Why progressive anti-Semitism and why now?
That’s the title of Victor Davis Hanson’s latest.
My own opinion is that progressives have been anti-Semitic for a long long time. Anti-Semitism is both ancient and widespread, and what’s more it occurs among various groups and for a wide variety of reasons, often many reasons at once. In this post I’m not going to take up the Sisyphean task of listing all those reasons that anti-Semitism exists (including the ones that contradict each other), nor will I list all the times and places it has surfaced and even become mainstream.
I’ll just stick to the case at hand and say:
(1) Anti-Semitism in its current manifestation wraps itself in the defensive cloak of criticism of Israel. And of course all criticism of Israel is certainly not anti-Semitism. However, criticism of Israel for doing things plenty of other countries do without receiving such criticism, and criticism of Israel involving lies, are two “tells” that reveal anti-Semitism at their core. A good rule of thumb is that if a double-standard is being applied, you’re looking at anti-Semitism.
(2) Ethnic Jews are fully capable of being anti-Semitic (in the sense of “Jew-haters”) themselves. Maybe without realizing it they have taken on the leftist double-standard critiques of Israel. Or maybe they are Jews only in that their ancestors were Jews, and that they themselves hate religious Jews (or sometimes any religious people) and want to differentiate themselves from such.
(3) One reason progressives hate Israel and apply a double-standard is that Israel has ceased to be a leftist country, although it once was. To my way of thinking, that is one of the key things to keep in mind.
(4) As VDH states, Trump is pro-Israel, and anything Trump is for the left is against. But the anti-Semitism of progressives didn’t start with Trump’s presidency, although its expression has increased somewhat since Trump has become president. I believe that Obama’s presidency—Obama’s treatment of Israel and particularly his despicable treatment of Netanyahu (a man the left despises and fears)—gave permission to the left to follow in his footsteps and to go him one better.
(5) As VDH also states:
The far Left is intertwined with Islamist activists. Both share a hatred of the U.S. and see the Middle East as a postcolonial victim of Western imperialism. Students and urban youth bond with radical Islamists in their shared dislike of the Western countries (such as Israel) in general and the United States in particular…
Anti-Semitism, to be frank, is deeply embedded also among the elite black progressive community.
The left’s devotion to special interest minority groups, and in fact their extreme reliance on the support of such groups, dictates their anti-Semitic stance. The left feels pretty secure in the continuation of traditional Jewish support for Democratic candidates, and even if they lose a few Jews (current Jewish support for Democrats seems to hover around the 2/3 mark) it probably won’t make much difference at all in election results, because the absolute number of Jews in the US is comparatively small.
Progressive anti-Semitism is over-determined, and I don’t see the situation getting any better with time.
“If you want to know what is really going on ask yourself which states do leftist activists question the legitimacy of. The answer is, of course, only the single JEWISH one. Once that sinks in, it all makes perfect sense no matter what the lying SOB’s say. Add to that the fact that they NEVER protest even one of the brutal, hateful human rights denying nations in the Middles East or around the world and you get the picture.”
https://israel-thrives.blogspot.com/
Jew hate, pure and simple.
One reason progressives hate Israel and apply a double-standard is that Israel has ceased to be a leftist country, although it once was.<
I think this is important. Israel was an underdog early on. I remember Bill Mauldin drawing an Israel that was a little guy with a floppy hat. Then they won the six day war and started getting conservative economically,.
That point #3, that Israel is no longer leftist, is important. Even Bernie Sanders went to work on a kibbutz for a while, I think.
Liberalism is divergent. Conservativism preserves state. Progress is monotonic change. So-called “progressives” have embraced diversity (e.g. anti-Semitism) at one end, and equal treatment at the other, throughout recorded history. #PrinciplesMatter
This is interesting — “Austin Mayor Steve Adler Defies Call to Pull Out of Ilhan Omar Iftar Dinner Event”:
By inviting Omar to be the keynote speaker, that group, Emgage, which advocates for American Muslims, must feel pretty confident that they’ll not get any flack from the left.
Let’s remember that “progressives,” are simply Commies. Now it should all make sense.
