The Soft Antisemitism of Selective Facts

Law enforcement at the scene of the Temple attack (Spectrum)

It continues to amaze me how much of the mainstream media, in its effort to appear objective, ends up engaging in little more than Israel-bashing. Which, by association, often means Jew-bashing.

I’m tired of the claim that criticizing Israel does not make one antisemitic. In theory that may be true. In practice, it often isn’t. When a country defines itself as a Jewish state, constant denunciation of that country inevitably becomes denunciation of the people it represents.

The common defense is that critics aren’t attacking Jews, only Israel’s leaders. But in a democracy, that’s a distinction without much difference. Israel elects its leaders. When critics accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of war crimes, they are not only condemning him but also millions of Israelis who voted for him. And opposition partieson both the right and left that openly support his policies.

Of course it is possible to criticize Israel without being antisemitic. Jews do it all the time. Anyone familiar with Israeli politics knows that some of the harshest critics of the Israeli government are Israelis themselves. Even the Charedi community, which often clashes with the government, expresses a level of venom toward it that sometimes exceeds the rhetoric heard from anti-Israel members of Congress.

But the source of the criticism matters. When I hear claims such as ‘Netanyahu dragged America into a forever war with Iran’ or that ‘Netanyahu has taken over the Pentagon’, I hear echoes of something much older and darker. These accusations draw on classic antisemitic tropes - the idea that Jews secretly control governments and manipulate world events. Those who use this language may deny it, even vehemently. But when they speak of Jews controlling American leaders, they are channeling ideas that long predate modern politics.

There is also a subtler problem. In the name of being ‘even-handed’. The media often feels compelled to ‘explain’ violence against Jews almost as soon as it occurs. As though the tragedy itself were incomplete without context...

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