Anti-Semitism?

Question

Why is it that any criticism of any aspect of the state of Israel is immediately equated with charges of anti-Semitism? I’ve noticed that any other country and its people can be freely criticized without the attacker being branded a racist.

I ask because I saw Dennis Miller the other day and he was doing one of his famous everyone-sucks-but America-and Israel tirades and everyone in the audience was eating it up and cheering, especially his anti-Chinese and anti-Russian stuff. But no one ever seems to call him a racist. It’s really weird.

Answer 1

The root word Semite is actually defined as follows:

1. A member of a group of Semitic-speaking peoples of the Near East and northern Africa, including the Arabs, Arameans, Babylonians, Carthaginians, Ethiopians, Hebrews, and Phoenicians.
2. A Jew.
3. Bible A descendant of Shem.

So technically, anyone who speaks against the Arabs should be considered Anti-Semetic. I realise people argue that the word Anti-Semetic is reserved specifically for Jews - like priority parking. Ridiculous.

Perhaps people just need to be reminded of the definitions of such words and then they will not use them to slander those who speak freely.

Answer 2

My guess is he was probably criticizing well known negative side of those countries. Israelis have shown little restrain and been quite aggressive, China got problems in human rights, pollutions, and more. And Russia still have quite authoratative gov. Not to mention questionable deaths lately. It can be tricky with harsh satire or whatever, but I think Miller does it well. But my guess is it wasn't something like Miller making fun of Chinese accent or way the Chinese look or anything that immature.

Answer 3

I agree. When any other country in that part of the world attacks or bombs people, they are considered terrorists and instigators. Israel is defending "their" land. Israel gladly accepts over $2 billion a year from the U.S. and Israel doesn't care if the money comes from anti Israeli's or not.

Answer 4

Judaism has a different style of literature to other nationalistic backgrounds. In countries like Egypt, religion and state were the same under the Pharaohs. In countries like Babylon, they were separate. We still have the religion around in the form of astrology. Judaism gave birth to Christianity. Judaism is patriarchal and Christianity is ostensibly how to do the right thing by your family without necessarily being able to get along with them.

According to the Bible, Noah had three sons - Shem, Ham and Japheth. Because Ham saw his father naked, his son Canaan was cursed. Cush was Canaan's brother and went to Egypt and his descendants went to Ethiopia. Canaan's curse got to be passed onto Cush in hindsight by greedy racist people who couldn't read past the first letter of the name. Noah said that the Japhethites (maritime peoples) would lodge in the Semites tents. The Hamites included Canaan, Cush and later Nimrod, founder of Babylon. The USA today is like Babylon because it separates church and state. Islam is like Egypt because inasmuch as it doesn't.

One way you can tell who has something to hide is to see who pays the most attention to fluids as a way of explaining things that should be dealt with literately. Arguments about fluid appeal to people with OCDs (the hierarchy) but they are merely phonology, a way to assess the rhythm of the drama, rather than sort anything out.

I'm not sure who is saying what about the Jews, except that the gas accounts from the Holocaust are explained in my article with the link below.

Answer 5

I'm pretty sure it's over $6 Billion that Israel receives annually from U.S. taxpayers, and unlike every other country that receives U.S. foreign aid, there are no restrictions or accounting requirements tied to the Israeli cash that we give them.

Answer 6

You've notice something I've missed.

Israel is the most democratic country in the Middle East and has had to fight for its life ever since it was created as an independent country.

China is a tyrannical superpower-on-the-rise, and Russia is a dysfunctional collapsed third world country that once was a superpower.

I think racism is at most a sidebar in any of these countries cases.

Answer 7

Because so many of the states that surround Israel are Anti-Semitic, and they have earned this reputation. There are so many States in the Middle East that are racist against Israel and they have earned this reputation.

Answer 8

that is because he uses plenty of jew jokes too, but I guess you conveniently overlooked them.