A new Reut Group study on anti-Zionism’s steady gains in U.S. discourse sounds like reefer madness of an Islamophobic character: There’s an “Islamo-leftist” coalition of progressives allying with Muslims associated with “Muslim Brotherhood organizations” that are “driven by a vision of establishing an Islamic Caliphate.” Who knew! Jewish progressives have taken this new order to heart, and they “undermine” Jewish “identity, values, narrative, and relations with Israel.”
Israel advocates are pushing a new front. They say that progressive are antisemitic when they characterize Jews as privileged, and don’t acknowledge history and “the unique collective Jewish vulnerability.” So the anti-Zionist understanding that Israel is a powerful settler-colonial state is antisemitic because that leaves out the origins of Zionism in Jewish persecution in Europe, according to Jonathan Greenblatt of ADL and the Reut Group of Tel Aviv.
Moving on from the IHRA definition of antisemitism that bars harsh criticism of Israel, an Israel lobby group says that U.S. progressives usurp the Jewish right to identify as “unique historic” victims, and this “antisemitism” is now threatening Israel’s status as a bipartisan cause. The report singles out Rashida Tlaib and SNL! And it was written by an AIPAC veteran.