I am not an antisemite. I believe in the right of Israel to exist as an independent country in the Middle East. I recognize that many of the original Jewish settlers in Palestine after World War II were survivors of the European Holocaust desperate for a place where they could be safe and live as Jews. However, I cannot accept what the Israeli government has done in Gaza in response to an initial October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that left approximately 1,400 Israelis dead and over 200 taken as hostages. In previous posts I have tried to present a “balanced” perspective. I do not believe it is possible anymore.
Criticism of the Israeli government and its war on Gaza is not antisemitism. The Israeli treatment of the civilian population of Gaza probably constitutes war crimes and may qualify as genocide. Israel must stop its war on Gaza and if its government refuses to stop, the United States should halt all military and economic support.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has a widely accepted working definition of antisemitism that includes “Applying double standards by requiring of it [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” The United States, as a member of IHRA, recognizes this definition of antisemitism. Major American Jewish organizations, including American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Anti-Defamation League, American Zionist Movement, B’nai B’rith, and Hadassah, are currently pressing Congress to make that IHRA definition of antisemitism official which would brand significant criticism of Israel as antisemitic. White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates has already stated “Delegitimizing the State of Israel . . . is the definition of unacceptable — and the definition of antisemitism.”
I ask the following questions as a way to examine whether Israel is being held to a double standard and whether protests in the United States and Europe against Israel military action in Gaza constitute antisemitism. If Israel was not Jewish, what would reactions be to its military actions over the last seven months in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas?
Would the United States stand by any other country that in revenge for the October 7 attack launched a war that has killed almost 32,000 people, mostly civilian non-combatants, including over 12,000 children? Would the United States accept and resupply any other country that was responsible for the displacement of 2.3 million residents of Gaza whose homes, schools, and medical facilities are being destroyed? Would the United States continue to support another country that obstructed the delivery of food and medicine creating famine like conditions?
Would the United States tolerate an illegal military occupation like the Israeli occupation of the West Bank where soldiers, police, and settlers, have killed more than 450 Palestinians since October 7? Should the United States ignore the use of AI-facial recognition and drones to murder without evidence suspected Palestinian combatants, a policy that led to the death of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers distributing food to starving Palestinians and almost 100 journalists? Are calls for the “voluntary” expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza by Israeli government ministers acceptable?
Should the United States tolerate targeted assassinations that ignore risks to civilians like the murder of three sons of a Hamas official who were traveling to a family religious observance and were not participating in combat, an attack that also killed four grandchildren? Should campus protests against the destruction of Gaza using American supplied weapons be condemned as antisemitic? Would the United States tolerate being manipulated into a potentially broader Middle East war with Iran by any other country?
If Israel was Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Serbia, Sudan, or any other American ally, this behavior be tolerated by the United States? Would criticism of these countries be dismissed as a double standard? Would critics be labeled as biased? I don’t think so.