“In 2002, Communist Party USA PAC leader Joelle Fishman reported CPUSA uses the Congressional Progressive Caucus as “an important lever” to “move the debate to the left.” A Feb. 2, 2010 Communist Party USA article “Convention Discussion: A Time to Grow” explained they plan to meet their goals by running for office “within the auspices of the Democratic Party” because “conditions rarely if ever allow us to run open Communists for office.”
https://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/2012/04/brown_is_progressivism_the_new.html
I for one am offended by the use of the term, “anti-Semitism”.
It is inaccurate in its application (referring to Jews, because Arabs are Semites).
And it is a “nuanced” way of hiding the ugly truth.
We are referring to JEW HATRED when we use that term.
We should call it for what it is. Replace the term, “anti-Semite”, with “Jew Hater”.
Let us not recoil at calling it for what it is. Throw that in the face of progressives and make them suffer the cognitive dissonance of being faced with the truth of the matter.
“And of course all criticism of Israel is certainly not anti-Semitism.”
Actually, it is.
The culture of the Democratic Party is such that self-criticism is an almost impossible task for their office-holders or their agitpropmeisters. You only see it in correspondence meant too be confidential, e.g. John Podesta’s assessments of David Brock. This puts crud like Omar and Tlaib in an advantageous position. They can work to move the Overton window because a principled and public objection to anything they say is something Democratic big wigs cannot accomplish.
By contrast, the Republican Capitol Hill nexus throws anyone under the bus as soon as the media stir the pot. Men without chests.
And of course all criticism of Israel is certainly not anti-Semitism.
When the unstated premise of the ‘criticism’ is that Israel is obligated to bend its neck for the axe, does it really matter all that much if you slap the character string ‘anti-semitism’ on it?
Gerard, while I believe most criticism of Israel is anti-semitism, even I, one of the most stringent Gentile supporters of Israel, can not say all of it is. But certainly all of it adds to and props up antisemitic discourse in the sense that true Jew haters will use that criticism to promote and shore up their hate. Thus we have the David Dukes of the world praising anyone who criticizes Israel.
“Ethnic Jews are fully capable of being anti-Semitic (in the sense of “Jew-haters”) themselves. Maybe without realizing it they have taken on the leftist double-standard critiques of Israel. Or maybe they are Jews only in that their ancestors were Jews, and that they themselves hate religious Jews (or sometimes any religious people) and want to differentiate themselves from such.”
For some of such Jews, leftism/statism has a much, much greater pull than love of country and love of ethnic cousins.
For others who appear to be anti-semitic, it is a matter of wanting to be liked by those with whom they most associate.
“Progressive anti-Semitism is over-determined,” – Neo.
Understatement of the Century Award.
“The examples of progressive hatred of Jews could be multiplied endlessly, but the key question is: Why in this generation and why on the Democratic left? …Like teenagers who rant against their parents on the expectation that, as members of the same family, they are exempt from rebuke, the progressive anti-Semites expect fellow Democrats to contextualize their animus, tolerate it, and even excuse it for the greater good of party and ideological unity.”- Hanson
This generation because, every generation.
The Democratic Left because Republicans and the Right do not hate Jews.
(The neo-Nazis, who Hanson correctly excoriates, do not belong to either Party; they are their own group, accepted by no one else.)
If you are a woman, a homosexual, or a confused LGBTQXYZ 50+ genders idiot in the Middle East, where could you live in safety? Israel or any arab nation? The answer is duh, are you completely stupid?
It’s only Jew Hate if it comes from the deplorable demographics.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/381321.php
“Bill DeBlasio: Say, I Know What’s Responsible for the Recent Surge in Hate Crimes Against Jews Perpetrated by Blacks a– Trump and “White Supremacy”
Ah, inner-city black youths, famously devoted to Trump’s MAGA movement.
…
The way the “progressive stack” works is that while you can, if you must, pretend you care about the victimization people fairly low in the stack, like Jews, who are just white people who don’t have the additional demerit of being Christian, you may do so, but you cannot blame anyone higher in the progressive stack hierarchy for the victimization, for they can only be victims, never oppressors.
Even when they’re on VIDEOTAPE victimizing someone.
Instead, you must find some convoluted way of blaming someone lower on the progressive stack for the crimes.
Attacks against Jews just don’t make the news unless they can find White Devils behind it — somewhere, anywhere.”
