How US & Israel use Accusations of "Terrorism" and "Anti-Semitism" to grant themselves "Impunity"
How US & Israel use Accusations of "Terrorism" and "Anti-Semitism" to grant themselves "Impunity"
"RITS" - A rhetorical strategy that shuts down conversations by defining all forms of criticism as illegitimate attacks which victimize the group being critiqued.
Last week when South Africa filed charges of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice ..
Israel accused South Africa of “blood libel.”
I believe the US and Israel frequently attempt to achieve “impunity” using a strategy I call “RITS” (coined here) to describe a rhetorical device that shields its users from accountability. The goal of such a strategy is to create a rhetorical “trump card.”
“Impunity” examples:
The term “impunity” is described as “exemption from punishment” or “immunity from detrimental effects, as of an action.” Examples:
“Wall Street” acted with impunity because they know the government will bail out their bad bets.
Saudi Arabia and Israel kill journalists with impunity.1
In invading Iraq, the US violated international law with impunity.
An article in Jewish Currents describes efforts to advance a concept of “Hinduphobia” that puts India beyond reproach by creating a “chilling effect, to intimidate” those who call out aggression against Muslims.
Rhetorical "Impunity" Tautology Shield. ("RITS")
A “RITS” (Rhetorical "Impunity" Tautology2 Shield) is a rhetorical device that grants an individual or group impunity by shielding them from accountability. It does this by shutting down conversations and defining all forms of criticism as illegitimate attacks which victimize the group being critiqued.
Discussion Blocking Shield (Volleyball Image) CC-BY-SA 3.0 DEED RITS may involve weaponizing language such as “Anti-Semitism”, “Islamophobia”, “Terrorism”, “Communism”, or “Hinduphobia” in a manipulative way, as both a sword and shield.
Examples: How to Shut down conversation
a) Israeli version: "You’re Anti-Semitic”
Under Israel's "RITS", criticisms of Israel are defined as illegitimate because they come from either “self-hating” jews or Anti-Semites.
“
Tautology”, is hard to remember, but is is mean to convey rhetoric that is so Totalizing that it is deemed True, by definition. In some cases it also functions as a Trump card that shuts down debate.3You either agree with them or you are called “Anti-Semitic.” And since no one wants to be tarred with the brush of “Anti-Semitism,” most people will shrink from calling out abuse.4
Previously, under "Anti-Semitism (classic)," criticism of Zionism or Israel's policies was Not considered “Anti-Semitic” if it was targeted at legitimate issues, rather than against Jews as a group.
Recently, under a new definition of Anti-Semitism ( IHRA “RITS" version), any criticism of Zionism or Israel's policies has been deemed Anti-Semitic, by definition. Israel’s Prime Minister weaponizes charges of “Anti-Semitism” against critics, while simultaneously pursuing alliances with partners like Hungary’s Victor Orban who have a history of associating themselves with real Anti-Semitism.
Here’s a breakdown: of the Israeli "RITS" matrix for a hypothetical act of Israeli impunity:
Goal: Neutralize Critics (in Red): by charging “Anti-Semitism”
Israel has the support of those in green (above):
Christian Zionists, like pastor John Hagee and
Jewish Zionists, like Alan Dershowitz,
.. but it faces criticism, (in red) from:
Mary Lou McDonald and other Irish leaders, as well as ..
Jews like Katie Halper and Gabor Maté in the US and Canada.
RITS attempts to Silence or neutralize the critics in red by defining them as "Anti-Semitic," even if the critics, like Katie Halper and Gabor Mate, are themselves Jewish.5
b) Saudi Arabian version: “You’re Islamophobic”
Imagine if the Saudis adopted a RITS approach to public relations ..
Defenders of Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman could hypothetically defend his impunity in killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi with the use of a “RITS” by claiming the murder charge is “Islamophobic” because those making the criticism haven’t previously equally criticized the killing of all journalists killed by African dictators.
They might also blackmail you (like they did Jeff Bezos).6 You must either support Mohammed bin Salman or we will call you “Islamophobic,” even if you respect Muslims who do not murder journalists. Saudi Arabia may also leverage its financial resources in retaliation if you don’t sign a statement denying that Saudi Arabia has killed a journalist.
c) United States: “You hate freedom” / “love Putin”
After 9/11, the US shielded itself from criticism or introspection, by self-congratulatory sayings like:
“Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”
Then, during the Ukraine war, critics were accused of being:
“Putin sympathizers"
Notice that by adopting this posture, the US suppressed news that it had prevented an April 2022 peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, scapegoated Russia, and rejected French advice against going to war in Iraq. RITS ultimately have disastrous outcomes for those create them.
