I’m not Jewish but I see it all the time and agree with you 100%. I’m a moderate who is liberal on social issues and since I don’t align myself with a party I follow a lot of blogs and such on both sides of the aisle. The right by no means has any kind of a monopoly on antisemitism…the criticism of Israel always contains the same buzzwords you hear from any other anti-Semite, and they believe themselves to be justified because of their support of the Palestinians.
Wow, see I think #3-#6 are ridiculous anti-Jewish conspiracy theory ideas. (Well, #5 may just be mental sloppiness, but yeah, mostly.)
But I don’t know what a “right to exist” even is. Does Kurdistan have a right to exist? Does whatever Lakota homeland the American Indian Movement wanted to build have a right to exist? Does Ukraine?
And “actively siding with Israel’s enemies”? That’s politics,** adaher.** If I actively side with Planned Parenthood over the Catholic bishops, that doesn’t make me a an anti-Papist bigot. If I actively sided with Germany in WWI, that wouldn’t make me anti-French, would it?
That is indeed pretty messed-up. The writer’s perception is definitely stuck in a particular kind of Christian mythological lens.
That gets into a contentious argument that would be a hijack. But your point about Christianity becoming virulently anti-Jewish despite its Jewish roots is well-taken.
I remember Garrett Morris (whom I love) and Benny Hill (whom I do not love). I don’t remember Benny Morris.
You GROSSLY misrepresent the disgusting, filthy bile spewed about Israel and Jews. No one’s walking around politely saying gee we don’t agree with Israel’s actions on that. That is utterly naive. No, they’re spreading fake mutilated children images calling Jews filthy baby killers. Evil murderers commuting genocide (as if they even know what the fuck that word means).
I’m done with this conversation. You don’t see it because you don’t want to see it. Maybe because it doesn’t affect you, I don’t know. But I’m not going to go on repeating myself. I’ve said what I have to say on the matter. You can keep your head buried in the sand all you want but it won’t change reality.
Just as the Right is filled to the brim with racists, so is the Left filled to the brim with antisemites.
Enjoy your day. I’m going to go get in the hot tub.
adaher’s not alone in that one. I’ve encountered this shibboleth elsewhere, and not exclusively from extremists. I’d be curious to know whether it’s been around since Israel’s founding or whether it’s a more recent purported test for antisemitism.
Here’s an example:
You know how the US left was howling about Israel’s actions in the last Gaza conflict (even though US major military experts determined it was in compliance with international laws, and even though US military said that Israel went to “extraordinary lengths” to limit civilian casualties and sent a team to Israel to learn from Israelis their methods?
Today, US and allies are killing hundreds of civilians and children in Syria/Iraq strikes (and those are conservative estimates).
Do you see anything like the level of vitriol and hatred on the left that was directed at Israel then, directed at the US and its allies now? Demonstrations? US/Canadian/Turkish etc. flags burned? That kind of stuff?
No? What is the explanation? I see one - in one case it’s the Jooooos. In the other it isn’t.
I guess you’re counting here not knowing how Facebook and Twitter work? Because the only reason this is true is that you follow or have “friended” anti-Semites. It tells us nothing about how people generally think, but just about your online habits. (Maybe you want to keep an eye on the horrible people or something?)
I mean, I live in a place where most people are spreading lies about Obama, support the Confederate flag, and even have some definite racist attitudes. But none of that appears on my Facebook. At most, I have one person who will occasionally say political things, but I haven’t silenced her because she’s kinda refreshing in her lack of Republican groupthink. She hates all that stuff I mentioned, too.
The Internet often creates this artificial feeling that you are seeing the opinions of the general populace, when you really only see the opinions of the people whose opinions you want to see. Just 300 people can overwhelm our brains into thinking everyone thinks a certain way, but that’s literally only a 1 in a million opinion (in the U.S.).
I’m also not sure what this has to do with the OP’s point, that the Left itself is not anti-Semitic. It’s like me saying the Right is racist. I’m sure Terr would love that.
If I look up Airwars, the non-profit whose work your link is reporting concerning civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria, do you expect that I will find that they are right-wing or left-wing?
I very clearly said that I do see it. I also see that criticizing Israel in small ways can lead to accusations of anti-Semitism by people who are unwilling to try to distinguish between disagreement with a policy and hatred of Jews.
There is absolutely anti-Semitism on the left. There are also people on the left who just disagree with some of Israel’s policies, but they get attacked.
As I also said, it can be hard to tell the difference, since anti-Semites will dog-whistle. That doesn’t mean that it’s a given that if someone says “I don’t agree with Israel’s current policy X” that they are anti-Semitic.
You used the analogy of Dick Cheney, but I do think Dick Cheney represented America and I do think we are all held accountable for him. His actions as a leader became our actions.
So, to repeat myself: The left definitely has anti-Semites. The left also has some people being called anti-Semitic because they disagree with some policies of Israel. Some people, especially those on the right, lump those both together. I don’t see how that is a gross misrepresentation of anything.
… as I expected, evasion and distraction from my post.
What is your explanation for the lack of 100,000 string leftist-organized demonstrations in multiple countries, spewing hatred and vitriol directed at US / France / Britain?
As I expected, evasion and distraction from my post. This is a fun game!
