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I’m waiting for Roger Cohen to say that Zionism is ‘often’ racism

Graffiti on Fountain in Princess Diana's Rose Garden in Hyde Park, London. Photo taken Aug. 3, 2014 by anonymous contributor
Graffiti on Boy and Dolphin Fountain in Rose Garden in Hyde Park, London. Photo taken Aug. 3, 2014 by anonymous contributor

Roger Cohen asserts that anti-Zionism in Europe is “often” anti-semitism.

Fury over Palestinian civilian casualties has risen to a fever pitch in Europe, moving beyond anti-Zionism into anti-Semitism (often a flimsy distinction).

Now maybe that’s true; certainly some anti-Zionism crosses over into anti-Semitism (see the picture above, from an anonymous friend of the site, just yesterday in London).

At least he said “often” and not always. I’m waiting for the day when Cohen says that Zionism is “often” racism. He doesn’t have to say it is inherently racist. It’s not racist to wish that there was some way to have a Jewish state without hurting the rights of others. That’s not how it worked out.

Or he could say that most if not all of the support for Israel’s actions is racist–that the moral blindness in much of America’s Jewish community is racist. He does allude to the blindness, but he won’t take the next step and treat the racists in the Jewish community the way he tars opposition to Israel’s actions in Europe.

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@- Donald

Now that even MJ Rosenberg, the unrepentant hunter of anti semitic posters on MW, has finally had the blinds lifted from his eyes, and sees Israel as the vile nation that it is, it is not improbable that Roger Cohen and others will have the same epiphany someday.

Another Zionist looking to control language & stamp out free speech. Next…

Donald: At least he said “often” and not always. No he does not say that. He writes the “distinction” is often flimsy. The “moving beyond … into” for him is unrestricted.

(This is the simple rule: if anti-Semitism is not proven at the moment & place of writing, it is a lie).

Actually we dont know who wrote that.

Take this case: Jewish Student Admits Putting Swastikas On Her Own Door
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKYGnIM6wX8

Donald

Thank you for your article.

But one major point: What Roger Cohen asserts is not true, at least not here in Germany. His big lie is in the word “moving” as in “moving beyond anti-Zionism into anti-Semitism.”

There were detailed studies here in Germany and they revealed the opposite is the truth. The findings were very clear: there is still quite a large group of people in Germany which have generally racist worldviews. Politically they are to be found on the extreme far right spectrum following ideologies like Neo-Nazism.

This group of people that has generally racist worldviews is usually as much Anti-Muslim as it is Anti-Semitic. As Turks and people of Turkish origian are the largest Muslim group in Germany the Anti-Muslim ressentiment often comes as Anti-Turkish ressentiment packed as anti-immigration demand like “Turks Out!” The Anti-Semitic ressentiment in it’s sharp form is not often heared in public, last not least because, in difference to anti-Muslim ressentiments, law enforcement is quite strict in Anti-Semitic matters, and German mass media, who have no problem of stirring up Anti-Muslim ressentiments, don’t do that against Jews.

Therefore, what really happens is that Anti-Semitic ressentiments are sometimes disguised as Anti-Zionism – especially by the far right. That is what we can see quite often. This racists come then to Anti-Zionist or Pro-Palestinian demonstrations, masking their racist Anti-Semitic ressentiments as Anti-Zionism. People organizing demonstrations against Zionist racism have a hard time of pushing such racist anti-semitic rightwing extremists away. As they usually come playing “concerned citizens from the middle” – it’s not alway easy to notice who they are. So Anti-Semitics moving into Anti-Zionism is quite common.

But what I very, very rarely, almost never, have seen, is that anti-Zionists move into anti-Semitism as asserted by Roger Cohen. All Anti-Zionists I know here are Anti-Zionists because they hate racism, and they see Zionism as racism. Roger Cohen tries to give the false impression that Anti-Zionist views are a kind of a light form of racism, from which people then move to Anti-Semitic views, like Anti-Zionism would be a kind of “gateway drug” for Anti-Semitism.

But that’s absolutely not true. That’s the big lie Roger Cohen tries to spread. It’s other way around, some anti-semitic and otherwise racist people moved to mask themselves sometimes, maybe even often, as Anti-Zionist.