As I wrote in my previous blog, the truce between Israel and the Palestinians is very shaky and many people on both sides expect that it will not hold. Of course people will blame this on the other side, and journalists and commentators will complain that both parties missed an important opportunity to end the bloody conflict. But what big opportunity exactly they are talking about?

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About 5 months ago Abbas and Sharon agreed to a cease-fire, after 4½ years of bloodshed since the start of the second intifada. Although both sides violated the truce several times, violence decreased considerably, but in recent weeks it flared up and both parties blame this on the other and warn that they are running out of patience. There is a growing concern that violence might increase further after the implementation of the disengagement from Gaza, or even that violence before will prevent disengagement.

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Anti-Semitism nowadays is not only found in right-extremist circles, but also in the (radical) left, and makes it more than once to European main-stream media. Examples of this are a cartoon in a British newspaper of Sharon eating a Palestinian baby (which even got an award!), and a cartoon in the Flemish daily 'Nieuwsblad' of former Hamas leader Yassin on the cross, in a wheelchair, under the title "Israel kills a spiritual leader".

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People who call themselves anti-Zionist often complain that it is fairly impossible to criticize Israel without being called an anti-Semite. They are right of course that it should be possible to criticize Israel, like it is possible to criticize US or Dutch politics.
Although it is true that some Jewish organizations and people too rashly accuse opponents of being anti-Semites, it is also true that criticism of Israel is often related to anti-Semitism in one way or another.

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