"I'm not anti-Semitic, I am anti-Zionist"

"I'm not anti-Semitic, I am anti-Zionist" - That's the line I see all the time on Twitter and hear in the media. Well you tolerant people, here's what Dr Martin Luther King had to say on the matter:

"When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism!"

Here's what I wrote  about this almost exactly a year ago and here's the Huffington Post today. I raely agree with the Huffington Post, but in this instance they are correct.

Here's another Martin Luther King quote via that Huffington Post artcile:

"Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality."

Dr. King said this on March 25, 1968, two weeks before his death.

Is anti-Zionism the same as anti-Semitism?

"I am not anti-Semitic, I am just an anti-Zionist" so say the kind of people who lay all the problems of the Middle East (and often the whole world) on Israel and give the Palestinians a free pass on thir avowed hatred for Israel and calls for the killing of Jews.

I wonder how they would react to these words of Martin Luther King Jnr?

"Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism"

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

". . . You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--this is God's own truth. "Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so.

"Why is this? You know that Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land. The Jewish people, the Scriptures tell us, once enjoyed a flourishing Commonwealth in the Holy Land. From this they were expelled by the Roman tyrant, the same Romans who cruelly murdered Our Lord. Driven from their homeland, their nation in ashes, forced to wander the globe, the Jewish people time and again suffered the lash of whichever tyrant happened to rule over them. 

"The Negro people, my friend, know what it is to suffer the torment of tyranny under rulers not of our choosing. Our brothers in Africa have begged, pleaded, requested--DEMANDED the recognition and realization of our inborn right to live in peace under our own sovereignty in our own country. 

"How easy it should be, for anyone who holds dear this inalienable right of all mankind, to understand and support the right of the Jewish People to live in their ancient Land of Israel. All men of good will exult in the fulfilment of God's promise, that his People should return in joy to rebuild their plundered land.

This is Zionism, nothing more, nothing less.

"And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the Globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friend, because they are Jews. In short, it is antisemitism.

"The antisemite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the antisemite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just 'anti-Zionist'!

"My friend, I do not accuse you of deliberate antisemitism. I know you feel, as I do, a deep love of truth and justice and a revulsion for racism, prejudice, and discrimination. But I know you have been misled--as others have been--into thinking you can be 'anti-Zionist' and yet remain true to these heartfelt principles that you and I share.

Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--make no mistake about it."

From M.L. King Jr., "Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend," Saturday Review_XLVII (Aug. 1967), p. 76.

Reprinted in M.L. King Jr., "This I Believe: Selections from the Writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."

Shh don't mention Enoch

There is a degree of fuss in the left-wing blogosphere about Total Politics's poll entitled "Most Memorable Speeches". The "right-on brigade" are in turmoil because the top 3 are as follows:
Tear Down this Wall - Ronald Reagan, 12 June 1987
Speech to commemorate D Day Landings at Pointe du Hoc - Ronald Reagan, 6 June 1984
Rivers of Blood Speech - Enoch Powell, 22 April 1968

How dare anyone mention except with derision and fury "that speech" by "that racist" and as for the top two speeches being by Ronald Reagan, every right-thinking left-winger knows that he was a doddering fool who was in cahoots with "Thatch" to kill innocent children all over the world. In left-wing loon land the speech voted fourth most memorable Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech is the only speech that could possibly be number 1.