The Requirement for Hating Jews

(SACRAMENTO, CA) - If I write about Israel's flagrant violations of international law that lead to so much death and suffering among the Palestinians, I am called 'antisemitic' by supporters of Israel and Zionism. They say I hate Jewish people and I am eternally puzzled by this charge.

I see a number of children, more than fifty I read yesterday, who were killed by Israeli bombs in recent days fired indiscriminately into a civilian population.

My parents were not perfect but it seems fair to say that they ranked in the upper five percent of American families on every level, only more interesting. They imparted values that I put to use every day. One of those is to not dislike people because they are different. This programming began at a young age.

I knew of the terrible pictures they sometimes showed on TV from the Holocaust... that were prominent in so many books. I knew they had paid a terrible toll during the time of Germany's Third Reich. I knew my dad's best friend was a bomber pilot named 'Art' who was shot down fighting the Nazi's. I knew his other friend Basil Dell was a Veteran who actually liberated the concentration camps.

I knew that a girl who lived down the street from me named Stacy was Jewish; she was pretty and I absolutely did not see her in a different light than other girls, and that was my other connection to Judaism.

I grew up in gangland LA; a nice place called Huntington Park, not to be confused with Huntington Beach in Orange County. There were Hispanic kids and in the next city over, South Gate, there were Black kids who were pretty tough and the White kids who could hold their own, and plenty of Chicanos and others from south of the US border, but nobody stood out as a 'Jew' and it just meant nothing one way or another. I didn't ever go to church growing up, so Jewish kids were as much of a mystery as Catholics, or Mormons, etc.

But I know a lot about kids. I was one, I have fathered several, and I think they're pretty cool most of the time. I certainly don't believe adults should ever hurt kids, that is very clearly established, yet look at Israel, killing fifty kids in a week. What kind of assholes have Americans become to not speak out over that? Tell you what, if people are scared to speak out because of this 'antisemitic' charge, then they should just go jump off a cliff right now because they are not worth their weight in you-know-what.

As long as we cater to this madness, little babies are being murdered and even the US president is playing this ugly game of Israel "having a right to defend itself". How would Obama feel if those bombs were dropped on his children? Oh that would be terrible, and that is because Americans have no concept of the value of life and safety for others.

I guess in the end we will get what we deserve and I have a feeling it isn't going to be very nice.

If you enter 'antisemitic' into Google Images, you will quickly see that every single criticism of Israeli policy and violence is framed as being antisemitic, with no exceptions. So by this reasoning antisemitism is literally about being critical of Israeli politics. I read a statement recently from a pro-Palestine advocate who, so tired of this false accusation, replied by saying "whatever" and she says she will accept the label. I do not agree with that view and will never allow a label to be affixed to me that does not belong.

I am just writing this to make a simple point. I do not understand how that accusation of antisemitism is so easily made. All religions tend to weird me out if they are interpreted in extreme terms. People can criticize Israel and should not take anyone seriously if they used this insult to counter an argument for humanity in Palestine.

I simply do not have the requirement for this 'antisemitism' as it is (incorrectly) used to describe enemies of Jewish people. I have too many Jewish friends, they are just left.

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu

In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005. Serving readers with news from all over the globe, Tim's life is literally encircled by the endless news flow published by Salem-News.com, where more than 100 writers contribute stories from 23+ countries and regions.

Tim specializes in writing about political and military developments worldwide; and maintains that the label 'terrorist' is ill placed in many cases; specifically with the LTTE Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, where it was used as an excuse to slaughter people by the tens of thousands; and in Gaza, where a trapped population lives at the mercy of Israel's destructive military war crime grinder. At the center of all of this, Tim pays extremely close attention to the safety and welfare of journalists worldwide. You can write to Tim at this address: tim@salem-news.com. Visit Tim's Facebook page (facebook.com/TimKing.Reporter)