Detailed insight into the origin of leftist anti-Semitism
Feb 7, 2021 16:12:31 #
Los-Angeles-Shooter
Loc: Los Angeles
In his new book Jews Don’t Count, David Baddiel observes that people on the left don’t treat the problem of antisemitism on the same level as prejudices over race, sexuality or gender.
I personally started to detect a double standard over antisemitism in the 1980s, when I wrote that antisemitism had become “the prejudice that dare not speak its name”.
This was when the left was calling Israelis “Nazis” for trying to root out from Lebanon the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s terrorist infrastructure. It was when people started saying openly: “Jews make so much money / they’re so clannish / they always stick together against everyone else”.
Merely to mention the word “antisemitism” among left-wingers, though, caused an instant glacial chill, provoked eye-rolls or produced the charge: “You’re using antisemitism to sanitise Israel’s atrocities”.
It wasn’t until the issue so spectacularly blew up in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party that this last accusation was itself finally acknowledged as a form of Jew-hatred. And it was only then, because Corbyn was so left-wing he was deemed beyond the pale, that Jews began to feel it was safe to use the a-word.
So why does the left deny or marginalise the antisemitism amongst it? And why are many Jews still so nervous about provoking a bad reaction if they talk about this on the left other than in the context of the Corbynised Labour Party?
One obvious factor is that, in progressive circles, Marxist assumptions have been absorbed often without their provenance being recognised. Like Marx himself, many left-wingers believe capitalism is evil and white, that capitalism is run by Jews, that money is power and that Jews have so much money and power they run the capitalist world.
Of course, most Jews are neither rich nor powerful. Nor are they all white. But the belief that they are means they can never be considered victims. So rather than being included in the left’s roll-call of the oppressed, Jews are bracketed squarely amongst the privileged.
The left-wing narrative of systematic falsehoods and libels about Israel, that it’s a colonialist state which uprooted the indigenous people of the land and continues to oppress them, plays in turn into these tropes of Jewish power and menace.
Crucially, those on the left believe they stand for unquestionable virtue and the only people who are bad are their opponents. So only the right are antisemitic, while the left can never be so. That’s why for the Labour party, antisemitism in its ranks is a crisis it cannot resolve.
But all these things, significant as they are, don’t provide the whole explanation. We surely have to dive more deeply into the prejudice itself.
At the core of antisemitism lie resentment, jealousy and fear of Jews as different and exceptional. The idea that they believe themselves to be “chosen” merely to bear a unique burden is badly misunderstood as privilege.
The suggestion of Jewish exceptionalism therefore drives antisemites wild. Any reference to the exceptional number of Jewish Nobel laureates, or the exceptional extent of Jewish philanthropy, or the exceptional number of scientific inventions pouring out of Israel for the benefit of humanity, merely reinforces fear and resentment of Jewish “power”.
Too many Jews, aware of the danger to themselves from being viewed as “different,” themselves therefore flinch from acknowledging Jewish exceptionalism. Genuflecting to cultural power, they seek not to offend against left-wing ideology.
And hatred of Jewish exceptionalism feeds into that ideology. Under the mantra of “equality”, this permits no hierarchies of value. It is suspicious of distinctions and differences; it believes that the particulars of any culture must yield to the flattening dogma of universalist values.
But Jewish identity, religion and tradition are founded upon distinctions, differences and moral hierarchies. So Jewish exceptionalism offends against the dogma of the left on every count. And that also includes the exceptionalism of Jewish suffering.
No other people has experienced such determined attempts to exterminate them over so many millennia. Similarly, the Holocaust was different from all other crimes against humanity or even other genocides, because the Shoah was uniquely an attempt to eradicate one people, the Jews, from the face of the earth.
The relativistic left, however, seeks to equalise all suffering. Which is why Holocaust memorialising increasingly ropes in other genocides and crimes against humanity as equivalent to the Shoah, which is thus inescapably downgraded.
That’s why it was a shame that, in his BBC Radio Thought for the Day on Holocaust Memorial Day, Chief Rabbi Mirvis didn’t explain what he meant when he observed that the Holocaust was unique — and indeed, in his reflection on the significance of the Shoah, he didn’t use the word “Jews” at all.
