To say that to criticise the actions of the Israeli state…

You'll also find that a lot of these viewpoints exist in an echo chamber online. Either you speak out about Gaza or you're "cancelled".

I have had a friend message me to say she's blocking me because I've not posted about Gaza on my instagram story. I don't have a large following so I can't change anything. Nobody seems to want to have their viewpoints challenged, and that isn't healthy. Conversations (and I am NOT excusing anti semitism in anyway, I am not referring to antisemitic tropes but discussions about the situation) should be able to be had.

The thing is most of us aren't like that.

Yes, there are stupid (mainly university aged) people who pledge support for disgusting groups like Hamas and Hezbollah because social media has told them to. But the vast majority of us just see that this war isn't ever going to end unless a real effort is made towards peace, and towards stabilising the region at large - and that includes taking action on things like Saudi Arabia and Yemen, on Iran, on Hezbollah and Hamas and ensuring countries like Syria can rebuild. (Not an exhaustive list)

The Middle East has been used as the West's playground for proxy wars for far too long - look at Afghanistan with the soviets and America, the toppling of Saddam Hussein to never actually make an effort to help Iraq after this. The region has been destabilised for the West's gain and this is the outcome. Nobody wins in this scenario, everyone ends up hurt.

There are also the silly people who chant support for the Houthis but nobody, nobody at all is apparently as bad as the Israelis. I just can’t think why.

Oh right, well I wouldn’t expect people from less economically developed countries to be more barbaric than anyone else.
But anyway, there are clearly some double standards being applied here. You only have to look at how people don’t know that Israel has been under fire from neighbouring countries for years, resulting in the displacement of tens of thousands to see that. Or how Gazan civilians looted the kibbutzim on 7th October, or how Hezbollah is hand in glove with Assad (yet people at demonstrations hold up I ❤️ Hezbollah signs). Yet Israel is uniquely terririst/genocidal/Nazi-esque. Why?

Yes hopefully all Country's would adhere to international law, but some desperately poor Countries perhaps in long running civil war for example, we not be suprised if they don't.

First world?

It's not about holding Israel to a higher standard, it's about having the same expectation of Israel that we would have of any other first world democratic Country, i.e. to uphold international law, not to deliberately break international laws of conflict. And notice you said "Jewish People" I said Israel - as in the Country.

This is the nature of war the world over. Why are Jewish people held to a different standard because we were industrially and systematically slaughtered in the 1940s? Why do we have to be better than anyone else or be compared to those who tried to eliminate us and decimated our numbers for generations to come?

I don’t think anyone should talk in these terms. But they do. So why is it worse when it’s Jews doing it?

You thought using that trope would highlight the fact that you think it's ironic that what the Jewish people went through during the holocaust is somehow being repeated by Israel in Gaza? Right?

Wrong. What I think is ironic is that the hideous dehumanising of people, through language and actions, which led to such appalling slaughter in the Holocaust, is now being demonstrated towards the Palestinians by some of those whose families suffered themselves from the consequences of such brutality.

From an article in the Guardian:

Israeli political, military and religious leaders have at different times described Palestinians as “a cancer”, “vermin”, and called for them to be “annihilated”. They are frequently portrayed as backward and a burden on the country.

When Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip with “no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed”, he said: “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”

Hamas may be thus described, but not the civilians who are bearing the brunt. Are they also ‘animals’?

Israel is the Jewish state. In my eyes if you criticise Israel as an entity you are being antisemitic.
Criticising the Government is not antisemitic just as criticising the UK Government doesn't make you anti British.

But the Hamas attack was a one off attack, with limited reach, whereas Israel's actions have been allowed to escalate for a year and have impacted millions of people on a daily basis. Not to mention the decades of atrocities they've committed on Palestinians prior.

Can you really not see the difference and why he would post about the latter? I think it's you who should be questioning yourself.

I Was going to reply to this but if OP and others still want to pretend that antisemitism doesn’t take place “when criticising Israel” there is no point. I’m tired of trying to reason with brick walls.

I’m going to enjoy my day and be grateful for my children and our thriving Jewish community in these hard times.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Obviously no one thinks (despite lots trying to tell us otherwise) that all criticism of Israel is anti semetic.

However that doesn't mean that anti semetism doesn't exist nor does it mean that anti semetism isn't being displayed in many of the debates around the conflict.

I'm glad you're commenting. I made the point earlier that our locals rabbis have recently condemned Israel's military action. I've seen plenty of other Jewish people condemning it too.
I'm aware that these discussions can lead to people expressing antisemitic views. I've seen antisemitic views on Mumsnet and social media, and also a lot of islamaphobic views. These views should always be challenged.
However, we simply can't say that any criticism of Israel's actions is antisemitic. If some Jewish people are condemning the actions themselves, then why would you assume antisemitism? According to a poll published 4 days ago, 60% of the UK feel that Israel has gone too far. Only 12% feel they haven't. This isn't antisemitism- this is a very grave concern about all the innocent people that are being killed. 60% of UK are against Israel's current campaign. I refuse to believe that 60% of the UK are antisemitic. I'm sure the same 60% whoheartedly condemned the Hamas attack too. We need to be able to discuss this situation objectively without being called antisemetic or Islamaphobic.

I’m glad this thread has been started.

I am Jewish. I didn’t reveal that on earlier threads on which I have supported a ceasefire and criticised the current Israeli government’s & military’s actions.

Recently, I agreed with a poster who remarked that MN has become a place where it seems like even mild criticism of Israel’s government and military actions triggers accusations of anti-Semitism. They lamented how this then results in shutting down conversations that are worth having.

I was then accused of being antisemitic myself, my posts on that thread reported as anti-Semitic and inflammatory were deleted, and I received an email from MNHQ saying I needed to take this on board or they might have to suspend my account. They said one of the posters who had reported a post was also Jewish.

I responded letting them know I am also Jewish and they should understand that even Jewish people can have a difference of opinion on what is and is not antisemitic.

I have since name changed as the whole episode has disturbed me. I should not have to say ‘I am Jewish” at the start of any post even mildly critical of Israel to shield myself.

When someone describes the atrocities Hamas committed on 7/10 as an “one-off attack with limited reach” they’re deliberately trying to minimise Hamas’ actions.

I watched a statement Konstantin Kisin (Triggernometry) released couple of days ago, where he talks about 7/10 in comparison to 9/11. It really puts the numbers into perspective:

“If we take 9/11, the most impactful terrorist attack in living memory, that shook the world’s dominant superpower to its very core, we see that 2,977 people were killed in a country of 285 million people.
On October 7th approximately 1,200 people were killed in a country of just 9 million people. (…)
So if October 7th was Israel’s 9/11, on a per capita basis only 100 people would have been killed.
In other words, October 7th was at least 12 times as bad as 9/11, and that’s before accounting for the fact that Hamas took hundreds of hostages many of whom have been killed since.”