zlacker

It’s obviously true that criticism of Israel isn’t inherently antisemitic.

But that’s also a convenient excuse used by people who are actually antisemitic.

Both of these things can be true at once.

>>rushin+(OP)
It's obviously true that calling out or implying anti semitism where it doesnt exist doesnt automatically make the accuser an racist.

But it usually does.

They are, while doing this, implicitly or explicitly endorsing Bibi's "exterminate the palestinians" Amalek trope, Ben Gvir hanging a portrait of Baruch Goldstein on his wall (shot up a mosque, considered to be a hero by ~10% of Israelis) and Isaac Herzog calling race-mixing a "tragedy".

(i dont think it's too controversial to suggest that those 3 people essentially represent Israel)

This practice of calling all and sundry racist in defense of a state founded upon an ideology of racial purity is, of course, probably mostly racist projection.

Indeed, it's hard to be a dedicated anti-racist these days without being accused of being an anti semite at some point.

>>rushin+(OP)
One could say the same for "the other part": being pro-Palestinians doesn't mean being pro-Hamas, but that's also a convenient excuse used by people who are actually pro-Hamas.

The problem happens when nobody is given the benefit of the doubt about being in group 1.

>>pydry+E9
Don't forget Smotrich, a leader in the current government, who said it was a "mistake" that the first Israeli government didn't "finish the job" of expelling all the Arabs from Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-at-knesset-ben-gurion...

The current Israeli government has espoused their views that Palestinians should not have their own state, that all Arabs are terror supporters who are the enemy of Israel, who should be exterminated or removed. And this was happening regularly long before October 7th. I wonder why some Palestinians don't see Israel as a viable partner in peace or that they feel their only option is to destroy Israel before they are destroyed themselves?

>>toyg+J9
I thought you were going to say:

"One could say the same for "the other part": being pro-Israel doesn't mean being a anti-arab racist who wants to ethnically cleanse Palestine, but that's also a convenient excuse used by people who are actually just that".

>>fnimic+yb
This is getting into the internal politics of Israel, which are a mess. No party has anywhere near a majority. Netanyahu has had over 16 years in power, and he stays there by trying to hold together a coalition whose parties don't get along at all. How he's done that is not pretty.

(Imagine the US with Trump in his fifth term of office. Now you have roughly the right picture.)

>>rushin+(OP)
Suppose they are both true, what does this imply? That it's fair to suspect people of racism because someone else hypothetically uses an excuse?

>>rushin+(OP)
It's only convenient when we refuse to expand our counter-narrative. I call that lazy.

We could continue to bundle every criticism of Israel together, or we could confront each criticism directly.