Championing gay rights in Israel may impress a few zany Western intellectuals, but it simultaneously infuriates your Arab neighbors, not to mention a large segment of Jewish Israelis who reject Western (im)morality. If Israel makes peace with its Arab neighbors (real peace), world opinion of Israel won't matter. The Arabs are the only ally Israel needs to survive long term. Clinging to the West while situated in the Middle East is a failed strategy.

The Jewish ethos rejects racism of any kind, but like all humans we are affected by our surroundings. Give it time, we are back in our land and gradually shaking off the dust.

The Arafat orchestrated activism worked like a charm on Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Ilan Pappe, Ami Goodman, Phyllis Bennis, Howard Zinn, Steven Zunes, Tony Judt.... The victims remained the Palestinian people inside and outside of Israel. Reason lost, passion raised. Blood flows. Arafat switched many times, sides, to save his sick cause. Civility has been neglected. Time to turn to reason.

I like that - the Unholy Trinity.

Nobody mentioned the founder of modern leftism and Jewish self-hate whose name is Karl Marx. Apart from the Communist Bible, - Das Kapital, Marx expressed his ressentiment to everything that pertains to the Jewish existence: its religion, culture, tradition and ethnicity. "On the Jewish Question" -(1843 essay) these anti-Jewish creeds were openly discussed and Communist followers like Rosa Luxemburg or Chomsky embraced Marx's self hate and his rejection of his own ethnicity. Communist Jews rejected Zionism, called it "bourgeois nationalism" early on before Israel existed: read about the "Yevsektsiya" (Jewish section of the USSR Communist party, 1920). Neo-Marxism repleced the antiquated Leninist class struggle with Culture Wars (Cultural Marxism) so Communist Jews are not only at war with Israel but with all nation states, national identities, culture, religion and then some. These radical ideologues work hard to destroy every host society they set foot in, they are at it in the U.S. and W. Europe and in Israel of course.

why say that Leftist hatred is a bad thing. Let them boil over in their delusional insanity. Jews should not have to do anything different to accommodate the instant Leftist response of repulsion to Jewish success. Leftists, Jewish or not, will adapt their justification for hate no matter what Israel does, because the hatred is not based on reality, but on a skewered intellectual world-view and deep moral corruption. It's their disease, let them deal with it.

There is no logic to antisemitism. It is in the global DNA and the Jewish State is simply a convenient extension for all those that have the malady.

When will science at long last find a cure?

To imply that anybody who isn't a right-wing Likudnik/US Republican, bible thumping settler or Christian Fundamentalist are all Israel haters or anti-Semites is utterly rediculous. Many people of the moderate centre left, like myself, and even those on the moderate right love Israel and do not want it turned into a bi-national or Apartheid state, dominated by Far-right religious extremeists, that is defined by constant hatred of Arabs and Muslims and constant warfare and conflict, all we want is an end to the conflict once and for all and two-states for two peoples, which is the vast opinion of the world and of major world leaders left and right, to imply that the vast majority of the world is anti-Semitic simply because they are moderate is utterly rediculous and contemptible attitudes like Ariel Castro only serves to breed anti-Semitism.

If you read the article carefully, you will see that it is Israel-bashers, not critics of Israeli policy that are labelled as anti-Jewish. Where does one draw the line between the two? Every time a leading figure speaks out against the Israeli presence in the West Bank, but stays mum about atrocities committed by Israel's enemies, that person is hardly exonerable from charges of being de facto anti-Jewish. It is always a wise strategy to judge people not only by what they say, but especially by what they fail to say!

Well unlike Settler fanatics and the bible thumping evangelical hillbilly's in the trailer parks of America people on the left tend to believe in Science instead of messianic delusions. When the right-wing religious extremists start actually believing in Science and rational foreign policies for the State of Israel instead of messianic nationalistic delusions its then we will stop criticizing the right and the damage it is causing the state of Israel internally and externally, but im not holding my breath that this will ever happen.

While there are some anti-semites among the leftists, I feel the majority of the anti-Israel rhetoric comes from an automatic urge to support and believe the underdog. In 1967 the European left loved Israel, a socialist country that won a war against all the odds. By 1973 Israel was considered a powerful nation and the Arabs oppressed and the left changed sides. The European left hates America more than it hates Israel....and America is not a Jewish state.

