Anti-Semitic allegations

Not only did America re-engineer modern democracy, we tamed the wild, wild West and harnessed the power of the atom. Although, I guess when you get right down to it, our modern democracy was built on the backs of African slaves. Oh, and then there were those natives exploited and massacred for land rights. You know what, let's just move on and forget about the repercussions of nuclear power for now.\nStill, Manifest Destiny is in our blood. Our right to exist is begot of God's will! Even if the North American continent was discovered by a lunatic with a dream, to claim that America is "just" the bastard child of Spanish exploration, British imperialism and hundreds of emigrating nationalities is both unpatriotic and racist. \nThe point is, accidents are countries too.\nJust ask Alvin Rosenfeld, an English professor here at IU and director of the Institute for Jewish Culture and Arts. Late last year he published an article for the American Jewish Committee titled "'Progressive' Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism," in which he argues that the resurgence of anti-Semitism is fueled by rampant anti-Zionism from within the Jewish community. Not surprisingly, Rosenfeld and the Amercian Jewish Committee have been defending the essay's primary argument since the article's publication, against both Jewish and gentile critics alike.\nZionism, very briefly, is the movement or ideology that promotes the existence of a sovereign Jewish state in Palestine with Jerusalem as the spiritual capital. \nRosenfeld argues that questioning the legitimacy of Israel's creation is inherently anti-Semitic. "The new anti-Semitism," Rosenfeld writes, is "... the singling out of the Jewish state, and the Jewish state alone, as a political entity unworthy of a secure and sovereign existence." Despite the New York Times' analysis that brought international attention to the article, Rosenfeld does not argue that questioning Israel's policies is anti-Semitic, per se.\nThe primary thrust of his thesis hinges on Jews and gentiles who debate the "alleged 'crime' or 'original sin' of (Israel's) very establishment."\nWhat Rosenfeld fails to mention in the 30-page essay (proof he's an English professor) is that the 'original sin' really was a mistake, just like the U.S., Canada, the entirety of Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Israel was the incidental byproduct of historical consequence, essentially a token gesture by the victors of World War II to alleviate the guilt of the Holocaust. The arbitrary boundaries that partition one section of arid, unusable desert from another were hastily drawn when Britain abandoned its Palestinian Mandate, in much the same way other European empires-in-decline systematically abandoned their several colonies.\nThe notion of a Zionist "promised land," exactly like the misguided right of Manifest Destiny, is as absurd. Israel was no more divinely inspired than any other modern state, nor are the Jews any more entitled to the land than the Harlem Globetrotters. The real cause of global anti-Semitism is the holier-than-thou sense of historical victimization that characterizes Zionist Jews, which marginalizes the countless other atrocities committed against countless other ethnic minorities throughout history.