Antisemitism is weaponized, but not the way you think |
A dear colleague of mine, with whom I have serious disagreements regarding the war in Gaza, recently published an op-ed that I know firsthand to be disinformation. I contacted her privately, suggesting she double-check her sources. She replied rather quickly, stating that what she had argued was already published in Haaretz, and ended her message with a sarcastic question: “are they also antisemitic?”
While this was not what my colleague had implied, that sarcastic remark reflects a widespread argument used by many left-wing activists, some of them Jews themselves, who claim that Israelis weaponize antisemitism to deflect and delegitimize legitimate criticism. The logic runs as follows: Israelis understand perfectly well that objecting to a country’s existence and its creation (anti-Zionism) is not the same as objecting to a race or people (antisemitism) out of prejudice. Therefore, Israelis deliberately conflate the two, transforming justified opposition to a state’s existence into an accusation of racial or religious hatred. Through this rhetorical sleight of hand, Israel can supposedly continue its actions in Gaza without consequence.
In purely theoretical terms, they have a point. Anti-Zionism and antisemitism are not identical. The former opposes Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. The latter represents the ancient prejudice of hating Jews simply for being Jews, a practice that became taboo in mainstream discourse following the Holocaust. One can technically be anti-Zionist without........