They don’t hate Israel. They hate Jews.

Imagine for a moment that Israel became majority Muslim, elected a government composed of Muslims, and changed its name to “Palestine”. Imagine also that Israel, while making these changes, maintained the exact same policies towards Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. How would the rest of the world react?

Would the UN keep writing anti-Israel resolutions by the dozens, while largely ignoring the rest of the world? Would arrogant university “students” continue to demonize Israel? Would the BDS movement continue its anti-Israel campaign unabated? Would the Western left, in a sudden bout of integrity, criticize the newly renamed Palestine as strongly as it criticizes Israel today?

To answer these questions, we need only look at Israel’s neighbours.  Palestinians are treated far worse in Lebanon and in Syria than they are in the West Bank. Arab-versus-Arab violence is far less mindful of civilians than Israel is when it attacks Hamas in Gaza or Hezbullah in Lebanon.  Discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities is vastly worse in Arab countries than in Israel. Yet there is no BDS movement against Arab countries. There are rarely, if ever, any resolutions at the UN against Arab regimes.

So the conclusion is pretty obvious to anyone who isn’t totally self-delusional. If Israel was not Jewish, it would not be hated. It would be ignored or even praised by the hordes of self-aggrandizing students, professors, politicians, and other thugs.

These people do not hate Israel at all, it turns out. They only hate the Jews. They do not care about the truth in the Middle East, as Yair Lapid explained.

Why do I harp on this? Why do I care? After all I am a non-Jewish Arab who lives in Canada. By all accounts, I should not care. Except for the tiny fact that I have a conscience.

When I see the antisemitism in the world today, I cannot be silent. As I have written previously, the widespread and growing antisemitism is there for all to see. Yet few admit to it.

Even in the United States antisemitism has become fashionable again. The United States of America! The country of opportunity and equality. The land of the free and home of the brave. The place outside of Israel that is often described, by both friends and foes, as the most friendly towards Jews!

Even in New York, antisemitic protesters recently disrupted a meeting of city council as members were voting on a resolution to honour the 70^th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. New York! The place believed to be the second home of Jews in the world!

Is anti-Zionism antisemitism? Yes, of course it is. Antisemitism is a developing cancer that feasts on any nutrients on its path, and the hate of Israel is one of them. Israel is loathed by antisemites not only because it is Jewish, but because it is the last refuge of Jews who are being ostracized everywhere else. It is the only place on earth where Jews are welcomed with open arms and open hearts. It is the only place on earth where they can be themselves without fear of discrimination. Antisemites loathe Israel because it stands in the way of making Jews a thing of the past.

So, don’t believe the lies. Jews aren’t hated because of Israel. Israel and the Jews are hated because of antisemitism. If you care at all to stop the march of antisemitism, whether you are Jewish or not, start speaking up.