Antisemitism is the marvel of the twenty first century. It can cover up 75 years of racist apartheid. It can hide thousands of demolished homes in the West Bank. It can disguise the arrest and mistreatment of Palestinian children. And now, antisemitism is being asked to do the inconceivable, the obscuring of the genocide in Gaza and the slaughter of 12,000 children. And it is not just the slaughter by bombs and missiles. Israel is purposefully starving two million Palestinians to death. Quick, grab that magic veil and stretch it over Israel's crimes against humanity before the whole world can see!
Isn't there any consideration of how this has cheapened and degraded the charge itself? Is anyone going to believe genuine antisemitism when it has so obviously been used as a get out of jail card for all manner of crimes and criminal acts?
On campuses, the charge is being used to punish and throw student groups off campus. Normally, the often well deserved criticism of Israel would be part of freedom of speech on campus. Now it is something else: antisemitism. It's even being used to ruin student careers, by charging human rights activists with hating Jews because they criticize Israel.
Even college presidents are made to grovel as they give up all pretense of academic freedom. Just how elastic can the charge of antisemitism be? Will it burst one day, exposing all the myriad crimes of the pariah state, as well as the lies of its well paid apologists?
Fred Nagel