The Antisemitism Accusation
Against critics of Israel and critics of charedim
Take a look at this ridiculous political cartoon, one of many in this vein:
Hopefully we can all see through the claims of so many Israel-haters that they are not being antisemitic by criticizing the Israeli government, and that accusations of antisemitism are being falsely leveled to suppress war crimes. Natan Sharansky’s “three D’s” of antisemitism work perfectly - it’s double-standards, delegitimization and demonization. Nobody addresses how Israel is supposed to respond to groups such as Hamas, who not only brutally invaded on October 7th but also spent months launching rockets at towns, and who promised to try to repeat October 7th forever, no matter what the cost to them.
Nevertheless, people who automatically dismiss every criticism of Israel as being antisemitic or Israelopathic are making an error. No country is perfect, and Israel is no exception. And not everyone who criticizes Israel is driven by antisemitism - some criticism comes from genuine supporters who are pained by its flaws (and for the sake of Israel’s well-being, it’s crucial to try to address such criticisms). Unfortunately the gross prevalence of antisemitic criticism of Israel makes it too easy to dismiss all criticism as antisemitic.
Another problem is that some people fear that admitting to any problems gives fuel to antisemites. This is a mistake. Antisemites aren’t held back by a lack of fuel. Whereas Israel’s supporters and people on the fence, on the other hand, are more likely to be sympathetic by seeing an honest admission of problems and an intent to deal with them than by a cover-up. Not to mention that genuine problems should innately be acknowledged and addressed, regardless of what others may think!
The same applies with criticism of charedim.
For centuries, antisemites have leveled false accusations against Jews. Jews kill innocent Christian children. Jews engage in predatory lending and swindle people out of money. Jews have horns.
But what happens when Jews really do engage in predatory lending, or swindle people out of money? Of course it’s still wrong and antisemitic to extrapolate from this to “the Jews.” But such financial shenanigans do happen, and may well even happen with disproportionate frequency (I have heard terrible stories). Likewise, while the IDF is not targeting children in Gaza, there is certainly a very problem of extremist settler violence against innocents. It’s a problem if Jews either brandish accusations of antisemitism to deflect legitimate criticism, or if fear of stoking antisemitism makes people want to sweep things under the carpet.
The same is true with the fury over charedim in Israel who insist on a blanket sectoral exemption from helping with the war, while demanding huge sums to support their way of life, and professing to do all this in the name of Torah. And this is all while their rabbinic and political leadership expresses a total lack of care for the hardships born by our community on their behalf. If you don’t live in Israel and/or are not part of the serving and working community, I don’t think you can grasp just how furious and upset people in my community are. (See this post from two years ago - and things have only gotten worse since then.)
The suffering born by the reservists and their families over the past three years is infinitely more than you can grasp. And our children are going to be spending a minimum of a quarter of their lives in reserve duty due to the IDF manpower shortage. And with whatever jobs they can secure with such limitations, they will be paying taxes to support a million charedi freeloaders. And that’s not even the worst problem - the charedim are a direct existential to the economy and thus to the state’s existence.
But when we voice condemnation, in the hope of influencing change - and cartoons of the situation depict charedim, because that’s who the whole argument is about - then charedim in Israel and the US, along with their Likud and Religious Zionism/ Otzma Yehudit enablers, accuse us of being “anti-Torah” and “antisemitic”!
The charedi community is causing tremendous pain, harm and danger to everyone else. We have not just a right, but a responsibility to protest it and campaign for change. Nobody should use either accusations of antisemitism or fear of stoking antisemitism to try to stifle this. The blame lies with the charedi community and with those who enable their behavior for political power.