A Jewish plot, part two

Editorial

An outlandish assertion is apparently gaining credence in Egypt about the terror attacks that killed 31 people last week in Egypt's Sinai resorts. According to Ha'aretz on Tuesday, many Egyptians believe that Israel perpetrated the attacks on its own citizens, in some sort of devious Zionist plot. Happy not to be blamed for the security failure, the Egyptian government is allegedly doing little to correct the ridiculous allegation.

In this space last week, we learned of a suspected Jewish conspiracy to take over Canada's NDP; now we are asked to believe that Israelis are blowing up Israelis for public relations advantage.

Suggestions that the anti-Israel movement worldwide is sustained by deeply ingrained anti-Semitism is not illustrated by a bunch of fanatics screaming their animosity toward Jews – the mainstream anti-Zionist movement is slightly too sophisticated for a display like that. Rather, the inherent anti-Jewish flavor of these movements is best illustrated by the unquestioned acceptance by Israel's enemies that Zionists will do anything necessary to advance their cause. The extent to which this anti-Semitic conspiracy stereotype is accepted (or simply ignored) within the world community, including by Canadians, is the very nexus where anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism merge.

What convinces us that anti-Semitism lurks beneath this veneer is the ease with which outlandish assertions that blame Jewish characteristics or actions for Jewish misfortunes are accepted by the world community. Accusations such as the Israeli connection to Israeli deaths or some master plan to infiltrate the NDP fit neatly into ancient assumptions about Jews. Most alarming is not how these assertions are received by people in Arab states, whose media and education systems have fed them anti-Zionist claptrap with their mother's milk, but how they are credulously accepted or simply ignored by Canadians and others, who should recognize and name racist stereotyping when we see it.

What Israel's critics – in Canada and abroad – have consistently failed to understand is that the anti-Semitic spine of their movement is not typified by bloodthirsty chants of "death to the Jews" or similar blatant displays. It is demonstrated by the subtle acceptance of allegations that Jews are engaged in devious, conspiratorial behaviors and therefore deserve whatever comes their way. This is where the anti-Zionist movement and ancient anti-Semitic prejudices have found common cause.

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