A Comment About

Alan Dershowitz and Norwegian Anti-Semitism

April 6, 2011 - 12:00 am - by Bruce Bawer
Grantman
2011-04-06 18:45:21

Sure, you can criticize Israel and not be anti-Semitic, I do it all the time. I criticize Israel when the Orthodox don’t let Reform or Conservative Jews marry, or make them go to Cyprus to do so, or even interfaith weddings. Or idiot Haredim (ultra-Orthodox) throwing stones at drivers on Saturday (Shabbat) and the government not do too much to stop them. Those are bad policies and can be criticized.

You can criticize their foreign policy at how appeasement oriented they are, still wedded to Oslo and can’t see the forest through the trees. That’s not anti-Semitic. You can criticize their unwillingness to confront the Waqf, the Muslim authority who controls the Temple Mount, for digging and trashing thousands of years of Jewish artifacts under the Mount. There’s lots to criticize Israel for that’s not anti-Semitic, it happens all the time. Just read the newspapers there. Two Jews…three arguments, right?

Where it turns into anti-Semitism is when it follows Sharansky’s Three D’s: Demonization, Double Standards, Delegitimization.

Hope that helps.