I am reading an article in last Tuesday’s NY Times about the history of antisemitism in Majorca and they segued into a discussion of the fact that over 1/3 of Spaniards are antisemitic and included the following: “anti-Semitic views tended to concentrate among Spaniards with left-of-center political leanings.”
The same is true among Quebecois. There is a small labor party whose leaders tend to be virulently antisemitic. One of them was quoted recently as calling the entire state of Israel “occupied territory”.
I have the impression (but it is only an impression) that the same is true among Europeans, especially among “intellectuals”.
To clarify my own position, I will say that as much of an atheist I am, I am a Jewish atheist.
It is basically true in the U.S. as well. The U.S. as a whole is more pro-Israel than any other major power but it does pick up some vocal criticism and that usually comes from the far left.
‘Antisemtic’ has become such a politcally charged term, much like ‘terrorist’ that it’s lost it’s meaning. To claim that 1/3 of spainards are antisemtic is meanigless to me without how saying how that figure was arrived at. There’s some who would class anything other than general support for the right-wing of the Israeli political spectrum as antisemtic (and even then rightists aren’t above attacking other rightists as antisemtic if they disgaree with them).
I certainly would not class describing the state of Israel as “occupied territory” as antisemtic, yes it’s rhetoric, but if you can;t see why there’s a lot of people around the World who have an issue with the way Israel was created then you need to take the blinkers off your eyes.
The whole issue reminds me a little of a circular argument used in the ongoing abportion thread in the pit where one poster defined the start of human life as the point of fertilization so ergo all forms of abortion are essentially murder and by assocaition is bad. Simlairly there’s some who like to define criticism of Israel as antisemticism ergo all criticism of Israel is bad by assocaition.
There is antisemitism in some factions on the left and it always comes back to Israel. The most common sentiment tends to go like this: ‘Israel has too much influence on U.S. foreign policy, and Jews stand behind Israel uncritically, which allows this to continue.’ You can make a rational case for the first part, but once you cross into the realm of “AIPAC controls U.S. foreign policy and everyone who says anything about it is branded an antisemite,” then you’re basically voicing a Jewish conspiracy sentiment. Jews in the U.S. tend to lean left politically and the left is generally more critical of Israel than the right. But criticism of Israel is not inherently antisemitic at all, and most U.S. Jews don’t hesitate to criticize Israel’s actions even if perhaps they are sympathetic to its history and circumstances. I don’t think calling it “occupied territory” is necessarily antisemitic (certainly not without further context). And I agree that the figure about a third of Spanish people being antisemites is very vague.
Conflation of left-leaning political views and anti-semitism is relatively new talking point propagated in the media and strong pro-Israel blogospehere.
It is obviously a charged accusation for short-term political gain however, in my opinion, it is a consequence of a general tenet of left-leaning political thinkers to be against any form of imperialism (land and natural resource grabbing including occupation and illegal settlements) and subjugation of other people (which Palestinians, objectively and regardless of why you think, are). That is in fact the basis of opposition that many left-leaning parties around the World have against Israel (including Canada’s NDP who are, I might add, effectively silenced via retirement or apology - talk about free speech).
Anyways, the OP’s described idea is a pure strawman; however, it is working very well and rarely it is questioned.
Anti-semitism in Spain was cited in the OP, and it should be noted that this is very specifically negative attitudes towards Jews and not towards Israel or even Israeli policy:
The constant refrain that any criticism of Israel is met with accusations of anti-Semitism seems to be a sideshow when nearly half the cited country admits to simply not liking Jews. In fairness, this survey does not correlate this anti-Semitism to a specific part of the political spectrum.
As it doesn’t say what it catergorizes as “unfavourable views” I don’t know how you can say that
As above, but if you honestly don’t believe that ‘antisemitisim’ has become an extremely abused term in the political arena your burying your head in the sand. Like I said it is not unheard of for Israeli rightists to accuse other Israeli rightists of antisemitism when even showing a hint of moderation (such as when a right-wing government evict illegal settlers, illegal here being illegal in Israeli law). And I don’t believe that you are unaware that Obama Barack has received a barrage of accusations of antisemtisim for even trying to approach an evenhanded attitude to the Middle East Conflict.
Not that I’m saying Spain is free from problems with racism, but given the politically-charged nature of the issue I really wouldn’t make any opinions until I knew what the specific questions were that were used to decide if someone had unfavourable views towards Jews.
