When Does Criticizing Israel Become Antisemitic?

Human Rights Give the Answer


Allen Z. Hertz was senior advisor in the Privy Council Office serving Canada's Prime Minister and the federal cabinet. He formerly worked in Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and earlier taught history and law at universities in New York, Montreal, Toronto and Hong Kong. He studied history and languages at Montreal's McGill University (B.A.), and then East European, Balkan and Ottoman history at New York's Columbia University (M.A., Ph.D.). He later earned international law degrees from Cambridge University (LL.B.) and the University of Toronto (LL.M.).

Foreword

An earlier version of this article was published on the Opinion Page of the Jerusalem Post, on February 17, 2009. There are also Chinese-  and Hebrew-language versions posted to this website. The relationship among Jews, the Jewish People and Israel is more deeply explored in this website's May 2020 posting entitled "Aboriginal Rights of the Jewish People."


Jews, the Jewish People and Israel

Israel says that it is the Jewish State -- namely, the political expression of the self-determination of the Jewish People in a part of its aboriginal homeland. So, let us begin with the Jewish People. Under that same name, a then self-identified "Jewish" People has persisted for about 26 centuries in a variety of venues, including always in its birthplace.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary says antisemitism means “hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group.” This definition reminds us that Jews are more than simply adherents of a particular religion. Namely, Jews also self-identify as an ethno-cultural group, a tribe, a People -- just as there is a Japanese or an Italian People.

Today, most Jews around the world see themselves as part of the Jewish People, including within the context of the modern political and legal doctrine of the self-determination of Peoples. And in this optic, those who link together the three concepts of "Palestinians" and "the Palestinian People" and a putative "Palestine" would clearly have some logical difficulty simultaneously denying that the very same juridical ties connect Jews and the Jewish People to an actual country called Israel.

Firewall between criticism of Israel and antisemitism?

Like other countries, Israel has features that invite criticism. But, crafting a fair and non-discriminatory critique is troublesome because it requires something like sound social science, respect for natural justice, consideration of generally-applicable norms, reference to the usual practice of States, as well as giving reasons to support particular judgments.

Thus, criticizing Israel is not necessarily antisemitic. But, it is untrue to say that there is a logical distinction that prevents a persistent pattern of bitter criticism of Israel from ever being antisemitic. To the contrary, the methodologies applied in more than a half-century of modern human-rights law make it clear that a persistent pattern of targeting Israel with unfair and discriminatory criticism is antisemitic.

Why can criticism of Israel become antisemitic?

A persistent pattern of discriminatory criticism of Israel is antisemitic because modern human-rights methodologies are astute enough to examine not only a pattern of impugned speech or conduct but also the likely effects of that pattern. Consider the following:

• Jews have been an historically-victimized People for close to 2,000 years, just as the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada and African-Americans have also been historically victimized over shorter periods of time.
• Now with over 40% of the world’s Jewish population, Israel is the historic and current homeland of the Jewish People, just as Greece is the ancestral and modern home of the Greek People.

In terms of modern human-rights methodologies, the conclusion must be that a persistent pattern of discriminatory criticism of Israel is antisemitic, because likely to harm the more than six million Jews there, who are 75% of that country's population.

Critics of Israel linked to Jew-haters?

An imaginary watertight compartment separating Israel from the Jewish People is as improbable as trying to uncouple the notion of China from the Han Chinese People or Turkey from the Turkish People. This is an important point because the hallmark of the modern antisemite is precisely reliance on the improbable and unpersuasive claim that there is a clear line that prevents a persistent pattern of bitter criticism of Israel from ever being antisemitic.

To the contrary, statistical evidence suggests links between critics of Israel and antisemites. Firstly, public-opinion polls tend to show a clear correlation between respondents who strongly oppose Israel and those with marked negative feelings towards Jews and Judaism. Secondly, police records from Europe and elsewhere reveal spikes in local antisemitic incidents coincident with major military actions involving Israel, e.g., in Lebanon (2006) and Gaza (2008-2009, 2012).

