Anyone else tired of being asked to criticize the Israel government? To condemn radical settlers?
For the record, I want to see new leadership in Israel. I’ve criticized Netanyahu more than once in this very space. I have also acknowledged that I would not have been remotely capable of doing his job on Oct. 7, 2023.
I also condemn violence — provoked or not — by radical settlers. Radicalism, in general, tends to lead to more dead people and an overall degradation of quality of life. (Indeed, there is no better example than Gaza post the 2007 election of Hamas.)
However, none of this means anything to people who oppose Israel — certainly not to the “River to the Sea” proponents (i.e., destruction of Israel), but also not those who say that it’s Bibi, it’s the settlers, it’s Gaza.
I will take anyone’s wager that if Israel tomorrow appointed a new centrist prime minister who immediately pulled the IDF out of Gaza and put a moratorium on settlement expansion, people like Zohran Mamdani and Ed Miliband would still condemn Israel.
No one would take that wager because he or she would know it’s a losing proposition.
This isn’t the first rodeo for the Jewish people. Every government that has opposed Jews has provided “evidence.” Examine England, Iraq, Spain, Germany — there are always so-called “legitimate” grievances against Jews (as there are with any group targeted with racial or ethnic hatred).
Radical settlers are the current diversion — as if radical settlers exist in the same numbers as Hamas terrorists and commit the same magnitude of crimes.
The way I see it, there is a real effort to create a false equivalency — on one side are Palestinian terrorists, on the other side radical settlers.
By all means — have the discussion about violent settlers. But do not use a small group of people to condemn an entire population (Israelis and people who support Israel). Racism is when the behavior of some is applied to all.
Next time I meet a person from a country whose government is anti-Semitic, must I immediately ask if she supports Erdogan? Pedro Sanchez? The Ayatollah?
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