Is Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism?

Last week I commented on New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg’s attempt to distinguish anti-Semitism from anti-Zionism. Being a weak, timid and cowardly soul Goldberg channeled the Hamas party line… namely that Palestinian terrorism was a justifiable reaction to Israel’s refusal to grant terrorists their full human rights.

More recently David Schwammenthal has called out those who rationalize their hatred for Jews by saying that anti-Zionism is not really anti-Semitism. He noted that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe today… thanks largely to Europe’s openness to Muslim migrants. Europe’s Jews live under seige today. Strangely enough, only a small minority of the anti-Semitic actions have been committed by members of right wing groups.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights polled some 16,500 Jews in 12 countries that account for 90% of the EU’s Jewish population. Eighty-five percent say anti-Semitism is a problem in their country, and 28% report having experienced anti-Semitic harassment in the preceding 12 months—including 37% of those “who wear, carry or display items in public that could identify them as Jewish.” As a result, 34% avoid visiting Jewish events or sites, and 38% have considered emigrating.

Those who reported being harassed were asked to describe the perpetrator of the most serious incident. Only 13% said it was “someone with a right-wing political view,” compared with 30% who cited extremist Muslim views and 21% left-wing political views.

Respondents were asked about anti-Semitic statements they heard online, in other media and at political events. The most common one, which 51% said they hear “frequently” or “all the time,” was “Israelis behave ‘like Nazis’ towards the Palestinians”—a claim that demonizes the Jewish state while diminishing the crimes of real Nazis.

At the root of today’s anti-Semitism is a denunciation of Israel… for mistreating those poor Palestinian terrorists.

Leftists accept the propaganda, designed as it is to justify killing Jews. If Israelis are really Nazis in disguise, why would you not kill them?

The leftist counterargument is that anti-Zionism is a legitimate political position that has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. But anti-Zionists discriminate against the Jews alone among the peoples of the world and call for the Jewish state’s economic, cultural and academic boycott. What sense would it make to say: “I don’t think Ireland has a right to exist, but I’m not anti-Irish”?

Apparently, the European Union has not been gulled by leftist pro-terrorist propaganda. It has endorsed a definition of anti-Semitism that includes anti-Zionism:

Last Thursday the bloc’s justice and home-affairs ministers unanimously approved a declaration designed to tackle all sources of anti-Semitism. They endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Anti-Semitism, which specifically includes as examples denying Israel’s right to exist or holding Jews responsible for Israel’s actions, real or imagined.