In fact, it could be the best thing a Jew can do these days. The Jerusalem Post has published an op-ed titled, "Yes, all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic!" As any philosophy student can recognize, it's one of those arguments that makes the entire debate meaningless - if something is everything then it's also nothing - but the piece is worth reading (and responding to) nonetheless. The author captures – unintentionally – the zeitgeist in Israeli politics, and also in large parts of the Jewish world. Both have ceased to differentiate between diplomacy, politics, and anti-Semitism as a special form…

The Arab Spring presents a conundrum for many liberal Jews. As liberals they feel compelled to advocate self-determination over tyranny and democracy over dictatorship. But as Jews they worry that the Arab dictators, particularly Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, held down the lid on a seething Pandora’s Box of popular anti-Semitism. On the contrary, though, I would posit that anti-Semitism festered in Egypt as a result of Mubarak’s policies, and that it will naturally fade away if Egypt succeeds in making the transition to a more transparent, democratic society. When anti-regime activists attacked and burned the Israeli embassy in Cairo in September,…

It was recently announced that Yale University's Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism (YIISA) will be closing up shop in July due to what  "was found in its routine faculty review to not have met its academic expectations," says an official from Yale's Public Affairs office. YIISA is the first institute in the US dedicated solely to the research of global antisemitism, which includes research on anti-Zionism and anti-Israel manifestations. According to the Jerusalem Post and the New York Post, Jewish groups are up in arms about the decision since they claim it is not due to academic considerations but rather political ones.…

Im Tirtzu's acceptance of funds from Pastor John Hagee is just one example of the questionable and dangerous alliance Israel has made with Christians who are far from being "friends of Israel." While Im Tirtzu's Ronen Shoval continues to rant self righteously about how "leftwing" organizations need to be probed about their foreign funding, he forgot to mention a little donor his movement once benefited from called JHM (John Hagee Ministries). Pastor Hagee founded Christians United for Israel, an evangelical group that declares itself Zionist and believes Jews must rule the "Land of Israel" to enable the Second Coming, when…

Originally posted on Jerry Haber's blog, the Magnes Zionist. Daniel Luban has written a timely and well-researched article in Tablet on what he calls, the "New Antisemitism," the anti-Islamic bigotry that is on the rise in the United States. Using the term "New Antisemitism" to describe this bigotry is much more appropriate than using it to describe anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism; the latter often have nothing to do with anti-Semitism, and when they do, it is with the old anti-Semitism. While it is true that the term "anti-Semitism" originally arose in Germany as an explanatory euphemism for anti-Judaism, the exclusion of an…