Story Ace was quoting from:
https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/13/blacks-attack-hasidim-brooklyn-deblasio-blames-trump-white-supremacy/
“The racial makeup of the perpetrators of the hate crimes does not appear in question. For example, City Councilman Chaim Deutsch, who represents part of Brooklyn, confirmed that most of the Crown Heights attacks were by African-Americans, and community activist Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, director of Operation Survival, said that of at least two dozen cases of anti-Hasidic attacks he’s aware of in the last year, all but two were by blacks. (The other two were by people of indeterminate race.) Behrman complained that the media blames the spike in hate crimes “on the far right” whereas locally people understand the attacks in the local context.
Every Brooklyn resident interviewed for this story strongly rejected the idea that forces often linked to President Trump had anything to do with the attacks. Mendy said that the attackers “aren’t white supremacists wearing MAGA hates and shooting up black churches.”
As for de Blasio, New York Councilman Kalman Yeger, who represents a district in Brooklyn, praised the mayor for “standing up tall and forcefully against anti-Semitism” but said he did not see a causal link between the president’s rhetoric and the attacks.”
in 2017
https://njjewishnews.timesofisrael.com/orthodox-jews-emerging-as-trumps-truest-believers/
“First, an American Jewish Committee (AJC) poll found that while the overall Jewish community ranks among the most strident opponents of President Donald Trump, Orthodox Jews remain his most loyal supporters among faith groups. ”
in 2018
ww.realcearpolitics.com/articles/2018/09/07/judaism_is_not_synonymous_with_liberal_progressivism_137996.html
“A recent poll by the Jewish weekly magazine Ami found that approximately 91 percent of Orthodox Jews support President Trump. In the Jewish Orthodox community, he is a rock star.
Meanwhile, the picture in a recent American Jewish Committee poll of all American Jews is not so warm. A bulky 57 percent disapproves of the president’s policies and long-term agenda.
This comes as no surprise, as American Jews have traditionally aligned themselves with the Democratic Party in lopsided numbers. However, since Trump’s election, the Orthodox Jewish vote has been walking away in droves.”
in 2019
https://www.jta.org/2019/04/01/united-states/this-orthodox-organizations-gala-dinner-was-like-a-jewish-trump-rally
“They put fear into us, but they should not,” McCarthy said in his speech, referring to Israel’s enemies. “I expect that from Iran, I expect it from Syria, but I should not expect it from the U.K. and America, or in the halls of Congress.”
I’m sensing some kind of pattern here.
So did JTA:
“Many younger, liberal Jews understand Judaism (to the extent they think about it at all) as synonymous with a universalist “social justice” agenda. This Jewish equivalent of liberation theology and the Social Gospel is known as “tikkun olam” and was popularized in the 1970s and 1980s by radicals including Michael Lerner, founder of the left-wing magazine Tikkun.
One aspect of this agenda, neo-Marxist in origin, subordinates national identity to membership in a transnational class based on race or gender, or in the “universal brotherhood of man.”
In contrast, others in the Jewish community, many but not all of them Orthodox, understand nationhood and exceptionalism to be indispensable central tenets of Judaism. Indeed, they are key Judeo-Christian concepts fundamental to Western civilization. The biblical covenant of a Chosen People is the fountainhead of American exceptionalism, the belief that America can be a “shining city on a hill” and “a light unto the nations.”
When Donald Trump says, “I am president of the United States, not president of the world,” he is defending the idea of nationhood and rejecting post-national globalism. Jewish voters identify with his words on many levels.
…
America has been exceptionally good to the Jewish people and to Torah-true Jewish practice. America’s laws have protected our lives and our religious freedoms, unlike other places in the diaspora where those countries’ laws did not apply to us. Unlike Andrew Cuomo, who says America “was never that great,” Orthodox Jews often and fondly use the term Malchus shel Chesed – “kingdom of loving-kindness” — to describe the United States and its relationship to our people.
This viewpoint, of unabashed and proud Americanism, should no longer be silenced or marginalized within the Jewish community. It is time for the Orthodox and others in the Jewish community to stand up for what it feels is right, to promote the biblical values that make Americanism the illustration of what it means to achieve exceptionalism and the right to self-determination. That is the truth, and the longstanding bond between the United States and its greatest ally, the land of our forefathers, the State of Israel.
As a Jewish community that in practice follows the rites and rotes of the Bible, we should express our views, and not be deterred or fearful of the wrath of local politicians — who are in many cases Democrats. They need our vote more then they let us know.
