Anti-semitism is for fools and bigots, anti-Zionism is for those who love peace and justice.

This article is part of a series on disgusting US-led imperialism

Patrice Greanville

Dr. Paul Ehrlich (w. Dr Sahachiro Hata), at his research institute. Ehrlich, who won a Nobel for his efforts against syphilis, tuberculosis, and other diseases, pioneered the use of antibiotics, "magic bullets", among many other advances in medical chemistry. Humanity is indebted to people like Dr. Ehrlich.

Anti-semitism, especially of the indiscriminate visceral kind, rooted in blind hatred and ignorance, is vile because it paints a big, highly-diversified cultural and ethnic community with the same brush, while denying its numerous accomplishments. Humanity's debt to Jews is considerable: we find it in the contributions of men of science from Maimonides in 12th century Spain, down to Nobelists Dr Paul Ehrlich, the father of antibiotics ("magic bullets") and first healer of syphilis in 1909, as well as pioneer in a multitude of diagnostics,  to Dr Jonas Salk, of Polio conquering fame, son of Ashkenazi Jews from Minsk, Belarus, to Baruch Blumberg (Nobel for Hepatitis B vaccine), with hundreds of others before and after. In the struggle for social justice, authentic democracy, and a peaceful world, Jews occupy a distinguished place and continue to do so. Karl Marx is of course the titan in this category, but there are countless others who also fought for a better world as union organizers and civil rights organizers, or soldiers (the Lincoln Battalion in Spain was headed at one point by a Jew, Milt Wolff, who also fought in WW2 with distinction, and later became involved in civil rights and against the Vietnam War ), while many Jews have also gained prominence in many other fields, including literature, music, physics, chemistry, the academia, motion pictures, the theater, and cultural criticism. This is so obvious that it almost requires no mention.

Regrettably, some Jews have also been prominent in this late-stage imperialist phase of the United States as nefarious advisors and foreign policy shapers. Neocons like Irving and Bill Kristol, Elliott Abrams, Robert Kagan and Victoria Nuland, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Tom Friedman, and many others of the same plumage have left and are still leaving an ugly stain on the image of all Jews, and enabling the spurious hate-filled rationales of many hard core anti-semites. Haaretz itself, which, incidentally, despite its obvious flaws as an organ embedded in an imperialist culture, is a much better paper than the New York Times (or the WaPo, for that matter) has admitted that much. Writing on 02.04.2003, Ari Shavit noted that, "The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservative intellectuals, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to change the course of history. Two of them, journalists William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer, say it's possible. But another journalist, Thomas Friedman (not part of the group), is skeptical." (bold italics mine). 

Neturei Karta adherents demonstrating against Israeli oppression of Palestinians.

Opposition to Zionism, of course, is a different thing. Zionism is an ideology, not an ethnic/cultural community, an ideology which provides the philosophical justifications for the creation and actions of modern Israel, by now an openly de facto Apartheid state. Many Jews—secular and religious— are anti-zionist, including many Orthodox Jews, such as Naturei Karta (part of other currents chiefly found in the Hasidic tradition). Thus, contrary to the deliberate confusion instigated by Israeli Hasbara to cripple critics of Israel by accusing them of "anti-semitism" (a charge taken up with alacrity by the Atlantic establishment, and spearheaded by the liberals "cancel culture" which is busy promoting anti-Constitutional laws to silence Israel's critics), it's perfectly possible to be an anti-zionist without being anti-semitic, and many brave Jews are. Norman Finkelstein, one of Israel's bêtes noires, who lost both parents to the Nazis, even wrote the highly controversial book, The Holocaust Industry, arguing that deliberate propaganda to whitewash Israeli policies and fortify support for the often isolated Jewish state had vitiated the real suffering of millions of Jews and even commodified it in the actions of fundraisers and hucksters like Elie Wiesel (a longtime favorite of middlebrow queen Oprah Winfrey). Against this contentious backdrop, Tel Aviv's cynically abetted confusion between anti-semite and anti-zionist can prosper and, from an imperial standpoint, pay off handsomely, as was recently seen in the enormous kerfuffle over anti-semitism accusations that engulfed and eventually doomed Jeremy Corbyn's bid for the UK premiership. 

What can we learn from all this messy history? The bottom line is that racial and ethnic generalizations are socially and politically dangerous, not to mention possibly immoral. Using that perspective, we can argue that anti-semitism, historically grounded in arbitrary generalizations, cannot be equated to anti-zionism, which is planted in specifics, far firmer terrain, and is historically verifiable.

Odious generalizations can and often do occur in the case of any nation engaged in crimes against humanity, chiefly through imperialist war or domestic oppression of minorities, or internal tyranny. Thus, as it is wrong to accuse all Jews of certain despicable qualities (which are often shared by many other national and ethnic subdivisions of the human race), it is also a gross error to accuse anyone opposing Nazism with hatred for all Germans, and the same goes for those anticommunists who indulge in rabid Russophobia. Same argument can be made regarding the normally heinous US imperialism, a historical evil of almost unique proportions. Opposing the depraved imperialist cliques that misrule the US is not a license to hate all Americans, per se, since, despite their invisibility on the US billionaire-owned media many Americans are objectively anti-imperialists (reason why their sense of decency is constantly manipulated to make them accomplices in imperial crimes) and many more would be subjectively anti-imperialist if they were properly educated and informed. To see that, of course, we'll have to wait ad calendas graecas.

To conclude, being anti-Zionist, being in firm opposition to Israel's criminal policies toward Palestinians, its meddling and depredations in Syria, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, as well as its constant and reckless warmongering against Iran, Lebanon and other nations, and last but definitely not least, Jerusalem's sordid partnership with the US in a broad array of imperialist adventures, is defensible and justified. Meanwhile, the material below, featuring eloquent British Jewish voices denouncing the collaboration of many establishment Jews with the forces which would like to muzzle all criticism of Israel, especially within the ranks of the Labour Party, a completely spurious claim that derailed Jeremy Corbyn's candidacy, proves the disgusting moral emptiness of anti-semitism in all its variants, and the fact that it is often class, more than any other factor, that colors a person's moral and political stance.

New video from #JustJews: Jews have never spoken with just one voice. #BoardofDeputies#ManyJewishVoicespic.twitter.com/KSpyy8Sqcw

— Just Jews (@JustJewsUK) August 6, 2020

Jewish mathematician Moshé Machover was born in 1936 under the British mandate in Palestine: says accusation that the Labour Party is riddled with antisemitism "doesn't correspond to any evidence that I've heard of." pic.twitter.com/HLAhfZz8rd

— Just Jews (@JustJewsUK) March 13, 2020