Judaism is unique, the Jewish people are unique, and antisemitism is unique: the most unambiguous, deranged and deadly prejudice in history. But Jewish uniqueness gets in the way of left-wing dogma. That’s why, among the zealots of victim culture, anti-Jewish prejudice doesn’t count.
I personally started to detect a double standard over antisemitism in the 1980s, when I wrote that antisemitism had become “the prejudice that dare not speak its name”.
This was when the left was calling Israelis “Nazis” for trying to root out from Lebanon the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s terrorist infrastructure. It was when people started saying openly: “Jews make so much money / they’re so clannish / they always stick together against everyone else”.
Merely to mention the word “antisemitism” among left-wingers, though, caused an instant glacial chill, provoked eye-rolls or produced the charge: “You’re using antisemitism to sanitise Israel’s atrocities”.
It wasn’t until the issue so spectacularly blew up in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party that this last accusation was itself finally acknowledged as a form of Jew-hatred. And it was only then, because Corbyn was so left-wing he was deemed beyond the pale, that Jews began to feel it was safe to use the a-word.
So why does the left deny or marginalise the antisemitism amongst it? And why are many Jews still so nervous about provoking a bad reaction if they talk about this on the left other than in the context of the Corbynised Labour Party?
One obvious factor is that, in progressive circles, Marxist assumptions have been absorbed often without their provenance being recognised. Like Marx himself, many left-wingers believe capitalism is evil and white, that capitalism is run by Jews, that money is power and that Jews have so much money and power they run the capitalist world.
Of course, most Jews are neither rich nor powerful. Nor are they all white. But the belief that they are means they can never be considered victims. So rather than being included in the left’s roll-call of the oppressed, Jews are bracketed squarely amongst the privileged.
The left-wing narrative of systematic falsehoods and libels about Israel, that it’s a colonialist state which uprooted the indigenous people of the land and continues to oppress them, plays in turn into these tropes of Jewish power and menace.
Crucially, those on the left believe they stand for unquestionable virtue and the only people who are bad are their opponents. So only the right are antisemitic, while the left can never be so. That’s why for the Labour party, antisemitism in its ranks is a crisis it cannot resolve.
But all these things, significant as they are, don’t provide the whole explanation. We surely have to dive more deeply into the prejudice itself.
At the core of antisemitism lie resentment, jealousy and fear of Jews as different and exceptional. The idea that they believe themselves to be “chosen” merely to bear a unique burden is badly misunderstood as privilege.
The suggestion of Jewish exceptionalism therefore drives antisemites wild. Any reference to the exceptional number of Jewish Nobel laureates, or the exceptional extent of Jewish philanthropy, or the exceptional number of scientific inventions pouring out of Israel for the benefit of humanity, merely reinforces fear and resentment of Jewish “power”.
Too many Jews, aware of the danger to themselves from being viewed as “different,” themselves therefore flinch from acknowledging Jewish exceptionalism. Genuflecting to cultural power, they seek not to offend against left-wing ideology.
And hatred of Jewish exceptionalism feeds into that ideology. Under the mantra of “equality”, this permits no hierarchies of value. It is suspicious of distinctions and differences; it believes that the particulars of any culture must yield to the flattening dogma of universalist values.
But Jewish identity, religion and tradition are founded upon distinctions, differences and moral hierarchies. So Jewish exceptionalism offends against the dogma of the left on every count. And that also includes the exceptionalism of Jewish suffering.
No other people has experienced such determined attempts to exterminate them over so many millennia. Similarly, the Holocaust was different from all other crimes against humanity or even other genocides, because the Shoah was uniquely an attempt to eradicate one people, the Jews, from the face of the earth.
The relativistic left, however, seeks to equalise all suffering. Which is why Holocaust memorialising increasingly ropes in other genocides and crimes against humanity as equivalent to the Shoah, which is thus inescapably downgraded.
That’s why it was a shame that, in his BBC Radio Thought for the Day on Holocaust Memorial Day, Chief Rabbi Mirvis didn’t explain what he meant when he observed that the Holocaust was unique — and indeed, in his reflection on the significance of the Shoah, he didn’t use the word “Jews” at all.
Judaism is unique, the Jewish people are unique, and antisemitism is unique: the most unambiguous, deranged and deadly prejudice in history. But Jewish uniqueness gets in the way of left-wing dogma. That’s why, among the zealots of victim culture, anti-Jewish prejudice doesn’t count.
