German Court: Burning Down A Synagogue Isn’t Anti-Semitism, It’s Just Anti-Israel
JANUARY 13, 2017
A German regional court has now declared that burning down synagogues
isn’t anti-Semitic – it’s just anti-Israel. As the Jerusalem Post reports,
according to the court spokesperson, Johannes Pinnel, the three German
Palestinian Arabs who threw Molotov cocktails at a Wuppertal synagogue in
July 2014 weren’t doing anything anti-Jewish. Rather, they were attempting
to create “attention” over the “Gaza conflict” between Israel and the terrorist
group Hamas. The three terrorists, Mohamed E., Ismael A., and
Mohammad A., were given suspended sentences.
Burn down a synagogue in Germany, get off scot-free.
The last time the synagogue went up in flames was 1938 during Kristallnacht.
But this court ruling illustrates that tenuous distinction drawn by anti-Israel
advocates between anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity. Being critical of
Israel’s actions doesn’t make you anti-Semitic, of course – even the most
pro-Israel advocates have been critical of Israel (I was critical of Barak’s
idiotic “peace” offer to terrorist Yassar Arafat, Sharon’s pullout from Gaza,
Olmert’s ridiculous “peace” offer to Abbas). But attacking Jews because of
Israeli actions, or standing against Israel’s right to exist – as, indeed, these
Hamas-backing terrorists did, given that Israel was in a war with Hamas
at the time – is anti-Semitism.
But too many Westerners think that hating Israel is a separate issue from
hating Jews. Burning a synagogue to raise awareness rather than thanks to
Jew-hatred makes perfect sense: by this logic – after all, Israel is a Jewish
state, Israel is bad, Jews live abroad and therefore are emissaries of Israel
whether or not they agree with particular Israeli actions, and therefore
attacking Jews is the same as attacking an Israeli ambassador.
In reality, of course, this justifies any attack on any Jew at any time. It’s the
same anti-Semitic rationale pursued by the Iranian government when they
sponsor terrorist attacks against random synagogues abroad. It’s an excuse
for genocide: collective responsibility for the actions of a state to which you
don’t even belong. It’s also the logic behind boycotts of Israel because you
don’t like their settlement policy: all Israeli Jews must pay for the supposed sins
of a few, and those sins can only be alleviated by policies that lead to the
destruction of the Jewish state (BDS wants a Palestinian “right to return” or
the surrender of territory that would make Israel militarily indefensible).
Israel provides anti-Semites convenient cover for their anti-Semitism. But
that doesn’t mean their hatred for Israel isn’t hatred for Jews, or vice versa.
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