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@TNR: Can Iran be deterred

@PJ Tatler: Is All Criticism of Israel Antisemitic? Put Simply: Yes

I have a rule of thumb for determining whether a criticism is antisemitic or not. If it involves singling out of Israel, slander, stalking, it can be almost certainly assumed to be antisemitic.

Antisemitism is a type of stalking. According to wiki, stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted and obsessive attention by an individual or group to another person (or group). Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person and/or monitoring them.

Antisemitism is a kind of singling out. Behaviours that are allowed, ignored, or dismissed in all groups get a special scrutiny when they are carried by Jews/Israel.

Antisemitism is a kind of slander. It relies on either a manufactured fact, an exaggeration or manipulation of facts to demonize the Jew or the Jewish country with the explicit or implicit intention of delegitimizing its existence.

Let’s take this comment, for example:

“evilpiratemunkey

“I’ve never understood why Israel, a country which provides more rights for its Arab population than almost any Arab country, is continually singled out for human rights abuses and labeled an “apartheid” state…”

The nutrition and education of Africans in 1800′s America was better than almost anywhere in the world.

I don’t know why those anti-Americans keep saying that slavery was bad.
*rolls eyes* ”

It makes an analogy between the situation of the Arab minority in Israel and slavery in the USA.

As Oliver Kamm once said, “Historical analogies are never exact but sometimes useful. If they are to be useful, then the precedent needs at a minimum to be stated accurately”.

Now, is the precedent of slavery in the USA stated accurately when Israel’s Arab minority is compared to it? Were the Arabs forcibly kidnapped and brought to Israel? Are they traded by Israeli Jews and used for slave work in Israel’s fields and industry? Are the Arabs in Israel deprived of their right for education?

If the answer is No, then we can safely assume this analogy is simply a slander. It is also a stalking since it comes from the need to pay special attention to Israel. It is also a singling out. I doubt evilpiratemunkey
pays any sort of attention to the very real slavery that takes place in Arab countries, or to very real discrimination institutionalized in law and practice, in the same Arab countries, or the very real racism and discrimination that takes place in Europe vis a vis the Roma, or the Kurds in Turkey, etc etc.. All these evils, much much much worse than anything one is ever likely to be seen as committed by Israel , are simply ignored or dismissed or whatever.

Hence the conclusion is also simple: evilmunkey is an antisemite. He actually thinks that his antisemitic analogies can pass for “legitimate” criticism of Israel. They cannot.

*****

A good response to the theory set forth in the PJ Tatler is provided by this commenter:

"We are not talking about Israeli Jewish dissent from government policies. We’re talking a well-organized global assault on the existence of the Jewish State. This takes many forms but its mostly of an ideological character and is intended to delegitimize and discredit the Jewish State and the exact source or nature of the criticism in question is not really relevant for Jews anymore. Here is why.

Its not Israel’s responsibility to prove its a decent country. Kerstein is talking about shifting the burden of proof to Israel’s critics. They have to show they don’t hate the Jews and Israel. Until they do – Jews should presume all criticism of Israel to be part and parcel of an intensive anti-Semitic global campaign to make possible the expulsion or annihilation of the Jewish people a reality in the future.

And that is a very high bar to surmount. In short, the circumstances of our historical age requires us to have zero tolerance for anti-Semitic incitement. This may depress well-meaning friends of Israel. But anti-Semites and Israel haters have rendered ALL non-anti-Semitic criticism of Israel from outsiders impossible.

Whether or not we want to acknowledge it, it is the unvarnished truth."