The rationale in this video is excellent. 

One can safely take it to the bank.

But there is another variable not mentioned. That of the actual discussion as to the right of Israel to exist as a state.

To quote a good friend of mine, and of this site,

“If you do not support the right of Israel to exist, you may as well turn on the ovens yourself”.

It is with sorrow that I have come to agree with this statement. No other nation seems to be under discussion as to its right to merely exist, even though a lot of countries were minted at pretty much the same time and under similar conditions. In fact Pakistan was created more recently than Israel and under conditions that more closely resemble the ones that Israel is accused of, rather than actually the ones under which it was forged.

Pakistan was created because Muslims would not agree to be part of a pluralistic state when the British decided to let India become an independent entity free of British colonial rule. They wanted the new nation to be Islamic and under the sharia. When that idea was rejected, well the rest is a rhyme of what Muslims always do when not allowed to rule over everyone else. Create a new Islamic State then branch outwards.

The right of Israel to exist is a separate matter, or rather should be, from criticism of its policies and history. But I have never heard from the popular left any discussion about any other nation’s right to exist.

So in this kinds of discussions I find myself having with locals on occasion they generally go like this.

Generic lefty: “The problem with criticism of Israel is if you say anything bad about the country, you get labelled an antisemite!”

Me: Thats because in every case I have encountered, critics of Israel are using antisemetic arguments, even if they themselves do not think of themselves as antisemites.

No one who calls Israel an apartheid state ever mentions the fact that there are two cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that wont even allow non Muslims in.

No one who talks about the Israeli security wall ever mentions any other border wall from the great wall of China to the Egyptian walls to protect themselves from the exact same people.

No one who talks about Israeli policies ever mentions other nation’s identical policies as problematic, or even fact checks if Israel even has those policies under criticism.

No one who talks about the Jewish lobby ever seems to think the Muslim lobby, which is backed by Saudi oil money and the UN’s OIC and its fifty odd nation states influence might also affect how Canadian and US policies might get set. And its pretty obvious these days exactly which lobby is winning out there.”

That usually ends the discussion. Not because I won it. But because they decide that I am proof of their assertion, that anyone who criticizes Israel gets labeled an antisemite.