Comment by pesfandiar
2 years ago
Couldn't agree more. It's a common misunderstanding, perhaps because there has always been a powerful campaign to equate any criticism of Israel to antisemitism.
2 years ago
Couldn't agree more. It's a common misunderstanding, perhaps because there has always been a powerful campaign to equate any criticism of Israel to antisemitism.
Paul Graham posted some figure of children deaths in Gaza since (after) October 7 and a bunch of tech twitter incl. some founders and VCs called him an antisemite. His only commentary on the figures was "grim". I think it's entirely fair for him to say those things out of empathy due to having children who are around the same age as many of these children in Gaza.
> perhaps because there has always been a powerful campaign to equate any criticism of Israel to antisemitism.
That is the #1 tactic used to build smearing campaigns against people critic of Israel. The difference between being a racist and expressing disgust for what Israel has done in decades to the people of Gaza and the West Bank is so huge that either people using the word "antisemite" in that context are deeply ignorant, or they simply have an agenda. To my knowledge, most journalists and/or politicians aren't that ignorant.
>To my knowledge, most journalists and/or politicians aren't that ignorant.
Then you have not been paying attention. Add this fact to your knowledge: US Republicans really ARE that ignorant. They certainly have an agenda, but they are most certainly ignorant to have such an idiotic agenda, too.
House Declares Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitism, Dividing Democrats
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/world/middleeast/house-an...
>More than half of House Democrats declined to back the Republican-written resolution, as some argued that equating criticism of the state of Israel with hatred of the Jewish people went too far.
>House Democrats splintered on Tuesday over a resolution condemning the rise of antisemitism in the United States and around the world, with more than half of them declining to support a measure declaring that “anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”
>The resolution denouncing antisemitism, drafted by Republicans, passed by a vote of 311 to 14, drawing the support of all but one Republican. Ninety-two Democrats voted “present” — not taking a position for or against the measure — while 95 supported it.
>That reflected deep and growing divisions among Democrats between those who have offered unequivocal support for the Jewish state and its actions, and others — especially in the party’s progressive wing — who have been critical of Israel’s policies and its conduct in the war with Hamas.
>“Under this resolution, those who love Israel deeply but criticize some of its policy approaches could be considered anti-Zionist,” Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the longest-serving Jewish member of the House, said in a floor speech before he voted “present.” “That could make every Democratic Jewish member of this body, because they all criticized the recent Israeli judicial reform package, de facto antisemites. Might that be the author’s intention?”
Ignorance is relative.
Both of my senators are active Mormons. There is a deep connection between Zionism and Mormonism that I would rather not spend the time exploring here.
A significant part of the United States' support for Israel is founded on religious preference. Disagreement on that preference very neatly aligns to party lines.
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The agenda is an overtly racist one, it is to support:
* Bibi's racist amalek "genocide the palestinians" trope.
* Ben gvir when he hangs a portrait of Israeli terrorist Baruch Goldstein up on his wall.
* Isaac Herzog when he calls race mixing a tragedy.
(To give an example of 3 people who obviously represent Israel, all of whom are proudly racist).
Anti-Israeli views are anti-Semitic views when criticizing Israel and Israel only, for actions that are done by dozens of states over the course of decades.
If the people spouting anti-Israel sentiment spouted the same sentiment for the same actions done a dozen times over by other nations, then they would not be anti-Semitic. In fact, I would agree with the vast majority of them. But when they ignore the 300,000 killed in Syria, or the 600,000 killed in Ethiopia, or the situations in Yemen, Mail, Turkey, or even Gaza when Hamas murders hundreds of Palestinians, or in Syria where the regime kills thousands of Palestinians, then it is clear that they are not stewards of "human rights" or "civilians" or even "values". Rather, they are abusing these ideas to promote an anti-Semitic agenda. These people actually need dead Palestinians to further their agenda.