Moreover, anti-Israel terrorist groups regularly target local Jews in foreign countries, as in the deadly premeditated attacks in: 1994 on the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires; 2008 on Chabad House in Mumbai; and 2012 on the Ozar Hatorah School in Toulouse. Thus, those who justify or explain local antisemitism by pointing to alleged misdeeds by Israel are simultaneously acknowledging the obvious link between Israel and the Jewish People.


Calls to kill 6 million Jews are antisemitic!

Our understanding of the meaning of "antisemitism" can obviously include a single, strong expression such as “Nuke Israel!” For example, exactly such an horrific wish was expressed by famed Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012). Along with some other left-wing Jews of his generation, he was a long-time Communist, who bitterly opposed Israel. Hobsbawm's shocking statement was evidently antisemitic, because it called for using nuclear weapons to kill Israel's more than six million Jews, who now constitute the world's single largest Jewish community.

Famed historian Eric Hobsbawm said
a nuclear bomb should be dropped on Israel.

A broader meaning of antisemitism?

In addition to the hatred of Jews evident in that one, terrible statement by Hobsbawm, modern human-rights methodologies have no difficulty understanding as antisemitic, persistent patterns of discriminatory criticism of Israel. Thus, the modern meaning of "antisemitism" also includes persistently targeting Jews and/or Israel and persistently applying to Jews and/or Israel a more exigent standard than regularly applied to other Peoples and countries, in the same or similar circumstances.

Friends of Israel may also be said to “target” Israel in the sense that they too focus on Israel. Friends are disposed to pay more attention to Israel than to other countries. But, they are unlikely to seek to tar Israel by persistently expecting more from Israel than from other countries, in the same or similar circumstances. To the contrary, friends are likely to defend Israel by applying normal standards or even by trying to apply less demanding standards.

Antisemites also persistently target Israel, but then go further to consistently judge Israel according to strict criteria that they do not regularly apply to other countries, in the same or similar circumstances. Antisemites aim to portray Israel in a negative light. Their underlying motivation is sinister, in that they seek to defame Israel to fabricate justifications for extreme measures likely to do grave harm to the more than six million Jews there.

Why is antisemitism so powerful?

Because of explicit pejorative references to Jews and Judaism, the texts of both the Christian Gospels and the Muslim Koran have directly played a role in spawning civilizations with exceptional attitudes towards Jews and Judaism. In the Western and Islamic worlds, many individuals find it natural to harbor distinctive (often negative) views about Jews and Judaism.

Thus, there is often a lack of awareness that the prevailing cultural software has been so significantly infected by the virus of antisemitism. For this reason, many individuals remain comfortable persistently targeting Jews and/or Israel and persistently applying to Jews and/or Israel a more exigent standard than regularly applied to other Peoples and countries, in the same or similar circumstances.

Adolf Hitler began with discrimination against Jews,
then persecution and finally genocide.

How did the Holocaust begin?

Shouting “Dirty Jew!” or attacking Jews in pogroms or sending Jews to die in concentration camps are obviously antisemitic. But many individuals in the Western and Islamic Worlds have a blind spot that prevents them from recognizing antisemitism in many other toxic manifestations, that fall short of the concentration-camp gates.

Here it helps to recall the 1940's Holocaust that killed six million Jews in Europe. That horrendous crime traced its immediate origins to 1933, when Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler began a comprehensive program of well-organized discrimination that persistently singled out Jews, via wide-ranging legal and bureaucratic expedients.

In the same way, modern antisemites contrive strategies to support persistent patterns of bitter discrimination, e.g., by targeting Israel in organs of the United Nations. The plan is to demonize Israel by persistently judging it according to a more exigent standard than regularly applied to other countries, in the same or similar circumstances. The ultimate goal is to justify destroying Israel and killing the more than six million Jews there.
 
Jewish antisemites?

Many Jews fail to understand that the modern meaning of antisemitism includes any persistent pattern of discrimination against Jews and/or Israel. There are also Jews who falsely imagine that the ad hominem argument of being Jewish or having Jewish parents (even concentration-camp survivors) is a logical defense to a charge of antisemitism.

