Riddle me this

Published on January 14, 2007

If Jews and Arabs are both Semites and are Semitic people, then why is it that Zionists claim that criticism of Israel is tantamount to being “anti-Semitic”. What about criticism of the Palestinian Authority or discrimination towards the Arabs of Palestine? Is that not “anti-Semitism” as well?

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2 Responses to “Riddle me this”

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  • Yalla
    January 16, 2007 at 5:51 am

    This is a bit far-fetched. Criticism of Israel isn’t anti-semitic – as an Israeli, I also criticize Israel, too – not in the same way, but this isn’t the point.

    I’m also free to criticize the Palestinian Authority. Which is anti-semitic when it supports killing innocent babies, children, men, women, grandparents, and when it says it has to solve the “Jewish problem” worldwide. I don’t care that their supposed “reason” is. That is different then saying you’re against an Israeli policy, or you don’t like something Israel is doing.

    I’m not going to get into quicksand by debating Israeli policies (and I’m not supportive of all of them anyway) – because that will never end. I’m just saying that criticism of Israel doesn’t automatically equal antisemitism.

    There’s a fine line between certain statements and antisemitism, but that debate won’t be solved here.

    Antisemitism is a term that has come to mean, in colloquial terminology, anti-Jewish. Are you against people calling something anti-Jewish? Because we can interchangeably use both terms and it would be the same thing. This isn’t to say Jews are the only semitic people in the world – anyone who would think so needs to get outside more. I don’t know who coined the term, but society has many inaccurate terms which do not pertain only to Jews…

  • ellen
    January 16, 2007 at 7:19 pm

    I have another riddle for you – why do people who are overwhelmingly secular, use the Bible as a historical document?
    Jews are mainly secular. Yet the justification for being in Israel is found in the Bible. If one is “a believer” then the Bible is just a quaint creation story, at best.
    I know there is some genetic research regarding a “Y” chromosone which does or does not place Jews in a line of descent from 2000 years ago to today. But most people who want to make a stand for Jews “belonging” in Israel refer to the Bible.
    Makes no sense to me.

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