Deconstructing The Nuance In Anti-Israel Antisemitism

The Pro-Palestinian camp has attempted to separate anti-Zionism and antisemitism, even when the overlap is almost exact. The pro-Israel camp typically points to that fact without acknowledging that some comments which are anti-Israel are indeed not antisemitic.

So let’s make the breakdown a little clearer by separating four components of anti-Israel rhetoric, those against the:

Government of Israel
State of Israel
Israelis
Land of Israel

Government of Israel

Criticizing the policy of a government, as a general matter, does not mean that someone hates the leaders as individuals or the country itself. It applies to Israel as much as the United Kingdom, Ecuador or India. In fact, many people who criticize a government’s policies are often big fans of that country, and want to see it be the best version of itself that it can be.

In the case of Israel, criticism of the government and policies veers into antisemitism based on the language and intent. Saying that the Israeli government is like Nazis is antisemitic as the intent is to specifically call them out in the manner of the worst antisemites. Declaring that the Jewish State is a puppet master of global powers is to promote antisemitic tropes.

*Cartoon posted in The New York Times showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a dog, leading a blind U.S. President Donald Trump*

Criticizing the Israeli government’s policies is not generally antisemitic, except when the attacks specifically incite and use antisemitic language.

State of Israel

Contrary to popular belief, NO COUNTRY has an inherent right to exist. Neither Montenegro nor South Sudan needed to be created. Cyprus need not be divided. PEOPLE have an inherent right to self determination but no country inherently deserves to exist.

That said, the world is much better off with good sovereign entities, with governments that care and protect their populace. The United States and Japan care for hundreds of millions of people who consent to be governed. The governments try to maintain peaceful relations inside and outside their borders.

So it is with Israel, a country which remarkably has added millions of people since it was founded, absorbing immigrants from around the world. It built a thriving economy and liberal democracy in the heart of an illiberal region.

Yet there are many countries that still refuse to recognize the Jewish State, including thirty Muslim-majority countries. They object to Jewish control of what they perceive of as “Muslim Arab land” in what they hope will be a Muslim-majority (only) State of Palestine. Those countries’ leaders call Israel a “cancer” which should be destroyed.

*Iranian leader called Israel an “unclean rabid dog” and a “cancerous tumor”*

The Jewish people are the most persecuted people in the world and have been for thousands of years. Calling for the destruction of a thriving country of the most persecuted people in their historic homeland, and only that country of the nearly 200 countries in the world, stinks of antisemitism.

Israeli People

Many western countries are diverse, while many countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are homogenous. Israel is unique in being very diverse while being in the middle of MENA.

Israel consists of Black Jews, Brown Jews, White Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze. Yet the hate targeting Israelis narrowly targets just Jewish Israelis, making the attacks inherently antisemitic.

Land Of Israel

The BDS (boycott, divest and sanction) movement specifically calls Israel a “regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.” To call Jews “settlers” and “colonizers” of their homeland is to deny Jews their thousands of years of history and heritage, a deeply antisemitic lie.

To make it illegal for Jews – and only Jews – to be banned from living somewhere, let alone in their homeland, is deeply antisemitic, no matter if it is codified in United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.

Palestinian law that makes it a capital offense to sell land to Jews is deeply antisemitic.

To deny that the Jewish Temple is the holiest location in the world for Jews, and/or to deny Jews from praying at that holy spot is deeply antisemitic and spits in the face of basic human rights.

*The United Nations declared that Jews cannot live in the Old City of Jerusalem and cannot pray at their holiest location on the Temple Mount*

Almost every type of anti-Israel comment – including those from the United Nations – are deeply antisemitic. Those that relate to debating policy as happens in every country, are the only ones that typically do not veer into Jew hatred.