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By Melanie Phillips
(JUNE 2, 2023 / ARUTZ SHEVA) What’s the use of the definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance?
The Biden administration’s U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, which was published last week, has drawn outrage from those Jewish groups and commentators who unequivocally back Israel and defend the Jewish people against its enemies.
Their central charge against this strategy is that it has watered down the widely adopted IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
Examples suggested under this definition include denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination by claiming that the State of Israel is a “racist endeavor”; applying double standards by requiring of Israel behavior not expected or demanded of any other nation; comparing Israeli policy to that of the Nazis; and “holding Jews collectively responsible” for Israel’s actions.
The left opposes this definition because it encompasses the demonization of Israel, a key plank of leftist discourse.
Rather than upholding the IHRA as the gold standard, the Biden strategy document says it is one of several definitions of antisemitism. Others are the Jerusalem Definition and the Nexus document produced by the University of California, which the Biden initiative “welcomes and includes.”
These alternative definitions, however, were drafted to counter the IHRA by protecting those who demonize Zionism and Israel. They therefore don’t resist antisemitism but instead enable it. By endorsing them, the Biden administration is doing the same thing.
The IHRA definition, which has itself been criticized for being inadequate, is nevertheless assumed by many to be better than nothing in the struggle against epidemic Jew-hatred. Yet it has led defenders of the Jewish people down a blind alley.
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