Standard anti-Semitic trope: “I’m not anti-Jewish, I’m anti-Zionist.” There are 193 members of the UN. There is one Jewish nation. Why is that Israel is the only one people say is illegitimate and should be eradicated?

Israel was reestablished in 1948, on land Jews have occupied since approximately 1800 BC. Regrettably, Arabs were displaced by Jewish immigrants. But in approximately equal numbers, Jews were expelled from Arab nations in North Africa and the Middle East, and most of them were resettled in Israel. What took place was not an expulsion of Arabs, but a mutual exchange of populations.

One year earlier, in 1947, the British left India. Hindus wanted a united India. But Muslims insisted on carving out Pakistan, a nation that had never existed before. In fact, even the name was made up: Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir, India. The name now is said to mean “land of the pure,” but that was not said in 1947. Millions of Muslims fled from India; millions of Hindus fled from Pakistan. What occurred was a tragedy, but it was seen correctly as a mutual exchange of populations.

So why is it that many call Israel illegitimate, bemoan the displacement of Arabs, and call for Israel’s eradication? But no one – literally no one – calls Pakistan illegitimate and calls for its eradication? And why is it that people say, “The Jews stole the land from the Arabs,” but no one says, “The Muslims stole the land from the Hindus”?

The map of “Palestine” in Mahmoud Abbas’s office shows all of what is now Israel. And this banner carried by pro-Palestinian activists says it all. “From the river [Jordan] to the sea” means all of Israel. And if this comes to pass, where will six million Jews go? Assuming they would go peacefully, who will take them in? The same people who took in the six million from 1939 to 1945: no one.

Not anti-Jewish, just anti-Zionist? Yeah, sure.

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