Blurring Distinctions in ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

Secretary of State John Kerry appropriately criticized Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan for characterizing Zionism as “a crime against humanity.”

The original comments listed Zionism as one such crime along with fascism, anti-Semitism and… “Islamophobia.”

Fear of Muslim fanaticism may be appropriate or inappropriate, but grouping such concern with fascism and anti-Semitism, with their millions of murdered victims, is a ridiculous distortion.

Meanwhile, dictionary definitions of “Zionism” specify “a policy for establishing and developing a national homeland for the Jews.” In other words, the leader of the most powerful of all 50 Muslim states slams any desire for a single Jewish state as inherently criminal. Turkish nationalism may be obnoxious, but no one would call such pride a “crime against humanity”—even after genocide in 1915 that slaughtered nearly two million Armenian Christians and represses Turkey’s Kurdish minority to this day.