Why Is Criticism of Israel government seen as anti-Semitic?

Israel & Palestine Forum

I have often asked why the criticism of the Israeli government is seen as anti-Semitic. Does a person that believes their military occupation or treatment of Palestinians is wrong, automatically hate Jews?

The only way this logic works for me is that in your disagreement with the government you hate them because they are Jewish. But then what about the non-Jewish Israelis? What if there happens to be someone involved in the actions of the government, does this person automatically become anti-Arab, (assuming this official is Arab)?

Thus here is the paradox, or rather a bit of a ignorance on the labelling of Israeli, they are not all Jewish, most, but not all. If you exclude those who are not Jewish from being Israeli, that to me is very bigoted. The next side to this idea is that not all Jews support the actions of the Israeli government, so how can speaking out against the government be seen seen as hatred towards people that may agree/disagree with your view?

I personally feel the occupation by the Israeli military is wrong and this wall and "targeted" killings on exacerbate the conflict already over there? I feel as the ones who indeed hold the power, the government is acting irresponsible with its military. Does this make me anti-Semitic?

I think it's foolish for me to say, "I have Jewish friends," to combat a person that calls me anti-Semitic, because I think it is the ignorance of this person that prevents him/her from seeing that people criticizing the Israeli government may have nothing to do with bigotry, but may be a response to a repetition of oppression in history.

The Arab nations are huge and have huge armies. If they all support Palastine, why don' they simply attack Isreal and get it over with. Why does this problem fall on Americas support for Irael? It's because many Arabs have learned to live in tolerance but, not enough to stop the violence and let people practice their religion of choice. They would rather sit back and let fundamentalist show the world a scewed version of Islam. Why don't they stop them? Because they are cowards and do not have the abiltity to control their own countries foreign policies.
Arabs should solve Arab problems in their region but, to allow genocide for sake of religion is rediculous. Our support for Israel may be just that. To not allow another organized genocide.

I'm sorry, that's one of the dumbest answers I have ever read, it did not answer my question in anyway at all. Why don't you reread the post and then answer the question.

No, its not automatically anti-semitic - aslong as you have a balanced point of view.

Saying its not ok for Israel to do this, while its all fine and dandy for the palestinians to do that - is anti-semitic. That's simply singling out Israel to its own standards.

I still can't understand how that is anti-Semitic, unless of course you're saying that people are singling out the Israeli government because it is a Jewish government.

I don't think that people support the militant Palestinian groups, but I think more of their criticism is drawn from the idea that a government is acting out agressively as opposed to a cohesive organization that is not under government control.

If you hate Jews on the basis that they are Jews and they're bad because of being Jews, this is anti-Semitic.

Anything else isn't Anti-Semitism, if someone says it is, such claim would be false.

Okay then if this is the case, why is everyone that criticizes the policy of the Israeli government considered anti-Semitic?

I think it's funny that the people that are most active on this message board topic are quiet on this issue. They rather respond to someone that will argue with them it seems, like they only want to discuss something with the racists, like beckyt.

I don't hang around these parts of the INReview forums simply because not only am I not educated on this conflict but because there is too much racism going on in here. I think that Israel is wrong in there occupation of Palestinian land but I also think it's wrong the way the Palestinians handle it. There is NO reason and NO excuse for the actions both of these countries are taking. They need to stop all this killing and think of a better way to solve this problem. I do not have a personal problem with either of these countires of the people who live in them. I find that both sides are wrong.

Singling out Israel to its own specfic set of rules while not giving a damn about what the Palestinains and other Arabic countries do is Anti-semitic.

Youre refusing Israel's right to defend itself, thus causing Jews to die.

And for you naive ones out there - treating Israel like **** for no reason is anti-semitic because its a Jewish state.

Merkava how do you come off with that statement, "Singling out Israel to its own specific set of rules while not giving a damn about what the Palestinians and other Arabic countries do is anti-Semitic."

Israel is an organized government giving its military orders, that's my problem. The Palestinians have to deal with extremists groups that are not under their direct authority. Whether you believe the Palestinian Authority has any support through financial or moral support is irrelevant, because the actual implementation of plans are out of the Palestinian Authority's hands.

Don't take this as me supporting the Palestinians or saying it's okay for a suicide bomber to do what they do, I am just pointing out that Israel to me is more wrong in the matter because they are the acts of an organized government giving direct orders.

To me you can't defend yourself or solve a problem without addressing the issues of why something is happening. It takes a big person to address the why instead of just reacting to the uncomplimentary actions.

That was a good point about organised state Israel and militant Palestinian groups.

But, there are no civilised means to tackle those groups.

As 'hate rate' to each other is very high the wall erected by Sharon is a wise measure. The only thing - it should be erected on the border defined by the UN.

All Arabs from Israel should be sent to Palestine , all the Jews from West Bank and Gaza - to Israel.

Only this will work.

Merkava I have a lot of things to point out in your posts, because you are working on an assumption to make your point valid. And you keep reiterating this point while ignoring what people are writing.

As you said, "criticizing a jewish state while ignoring the wrong doing of others...(means) you're criticizing that state because it's Jewish." No one here is criticizing Israel and turning a blind eye to the doings of the Palestinians; you're just distorting what is said.

The point I've been trying to make, and you don't seem to have any sort of recognition of this point is that an organized government is using military tactics against a nongovernment extremist group. So when a government goes after this group and subsequently kills civilians, it is far worst than the extremist roup that is targeting just civilians. Do you think that is one-sided? I don't see how, it's analagous to a police officer shooting people as a opposed to a random person shooting people. Behind that uniform, different conduct and standards are the norm.

