In the enemy’s sneer: the anti-Semitic Jews

Those who hate Israel use anti-Zionist Jews as examples to “prove” that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.  As can be seen from the high proportion of Jews among the fake peace activists who are anti-Israel extremists and Hamas apologists, anti-Zionist Jews play an important role in the international coalition aiming to delegitimize and destroy the Jewish state.  As the theory goes, since there are Jews who hate Israel then hating Israel is not anti-Semitic. “Are you telling me that these Jews are anti-Semitic?” anti-Zionists ask with a sneer. Yes actually, that is exactly what I am telling you. Anti-Zionist Jews are anti-Semites, just like all the other anti-Zionists.

According to Bernard Lewis, a professor emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, anti-Semites believe that Jews must be “judged by a standard different from that applied to others”.  The website “Dictionary.com” defines anti-Semitism as “discrimination against or prejudice or hostility toward Jews”.  These definitions do not require that anti-Semites hate all individual Jews, which is the naïve definition of anti-Semitism that anti-Zionists would like us to use.  Except for a tiny minority of truly self-hating Jews, anti-Semitic Jews do not hate themselves; they in fact have an over-inflated opinion of themselves, imagining that they are the only real Jews, the saviors of Jewish morality, and the self-sacrificing defenders of peace.

Many of the anti-Zionists, Jews and non-Jews, are highly educated.  They are denouncing Israel while knowing very well about all the wars, terrorist campaigns, and attempts at genocide directed at Israeli Jews.  They are denouncing Israel while knowing very well that the methods used by Israel to defend herself are far more ethical than the methods used by her enemies to attack Israel.  Educated anti-Zionists pretend to not know all this, but anti-Zionist Jews do not need to pretend although many do so anyway.  Anti-Zionist Jews are proud to say that their objective is to correct flaws in Jewish behavior while letting non-Jews worry about correcting flaws in the behavior of Israel’s enemies.

For anti-Semitic Jews, it is wrong for Israel to kill terrorists if there is any risk at all to civilians, regardless of what terrorists may do to ensure that civilians are within harm’s reach.  For anti-Semitic Jews, killing terrorists is even wrong in itself because in their view, other ways must be used to appease and reform terrorists.  Anti-Semitic Jew Norman Finkelstein referred to Israel’s attacks on Hamas in Gaza as a “massacre”, even implying that it was a “Holocaust”.  For anti-Semitic Jews, Israel is ethical only if she totally disarms and if she endures attacks without ever defending herself, but since Israel dares defend herself, anti-Semitic Jews do not hesitate to use the wildest rhetoric against Israel, rhetoric that they would never use against anyone else.

Far from hating all Jews, anti-Semitic Jews love the juvenile and idealistic image of Jews that they have concocted in their own minds.  They are enamored with the concept of Jews being able to resist all need for self-defense.  Anti-Semitic Jews love the image of Jews conveyed by Mahatma Gandhi who “counseled Jews in Nazi Germany to neither flee nor resist but rather offer themselves up to be killed by their enemies”.  For Naomi Wolf, the Judaism practiced at her synagogue is not good enough to meet her ideal standards of Judaism; she expects Jews to condemn the Jewish state for defending herself, and she repeats, without questioning it, the anti-Semitic lie that Israel is engaged in a “genocide” in Gaza.

If the Jews in Israel behaved the way that Jews such as Wolf and Finkelstein would like them to behave, there never would have been a Jewish state because Israel would not have survived any war or terrorist campaign against her.  Anti-Semitic Jew Naomi Klein also happily supports a one-state solution and the “return” of all Palestinian refugees.  Anti-Semitic Jews close their eyes to any threat to Israel, military or demographic.

Not surprisingly, since Israelis are acutely aware of the need to defend themselves, practically all anti-Semitic Jews live outside Israel although there are exceptions, such as Amir Hetsroni, who are typically anxious to leave Israel just as Hetsroni did.  Most anti-Semitic Jews live in the United States of America where they are not threatened, and where their choice to be anti-Zionist is celebrated by hordes of anti-Semites both in the USA and in the rest of the world.  These Jews have discovered that being anti-Zionist is an easy way to be seen as a “good Jew” by the “in” crowd that views anti-Israel activism as a fashion statement.

Not much can be done to reduce the number of self-centered and egoistic Jews who have decided to sell out the Jewish nation and give her enemies a reason to sneer.  We must however not shy away from recognizing their anti-Semitism.  When someone declares that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism and they give the example of anti-Zionist Jews, we must be very blunt and very clear: anti-Zionist Jews are anti-Semites, and as Alan Dershowitz puts it, “Why not? Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas collaborated with the Gestapo”.

Jewish anti-Semites must be condemned just as strongly as we condemn anyone else who hates Israel and who judges Israel by an impossible standard while ignoring any standards of conduct for Israel’s enemies.