This is a very interesting article. It shows the parallels between Marxist-Leninism and Christianity. Medieval Christians hated Jews for the self-same reason: by their success as individuals and as a community, Jews were a standing refutation of the claim of Christianity to be the one true way. The same applies to Marxist-Leninism in the 20th century. The most virulent medieval Jew-haters were converted Jews: the same applied today to Marxist-Leninists of Jewish origin. Fortunately, with the fall of the USSR, the universalist claim of Marxist-Leninism has been shown for the lie it is.

the minds of young people, it is almost impossible to eradicate. Just like smoking a herring will spoil it forever, if one wants to turn it into a "mattias" later on :-)

is not antisemitism. Problem is Jews refusing to accept the truth about isrsel's crimes. Theift, murder, racism, apartheid. The past does not justify today's inhumanity. Palestians and Arabs had nothing to do with the holocaust. In fact many Arab countries sheltered jews durning WW2.

The article is good. But there are many differences among moderate leftists and radical ones. The first Israeli rulers were Social Democrats; Golda Meir, Ben Gurion, Shimon Peres, Yigal Allon, etc. For me and others, that is the best position on the scope of a more human world. Hence, I don't understand some offensive comments from rightist readers.

are two sides of the same coin. Castro's panacea for fighting them is ridiculous! we must emphasize our accomplishments...not our problems.

The obvious question is, if you sincerely feel that way, why are you in Israel? There are many ,many, non Jewish states for you to choose from, why Israel? MOVE! Ther's a long line of people waiting to enter Israel who will love it while you, do not. Who needs you? No body.

It's my understanding that when the economy's in trouble so are the Jews. There's a newer book out that helps explain a phenomenon, anti semitism entitled, "The devil That Never dies." Seems anti semitism is a universal and NO one can fully explain why.

Undoubtedly, deep-rooted European antisemitism infected 'leftist' thinking, especially in the 19th century - the 'socialism of fools' as one commentator dubbed it. However, socialism is no more or less endemically antisemitic than capitalism, as history demonstrates. More significantly, the collectivist left was an integral, if not the dominant, element in the construction of modern Zionism, as everyone knows. So, I think some balance is required here.

The fundamental creed of Marxism was the "proletarians of the world, unite!" -- under Communist ideals. This tenet morphed into the present "cultural Marxism" in which leftist Jew are the most prominent advocates. The goal is the abolishment of nation-states, authentic ethnicity, culture, history, religion, freedom of speech and then some. Israel is not the first target of the left - only an easy, low hanging fruit that popular to debase for its small size. I, as an ex-E.European, remember during the '67 war, Bolshevik Jews supported Brezhnev to destroy Israel that they regarded as a "bourgeois, capitalist lackey of the American imperialism". Nowadays your leftist Jewish comrades are still in the fore to dissolve Israel - of course, using oblique, pious, PC, "helpful" and "benevolent" diction that the Europeans swallow happily.

As an Israel-supporting, western 'leftist' I have to disagree with Castro's neoliberal conclusions. Although, I admit, the capacity of my friends and colleagues to believe every bit of pro-Arab propaganda, their refusal to see Al-Assad as brutal or Iran as a threat remains an enigma. Israel's social achievements simply don't make it into the western press; our hasbarah efforts are a failure. I can say that presenting Israel as a "free market' instead of a social democracy is unlikely to win us friends.

I do understand that as 'an ex-E.European' you have a somewhat jaundiced view of the 'left'. If I was in your shoes I might feel the same. However, like others, you have not responded to my points. It is a matter of historical record that the 'left' - a category covering diverse ideological outlooks - played a pivotal role in the development of Zionism. Mapai, Rafi, Labour, Ben Gurion, Eshkol, Meir, the kibbutzim, etc. are not figments of the imagination. You may not like these aspects of Israeli history but that is your problem.

The fact is the leftwing racists love Islamic killers & terrorists. Why???

Highlighting the few kibbutzim where communal property has flourished might well help take some heat off from the leftists, without negatives. But while highlighting Arab-Jew gay couples might please the leftists, they would risk offending Yahowah, who identified homosexuality as a "disgusting abomination". When a choice comes down to maintaining favor with your God vs attempting to please a bunch of human leftists, many of whom are in league with The Adversary, the choice should be very easy.

The far left is really insignificant both in numbers and influence. Outside a few US campuses do they eve