Diana Ralph of the group Independent Jewish Voices was on CTVs Powerplay discussing anti Semitism and criticism of Israel as it relates to this past months conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism. The point she decided to lead off with was as follows, and I paraphrase “hate crimes against Jews are down in Canada…and the level of violent attacks has gone down as well”. That’s great, but what was her point? If fires in a certain neighbourhood are down, would we remove the fire department from that area? Well, I mean there aren’t as many fires as before; we should just get rid of the fire department. Her idea that violent acts are down, therefore we don’t need a conference on combating anti Semitism, would be like saying, well ‘I’ve noticed a drop in rape incidents; I think we should stop educating young women about safety and self defence’. Isn’t it possible that anti Semitism is down, because it is being focused on now?? Or is that point so sane, it is in fact….insane.

The issue regarding criticism of Israel and the new idea of anti Semitism is this idea that criticizing Israel is never anti Semitic. Let us pretend for a moment that I am a kindergarten teacher, trying to teach my students the ABCs. Let’s say that every time a Christian student, or a Muslim student makes a mistake, or misplaces a letter, I remain calm and I use positive reinforcement; but, when the only Jew in the class makes a mistake, I drag them to the front of the room, degrade them in front of the whole class, and call into question this Childs very existence as a human being. I think it would fair to say that I am bullying that Jewish student. This seems pretty straight forward; so why do people seem to have such a problem understanding that this is what is going on in the world today regarding the only Jewish state in existence.

The issue isn’t about not criticizing Israel, the issue is the fact that these so called Human Rights organizations, and faculties for Social Justice on campuses, and the United Nations, focus solely on Israel. Whenever an issue regarding Israel comes up, these rights groups, schools for social justice and the so called United Nations immediately condemn and denounce Israel. Yet when it comes to other issues involving other countries not Jewish, such as an Islamic country, or a Christian country the world is pretty quiet, and if they do say something it is pretty vague and weak. How is this any different than the classroom example I cited above?

These rights groups, the UN and these schools for Social Justice would have you, the un brainwashed, believe that the only real problem in this world is Israel. They may acknowledge these other issues, but they really don’t do much about them. Do these organizations, faculties and the UN not know of other issues, because believe me, there are a lot of issues which require global attention. I am going to take the next ten seconds to think of as many other issues on this planet and let’s see if they get as much attention and coverage as Israel…ready, here goes:
Darfur, The Congo, anti-Gay attacks and laws in Uganda, devastation in Haiti, hunger in Africa, despair and a failed state in Somalia, massive drug violence in Mexico, massacre of peaceful protesters in Iran, protesting the illegalities of the election in Iran, war in Chechnya, the degradation and mistreatment of women, predominantly in the Muslim world, the sex trade, and enslavement of hundreds of thousands of young women across the world, lack of any form of democracy in North Korea, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, and Sudan, the banning of Muslim Women’s right to wear the traditional Burka in France and Syria… is that enough or shall I continue??

Why then is the entire world’s attention on Israel??

Let us look at another partition which took place in 1948, the partition of India and Pakistan. When these countries were formed, when the British pulled out (sound familiar), millions of people were uprooted and displaced, thousands and thousands were killed, and still to this day we have not seen final borders agreed upon. Fighting, death and terrorism continues to this day in Kashmir. Where are all the so called independent voices, faculties and rights groups talking about this issue? The world would have you believe that the Israel-Palestine conflict is the biggest threat on Earth, yet let us examine something interesting. Currently in Northwest Pakistan, Al Qaeda and the Taliban have aligned themselves with some terror groups which originated from Kashmir. These groups not only attack soldiers in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but they also massacre innocent civilians in the thousands. They recruit and train new terrorists in order to perpetuate attacks against civilians, such as the massacre in Mumbai in 2008, where coincidentally, the terrorists ventured well off course, just to storm the Chabad house there and murder the Rabbi and his wife (what did they have to do with the issue of Kashmir)? Here is a list of these terror groups: Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJi), Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), shall I continue?

I would say these terror groups which originated in the Kashmir pose a bigger threat to global security than the Israel-Palestine conflict.

These groups always talk about the suffering of the Palestinians, languishing in refugee camps, yet they make no mention of the fact that these refugee camps also exist in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, where Palestinians, even after 60 years have still not been offered citizenship. Where is the outcry about these camps? Where is world compassion? Oh right, I forgot it is Israel fault for not allowing all the refugees from SIXTY years ago and their subsequent three generations of children to move back to Israel, that is the real problem…

Here is a question, and call me crazy for asking, but why are these people still living in refugee camps?? It’s been six decades; do sixty thousand years need to go by before these “refugees” move out of these camps?? Have you ever been in a refugee camp? Because I can’t imagine wanting to live there for 60 seconds, let alone 60 years… but I forgot it is Israel’s fault. Because no Arab nation should have to take in and integrate their Arab brethren into society and give them proper living conditions like the Jews in Israel did to the hundreds of thousands of Jews thrown out of Arab lands in 1948. Perhaps there would be less poverty, and poor living conditions (Western excuses for acts of barbarism) which as we are told is the cause of terrorism, if the billions of dollars Palestinians receive each year went to infrastructure instead of terror and corruption. But you won’t hear the faculty for social justice ever bring this idea up.

How is focusing solely on Israel and ignoring genocide, hunger, poverty, child exploitation, women’s issues, gay rights and a thousand other issues any different then when the Nazi’s blamed everything on the Global Jewish conspiracy as opposed to accepting their suffering due to two events, the global depression, and I don’t know, the results of starting a war against the entire world. Geez, who knew that could come with some negative consequences. To criticize Israel is not anti Semitic, Jews and Israelis do it all the time, but we also criticize other things, like a lack of human rights in the Muslim World, Omar Bashir’s genocide against the Black Muslims in the South of Sudan, global warming, poverty, high taxes and other issues. These groups do not do that. These groups have singled out Israel, the only Jewish State in the world, and this, like the kindergarten teacher who only disciplines the Jewish child is anti Semitic.