Ite-ish

I am thinking about the statement: “Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic.”

It seems to me that depends on what is meant by “criticizing Israel.”

If it means opposition to some Israeli government policies–fine. After all, Israelis themselves can be fiercely divided about these, at any given time. And yet they can remain passionately committed to their compatriots, culture, and country. Not even Bibi Netanyahu would have the chutzpah to claim that if you’re against him, you’re against the Jews. (At least, I don’t think he would).

But if “criticizing Israel” means opposition to the very idea or existence of the Jewish state–that, I think, is different. And that, of course, is what a lot of people are meaning, in these reductive and hysterical times.

For if you think–if you really think–that the state of Israel is just an “occupation”; that its self-defence actions are “genocide”; then you think, simply, that the Jewish state is evil. And you probably think, or at least suspect, that the Jewish citizens of that state are tainted with that evil.

Do we have, here, anti-Semitism? Not necessarily. But we definitely have anti-Israelism.

Now, to meet a Jewish person, in Canada or elsewhere, is not to meet an Israeli. It is not even necessarily to meet a person who approves of Israel. Nonetheless, the person you meet, who turns out to be Jewish, is by that token a person of the kind for whom the state of Israel claims to be have been created. Moreover, lots of non-Israeli Jews, all over the world, do indeed feel an affinity for Israel, and may even provide it with moral, political, or material support. The anti-Israelite, more than anybody, remembers this.

So: The anti-Israelite meets a Jew. This person is not an Israeli. If s/he were, the anti-Israelite would view her or him with loathing and suspicion–that much is established. At the same time, the anti-Israelite is acutely aware that the Jew, although not Israeli, may still be, so to speak, Israelish. And so the anti-Israelite must ask himself: Is this one of those? Is this one of the bad Jews?

About no other kind of person does the anti-Israelite pose this question, or anything like it. In his mind, neither blacks nor whites nor Asians nor Arabs nor anybody else needs to prove, by default, that they are not evil. Only Jews.

Do we have, here, anti-Semitism?

You bet your life we do.