Why is it difficult for people t understand that you can be against Israel but not be anti Jewish?

Question

Most people choose to deal in absolutes and paint a black an white picture of every issue.
In a similar way you can be against the reasons for war and the war itself yet support the troops. Not every belief and issue is a package deal. All issues can be broken down into separate and sometimes varied parts.

Yes I am against Israels bait and attack method they use with the Palestinians. But I'm not anti Jewish.
As with America it's not the Americans it's their government thats messing up the world.

Of course that's only my opinion

Answer 1

Because to be against what you CLAIM you do not like about Israel is to believe what the propagandist haters SAY about Israel instead of the reality....THAT is the bottom line reason why it rings hollow to be "against Israel" and not anti-Jewish.

I don't know how many times people must explain that it is not hard at all to distinguish between voicing opposition to political policy or decisions and undermining the right of the state of Israel to EXIST. And the other major problem is that in almost EVERY instance where someone is complaining about Israeli "policies" or intent, it is as bogus as the above claim and the complainer does not address at all the very REAL reasons for the conflict.

1) the fact that there is a large contingent of Arab states that do not want Israel to exist

2) the large number of political pawn refugees they've kept in oppressive conditions ( against their own religion of Islam in fact) for the purpose of undermining Israel rather than working to nation building for the Palestinians.

EDIT: I believe I omitted another important point. When someone says they're anti-Zionism, that tells a Jew that you're against Jews and the right of Jews to live in peace in the Jewish homeland. The reason that is the message that statement conveys is because Zionism is the desire for the covenant nation Israel to live in peace in the homeland of the land Israel, nothing more, nothing less. This is a desire expressed in Jewish liturgy for centuries and it is in every Jewish prayerbook I've ever seen.

If you claim that Zionism means something racist then you are using the Jew haters definition of Zionism and not using a word coined by Jews to mean what Jews use that word to mean. This also doesn't appear congruent with the statement that one is not anti-Jewish, to use a definition for a Jewish term that is not a Jewish definition.

It is no more racist for the nation people of Israel to want a homeland in peace than it is for any other nation to have a homeland.

To be anti-Zionist IS to be anti-Jewish.

If that is not what you understood that to mean before, it has now been cleared up for you. Perhaps now that it was clarified here, perhaps you or another reader who may have not understood before, will refrain from using terminology or rhetoric that is anti-Jewish. I hope you will understand why you are perceived as being antisemitic if you use the language or propaganda of the antisemite.
Shalom

Mr X your answer was GREAT!

Answer 2

So using your logic - I could be pro Palestinian, but also anti Palestine?

See? Makes no sense, does it?

Some of the previous replies, notably edgebill or whatever the heck he's called, are giving you false information. Israel is now 'SMALLER' than she was because she has given back the Sinai, in return for peace with Egypt.

And Israel did not 'start' any wars - open any history book and read about how in 1948, within 12 hours of being declared a state, Israel was attacked simultaneously by Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

There have been Jews living in what is now Israel for 3000 years - continously. The term 'Palestinian' referred originally to Jews, Arabs and Christians: to everyone. Jews were living in Jerusalem before Islam had even come into existance!!

We didn't just rock up in '48 and seize the land! Let's get real and deal in facts: there were both Jews and Arabs living there, so the land was split between the two. The Jews said yes, even though we got the smaller bit. The Arab world said No, and declared war.

To answer your actual question: you can of course be critical of Israel, without being anti semitic.

But when the criticism is based on lies, and mis-stated 'facts', well, that can't be fair now, right?

So when people say we 'stole' the land - that is blatantly false.

Think of it like this:

Right now, in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, the Palestinians are stuck in terrible camps, and they've been there for years. They were left there to rot after their Arab brothers told them to flee Palestine so they, the Arab armies, could attack Israel, which you know that of course they did.

So are you anti Jordan? Anti Egypt? Anti Lebanon? No? Will you be posting things about them also? No?

The only difference between Israel and all her Arab neighbours in the middle east, is that she is a democracy, and she is the Jewish homeland.

