COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT
"Over-zealous
attacks on Israel 'anti-semitism by proxy'"
I'm sorry, but that is a rather twisted assertion by Chris
Bryant, representing a bizarre new formulation of familiar, tiresome name-calling.
In a free country people are able to attack the abhorrent
behavior of other states and leaders, full stop.
The conflation of criticism of the state of Israel with
anti-Semitism is a low tactic used so much it is wearing extremely thin.
You criticize me; I call you an ugly name.
Israel's behavior is atrocious and ignores all laws and conventions
in the world, and it cannot ever be anti-Semitic to say so.
It kills regularly, it imprisons large numbers without
rights, it steals homes and farms regularly, it holds millions as prisoners
with no rights, it engages in hideous practices such as using herbicides on swaths
of Gaza or spraying people with sewerage, and it is ultimately responsible for
countless wars including the American neocon rampage through the Middle East
killing a million people.
Decent, thoughtful people cannot just accept that, saying
nothing, and, actually, the day they ever do, our world be under greater threat
than ever.
But with the mindless, almost reflexive practice of calling
decent people names – even Jimmy Carter has been treated this way - Israel and
its apologists only have succeeded in making "anti-Semitism" an
increasingly meaningless word, much like the old fable about yelling
"wolf" too often.
Chris Bryant's "anti-Semitism by proxy" is just
one more effort, and a pathetic one, to intimidate and shut people up.