However, the fact of being Jewish does not confer on a Jew a special license to engage in persistent patterns of discrimination against Jews and/or Israel. This is reasonable because the harm done by the persistent discrimination offered by some Jews is as real as that done by the antisemitism of non-Jews. In fact, persistent patterns of anti-Israel discrimination by Jews can do even more damage, because Jews can gain greater credibility by trumpeting their own Jewish credentials.

Advertising Holocaust survivor parents, Finkelstein is a USA communist
who has built an academic career that peculiarly focuses on
 attacking the Jewish People and Israel.

An ideological license to discriminate?

With respect to the principle of non-discrimination, human-rights methodologies offer no ideological exemption. Whether secular or religious, neither “the left” nor “the right” has a legal dispensation legitimating persistent patterns of discrimination against Jews and/or Israel. From a human-rights perspective, antisemitism cannot be excused with reference to an alleged greater good to be derived from: Nazism; Fascism; Liberalism; Socialism; Communism; Marxism; Environmentalism; Anti-Colonialism; the Non-Aligned Movement; Judaism; Christianity; Islam; or any other cause, ideology or religion.

Nonetheless, many enemies of Israel remain astonishingly confident in their mistaken belief that their preferred (secular or religious) doctrine entitles them to indulge in such a persistent pattern of discrimination, while simultaneously immunizing them from a human-rights charge of antisemitism. This is a pitiful and hollow illusion.

Intellectual honesty and decency demand that we decry discrimination, including the antisemitism of those who persistently target Jews and/or Israel and persistently apply to Jews and/or Israel a more exigent standard than regularly applied to other Peoples and countries, in the same or similar circumstances.

Anti-Semitism Could Kill Six Million Jews in Israel: Letter to My 94-Year-Old Aunt

Allen Z. Hertz was senior adviser in Canada's Privy Council Office serving the Prime Minister and the federal cabinet. Earlier he was in the Foreign Affairs Department where he advised on intellectual property rights. He participated in treaty negotiations, including for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and represented Canada at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). He wrote the 1987 federal Green Paper on "Semiconductor Chip Protection in Canada" and was founding editor of "Computer Law: A Report for Business and the Professions." He taught history and law at universities in New York, Montreal, Toronto and Hong Kong. As an undergraduate he was at McGill University, and then did graduate work at Columbia University where he received an M.A. and a Ph.D., in history. Dr. Hertz also has international law degrees from Cambridge University and the University of Toronto.


Introduction

This letter to my Aunt Rita builds on my two 2009 Jerusalem Post articles, versions of which also appear on this website. Posted in January 2011, "When Does Criticizing Israel Become Anti-Semitic?" uses contemporary human-rights methodologies to explore the modern meaning of anti-Semitism. Most recently posted in May 2020, "Aboriginal Rights of the Jewish People" interprets Jewish history in the light of the political and legal doctrines of aboriginal rights and the self-determination of Peoples. As previously, the emphasis here is on the key principle of non-discrimination which is fundamental to human-rights methodologies and bedrock for understanding how to properly address matters pertaining to Jews, Judaism, the Jewish People and Israel.


Jews partly to blame in the 1930s?

My question to you about what you thought back in the 1930s assumed that you then already knew that Jews were having a hard time in Europe. I asked you what you then thought about that sad news, because I wanted to know whether at that time you ever imagined that Jews were perhaps partly to blame for the harsh treatment that they were getting from the Nazis. The reason I inquired was to make a telling point about the insidious and persistent nature of anti-Semitism.

Adolf Hitler's persistent expression of hatred for Jews
was prelude to killing 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.

Always a reason for targeting Jews?

