On Tuesday, a yeshiva student was assaulted in Brooklyn, the third anti-Semitic attack in that borough in just five days. Five males reportedly surrounded the student and punched him in the face. One of them was heard to yell “Free Palestine” during the assault.
It was a blatant act of anti-Semitism. Whatever the goals of the assailants, violence like this is never defensible. The fact that it was perpetrated against a Jewish New Yorker, as if he was responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, only compounds its anti-Semitism.
Anger at Israel has been rapidly morphing into anti-Semitism since its surge during the conflict last spring between Israel and Hamas. There is no justification for it.
In its white paper, ”Understanding anti-Semitism at its Nexus with Israel and Zionism,” the Nexus Task Force I direct waded through the complexity of these issues. Here are four rules for assessing when opposition to Israel is anti-Semitic that derive from that document:
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