The BEST way to fight antisemitism is to stand up to Netanyahu. [View all]

[Ken Burch]

At one point, it appeared to most people of good will and decent intent that the best way to fight the scourge of antisemitism was to give unquestioning, unconditional support to the State of Israel in general and, in particular, whatever the Israeli government of the day claimed that it had to do in the name of what it called "security"...and to provide whatever assistance, particularly military assistance, that state claimed to need.

It has now become clear that support and military aid provided to ANY Israeli government involving the Likud Party and the coalition partners of Likud which take positions to Likud's right actually increases antisemitism and puts both the Jewish population of Israel AND of the Diaspora into imminent physical danger.

Binyamin Netanyahu has demonstrated, by his actions, that he does not want Jews to live in safety outside of Israel and that he does not wish Israel itself to ever make peace with its neighbors. All that Netanyahu and his cabinet do seems clearly designed to create nothing but rage towards Israel among the surrounding countries and hatred not only of Israeli actions but of Israel itself and of Jews as a group(despite the fact that Jewish people outside of Israel are neither responsible for the actions of Netanyahu's government nor united in support of those actions). While the vast, indeed the overwhelming majority of those who oppose the bombing of Gaza are passionate opponents of antisemitism, Netanyahu's actions have created many opportunities for those who hate Jews to take advantage of the situation and spread their poison much farther than they could have otherwise. And this is exactly what Netanyahu wanted.

In this, he is acting as the true heir of the reprehensible political tradition from which he sprang-Revisionist Zionism, the hate-based, hopelessness-based, reactionary strain of the Zionist movement which holds that antisemitism can never be brought to an end, that a Jewish state can never live in peace with the Arabs, that the Palestinians must all be driven away from their land, and that every Jewish person in the world should move to Israel-which would make the rest of the world voluntarily Judenrein and give the antisemites exactly what the want.

This is not only a hopeless vision for the Palestinians, it is also a hopeless vision for both the Jewish population of Israel but for all of those in the Diaspora...it means giving up forever on the rest of the world, it means being trapped in a tiny and likely permanently right-wing and ultra-religious(in solely the joyless, bigoted and repressive sense)state, it means nothing but despair under the desert sun.

We can't let Israelis, Palestinians, Diaspora Jews or the rest of the planet be doomed to Netanyahu's life-hating vision of the future.

The way to defeat antisemitism is not through unquestioning support of ANY state, but to the creation of an uncompromising global campaign for human liberation and against ALL forms of hatred and bigotry, as well as all forms of exploitation and inequality.

In the mean time, we should suspend all further military aid to Israel(or any other Middle Eastern country)as long as the anti-peace, anti-justice and anti-hope Netanyahu government(or any parties currently within it)remains in power. To do otherwise is to work for permanent war in the region.

Hate can never be defeated in a world that remains unjust, or by a state that sees injustice as security.