Is anti-semitism on the rise?

Friday August 16, 2002 16:06

by Sean Bhean Bhocht - International Socialist Tendency

Socialist arguments against both Zionism and anti semitism

‘One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all [and that Jewish critics of Israel] have a basic complex…of guilt about Jewish survival.’

Abba Eban, Israeli Labour Party, in the Knesset, July 31, 1972

Coinciding with renewed public outrage over Israeli brutality against the Palestinians there have appeared a flurry of newspaper editorials accusing critics of Israel — specifically left-wing anti-Zionists — of being part of a new wave of anti-semitism. Britain’s chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks recently equated any criticism of Israel with a ‘calling into question the Jewish people’s right to exist collectively.’

A prominent Italian liberal, in a book described by the European Observatory on Racism as ‘explicitly anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-immigrant,’ denounced Palestinian sympathizers as ‘anti-semites who would sell their own mothers to a harem to see Jews once again in the gas chambers’. Sharon himself has accused those demanding an investigation of war crimes in Jenin of committing anti-semitic ‘blood libel’.

What are we to make of all this? If there has been a palpable rise in anti-semitism in recent months, then socialists belong in the front lines of an urgent and forceful response. The fate of the Jewish people and of the left have been closely intertwined throughout the history of capitalism.

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Comments (3 of 3)

Anti-semetism

by Jon Wilde

Fri Aug 16, 2002 16:42

jon.wilde at yahoo dot com

1. "calling into question the Jewish people’s right to exist collectively."

2. "calling into question the right of the nation of Israel to use human shields, demolish houses containing families and kill men, women and children who simply happen to be caught in the sights of the tanks guns"

One of these is anti-semetic; one of them is not.

One of these is a question regularly being asked; one of them is not.

One of these is the question that Israel and her supporters say is anti-semetic; so is the other one.

It seems to me that ANY criticism of the Nation of Israel is interpreted as anti-semetism by Israel.

The question is NOT whether or not Jews are within their rights to do what they do, but whether or not Israelis are within their rights.
And there's a big difference.

Anti Semitic?

by Des

Fri Aug 16, 2002 18:35

Adverse comments of the policies of Ariel Sharon (and his predecssors) reflect the horror of people at the Nazi style policies of the current Israeli government. The practice of the arrest and imprisonment of relatives of Palestinian resistance fighters bear a striking resemblence to the methods used by the German fascists, as does the destruction of Palestinian homes and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians who are replaced by "settlers" from other countries. To suggest that being critical of these policies equates with anti semitism is nonsense. The Nazi genocide directed against the Jewish people in Europe during WW2 was one of the most appalling crimes in the history of humankind. One can condemn such a crime and support the right of the Palestinian people to their own state without being in the most minute degree, racist. Attempts to use the memory of the millions of Jewish people to excuse the crimes of Sharon is a especially obscene insult to the memory of those totally innocent people.

Last Comment

by Oliver O'Driscoll

Sat Aug 17, 2002 22:33

More anti semitic crap, I admire the current Israeli government just about as much as any Palestinian in the West Bank or Gaza Strip, but it is not necessary to descend to the level of anti semitic racists to express our opposition to the policies of the Ariel Sharon government. Bothe the Jewish and Palestinian peoples have the right to their own states where they can live in peace and security.

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Is anti-semitism on the rise?

Comments (3 of 3)