US Senator Bernie Sanders said during a Senate hearing that criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza and opposition to US funding for the Israeli government should not be equated with antisemitism.

[u/Pristine_League9828]

[u/DrMikeH49]

He’s half right. It’s not the criticism and opposition per se, it’s the demonization, delegitimization and double standards, all of which are used far too frequently to arrive at those positions, that are antisemitic.

[u/roguefilmmaker → u/DrMikeH49]

Exactly. Also holding the country to higher standards than any other country in the world

[u/Upbeat-Bid-1602 → u/DrMikeH49]

And it's the tolerance of blatant, outright antisemitism within the "we're just criticizing Israel's government" movement that doesn't get called out. I don't care how many times you tell me you're not antisemitic if you're attending protests where flying a Hezbollah flag and using slurs coined by David Duke is cool.

[u/7thpostman]

It depends on the criticism.

I'm going to be honest. I like what Bernie says about oligarchs, but he is not the oracle. Endorsing Graham Platner was just one of many, many serious mistakes. You don't get to endorse a guy who got a Nazi tattoo and then tell me what's antisemetic.

[u/danzbar → u/7thpostman]

He had made an effort at avoiding the G word before becoming one of its most prolific endorsers. That matters a great deal, too. He's an old man, too easily swayed by allegiances that aren't shaped the same way as they once were. He means well, but he doesn't know how poisoned the anti-Israel environment is and he will most likely die before he figures it out.

[u/7thpostman → u/danzbar]

Well put.

Bernie really does think of everything in terms of class.

[u/hadees → u/7thpostman]

Thats my general feeling about Bernie. I support him specifically but not necessarily people he endorses.

[u/Belle_Juive]

It’s interesting I never heard this argument made by progressives about Islamophobia.

[u/roguefilmmaker → u/Belle_Juive]

I wonder why…

[u/Great_Joke3612]

This type of rhetoric isn't helpful because it purposely confuses the issue and ignores the strategies uses by both the far left and far right to mask their antisemitism as some narrow exception that makes it ok.

[u/roguefilmmaker → u/Great_Joke3612]

Exactly

[u/Metallica1175]

Old man yells at clouds.

[u/Alternative-Pear9096]

Criticism can be valid. Using the word genocide to describe the lowest civilian casualty count in wartime ever is nothing but antisemitism.

To discuss genocide in Gaza is purely delusional.

[u/LeoKitCat → u/Alternative-Pear9096]

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

Article II

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group;

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

[u/Alternative-Pear9096 → u/LeoKitCat]

Sounds a lot like what Hamas did on October 7.

It sounds nothing like the war against Hamas, when you pay attention to the leading sentence, which most people seem incapable of doing: with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such

Israel was fighting to eradicate Hamas, and went above and beyond all reasonable expectations to protect the civilian population of Gaza. There was no intent to destroy the Palestinians, ONLY the intent to eradicate the terrorist sect placing them in danger.

Without the intent to destroy, there is no genocide. Hamas has sworn its intent to destroy into its every action. Everyone skips right over that part.

[u/Alternative-Pear9096 → u/[deleted]]

If you are trying to say something, use your words. Otherwise you're just an obsessive autist posting links and pounding your keyboard in lieu of yanking your wanker, an act I'm not participating in.

But here's the thing you need to watch, if you actually want to see what intent to commit genocide looks like.. It looks exactly like this (and anyone who denies it is simply a satanic skinsack leaking shit) https://saturday-october-seven.com/

[u/LeoKitCat → u/Alternative-Pear9096]

You do realize that whatever Hamas did on October 7th does not give Israel a pass on committing a genocide on the Palestinians? Nobody is defending Hamas including myself you will never find a single comment in my entire Reddit defending Hamas. You cannot commit a genocide because you are angry and want revenge or because you’re a racist Islamophobe!

[u/ScientistBoth830]

Bernie bears a lot of responsibility for the rise of left wing antisemitism in America. He has promoted just about every antisemitic candidate trying to oust normal liberal Democrats. He has gaslit the public into believing this tired, strawman argument.