Thursday, August 07, 2014

Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, 1

I am composing an essay that I believe will shed more light on the direct relationship between hatred of Israel and historical Jew-hatred. Here is the introduction:

In this essay I will present political, social, and psychological evidence to show that hatred of Israel in it’s many forms, here termed anti-Zionism, is a modern form of historical Jew-hatred, anti-Semitism. Israel is the most obvious image and symbol of Judaism in modern times. Therefore it is no surprise that it is now the foremost target of historic anti-Semitism.

The topic of this essay has been addressed by many others, with some notable articles recently written by Alan Dershowitz, Benjamin Weinthal, Brendan O’Neill, the ADL, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Wikipedia and others (see links at the end of this section). However, with the exception of the Wikipedia article and some examples by O’Neill, these articles focus narrowly on anti-Israel political events and hate-speech, disregarding a wide range of double standards, distortions, and lies. Moreover, virtually no one has looked into the psychological evidence that reveals the active agencies of unconscious hatreds, and that exposes the resistance to honest self-critique when people breach moral standards. I will present some revealing research in this area, and outline a few templates of how people express their often unconscious hatreds and self-hatreds.

The most common critique of the ‘anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism’ equation is that it is simply an attempt to stifle genuine criticism of Israel or to vilify pro-Palestinian sympathies. I believe this is a crude and often mendacious attempt by people to hide their own anti-Semitism, and to avoid self-critique. Israel is not above criticism any more than any other country. Indeed, criticism is a necessary response to every nation’s policies and initiatives.  But criticism of Israel is a different thing than anti-Zionism, the hatred of Israel and the denial of Israel’s right to exist. I will spend a fair amount of time in this essay exposing the distinction between reasonable criticism of Israel and criticism that is shaped by lies, distortions, and double standards, which are the tools of hatred.

Hiding behind doctrine and ideology, including Christianity, Islam, nationalism, communism, and Marxism, Jew-hatred has been and continues to be the foundation of much of what passes as “honest” criticism of Jews and Israel. Now the Gaza war during the summer of 2014 has unleashed a huge surge of anti-Semitic rage that cannot be ignored or dismissed any longer. What follows are seven distinct categories of hypocrisies and double standards that are used to frame those discussions of Israel that are really intended to be lynchings of Israel.

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Easily accessible articles that expose important components of the 'anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism' equation:

3 Dershowitz articles:
Is singling out Israel for boycotts anti-Semitic?
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Is-singling-out-Israel-for-boycotts-anti-Semitic-335596
Europe's Alarming Push to Isolate Israel
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Alan-Dershowitz-Nazis-Europe-Israel/2014/03/11/id/558976/
The occupation of Gaza canard
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/The-occupation-of-Gaza-canard-369370

Weinthal
Why Anti-Zionism Is Modern Anti-Semitism
http://www.nationalreview.com/node/384039/print

O’Neill
Is the Left anti-Semitic? Sadly, it is heading that way
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100281417/is-the-left-anti-semitic-sadly-it-is-heading-that-way/

Wikipedia:
New antisemitism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_antisemitism


The Anti-Defamation League:
http://www.adl.org/anti-semitism/
http://www.adl.org/sp/israel-under-attack/protest-video.html

The Simon Wiesenthal Center website, news and events section:
http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4441467#.U-OSamPLd8E
email (and links to articles) with subject: Calls from Berlin to annihilate Jews; "Dirty Jews from the sewers to be killed"; 100 Spanish celebrities accuse Israel of genocide


JNS:
While global anti-Semitism surges, don’t forget U.S. campuses
http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2014/7/28/while-global-anti-semitism-surges-dont-forget-us-campuses#.U-OKP2PLd8E=