A hot topic is whether anti-Zionism is antisemitism. The way I’ve answered it in the past is that while it’s theoreticallly possible to be against Zionism but not against Jews, that theoretical debate does not reflect the real world. In the real world, the desire to destroy the Zionist state – Israel – is part and parcel of Jew hatred.
An organization in Canada called The Monk Debates had a debate on that question. Here is their promotional description of the debate:
On Monday June 17th we convened at Roy Thomson Hall for our spring 2024 debate.Motion: Be it Resolved, anti-Zionism is antisemitism
About the debateHate crimes against Jews are surging globally as the war in Gaza continues into its eighth month. This reality has brought new urgency to a decades-old debate about whether anti-Zionism – the rejection of statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland – is being used as a cover for antisemitism or hatred against Jews as a people. Critics of Zionism argue that it is a supremacist and exclusionary ideology that unjustly privileges the lives and rights of Jews over non-Jewish inhabitants of Israel. The charge that anti-Zionism is antisemitism is a smokescreen to cloak Israel from much needed international scrutiny and hold it to account for its actions. Nonsense, say Zionists. A key feature of antisemitism is applying one standard for Jews, and another for everyone else. Zionism is nothing more than the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their historic lands. This is the same right that has been claimed by countless other nations and groups for centuries. Those who say that the Jewish state alone is illegitimate are not simply anti-Zionist but antisemitic and bear responsibility for rising hate crimes against Jews worldwide
The DebatersArguing for the resolution is award winning journalist, best-selling author, and former Munk Debater Douglas Murray. His debate partner will be Natasha Hausdorff, an international law expert and legal commentator on antisemitism.Opposing the resolution is Mehdi Hasan. Mehdi is a best-selling author, former MSNBC anchor, and the CEO and editor-in-chief of the new media company Zeteo. He will be joined by the award winning Israeli broadcaster and Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy.
I didn’t watch the debate, it required joining the organization. But there were some ‘hot’ clips posted. I particularly liked this one:
As well as this one:
But by far the most impressive was the opening statement by Douglas Murray. author of The War on The West.
Murray gave one of, if not the, most impressive explanations as to why, in the real world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism.
Murray won the debate decisively.
Watch below.
(auto-generated, may contain transcription errors, lightly edited for transcript clarity)
Well, thank you very much, Rudyard. It’s a great pleasure to be back to the monk debates. When I was last here a couple of years ago, I just returned from the frontline of the war in Ukraine where I was with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And for most of the last eight months, I’ve been in Israel and Gaza, following the war there as closely as I can. And I won’t go into all the details now that I could give you of what’s happening, but I would just put it in perspective in this way.First of all, what happened on the 7th of October was not just a massive attack on innocent people inside Israel. It was the equivalent to about 6,000 Canadians being massacred and burned in their homes in one day. It was the equivalent of about one and a half thousand of your fellow Canadians being taken hostage.You know, you would’ve thought after an attack like the one that Hamas instigated that started this terrible war, you would’ve thought that there would be some sympathy for the world, from the world. You might have thought the world would pay attention to the attack and at least pay attention to the people behind it.You might have expected, like me, that there might have been a worldwide opposition to the terrorists and rapists and murderers of Hamas. You might have thought there would be hatred around the world erupting, that the government of Qatar and its mouthpiece Al Jazeera, its funding of Hamas and its hosting of the leadership of Hamas in Qatar. You might have thought there’d have been an outpouring of rage at the Islamic revolutionary government in Tehran, but no, there was an immediate outpouring of rage against the state that had been attacked.’Bring back our girls’ we had 10 years ago in the war in northern Nigeria, which I also covered. Bring back our girls, no international campaigns saying, bring back our Jewish children. Believe all women we’ve been told for years. But turns out not if the raped women are Jews.Israel is the only country in the world, which when it’s attacked, gets attacked more.You know the interesting thing about antisemitism is, as my late friend Jonathan Sacks said, it’s a shape shifting virus. It moves across the centuries. When you could hate people for their religion, the Jews were hated for their religion. Then you couldn’t hate people for that anymore, so people hated the Jews for their race. And then after the 20th century, people realize that wasn’t such a great idea either. Now, the Jews are hated not for their religion or their race, but for having a state.People around the world hate them so much for it that Israelis are attacked when they have hostages taken. And this is to remember the 100 hostages still in captivity in Gaza, who if they were given back by Hamas today, the war would be over. And they’re also attacked when they rescue their hostages.You know, the interesting thing about antisemitism is the Jews can never win because historically they’ve been hated for being rich and for being poor. They’ve been hated for integrating and for not integrating. They were hated for being stateless. Remember ‘stateless cosmopolitans’, the far right used to say. Now they’re hated for having a state.Today, the only really acceptable form of antisemitism, aside from the sewers of the far right, the only real tolerated form of antisemitism is anti-Zionism.And Zionism, as we just heard, is simply the right of the Jews to self-determination in their historic homeland. That’s all anti-Semitism.As we’ve also just heard, is double standards against Jewish people or cruel and unfair treatment of people because they’re Jews.This isn’t very far away from home here. If this isn’t antisemitism, can the audience here tell me why the following things have happened since October the seventh? Why in a Montreal suburb a synagogue should be firebombed, as happened in November. Why there should have been gunshots against the yeshiva? Why in Toronto, a bookstore owned by a Jew should be attacked? Why a Molotov cocktail was thrown through a Jewish community center in Montreal? Why a Toronto Jewish deli in North York was firebombed? Why in Toronto, the orthodox synagogue was vandalized? Why in Toronto, two men opened fire the other week on a Jewish girls school?If it isn’t antisemitism, tell me why, just a week ago, pro Hamas protestors tried to go through Jewish areas in this city shouting not just Alahu Akbar, but, and I quote, sorry for the language. ‘fucking filthy fucking Zionist pigs, dirty Zionist rats.’ Have you heard that language before? The Jews have.Now look, if you are interested in this motion, just bear this in mind. It’s not about Netanyahu, it’s not about this war.It’s about double standards. And one question hovers over it above all, the question of who would protect the Jews, who would you trust to protect them? The Europeans, the Arab world?No, history shows only one people protect the Jewish people. The Jewish people. That’s what Zionism is.Thank you.
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