Is Conflating Israel & Jews Antisemitic? Jonah Platt Breaks Down the Paradox Everyone Gets WRONG!

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There's a single paradox about Jews in Israel today that everybody gets wrong.

By the end of this video, it's a mistake you'll never make again.

And there's even a rhyming catchphrase I spend a lot of time engrossed in the discourse surrounding Jews in Israel today, and there's a single paradox I keep observing that everyone, pro-Israel and anti-Israel alike, keeps bumping up against and blowing past without realizing it.

It frustrates Jews, confuses Gentiles, and the only way to properly break it down for you is by playing my favorite game.

That's right, folks.

It's time for Two Truths at the Same Time.

All right.

The paradox consists of two statements, both true, yet both seemingly made untrue by the other.

Denying the connection of the Jewish people to Israel is bigotry, and conflating the Jewish people with Israel is also bigotry.

The what?

As Jews, we get the crappy end of this paradox in both directions.

On the one hand, whenever certain Israelis, be it politicians or the military or West Bank settlers, do something perceived as being bad, whether true or not, anti-Zionists will use the Jewish people's connection to Israel as an excuse to conflate accusations of those actions with all Jews globally and blame, harm, ostracize, antagonize, or kill whatever random Jews they so desire.

To which Jews reply, "Conflating the Jewish people and Israel is bigotry." And sure, sub the word Zionist for Jew, whatever, it's the same bigotry.

On the other hand, let's say an American politician is spreading libels about Israel, and is consequently designated by Jews as harmful to our community here in the West.

Anti-Zionists will then weaponize our own words against us.

"Don't conflate Israel with Jews, remember?" That's called inversion, whether conscious or not, and yeah, there's a monologue for that.

So how do we articulate this paradox clearly so that everybody understands what the rules are?

Picture the Jews as a family.

I mean, yes, of course, Jews are a family, but I mean as a literal, immediate family of siblings, parents, cousins, et cetera.

And let's say this family's last name is Jew, and there are relatives all over the world.

Now, let's say one cousin, Israel Jew, is accused of a crime he says he did not commit.

It would be completely wrong and immoral to blame some other random cousin, American Jew, for that crime simply by virtue of them loving and supporting each other as families do.

It would be immoral and wrong for random people in random countries, not even personally affected by the crime for which Israel Jew is accused, to start harassing anybody anywhere who also happened to be a Jew.

They don't care if you're a first cousin, tenth cousin, friend of the family, or maybe you never even met the guy.

If you're a Jew, they're going after you.

That's terrible, and obviously not a normal way to behave.

It's called collective punishment, which, funny enough, is something anti-Zionists love to accuse Israel of, because again, inversion, which again, there's a monologue for.

Now, let's say someone with a platform, a teacher, an actor, a politician, starts defaming, demonizing, or libeling your brother, Israel Jew.

It's only natural that you'd take this attack on your family personally and say, "Hey, stop attacking my family." You might also say, "Hey, aside from that being wrong, it also, as we established earlier, puts me and my other relatives in great danger because of how people like you collectively punish us Jews whenever there's been a perceived wrong committed by any of our Israeli relatives." Pretty straightforward.

If my aunt does something you don't like, don't take it out on me, and if you come after my dear aunt, it's like you're coming after all of us because we're a family.

It's natural to stick by your family when they're attacked or wrongfully accused.

What would be unnatural is to not defend them, or worse, go against them.

And if it turns out my aunt did do something wrong, we'll reckon with it, as families do, and if we don't, then it's on us.

But any member of the Jew family who immediately disavows their own relatives to stand with their family's accuser, I would point them to the wise words Michael Corleone once uttered to his brother, Fredo: "Never take sides with anyone against the family." I'm not saying we should aspire to be like Michael Corleone, but for sure, no one wants to be Fredo.

Oh.

So what should you say when you see anti-Zionists pulling the collective punishment or the don't conflate inversion card?

Hit them with the two truths.

When you take something negative you perceive Israel to have done, and use that to assign blame to all Jews globally, that's bigotry, and we're gonna tell you so.

When somebody espouses anti-Israel bigotry anywhere, it impacts Jews everywhere, and we're gonna tell you so.

It's your shitty behavior we're explaining here, folks.

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

The only people who should get to speak about the impact bigotry has on Jews is the Jews who have been impacted by bigotry.

No one else gets to decide it for us, and if you try to, guess what that is.

Bigotry.

And if this whole monologue is too much, too many words, too many ideas, I've got your TLDR right here.

When it comes to matters of bigotry, anti-Zionism, antisemitism, Israel, and all the rest, there's one simple directive: take your cues from Jews.

Boom.

Put it on a T-shirt.

No, wait, I'm gonna put it on a T-shirt.

That's right, it rhymes, so you know it's true.

Take your cues from Jews, parentheses, not anti-Zionist Jews who have not been impacted by bigotry and/or are in denial about the impacts of anti-Jew bigotry on the wider Jewish community, close parentheses.

Nice.