It Was Never About Criticizing The Israeli Government

MOSHE HILL  OPINION COLUMNS  NOVEMBER 01 2023 

 EMPTY

 Is anti-Zionism a form of anti-Semitism? This question has raged amongst the intellectual elite for decades. Anyone without an advanced degree and possesses eyes and a brain would be able to answer the question quite easily: Yes. People use hatred for Israel as a stand-in for their hatred of Jews. What they call criticism of the Israeli government is really a call for the country to cease existing. That has never been more evident than in the last few weeks, as attacks and threats on Jews have increased by the very same people who previously claimed it was all about Netanyahu’s policies.

The biggest story is coming out of Russia. In the North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan, mobs stormed an airport chanting “Allahu Akbar” and searched for Jewish individuals who had recently arrived from Tel Aviv. These incidents were part of a trend in Muslim areas of Russia’s North Caucasus, where mobs were reportedly searching for Jews following rumors of Israeli refugees seeking shelter in the region. Signs in the area even displayed messages such as “Entry to citizens of Israel (Jews) strictly forbidden.” Interestingly, the mob didn’t single out which government policy they had an issue with, just looking for some Jews.

Yaroslav Trofimov, a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, highlighted these incidents and reported that a Jewish cultural center under construction in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, was set on fire, with graffiti that read “Death to Yahoods (Jews).” The North Caucasus had a longstanding indigenous Jewish community. At the Makhachkala Airport, the mob managed to breach security, chanted “Allahu Akbar,” and attempted to locate Jews among passengers who were disembarking. This caused passengers to return to the plane and lock the doors for safety. The situation was further documented by former Radio Liberty reporter Hanna Liubakova, who shared videos of the unrest, including the crowd’s attempt to find a “plane with Jews.”

This isn’t limited to Russia by any means. Dilly Hussain, a writer for the Huffington Post UK, reacted to the mobs storming the airport in Dagestan saying, “This is the kind of welcome ALL Israelis should be receiving at the airports of Muslim-majority countries.” This happened on the same weekend where 100,000 gathered in London to demand the end of the Jewish state.

Dilly Hussain, a writer for the Huffington Post UK, reacted to the mobs storming the airport in Dagestan with this tweet

Cornell University message boards were so full of Jew-hatred that the kosher dining hall was shut down and Jews were advised not to leave their dorms for fear that the threat would materialize. Messages like: “If you see a jewish “person” on campus follow them home and slit their throats. rats need to be eliminated from cornell,” “the genocidal fascist zionist regime will be destroyed. rape and kill all the jew women, before they birth more jewish hîtlers. jews are excremênt on the face of the earth. no jew civilian is innocent of genocide,” “allahu akbar! from the river to the sea, palestine will be free! glory to hamas! liberation by any means necessary!” “the jewish house on cornell is vet another literal and symbolic form of apartheid and genocide on campus. it stands on land forcibly stolen from native people who had their identity erased. it enforces strict dietary and religious customs. in my opinion it should be torn down and the illegal settlers relocated.”

Columbia University, where Jewish students have been subject to weeks of harassment by their fellow students and faculty, finally issued a statement of condemnation. No, it’s not against those who have been chanting for the death of Israel and tearing down posters with victims of Hamas terror; it’s against those who say that siding with a terror group that murdered 1,400 Jews should be exposed for being the terror-supporters that they are. “We write now to express grave concerns about how some of our students are being viciously targeted with doxing, public shaming, surveillance by members of our community, including other students, and reprisals from employers,” an open letter wrote. “These egregious forms of harassment and efforts to chill otherwise protected speech on campus are unacceptable.” Then the letter goes into a long diatribe about how Israel is evil and an apartheid state and doesn’t mention Hamas once. This was signed by dozens of faculty members at Columbia.

Multiple Jewish schools in Paris and its suburbs were evacuated due to a bomb threat. An anonymous threat indicated that bombs would explode in approximately 20 different Jewish schools in the Paris area. Although police and security forces are conducting searches, they have not found any evidence of explosive devices so far. This situation has caused panic among parents, reflecting the ongoing concerns and the impact of the situation in Israel on the Jewish community in France.

The lie has been exposed in a major way. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg on what Jews around the world are going through. They don’t even include all of the beatings that have occurred at pro-Hamas rallies, or the swastikas graffitied in numerous locations. This has never been about policies enacted by the Israeli government to ensure the security of its citizens. It’s about hatred of Jews, period.

The world better open its eyes to that, if they truly mean what they’ve been saying for almost 80 years…Never Again.

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