Equator's Nesrine Malik talks to the writer Benjamin Moser, whose personal story and political analysis reveal the entanglement between American Judaism and the project of American power. Drawing on his upbringing in a Jewish-American community, Benjamin reflects on the values he was raised with and how they intersected with a broader narrative of American exceptionalism. He narrates how the alignment between liberal Zionism and US global dominance has shaped both political discourse and moral frameworks, leading to profound contradictions -- and tragic consequences in Gaza. It's sad, he says, "that Judaism and [the] Jewish identity could be weaponised to the extent that it could be used as a cover for genocide."
The conversation delves into Benjamin's argument that a sense of moral authority, rooted in both historical trauma and national identity, has influenced how many in the American Jewish community have understood their place in the world. The Jews in the US, he says, "became so much a part of [the] white power structure that they, or I should say we, forgot about it." But younger generations are increasingly questioning these inherited narratives, rethinking longstanding assumptions about Israel, Palestine and diaspora identity. What does it mean to speak out today? And what should we expect when we do it?