Masked Hate: Anti-semitism Guised as Anti-zionism

By: Jonathan Seidel

Why anti-israel is anti-semitic: the difference between criticism and targeted polemics 

There is a common thread today asserting that anti-israel is not anti-semitism. That one can be against Israel but still be pro-Jewish is possible. The haredi ideology opposes the state on religious grounds but is exceedingly for the perpetuity of Torah and the Jewish people. Additionally, one who criticises Israeli occupation of the Palestinians can be anti the state without formulating it as Jewish hatred. The issue at hand is the fine line that is crossed repeatedly most commonly by the UN. The reason many correlate the two is due to the history of Jewish polemics. Jews are always targeted and those who continued to commit atrocities ridicule Israel without hesitation or responsibility on their side. 

There are three levels: the first is the UN, then the Arab nations which is synonymous with the former and finally college liberals. The UN human rights council is filled with the worst violators of human rights in the world. The same countries committing genocide to their own people and forbidding democracy are those attacking Israel. Let's be clear that even if Israel is considered awful, the obvious veil of ignorance to this group as an authority is a joke and truly disgusting. As Hillel Nauer argued to many of these countries who had vibrant Jewish communities none of their Jews remain. They committed pogroms and massacres and with the formation of Israel, they fled to safety. 

The Arab nations' position cannot be condoned as legitimate either. Given the previous paragraph their is much anti-semitic history and Jewish polemics in these areas. The greatest irony of the Arab nations was their refusal to aid Palestinians. Israel’s bordering countries used the Palestinian’s as pawns in a media frenzy to make Israel look bad even though they attacked first. Israel may have blundered with the Palestinians but they joined the Arab war effort and lost. They were not compensated by their neighbours and instead used as tools to hurt Israel. The Arab nations have a history of violence against Jews and anti-israel rhetoric though is genuine to extent, is difficult to differentiate their historical animosity to their modern sympathy. 

The last group is college or campus liberals. The university centre is heavily anti-israel to aid the cause of the suffering Palestinians. This plight is real but it less the programs to castigate Israel and more about targeting pro-israel students. My girlfriend experienced this wholeheartedly and worked tremendously to change an anti-israel syllabus. This ever real pandemic is intertwining anti-israel with anti-semitism. Jews are targeted for being Jewish associated automatically with Israel. My girlfriend told me on her campus the year prior they had a slap a Jew day. There is a contingent comparison between Israel and Jew. The liberal antagonism toward Jews hilts on their Palestinian empathy. Yet, if that was entirely true their aversion would not be Jewish targeted. So people are pro-Israel, it does not negate their own freedom as a person. They are allowed to hold an opinion. The constant attacks on Jews by liberal college students and professors perpetuates a long living hatred that fuels more animosity. 

Israel is imperfect and the Palestinian cause is one to be empathic to but to somehow equate Jews as a whole with Israeli policy is disgusting and disgraceful. It is crude and horrendous. College liberals are the biggest hypocrites fighting violence for a cause they know little about. Targeting Jews for their zionism, their belief in Jewish survival in a safe land is truly unbearable. The consequences are harsh but it is not the Jew himself who is the cause. Trying to shut down Jewish institutions in the process is unforgivable as an immature psychotic expression of deep aversion. 

Anti-israel need not be anti-semitism but in many areas it is fondly so. The international stage is hypocritical in its evaluation while the Arab sector is guided by a history of Jewish misfortune. Finally the university pull goes beyond the Israel problem and actively harms Jewish students for being Jewish.