Letter to the editor

Editor’s note: The following letter is in response to Uri Fishelson’s letter to the editor that ran on Tuesday’s opinion page.

Editor,

Let me start out by saying I have friends of all types of ethnic and religious backgrounds. Just because I disagree with them on either their political, cultural or religious beliefs does not mean we can’t find common ground on something. This is what makes the world a great place.

That being said, while I don’t condone “calling for the annihilation of people” of any race or creed, I also don’t condone the state of Israel and the policies it has in place. I am currently taking POL 136, the Arab-Israeli conflict. It seems that the Jewish state was created out of fear of assimilation. They collectively decided to distance themselves from others so as to preserve the Jewish heritage.

Any time a group of people does this, they are bound to face criticism. Case and point being the white supremacy or the Nazi party. There really is no difference in the ideals of Judaism and these except that the Nazis resorted to violence to move forward. Then again, so did the Jewish people, with the help of Britain, in the creation of Israel. Maybe not to the same extent, but they did commit to acts of violence nonetheless. The ideas of both the Nazis and the Jewish people are to preserve their race, heritage and ideas.

It is also this problem of “we should never stop telling the horrific story of the Holocaust” that contributes to anti-Semitism. It happened and it was bad. Get over it. This sob story needs to end. There is a problem in the Jewish community with those who continually decide to play the woe is me card.

The Jewish people have undoubtedly seen much persecution, but what group of people hasn’t? I am Sikh, though not a practicing one, and you don’t see me complaining about the impact of the 1984 Sikh genocide. In fact, most people don’t even know what Sikhism is, let alone that there was a genocide.

If the Jewish community could move pass the phase of using the Holocaust as an excuse for everything wrong with Israeli policies, then there would most likely be less people committed to bringing down the state.

Look, I understand if people want to acknowledge those lost in the genocide and practice Judaism. Just don’t call me anti-Semitic because I don’t approve of Israeli policies, the way Israel was formed or the fact Israel receives more aid from the U.S. than any other country. Don’t call me anti-Semitic because I don’t care to hear over and over again about the plight your people once faced. You can choose to believe whatever you wish, but disagreeing does not make me anti-Semitic. It is that exact mindset – the labeling of people as anti-Semitic – that enables such a thing to exist.