By definition, the US’s RITS framework leaves no room for valid criticism, ignoring the substance of constructive critiques.
Remember: “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists” and “Putin-lovers.”
d) India: “You are Hinduphobic”
Excerpted from Jewish Currents:
(This next section is series of extended quotations from Jewish Currents)
THE HINDU NATIONALISTS USING THE PRO-ISRAEL PLAYBOOK]
“Inspired by Jewish groups that cast criticism of Israel as Anti-Semitism, Hindu American organizations are advancing a concept of “Hinduphobia” that puts India beyond reproach.
A few months earlier, during the month of Ramadan, Indian government officials had sent bulldozers into Delhi’s Muslim neighborhoods, where they damaged a mosque and leveled homes and storefronts. The Washington Post called the bulldozer “a polarizing symbol of state power under Narendra Modi,” whose ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is increasingly enacting a program of Hindu supremacy and Muslim subjugation ..
[After a Teaneck, New Jersey parade featured a bull dozer7 bearing the picture of politicians from India’s ruling BJP party ] .. the Teaneck Democratic Municipal Committee, a local wing of the New Jersey Democratic Party, passed a resolution condemning the event and calling for a crackdown on what they described as Hindu nationalist groups’ operations in the state.
But soon after the Teaneck [New Jersey] resolution was adopted, nearly 60 Hindu American groups released a statement that shifted the conversation away from rising Hindu nationalism toward fears of Hindu victimization.
The Teaneck incident is one of many in which Hindu groups have worked to silence criticism of Hindu nationalism by decrying it as anti-Hindu or “Hinduphobic.”
In 2013 and again in 2020, a coalition of such groups used allegations of “anti-Hindu bias” to prevent the passage of House Resolutions 417 and 745, both of which criticized Modi. In 2020, when progressives objected to then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s decision to appoint Amit Jani, a close supporter of Modi, as his director for Asian American Pacific Islander outreach, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) denounced these criticisms as an example of “Hinduphobia.”
.. As Hindu groups gained their footing in the US, they began to collaborate with their Jewish counterparts, which many Hindus saw as “a model for their own attempt not simply to gain respectability in mainstream America, but to gain power in Washington” ..
.. Historically, some anti-caste leaders have argued that caste-oppressed people should reject Hinduism, which has long relegated them to its margins. Dalit journalist Suprakash Majumdar notes that such anti-caste struggles have the potential to threaten Hindus’ claim to majority status in India, which is foundational to the Hindutva ideology. Hindu nationalist leaders also tend to come from the dominant castes and continue to benefit from the entrenched hierarchy both in India and in the diaspora.
In facing off against anti-caste activists, such Hindu groups generally position themselves as the victimized party, arguing that the critiques in question “scapegoat” Hindus and Hinduism. In 2006, Sangh-affiliated organizations began a months-long campaign to cut mentions of caste discrimination from sixth grade history textbooks in California; that same year, the HAF sued the state in an attempt to get the textbooks thrown out altogether (allied organizations pursued a similar suit in 2017).
[Read More: THE HINDU NATIONALISTS USING THE PRO-ISRAEL PLAYBOOK]
e) McCarthyism: “You’re a Communist”
In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy weaponized charges of “Communism” as a rhetorical “trump card” against his opponents.
Do you disagree? Well you must be a Communist!
The following is a quotation from Wikipedia, recounting McCarthy’s undoing:
In one exchange, McCarthy reminded the attorney for the Army, Joseph Welch, that he had an employee in his law firm who had belonged to an organization that had been accused of Communist sympathies. In an exchange that reflected the increasingly negative public opinion of McCarthy, Welch rebuked the senator: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"[148]
Strategy:
People who can’t beat you with facts instead try to shut down the conversation by smearing and pressuring you:
When South Africa filed charges of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice, Israel accused South Africa of “blood libel.” ( Deploy the RITS! )
Puttin’ on the RITS:
Is Israel “Puttin’ on the ‘RITS’” with its response to charges of genocide?8
.. Continuing the conversation:
Even if leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu abuse the terms, Anti-Semitism (and Islamophobia) are still real. Therefore, one must remain true to the key point implicit in the RITS concept — one shouldn’t suppress valid claims from discussion, regardless of abuse of claims. Treating all charges of “Anti-Semitism” as bogus, risks committing the same type of mistake that RITS exploits.