Feb 7, 2021 16:24:00 #
All this and the Jews still keep consistently voting for Democrats on the Left.
Feb 7, 2021 17:20:36 #
Fotoartist wrote:
All this and the Jews still keep consistently voting for Democrats on the Left.
Be careful what you say. I've been told the Jews have space lasers and can turn you to ashes whenever they want.
Don't believe me? Ask Representative Greene, she knows all about them.
Feb 7, 2021 17:28:44 #
Fotoartist wrote:
All this and the Jews still keep consistently voting for Democrats on the Left.
Yes, I wondered about that too.
Feb 8, 2021 09:07:31 #
Then there was the march in Charlottesville. Were those marchers liberal Democrats? I couldn’t quite hear what they were saying. Can anyone help me with that? Please tell us what that chant may have been.
Feb 8, 2021 09:29:35 #
Fotoartist wrote:
All this and the Jews still keep consistently voting for Democrats on the Left.
A friend of mine, who is Jewish, and a solid libertarian, told me that younger generation Jews, like others, tend to downplay events like the Holocaust, the pogroms of Stalin, and the persecution of Jews during the Roman Catholic and Spanish Inquisitions. Once a person becomes two, or more, generations away from the event, or were not directly affected, they tend to discount the actual impact of the events. I had mentioned to my friend that I didn't understand how Jews, whose relatives, etc., had been murdered and abused, could ever vote for a Left Wing politician, and the answer is the same for all who are more than two generations removed.
This isn't just limited to Jews, but you can see the same thing in the U.S. I'm a Boomer, who was born in 1947, only two years removed from WWII. It didn't affect me directly, so the impact of the war was lessened. My children, who are two generations removed have even less emotional attachment, since grandparents are no longer here, and even the stories they told when alive, are not nearly so impactful.
Feb 8, 2021 09:59:53 #
I suppose i can see how older Jews 70s and above are always going to vote Democrat. But for the last twenty years there has been no question that the Republican party has been far more pro-Jewish. In fact it's plainly not in their interest to still vote for a party that has become anti-semitic.
Feb 8, 2021 10:02:42 #
Fotoartist wrote:
I suppose i can see how older Jews 70s and above are always going to vote Democrat. But for the last twenty years there has been no question that the Republican party has been far more pro-Jewish. In fact it's plainly not in their interest to still vote for a party that has become anti-semitic.
The younger generations now believe that a "Holocaust" can't happen to them. They don't fear the Left and Socialism. To the contrary, they're enamored by it. If another Holocaust happens, it will be they who fall first.
Feb 8, 2021 10:14:36 #
FotoGuy:
Did you watch the Charlottesville march? How do you feel about the Jewish-owned Lasers currently be
ing remotely operated from outer space? Do you think either of those might give younger Jewish voters pause in determing for whom they will vote? How about the shootings at the Pittsburgh Synagogue? How about the constant threats and far-right insignias being painted on walls? I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’
It seems that we find it very easy at times to “just move on.” I have heard no Republican politician stand up to condemn the statements of MTG. I did hear someone saying that had “good people on both sides.” These things mentioned would seem of concern to younger as well as older Jewish voters, as well as Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindu, and all the various other religious groups out there. I am probably and unfortunately being somewhat naive in that belief.
Did you watch the Charlottesville march? How do you feel about the Jewish-owned Lasers currently be
ing remotely operated from outer space? Do you think either of those might give younger Jewish voters pause in determing for whom they will vote? How about the shootings at the Pittsburgh Synagogue? How about the constant threats and far-right insignias being painted on walls? I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’
It seems that we find it very easy at times to “just move on.” I have heard no Republican politician stand up to condemn the statements of MTG. I did hear someone saying that had “good people on both sides.” These things mentioned would seem of concern to younger as well as older Jewish voters, as well as Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindu, and all the various other religious groups out there. I am probably and unfortunately being somewhat naive in that belief.
Feb 8, 2021 10:40:37 #
CWGordon:
You still believe the big lie about Charlottesville? I thought you were smarter than that. Do your research.
Trump publicly denounced white supremacists in 1999, when he left Ross Perot's Reform Party after David Duke announced he was joining it and encouraged other KKK members to join him. Since then, you can pull up a long montage of him publicly denouncing white supremacy, the KKK. etc. including in the Charlottesville speech which you ignorantly are unaware of and continue to believe the false narrative put out by Biden and your party.
