Jenin = Ukraine?

Anti-Semitism has been on the rise in Europe for a long time. As in the U.S., its home is on the Left. I think there are a few right-wing anti-Semites, but they are obscure and of no account. Liberal anti-Semites are found in places like the British Broadcasting Company, the Guardian, the Independent, and the leadership of the Labour Party.

The Israelis have recently completed a military operation in Jenin, on the West Bank, in which they killed terrorists who had been attacking Israelis and destroyed terrorist infrastructure. That gave rise to the usual criticisms from European anti-Semites, like BBC news anchor Anjana Gadgil, who said in a television interview with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that “Israeli forces are happy to kill children.” The “children” were heavily-armed 17-year-old terrorists. The BBC apologized for that one, but it won’t stop them from manifesting their anti-Jewish animus next time around.

Then we have the Independent, where Dave Brown drew this cartoon:

Tomorrow's @Independent cartoon… #Jenin #JeninRefugeeCamp #JeninUnderAttack #Palestine #Israel #IsraeliOccupation pic.twitter.com/y8PZ7e7mwc

— Dave Brown (@DaveBrownToons) July 4, 2023

The sign said “Jenin,” but the dying Palestinian, wearing a keffiyeh that looks strikingly like the one worn by master terrorist Yasir Arafat, has over-written “Ukraine” in blood. The idea is that Western nations have paid close attention to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but have ignored Israel’s anti-terrorist mission in Jenin, which, according to the cartoonist, is the same thing. In the cartoon’s background are images of, I think, Jerusalem’s Tower of David and Dome of the Rock, with a hole blown in its roof. Contrary to the cartoonist’s fevered imagination, no such destruction has occurred at the Dome.

This kind of thing happens all the time in the European press. European liberals defend themselves by saying that being anti-Israel is not the same thing as being an anti-Semite. In some limited theoretical sense, this is true. But the principal way in which anti-Semitism has manifested itself in recent decades is as an obsessive and grossly unfair preoccupation with the alleged misdeeds of Israel–“misdeeds” that nearly always consist of trying to defend itself against Arab terrorists.

This cartoon is a good example. If a liberal wants to criticize the Jenin operation on rational grounds, have at it. I think he will lose the argument. But that doesn’t happen. Instead, European liberals hysterically denounce Israel’s efforts to defend itself as, in this case, the same thing as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is insane. Or, put more specifically, it is anti-Semitic.