One response to a claim of Anti-Semitism or Islamophobia or Hinduphobia could be to retain the charge of Anti-Semitism/Islamophobia/Terrorism/Hinduphobia in a virtual RITS “holding area”, depending on the severity and evidence, preventing the issuing of these charges from being used as a “blocker” tactic that immediately shuts down or sidetracks a conversation, shielding those criticized from accountability.
Over time as RITS are well understood, may we also gain a more nuanced understanding — that victimization and oppression are a false dichotomy because a person or group that has been victimized can also act as an offender.9
In time, as reliance on RITS is exposed, let us hope that impunity is checked and dialogue unclogged.
QUESTIONS:
Do you recognize the "RITS" concept at play in the world? Do you suspect it is consciously employed? What should the solution be?
Are the holes in the US and Israel’s rhetorical impunity shields already beginning to show?
Have you heard of DARVO? RITS shares some elements of DARVO, but is not based on a victim - offender dichotomy. It. is also intended to encompass deliberately constructed propaganda frameworks that delegitimize dissent such as erected by the US in support of the wars in Iraq and Ukraine. Do you see the RITS framework applicable to other countries or contexts?
How do RITS users use other tools to enforce their impunity?
US: military, intelligence, finance, bio/technology, agriculture, media, diplomacy (veto)?
Saudi Arabia: oil, investments
Israel: military, intelligence, technology, AIPAC, campaign finance
Do you have any suggestions to improve or better name this concept?
Note:
Although I’ve worked as a computer programmer for the last 20+ years, I was a History major at university and have rediscovered my love of research, writing, and creativity through recent projects.
If you or someone you know is aware of paid work doing research and writing please get in touch.
OTHER POSTS:
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Gaza: An Untold Story (7 min Video, Graphic humanization)
Military Industrial Complex Song (4 min Song)
ELSEWHERE:
St. Louis Jewish Voice for Peace: Impunity vs Intertwined
.. We reject the notion that Israel ensures our security because our security can never come at the expense of another’s. In fact, we do not believe that Israel makes Jews safer. We are horrified by the notion that our diaspora should find refuge by creating an entire new, forced diaspora. We believe that security for Jews is intertwined with security for Palestinians and that right now is a moment for Jews to stand against Israel’s oppressive policies and in solidarity with the Palestinian people who are struggling for their most basic rights in the face of a U.S.-backed military superpower. [Read more]
Footnotes:
Saudi Arabia killed Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi when he sought to get a marriage certificate from a Saudi embassy. Israel has killed over 100 journalists since 10/7, which is roughly 10% of the roughly 1000 journalists there.
If one needs a simpler formulation, on can substitute “trump” for “tautology” as in “trump card”. The intended meaning is that framework is made that is true by definition.
I am told that “tautology” refers to two ways of saying the same thing. When I wrote this article originally I was trying to us tautology as a way of referring to something that is True by definition.
There can be other tools of persuasion: Military, financial, intelligence, threats, blackmail, and media.
It is in countering the arguments of Anti-Zionist Jews that Israel’s RITS is most vulnerable.
Remember the story, a while back, where Mohammed bin Salman was alleged to have had Jeff Bezos’s phone hacked (possibly using Israeli Pegasus hacking technology) targeting the Washington Post’s critical coverage of WP journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in a Saudi Arabian embassy. Bezos dealt with the Inquirer’s blackmail by accepting that the info could come out (while having a crisis management team manage it) and then confronting the Inquirer and MBS head one.
Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” is now in the public domain:
Perhaps this could be rewritten like I rewrote the Monster Mash with my MICIMATT.
Lyrics:
If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where fashion sits?
Puttin' on the Ritz
Different types who wear a day coat
Pants with stripes and cutaway coat, perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Dressed up like a million-dollar trouper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come, let's mix where Rockefellers
Walk with sticks or umbrellas in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz
Have you seen the well-to-do
Up and down Park Avenue?
On that famous thoroughfare
With their noses in the air
High hats and Arrow collars
White spats and lots of dollars
Spending every dime for a wonderful time
If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where fashion sits?
Puttin' on the Ritz
Different types who wear a day coat
Pants with stripes and cutaway coat, perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Dressed up like a million-dollar trouper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come, let's mix where Rockefellers
Walk with sticks or umbrellas in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz
Dressed up like a million-dollar trouper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where fashion sits?
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz
Downtown, uptown
Get your kicks at the Ritz
Dine and wine, but not 'til nine
The time is right for us tonight
We can move
Move to the rhythm
We can
Move
Move
I want you to move
I realize this RITS concept could be extended to those who use “racism” and other categories for leverage. I don’t want to get distracted by those right now, as my concern is with powerful countries use rhetorical shields to achieve impunity.