The rise of antisemitic antizionism

Let's talk about this comment I received on a Facebook post. 

"I don’t profess to know everything about the middle east conflicts. I just see the photos of the entirety of the buildings in Gaza destroyed in almost every settlement. That is not rooting out terrorists. That’s wiping out a civilizations [sic] ability to exist. Netanyahu is trying to exterminate the Palestinians. Not just “Hamas”. Israel targeted hospitals and schools. Hamas slaughtering those people at the music festival and taking hostages was evil, and of course Israel needed to defend itself. They did that. Then they continued slaughtering innocents, holding up humanitarian aid purposefully to starve the Gazans. That’s not defense. That’s evil aggression against innocent people just because they are Palestinians. They are also illegally moving into the West Bank again. Israel has violated all the ceasefires, and any attempt for a 2 state solution. I cannot support that." 

 This comment was made by a liberal democrat on one of my posts. (Hey, I'm a liberal democrat too. I just mention it for context). So, one by one let's go through it because I know a lot of people that could benefit from some deeper dives. 

 1. "I don’t profess to know everything about the middle east conflicts." 

Then, without further investigation, the commenter went on to tell me all the things Israel is doing wrong in this middle east conflict. The information is out there. You just have to be openminded and willing enough to look for it. 

 2. "I just see the photos of the entirety of the buildings in Gaza destroyed in almost every settlement. That is not rooting out terrorists. That’s wiping out a civilizations ability to exist. Netanyahu is trying to exterminate the Palestinians. Not just “Hamas”." 

 First, photos show what the photographer wants you to see, no matter the perspective. Are they hard to see? Yes. But apparently only when it's Gazan children. Not when Israeli children are murdered and their schools destroyed. Second, buildings were destroyed because Hamas hides weapons in every building and home in Gaza. In kindergarten classrooms. In children's bedrooms. Entrances to the underground tunnels that are only available to Hamas to hide in - not civilians - are scattered throughout the enirety of civilian infrastructure in Gaza. And what the commenter either failed to mention or didn't bother to look at is that the IDF warned before they bombed. They texted. They called. They dropped leaflets. They gave warning to Hamas of where they planned to strike so that civilians could move out of harm's way. Name me any other army that does that. That gives up their military advantage so that civilians can move out of harms way. Additionally, the commenter fails to mention that Hamas threatened their own civilians if they left the areas Israel warned of planned offensives. Hamas WANTED the largest number of casualties. They teach their preschoolers that there is nothing better than martyring themselves for the cause of killing Jews. Not Israelis. Jews. 

 3. "Israel targeted hospitals and schools. Then they continued slaughtering innocents, holding up humanitarian aid purposefully to starve the Gazans." 

 First, Israel targeted the places that Hamas was, and where they had headquarters and weapons. International law states that if those protected areas like hospitals and schools are used for military purposes, they no longer qualify for protected status. Maybe put some responsibility on Hamas for ensuring their people would be killed. Salo Aizenberg did the work on how many died in the war. Did the deep diving journalists used to do. His entire feed is dedicated to this, but this outlines many of the facts from late in the war.  

Second, re holding up humanitarian aid. Recent statements from inside Gaza, contradict claims of food shortages: Hossam Al-Huweiki, Acting Head of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce, stated that Gaza currently has food and clothing stocks sufficient for approximately six months. Since the start of the ceasefire, close to 90,000 trucks carrying food and humanitarian aid have entered Gaza. The crossings are open and food continues to enter Gaza. 

