@coldjoint,
somebody wrote:Calling for the destruction of Israel, or calling Jews satanic, termites, or media-controllers (as Mr. Farrakhan) has done many times, is anti-semitism. Boycotting Israel because of the deeply troubling policies and actions by its government is not necessarily anti-semitic. The occupation of the West Bank, the treatment of Palestinians in occupied areas, etc. - these things are worthy of a boycott. Nothing else seems to have swayed the Israeli government to change its policies. [We] do all Jews a disservice when [we] elide the difference between, on the one hand, valid criticism of government policies, and on the other, the perpetuation of shameful stereotypes and calls for violence.
For some people the European Jews who settled Israel were basically colonialists who came in and kicked out the native Palestinian population. That sort of thing used to be much more acceptable but it's not as easy to get away with now and as a result a lot of people around the world are critical of the Israeli state. It happens. The thing is, the world would feel the same way about Laplanders, Sicilians, Huguenots, or any other group of people who organized themselves to colonize someone else's land. It's not a specifically anti-Semitic response. And don't give me the "Judea and Samaria" argument; a bible story isn't a deed. There's no way we could effectively return every ethnic group which was ever conquered, or every ethnic group which ever migrated, to the land the claim as their ancestral home so we shouldn't establish a precedent in Palestine, right? Otherwise I'll have to learn how to speak Passamaquoddy.
