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Notes -
Ahhhh but you're doing the thing.
Is it hatred of Israeli Jews specifically? Or Jews as an ethnic group? Or hatred for Judaism itself and its practitioners?
"Jew Hatred" is under-specified as a motive due to the ambiguity!
I see strong evidence for the first, and much less for the third.
"Significant" to where there are notable instances of persecution in the historical record?
Absolutely.
Significant to where Jews were ever at even a theoretical risk of being wiped out? Nah. I think Germany takes the cake there.
Not to say that full on genocide is the only bad thing that can happen to a people, I'm just pointing out how much lower down the aggression meter things were for a long time, which you would not expect if Islam and Judaism were mortal enemies the entire time. The Hatfields and McCoys had a deeper blood feud going on than Arabs and Jews did during that period.
Its literally centuries of general co-existence under Ottoman rule, (so not co-equal existence) with spates of violence, then a turning point somewhere in the 19th century. And around 1890 Zionism actually emerges as a cohesive movement, which, at the time, was religiously motivated but as far as I can find has not defined Islam or the Arab world as enemies.
I think we can. I'm just going off the point that this seems like a turf war more than a religious war at its core.
Not precluding that it would become a religious war, but the animosity was not centered on their competing religious beliefs. Indeed, as I understand Islam the Jews are recognized as a historically significant and distinct group, and Islam's theological precursor, so the Arab nations had to do a lot of rejiggering to make them a valid religious target and enemy (indeed getting into the theories about Israelis not being the original Jewish people).
So anyhow, I am accepting that Jewish ethnic and religious identity are entangled with the Jewish state. But I am not accepting the facial assertion that an an act of war/aggression on Israel implies hatred for all ethnic Jews or even a form of religious rivalry.
I have not seen the articulated chain of logic from "Israeli Civilians were viciously kidnapped/tortured/murdered" to "(ethnic) Jews everywhere are in danger" to "therefore every allied government must enact policies to protect (all) Jews in their territories."
Or more bluntly, if (religious/ethnic) Jews are citizens of the United States, residing in the U.S., I already agree it is the U.S. government's job to protect them... because they're citizens. I do not have to accept that their co-ethnics getting murdered in Israel is grounds for policy change in the U.S.
But (religious/ethnic) Jews in the U.S. will hammer their ethnic connection to Israelis AND their religious connection to American Christians to channel the assertion that an attack on Israel is a direct attack on American Jews too and necessitates American action to protect all Jews as a class.
I am not certain those credits transfer.
But IF those credits do transfer... as mentioned, I think I can likewise take growing levels of unrest and violence against native Britons, with whom I share ethnic and religious heritage, as a personal threat to my life and interests and demand similar special protection?
"Yes, I am an American Citizen who has never been to Europe, but I see British people, in Britain, brutally victimized due to apparent racial and religious hatred. I am racially and religiously entwined with those people, therefore I, too, am in danger."
On the face of it I don't follow that logic. Swap it out:
"Yes I am an American Citizen who has never been to Israel, but I see Jewish people, in Israel, brutally victimized due to apparent racial and religious hatred. I am racially and religiously entwined with those people therefore I, too, am in danger."
And I still don't follow the logic.
I can sense now that someone will try and say "But Jews ARE really in a different situation!" and hokay, please explain why without exploiting that ambiguity between Judaism, Ethnic Jewish heritage, and Isreali citizenship.
Let me clarify: I am talking about hatred of Jews in general. For example, suppose Hamas had the opportunity to blow up an arbitrary synagogue in New Jersey or an arbitrary Jewish community center in Argentina. I am pretty confident that Hamas would take that opportunity. (Note that Iran and Hezbollah really did blow up a Jewish community center in Argentina.)
Well do you agree that over the years, anti-Israel terrorists have targeted non-Israeli Jews?
A casual search reveals the following attacks on Jews in the Muslim and/or Arab world
1033 Fez Massacre
1066 Granada Massacre
1290 Bagdhad Massacre
1785 Tripoli Pogrom;
1805 Massacre of Algiers
1815 - Massacre of Algiers
1864 - Marakesh massacre
All of this took place long before the modern Zionist movement.
Well here's the question:
If it's about "turf," why is it that the Palestinian Arabs didn't make a fuss about Egypt and Jordan's occupation of Gaza and J & S between 1947 and 1967? Why did they focus their energies on the lands occupied by the Jews?
It doesn't imply it in the same sense that correlation does not imply causation. But in a lot of contexts, correlation is strong evidence of causation. The most extreme example is white supremacists who care only about white people, unless it happens to be Palestinian Arabs at issue.
When it comes to Israel, the circumstantial evidence is pretty strong that -- generally speaking -- anti-Israel sentiment is informed heavily by Jew hatred.
Can you give me a couple specific examples of this to help me understand your point?
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As with Christianity, it can be complicated.
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