The right wing in Israel has been pretty good at deflecting criticism of their frankly maddeningly awful policies by saying you're just anti Semitic
The term "anti-Semitic" has started to sound like "anti Christian". It's almost always deployed in an attempt to shutdown conversation over horrible abuse and bigotry on the part of the person who tosses it out there. It says far more about the person lobbing it than the target.
Except anti-Semitic hate crimes are totally still at think, as are anti-Muslim and, though not widespread in the west, anti-Christian hate crimes are a thing. I mean, look at what happened to the Coptic Christians.
This is not to say all three haven't been used incorrectly to stifle debate or rights, but they are actual things.
Nobody denies that hate crimes are still a thing. But people do use the specter of hate crimes to excuse other hate crimes. A lot of this stuff has crossed into parody.
Israel has turned into a fascist police state that sterilizes people of the wrong race, and houses people in open air concentration camps because of their race or religion. Yet all of this is OK because if they don't do it the Nazi's will come back and do it. Or how Israel is our best, greatest, oldest, and most important ally (France and the UK be damned) despite the fact that they have murdered our service members, stolen nuclear secrets and sold them to our enemies, undermined our foreign policy, and abuse us at every god damn corner while lobbying the piss out of us and terrorizing our leaders. But pointing that out is claiming an evil Jewish Lizard Cabal runs the one world government.
The charge of anti-semitic gets tossed out if you point out that their internal policies have crossed the line into a bizarre mix of Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa's ideas and old tricks. Even if not conducted on the same scale, but with their own special crap thrown. It also gets thrown out when mentioning America's own treatment of the Native American's mirrors what's going on with the Palestinians, as well as the excuses for it.
You could say this sort of stuff is worth tolerating for a reliable client state, but they've even turned that into parody as well. They've got just exactly who the super power is mixed up and demand fealty and concessions from us. They screw up our foreign policy, kill our sailors, and try to riddle our government with activists for their cause. And yet we can't do anything about it, because they'll throw a tantrum. And nobody else will do anything about it because we won't allow it even though they are a fucking pain in the ass. They're a rogue nation. They're our fucking North Korea!
I'm not trying to defend Israel. I'm trying to say that claiming that anti-semitism is "almost always deployed in an attempt to shutdown conversation" and "says far more about the person lobbing it then the target" makes little sense when anti-semitism is still a genuine issue.
It simply means that there are more incidents of the state of Israel discriminating against, committing crimes against, or killing people for their race or religion than there are people committing crimes against people for being Jewish or killing people for being Jewish.
Anti-Semitic crime is a problem, and all incidents of it are horrific. However on the international scale Israeli aggression and rogue behavior is a much greater problem than anti-Semitic violence. In fact their aggression is a root cause of much anger that turns into anti-Semitic violence. Israel is a nation state, not some chowderhead neo-Nazi. Their leadership should be worried about anti-Semitic attitudes. However rather than curtailing their actions to reduce it they choose "fuck-you-I-do-what-I-want". And there is an entire cottage industry in lobbying to smear anybody who dares call this behavior out as anti-Semitic, AIPAC is a thing that exists.
Hate crimes and shootings by neo-Nazi's are instantly called out for the evil they are and then things move on. Advocating for such things is on fringe media watched by the FBI. Criticism of Israeli policy or actions results in multi-page NYT and Washington Post diatribes, months long character assassination campaigns, and trickles out through the media from there. Largely because there's more jobs money in flaking for Israel than there is in fighting real anti-Semitism.
It's sort of like "why do you hate the troops and want dead soldiers" under Bush. Sure, there were horrible people that actually wanted dead US Soldiers. However in modern western conversation "why do you hate the troops and want dead soldiers" was mostly tossed out as a response to criticism of catastrophic Bush foreign policy. It was used to shut down real conversations about real crimes, far more than it was to condemn say the WBC or people who wanted to attack the military.
The fact that the US has ended up with it's own rogue nation and pariah state is horrifying. It's been destroying our foreign policy and creating global problems for decades. It's become a larger problem than random cases of anti-semitism.
It's sort of like "why do you hate the troops and want dead soldiers" under Bush. Sure, there were horrible people that actually wanted dead US Soldiers. However in modern western conversation "why do you hate the troops and want dead soldiers" was mostly tossed out as a response to criticism of catastrophic Bush foreign policy. It was used to shut down real conversations about real crimes, far more than it was to condemn say the WBC or people who wanted to attack the military.
The fact that the US has ended up with it's own rogue nation and pariah state is horrifying. It's been destroying our foreign policy and creating global problems for decades. It's become a larger problem than random cases of anti-semitism.
That some people use charges of anti-semitism to shut down criticism of Israel does not make it a non-issue, or somehow less important as civil rights abuses then those committed by Israel. Both are grave and hideous injustices that must be held accountable.
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It simply means that there are more incidents of the state of Israel discriminating against, committing crimes against, or killing people for their race or religion than there are people committing crimes against people for being Jewish or killing people for being Jewish.
Anti-Semitic crime is a problem, and all incidents of it are horrific. However on the international scale Israeli aggression and rogue behavior is a much greater problem than anti-Semitic violence. In fact their aggression is a root cause of much anger that turns into anti-Semitic violence. Israel is a nation state, not some chowderhead neo-Nazi. Their leadership should be worried about anti-Semitic attitudes. However rather than curtailing their actions to reduce it they choose "fuck-you-I-do-what-I-want". And there is an entire cottage industry in lobbying to smear anybody who dares call this behavior out as anti-Semitic, AIPAC is a thing that exists.
Hate crimes and shootings by neo-Nazi's are instantly called out for the evil they are and then things move on. Advocating for such things is on fringe media watched by the FBI. Criticism of Israeli policy or actions results in multi-page NYT and Washington Post diatribes, months long character assassination campaigns, and trickles out through the media from there. Largely because there's more jobs money in flaking for Israel than there is in fighting real anti-Semitism.
It's sort of like "why do you hate the troops and want dead soldiers" under Bush. Sure, there were horrible people that actually wanted dead US Soldiers. However in modern western conversation "why do you hate the troops and want dead soldiers" was mostly tossed out as a response to criticism of catastrophic Bush foreign policy. It was used to shut down real conversations about real crimes, far more than it was to condemn say the WBC or people who wanted to attack the military.
The fact that the US has ended up with it's own rogue nation and pariah state is horrifying. It's been destroying our foreign policy and creating global problems for decades. It's become a larger problem than random cases of anti-semitism.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/anti-semitic-hate-crimes-across-greater-8582243
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/antisemitic-hate-crime-reaches-record-levels-in-london-according-to-report-10025040.html
http://www.itv.com/news/2015-02-05/anti-semitic-hate-crimes-double-in-uk/
This is just in England.
That some people use charges of anti-semitism to shut down criticism of Israel does not make it a non-issue, or somehow less important as civil rights abuses then those committed by Israel. Both are grave and hideous injustices that must be held accountable.
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