The Gravest of Allegations: Conflating Critique of Israel with Anti-Semitism
By Ronen Bergman(ZIONIST LIGTH?) 

In recent years, Israeli Jews have often confused anti-Israel rhetoric with anti-Semitism, argues journalist Ronen Bergman, who has himself been subjected to verbal attacks for his reporting in SPIEGEL. "You are part of the anti-Semitic propaganda yourself, and you don't even know it. You don't speak German and you don't understand the nuances of the text, yet you sign it as one of the authors." This allegation was hurled at me by Melody Sucharewicz, a communications and strategy consultant in Israel and Germany. I myself am the son of two Holocaust survivors who lost their entire families in the war, and I tried to defend myself against what I thought was a false accusation, but to no avail.The attack had been triggered by an investigative report published by SPIEGEL last June addressing the German-Israeli cooperation in the building of submarines for the Israeli navy and compiled over several months by a team of journalists that included me. The report revealed that these submarines can carry nuclear missiles that would serve as Israel's second-strike capability in the event of a nuclear confrontation.The report stirred up considerable controversy in Germany, where the government came under fire for financing the construction of such vessels in German docks. In Israel, I was criticized by many for taking part in an investigative report that served, in their opinion, as "severe anti-Israeli propaganda" in Germany. Sucharewicz's attack was one of the harshest and best articulated.Sucharewicz was born in Munich and moved to Israel at the age of 19. She became a celebrity in Israel in no small part due to her ability to express precisely what many Israelis believe in a polished manner and in a number of different languages.I asked her to put her indictment down in writing. Here are her main points:"Given the rising trends of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel resentments in German society, it's probably helpful to focus on the effects of this new quality and tone of Israel criticism in the public discourse. Even Günter Grass may wholeheartedly believe it's his life's last mission to communicate Israel's danger to the world out of love and friendship for the Jewish people and their state. The effect of this trend on media consumers, however, is more important than the motives of more or less relevant individual authors.""Last June's cover story in SPIEGEL on the German-Israeli submarine deal is an example: 'Should Germany, the country of the perpetrators, be allowed to assist Israel, the land of the victims, in the development of a nuclear weapons arsenal capable of extinguishing hundreds of thousands of human lives?' … 'Should Germany, as its historic obligation stemming from the crimes of the Nazis, assume a responsibility that has become 'part of Germany's reason of state?'' The subtext is clear: 1. Israel plans to wipe out the Iranian people and thus is equal to the Third Reich. 2. Germany is pressured into this because of the Holocaust.""The systematic and subtle manipulation of this sort in reports about Israel -- whether skillfully staged or unintentional, to a large extent explains why, according to a study on anti-Semitism in German society recently commissioned by the Bundestag (the federal parliament), almost 40 percent of Germans claim that 'Jews try to take an advantage out of the Third Reich History;' why 44 percent say they 'understand that one dislikes Jews, when looking at Israel's policies.'

[ed notes:just citing few paragraphs click link for whole artice...but know the author does attempt to not so subtly aim at pointing out ''not all the zionists fears are unfounded'' lol