Myrna, I must reject your implied argument that Jews are an oppressed minority along the same lines and to the same extent that people of colour are/were. This is, alas, a common theme, and one I have heard too many times to simply dismiss.
Still, this does raise a thorny question: are Jews an oppressed race? Or are they themselves racist?
Alas, for Zionist Jews, the answer is clear: Arabs, Arab Israelis and even Mizrahi Jewish Israelis have been discriminated against and relegated to second class citizens by the white European Ashkenazi Israeli ruling class.
From Times of Israel:
"Inequality between Israel’s Mizrahi, Ashkenazi Jews to be measured in new statistics"
From Haaretz:
"Israeli Arabs Are Second-class Citizens, and It’s Costing Their Lives"
But you raise another question, one that deserves to be discussed: are Jews, or more specifically Zionists, the sole arbiters of what is and is not anti-Semitic?
I would say that in this matter, like in so many other things, Zionist Israelis have proved to be their own worst enemy.
For example, I remember when every Israeli hasbarist said that I would be an anti-Semite if I DARED to accuse Israel of deliberately bombing a hospital in Gaza. I am referring to Gaza City’s al-Ahli hospital, which was destroyed by multiple explosions on October 17, 2023 - early on in the current conflict.
Israel denied targeting the hospital, and blamed an errant Hamas rocket for the damage.
Israel further insisted that they NEVER target hospitals, and it was anti-Semitic to accuse Israel of doing so.
"The "IDF does not target hospitals," Netanyahu spokesperson says"
We were told that Israel obeys the rules of war and does not target civilians, and asserting otherwise was anti-Semitic.
Well, now we know the truth: Israel deliberately bombed not only the al-Ahli hospital, but they have deliberately destroyed EVERY HOSPITAL IN GAZA.
The International Court of Justice has found that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza. Israel's response was to call the ICJ anti-Semitic.
When the International Criminal Court (ICC) started probing Israel for war crimes in 2019 and 2021, Netanyahu said the investigations were "pure anti-Semitism".
Now, there is another facet to these stories: Israel constantly maintains that it speaks for all Jews everywhere. Israeli officials like Netanyahu, when they condemn accusations against Israel as being anti-semitic, they imply that the accusations are against all Jews everywhere.
So when Israel commits atrocities and then lies about them, it creates problems for all Jews everywhere.
But one thing is certain: Israel's rampant, incessant and BRAZEN misuse of the term "anti-Semitism" has resulted in the belief, now widespread among non-Zionist populations, that accusations of anti-Semitism made by Jews themselves are nothing more than cynical attempts to condemn, discredit, distract and disparage.
Such is the case with you, Myrna.
