It is high time we reconsider one of the most hackneyed clichés of our era – the one that claims that just because a person criticizes Israel does not mean he hates Jews. In its most concise form, it is the assertion that just because people are anti-Zionist does not mean they are anti-Jewish. It has become the most common defense of every anti-Semite in the world, at least for those who are looking for a defense.
This axiom has become so prevalent and harmful that we need to reformulate it. The truth is that just because people criticize Israel does not mean that they are not anti-Semites.
In fact, I would go as far as to say that anyone who criticizes Israel should be presumed to hate Israel and Jews. In legal terminology, let us call it a rebuttable presumption. We can safely assume that such people are anti-Semites, and if they challenge that conclusion, the burden of proof is on them. They must demonstrate love for Jews, notwithstanding their contempt for the Jewish state. And if they can’t, it speaks for itself. I would love to hear their explanations.
Part of the double standard, or really lack of any standards at all, pertaining to people’s views on Israel, is the attribution by these haters of their disdain for Israel to Israel’s government, to decisions of PM Netanyahu, or Smotrich, or Ben Gvir, or the bogeyman of their choice. It is not that anyone is above criticism; it is rather that the criticism usually contains some dismissal of Israel’s leadership as if they are unrepresentative of the people who keep electing them, as if the democratically-elected government of Israel is somehow illegitimate and therefore Israel by extension is illegitimate.
I am hard-pressed to think of a comparable example across the world. There are people who despise Trump or Biden or Obama or Putin or Macron or Kim Jung Il and yet do not question the legitimacy of the countries they lead (or led). Indeed, there is no other country on the planet whose “right to exist” is even a topic of discussion, much less negotiation. Certainly, no other country’s “right to exist” is considered a concession to be wrung from its enemies, if in fact that is even possible.
There are undeniable telltale signs of Jew hatred masquerading as anti-Zionism. Obviously, the protesters roiling American streets and harassing its Jews don’t just hate Israel and its right to exist but all Jews. Consider the following anomaly: the fabricated fear of “Islamophobia” rests on the assumption that all Muslims should not be blamed for acts of terror committed by some Muslims (even if most terror in the world is perpetrated by Muslims and has been for many decades now). And that is a reasonable assumption even if the other Muslims are never asked to denounce and repudiate Islamic terror. We even created a new term – Islamist – to distinguish between the good and bad Muslims.
Curious, then, that the same courtesy is not extended to Jews. Our enemies – that is, these critics – enthusiastically and indiscriminately blame all Jews wherever they are in the world for the alleged crimes of Israel. That is bad enough, patently hypocritical, and worse when we consider that Israel’s alleged crimes are not crimes at all.
Thus, the most execrable of the Jew hater who claims he is only anti-Israel will whitewash the Hamas atrocities of October 7 by claiming that Israel deserved it. In other words, Jews deserve to be slaughtered – but Jews do not deserve the right to defend ourselves. The slightly more refined among these haters will declare that the Hamas massacre, rapes, and kidnapping were wrong, and that Israel has the right to defend itself – but not in the way Israel did. They do not really go into details and are nonplused when asked for alternative means of fighting an urban war against an enemy that in gross violation of international law used (and uses) its own people as human shields and held innocent civilians as hostages. They have no answers but just know that Israel did not do it the right way. Yes, that is Jew hatred, and we should make no mistake about it.
Another clue as to the Jew hatred of these anti-Zionists is that “international law,” legal farce that it is, only works one way. It is a cudgel against Israel, and only Israel, and never seems to be applied to our enemies. Only Israel can violate international law, a shape-shifting doctrine that impugned every tactic Israel used and tried to rule out anything that could produce victory. And these foes accuse Israel of the very barbarism of which they are guilty – genocide (their fantasy solution to the Jewish problem) and starvation (which they inflicted on our hostages) – and moan about the devastation of Gaza (the bases and tunnels of terror built with billions of dollars of Western and Arab money).
And the most obvious evidence of the falsity of the claim that one can be anti-Zionist without being anti-Jewish is the utter rejection of Jewish nationalism. Zionism did not emerge in the abstract but is rooted in the Bible, which repeatedly addresses the covenant between G-d and the Jewish people that is founded on the Torah and the land of Israel. Any denial of the rights of the Jewish people to the Jewish homeland not only repudiates the Bible but seeks to nullify one of the pillars of Jewish life. If someone claimed to have no animus towards Jews or the Torah but simply disavows Shabbat, circumcision, Kashrut, acts of kindness, etc., we would not say such a person is just anti-Torah. Such a person is anti-Jewish because they take the essence of Jewishness and render it meaningless. One who says “I love Jews but hate everything Jews stand for” actually hates Jews.
