Ross: The line between criticizing Israel and antisemitism

This week, Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, posted a tweet implying that a pro-Israel group was buying off politicians. Well, not only was she scolded by her own party, she was accused of antisemitism.

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And yet, you can open the Jerusalem Post and find opinions far more critical than anything Rep. Omar said.

So I called Michael Friedson, who runs The Media Line in Jerusalem, to find out where the line is between criticizing a government or policies, and antisemitism.

“I frequently have conversations with Israelis who love to debate, and love to trash the government,” Friedson said. “And the kinds of conversations I hear, and are privy to, would clearly be considered anti-Semitic if it were somebody from outside the community, in another country, saying the same thing.”

In other words, it’s like how white people shouldn’t say the N word. People who aren’t Jewish should be wary of anti-Semitic tropes.

Except in the current climate, Friedson told me that even Jews can find themselves labeled anti-Semitic.

“There’s a lot of internal criticisms of Jews who are very actively and vocally anti-Israel and they are very often called ‘self-hating Jews,'” he said.

So the line turns out to be blurry.

“If it sounds confusing, it’s only because it’s confusing,” Friedson said.

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