“In some quarters anger at Israel’s brutal occupation has undoubtedly spilled over to an animus toward Jews generally. But however lamentable, it’s hardly cause for wonder…. Should it really surprise us if the cruel occupation by a self-declared Jewish state engenders a generalized antipathy to Jews?… [I]f many Jews themselves repudiate any distinction between Israel and world Jewry, indeed, if they denounce such a distinction as itself anti-Semitic; if mainstream Jewish organizations lend uncritical support to every Israeli policy, however, criminal, indeed, abetting the most virulent tendencies inside Israel and muzzling principled dissent outside Israel; if Israel defines itself juridically as the sovereign state of the Jewish people, and Jews abroad label any criticism of Israel anti-Jewish — the real wonder is that the spillover from antipathy toward Israel to Jews generally hasn’t been greater.”
–Norman G. Finkelstein, Beyond Chutzpah:
On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, 2008