In the minds of Jew-haters, there is always a psychologically plausible rationale for abusing Jews. Back in the 1930s and 1940s the rationale was what Germany's leader Adolf Hitler regularly expressed in his mad ravings. Today, the rationale is in the anti-Israel rants of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But you must know that Muslims have generally been despising and oppressing Jews for the last 1400 years. In fact, part of the proof of the continuous presence of Jews in the aboriginal Jewish homeland is the historical evidence showing that, from the Arab conquest in the first half of the 7th century CE, Jews there were victims of persistent discrimination and periodic persecution.




Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
seeks political gain via fanning Muslim hatred for Jews and Israel.

Anti-Semitism an illness?

Also tainting the minds of some Jews, anti-Semitism is simultaneously a toxic ideology and a mental disorder. Anti-Semites are emotionally predisposed to believe bad things about Jews, Judaism, the Jewish People and Israel. Anti-Semites are emotionally unable to discipline themselves to regularly apply to Jews, the Jewish People and Israel the identical standards regularly applied to other Peoples and countries, in the same or similar circumstances.

This persistent discrimination is nourished by stubborn cognitive dissonance regarding Jewish history and peoplehood. The circumstance that the Jewish People has been under history's spotlight for more than two millennia does not deter anti-Semites from ambivalence or rejection with respect to key issues such as: the Jewish People's existence as a People like other Peoples; its political right to self-determination; and its aboriginal right to live safely in its historic homeland. There, in greater or lesser numbers, self-identified "Jews" have lived in each and every year since antiquity.


Some Jews anti-Semitic?

Recent days again prove that there are some outspoken Jews whose minds have fallen prey to anti-Semitism. And how could it be otherwise? The larger Western and Muslim societies have for centuries been warped by an enduring discrimination against Judaism, Jews and the Jewish People that is one of the ideological foundation stones of both civilizations. Therefore I can understand why some Jews are themselves uncomfortable and discriminatory with regard to Jewish topics, including matters touching Israel. Whether consciously or not, their thinking is biased by the anti-Semitism that is almost everywhere around them. And, there have always been some Jews who seek substantial personal gain by ostentatiously attacking Judaism, Jews, the Jewish People and Israel.

Advertising Holocaust survivor parents,
USA academic Norman Finkelstein has built a career
that focuses on attacking the Jewish People and Israel. 

Jews escape by betraying their own People?

Some highly-placed French Jews of the 1930s and 1940s scorned their pitiful Jewish cousins from Eastern Europe. In fact, there were some elite French Jews who shared many of the anti-Semitic feelings of their Christian neighbours. But, that demonstration of Jewish solidarity with Christian prejudice did not save those snobbish French Jews from the Nazi gas chambers, as was discovered by a long-time Jewish friend of the Vichy French leader Marshall Philippe Pétain.


Primed to believe bad things about Israel?

Like some non-Jews, there are now Jews in Europe and North America strangely expert on the topic of "the many crimes" of Israel. But truth be told, Israel is a country like any number of other countries, though one now in a particularly tight situation.

This recalls to mind the 1990s when Canada was in peril. Then, the international press had already given up on Canada which "smart talk" predicted would collapse in the face of Quebec separatism. What nonsense that turned out to be! But such faulty assessments occur when the media relentlessly push a skewed story line. By contrast, proper journalism requires fairness, including the presentation of relevant facts in a broad, horizontal context.

Sad to say, fairness and a comparative optic are generally absent in reporting about Israel. This in itself is a manifestation of the tsunami of anti-Semitism now washing over Europe and the Mideast, but also with major impacts elsewhere.


Israel linked to the Jewish People?

The more than 6.5 million Jews living in Israel are now the world's single largest Jewish community. Israel's Jews steadily approach half of world Jewry and are 75% of that small country's total population. Worldwide, most Jews see Israel as "the Jewish State." This means that Jews generally regard Israel as their aboriginal homeland and as the political expression of Jewish self-determination as a People, among the world's Peoples. An approach based on modern human-rights methodologies would therefore understand the topic of Israel as inextricably linked to that of the Jewish People, which for close to 2,000 years has been an historically-victimized entity.


Enhanced protection?

