Exclusive | New York Public Library hosted author who compared Israel to a dog shelter

The New York Public Library hosted an event for an Israel-bashing Jewish author who likened the Jewish state to a “dog shelter,” according to a recording of the event.Benjamin Moser got a platform to plug his book, “Anti-Zionism, a Jewish History,” at the library’s main branch on 42nd Street on Sept.22, claiming American Jews with no deep connections to Israel treat the country like a “dog shelter” that needs support.“Israel was like a dog shelter … Isn’t it nice there’s a dog shelter?” Moser said at the event, held in the NYPL’s Stephen A.

Schwarzman Building.There was no serious counterpoint to his controversial anti-Zionist views at the event.The person Moser chose to question him about his book was retired Columbia University history professor Rashid Khalidi, also an anti-Zionist, who asked him friendly softball questions and expressed agreement with much of what he said.The author, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of writer Susan Sontag, accused Israel supporters of whipping up hysteria with claims that America is not safe for Jews.Moser called it a “‘poor me’ thing” where Jews are walking “down Madison Avenue” and complaining that “‘I couldn’t get a croissant and it’s like [Polish Nazi concentration camp] Treblinka,'” Moser said.“This is really stuff you see on social media every day.”Both the author and interviewer called Zionists “intellectual thugs” who want to silence dissent about the Israeli government and its “genocide” in Gaza.He claimed history will not treat pro-Israeli American Jewish organizations kindly.Moser states that “the leadership of almost all of the main Jewish institutions” in America “have supported this genocide” in Gaza and said “nothing has made Jews look worse in history…than Zionism.”He said Israel was created when Zionists ethnically cleansed the native Palestinian and then instituted apartheid.The author also called the spiritual founder of Zioni...