Mentioning insignias painted on walls is solid evidence against Republicans? No one believes that. Democrat aligned BLM and Antifa are solidly anti-semitic. It is in their platform and philosophy. While Biden, a long time segregationalist, who was mentored and openly praised by Robert Byrd, a former Grand Cyclops (one step below Grand Wizzard) of the KKK, and who had the full support of the KKK during his early days in the Senate, is direct evidence of anti-semitism in the Democrat party.
You still believe the big lie about Charlottesville? I thought you were smarter than that. Do your research.
Trump publicly denounced white supremacists in 1999, when he left Ross Perot's Reform Party after David Duke announced he was joining it and encouraged other KKK members to join him. Since then, you can pull up a long montage of him publicly denouncing white supremacy, the KKK. etc. including in the Charlottesville speech which you ignorantly are unaware of and continue to believe the false narrative put out by Biden and your party.
Mentioning insignias painted on walls is solid evidence against Republicans? No one believes that. Democrat aligned BLM and Antifa are solidly anti-semitic. It is in their platform and philosophy. While Biden, a long time segregationalist, who was mentored and openly praised by Robert Byrd, a former Grand Cyclops (one step below Grand Wizzard) of the KKK, and who had the full support of the KKK during his early days in the Senate, is direct evidence of anti-semitism in the Democrat party.
Feb 8, 2021 10:50:04 #
smf85
Loc: Freeport, IL
Fotoartist wrote:
I suppose i can see how older Jews 70s and above are always going to vote Democrat. But for the last twenty years there has been no question that the Republican party has been far more pro-Jewish. In fact it's plainly not in their interest to still vote for a party that has become anti-semitic.
The Republican Party hasn’t become more pro-Jewish. They support Israel better yes; but more blindly than the Democrats do. But that support comes out of Christian fundamentalism and various end times philosophies. From my understanding, if Jesus is to return Israel must exist. I’ve heard many, many Christian self-identifies claim that every single thing they do is Christian oriented or for the Glory of G-d (which is the same thing to me). That’s their right to do and I respect them for it. The fundamentalist branches of Judaism don’t think that creating Israel was a good idea at all. Their belief is that when G-d is ready for Israel to exist again it simply will exist again without fuss bother or fighting. Some believe more in an aggressive Israel now and support Republicans solely for that.
The Republican Party also seems to accept blatant holocaust deniers/minimizers; neo-Nazi’s, and other groups whose philosophies are highly negative towards Jews. Trump had an opportunity to show what he was in Charlottesville - “Fine people on both sides” was his choice and so he showed what he was. That came right out of his mouth. No spin, no shading, just what I actually heard. It doesn’t matter what was in the rest of the speech. Unlike most people I got to hear some of the Shoah directly from grandpa. Grandpa was one of the men who blew his way out of the Sobibor/Treblinka concentration camp. I heard from him how the Nazi’s got started in Germany - the Nazi’s started just like what happened in Charlottesville.
So you ask why. You’re right, its not in our interest to vote for a party that has become anti-Semitic. That the other one is also makes it a choice between two evils. The Republican Party’s current affiliations with Anti-Semitic types far outweigh previous affiliations of the Democrats. Basically thats why.
Feb 8, 2021 10:56:50 #
smf85 wrote:
The Republican Party hasn’t become more pro-Jewish... (show quote)
I am just curious; why is it you seem unable to actually spell out the word, God? Instead you spell it as G-d. Is there some specific reason?
Dennis
Feb 8, 2021 10:57:11 #
smf85 wrote:
The Republican Party hasn’t become more pro-Jewish... (show quote)
You seem to be ignorant of the truth about Charlottesville also. You are apparently still sucked in by the big lie that numb nuts Democrats still believe. I have no respect for anyone who won't check the premises of their erroneous beliefs before spouting them off.
Feb 8, 2021 11:01:18 #
To all the numb nuts Democrats who lack the integrity to learn truth and fact, here is what was actually said about Charlottesville by Trump:
"REPORTER: Why did you wait so long to denounce neo-Nazis?
