Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
So is it fair to criticize those that support Israeli government actions, or is that antisemitic?
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I criticize the Israeli government all the time. In fact I think their current government and PM, Netanyahu, needs to go.
Criticism of "Zionist" and the Israeli government slips into anti-semitism frequently though, and it's often:
1. Simply subbing in the word Zionist or Israeli into old anti-semitic canard. For example, Zionists control the media and banks. They don't. There is plenty of anti-Israeli media.
2. Using the characteristics of Jewish people, generally, to criticize the existence of a Jewish state. Jewish people exist as an ethnicity. They have roots in what is now Israel. There's nothing anymore inherently evil about Jewish people wanting sovereignty than any other ethnicity wanting the same. They aren't just some group of random white religious fanatics.
3. Giving anti-semites more leeway than you'd give other groups of racists and excusing their actions.
4. Constantly referencing the holocaust and applying that analogy to the current middle east conflict. People wouldn't dream of doing the same thing to any other recently traumatized group. That goes back to point 3.
The rules are just different with Jewish people and the discussion of Israel. For example, you have the president of Harvard hesitating and qualifying on whether or not calls for genocide against Jewish people. She's a high ranking university delegate at an Ivy League school and the victims, she's not defending, are university aged teenagers.
All of this racism only strengthens Israel. As you state right wing elements of the Israeli government do inflate hostilities. Why are they doing that, because they know that doing so encourages more Jewish people to immigrate to Israel.