Anti-semiticism, Sharon, Israel & Palestinian Indepenence.

These are seperate concepts. One can be against anti-semiticism, for Palestinian independence, think Sharon is a war criminal and be for an Israeli State in the Middle East. Naomi Klein a Canadian Jew does a good job of sorting this all out.

Hope I haven't edited to the point of destroying the sense.
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And it is equally possible to be pro-Palestinian independence without adopting a simplistic "pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel" dichotomy….

For Ariel Sharon, it is the fear of anti-Semitism, both real and imagined, that is the weapon….His great talent is that he fully understands the depths of Jewish fear of another Holocaust. He knows how to draw parallels between Jewish anxieties about anti-Semitism and American fears of terrorism.


The primary, and familiar, fear that Mr. Sharon draws on, the one that allows him to claim all aggressive actions as defensive ones, is the fear that Israel's neighbors want to drive the Jews into the sea. The secondary fear Mr. Sharon manipulates is the fear among Jews in the Diaspora that they will eventually be driven to seek safe haven in Israel. This fear leads millions of Jews around the world, many of them sickened by Israeli aggression, to shut up and send their checks, a down payment on future sanctuary.


The equation is simple: The more fearful Jews are, the more powerful Mr. Sharon is….For Mr. Sharon, Jewish fear is a guarantee that his power will go unchecked, granting him the impunity needed to do the unthinkable: send troops into the Palestinian Authority's education ministry to steal and destroy records; bury children alive …

Mr. Sharon is deliberately erasing distinctions between the terms "Jew" and "Israeli," claiming he is fighting not for Israeli territory but for the survival of the Jewish people. And when anti-Semitism rises at least partly as a result of his actions, it is Mr. Sharon who is positioned once again to collect the political dividends….

It is precisely because anti-Semitism is used by the likes of Mr. Sharon that the fight against it must be reclaimed.
When anti-Semitism is no longer treated as Jewish business, to be taken care of by Israel and the Zionist lobby, Mr. Sharon is robbed of his most effective weapon in the indefensible and increasingly brutal occupation. And as a bonus, whenever hatred of Jews diminishes, the likes of Jean-Marie Le Pen shrink right down with it.

Naomi Klein is author of No Logo.
Published on Wednesday, April 24, 2002 in the Toronto Globe & Mail