The fact that he was just shifted rather than fired in this political environment speaks volumes.
If that blogpost was the same, but said Israel, instead of the Jewish people; would there be any issue with it today?
I really don't know much about the Jewish faith or how it interplays with Israel, so I'm just trying to understand where all the anger is coming from. I feel like Israel is acting in bad faith on public forums too, which makes everything more complicated for somebody unfamiliar with it all.
EDIT: Reading more comments I think I get the gist of the controversy, he insinuated all Jewish people should feel guilt for the actions of Israel? I agree that's wrong, but I understand how somebody could come by that belief. Israel themselves have fostered the narrative that Israel represents the Jewish people by constantly conflating an attack on Israel as an attack on the Jewish people.
As always in these sorts of things (and life in general, really), judge for yourself https://web.archive.org/web/20210602000424/https://www.kamau... . The final paragraph begins
>If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself.
The whole problem with the blog post is that he did was stereotyping millions of people (the majority of whom don't even live in Israel) as being bloodthirsty killers based on the actions of the Israeli government. Imagine how wrong it would be to write a blog post about Idi Amin and coming to the conclusion that African-Americans are inherently violent.
Compare Israel to its close neighbourhood, the US or even France and the UK. Israel exists in the ME, what's the West's excuse for fighting in different continents? And his text goes much further than that.
>If that blogpost was the same, but said Israel, instead of the Jewish people; would there be any issue with it today?
It would be grossly inaccurate, but saying dumb stuff wouldn't be enough to get people to call for his removal.
>Israel themselves have fostered the narrative that Israel represents the Jewish people by constantly conflating an attack on Israel as an attack on the Jewish people.
It's not a particular surprise that people who are drawn to attack Jews attack Israel too. Maybe if critics of Israel took pains to separate themselves from the antisemites rather than excusing them, more people would see a difference between critics and actual antisemites. If instead their only resort would be to argue bad faith, well, people would see that too.
Israel’s attempts to equate itself and its current policies with the Jewish race and identity are definitely a reason (an additional reason, on top of many others) to be disgusted at the governing regime of the State of Israel and its government, but they aren't an excuse, even a little bit, for the bigotry against Jews qua Jews for Israeli policy (indeed, that is rewarding the violent bigotry of the Israeli regime, which actively seeks the protection of whataboutism that being able to paint opposition to its apartheid and lebensraum policies as anti-Semitic provides.)
The Israeli government, Israeli Jews, Israelis, and Jews are different groups, and the actions of the first don’t justify hatred of any of the latter groups, all of which include fierce opponents of pretty much any action you might blame thw first for.
His points are presented without hyperboles, and while they certainly do not paint Israels state politics in a good light, how is this anti semitism (which in wikipedia is defined as "hostility to, prejudice, or discrimination against Jews")?
Antisemitism is of course as inexcusable as any other form of racism, but criticism of a country's or groups political views and policies is not hate nor discrimination.
In my opinion his removal is an overreaction, but with how polarizing this subject I don't see how it could have gone any other way.
Bobb conflated Israeli politics with Jewishness and thus making the latter responsible for the actions of the former.
The fact that Israel defines itself as a Jewish state does not mean that all Jews see themselves as Israelis or are pro-Israel.
It is like criticising Arabs for the actions of Saudi-Arabia, or any other Arab (or Muslim) country, which is unfortunately an recurring theme in the West and justifiably regarded as a form of racism (Islamophobia).
It's one thing the we see persecution by anti-Semitic people against jews -we are used to that sadly- but that it equally often happens the other way around from people who surely knows better is mind-blowing.