Pro-Palestinian on Campus Without Being an Antisemite (2017)
(15) Interview with Professor Andrew Pessin: “Antisemitism on Today’s US Campuses” (2021)
(16) Academia for Hamas, or, Professors Gone Wild (2021)
(17) Campus Cancel Culture, The Jewish Question, and Why I Wrote Nevergreen (2021)
Part Two
If You Ask Others . . . :
Book Reviews and Interviews
(18) Buckle Up and Hold On:
Ze’ev Maghen, John Lennon and the Jews (2011)
(19) A Man Can Dream:
Cary Nelson, Dreams Deferred: A Concise Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Movement to Boycott Israel (2016)
(20) All’s Not Quiet on the Western Front:
Richard Cravatts, Dispatches From the Campus War Against Israel and Jews (2016)
(21) Maybe Not Everyone:
Interview with Richard Landes about His New Film, Everyone Agrees (2018)
(22) Old Wine in New Bottles:
Keith Kahn-Harris, Strange Hate: Antisemitism, Racism, and the Limits of Diversity (2021)
(23) When Jewish Voice for Peace Joined With Neo-Nazis:
Scott Shay, Conspiracy U. (2021)
(24) Time for a Reboot:
Eds. Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser, Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership (2023)
Part Three
From the Desk of the Professor
(25) War of the Words (2011)
(26) “Liberal Zionism” in the New York Times: Reply to Boehm, “Liberal Zionism in the Age of Trump” (2016)
(27) The Indelible Stain of Antisemitism: The Failed Practice of “Jew-Washing” (2017)
(28) The Silencing of Pro-Israel Students on Campus (with Doron Ben-Atar) (2018)
(29) The Silencing (with Doron Ben-Atar) (2018)
(30) Academic Flash Mobs: “Word Crimes” and Professor Proxies for the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2019)
(31) The End of Jewish Innocence: Contemporary Antisemitism in the United States (with Corinne Blackmer) (2021)
(32) Epistemic Antisemitism, or “Good People Gone Wild”: How Decent People Can Be Antisemites and Not Even Know It (2021)
(33) October 7, 2023 (with Corinne Blackmer) (2023)