The difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism:
- Anti-Semitism is “hostility and prejudice directed against Jewish people” (OED).
- Zionism refers to the movement to create a Jewish state in the Middle East, roughly corresponding to the historical land of Israel, and thus support for the modern state of Israel. Anti-Zionism opposes that.
It is evident, at least to me, that more than a few Democratic legislators are moving to the center, and even dipping their toes in the putrid, polluted water of the Republican Party. I am at the point where I am done with the Democratic Party at the national and state levels. Few are the Democrats willing to stand for liberal progressive values. One such issue is the current war between Israel and the Palestinian people.
Many Democrats, fearful of losing the support of pro-Israel voters (and donors), are now painting people such as I as holding anti-Semitic beliefs. How did they come to this conclusion? Some of us on the left dare to call things as they are. Yes, Hamas’ attack on innocent Israeli citizens was immoral and deserved a swift response from Israel. We saw similar circumstances when the United States responded to Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attack on American civilians. If former President George W. Bush had just gone after Bin Laden and his fellow terrorists, I would have little objection. However, Bush/Cheney and Rumsfeld dragged the United States into a two-decade-long war that caused hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and bombed Iraq back to a third-world country. A war, by the way, that cost trillions of dollars and accomplished nothing other than violence, bloodshed, and death in Iraq and Afghanistan. And now, decades later, knowing that Saudi Arabia played a big part in the 9/11 attacks, the United States is best buds with them, selling them billions of dollars of offensive weapons.
Isreal could have focused its attention on Hamas — you know the terrorists who slaughtered Israeli civilians. Instead, they are now fomenting a genocide against innocent Palestinian men, women, children, babies, and unborn fetuses. Israel has deliberately targeted innocent people who had nothing to do with Hamas’ attack. As a result, Israel has killed at least fifty times the number of civilians killed by Hamas. Their genocidal actions against the Palestinian people are, without exception, immoral.
Yet, when people such as I dare to point this out, both Republicans and centrist Democrats say I am being anti-Semitic. When people say this, we know that they have drunk the Kool-Aid and are unable to parse the difference between someone being anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist. I am the latter, not the former. I do, however, object to Israel’s immoral treatment of the Palestinian people. I object to their slaughter of innocent people. I object to their illegal settlements. I object to their roadblocks and identity check stations. I object to their indifference towards the starvation of Palestinians, who are starving as a direct result of Israel’s incessant bombing of Gaza. I object to their refusal to accept a two-state solution. I reject the United States’ blind financial and military support of Israel — all because Israelis think a few verses in the Old Testament command them to do so
We must not cower and silence our voices when pro-Israel politicans — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — use a pejorative definition of the terms anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. What concerns me is that many politicans want to trample the First Amendment, and make it illegal to criticize, demean, and condemn people who are dare to call Israel’s war against the Palestinian people what it is is: genocide.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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There’s a similar approach here in the UK. It seems politicians are so desperate to avoid the anti-Semite label, they will stoop to ignoring all the atrocities Israel commits.
This isn’t just about the response to the Hamas attacks. Yes, Hamas is a terrorist organisation, yes, a response was warranted, but successive Israeli governments have seized land, destroyed homes, and kept the Palestinians in a state of poverty for decades. It’s no wonder that Hamas have been able to grow into such a potent, and hate-fuelled organisation. What will happen with the next generation of Palestinians, assuming there’s anyone left? Will they forgive the Israeli authorities for their brutality, or will they be easily radicalised, especially when facing the ruins of their homes, and bodies of their loved ones?
Evil begets evil, something the Israeli government needs to learn as much as Hamas does.
Amen brother Preach it!
Nicely put, Bruce. Indeed, I think Musk actually said one thing I agree with recently, namely that your country is in dire need of a third political party. Assuming, of course, that Trump doesn’t succeed in establishing a police state. If that happens, then what’s going on in Gaza will no doubt start to happen Stateside. I mean, the beginnings are already in place. Fingers crossed the military parade on the 14th turns into a coup against Trump’s regime.
Hello Bruce, I hope this morning finds you feeling the best as possible.
Thank you for posting on this topic, and I appreciate you allowing me to comment.
To begin, I agree with your comments but have a few perspectives to share with you and the forum.
I don’t know how any human being monitoring what is going on at Gaza may interpret what is happening as anything but an intentional genocide by Netanyahu and the Orthodox Jewish factions currently in power. Fully supported by the Trump administration. It also appears the Israeli policy now is a particularly cruel one of privation and starvation. At what point does the retribution end and the blood lust becomes satisfied? Your 50 – 1 body count is certain to continue to rise.
I find this shocking in that they are dishing out a rather frightening Governmental policy, a genocidal policy, that in the not so distant past, was directed towards themselves.
Having voiced that, I will admit, compared to the Palestinians, or any ISLAMIC culture, I will support Israel.
Why? Simple – 2 reasons: Despite the rather ODIOUS group currently in charge in Israel,around half of that country is secular and Democratic. Islamic nations, on the other hand, outside of Turkey, and perhaps a few others are run by Cleric’s, Authoritarians or outright religious extremists. While I find Christianity false and a cult, it pales when compared to ISLAM in terms of it’s attitude toward citizens. For me Judaeo-Christianity is bad, the Islamic faith is worse, much worse.
I will finish by saying that what has been going on in the Middle East, since time immemorial, is proof enough for me about just how toxic “Religious / God Head” cults can be to our species.
Best regards.
i made a comment on mastodon:
“remember when “semetic peoples” referred to Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and
Phoenicians? i do.”
the administrator kicked me off his instance for making this comment. 😒
Fuck the Palestinians. Wars are brutal. They shouldn’t have started one.
I couldn’t agree more that starting wars is an abomination and about the worst of mankind’s behaviors. That being said, the basic question regarding the justice of any such conflict is: who started it? Who started dispossiessing the Palestinian people of their homes and homelands and who started decades-long oppression of whom? If assigning blame is your aim, then the answers to these questions should be conclusive.
Radiant, the Palestinians didn’t start anything, Hamas did, and Hamas have systemically hampered the average Palestinian in many, many ways. Nor does this justify the genocide the Israeli authorities are currently carrying out.
Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a very good book, The Message about this kind of problem. It explains that religious groups or social groups who previously were abused (like Jews were in the holocaust) should not be given wide berth to repress people they do not like like such as Palestinians in Israel. They are becoming the oppressors this time.
Indeed, Barbara, it’s been said Jews took all the wrong lessons from the Nazis and are now imitatiing their oppressors and dispossessors by incoherently oppressing and dispossessing a people who had nothing to do with what happened to them in Germany or anywhere, any time, in Jewish history. Nazi philosophy was might made their ideology right and power to take by force justified taking “lebensraum” from others by force. Israel’s ethic seems to be identical. Their might makes it right that their religion, their ideology, gives them the right to take what they want and dispose of opposition.
Did you get my comment about Ta-Nehisi Coates? My cat stepped on the keyboard when I was finishing it. If you did, please delete this comment.
Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a book about this called The Message. The holocaust existed and many Jews were killed. Now Israel is becoming the oppressor
Barbara my cat writes many of my posts. She gets annoyed when I correct her grammar.