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MY P.O.V. - Lies come in many forms, and one of the biggest lies at present comes from the Israeli and US governments. They defend their savagery in Gaza with the claim that accusations of genocide are false, and their critics are anti-Semitic bigots.
The basis for this lie, believed by fewer and fewer people, relies on the disputed definition of anti-Semitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA):
Antisemitism is hatred toward Jews because they are Jews and is directed toward the Jewish religion and Jews individually or collectively. More recently, antisemitism has been manifested in the demonization of the State of Israel.
Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for "why things go wrong". It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits. (It may also be manifested on people mistaken as Jews, or on non-Jews seen as sympathetic to Jews.)
The problems with this definition of anti-Semitism -- that includes criticisms of Israel -- are obvious:
- Some liberal Jewish groups, such as Jewish Voice for Peace and If not Now, are labeled as anti-Semitic. For example, at UCLA, in the spring of 2024, a large anti-genocide encampment included a significant number of Jewish students, many affiliated with these Jewish groups. It was a similar story at the 140 other encampments which students set up at US universities in spring 2024.
- Opposition to apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, is attributed to anti-Jewish bigotry, not principled opposition to the deliberate murder of Gaza Palestinians by Israel through starvation and US-supplied weapons.
- The American Jewish community, numbering between 5 to 7 million people, includes a majority that now believe Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
While the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism ignores Israel and the United States for deliberately slaughtering Palestinians in Gaza, the consensus among genocide scholars and human rights organization is that Israel, with full US government support, is engaged in genocide in Gaza.
Furthermore, both countries have well documented precedents for their role in the Gaza genocide. For the United States the deliberate extermination of Native Americans stands out. In the case of Israel, the forced expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians in 1947-49, as well as the demolition of 500 Palestinian villages has been fully documented.
Unfortunately, careful documentation is not enough since both major political parties in the United States -- Democrats under President Joe Biden and Republicans under President Donald Trump -- play an essential role in the extermination of Gazan Palestinians. Without US weapons, intelligence sharing, and diplomatic support, endless Israeli attacks in Gaza – plus the West Bank, Syria, and Lebanon -- would not be possible. Furthermore, we cannot attribute the genocidal support role of the US government to anti-Palestinian public opinion because a majority of the US public opposes its government role in the Gaza genocide. Less than one-third of the US public now supports its government’s policy of supplying Israel weapons and diplomatic support, a substantial drop from October 2023, when the current Gaza conflict began.
The open question is, therefore, how much longer will both major US political parties ignore the views of their supporters.
(Victor Rothman is a California-based policy analyst. And a frequent contributor to CityWatchLA.com.)
