Why antisemitism and anti-Zionism are so deeply intertwined

[Mosby]

Approaching my 80th birthday, I realize that as a Jew, I’ve lived a honeymoon life. Born at the tail end of World War II, I grew up with antisemitism by and large under control, as even vicious Jew haters were reticent to attack Jews. To some extent, I believe, the world’s guilt over either its complicity or inactivity as 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust silenced the enemies of our people.

This doesn’t mean anti-Semitism was not a serious problem, especially in recent decades. There were vicious antisemites and horrific antisemitic incidents that had to be condemned. The likes of Louis Farrakhan and David Duke needed to be confronted head on. Events like the 1991 murder of Yankel Rosenbaum, a Hasidic Lubavitch scholar stabbed to death by a Jew-hating mob, brought fear into the hearts and souls of the Jewish community. Still, antisemitism was not endemic.

Eight decades after the Holocaust, however, the Shoah is in the rearview mirror. For much of the world, it is a footnote in history. Its memory no longer stymies antisemites, who were always hiding in the shadows and have now surfaced with fury.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/23/opinions/israel-gaza-antisemitism-anti-zionism-purim-weiss/index.html

[Richard D]

1. I am astounded at the re-branding of Zionism . . .

. . . as something evil. It is, from the beginning, and the beginning was very long ago, the desire of the Jewish people to have their indigenous homeland back. As the Oxford Dictionary says:

Zi·on·ism
/ˈzīəˌnizəm/
noun
noun: Zionism

a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann.

Long before it was a political ideology, it was deep inside of the Jewish soul. It had it's origin in the Babylonian exile which began March 16, 597 BCE,

Psalm 137 speaks to this so eloquently across time and space:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps.
For there they that led us captive required of us words of song, and our tormentors [required of us] mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget [her cunning].
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase [it], rase [it], even to the foundation thereof.
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that repayeth thee as thou hast served us.
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

Simply, anyone who is anti-zionist is against the very idea of Jews having a homeland. Since Zion (Jerusalem) is an inherent longing of the Jewish soul, anti-zionism is antisemitism, for it speaks against that deep longing of the very soul of the Jewish people.

So yes. Color me a proud Jew and a proud Zionist.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Russia

It all started with a Russian disinformation campaign in the mid/late 70's, with the focus on the Arab and Muslim world, but they, being mater propagandists, also hit countries in Africa. I have never read anything that showed they also went after South America or the Caribbean, but I would assume it happened.