The New Anti-Semitism of the Left

When John F. Kennedy was in Camelot, the left may have had socialist tendencies, but it stood for freedom of opportunity and was rabidly anti-racist regarding all races. Not so, anymore, or so it seems.

From "The New Anti-Semitism" by James Lewis in The American Thinker [thanks to BenS for the link]:

I never thought I would see an open anti-Semitic political campaign in my lifetime. But after fifty years of skulking in the shadows, the old hatreds are rising like Count Dracula from his mouldy grave. According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, The London Guardian is reporting that the academic boycott against Israel's universities is being revived in Britain.

... The new anti-Zionist campaign calls for the abolition of Israel as a nation, but its supporters on the Left assure us it has nothing to do with racism.... [A]nti-Zionism equals racism, pure and simple. In fact, anti-Zionism, now spreading like wildfire among leftist churches, shows a particularly despicable kind of racism.

This next part really rings true for me:

One of the biggest lies on the Left these days is that there is a difference between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism means advocating the genocide of Jews. Anti-Zionism means advocating the genocide of Jews who live in Israel. I'm puzzled. What's the difference supposed to be?

When the Anglican Church calls for delegitimizing the State of Israel it doesn't use words like "mass murder" or "ethnic cleansing" --- but that is clearly implied. No sane person believes that five million Israeli Jews will simply hop a plane to Argentina or Germany, leaving the land of Israel to the tender mercies of Hamas and Hizbullah. Israeli society is deeply rooted in the love of its land. It can only be driven out with overwhelming force, like the nuclear weapons the Mullahs of Tehran are telling us they are building just for that purpose.

What the Anglican Church is therefore demanding is the abolition of an entire people in their land. That is the political program of Pol Pot, Stalin and Hitler. It is simply monstrous coming from Christian church leaders.

When I attended theological seminary back in the mid-60s, it was because I thought the church and organized religion would be a vehicle for social change. It was because I shared a world view with many of my fellow seminarians that racism and genocide are wrong.

I am disgusted by the views of so many church leaders who appear to be overt racists and anti-Semites.