Anti-Semitic Israeli Generals?

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-former-general-compares-palestinian-treatment-nazi-germany

One would think this story would get a little more press than it has received.

Was this some left-wing firebrand that dared to compare Israel's treatment of the Palestinians to the Nazi regime or its West Bank policies to apartheid South Africa?

No, this was Amiram Levin, a decorated former IDF general who was wounded during the Yom Kippur War and served as a top figure in Mossad. His credentials are unassailable. He is not a 'left-wing' radical by anyone's reckoning.

And he's not the first Israeli general to make these comparisons and indict his own government.

But when someone speaks in these terms in the West, they are decried as being Anti-Semitic. You have politicians in both Britain and the United States that want to ban and criminalize this kind of speech and there was even a phony scandal drummed up within British Labour over this as critics of the Zionist state and Likud policy were decried as being Anti-Semitic.

Are these generals also Anti-Semites? Who would dare to make such a claim?

Western media has also chosen to ignore the substantial communities within Israel and among its diaspora – and certainly among the Jewish Orthodox community who condemn the Zionist state for its specific actions if not in very principle. There are many religious Jews who argue modern Zionist Israel should not exist and apart from Divine intervention and new revelation they have no right or claim to the land.

Are they Anti-Semitic too?

This reveals the political angle to these debates. The pro-Israel (and in particular pro-Likud) lobby wave these flags but do so disingenuously. They don't want a debate – they want to shut it down and as such they resort to dishonest smear tactics and inquisitorial intimidation. In many cases they resort to a simple falsehood that equates Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism. They are not the same.

Anti-Semitism exists in the Islamist sphere to be sure – and yet this too is filled with nuance as the very question has been affected if not exacerbated by Zionist policy.

And who can doubt that there's a surging Anti-Semitism at work within not only Salafist, but Far Right Neo-Fascist circles as well. These latter movements are experiencing rapid growth due to the influence of Donald Trump, even if his own record is full of inconsistencies and contradictions. Trump is clearly a racist – I don't see how this can be disputed. His views concerning Jews are more nuanced as he often associates with Jews and his own daughter is married to one. However, one is sure to be stymied if looking for consistency with the likes of Donald Trump. Nevertheless, he has emboldened these movements – some of which harbour deep historically-rooted Anti-Semitic sentiments.

There is a real danger to the Jewish community and they clearly sense this. In Europe the fear is probably coming more from the realm of the Islamist communities while in the United States it's the Far Right.

People certainly need to be careful about what they are (or aren't) saying, but at the same time it needs to be understood that the prevailing narratives one hears in British media and among the Tories and Blairites – as well as the mouthpieces of the American GOP are largely false.