Peter Beinart on antisemitism
JVL Introduction
The latest episode of the Beinart Notebook is concerned with putting antisemitism in perspective, in the wake of the Kanye West’s series of outrageous statements in the States.
As Beinart argues, “most of the time antisemitism comes as part of a package of bigotry, a package of hatred, a package of fundamental worldview that denies the basic humanity and equality of different groups”.
Ultimately, he believes, we need “also to recognize that a struggle against antisemitism must be connected to a struggle against anti-Palestinian bigotry”. And he explains why this is so difficult in the United States, because that kind of bigotry doesn’t even have a name there.
Thanks to Peter Beinart for permission to repost.
This article was originally published by the Beinart Notebook on Mon 5 Dec 2022. Read the original here.
Antisemitism is Rising because Bigotry is Rising
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I don’t know if this is relevant – but I find anti-Semitism a kind of ‘everything’ bigotry in which every form of negative human behaviour is an anti-Semitic trope. This is a terrible double edged sword. Anything negative from any individual can be conflated to the entire group and conversely any accusation, even valid, can be portrayed as an anti-Semitic trope. This is a nightmare.
There is a lot of overblown emotive use of the term antisemitism by those of different persuasions. Israel weaponizes antisemitism to smear those who criticise the lack of human rights for Palestinians. Israel prefers not to differentiate antisemitism, anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel. Campaigners for Palestinian rights are the people most likely also to be supporters of Jewish human rights and thus are NOT antisemites. To support human rights at all is to support human rights for everyone, everywhere. Israel, like others who claim to see antisemitism everywhere, are making a big mistake. Antisemitism is bigotry and bigots don’t normally confine their bigotry to a single ethnic group, culture or even a single issue.
Many Israelis are bigots; bigoted against Palestinians. Palestinians generally trace their heritage back to the Semitic tribes of Biblical times; and Jews also trace their heritage back to those same Semitic tribes. It is a weird irony that Israelis are bigoted against Palestinians of Semitic heritage, making Israelis amongst the worst antisemites, and certainly amongst the most bigoted people on the planet.
I agree totally with Noel Hamel. I couldn’t have expressed my thoughts any clearer.
I’ll just add, I’ve always thought that the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians is more than likely to create anti Semitism, sadly because many people think all Jews support Israel and we know for certain, that is far from the case.
Are these YNet reporters just stupid because of their own stupifying bigoty? Or is there more to it? https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/hyqdlygdo
If you come from a nation that has democratically elected a regime that systematic oppresses an indigenous ethnic groups and perpetuates outrageous lies about them, then expect people from that ethnic group to dislike you just a tad. It’s a thing. Unless you make it really clear you are not “with the regime”- in which case they may very well kind of like you a lot. An unfortunate inconvenience but that’s how it is.
Or are these reporters perhaps not so stupid? If you really outrage the natives with some real whoppers – the sort that lead to massive wars, “engineering consent’ and such, well you can then smugly point out their primitive rage and this “understanding” of their alleged base nature may help with the agenda.
It’s inevitable that amongst African Americans there arose a group that believed their oppressors to be the work of the devil. However wrong and pointless this may be. However, Malcolm X refuted this and left the interestingly named Nation of Islam. This is however a flawed analogy. For anyone,Jewish or otherwise, to believe about those who oppressed his ancestors are a group not actually human, it is flawed, but unfortunately almost inevitable. Feeling this way is inevitable. And if any group has a pass on this, it’s the Jews, clearly . Anyone who doesn’t understand that has some kind of deficiency. But to believe such a thing about, to transfer that idea of inhumanity to those whose oppression he actually supports – anyone doing that really has a very serious problem. So continue being outrageous and pointing out their rage . It’s working – for the time being. For the duration of some politicians careers. Then what?
Agree with Noel Hamel. However it would also be useful to explore more and expose clearly why Israel is geographically/strategically/economically important to England and the US.