In a very recent interview with Jewish Women International in the Winter of 2011, Hannah Rosenthal, the U.S. State Department's special envoy to Montor and Combat Antisemitism, who will be speaking in Winnipeg on March 22 (sponsored by CISA-The Canadian Institute for Anti-Semitism) defined those who do not believe Jews have the right to a homeland as expressing anti-semitism.
Rosenthal will be speaking at the Fort Gary Hotel on March 22 at 7:30, giving the Shindleman family lecture
Rosenthal stated, " Some people don’t believe Jews have the right to a homeland. They believe the Kashmiris have a right to a homeland. They believe the Palestinians have a right to a homeland. But not the Jews. That is not disagreeing with a policy of the state of Israel. That is hatred of the collective Jew and crosses over into anti-Semitism.[emphasis added]
To read the entire article, which is very interesting and will make you want to come hear Rosenthal click here: http://www.jwi.org/Page.aspx?pid=3126
Here is an excerpt from the article dealing with issues of antisemitism and Israel.
"Q: Israel is regularly condemned and criticized in the U.N. and elsewhere around the world. When is criticism of Israel anti-Semitism?
A: My answer is pretty clear. Criticizing a policy of the state of Israel does not make someone an anti-Semite. In fact, if it did, over half of Israelis would be anti-Semitic. We’re about democracy; we’re about political parties arguing about policies. So criticizing a policy of the state of Israel does not make someone an anti-Semite....
"When does criticism cross the line into anti-Semitism? To determine this, we adhere to Natan Sharansky’s three Ds:
- When Israel is demonized. When it is blamed for all the ills, not only in the region but in the world. When political cartoons or political rhetoric make Israel and the representatives of Israel the devil, the Satan, the bloodthirsty demon. This is not disagreeing with a policy of the state of Israel. This is hatred of the collective Jew, and that crosses the line to anti-Semitism.
- When Israel is held to different standards. In the last 10 years, the United Nations and its various agencies have passed 434 different resolutions condemning Israel for something. To put that into context, five have been passed on Sudan, eight on North Korea. Obviously, Israel is being held to a completely different standard than any other country in the world. That is not criticizing a policy of the state of Israel; that is blaming the collective Jew and crosses the line to anti-Semitism.
- When Israel is delegitimized. There are people who still cannot accept that Israel is a legitimate country in the world. I’m in the bureau of Human Rights. When we go to a foreign policy table to discuss the human rights abuses of Sri Lanka, or China or Congo or Burma, we don’t come to the conclusion that they should not exist as a country. When people get together and talk about human rights abuses in Israel, the conclusion some come to is that Israel does not have the right to exist. That’s delegitimizing it. Some people don’t believe Jews have the right to a homeland. They believe the Kashmiris have a right to a homeland. They believe the Palestinians have a right to a homeland. But not the Jews. That is not disagreeing with a policy of the state of Israel. That is hatred of the collective Jew and crosses over into anti-Semitism. "