Antony Lerman, a new conservative of anglo-Jewry, writes in Ha'aretz.UPDATE Here's what Lerman wrote in 1981, before he aspired to establishment respectability in the British intelligentsia:“abusive references to ‘Zionism’ … go far beyond direct reference to Israel. An ideology of national self-determination, applicable in one tiny part of the world, has become a universally applied epithet, a fundamental evil responsible for most of the worlds problems…. The ways in which Zionism is referred to are so far-fetched and have such little bearing on the real world that what is needed is a correct meaning and use of the word…. The distortion of Zionism is deliberate and calculated and not just a product of sloppy thinking.”Research Report No. 20, “The Abuse of Zionism,” published by the Institute of Jewish Affairs in December 1981
Ben Cohen responds on Z-Word.
Mira adds:
At the Autumn Green Party Conference I lost count of how many times I heard the EUMC working definition of antisemitism misrepresented by people who, I assume, were skeptical about the existence of antisemitism in relation to anti-Zionism or anti-Israel activism.
The definition is highly qualified, as it needs to be. It includes cautious phrases like
"Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to: ..."and
"Examples of the ways in which antisemitism manifests itself with regard to the state of Israel taking into account the overall context could include: ..."and
"However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic."Which Antony Lerman ignores.
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