Laying Bare the Canard...

Top of the evening to all...

Over the years, we have heard many a person say that one can be anti-Israel without being anti-Semitic.  I have never believed that statement to be true.  No other nation in the world suffers the international criticism that Israel endures.  China is certainly worthy of such scrutiny.  Honest critics of nations should spend a great deal of time asking what India is doing to protect its young women.  It is a challenge though to state that the microscope under which Israel lives is anti-Semitism, or even anti-Israel.  Reasonable people can and do criticize governments and nations.  Perhaps there is a good reason that it seems like Israel endures this nonsense so much more than others.  Perhaps I have been overly sensitive to it. 

The challenge of proving that anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments are one and the same is not longer.  It is an indefensible thesis.  What has happened that henceforth prevents the thesis from standing?

Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, there have been the usual protests by the usual useful idiots around the world against Israel.  The most notable took place in Paris.  There, protesters attempted to burn down synagogues.  They broke the windows of Jewish-owned businesses.  It was a mini-Kristallnacht.  If one is anti-Israel, protest at the embassy in Paris.  Boycott an Israeli-owned business.  To go after a place of worship crosses the line from the political to the religious.

At another protest in Washington DC, there were constant comparisons of Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of Germany during World War II (his name will never be mentioned in this blog).  Of all the murderers in all the world, the protestors chose this one.  Let’s see…Stalin, Pol Pot, Genghis Kahn, Nero, Assad (either one), Kim Jong Un…any of these clearly fit the bill.  Stalin was also not so great for the Jews.  Why would the protesters choose the German dictator?  Jews have a sensitivity to this one more than to the others.  There was a reason.  By the way, I find it ironic that people who try to deny the Shoah (Holocaust) invoke its vocabulary when criticizing Israel.

The latest is that people in Italy came out with a list of Jewish-owned businesses to boycott.  There are plenty of Jews out there who are not so pro-Israel.  Did anyone ask these people their thoughts prior to targeting?  I doubt it.  They were targeted again because they were Jews.

Let us make sure that we understand what things are before we respond to them.

Have a good night.

R/SCG