Questions regarding the Jewish People and Israel deserve the same empathy and sensitivity normally accorded matters touching, e.g., Black Americans and the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada. The latter two populations are also instances of historically-victimized groups, which human-rights methodologies significantly identify as meriting: apology for deep historical wrongs; significant reparation; and enhanced protection in the form of extra vigilance against renewed attempts to re-victimize that same disadvantaged group.

In the same way and to a similar (or greater) extent -- apology, reparation and extra vigilance are also owed to the Jewish People whose centuries-long sufferings have certainly been no less than that of Black Americans and the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada. Modern human-rights methodologies can therefore offer some criteria as starting points for crafting fair assessments of Israel.


Human rights suggest what?

1. Fair criticism is fine, but try to avoid "loose talk" likely to be discriminatory -- because Israel is home to the Jewish People, for close to two millennia a preeminent example of an historically-victimized population.

2. Anti-Israel words and deeds are prima facie suspect with reference to a chronic tendency to discriminate against Jews, which has been historically epidemic in Western and Islamic countries.

3. No other People has suffered more deeply than the Jewish People and no other People has greater entitlement to protection from the hate speech and evil-doing of racists, bigots and ideologues.

4. Because Jews, Judaism, and the Jewish People are owed fairness and sound social science, accusations require reasoned substantiation that must always apply to Israel standards identical to those regularly applied to other countries, in the same or similar circumstances.

5. The modern meaning of "anti-Semitism" includes persistently targeting Israel and persistently applying to Israel a more exigent standard than regularly applied to other countries, in the same or similar circumstances.


Anti-Semites on Jews and Israel

Anti-Semites (including some Jews) invert the foregoing propositions. First, they are notoriously incautious with regard to their wild talk about Israel which they savagely attack on every possible occasion. Second, anti-Semites are emotionally disposed to instantly credit even the most improbable anti-Israel accusations. Third, anti-Semites regularly accord Jews, the Jewish People and Israel less protection than normally afforded other Peoples and countries. Fourth, anti-Semites consistently fail to regularly apply to Jews, the Jewish People and Israel, the identical standards regularly applied to other Peoples and countries, in the same or similar circumstances. And these are not trivial sins!


Propaganda war against Israel?

No small country could easily survive the weight of such comprehensive and persistent discrimination. We in Canada ought to know this when we reflect on the endless lies separatists told about our great constitutional democracy. There was then a propaganda war against Canada, as today there is an even more dangerous campaign of discriminatory misinformation aimed at harming Israel and the Jewish People. If unchecked, this persistent discrimination could significantly contribute to the likelihood of Israel's defeat, probably resulting in the death or flight of the more than 6.5 million Jews there.


Killing another 6 million Jews?

Whether by Jews or non-Jews, such persistent discrimination is reprehensible beyond description! Dare we forget the Holocaust of the 1940s? And in centuries past, there were also many other large-scale attacks on Jews, whether by Christians in Europe or by Muslims in the Islamic lands.

Historically, anti-Semitism has shown itself to be an "action item." This means that expressions of hatred for Judaism and the Jewish People have in the past paved the way for further forms of discrimination, including persecution and the widespread killing of Jews. So, we can readily understand that persistently discriminating against Israel could similarly lead to the killing of the Jews there, by one or more of conventional, chemical, bacteriological and nuclear weapons.


Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad
expresses hatred for the Jewish People and Israel.
Is this "hate speech" prelude to killing the Jews there?

对以色列的批评何时会演变成反犹主义言论？

Allen Z. Hertz, Ph.D.  贺雅士 博士

作者曾作为高级顾问任职于加拿大枢密院办公室为加拿大总理和联邦内阁工作。此前，作者还曾在纽约、蒙特利尔、多伦多和香港的多所大学教授历史和法律。作者现居华南。

A senior philosopher from a leading Chinese university prepared this Chinese-language version of "When Does Criticizing Israel Become Anti-Semitic?" The essay originally appeared on the Opinion page of the Jerusalem Post on February 17, 2009. A revised English-language version and a Hebrew-language translation are also available on this website.

