@DarkGamer There is a difference between promoting something and being the sole source of it. They used appropriate and clear language and you purposefully misunderstood them to make an asinine point.
There is a difference between promoting something and being the sole source of it.
Indeed, but I disagree with the premise.
It’s arguable that Israel’s existence reduces global antisemitism, not promotes it, by giving Jews a strong global ally and place to retreat to should the spectre of pogroms rise again. Nations worldwide can no longer commit genocides against Jews without significant geopolitical consequences, unlike in the past.
I believe Zionism is a result of global antisemitism, not a significant cause of it. Jews were persecuted worldwide, which caused Zionists to seek a homeland where they wouldn’t get regularly genocided. There’s only one group today whose hatred of Jews is fueled by Zionism, and frankly most non-Arabs don’t care much. Far more antisemitism existed in the past when there were no Zionists.
It can be both a result of, and cause of anti-semitism in different ways. Anti-semitism is not monolithic, it can have multiple vectors in both cause and effect. Both in viewpoint and application.
Considering the nationalistic streak the current Israeli government has, and their desire to “play the victim”, increased anti-semitism only increases their influence both in their local base and with the international community who would rally behind them in the face of anti-semitism (real or perceived).
I don’t know that there’s any grand conspiracy to foment that anti-semitism from Israeli leaders, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was. It’s clearly not the threat it was in the past, as you say. So utilizing it as a tool is not the existential threat it would have posed decades or even centuries ago.
Antisemitism was a thing long before Zionism, or even Nazism got rolling, you have causality backwards.
@DarkGamer There is a difference between promoting something and being the sole source of it. They used appropriate and clear language and you purposefully misunderstood them to make an asinine point.
Indeed, but I disagree with the premise.
It’s arguable that Israel’s existence reduces global antisemitism, not promotes it, by giving Jews a strong global ally and place to retreat to should the spectre of pogroms rise again. Nations worldwide can no longer commit genocides against Jews without significant geopolitical consequences, unlike in the past.
I believe Zionism is a result of global antisemitism, not a significant cause of it. Jews were persecuted worldwide, which caused Zionists to seek a homeland where they wouldn’t get regularly genocided. There’s only one group today whose hatred of Jews is fueled by Zionism, and frankly most non-Arabs don’t care much. Far more antisemitism existed in the past when there were no Zionists.
It can be both a result of, and cause of anti-semitism in different ways. Anti-semitism is not monolithic, it can have multiple vectors in both cause and effect. Both in viewpoint and application.
Considering the nationalistic streak the current Israeli government has, and their desire to “play the victim”, increased anti-semitism only increases their influence both in their local base and with the international community who would rally behind them in the face of anti-semitism (real or perceived).
I don’t know that there’s any grand conspiracy to foment that anti-semitism from Israeli leaders, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was. It’s clearly not the threat it was in the past, as you say. So utilizing it as a tool is not the existential threat it would have posed decades or even centuries ago.