Netanyahu's policies are fueling anti-semitism

While Netanyahu calls for Jews to immigrate to Israel, he has done next to nothing to stem the flow of Israeli Jews emigrating from Israel; nearly one million left in the past 20 years. Ironically, many are leaving because they fear for their security and do not wish to have their children enlisted in the army, as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict grinds on.

Anti-Semitism has existed from time immemorial. There is probably little the Jews can do to change that sad reality, just as African-Americans can hardly change the racism of many white Americans.

Even after the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, the passage of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery two years later, after decades of struggle for civil rights, and the election of a black President in 2008, racial profiling remains a source of deep resentment for African Americans.

Whether anti-Semitism is instigated by envy, enmity, or is culturally espoused, escaping to Israel would simply hand a victory to the anti-Semites. There will always be Jews living throughout the world (perhaps it's the secret behind their survival) and the anti-Semite will still lurk in the shadows.

The question is, since anti-Semitism cannot be expunged and the Jews will have to live with it, what can they, and particularly Israel, do to allay the disease of anti-Semitism?

Regardless of where they may live, the Jews need not bend backwards to please their enemies, but the onus falls especially on Israel to do the right thing and stop feeding fuel to the fire.

It is not by sheer accident that the whole world, including Israel's closest friend and ally-the US-rejects the settlement enterprise and the continued occupation, and it is not accidental that there is a spike in global anti-Semitic incidents every time the Israeli-Palestinian conflict flares up.

Netanyahu must accept the fact that the occupation is one of the main causes (but not the source) behind the recent rise of anti-Semitism. Instead of focusing on ending it, he is calling on French Jews to immigrate to Israel only to 'become oppressors' of the Palestinians.

Reaching an equitable peace agreement with the Palestinians will not eliminate anti-Semitism, as Sartre observed, "If the Jew did not exist, the anti-Semite would invent him." But it will, at a minimum, regress anti-Semitic fervor.

No, if Netanyahu cannot find his soul, the hour is calling for another Israeli leader to rise and have the courage to answer the call.