Tutu? You have a beef with Tutu?
Touchy, ain’t ya?
Accusing the morally upright Archbishop Desmond Tutu of anti-semitism shows how a knee-jerk defence of Israel can make us lose sight of reality
It is time to remind my fellow Jews that in our knee-jerk defence of Israel and enthusiasm to accuse anyone who dares criticise the state of being anti-semitic, we are in danger of going mad.</em>
The latest, barely credible example comes from Minnesota, where the Catholic University of St Thomas has rescinded an invitation to the Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, after pressure from the Zionist Organisation of America accusing him of anti-semitism. The university’s vice-president explained: “We had heard some things he said that some people judged to be anti-Semitic and against Israeli policy … he’s compared the state of Israel to Hitler and … making moral equivalences like that are hurtful to the Jewish community.”
