39 Fall 2023 hostility towards Jews and Israel is widely prevalent in Muslim communities around the world (mainly in Western countries) and reincarnated as an expression of progressivism and liberal values. In recent decades, as noted earlier, some Arab countries have established peaceful relations with Israel in a process that seemed to re-calibrate the culture of the Middle East. Despite the progress of the peace processes, the Arab and Muslim worlds continue to witness an increase in antisemitism. The communication and information revolution, and the emergence of satellite communication channels and social networks, have facilitated the distribution of antisemitic trope. At the same time, a trend towards the Islamization of antisemitism expanded to include antisemitism influenced by left-wing circles in the West. The hallmark of this antisemitism is its refusal to distinguish between Israel and the Jews and the use of anti-Israelism as a cover for attacking the Jews. There is no doubt that antisemitism and hatred of Israel is frequently used to legitimize violence, and even terrorist acts, against Israelis and Jews. This is particularly true of the Palestinian terrorist organizations of an extreme Islamic nature that regard Israel in particular, and the Jewish people in general, as an eternal enemy against whom a war of attrition must be waged until Israel and the Jews are destroyed. The spread of antisemitism and antiIsraelism is even more widespread, though, and characterizes large audiences in the Arab and Muslim world, and even among communities of Arab and Muslim immigrants in the West. The result is that Israelis and Jews become a legitimate target for hate crimes, harassment and even acts of violence and terrorist attacks. n Prof. Eyal Zisser is the Vice Rector of Tel Aviv University. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the university and the Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Prof. Zisser wrote extensively on the history and the modern politics of Syria and Lebanon and the Arab-Israeli conflict. His most recent book, Syria at War: The Rise and Fall of the Syrian Revolution, was published in 2020.
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