With the rise of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement and anti-religious freedom sentiments in the rank and file of the DNC, it’s time for Jews to #WalkAway from the shackles of the Democrat ghetto, and its ideologies of ‘identity politics” and post-national globalism.”
If successful, the left’s alliance with Islamists will prove to be suicidal. They’ll get the “social justice” they richly deserve.
Each is using the other but the Left’s base are foolish snowflakes, while Islam’s base are fanatical believers eager to die for their ideology.
I should have put some block quotes in my long comment; apologies.
One factor in the overdetermination for this era’s Jew Hatred, that I haven’t seen mentioned yet, is eschatological, so Ymarsakar and I will probably have a few exchanges on that.
The hatred of Hebrews by non-Hebrews has been around since Abraham’s day.
The hatred of Israelites by non-Israelites has been around since Jacob/Israel’s day.
The hatred of Jews by non-Jews has been around since Solomon’s day.
The hatred of some Jews (Israelites, Hebrews) by other Jews (Israelites, Hebrews) is pretty well documented also.
Whether or not we are in the End Times is open for debate, but we won’t know for sure until the heavens start rolling up.
It’s possible to criticize Israel without being antisemitic. It just doesn’t happen very often.
“why now”
It’s not “now”, it’s been going on for a long time. San Francisco has a family of labor lawyers, the Hallinans, who are prominent in local politics and have always been known as hard leftists. One of the old generation (1930s or so) was an out-and-out communist. Many years ago, probably 1970s or ’80s, the SF Chronicle had a feature article on them in their Sunday magazine. One of them bragged about how they won a case by Jew-baiting the jury because either the opposing lawyer or one of the litigants was Jewish, can’t remember the details. Yes, bragged. Not a hint of embarrasment or “of course we’d never do anything like that now”. I remember thinking, “whatever happened to leftists always supposed to be against bigotry and discrimination”. One of the signposts of my eventual change even if it took too long. And because SF was always much further left I noticed leftwing anti-Zionism and antisemitism before it went viral in the Democrat party as it has by now.
What has happened (PS whatever happened to edit, neo?) is not that leftwing antisemitism is new but that the hard leftists have taken over the Democrats, and the “old guard” is too cynical or too tired (probably both) to fight them.
“…too cynical or too tired…”
Perhaps, but I actually believe it’s a matter of:
1) The perceived need to attract voters from the “progressive” and the emerging Moslem electorate (IOW, “ideological flexibility”); and
2) An evolving ideology that views the State of Israel, and its supporters, as THE cause of all, or practically all, of the “Peace” logjam as well as causing and contributing to continued Palestinian “suffering” (IOW, “ideological drift”, or “ideological creep”).
#1 can be classified as “pragmatic”; though the Democrats are, here, sitting smack on the horns of an electoral dilemma—answering, with gusto, the greater Moslem community’s (with some exceptions) avid embrace of the anti-Israel line, on the one hand, but on the other hand, not seeming to realize the deep social conservatism of the same community, a world view that is antithetical to the Democrats’ increasingly “woke” social policies, particularly with regard to abortion and to the increased presence of TBLG in public education (cf. for example, the most recent provincial elections in Ontario).
#2 can be classified as “ideological”.
The nexus of both will lead to the Corbynization of the Democratic Party, a process that is well under way, having begun under the Obama administration.
And so da Joos will have to choose. (Though a significant number of them have already chosen to either jettison Israel—in the interests of fundamentally transforming the West—or to consistently criticize Israel, which “hasn’t done enough to achieve peace with its ‘Partners in Peace'”, etc., etc.)
We are living in interesting times….
It will be funny/sad when Jews discover their safe spaces are Baptist churches and NASCAR events.
Not being Jewish, and living in a not particularly progressive area, I have no direct skin in the game. Not immediately. What does seem infuriating is that so many Jews buy in. It’s not just bad for them, but for the rest of us, too. And of all the groups which should know better….
Some time ago, I referred to an article someplace which said that certain Jews in NYC used moving to a particular neightborhood as a proxy for moving up scale. And staying in another–I cannot recall their names–is infra dig. And to make the move required/proved you were progressive. So the neighborhood was virtue signaling.
It is unfortunate that the need for virtue signaling is so strong in some.
