If you wrote a piece of satire about a Zionist who harmed another Zionist that ended with both parties finding a way to blame a Palestinian, it would feel too pat. Also, the Anti-Defamation League would browbeat you for writing it, in between administering back rubs for Elon Musk. But that's what happened this past weekend in Miami Beach.
Mordechai Brafman, 27, told police that he shot 17 times at a vehicle Saturday night because he thought the two occupants were Palestinian. He also thought he killed them. In reality, they were Israeli tourists and very much alive. Ari Rabi was shot in the shoulder; his father Yaron was grazed on his forearm. Both were taken to the hospital, but not seriously injured. Brafman was charged with two counts of second-degree attempted murder.
Brafman's motive is appalling enough, but there's an added layer here that makes it the perfect parable about Zionism. Shortly after Ari Rabi was shot, he posted on Facebook about what had happened to him and his father. A translation shows that he characterized the shooter as antisemitic before even knowing who it was. Rabi also ended his message with "Death to the Arabs."
Palestinians had nothing to do with this shooting. There was no Hamas chapter lurking in Miami. When Jewish Voice for Peace and similar organizations talk about how Zionism is ultimately harmful to Jewish people, too, here's a pretty firm example of it. Supporting Israel means never having to admit that you're wrong. The continued survival of Zionism depends on having a convenient culprit to reassign blame, and that blame can always be assigned to the Palestinians, even if they are nowhere in the vicinity.
Brafman's lawyer told the New York Times this week that his client "was experiencing a severe mental health crisis which caused him to be in fear for his life." That defense is correct, though not in the intended way. Still, the NYT article received a very forgiving headline, which surely would have happened if the perpetrator and scapegoat were reversed. Even with the straightforward absurdity and violence of what happened, the paper of record found a way to downplay it.
Zionism is maintained by a constant state of fear and paranoia, and emboldened by a Western press that refuses to reckon with its particulars. This is just an example of how this all plays out on a smaller scale: one adherent hurting the other, with both of them so terrified that they point toward a common enemy who isn't actually there, and all of it disseminated as an abstraction. And then a large swath of global powers support this mindset both vocally and financially. You can't write anything more unbelievable than that.
