Israel under different regimes has a history of cosying up to appalling regimes and individuals. The apartheid regime in South Africa and the fascists in Argentina for a start. More recently it’s supplying of hacking software to murderous regimes. Their cosying up to Musk is similarly pure cynicism. As you say, an anti-semite but he is our anti-semite.
In dismissing all criticism of Israel’s destruction and massacres in Gaza, not to mention the West Bank, as mere anti-semitism, they have made the term meaningless. Not just the recent destruction but what they have been doing for decades. Similarly in using experience of the Holocaust as some kind of warped justification for the slaughter they are now inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza, they debase that memory.
Time to see anti-semitism as just another form of racism, with all forms being equally despicable, without special cases. Other groups have experienced ‘holocausts’ - Ukrainians in the Holodomor under Stalin, Armenians at the hands of the Turks, Tutsis in Rwanda. Arguably the slave trade is the worst of them all in scale. I’ve been to the Jewish museum in Berlin and very fine it is. However if you see it through Palestinian eyes, the steadily increasing oppression of Jews under Hitler through laws, regulations and violence, is little different to what Israelis have imposed on Palestinians over decades. And we know where that ended.
Germany is exceptional in how it has acknowledged its role. Someday Israel and its more extreme supporters will have to come to terms with Israel’s role. Holocaust memorials should memorialise all holocausts. Liberal Jews have long been leaders in sympathising with others who have gone through similar suffering. They need strong support, whilst Israel stands condemned.
Israel under different regimes has a history of cosying up to appalling regimes and individuals. The apartheid regime in South Africa and the fascists in Argentina for a start. More recently it’s supplying of hacking software to murderous regimes. Their cosying up to Musk is similarly pure cynicism. As you say, an anti-semite but he is our anti-semite.
In dismissing all criticism of Israel’s destruction and massacres in Gaza, not to mention the West Bank, as mere anti-semitism, they have made the term meaningless. Not just the recent destruction but what they have been doing for decades. Similarly in using experience of the Holocaust as some kind of warped justification for the slaughter they are now inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza, they debase that memory.
Time to see anti-semitism as just another form of racism, with all forms being equally despicable, without special cases. Other groups have experienced ‘holocausts’ - Ukrainians in the Holodomor under Stalin, Armenians at the hands of the Turks, Tutsis in Rwanda. Arguably the slave trade is the worst of them all in scale. I’ve been to the Jewish museum in Berlin and very fine it is. However if you see it through Palestinian eyes, the steadily increasing oppression of Jews under Hitler through laws, regulations and violence, is little different to what Israelis have imposed on Palestinians over decades. And we know where that ended.
Germany is exceptional in how it has acknowledged its role. Someday Israel and its more extreme supporters will have to come to terms with Israel’s role. Holocaust memorials should memorialise all holocausts. Liberal Jews have long been leaders in sympathising with others who have gone through similar suffering. They need strong support, whilst Israel stands condemned.