The Anti-Israel Irritant that is really Anti-Semitism

A Netanya friend, an ex-South African now living in Israel, is back from a visit to Toronto. He related to me an unpleasant incident in this lovely Canadian city.

As he was walking with his family to synagogue, idiots from a passing car shouted insults at them. “Xxxx you Jews. Palestine! Palestine!” In that split second, and in their shock, they experienced the juxtaposition of Jews to the Palestinian problem. Jews in Canada, and elsewhere, are being targeted with abuse and worse in the cause of Palestine. In fact, the target is precisely that. Palestine is merely a club to verbally and physically assault Jews. It’s a deranged fervor that has less to do with concern for Palestinian Arabs and far more to do with attacking Jews. The passion for Palestine is simply a cover for blatant Jew hatred as my friend experienced from the vehicular Toronto idiots. It goes beyond the streets of Toronto. It regularly rears its ugly head on campuses. In November, students at the City University of New York organized an ambitious “Million Student March” to lobby for reduced tuition fees. This worthy cause was hijacked by a group known as Students for Justice for Palestine who shouted “Xxxx Zionism” and demanded “Zionists out of CUNY!” as they flew Palestinian flags and loudly exhorted “Long Live the Intifada,” meaning support for Palestinian violence and terror against Israeli Jews.

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What this rant has to do with the lowering of students fees is not hard to figure out. Replace the financial issue with the word “money” and the word Zionist with “Jew” and it is easy to translate “Zionists out of CUNY” with the real intent of “Jews out of CUNY,” particularly Jews in support of Israel.  This was done in the name of Palestine.  Once again, Palestine is being used to beat Jews. It is clear that the concept of Israel is a permanent irritant both in the Muslim world and to the radical Left. It gets beneath their skin. It is a constant sore that won’t go away, no matter how hard they scratch at it. Even the lotion of Palestine doesn’t bring them relief and can’t dislodge the source of their misery, the Jewish state.  The pain of this open wound is driving them crazy. It is a chronic ache that causes them to lose sleep. They gather in groups of fellow sufferers to discuss their complaint and decide on a course of action to rid themselves of this Israeli curse.  Some even call it a cancer.  They appeal to a sympathetic world to help them eradicate the nuisance that is Israel.  They claim they will never have peace of mind while Israel annoys them so. Replace Israel with Palestine and the trouble will disappear.  When some of the world insists that Israel should continue to exist, they plead to at least surgically remove parts of Israel and replace it with the balm of Palestine.  Despite the clear diagnosis that a Palestine would constitute a more deadly option the sufferers and their recruited supporters and curers insist on an operation to excoriate Israel. The sufferers know nothing will cure their disease until Israel is completely removed from their tortured body and soul, while the delusional surgeons hope that a reduced Israel will diminish the swelling of Jew hatred by applying a Palestinian salve of peace, an ointment that they hope will reduce their own guilt complex. In preparation for the operation, we hear the US Secretary of State blaming Israelis for being murdered in the name of Palestine, a European foreign minister blaming Israel for Islamic terrorists killing people in Paris, the European Union placing a name tag on anything Jewish in the parts that they intend to call Palestine rather than Israel. This then is the delusional world we live in. They think that reducing Israel to a defenseless rump will cut out a fevered need to eradicate what is left of Israel.  They are in denial that anti-Semitism is any part of the diagnosis of the sickness.  They do not realize that Jewish friends of mine will still be assaulted on the streets of Toronto and on the campus as long as any part of Israel remains as a chronic irritant to the fevered minds and bodies of those who simply cannot tolerate an Israel that will gnaw away at them until it no longer exists.