犹太人是一个民族吗？


根据梅兰姆-韦伯斯特在线词典(Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)的解释，反犹主义是“针对作为一个宗教、族裔或种族的犹太人群的敌意或歧视”。这个定义提醒我们，犹太人并非单纯指那些固执信奉一个特定宗教的人；犹太人还作为一个文化族裔群体、一个部族、一个民族来认定自己的身份，正如日本人、意大利人将自己认定为一个民族那样。


对以色列的批评与反犹主义之间的“防火墙”？


像其他任何国家一样， 以色列也有其可批评之处。但是，提出公允的批评并非易事，因为这要求人们做到以下几点：尊重自然正义、考虑普遍适用的规范、参照一般国家的通行惯例，以及给出合理论证以支持具体判断。因此，可以说，批评以色列并不必然意味着反犹。然而，下面的看法却是站不住脚的，即认为以固定模式对色列持续地进行的激烈批评和反犹言论之间存在一个逻辑的划分标准。恰恰相反，实施了半个多世纪的现代人权法方法论充分表明，以固定的模式针对以色列进行歧视性的批评是反犹的。


为什么对以色列的批评会变成反犹的？


我们说以固定模式针对以色列进行歧视性批评就是反犹，是基于现代人权方法论。这种方法论有充分的敏锐度。它不仅可以检测出受指责的行为的模式，而且还可以探明这种模式的可能后果。我们来考虑下面的情况：(1) 从历史上看，犹太人在去两千多年中是一个备受伤害的民族，正如加拿大的土著人以及非洲裔美国人也曾经受到伤害。（2）如今拥有世界上犹太人口的二分之一的以色列在历史上曾经是而且现在还仍然是犹太民族的祖国，正如希腊是希腊人的祖国。当我们依照现代人权方法论来考虑这两点时，我们就能得出这样的结论，即一个对以色列的歧视性批评的固定模式是反犹主义的，因为它非常可能伤害犹太人。


对以色列的批评从统计上看与反犹主义者相关吗？


以一个想象的密封舱来区隔以色列和犹太民族的做法几乎是不可能的，正如我们无法将中国与汉族分开，或者将土耳其与土耳其人分开。这一点非常重要，因为现代反犹主义的标志就是它依赖如下这个站不住脚的说法，即以固定的模式对以色列进行严厉的批评不会导致反犹主义，因为这中间存在着一条清晰的界限。事实恰恰相反，统计数据表明，对以色列的批评与反犹主义是相连的。首先，民意调查显示，在被访者中，激烈反对以色列的人与对犹太人及犹太教有反感情绪的人之间存在着统计上的相关性。其次，欧洲及其他地方的警察记录显示，针对犹太人的犯罪高峰总是同以色列采取的重大军事行动相伴随，如2006年在黎巴嫩以及最近在加沙的军事行动。不仅如此，针对以色列的恐怖组织也以身处其他国家的犹太人为目标，如1994年在布宜诺斯艾利斯对犹太社区中心发动的恐怖袭击。因此，那些指出以色列的所谓劣行、并以此来为反犹主义进行解释和辩护的人，恰恰认定以色列与犹太民族的联系。


反犹主义当今意味着什么？


现代反犹主义可以包括这样一个突出的、激烈的反犹口号“核攻击以色列！” 这一宣言显然是反犹的，因为它明确号召用核武器杀死近六百万犹太人，即75%的以色列人口，占世界犹太人总人口的一半。然而，除了这种显而易见的个别反犹言论，我们还可以在批评以色列的固定模式中找到一种不断增长的反犹主义。它以这样的方式进行，即总是以犹太人或者以色列为攻击目标；对犹太人和/或以色列所设立的标准总是比为其他民族和国家设立的标准更加苛刻。