Simple, really:
4.2 million Jews in America, at or below replacement birthrate, very few converts to the faith.
3.3 million Muslims in America, on track to double in thirty years.
Democrats want power. Jews have outlived their usefulness. Sure, they can still scare elderly Jews into donating to liberal causes by waving the “scary rednecks” banner . . . but there’s plenty of foreign money in the Gulf states to replace that.
Richard Aubrey comments above, “What does seem infuriating is that so many Jews buy in. It’s not just bad for them, but for the rest of us, too. And of all the groups which should know better….”
Exactly
Richard Aubrey:
As I’ve written many times before, most of the Jews you are describing are Jewish in heritage/DNA only (plus maybe bagels and humor). Their religion is progressivism, and as progressives they are not different from any other progressives, and there is no particular reason to single out their behavior from that of other progressives.
That is probably about right. And as long as American Jewry [a little context appropriate 1950’s terminology there] were left spectrum politically, and their sociopolitical universal-ism served multiple ethnic mainstreaming goals, anti-semitism was a psychological province pretty much reserved to the ignorant and gauche.
But, what happens as Neo points out, when some segment of world Jewry not only attain a homeland, but in confronting what it takes to preserve one, begin enforcing boundaries? That is to say, they begin showing some “conservative” traits.
Well it looks like the answer is that once you actually acquire a door you can shut against the outside to keep peace in the house, then, progressives figure you are no longer entitled to one.
But then I have read biographical remarks by some former leftists who stated that their parents were true believers in the socialist eschatology, and emotionally committed to “the vision” as any kid who loved Santa Claus might possibly be to Santa.
It would be interesting to somehow get a God’s eye view into men’s minds for a moment, and to sort out just how much of the universalist/collectivist impulse is driven by a genuine emotional need felt by some collectivists, and how much is just knowingly cynical power-grabbing rhetoric that is always meant to be tossed aside once “our-son-of-a-bitch” is in finally charge.
Most of the world’s pleaders seem to be of the second stripe, whether it’s in Eurasia, or the Congo. And most of the world’s populace seems content with it, freedom and conscience, be damned.
Insofar as “Their behavior”, goes … that of the leftists. that is probably right.
The puzzle for outsiders is why they are not condemned and placed beyond the communal identity pale by believing Jews. Or maybe they are, and I just have not read much about it.
And maybe civil wars tend to become internecine wars, and that has been demonstrated to be so counter productive that they are imagined to be avoided at all costs. Purity was can become rather hysterical and snowball.
“purity wars”
DNW:
I don’t know what you mean by “placed beyond the communal identity pale.” Do you think all ethnic Jews are like the Amish, a cohesive community with shunning as a mechanism of control?
First of all, Jews are way too geographically widespread for that. Second of all, progressive Jews and religious Jews (of the more orthodox variety, not the one-a-year variety) don’t interface much if at all. Third of all, Jews have always been very divided in their politics and other beliefs, and yet they tend to believe in freedom of belief. There’s a saying and a joke about this:
No doubt there are Jews, just as there are members of other groups, who don’t socialize with those with whom they disagree politically or religiously. But there’s no big council of the Jews that declares people to be on the ins or outs based on their beliefs, political or otherwise.
“My own opinion is that progressives have been anti-Semitic for a long long time.”
Indeed; going at least all the way back to the “Progressive Era” of over a century ago, America’s leftists have been Jew-haters. And, in the wider world, irrespective that many prominent leftists were of Jewish ancestry, Jew-hatred has always been an important part of leftism.
Edward: “I for one am offended by the use of the term, “anti-Semitism”. It is inaccurate in its application (referring to Jews, because Arabs are Semites).”
When the term was coined, the only “Semites” within Western societies *were* Jews.
At the same time, certain slimey Jew-hating Arabs try to gaslight Westerners with: “I can’t be an ‘anti-Semite’, because Arabs are also ‘Semites’.”
“And it is a “nuanced” way of hiding the ugly truth.”
I can see that, even in its original use.
“We are referring to JEW HATRED when we use that term. We should call it for what it is. Replace the term, “anti-Semite”, with “Jew Hater”.”
That has been my policy for years.
Neo, your reason #3 is really the most important, but this is only a manifestation of older and deeper motive of anti-Semitism as such: resentment and envy of Jews as the cultural and ideological leaders of the progress of humankind. Israel is the only country where the whole ideology of Progressivism was soundly and irreversibly defeated, and its example can be the omen for Progressives worldwide. They see it, fear it and hate it.