 Per COGAT, Israel allowed in thousands of tons of food and aid during the war and since. Did they check each truck before it went in? Yes. Why? Weapons were being smuggled in on those trucks. Once the food went in, guess what happened to it? Hamas took it for themselves. Tons of food in UNRWA bags was found in tunnels under Gaza. What they didn't take for themselves, Hamas sold back (the free food) to Gazans at extraordinary markup. Israel also stopped combat to immunize Gazan children against polio. That surely proves genocidal and evil intent, yup. In the Holocaust, Nazis targeted Jewish children because they didn't want them to grow into adult Jews. They didn't vaccinate them. Last, please explain to me why you know absolutely nothing about the geopolitics of the middle east, but are an expert in "bad" Israel. Are you aware that Israel is not the only country that shares a border with Gaza? Egypt also shares a border and did not lift a finger to help. They never opened their crossing for aid going in or let in refugees coming out. The responsibility to feed an enemy who waged war on them fell completely to Israel. Name me another country that feeds the people actively trying to kill them. They let in the aid. Should they cook the food, chew it up, and spit it into the mouths of the baby bird Gazans they were at active war with too? That was the UNRWA and Hamas' responsibility - not Israel's. 

 4. "They are also illegally moving into the West Bank again." 

First, I condemn unprovoked settler violence in Judea & Samaria. I say that not as a disclaimer because my support for Israel doesn't rely on disclaimers, but because I abhor religious fanaticism no matter where it comes from. Second, are you aware of the provisions of the Oslo II Accords? The West Bank (Judea & Samaria) is divided into three administrative zones—Areas A, B, and C—established by the 1995 Oslo II Accord. Area A (18%) is under full Palestinian Authority (PA) control (aka no Jews allowed and Jews who cross the border are kidnapped & murdered, but that doesn't seem to bother you). Area B (22%) has PA civil control and Israeli security control, and Area C (60%) is under full Israeli military and civil control. The settlements are going up in Area C, not on Palestinian land. Do I think it's dumb they're choosing to approve this many settlements right now? Yes, but also immaterial. 

 5. "Israel has violated all the ceasefires, and any attempt for a 2 state solution." 

This one makes me exceptionally angry, because the information is so readily available. 

Hamas violated the terms of every cease fire first in this war. Every one. Starting with the ceasefire in place on October 7, 2023. 

 As for 2 state solutions: 

• 1937 Peel Commission Plan: Recommended partitioning British Mandate Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with a very small portion for the Jewish state. Rejected by Palestinian leaders and the Arab Higher Committee. 

• 1947 UN Partition Plan (Resolution 181): Proposed dividing Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under international administration. Accepted by Jewish leaders; rejected by Arab leaders and Palestinians, who then immediately waged war from all sides against Israel. 

• 1967 – Post-Six-Day War (Land for Peace): Israel captured territory (West Bank, Gaza, Sinai, Golan) after being attacked by neighboring Arab states. Israel signaled willingness to exchange land for peace, but the Arab League’s Khartoum Resolution declared the “Three No’s”: no peace, no recognition, no negotiations—a blanket rejection of coexistence with Israel. 

• 2000 Camp David Summit: President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered a Palestinian state in ~92% of the West Bank and 100% of Gaza, which was declined by Yasser Arafat, leading to the Second Intifada. 

• 2001 Taba Negotiations: Follow-up to Camp David, involving finer details on borders and refugees, which also did not reach a formal agreement. 

• 2008 Olmert Plan: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered a plan to address major issues (93.7% land swap), which Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas did not accept. 

 No other partition, e.g. Pakistan/India, (which btw happened at the same time as Israel) has been so scrutinized or globally stated as having no right to exist. Nobody says Pakistan shouldn't exist. Ireland was partitioned - where is the outrage? Cyprus was partitioned. Do they have a right to exist? Czechoslovakia was partitioned into 2 countries. Do they both have a right to exist? Yugoslavia also was partitioned into different countries. Does one have a right to exist and the others not? The world only holds Israel to that standard. The last bit on this is that the British Mandate included ALL of what is now Jordan. It was partitioned and those are technically the "Palestinians", if you need to identify them - now called Jordanians. Wait. Does Jordan have the right to exist as a partitioned country from the British Mandate? If so, explain how Israel doesn't. 

