In his Aug. 16 op-ed “Genocide canard is a smokescreen for antisemitism,” Laurence Gardner drew the important distinction between war crimes and genocide in Israel.
As a fellow liberal Jew — heartsick about the Netanyahu government’s policies and crimes and troubled by the tenor of the condemnation from my friends on the left — I want to make another important distinction.
For me and many American Jews (and others) who loathe Netanyahu as we loathe Donald Trump, seeing the governments of both countries behave atrociously is painful beyond measure, evoking a helpless sense that fragile democracies may not survive. The distinction between our pained reaction and the fervor of many who denounce not only the Israeli government but also Israel as a whole feels to many like a modern expression of age-old tropes and makes us fearful.
The prevalence of antisemitic tropes amid the valid denunciations of the government of Israel — notably to the exclusion of criticism of Hamas and other bad actors around the world — causes both rhetorical and actual harm, as objectively evidenced by the rise in antisemitic incidents this zealotry has unleashed.
Carol Eisenberg
Peaks Island