It is simply stunning to consider the level of pathological denial required to bemoan “a mushrooming of Judeophobia” while completely ignoring the possibility that maybe, just maybe, a genuinely disturbing rise in anti-Jewish sentiment might have something to do with the Israeli government’s habit of dropping bombs on the heads of Palestinians, appropriating land it has no legal right to, demolishing thousands of homes it does not own, and seemingly doing its best to systematically destroy an entire culture, all in the name of a Jewish state.

But here it is in the now right-wing, but not always, Jerusalem Post which features Isi Leibler’s lament about the rise of the self-hating Jew. Yes, his central point is that those of us who are Jewish and who do make this link in ever-growing numbers: who see clearly how the bombing of already malnourished children, the elderly, mothers, and fathers in Gaza this week both violates everything worth caring about in Judaism, and fuels already existing anti-Semitism around the world. (Far from defending or making life better for the people of Sderot, who have suffered mightily under Qassam rocket fire from Gaza, these bombings of civilians in Gaza make clear the government’s disregard for the people of this working-class Israeli town, who don’t even have enough bomb shelters to protect their own.)

If Judaism were a brand, the weakest link right now is Israel.

We must, of course, be insane for stating the obvious. Leibler says

…under the guise of promoting human rights, [self-hating Jews] are publicly supporting the most rabid enemies of Israel. Some even have the hutzpa to claim that Jewish moral values impel them to promote the delegitimization of the Jewish state and defend murderers and suicide bombers who target civilians.

Typical of a certain kind of navel-gazing victimization pathology, Ibler, who apparently has never picked up a US newspaper, suggests

The reality is that far from being shielded from criticism, the Israel government undergoes more disapproval and criticism from its own people and Jews generally, than any other regime.

Unable to look in his own backyard, Ibler takes it out on, who else, Muslims.

Today, under the influence of Wahhabi teachings from Saudi Arabia, it cannot be denied that the dominant Islamic bodies, as well as many secular Arabs, if not actively endorsing violence, at best tend to remain silent.

Hmmm “…if not actively endorsing violence, at best tend to remain silent.” Why does that sound familiar?

Get Muzzlewatch delivered fresh daily