对以色列友好的人士也常常因为过于注意以色列而被说成是“针对”以色列。这些人倾向于给以色列较其他国家更多的关注。但他们不大可能对以色列提出高于其他国家的标准并借此来抹黑以色列。恰恰相反，友好人士往往对以色列应用较为宽容的标准，并试图以此来维护以色列。反犹主义者也总是针对以色列，但他们总是进一步用苛刻的标准评判以色列，而这些标准他们一般不加诸其他国家。反犹主义总是试图对以色列进行负面的描绘。这其中所暗藏的动机是险恶的——他们对以色列进行持续不断的污蔑，为的是使人们相信，运用极端手段来伤害犹太人（无论是在以色列的还是在其他地方的犹太人）是正当的。

反犹主义的力量为何如此之大？


在基督教的福音书以及穆斯林的古兰经中都有明确的针对犹太人和犹太教的负面描述，这对于培育歧视犹太人和犹太教的文明起到直接作用。在西方以及伊斯兰世界，许多人觉得对犹太人区别看待（常常是在负面意义上）是非常自然的。然而，人们往往很少意识到，他们身处其中的主流文化早已深深感染了反犹主义的病毒。由于这个原因，许多人持续不断地以犹太人和/或以色列为攻击目标，持续不断地以更为严苛的标准（较之用于其他民族和国家的标准）要求犹太人和/或以色列，而在这样做时他们总是心安理得。


大屠杀是如何开始的？


大声喊出“肮脏的犹太人！”、对犹太人实行有计划的集体屠杀或者把犹太人送往集中营并让他们死在那里，这些做法显然都是反犹。但许多生活在西方及伊斯兰世界的人都有一个盲点，使得他们无法辨别反犹主义其他有害的表现方式。在此我们有必要回顾一下从1939年到1945年发生在欧洲的大屠杀（这场大屠杀杀害了六百万犹太人）。这一恐怖的罪行直接发端于1933年。当时，德国首脑人物阿道夫•希特勒开启了一项精心策划的歧视犹太人的行动方案，通过法律和行政途径将犹太人从其他人当中甄别出来。现代反犹主义者以同样方式谋划各种策略，来支持恶意歧视以色列的固定模式，例如，在联合国的各种组织内。这种策略就是以较之对其他国家更严格的标准来不断苛责以色列，从而达到将其妖魔化的目的。其最终目的就是为毁灭以色列并杀死那里的六百万犹太人辩护。


沾染了反犹色彩的犹太人？


特定的个人指出自己是犹太人或自己的父母是犹太人（甚至自己是集中营的幸存者），所有这些都并不能从逻辑上证明他或她必然不是反犹主义者。在当今的世界中，许多犹太人并不明白，反犹主义的表现之一就是以固定的模式进行针对犹太人和/或以色列的歧视。很多人错误地认为，由于他们自己是犹太人，他们便有资格毫无顾忌地以固定的模式对犹太人和/或以色列进行歧视。然而，犹太人的反犹言论与非犹太人的反犹言论所造成的危害同样真实。事实上，当犹太人以固定的模式发表反以色列的歧视性言论时，他们会造成更大的伤害，因为关于自己是犹太人的鼓吹会给他们带来更大的可信度。


一个容许歧视以色列的意识形态的许可证？

人权方法论中没有任何地方暗示，“左翼”或“右翼”人士有权以固定的模式歧视犹太人和/或以色列。有一类为反犹主义进行的辩护从某个意识形态（如纳粹主义、法西斯主义、社会主义、共产主义、环保主义、反殖民主义、不结盟运动）的立场出发，声称反犹是为了达到所谓更高的目的。这类辩护是完全站不住脚的，不管它以完成什么事业为借口，也不管它基于什么意识形态的理由。然而，许多以色列的敌人却仍对自己的错误想法抱有异乎寻常的信心，他们仍然坚定地相信，其所奉行的学说使他们有权肆无忌惮地以固定的模式进行歧视活动，而同时又可以使他们免于被指责为反犹主义者。这完全是一种可怜而空洞的幻觉。理智的真诚和正直要求我们明确反对这样的反犹主义者，他们持续不断地以犹太人和/或以色列为攻击目标，并总是用更为严苛的标准（较之用于其他民族或国家的标准）要求犹太人和/或以色列。

© Allen Z. Hertz