STAGE 4 ANTI-SEMITISM

Stage Four Anti-Semitism - Amnon Rubinstein
Prof. Emil Fackenheim divided anti-Semitism into three stages. Stage One: "You cannot live among us as Jews" - which precipitated forced conversions; Stage Two: "You cannot live among us" - which precipitated mass deportations; Stage Three: "You cannot live" - which signifies murderous, "biological anti-Semitism" of the kind that culminated in the Holocaust. But today we are arriving at a Stage Four: "You cannot live in a state of your own" - a stage also nourished by an irrational attitude toward all things Jewish.

The EU's monitoring committee on anti-Semitism and racism has formulated its own definition of Jew-hatred: denying Jews the right to self-determination by claiming that Israel's existence is "racist"; applying a double standard; holding Israel to a yardstick not expected of any other democratic nation; drawing comparisons between Israeli policy and those of the Nazis; holding world Jewry collectively responsible for the actions of Israel. The writer is a former minister of education and former dean of Tel Aviv University's law school. (Jerusalem Post)