At one point these "terrorists" (I use quotes because I hate the use of the word terrorists because it's all about who has the power when using this term) were only targeting Israeli military personnel and targets. During this whole ordeal, the Israeli government kept referring to these people as being terrorists. The question here is, why are they still terrorists if they are only attacking the military? And let's just suppose they continued to only attacked the military, would you still consider them terrorists (remember, civilian targets resumed after the IDF targeted some militants and they killed some civilians in the process)? I say really think about this question before jumping to your answer. I will have more to say later, because you bring up many points that I have not yet taken the time to fully think through.

To me, there are not many groups that really just act on hatred, I think this is why the "evil media" doesn't report the Israeli/Palestinian situation as such.

Sure, if only military personnel and vehicles/planes were targeted, that'd be a guerilla war, not terrorism.

Terrorism targets civilian officials or general public.

1. The fact that the US call irregular forces attacking their troops in Iraq 'terrorists', doesn't justify calling the attack of women barracks a 'terrorist' attack. It's just another lie.

Those women are solgiers, bearing arms, wearing military uniform. So, it's right for the guerillas to attack them. It's a military operation in the war between Israel and Palestine.

2. Jews agreed with colinisers (the British) that they'll have the land within their colony.
No wonder that the population what actually lived there didn't like that fact.

Claims that Jews have special right for the land as it's written so in Torah aren't an argument for me. Since I'm an atheist, Torah and Bible and other religious books are fiction books for me. And:

- 2000 years passed since Jews left the country
- Jews left Palestine on their own. Nobody made them go - read Joseph Flavius.

So Arabs have all the reasons to call Jews agressors And their hate is understandable.

3. But since Israel's existence is fact, and it's a modern, civilised and democratic state, it has all the rights to exist.

4. To satisfy both parts, Jews and Arabs must be isolated from each other. And all. No physical contacts, marriage, trade relationships between Jews and palestian arabs.
May be they can cope with their mutual hate in some time.

I don't have time at the moment to fully debate every point you've brought up, but I find it difficult to even have a dialog about the situation because you see that any attack on the military by these groups are terrorists attacks. Also judging from your statement, it seems you believe that I support the actions of the American military, which is definitely not the case.

But using your logic, the famous depiction of George Washington crossing the Delaware River is just a picture of terrorists before they strike. I mean Washington attacked the Hessians who were asleep and drunk from a Christmas celebration. And this is where the use of the word terrorist starts to become blurred...

Inner City Blue: You have definitely raised some important points here. Allow me to return to your original question. The answer is no, critics of Israel are not automatically anti-Semitic simply because they criticize Israel's government.

In fact, in The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz, he devotes an entire chapter (31) to answering your question. I hesitate to transcribe the entire chapter into this thread, for fear of tired fingers and lack of "written consent from the publisher." However, the main point of said chapter is that critics of Israel are to be labeled anti-Semitic (or alternatively, misinformed) ONLY if they SINGLE OUT Israel without addressing the MANY other world governments whose human rights, homeland defence, and foreign military policies are far worse than Israel's. Dershowitz goes on to offer many supporting points, which I suggest you have a look at.

Likely, the rest of his book may offer some insight to other questions you might have, namely "Is There Moral Equivalence between Palestinian Terrorists and Israeli Responses?" (chapter 29), an issue which has also found its way into this thread, it seems.

Seriously, it's an interesting read, and it re-shaped my understanding of many issues in the middle east. I'd be eager to discuss it with you and others in these forums.

In response to the debate about the definition of "terrorist" and "terrorism," I have come to understand the definition of terrorism as something to the effect of: "specifically and intentionally targetting a nation's civilians for the purpose of changing that nation's government actions/policies." For the most part, this is precisely what Hamas (for example) does. So, even if Hamas attacks an Israeli military position with every intention of killing military personel (while taking every possible precaution to minimize collateral damage to innocent civilians) - an instance that I have RARELY (although occassionally) heard of - it is still a terrorist group by virtue of it's general and admitted policies of USUALLY "specifically and intentionally targetting a nation's cilivians for the purpose of changing that nation's government actions/policies." Any thoughts about this point?

ter·ror·ism ( P ) Pronunciation Key (tr-rzm)
n.
The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.


terrorist

adj : characteristic of someone who employs terrorism (especially as a political weapon); "terrorist activity" n : a radical who employs terror as a political weapon


guer·ril·la or gue·ril·la ( P ) Pronunciation Key (g-rl)
n.
A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy, as by surprise raids.


ex·trem·ist ( P ) Pronunciation Key (k-strmst)
n.
One who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm, especially in politics.

I don't consider every attack on the IDF Terrorism, but you have to realize it isn’t conventional warfare. Its dressing as a Jew, its hiding your gun under your prayer mat, its sneaking into a female barrack and attacking while they sleep.

If you don't consider that terrorism, it’s understandable.

But why did you brush aside the thousands of terrorist strikes against Israeli Civilians? They do happen you know - and at a much higher frequency too.

But you don’t consider that Terrorism either, do you?

The reason I brought up the US is to simply show that, ANY country that would be put in Israel's position would do the same, if not worse.

Everyone who supports Israel has been brainwashed by the media and their way on showing that the Israelies are the ones who are defending themselves against the Palestinian terror. Media is the biggest brainwasher of all time. I know Iranians who live in USA and some of them who are foolish enough to watch American News, actually support USA going in Iran and changing the regime!

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Palestinians lynching other palestinians for "collaborating with the Jews":

http://www.zarodinu.org/lynch.htm

That's understandable. How would you feel if your brother suddenly started taking sides with your worst enemy, who oppresses and bullies you, and has taken your home from you. I can imagine.