General Discussion

of anti-semitism that has been demanded and pushed which goes very far in equating criticism of policy of the government of Israel with anti-semitism. There is also a very strong and deliberate effort by forces in Israel and around the world to conflate every single action of the government with being Jewish.

Both views are incredibly ignorant. Netanyahu isn't doing what he is doing because he is a Jew. He is doing it because he is a hateful human being in an elected office who has demonstrated himself to be corrupt and is acting in all manner possible to thwart accountability for himself and his wife. Jews may support him or not but if he were Catholic he would still be the horrible person he is and would be doing the things he's doing.

To conflate all of the actions of some of the horrible people in that government to being Jewish feeds a horrible stereotype and should not be done. Horrible people do horrible things because they are horrible people not because they are Jews. Once anybody insists on tying the entirety of Israel to being Jewish you can't readily expect to turn it off and on. But the "new definition" goes far to make that tie and it is used as a cudgel to beat back criticism of things the Israeli government is doing that are not because they are Jews but because they are horrible people.

People also tend to want to conflate Palestinians with being pro-Hamas or pro-Hezbollah etc. Horrible people do horrible things not because they are Palestinian but rather because they are horrible people. People also look at this conflict over land/resources as Jews versus Arabs. That is also improper because it leaves out the Christians and others in both Israel and the Occupied Territories. It is as faulty as those in the US of the rabid right wing who insist that the US is a Christian nation. It is not. That faith may dominate but their are many others and as a nation our founding document is structured to specifically give equality in standing of all faiths. The US falls short of that commitment very often but despite the reality of it the fact remains of the stated commitment and it is up to us to uphold it and fight for it in court and public opinion in the larger discussion in society.