Kanye West proclaiming he loves Hitler comes from the same toxic stew of Jew hatred that demonizes and delegitimizes Israel, the world’s only Jewish state.
Unlike West’s ravings, which suggest an unbalanced mind, this latter type of hatred has become acceptable in polite Canadian society today — on many university campuses, for example.
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That is, as long as the Jew haters use the code words of “zionists” and “zionism” to condemn Israel, when what they’re really voicing is their hatred of Jews and Judaism.
Thinly-disguised hatred of Israel has helped to fuel anti-Semitism, to the point where many synagogues now arrange to have police officers on duty outside their places of worship during the high holidays.
It’s become a necessary precaution, given that Jews were once again the most targeted religious group for hate crimes in Canada last year, according to Statistics Canada data.
To pretend that hatred of Jews isn’t linked to hatred of Israel is absurd.
Take the constant and commonplace comparison of Israel today to apartheid South Africa.
As the late British Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, head of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth wrote, this is just the latest example of how anti-Semitism survives by mutating over time.
In the medieval era, when religion was the paradigm of society, Judaism was portrayed as the most evil religion, falsely accused of the “blood libel,” of killing Christian children to use their blood to make Passover matzah.
In the 20th century, when science was the paradigm, the Nazis attempted to prove through science that Jews were uniquely evil.
Today, with human rights the paradigm, Israel is falsely accused of being the world’s worst human rights violator — including at the United Nations General Assembly — which every year passes more resolutions condemning Israel than all other nations on earth, combined.
Selectively holding Israel to a higher standard of moral behaviour than any other country is anti-Semitism.
So is falsely suggesting that Jews in the diaspora have dual loyalties — first to Israel and only second to their own country — examples of which we see in Canada today.
Certainly, Kanye West proclaiming his love of Hitler is one form of anti-Semitism.
But don’t imagine for a moment that it’s the only one.
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