The relevance of my post is that the left obviously does care about civilian casualties in Iraq. Perhaps you recall the time period known as the last decade? I just thought it was particularly poignant that in your effort to identify antisemitic hypocrisy you accuse the left of not caring based on a cite from a leftist organization monitoring the civilian deaths. I mean, c’mon.
Your notion that there are no leftist protests and US-flag burnings over western bombings in Iraq is just wrong. But that’s less fun to point out than the above.
Could it be that THEY DON’T SUPPORT WHAT ISRAEL IS DOING IN GAZA BUT DO SUPPORT FIGHTING AGAINST ISIS?
This is the bullshit that proves you’re just looking for excuses to call people anti-Semitic. You look at things and just jump to an anti-Semitic conclusion when pretty much any other conclusion is more likely.
What does disliking Israel’s positions and tactics have to do with thinking that Jewish people are not equals? What actions do you have beyond their politics to confirm that this is about their race and not about their politics? Do they treat Israelis or Jewish people badly even if they do happen to agree with their politics?
I can disagree with your politics without being anti-Semitic, right? Why do you think I can’t disagree with the politics of a country and not be against the race that by and large makes up that country?
Am I anti-Chinese, anti-Russian, anti-Arab, anti-French? I disagree with all of those countries politically. It does not have anything to do with how I treat the people.
I’m just glad I’m as rational as I am, as comments like yours make the irrational part of me to want to side with the Palestinians out of spite. I wonder how many less than rational people you’ve convinced otherwise, though.
As I said, the level of hatred and vitriol directed at US/Britain/France for their killings of civilians and children is nowhere near the level that was directed at Israel. That’s just a fact.
And you have no explanation for that fact. I do.
No, it isn’t.
And even if it were, there are lots of non-anti-semitic reasons for a different response. That you can only see one possibility does not speak well of your faculties for analysis.
What Israel was doing in Gaza was responding to rockets raining on Israel. Are there any rockets falling on US/Britain/France?
I guess it is only important when civilians and children die as a result of military operations when Jews are involved. When it is US, Britain, France etc. - no mass demonstrations, no flag burnings, no UN condemnations. Nothing.
Bull. Show me one mass demonstration protesting US, France and Britain killing 500 civilians / 100 children in Syria and Iraq. One.
Many on the left over here in the U.K. are pro-Palestine, which many take as being anti-Israel and thus anti-Semitic.
Your “explanation” being, what, “Most liberals are antisemites?”
You GROSSLY misrepresent the disgusting, filthy bile spewed about Israel and Jews. No one’s walking around politely saying gee we don’t agree with Israel’s actions on that. That is utterly naive. No, they’re spreading fake mutilated children images calling Jews filthy baby killers. Evil murderers commuting genocide (as if they even know what the fuck that word means). That Jews are greedy imperialist land-grabbers.
I’m done with this conversation. You don’t see it because you don’t want to see it. Maybe because it doesn’t affect you, I don’t know. But I’m not going to go on repeating myself. I’ve said what I have to say on the matter. You can keep your head buried in the sand all you want but it won’t change reality.
Why does the left downplay antisemitism?
*[At] a lecture at the University of Sydney … Professor Jake Lynch was filmed waving money in the faces of an elderly Jewish women and the Jewish student trying to prevent the two from coming to blows. … [T]he image of a leftwing academic brandishing money in the faces of Jewish people clearly evokes the crude antisemitic falsehood that Jews are obsessed with money and perhaps neatly encapsulates the shift of the left away from Jews. …
When progressives downplay or diminish the threat of antisemitism in the diaspora because of Israel – or, worse, fuel it – they do not extend to us those equal rights they purport to stand for. Progressives do more than dishonouring their values in this case, they diminish the unique history of Jews in Australian (and western) society, failing to acknowledge and defend us as equal, regardless of our relationship with or opinions about Israel.
The left must act to repair its straining relationship with Jews and once again take up opposition to antisemitism as its cause. Antisemitism is, like all forms of racism, to be abhorred and condemned unequivocally, not reduced and marginalised by games of comparison and mitigation. *
So please just stop it. Stop feigning ignorance. Stop micro-analyzing it. Stop denying its very real existence. Thanks in advance.
Just as the Right is filled to the brim with racists, so is the Left filled to the brim with antisemites.
Enjoy your day. I’m going to go get in the hot tub.
Terr: there’s an argument to be made that your position is correct, but you are doing a terrible job of making it.
The argument is not “people are protesting this, and not that, therefore anti-semitism”, it’s “people are very strongly sympathizing with one and only one side of this particular tangled historical/political issue, and that side happens to be the side with no Jews, therefore anti-semitism”.
You can’t compare protests-about-Palestine with protests-about-ISIS because the situations are not identical, and are in fact not even similar.
And as for the “people are very strongly sympathizing with one and only one side of this particular tangled political issue, and that side happens to be the side with no Jews, therefore anti-semitism” argument, I disagree with it as well. I think there are two primary reasons other than anti-semitism that so many people sympathize with the palestinians (although I’m sure some of it actually is anti-semitism):
(1) People like an underdog
(2) There are (imperfect) parallels between a lot of what Israel is doing and various things that various Western nations have done in the past that we are now flagellating ourselves about (ie, colonialism, US treatment of native Americans). It’s easy and in some ways satisfying to transfer that guilt over onto the Israel-Palestine situation, without really having a deep understanding of the history of the conflict
I agree, as I said, that anti-semitism can be a third reason, and can also enhance those two reasons, but I think those two explain a LOT.