I'll use a minimum of my own editorializing and link to this editorial today in the Guardian in whole.
Guardian Edtiorial
Mr. Friedland notes first that
It should be perfectly possible to condemn Israel's brutal action in Gaza while taking a stand against antisemitism
. I agree with this. There are many reasons why one could oppose Israel's action in Gaza. You could claim it was disproportionate, unnecessary, or Israel should have focused more on humanitarian aid. You could claim it should have focused more on missile sites in the North, tunnels in the South, and the return of Gilad Shalit. You could claim lots of stuff, all of which are debatable with a very straight face.
But Mr. Freidland then notes
Yet there's been a curious silence in the last few weeks...there has been no chorus of liberal voices insisting that, no matter how intense their fury, people must not take out that anger on Britain's Jewish community.
Once again, Mr. Friedland seems very reasonable. I'd suggest the same argument could be made for America's Jews. In Chicago, for example, synagogues and cemetaries have been vandalized in recent weeks.
And here's the kicker. Mr. Friedland directly attacks the language, used by many on this site, as the cause. He states
From the podium George Galloway declared: "Today, the Palestinian people in Gaza are the new Warsaw ghetto, and those who are murdering them are the equivalent of those who murdered the Jews in Warsaw in 1943." Now what, do you imagine, is the effect of repeating, again and again, that Israel is a Nazi state?
My only comment here is that if you wonder for one second why people HR any post that contains even a hint of Nazi symbolism, Mr. Friedland nails it on the button. Its just damn reprehensible.
Mr. Friedland also specifically talks about Zionism. He states
Some will say they take pains to distinguish between Zionists and Jews. Intellectually, that's fine; in the seminar room, it holds water. The trouble is, it doesn't mean much on the street - at least not to the man who saw a group of Manchester Jews leaving synagogue on January 17 and shouted "Free Palestine, you motherfuckers," before giving them the Nazi salute.
Remember, this isn't some neoconservative paper. This is the Guardian. And the editorial is written by an opponent of the Gaza War. But he finishes with the following:
It is perfectly possible to condemn Israel's current conduct and to stand firmly against anti-Jewish prejudice. And it's about time liberals and the left said so.