WHY BEING ANTI-ISRAEL IS ANTISEMITIC

WHY BEING ANTI-ISRAEL IS ANTISEMITIC

There’s been a scary trend over the past decade, where it’s become popular, even fashionable, to be anti-Israel.  Though the vast majority of those voicing their opposition to the Jewish state are unaware of the facts, history, and issues involved, they gleefully speak out against Israel without evidence, while ignoring proven bad acts of other nations. 

The most glaring example is the fact that China is committing genocide against the Uighurs, yet there are no marches, no campus protests, and almost never an op-ed condemning these criminal acts.   Those same people that jump at the chance to attack Israel without evidence, shy away from attacking China despite overwhelming, verifiable evidence, of crimes against humanity being committed by the Chinese government. 

Let’s also look at what Israel is being attacked for.  Those condemning the Jewish state are not angry about economic policy, environmental policy, cyber-attacks, or any other reason to express disagreement with a government, they condemn Israel for defending itself.  They are angry that Israel is protecting itself from attacks that intentionally target civilians.  They do not express outrage at those who willingly violate the Geneva Convention, but rather those who suffer the effects of these violations.  They are angry that for once in over 2,000 years Jews are finally able to defend themselves.

The Palestinian narrative of victimhood is simply false, and it is in fact they who are the aggressors, they who continue to refuse to make peace.  Though arriving in what is now known as Israel well after Jews had settled the land, Israel’s Arab population was due to be given the majority of the territory as the British prepared to leave for home.  In fact, the largest waves of Arab migration to Israel occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Though they were given more than half of their newly settled lands, this wasn’t enough for their leaders, who conspired with neighboring Muslim nations to attack their Jewish neighbors and seize their lands.

Of course things didn’t end well for the Arab allies and they lost territory.  They started a war by choice, and lost, so should they get their land back?  International Law and Customs have evolved to condemn wars of choice, wars of aggression.  When an aggressor loses territory after losing a war they started, they NEVER get it back (Think Germany in the world wars).  Doing so would reward a state for its aggression, not condemn it.  Though conquest is a recognized form of property ownership under international law, no international body recognizes the right to get back land lost by a nation that starts a war and then loses. 

Still determined to “push the Jews into the sea”, the Arab-Palestinian alliance has kept up their aggression for almost 80 years.  Throughout this period they have started wars of choice, not necessity, have intentionally targeted innocent civilians, caused the deaths of tens of thousands on both sides, and lost even more territory.  Yet they have also repeatedly refused to take yes for an answer. 

Though some Palestinian leaders have claimed that all they want is a two-state solution, they have turned this down when offered, and most revert back to current stated goal of reclaiming all of modern day Israel.  They talk of a right of return for those refugees forced to flee the wars they started, but there is no talk of a right of return for the hundreds of thousands of Jews forced to flee Arab countries during the same period. 

The leaders of the Arab-Palestinian alliance have tried war, assassinations, hijackings, suicide bombers, and other forms of terror, but they have failed.  Now they are trying propaganda and this seems to be their most successful tool.  Success achieved not because they are masters at their craft, but because they have found a willing ear in the West, a population too willing to find a reason to hate Jews, to hate Israel.

When someone says they oppose Israel but they’re not antisemitic, ask them why they oppose Israel?  Ask them what it is they object to?  If they respond that they oppose Israel fighting back, knocking terrorist rockets out of the sky, targeting the tunnels where they are stored, or attacking the military force that launches them, I think you have your answer.  They are against Jews defending themselves.  They are against Jews being allowed to exist.  This is why they are anti-Semites and should be condemned as such.