http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-perspec0225hatejan25,0,1357809.story

The tone of the world protest against Israel’s action in Gaza should raise many perplexing questions for friends and supporters of Israel.

At the same time, however, it should put to rest some formerly debated issues.

As a longtime ardent and outspoken advocate for Israel, I have been challenged with the argument that being anti-Israel is not the same as being anti-Semitic. I always thought the point was well-taken.

Why can’t one be against Israel without actually hating Jews? In principle, the argument makes sense, but over the years I’ve seldom found someone who is anti-Israel but at the same time likes Jews.

Anti-Israel attitudes do not fall into a pattern of normal political hostility of the type directed toward other countries. At their core, objections to Israel are not based on the country’s policies but instead rest on Israel’s very right to exist.

Hamas is not fighting Israel over a policy difference. Hamas has been quite upfront with its purpose and objectives-the end of the state of Israel and a global war against all Jews everywhere. Understood in this light, Hamas rocket barrages, like its suicide bombers, simply make the affected areas of Israel unlivable, small steps toward the achievement of the group’s broader agenda.

Faced with such terror attacks, there is no country in the world that would not have garnered sympathy except Israel. The exceedingly ugly character of the marches and rallies against Israel makes it clear that what we are witnessing is global anti-Semitism.

There is precedent for the Hamas philosophy, the Nazis referred to it as seeking to make the world judenrein.

Anti-Israel protests not only in Europe, but even in American communities like Ft. Lauderdale included chants of “Go back to the ovens” and “The ovens weren’t big enough.”

The Europeans and their Middle Eastern friends cruelly equated the victims of Nazism with being Nazis themselves. Thus, the Europeans absolve themselves from their own historical guilt.

And the failure of the political elites to condemn such anti-Semitic behavior or even to recognize it fosters, encourages and inadvertently supports the anti-Semites. One British parliamentarian, turning the situation on its head, accused the “the Jews” of exploiting the guilt of non-Jews over the Holocaust to justify Israel’s defensive operations against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

That thugs beat a Jewish girl in Paris while telling her that it was revenge for Israeli attacks on Hamas goes well beyond the traditional bounds of protest. It was clear anti-Semitism reminiscent of similar events in European history.

And the Paris attack was not an isolated event. The Turkish government’s recent rhetoric has been so caustic as to make the country’s Jewish population fearful for the first time in its more than 500-year history.

In several European countries, Jewish cemeteries and synagogues were vandalized.

The question for supporters and friends of Israel are, why were there no UN resolutions condemning Hamas’ unilateral rocketing of Israel?

Another question that should be raised is, of all the conflicts in the world, why is this the only one where the issue of proportionality is raised? Does it mean that if there was more Jewish blood shed the response would have been more acceptable?

The lesson of the Holocaust is that Israel can and should expect neither fairness, honesty or justice from the world community. Israel can only depend on itself because anti-Semitism today remains not only tenacious, it is fashionable.

Tom Neumann is executive director of the Washington-based non-profit Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.