Confusing the Issue of Anti-Semitism

https://cne.news/article/4817-in-italy-antisemitism-seems-to-be-on-the-rise

This kind of conflation of Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism has become a self-fulfilling prophecy as seen with the Minneapolis Shooter or in the case (as cited in the article) of the French-Jewish tourists in Italy.

The problem is this kind of confusion does not represent everyone. There are many (Jews included) who are protesting Israel's Palestinian policy, its butchery in Gaza, and Zionism in general. These people (and these Jews) are not Anti-Semitic.

However there are some people who are Anti-Semitic who can easily conflate the two issues. Likewise there are apparently a growing number of people who can't seem to differentiate. Their Anti-Zionism has spawned a larger and more generalized Anti-Semitism and thus they must be condemned.

But this is being used in a very disingenuous way by some Right-wing politicians and Zionists to characterize all opposition to Israel's policies as Anti-Semitic. And it's not just a public debate, they have worked assiduously to codify this - using the judiciary to silence these voices, to go after businesses who want to divest from Israel, and all but forcing academia and the media to either fall silent or actively support Tel Aviv's policies.

One would think it would be a great moment for Christians to stand in the gap and offer some sober, balanced, and ethically driven thinking - but one would be wrong.

Instead we have those motivated by the heresy of Dispensationalism who will support Israel in whatever butchery it commits.

There are some ugly undercurrents left over that continue to haunt European history. Italy is one of several Axis nations that never really dealt with its fascistic past and given the resurgence of Right-wing politics, it's not too surprising that some other ugly aspects and elements are once again coming to the fore. We will hope Hannah Arendt is correct and while Mussolini was allied with Hitler and Jews suffered under Nazi rule in Italy - the Italians were never really on board with the Nazi program. Let's hope that doesn't change. It would seem the scapegoat-outlet for most of today's Right are the immigrant populations - Muslims in Europe and Latinos in the United States.

And we have many Evangelical outlets that are motivated more by political alliances and agendas than Biblical fidelity and truthfulness. Unfortunately they are simply repeating the media lines of the American and European Right, and Likud. While I have not been overly pleased with everything I have found at Christian Network Europe (CNE), I thought this article did a fair job of attempting to navigate this and avoided simply politicising the issue or falling into sloganeering. The bottom line is this - the situation is becoming more complicated and with many driven and manipulated by social media (and lacking any real understanding of history) we're seeing all sorts of strange hybrid belief systems emerge, many of which are best described as incoherent.