Recent events have brought the line into focus. Some say it’s a fine line while others see it as more of a gray area. It’s the line between criticism of the actions of the government of Israel, on the one hand, and antisemitism, on the other.
I’ve read many of the attempts at drawing the line and very few have answered the question definitively for me. I paraphrase Justice Stewart’s legal test for obscenity….”you know it when you see it.”
The demonstration/boycott of Jewish establishments in Philadelphia earlier this week is a striking example. Promoted as a protest of the establishments’ support for Israel, it was scheduled - not coincidentally - on the eve of the anniversary of the Kristtalnacht pogroms in Nazi Germany eighty-eight years ago. (Fortunately, there was an outpouring of counter protesters and support for the establishments.)
You know it when you see it.