It seems inevitable that we would eventually get here: evidently, “antizionism, not antisemitism” has finally reached its natural conclusion. If,
- Antizionism is a legitimate political position rooted in the fight for Palestinian human rights, and
- Antizionist actions, both in and outside of Israel, can only be explained in response to Israeli aggression, not as a result of bigotry, then
- When antizionists commit murderous acts against Jews in the name of Palestine, both in and outside of Israel, those actions must be legitimate. In other words,
- Antisemitism, if perpetrated in the name of Palestine, is always legitimate. Therefore,
- Antisemitism is legitimate.
Note: I obviously do not agree with this line of thinking in any capacity. I’m simply following this argument to its logical conclusion.
WHEN YOU JUSTIFY SOME ANTISEMITISM, YOU JUSTIFY ALL ANTISEMITISM
Since October 7, there is no act of antisemitic violence that has not been justified by the pro-Palestine, antizionist crowd.
APPARENTLY, PALESTINIANS HAVE A RIGHT TO ANTISEMITISM
It’s not just that antizionism has deemed antisemitism justifiable, moral, or legitimate; it’s that now, antisemitism is portrayed as an innate Palestinian right. As the logic goes, Palestinians have suffered so much under Zionism and the State of Israel, which uses Jewish symbols, that it’s only natural for Palestinians to hate Jews.
Never mind that virulent, genocidal antisemitism in Palestinian society long predates the establishment of the State of Israel. In fact, it even predates the modern political Zionist movement. Never mind that antisemitism is not a result of the conflict; it’s the cause of it. Is this logic ever applied anywhere else? Do Chinese Americans have a God-given right to commit hate crimes against Japanese Americans because Japan carried out anti-Chinese atrocities during World War II? Do Jews have a right to slaughter Germans in perpetuity? Is it the right of Lebanese American Christians to set mosques on fire? Is a gay man allowed to bomb parishioners worshipping inside a Catholic Church?
That’s not how morality works. It shouldn’t be how the world works, either.
I find this clip particularly interesting because Palestinian activist and media darling Ahed Tamimi demands that so long as Jews do not separate Judaism from Zionism, she is entitled to antisemitism. At the same time, she claims that she is represented only by “the resistance” – that is, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups – so by that logic, the argument would go that Israelis, too, have a right to equate Islam with the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.
"I was raised [to believe] that Judaism means occupation, and today, tomorrow, and a million years from now, I will continue to say that Judaism [should] be presented to the children of Palestine as occupation, and that we are fighting the Jews, not Zionism."
Ahed Tamimi
THIS (PERVERSE) LOGIC CAN GO BOTH WAYS
If Palestinians get a free pass on antisemitism on account of their oppression, then I’ve got news for you: by that logic, Mizrahi Jews – who form the majority of the Israeli Jewish population, that is – have a free pass on Islamophobia. After all, it was under the name of Islam that Mizrahim were dhimmis – second-class citizens, subjected to a long litany of humiliations and abuses – for nearly 1,400 years.
If a Palestinian has a right to hate Jews because of their suffering under Israeli occupation, do Israelis have a right to hate Palestinians because of their suffering under Palestinian terrorism? (Which, again, predates Israel’s founding, thank you very much).
NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS NEW
Most antisemites do not wake up in the morning and think, “I hate Jews” or “today I will do something to hurt Jews.” Most antisemites, historically and today, hurt Jews because they believe(d) that doing so is (or was) in the service of a greater cause. For instance:
- During the Black Death pogroms, antisemites in Europe hunted Jews down because they considered them guilty of poisoning the wells and sickening gentiles. Jewish persecution was framed as justice.
- In Nazi Germany, Nazi antisemitic propaganda framed the marginalization and persecution of Jews as a righteous fight against an alleged “Judeo-Bolshevik” plot to destroy German society.
- In the Soviet Union, the regime portrayed the treatment of its Jewish community as a fight against the evils of Western imperialism.
WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS
It doesn’t matter how heinous the crime. When horrific acts against Jews are perpetrated in the name of Palestine, the antizionist crowd will muster the same two old, tired excuses:
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The victims deserved it because they were actually bad people (you know, Zionists). This explains the post-Bondi massacre obsession with depicting Chabad as a “genocidal Zionist” movement. You would think, of course, that antizionists would understand that a Jewish child does not deserve to be targeted for murder because the adults in her life are supposedly bad people, especially given their outrage over the child death toll in Gaza. As usual, Jews are held to a different standard.
In reality, of course, antisemitism is an ancient bigotry, not a punishment for bad behavior. If “bad people” deserve anything at all, it’s to be held to justice and account. Not a single Jew, bad person or not, deserves antisemitism.
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If all other arguments fail, then the argument becomes that it’s actually Israel’s fault. Sure, they agree, antisemitism is bad, but what else do you expect when Israel is out there making so many people angry in the name of Judaism? (Never mind that Israel is not acting “in the name of Judaism;” it is acting in the name of its national interests, just like every other country on the planet).
This is an utterly illogical argument, of course, that removes all personal agency and responsibility, as though Israel controls what every individual antisemite does or doesn’t do. It’s also a dangerous argument that, if applied consistently, would give one a free pass to commit anti-Chinese hate crimes to protest the Chinese government, anti-Muslim hate crimes to protest ISIS, and so on.
Once again, I must ask, do they really want to play at this game? How many hundreds of mosques, not just in the Middle East but in the West, have expressed ideological alignment with ISIS? How many thousands of mosques in the West have fundraised for Hamas-aligned charities or even hosted internationally-designated Palestinian terrorists?
Do those things justify bigotry, too, or are we finally in agreement that bigotry is actually not a valid response to disagreeable views or behavior?
AN ANECDOTE FROM THE JEWISH HISTORY BOOKS
Does immeasurable suffering justify bigotry? Does it justify violence? After the Holocaust, a group of survivors and former partisans sought to find that out.
Led by Abba Kovner, the group, which called itself “Nakam,” or Hebrew for “revenge,” plotted to assassinate six million Germans in retribution. The plan failed spectacularly, and though Nakam did poison some 3000 loaves of bread headed to a German POW camp, the worst that happened was that a few hundred captured Nazi soldiers caught a bad case of food poisoning.
Years later, former members of Nakam reflected on their actions, with many expressing relief that their plans had been unsuccessful, describing their plot as a “Satanic concept” and a “lunatic idea.” Simcha Rotem said that the guilt of murdering so many German children in revenge would’ve driven him to suicide.
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