JOURNALfor the STUDYof ANTISEMITISM

82 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 3:71
ensure impunity for their actions; they slaughtered defenseless populations
with their superior military to and also lied, as Göring recommended
(SIC!), 12 because both do believe those lies become truths. . . . It is painful
to observe the evolution of the State of Israel so far from the dreams of
great Jewish thinkers, such as Martin Buber, who envisioned it as the completion
of an original socialist model. A state whose illegitimacy of origin is
now added to an illegitimacy even greater, emanating from the practiced
carnage on a defenseless civilian population, elicits doubts about how democratic
a state that perpetrated such crimes can be. Illegitimacy of origin, it
is said—not because the Jewish people have no right to their state, since
that right is unquestionable and Hamas must recognize it without further
delay—but illegitimacy because it was stealing land from people who also
claim it. The agreement between British colonialism and American imperialism
that in the final days of WW II resulted in the creation of the State of
Israel was possible because it was done before the Arab world could take
over an Israeli territory that was claimed by both the Israelis and the Palestinians
. . . these cowardly hawks, pathetic disciples of Hitler, are the worst
enemies of the Jewish people. 13
A good example to illustrate the irrational and contradictory features
of common sense in terms of the criticism Israel receives can be seen in the
quote from the economist Claudio Katz:
Those who exalt the existing religious tolerance in this country against
the closed the Hamas Islamic tend to forget the denominational character
of the Jewish State. Also omitted the biblical basis, used to justify the
extent of the territory to the sacred boundaries of Samaria and Judea . . .
The painful legacy of the Holocaust is often used to silence the denunciation
of a militarist state that humiliates the neighboring peoples. This censorship
is exercised in identifying Judaism with Zionism and Israel, or in
performing any criticism as an act of antisemitism. In reality, these three
concepts differ significantly. Judaism is a religion, culture, or tradition of
a people spread around many countries, whose tenure as a differential
segment has varied in each time and region. Israel is a state built on the
explicit primacy of the Hebrews, but currently includes several groups
disconnected from that origin. Anti-Zionism is an ideology of colonial
appropriation based on ancient and pragmatic bases. These differences
allow us to distinguish the anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist, and anti-Jewish positions.
The first attitude is racist, the second anticolonial, and the third
does not present a sharp meaning. As the only anti-Americanism
12. Footnote translation missing.
13. Footnote translation missing.