I hope thoughtful people will stop and think before they buy into this information in a one-dimensional way. Yes there are real anti-semites out there. Always were. Always will be. But, when America is acting badly there are also anti-Americans out there. There have been times when Americans traveling abroad have preferred describing themselves as Canadian than American because everyone over there was so pissed at our government’s action. Israel is adamant in describing itself as a “Jewish state.” Nothing else will do. Fine, I understand. But when the downside of that is, when Israel is acting badly, which is is now, very badly, it sparks anti-Israeli feelings around the globe. Do anti-Semites take advantage of that to spill their bile out in public? You bet they do. They usually have to whisper what they can now shout under cover of current events. But they are a minority in developed countries. Reflexively defining all anti-Jewish comment as your bad-old-fashioned version of anti-semitism, shuts off honest criticism of Israel’s reprehensible behavior towards the Palestinian people, particularly those now trapped in Gaza, which Israel’s blockade and barrage has turned into a de facto death camp. Just as it is not useful to willy nilly accuse those we don’t agree with of being “Nazis,” likewise it is not useful to the discussion at hand to shut down debate about Israel by accusing those who are angry with Israel of being anti-semites.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 15:08:16 +0000
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