 6. The commenter didn't mention these issues, but no other nation state in the modern era is asked to give up land taken in a defensive war. In 2005, Israel pulled out of Gaza unilaterally in pursuit of peace. They took every Israeli out of Gaza - many by force, literally dragged out of their homes - and even took their dead from the cemeteries. Since 2005, there have been no Jews or Israelis in Gaza that weren't taken there by force. Israel left amazing infrastructure - farms, greenhouses, tourism - a booming economy. Hamas dug it all up and used the water pipes for rockets and built their terror tunnels. Yet everyone expects Israel to now supply all the food, water, and electricity to Gaza and claims genocide when they don't. As for electricity, Israel had 10 power lines into Gaza. 9 of them were destroyed in the Oct 7 massacre. Should Israel rush to rebuild what Hamas destroyed so gleefully? 

 7. Another thing this commenter didn't mention but implied is that Gazans have no way to defend themselves and Israelis do. That is not on Israel. That is on Hamas. Israel invests money in defense - bomb shelters, Iron Dome. (Also, nobody bats an eye that this is necessary. Why is that?) Gaza invests money in underground tunnels that only Hamas has access to and leaves its civilians out high & dry. In what world is that Israel's fault? Israeli children grow up in bomb shelters because they are always being attacked from external forces. Palestinian territories have received over $50 billion in aid since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005. What did they do with that money? Enriched their leaders and then claimed starvation and ruined infrastructure. 

 Israel is a country of 10 million. That is all. 75% are Jews, 25% are not. Most Jews in Israel are brown - Mizrahi, Sephardic and others. Denying there should be a Jewish state at all, when there are 59 Muslim states, 20-something Catholic states, and so many others is applying a double standard to Israel. Claiming they are white colonizers when history and archaeology proves that there has been a continuous Jewish presence in Israel since at least 1000 years before the invention of Islam is disingenuous at best, maliciously misleading and dangerous at worst. Israel is the only successful DEcolonization project in the modern world. 

It's the tiniest nation and yet is constantly shown as equal in size to Iran in imagery (see image), which houses 90 million people, who btw are oppressed by their regime, but I don’t hear anything about that from you. I don’t hear a word about Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Nigeria. They are all slaughtering their religious minorities to global silence. Israel embraces its diversity. All citizens have rights, yet they are the only country with a standing point of condemnation at the UN. Iran - who runs most of the recognized terror groups in the middle east, who executes women for having a hair showing out of their hijab and anyone for speaking out against the government or for listening to western music or for being gay - they are in charge of the human rights council at the UN. 

 Israel is actively seeking peace with its neighbors. They have signed peace deals with Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, UAE, Morocco and Sudan. Are you aware that an impending peace agreement with Saudi Arabia is what drove the Oct 7 massacre? How many peace deals has Hamas and the PA signed? 

 Applying the law truthfully matters. And applying the truth matters. When you throw around terms like genocide, evil, "wiping out a civilizations [sic] ability to exist" because you don't like war and the results of war hurt to see (and they do!), or think you're rooting for the underdog (you aren't) and give that place & people no agency you do severe damage. The Gazans have said what they want, including the government (Hamas) and most on the street. You simply need to watch interviews. They want 1 state with no Jews from the river to the sea. (PS, that's ethnic cleansing at best, genocide at worst). You infantilize them and take away their agency when you say that's not really what they mean. 

 When you apply double standards to Israel and Israelis and expect them to behave in a way that you don't expect of any other country, that is textbook antisemitism. 

 If you made it this far, here's a list of reading recommendations. 

 RootsMetals (blog):  

Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn (Daniel Gordis) 

People Love Dead Jews (Dara Horn) 

Jews Don't Count (David Baddiel) 

The Ghosts of a Holy War (Yardena Schwartz) 

Israel (Noa Tishby) 

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew (Noa Tishby & Emmanuel Acho)