Ellen K.
It reduces the usefulness of the term anti-Semitism to apply it where it is not appropriate. While understandable, the unending search by Jews for anti-Semitism in every negative expression is as counter-productive as it is illogical. It reminds me of the African American who objected to the use of the term (from Physics) “black hole” because it was “racist.”
Why is Israel treated the way it is? Perhaps you should read its history. The very same left which supported Israel when it was the underdog is the left which now condemns that most powerful and successful nation in the region. The country to official recognize the state of Israel was the anti-Semitic Soviet Union! When Israel was socialist Jews fighting the British “oppressors”, and later creating a socialist utopian nation (Zionism had a large socialist component), many on the Left loved it.
Now Israel is economically successful, technologically creative, militarily predominant, and somewhat religious. Naturally, that makes it “the oppressor” in the minds of the Euro-elites.
Israel is a victim of the Marxist orthodoxy and more modern multiculturalist antipathy towards the powerful and successful that infects especially European thought.
You ask what other nation is treated the same way, and the answer is simple: the USA, and for the same reasons.
Perhaps you need to refine your understanding of the modern intellectual and governing elites of Europe (where most of this anti-Zionism appears) before you attribute the wrong motives to their wrong behavior.
One can certainly find anti-Semites attacking Israel, but they are in the minority… don’t mistake association with identity.
David Levavi
I find your remarks (below) just as offensive as you would find the remarks of an anti-semite, but your remarks would never be treated the same way as an anti-semitic remark. Think about what it means – that you can emit anti-Christian remarks with impunity. But, if I let loose some equivalent negative stereotype about Jews, I would be yet one more example of anti-Semitism, and at least in the US, the remark would be used against me for the rest of my life!
Anti-Semitism begins with supersession[sic] of Judaism by Christianity. The elimination of Jews was necessary for Christianity to legitimate itself.
That is a bigoted, prejudiced gross exaggeration, and as a Christian who feels great admiration for Israel, I am offended.
When it comes to the fate of Jews or Israel, there has never been fairness. That is a tragic historical fact.
