U.S. may review ties with countries deemed anti-Israel: envoy

[TomSea]

U.S. may review ties with countries deemed anti-Israel: envoy
Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States may review its ties with countries it deems as being anti-Israel after what a U.S. envoy said on Sunday was a shift in policy toward equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a March speech that anti-Zionism - opposition to Israel’s existence as a homeland for the Jewish people - was a form of anti-Semitism, or hostility toward Jews, that was on the rise worldwide and that Washington would “fight it relentlessly”.

The State Department’s special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, Elan Carr, said this U.S. position could spell reviews of ties with foreign governments or leaders.

Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-israel-antisemitism/u-s-may-review-ties-with-countries-deemed-anti-israel-envoy-idUSKCN1SB0FI

[skeeter]

How can anti-Zionism not be equated with anti-Semitism? Zionism - a belief in a homeland for semitic -Abrahamic - people.

[Right_in_Virginia]

How can anti-Zionism not be equated with anti-Semitism? Zionism - a belief in a homeland for semitic -Abrahamic - people.

There has always been difference between Judaism and Zionism, especially among the Jewish people—many who believe the Messiah calls the diaspora home, not Theodor Herzl, and life outside of Israel is not an exile.  But unfortunately the religion and the political organization have become intertwined— in large part due to the continuing political conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinians.

Zionism began as a political nationalist movement in Eastern Europe in the late 1800s with the goal of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine.    The fundamental tenant of the movement is there should be no diaspora; that Jews should not live outside Jewish communities and should protect themselves—physically—from foreign cultures and societies in their own State.

Many Jewish people, especially American Jews, reject that they are living in "exile" and can live a full life only in Israel.  They embrace Judaism, the religion and its values, but reject Zionism, the political nationalist movement.   

Over the years, the last ten in particular, there has been growing opposition to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.  Agree or disagree, like it or not, many are objecting to what they see as the continued occupation of the Palestinians by the State of Israel –and Zionism, the nationalist political movement,  is the face of the occupation.   You’ll find many American Jews hold this opinion.
   
This perception of Israel as unjust occupier is a major reason for the resurgence of anti-Semitism. I remember being stunned by this factoid:  Later in his life David Ben-Gurion, himself, advised Israel to give back the occupied land and return to the 1967 borders, or Israel would never know peace, never know security, never know true acceptance.

Voices in both Israel and the diaspora are now wondering aloud if the Zionist movement today is damaging, and not serving, the interests of the State of Israel and Jewish people around the world.

[Oops .. for the @skeeter    ]