TRUMP: I didn't wait long. I didn’t wait long. I didn’t wait long. I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement. The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement, but you don't make statements that direct unless you know the fact. And it takes a little while to get the facts. You still don't know the facts. And it is a very, very important process to me. It is a very important statement. So I don't want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts. If you go back to my statement, in fact I brought it. I brought it.
As I said on remember this, Saturday, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America. And then I went on from there. Now here is the thing. Excuse me, excuse me. Take it nice and easy. Here is the thing, when I make a statement, I like to be correct. I want the facts. This event just happened. A lot of the event didn't happen yet as we were speaking. This event just happened. Before I make a statement, I need the facts, so I don't want to rush into a statement. So making the statement when I made it was excellent. In fact, the young woman who I hear is a fantastic young woman and it was on NBC, her mother wrote me and said through I guess Twitter, social media, the nicest things, and I very much appreciated that. I hear she was a fine, really actually an incredible young woman, but her mother on Twitter, thanked me for what I said. Honestly, if the press were not fake and if it was honest, the press would have said what I said was very nice. – excuse me – unlike you and unlike the media, before I make a statement, I like to know the facts.
REPORTERS YELLING INDISTINCTLY
TRUMP: I will tell you something. I watched those very closely, much more closely than you people watched it. And you had, you had a group on one side that was bad. And you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I'll say it right now. You had a group – you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit, and they were very, very violent.
REPORTER: Do you think what you call the alt left is the same as neo-Nazis?
TRUMP: Those people – all of those people, excuse me – I've condemned neo-Nazis. I've condemned many different groups, but not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.
REPORTER: Well, white nationalists –
TRUMP: Those people were also there, because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue Robert E. Lee. So – excuse me – and you take a look at some of the groups and you see, and you’d know it if you were honest reporters, which in many cases you’re not. Many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. So this week, it’s Robert E. Lee, I noticed that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after. You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?
(GUESS WHAT? THAT HAPPENED - ADDED BY ME)
"REPORTER: Why did you wait so long to denounce neo-Nazis?
TRUMP: I didn't wait long. I didn’t wait long. I didn’t wait long. I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement. The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement, but you don't make statements that direct unless you know the fact. And it takes a little while to get the facts. You still don't know the facts. And it is a very, very important process to me. It is a very important statement. So I don't want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts. If you go back to my statement, in fact I brought it. I brought it.
As I said on remember this, Saturday, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America. And then I went on from there. Now here is the thing. Excuse me, excuse me. Take it nice and easy. Here is the thing, when I make a statement, I like to be correct. I want the facts. This event just happened. A lot of the event didn't happen yet as we were speaking. This event just happened. Before I make a statement, I need the facts, so I don't want to rush into a statement. So making the statement when I made it was excellent. In fact, the young woman who I hear is a fantastic young woman and it was on NBC, her mother wrote me and said through I guess Twitter, social media, the nicest things, and I very much appreciated that. I hear she was a fine, really actually an incredible young woman, but her mother on Twitter, thanked me for what I said. Honestly, if the press were not fake and if it was honest, the press would have said what I said was very nice. – excuse me – unlike you and unlike the media, before I make a statement, I like to know the facts.
REPORTERS YELLING INDISTINCTLY
TRUMP: I will tell you something. I watched those very closely, much more closely than you people watched it. And you had, you had a group on one side that was bad. And you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I'll say it right now. You had a group – you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit, and they were very, very violent.
REPORTER: Do you think what you call the alt left is the same as neo-Nazis?
TRUMP: Those people – all of those people, excuse me – I've condemned neo-Nazis. I've condemned many different groups, but not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.
REPORTER: Well, white nationalists –
TRUMP: Those people were also there, because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue Robert E. Lee. So – excuse me – and you take a look at some of the groups and you see, and you’d know it if you were honest reporters, which in many cases you’re not. Many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. So this week, it’s Robert E. Lee, I noticed that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after. You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?
(GUESS WHAT? THAT HAPPENED - ADDED BY ME)
Feb 8, 2021 11:05:24 #
jcs
Loc: USA
Frank T wrote:
Be careful what you say. I've been told the Jews have space lasers and can turn you to ashes whenever they want.
Don't believe me? Ask Representative Greene, she knows all about them.
Don't believe me? Ask Representative Greene, she knows all about them.
It's true .
I heard the Jews think they may have finally discovered the place where they lost their "Ark of the covenant" .
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