Ilion: The term “anti-Semitism” was coined as an English translation of a more exact previous term “Judophobia”. I find the latter more preferable because it describes not an ethnicity, but a religion and culture which is actually hated. Many today anti-Semites pose themselves not as Jew-haters, but as anti-Zionists, and attempt to prove this by embracing self-hating Jews. Let us not give them this excuse.
There were heated discussions during foundation of Israel about the proper place of religion in the future Jewish state. Ben-Gurion and his party were secular socialists and rejected Judaism as ideology, but a large number of the “old Ishuv” were Orthodox Jews, and Ben-Gurion could not afford alienate them. Some political trade-off was badly needed, and Ben-Gurion declared: “I do not go to Synagogue, but the Synagogue to which I do not go is an Orthodox synagogue.” This gave all the authority in religious matters to Rabbinate, and this arrangement holds until now. This can not satisfy all, of course, but still needed.
The most prominent Leftist anti-Semites were the founding fathers of the modern Leftism, Socialists Marx and Engels. And before them there were other precursors of Progressivism, such as humanists (Erasmus, Ulrich von Gutten, Giordano Bruno), leaders of European Enlightenment in France (Rousseau, Voltaire, Holbach), also virulent anti-Semites.
““And of course all criticism of Israel is certainly not anti-Semitism.”
Actually, it is.”
In theory, the practice agrees with the theory. In practice, it does not. In theory, anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. In practice, it is.
No, I don’t imagine that. Nor do I imagine that there is a Jewish pope, (for all that has done for Catholics recently .. and more about them in a minute), nor a President of the United Sects of Judaism nor a Christmas newsletter that is sent to all Jewish persons in officially judged to be “good standing”
But non engagement is different from voluntary and explicit, I repeat “voluntary”, disassociation and condemnation and dis-fellowshipping .. or whatever real word would be appropriate in the latter case (“ostracism” doesn’t quite fit).
Almost every so-called identity group I can think of wherein people receive some perceived or potential benefit from solidarity or public identification with others (even in the case of genetic families where some are sometimes disowned legally) has instances of some persons publicly drumming some others out: either literally or figuratively, for gross breaches of the common moral code that ostensibly entitles one to inclusion as an “X”.
Now I don’t expect to see dueling taking place at the riverside at dawn, nor God forbid, physical assaults.
And, importantly, we have seen some prominent Jewish figures publicly chastise some other persons with an at least nominal Jewish identity, for their involvement in traditionally morally unsavory activities.
But if Michael Lerner gets up and babbles on with whatever authority he is imagined to have, and others have contemptuously snorted “false priest” and charlatan or the equivalent in his direction, I have not noticed it in the general press. And maybe that is all that it is: I have not noticed it. But I mean something that carries along this line though not in this jokey phrasing: i.e., “This fraud, is no more a real Jew, entitled to respect as a Jew per se, than is a hound dog”.
Now, as for the aforementioned Catholics, they are on the verge of a schism precisely because of the current pope’s emphasis of inclusion and acceptance seemingly above all other moral or spiritual virtues or obligations. That is not only a kind of logical insanity, it is an acid that dissolves the rationale for any meaningful moral bonds.
Of course the “acceptance paradigm”, as I have pointed out before, seems in the minds of progressives of all stripes and colors to work in only one way: the way that draws off, redirects, and piddles away the life energies and projects of the traditionally virtuous, to those opportunists and schemers who brandish their supposed membership bona fides like a fake diploma or get out of jail card.
At what point does one say, “You are allowed this far, and no more” ?
DNW:
Jews on the right have certainly criticized the Jews of the left. I don’t follow the ins and outs of intra-Jewish political disagreements, but they are legion.
As for Michael Lerner, as far as the topic of this particular thread goes, please see this. And here’s one article that mentions some prominent Jews who have criticized Lerner, an article I found very quickly after Googling the topic. Lerner has been the target of a lot of criticism, but I doubt it’s gotten tons of coverage in the MSM.
