The U.S. has fought two wars in the region, are talking about starting another, and have been more or less involved in the four regional wars in the last 60 years. Not to mention things like the Marine bombing, oil shock, or the international terrorist attacks which got a lot of news coverage. Beyond that, we don’t give billions of dollars a year or diplomatic cover to Russia. The west is involved in the Israel-Arab dispute in a way that it isn’t in any other border dispute.
Besides, if we are ascribing motives to arguments, there’s a hell of a lot more anti-Islamic sentiment than Anti-Jewish sentiment in the U.S. today. When’s the last time you heard about a protest against a synagogue? If your standard is what we are using, should I think any strident pro-Israel person has a hatred of Muslims?
It’s very simply because Jews refuse to conform to the majority religions, yet have survived, and at times flourished. There’s nothing likely standing apart from the crowd to inspire dislike. And telling the crowd you aren’t interested in joining will induce utter hatred. The survival and existence of Judaism is a constant reminder that the Emperor is butt naked. How dare they!!
No, that’s a bunch of nonsense. The only people who believe evangelical Christians think this way are people who have no real experience with that brand of Christianity.
The affection for Israel among these folks is genuine and heartfelt, not cynical and self-serving. If it has a Biblical basis, it tends to find its root in Genesis 12:1-4:
Now, if you want to argue that UK anti-semitism parallels US anti-semitism, for the most part, with it being demonstrated more by a general lack of understanding flavored by disdain with a number of widely held misconceptions about tradition, wealth, or “media control,” that it is most often displayed by juveniles who don’t have too much free time, and that it is unlikely to result in restrictive laws, ghettoes, or pogroms in the next two years, I would accept that you are probably right. However, nothing in the linked articles indicates that the anti-semitism displayed originated among Muslim immigrants and simply denying reality hardly makes your point.
I am not sure that he gets it completely correct, but Joe Carter had an interesting observation about Why Evangelicals Love the Jews. I think he may downplay the eschatology aspect a bit, but it is certainly true that he makes a case that it is not the whole sum of the reason.
(Another aspect that might come into play is the “I love humanity; it’s people I can’t stand” phenomenon. There are not many Jews living in the same regions as large numbers of Evangelicals in the U.S. Loving the idea of a Jewish people without having to confront or address stereotypes that are often directed at Jewish communities makes it easier to avoid facing or even expressing any prejudices one might hold.)
No, plenty of evangelical Christians believe exactly that. They believe that two thirds of the Jews in Israel will be killed, and the remaining third will be spared because they convert to Christianity.
I find the idea that those linked stories mean anything at all is laughable.
First of all as you can see only 47% of perpetrators are white. I’ll include the 7% of blacks as mainstream British too, with a caveat that I expect a fair number of them to either not be black or to be very recent immigrants. But the 6% Eastern European (which everyone knows to be very anti semitic) and 39% Asian/Arab do not count as British in culture. The latter in particular will be overwhelmingly Muslim as I was saying.
Secondly, amongst the whites I can guarantee almost all of them will fall into two groups: either anti-Israeli, which is not anti-semitic no matter how people try to pretend it is, or skinhead ultra-nationalist types which I never denied the existence of, they exist in every country, but they are a ludicrously tiny minority which can be ignored.
Hell our most notorious far right parties even allow Jews to join, and that was before they were forced to let anyone join by the courts.
Please don’t imply I’m lying, and I’d recommend against making bigoted comments about Muslims in a post pooh-poohing Anti-Semitism.
The polls are real, but they’ve altered since 2009. The most recent polls, taken in 2012 by the ADL found that I gave wrong figures. In truth it’s not 40% of all British adults who think that British Jews are more loyal to Israel than the UK, but 48%. In France, the percentage of the population that thinks that French Jews are more loyal to Israel than France is 45%. Here’s the study for anyone wanting a cite. Warning, PDF. http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/adl_anti-semitism_presentation_february_2012.pdf
It should also be noted that 35% of all people in France and 20% of all people in the UK agree with the statement “Jews have too much power in the business world”.
So yes, it’s clear that many people in France and the UK harbor anti-Semitic sentiments unless one wants to dramatically redefine our understanding of the term anti-Semitism.
Now, does that mean that everyone who feels that way applauds when they hear of Jewish Synagogues being blown up? Of course not. Just as there are different levels of anti-Semitism.
Lots of people can believe that blacks are dumb or that white people have small penises without cheering on the KKK or the thugs who beat up Reginald Denny.
In my experience the vast majority of anti-Israel views come from two things:
Perception of Israel’s actions regarding Palestine and Palestinians.
Perceived weird situation in the US where any politician showing anything but unwavering support for anything Israel does has committed career suicide.
Of course, you do. They do not fit into the preconceived prejuduces that you wished to express, here.
So, there were only 300 attacks by “real” Britons against Jewish targets that were sufficiently violent or damaging to warrant police response? That does not quite support your erroneous claim that there was no significant demonstration of hatred. At about the same time, the U.S. had around 1,200 similar attacks in a country with five times the population (and a larger percentage of Jews). So, by your weasel figures, the U.K. is a bit more hostile to Jews than the U.S. is.
Note that I have made no claim that Britain is violently anti-semitic. It is not. I just find your silly game of claiming that people with whom you identify are in some fashion free of sin to be, in your words, laughable.
The [ADL also found that 30% of Americans believe that Jews are more loyal to Israel than the US](According to Foxman, although anti-Semitism is less of a problem in the United States than elsewhere, 30 percent of the American people believe that U.S. Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the United States, and 30 percent of Americans believe that Jews killed Jesus.). Does anyone genuinely believe that’s true?
The ADL is a damn good resource for general background information on racism, but they have a vested interest in polling show high rates of antisemitism; it’s how they get funding.
Simple Linctus’s point also has some merit: attitudes towards Jews are based at least in part on Israeli policy. The ADL’s polling showed that 23% “said that their opinion of Jews was influenced by Israel’s military and political activities.”
Actually, among the people whom I find most rabidly anti-Israeli, it is merely a mask for their clear anti-semitism.
There are people who oppose Israel’s policies, (particularly the settlements and other actions in the West Bank region), but there are a lot of people whose basic attitude is that those actions are evil because Jews are committing them. The only way to distinguish between an anti-Israeli and an anti-Semite is to actually discuss the issues to see where the person stands; a blithe dismissal that all anti-Israeli attitudes are free of anti-Semitism demonstrates a willful disregard for reality.
Sure. 27% of Americans still though Bush II was doing a good job at the end of his presidency. Some ridiculously large number of people still believe Obama isn’t American, or that he’s Muslim. The Jewish stuff is far more plausible because it has a fairly long history of support from various Christian denominations.
