Anonymous and Anti-Semitism

Top of the evening all...

It has been a while since I have written.  That means you get two entries tonight.

Not every decision in life is clear-cut.  Decisions in the grey areas of life will thus leave some personal value or belief sacrificed.

One of those grey areas is the idea of criticism of Israel.  No country is perfect.  That much is clear.  Questions should be asked.  Governments should be challenged.  Israel is no different.  Failure to criticize teaches our children to accept blindly.

However, as the list of imperfections goes, Israel is far from the bottom dwellers of national imperfection.  A quick glance at the front page of any newspaper should hopefully pique your conscience and ask why Israel is so singled out for 'abuses' that are more contrivance than abuse.  In 2011, 252 people were executed in Iran.  North Korea has concentration camps.  The amount of criticism these nations receive is minimal.  Given that these nations receive so little attention, I am forced to conclude that Israel receives so much attention for other reasons.

Those other reasons made themselves quite clear this last week.  In a rather amusing game, the hackers of Anonymous (people beneath contempt) decided to hatch OpIsrael.  The goal was to remove Israel from the internet.  It seems that thus far, the most interesting piece of hacking occurred when an Israeli hacker broke into the website of Anonymous.

Timing though is everything.  I could have accepted that it was 'criticism' of Israel had they chosen a different date.  Had they elected to do this hack-attack on Yom HaAtzmaut, that would have made sense.  They instead chose Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.  That is an offence against every Jew, and against every person for that matter, who had family in Europe during the 1930's and 1940's.  It has nothing in and of itself to do with Israel.  The folks at Anonymous most certainly knew the date.  That they chose it is callous, brazen anti-Semitism.  There is no other way to explain it.

The difficult decision then is that I will not take part with those who criticize Israel in public.  I will not lend support to those whose legitimate criticism is nothing more than poorly disguised anti-Semitism.  My voice will never be counted with their voice.

Have a good evening...

R/SCG