http://canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/35911.shtml$1:
Re: Front-page editorial cartoon by Gary Clement, Feb. 24.
It is beyond the pale for the National Post to equate Sid Ryan's stance on Israel with support for the Holocaust. Your vilification of Mr. Ryan is premised on the false proposition that Israel is being singled out and being treated differently because it describes itself as a "Jewish state." The fact is that the union movement has called for sanctions in the past against countries or states that violate human rights. The union movement boycotted Chile for its human rights abuses. Does this make it anti-Hispanic? Furthermore, it is normal for sanctions to be imposed on countries that violate UN resolutions.
Israel is violating a number of resolutions regarding both the occupation of the West Bank and the continued construction of settlements. If the National Post is serious in wanting Israel to be treated like every other nation, you should be applauding Sid Ryan, not calling him names.
http://canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/36921.shtml$1:
Re Anti-Zionism Has Morphed Into Anti-Semitism, letter, Jan. 19.
Unfortunately, it's become more common for pro-Israel polemicists like letter-writer William Nicholls to deliberately conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism in an attempt to delegitimize criticism of Israel and defame that state's critics. By overextending the concept of anti-Semitism, these polemicists are effectively making the concept of anti-Semitism meaningless, and making it easier for actual bigots and racists to practise their craft.
As British philosopher Brian Klug wrote in his seminal essay, The Myth of the New Anti-Semitism, "when anti-Semitism is everywhere, it is nowhere. And when every anti-Zionist is an anti-Semite, we no longer know how to recognize the real thing-- the concept of anti-Semitism loses its significance."
Moreover, only the most toxic of ultra-nationalists would contend that a state is the same as its people, and that criticizing one is the same as criticizing the other. Yet this is exactly what Prof. Nicholls must have us believe if he is seriously arguing that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are the same thing.