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Yes, Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitism

(National Post-Canada) Bret Stephens - Anti-Zionism is unique because its view is that the Zionist enterprise, that is to say, the State of Israel, is misconceived, it's wrong, and at the end of the day, it isn't simply Israeli policy that has to change, but it is Israel itself that has to go. This is unique when you think about other countries around the world. Many of us are critics of China's occupation of Tibet, or Russia's occupation of parts of Ukraine. Some people are aware that Turkey is occupying northern Cyprus, in violation of international law, and putting down settlements there too. But none of those critiques extend to calls for Russia, China, or Turkey to disappear, to be eliminated. Anti-Zionism tends, very frequently, to traffic in images, tropes and libels that have a long history in an anti-Semitic tradition stretching back for thousands of years. For example, when you hear that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, which it of course manifestly is not, you are trafficking in a classic anti-Semitic trope, suggesting that the Jewish people have a particular kind of bloodlust. It has become fashionable to hate Jews using the excuse of their statehood, of their nationality, and of their willingness to defend their borders, as the latest pretext to single out Jewish people for opprobrium and for hatred that is applied to no other people in the world. That is why anti-Zionism is indistinguishable from anti-Semitism, and it is the anti-Semitism of our day. The writer is a New York Times columnist. This is from a recent Munk Debate podcast.
2019-11-29 00:00:00
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