The state of Israel

Is criticism of the state of Israel considered antisemitic?
I've seen this happen quite a few times on this forum,where someone will talk about crimes committed by the state of Israel and Palestinian territory being stolen and someone will jump in to accuse them of being antisemitic. I'm just curious

No, I think people should be clever enough to realise that the state of Israel do not represent all Jews...

Just like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia don't represent all Muslims...

and Texas don't represent all Christians...

and the Soviet Union did not represent all atheists (or any atheist)...

and... you get my point.

There are a lot of Jewish people (I don't know how many) who are against the actions taken by the state of Israel in Palestine... so its an extreme leap to brand criticising the state of Israel as anti-Semitic...

are you really gonna start this again.

It's not inherently anti-semitic to criticise Israel. Some of their actions can be seen as objectively reprehensible.

However, it's also true that criticism of Israel is sometimes founded on anti-semitism. One can't help but feel that if it were another Muslim state acting this way towards Palestine, there would not be the same response in the Muslim world. There was nowhere near the same outcry when the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen caused a massive humanitarian crisis.

The Muslim states who kick up a fuss about Israel do not do so because of some perceived kinship with their Palestinian brothers, but because they hate Israel on account of the fact that it is a Jewish state. This perceived kinship clearly does not exist. The number of Muslims killed by Israel pales into insignificance relative to the number of Muslims killed by fellow Muslim states.

So while criticism of Israel is not necessarily anti-semitic, one should be aware that much of the criticism of Israel in some quarters does indeed stem from this.

It's not inherently anti-semitic to criticise Israel. Some of their actions can be seen as objectively reprehensible.

However, it's also true that criticism of Israel is sometimes founded on anti-semitism. One can't help but feel that if it were another Muslim state acting this way towards Palestine, there would not be the same response in the Muslim world. There was nowhere near the same outcry when the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen caused a massive humanitarian crisis.

That's also very true, where are the calls to boycott Saudi Arabia from Muslims?

Selective outrage

It completely depends on what you've said. Criticising Israel is, by itself, not antisemitic because Israel is not the same thing as Judaism. I'm Jewish and I disagree strongly with a lot of the things the state of Israel has done. However, as tengentoppa has rightly said, I've seen a lot of people claiming they've been unfairly accused of antisemitism when they've "just been criticising Israel" when in actual fact, they have been antisemitic. There is a fine line because of the close association.

So you're implying most Arab states/countries are antisemitic?

But how does one differentiate between legitimate criticism and perceived antisemitic criticism?

But boycotting Saudia Arabia would mean that millions of Muslims cannot go to hajj? Mecca is seen as a holy land and the same for Palestine.

The only middle eastern state that is a true democracy- what's the common denominator between the others?

You always bring this up, just stop with the Israel bashing.

There is some degree of ambiguity because you can often have arguments that sound reasonable at face value that are a front for inherently antisemitic points of view (just as, for instance, seemingly logical anti-immigration stances in the UK are sometimes a front for inherent xenophobia and/or racism) but generally, are you criticising Israel for what it's doing or for what it is?

Crimes carried out by the state

I wouldn't regard valid criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza or the West Bank, for instance, to be antisemitism. But again, you do get people using that as a front, or people using this as an excuse for antisemitism.