However, I very much doubt you’ll ever see anyone saying to him “You’re not a real Jew.” I suppose that somewhere such a person exists. But they would be wrong. Lerner IS a “real Jew,” whatever that means. Most Jews aren’t in the business of declaring someone who disagrees with them to be real Jews or fake Jews. They tend to leave that up to a higher authority, or don’t care about the distinction. “Real” Jews are Jews for many reasons, and sometimes a Jew is an ethnic Jew only, because although Judaism is a religion, Jews are also an ethnicity and a “tribe.” It’s very complicated.
I suppose that some ultra-Orthodox Jews might be in the habit of declaring some Jews to not really be Jews (for example, I believe that Orthodox Jews only accept conversions performed by Orthodox rabbis). So-called “Messianic Jews” who believe in Jesus—many of whom were born Christian, by the way—are ordinarily not considered Jews.:
“I for one am offended by the use of the term, “anti-Semitism”.
It is inaccurate in its application (referring to Jews, because Arabs are Semites).”
While I agree with replacing “anti-Semitism” with “Jew-hatred” the term Semitic did not originate as a description of ethnicity but rather it was created by 18th century German linguists describing a family of Middle Eastern languages including Hebrew, Arabic, Akkadian, Ugaritic and others. Jew haters, like Wilhelm Marr, stole the term from linguistics and applied it to Jews, so they could use a term that sounded scientific, anti-semitism, and less abrasive than Jew hatred.
Unfortunately, this means that Arabs now claim that they can’t be anti-semitic because they are Semites, but there really are no Semitic peoples, just Semitic languages.
Of course, if they want to claim they aren’t anti-Semites we can say, “Fine, Jew hater.”
(3) “One reason progressives hate Israel and apply a double-standard is that Israel has ceased to be a leftist country, although it once was.”
Important related point: The USSR supported the Zionist movement and the creation of Israel, not out of any concern for Jews but as a way to harm Great Britain and the West. Many (most?) leftists took direction from Moscow in those years. When the USSR changed its policy so did the Western Left.
All I can say is, this is just one more UNNECESSARY reason for me to despise, detest, and distrust the NYT.
“The left feels pretty secure in the continuation of traditional Jewish support for Democratic candidates, and even if they lose a few Jews (current Jewish support for Democrats seems to hover around the 2/3 mark) it probably won’t make much difference at all in election results, because the absolute number of Jews in the US is comparatively small.” Yes, likely true. Except for “The M Word”.
Money. Jewish voters also tend to be disproportionately large donors to political campaigns. There are signs that will change now, to the detriment of the Dhimmicrats in this election cycle.
I strongly agree with point #3 that progressives hate Israel because it stopped being leftist. I recall when I was in high school in the early 70’s that people would cite Israel as an example of a successful socialist country. But socialism soured in Israel for the usual reasons and they abandoned the communistic kibutizim and the left hates them for that.
“current Jewish support for Democrats seems to hover around the 2/3 mark”
If the Adolf Hitler emerges from the rejuvination tank in his lair deep in the Amazon jungle to run for office as a Democrat, his support from Jews will not fall below 50%.
The word antisemitism was coined in 1881, the German word is Antisemitismus. It was first used by Wilhelm Marr (1819-1904) German radical, nationalist and race-agitator, who founded the Antisemiten-Liga in 1879.
The word is based on Nazi eugenic pseudoscience, which is why it makes no sense. Part of its charm, no doubt.
One can use Judeophobe. In the past I believe Judenhass, or Judenfresser were used. Jew hater or Jew eater.
About 15 years ago I saw a presentation by the AJC warning about the rise of leftist antisemitism. He said the problem was that in America we all associate antisemitism with “right wing and Nazis” but we don’t know about left wing antisemitism which has existed since the beginning of socialism.
For example, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,( the original Russian fake news!) Soviet Union was behind the notorious UN resolution saying Zionism is Racism.
Leftists hate nationalism. The enemy of internationalism, globalism, universal socialism is the belief that one is a people, and a people deserving of a homeland. And that is yet another reason Leftists hate Jews. It is why Leftists in every nation Leftists are importing and protecting aliens—to deny all peoples a homeland. Jews are unapologetic about their homeland, and so Jews are the enemy.
These bigots misrepresent themselves as progressive to justify their bigotry but they are actually regressive–harkening back to an era of justified bigotry and racism against Jews and others. So don’t be suckered into calling them by an approved term–progressive–but call them what they are–regressive.
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