You guys, when you say things like “How is it that any criticism of Israel is labeled as anti-Semitic,” please think about how you like it when men say “How is it that anything I say about women they get angry” or when white people say “why are black people so touchy about everything I say” and think about how that makes these people sound.
I have several Zionist friends who passionately defend Israel’s actions. NONE OF THEM have EVER said that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic online or in conversation with me. I have many many Jewish friends who are unhappy with Israel’s actions talk with me privately about how much it hurts them to see their friends using anti-Semitic language when criticizing Israel.
If you want to criticize Israel and not be accused of being anti-Semitic, don’t say anti-Semitic things when criticizing Israel. It’s really not that hard.
If you want to read more about the language that people are using that is Anti-Semitic to avoid it, here is an excellent piece on this by a woman who is feeling much nicer about you than I am right now:
If you’ve spent any time discussing or reading about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I guarantee you’ve heard some variation of this statement:
OMG, Jews think any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic!
In the interests of this post, I’m going to assume that the people who express such sentiments are acting in good faith and really don’t mean to cause pain to or problems for Diaspora Jewry. For those good-faith people, I present some guidelines for staying on the good side of that admittedly murky line, along with the reasoning why the actions I list are problematic.
Haddayr Copley-Woods 