It should not be difficult to define antisemitism. The torching of a synagogue in Melbourne last month. Unfurling a flag with a Nazi swastika near the Sydney Jewish Museum in February. Too many recent examples are clearly antisemitic (though the lawyer of the man who unfurled the Nazi flag said his client doesn’t hold antisemitic views).
The real difficulty, when it comes to defining antisemitism, is in the connection between Jewish people and the state of Israel. Many Jews regard calls such as “from the river to the sea”, which implies an end to the current Israeli state, as antisemitic. But hardline Israelis (some of whom sit in its government) believe all of what they define as Judea and Samaria (now the West Bank) should be part of one Jewish state. Are they just as culpable of racism?