Nevertheless, there is a weak point in this argument, a self-inflicted wound that has caused us endless suffering. One of these haters might retort that he does not hate Jews, only Israel, and use as proof random articles and op-eds in Haaretz, or reports on most of Israel’s news stations. We may not like Al-Jazeera or the BBC, and with good reason, but the most anti-Israel invective, the most vulgar vilifications of Israel, are found in Haaretz. Any anti-Israel, anti-Jewish media outlet could not do better than to simply cite passages from Haaretz and leave it at that. If all Tucker Carlson did was read Haaretz on the air every day, he would have more than enough material to satiate his most rabid listeners and vindicate his hateful views. Indeed, if our detractors just quoted Israel’s former, now-disgraced military prosecutor and her wild accusations against our soldiers, and just played her doctored video, they would have enough ammunition to besmirch Israel to their satisfaction.
Does that make Haaretz anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish also? Well, yes, it does, and there is not much we can do about it. It has its audience – those disappointed in an Israel that is Jewish in practice, not just in name; those horrified by an Israel that takes the Torah seriously; those disgusted by Jews who wish to settle all of Israel, from the river to the sea, and see that endeavor as a fulfillment of the prophetic vision of the Bible; and those confounded by Jews who believe that G-d really exists and that the Torah is true. It is really a simple metric: if I read an anti-Israel article in Haaretz in some other newspaper, would I deem it anti-Semitic? If the answer is yes, then that is the reality.
And what about other anti-Zionist Jews, Neturei Karta and their ilk, whose hatred of the State of Israel is based on a misguided reading of Jewish sources? They, too, should be held to the same standard, a rebuttable presumption that they are anti-Jewish as well. One obstacle they would have to overcome is their seeming contempt for any Jews who are not exactly like them, but if they can rebut this presumption by showing their love for Jews but not Israel, I am all ears.
To be sure, one can criticize Israel’s government and its prime minister, its army, its media, and its judiciary, and not be guilty of Jew hatred – but from a place of love, a place from which the legitimacy of the country is not challenged. Like it or not – and I don’t always like it – PM Netanyahu has found his way to power repeatedly, through free and fair elections. If anything, his waffling and vacillation, his unkept promises, frustrate his base even as they torment his adversaries.
Yet, the great biblical commentator Malbim notes (II Divrei Hayamim 9:8) that “the throne of Israel is G-d’s throne, and Israel’s king is the king ascribed to G-d.” PM Netanyahu may not officially be a “king of Israel,” song notwithstanding, although he has served more years as leader than most kings of ancient Israel and Judea served. But, as we know, people who are anti-America hate the United States regardless of who its leader is, and people who despise a particular leader do not usually then loathe the entire country. That sort of perverse ignominy is reserved for Israel.
We should not accept it and we should no longer be fooled by it. The dichotomy between anti-Israel and anti-Jewish is false. It is false in the media, on the campuses, and in the capitals of the world. If any other country in the world were as relentlessly criticized as was Israel, we would rightly assume that the critic has animus towards that country and its people. Those who claim to love Jews but hate Israel should prove it. My bet is that they cannot. And we who love Israel and Jews should give thanks both for the challenges and privileges of our generation, which – for all the current unpleasantness and the media loudmouths – previous generations would have loved to have.
Count us among the grateful – and those who stand with pride for the gifts with which we have been blessed as well as the opportunities to confound our enemies and bring redemption closer. And always remember that just because people criticize Israel does not mean that they are not anti-Semites.
Arutz Sheva
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There is a difference between criticizing Israel for a specific action and questioning her right to exist. One who questions Israel's right to exist most probably hates Jews but if one absolutely affirms Israel's right to exist [and even eats felafel, chumus, herring, tzimmes, egg salad with onion, matza balls etc.] but has a specific criticism leveled against a certain governmental policy - well there are many people not only on the Israeli left but on the Israeli right who don't agree with every decision BN makes and they definitely cannot be branded anti-semitic.