Now, presumably people are not anti democracy?

So that leaves the Jewish bit, does it not?

Israel takes up 0.01% of the middle east.

There are 22 Muslim countries.

Yet we Jews are in the wrong for protecting the tiny sliver of land that is the only truly safe haven we will ever have?

Answer 3

They are two different things but sometimes they are not.

What specifically are you talking about with bait and attack methods with Palestinians.

I do know some groups have been continually committing acts of terror against Jews in Israel. Also they launch mortars and rockets against Jewish citizens, besides the bombers.They are not against Israel, they are against Jews living in their holy land, but its a holy land for many religions, its not a place just for Arabs.

People seem to target Israel our Allie in this country but not other countries such Labia Syria Lebanon, Pakistan, Russia who are actively against the United States.

Many Americans resent only money sent to Israel, not other countries and believe Jews in the USA are more loyal to Israel than to the USA (call them traitors and not to be trusted), they believe that they control the US government among many other things and blame the Jews for putting the USA into the war, also they blame the good relation ship the USA has with Israel that caused 9/11. I think these thought are very unfair and antisemitic based.

A lot of times Israel and Jews are very interrelated.

Answer 4

The State of Israel is the one and only Jewish State, where Jewish people built a homeland again after 2000 years of exile and the horrors of the Holocaust. If anybody is again the State of Israel that person is against the Jewish people, hence he / she is an anti-Semite.

Answer 5

I think it's because people don't really THINK about the politics behind it. Every country has a political agenda...that doesn't mean that every country is right or every country is wrong.

Interestingly enough, the original UN agreement for the land propagated to Israel is LESS than what they have accumulated right now. How many people realize this? Of course, Israel went to war and took the land they now posses. It's people's personal opinion as to how legal that is. (You can see it from either way.)

I think people are just conditioned in the west (especially America) that it's most important to preserve the Jewish people after WWII. They need to separate the religion from the politics of Israel.

Answer 6

And why is it difficult for some people to understand that many instances of anti Zionist/anti Israel rhetoric are merely thinly veiled anti semitism?

I am not specifically accusing you since I don't know your specific views beyond what you have written here in this post. Nevertheless, if we see anti Israel/anti Zionist rhetoric and we judge it to be anti semitic, then, yes, we will point that out.

And even if it is not anti semitic but we see that your opinions are flawed and lacking in logic or based on things that are simply not true, then yes, we will point that out as well.

(And by "we" I mean myself and anyone else who may comment.)

Answer 7

i'm undecided what a IIIilberal is yet i will assume you advise Liberal. and that i will't think of the place to procure the "innovations" that Liberals are anti-Israel. in actuality they're in basic terms the different. As a minor historian i think of that Abraham Lincoln could have performed something he could to interrupt the spirit of people who waged a conflict against the USA of yankee. Presidents have performed that for years. You keep in mind Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Answer 8

I agree with yo completely and am so sick of being called names because I apparently " hate Jews'

That is so stupid, and I have said time and time again, that I have many friends who are Jewish, in fact my husbands brother married a lovely Jewish woman. Lol, her and I argue all the time over Israel. That does not mean we hate each other.. it means we have different opinions. Some people cannot understand that!

I do think Israel is taking advantage of the U.S. and I do resent all the American money that is sent there all the time. But it has nothing to do with the ordinary Jewish person. I am not anti Jew.. I am not anti anything.. other than perhaps anti Bush regime... but I judge people on their own merits.. I could not begin to judge all Jewish people, nor should I.

But I do judge their government the same as I judge my own.. it is time for peace.. everywhere.

Answer 9

Many people believe the only reasonable reason for being against Israel is being anti Jewish.

Answer 10

People fail to make distinctions most of the time in their lives. All most all of us also lack in OBJECTIVITY in our lives. Biases & prejudices ruin us... and make us unable to see the realities of life.

Indeed, you cannot be against Jews, … only if you are able to identify the difference between the two.