WHO'S ANTI-SEMITIC?
By Richard Cohen, The Washington Post, 04/30/02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5425-2002Apr29.html
If I weren't a Jew, I might be called an anti-Semite. I have occasionally
been critical of Israel. I have occasionally taken the Palestinians' side.
I have always maintained that the occupation of the West Bank is wrong and
while I am, to my marrow, a supporter of Israel, I insist that the
Palestinian cause -- although sullied by terrorism -- is a worthy one...
I cannot say the same about America. Here, criticism of Israel,
particularly anti-Zionism, is equated with anti-Semitism. The
Anti-Defamation League, one of the most important American Jewish
organizations, comes right out and says so...
But that hardly means that anti-Zionism -- hating, opposing, fighting
Israel -- is the same as anti-Semitism, hating Jews anywhere on account of
supposedly inherent characteristics. If I were a Palestinian living in a
refugee camp, I might very well hate Israel for my plight -- never mind its
actual cause -- and I even might not like Jews in general. After all,
Israel proclaims itself the Jewish state. It officially celebrates Jewish
holidays, including the Sabbath on Saturday. It allows the orthodox
rabbinate to control secular matters, such as marriage, and, of course, it
offers citizenship to any person who can reasonably claim to be Jewish.
This so-called right of return permits such a person to "return" to a place
where he or she has never been. Palestinians must find this simply astonishing.
To equate anti-Zionists or critics of Israel in general with anti-Semites
is to liken them to the Nazis or the rampaging mobs of the pogroms. It says
that their hatred is unreasonable, unfathomable, based on some crackpot
racial theory or some misguided religious zealotry. It dismisses all
criticism, no matter how legitimate, as rooted in prejudice and therefore
without any validity.
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