'Antisemitic" really needs to be more clearly defined here. If it’s being defined to include any criticism of Israel (which is what the American right loves to do), then it’s bullshit. I’m a lefty. i know a lot of lefties. I don’t know any who are antisemitic. Most of them are even essentially pro-Israel.
Sounds like how in the US, right wing conservatives accuse anyone, including other right wing conservatives, who show any inclination to moderate or compromise on any issue at all of being “socialists.”
Obama is a moderate conservative who gets called a “communist” for taking positions that are to the right of Ronald Reagan.
I think Israel is a pretty shitty country, but that has nothing to do with the humans that live in it. Why on Earth would criticism of a country equal prejudice against its largest ethnic / religious group.
That said, I do think the Jewish religion, like all religions, stupid and backwards.
People who whine “Any time I criticize Israel they call me antisemitic” tend to be, in my experience, antisemitic. Just like people who whine “Why do black people get to call each other niggers, but when I do it they call me racist” tend to be racists.
Not all of them, and they may not be virulent racists or antisemites. But if say you hate black people because they’re always unfairly accusing you of being a racist, well, I can do the racism math there.
Damn man! Apart, perhaps, from the bit about AIPAC it is a plain fact that, in America (not elsewhere, and, I have heard, not even in Israel itself), almost as soon as anyone voices any criticism of Israel, or Israeli government policies, or even, sometimes, of Likud policies, they get labeled as an anti-semite. It is happening in this very thread! Indeed, you are doing it yourself in your opening sentence, and the OP does it too:
As jayjay rightly said, criticism of Israel (and indeed of Zionism) does not amount to anti-semitism. It is perfectly possible to believe that it was a very bad thing that the state of Israel was ever created without having any prejudices against Jewish people as such. Indeed, not a few actual Jews are of this opinion, and outside of America few people, even, I suspect, few Jews, will immediately equate criticism of Israel with anti-semitism. In America, however, not only Jews but Gentiles too are very quick to make the equation. In fact, many critics of Zionism or of Israeli government policy (and, I would venture to say, the vast majority of the* left-wing* critics) would have no problem at all with having a Jewish family living next door, or having a Jew join their club, or with having their son or daughter marry a Jew, or, indeed, have any of the other attitudes, beliefs or behaviors evidential of actual anti-semitism.
I do not know how much AIPAC, specifically, has to do with it, but there is no doubt that American foreign policy (over successive administrations) and the American media has, for years, been massively supportive of Israel to an extent that seems quite ludicrous (and, often, counter to American national interest) to anyone used to getting their world news from non-U.S. sources. These are facts that needs explaining (even though it can be hard for many Americans to see that they are facts, because they have been so heavily exposed to massively one-sided reporting about the Israel/Palestine situation for so long). To immediately label any attempt to explain these facts as “conspiracy theory” is part of the same syndrome that attempts to close off debate by labeling any criticism of Israel as anti-semitism. Both these tactics function to stifle rational discussion of both the realities and the rights and wrongs of the actual situation.
I can’t agree with that. Without question, criticism of Israel gets routinely characterized as antisemitic. It’s a deliberate strategy of the right, just like it’s a deliberate strategy to call every attempt to raise tax revenues “socialist.”
Wow, and I see Lemur866 is doubling down on this nasty tactic. Apparently, not only does being critical of Israel make you an anti-semite, but objecting to the assertion that being critical of Israel makes you an anti-semite makes you an anti-semite. Way to poison the well, bro!
Sorry but you passed your turn, you were too busy playing the antisemitic card to play the “stifle rational discussion” card. Apparently, it’s one or the other.
If accusations of antisemiticism are being thrown round (rightly or wrongly) then I’d say one party in the discussion has gone beyond what I would consider rational.
I think in the arena of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the term ‘antisemticism’ just like ‘terrorist’ has lost most of it’s objective meaning as it will generally tell you more about what the person using the term feels about a certain issue rather than being used to put the object of the term into a broadly-agreed catergory.
Myself I much prefer to talk about ‘racism against Jewish people’, because though the term ‘racist’ is not beyond abuse, it does have a far wider reaching and is more difficult to abuse in the context (and no I wouldn’t catergorize Jewish people as a race, but for example I wouldn’t also catergorize blacks or latinos as races).