Anti-Semite
By Jeanette Pontacq, Don Deane Publisher
Have you ever been called an anti-semite, or heard a good friend labeled as such? I have, recently, because I have a column in the Coastal Post. The slur was thrown at me, and at the owner of the paper, because a long-standing CP writer consistently criticizes Israeli policies and treatment of the Palestinian people within the Occupation.
Unfortunately, such labels are too often casually, but deliberately, attached to anyone, gentile or Jew, contesting the present U.S. public policy of total and unquestioning support for whatever Israel's government wants or does. Even here in bucolic West Marin, too many automatically equate a desire for honest information and debate on the Israeli-Palestinian issue as a sign of anti-semitism - rather than a rational need now missing in making good public policy.
This label of anti-semitism is a powerful weapon, used unsparingly to attempt to stop those who either criticize Israel's actions or argue that pro-Israel groups have significant influence over US Middle East policies. In other words, criticize Israeli policies and you are, by definition, an anti-semite. The end result is that real debate is stifled on this issue, both within the halls of government and even, potentially, in West Marin.
This virulent weapon is a tactic taught and used by the "Israeli Lobby." The Lobby (as described by Professors Mearsheimer and Walt, March 2006) "is shorthand for the loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to steer US foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction. This is not meant to suggest that the Lobby is a unified movement with a central leadership, or that individuals within it do not disagree on certain issues. Of course, the majority of Jewish Americans are not part of the Lobby."
The majority of Jewish Americans do not even agree with this far-right strategy. The Lobby exists and acts swiftly and surely to kill public debate or any attempt by government or media at even-handedness on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. It has been wildly successful.
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http://www.coastalpost.com/06/08/20a_.html