Yet let’s assume Friedman is wrong. Why does criticism leveled at one Jewish organization immediately turn into anti-Semitism? Why is criticism leveled at the neoconservatives, who entangled America in the wrong war in Iraq, a war that only benefited Iran, labeled as anti-Semitism? It’s true that many of these writers are Jewish. So what?
Many of Wall Street’s moguls are Jewish as well. The greatest of conmen, Bernie Madoff, was also Jewish. Is any criticism leveled at him, including criticism voiced by his Jewish victims, tainted by anti-Semitism?
One of the great bonuses in the State of Israel’s existence is that here Jews are finally allowed to criticize other Jews without being condemned as anti-Semites. Here we have no guilty feelings that can be manipulated. Freedom reigns supreme.
Yet our American colleagues have this freedom too. There was no particular commotion this week in the New York Times’ corridors in the face of the Israeli prime minister’s boycott. Don Quixote can rest: Without or without him, the windmills will continue to grind.