|
Trending Topics
|
How Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism Intersect
(New York Daily News) William C. Daroff - We are witnessing a pattern of hostility toward Jews around the world directly tied to hatred toward Israel. The Anti-Defamation League stated that the May conflict with Gaza saw a 75% spike in anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. - a staggering number considering the already large increase in anti-Semitism over the last few years. What we have experienced is a paradigm shift, the culmination of a confluence of movements and events that have nurtured, encouraged and seemingly legitimized anti-Zionism - and provided a license to discriminate against and target Jews for their possible association with the Jewish state. As violence and hate crimes against Jews skyrocketed, many progressive organizations, usually so quick to rally around threatened minority groups, have sadly been absent and silent. At the same time, the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism has too often almost ceased to exist. Nearly 50 years ago, the great Israeli diplomat Abba Eban said: "Classical anti-Semitism denies the rights of Jews as citizens within society. Anti-Zionism denies the equal rights of the Jewish people to their lawful sovereignty within the community of nations. All that has happened is that the discriminating principle has been transferred from the realm of individual rights to the domain of collective identity." The writer is CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.