As explained in The Secret Passion of the New Antisemitism (h/t @yaacovlozowick):
What distinguishes antisemitic propaganda from legitimate criticism, then, is the stubborn insistence on holding Israel to standards from which other countries are exempt, and the demand that Jews be denied a right to which other peoples are entitled, even obligated, to exercise themselves. Nevertheless, one cannot dismiss the new antisemitism as a modern version of the same old hatred; in some sense, after all, postmodern universalism deeply identifies with what the “Jew” was supposed to stand for. And it is precisely this identification that leads, we will see, to the widespread denunciation of the Jews so common today….
The mantle of righteousness assumed by this unique species of Judeophobia makes it extremely appealing to people of conscience. Good-hearted activists and intellectuals—Israelis among them—are lured into joining the growing public campaign against the Zionist state, all in the belief that they are fulfilling their moral obligation to humanity, and perhaps even to the Jewish people as well. True, their denunciations of Israel are often over-zealous, motivated by a fierce desire to prove themselves worthy in the eyes of their partners in the struggle. But most of them are not really self-hating Jews, as their critics assert. They are instead just terribly misguided, unwitting parties to an insidious campaign.
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Otherwise known as useful idiots.
“What distinguishes antisemitic propaganda from legitimate criticism, then, is the stubborn insistence on holding Israel to standards from which other countries are exempt, and the demand that Jews be denied a right to which other peoples are entitled, even obligated, to exercise themselves.”
Like how Israel is said to be oppressing Palestinians and committing acts of ‘terrorism’ against them, but nothing is said about Turkey and their treatment of Separatist Kurds?
I think it’s because everyone knows the more capable Kurds will inevitably go their own whey 🙂
As nefarious as their leaders and hatreds are and as reasonable some of their grievances might be, the Palestinian people have been conscripted as dupes, puppets and proxies in service to other ideological, regional and mercenary interests. Hence the outrage on the part of Arabs, Persians, Muslims, Chavezistas, Europeans, and the American Left, and all of whom surely realize Palis aren’t capable of self-rule.
Arab/ Iranian ME power plays and scapegoating are easier to understand, but did the Progressive Left get stuck on championing the fact of underdog position over substance and forget how much the now successful Israelis have overcome in order to prosper on a little strip of previously barren land? Or, are they atoning for having atoned for last century’s crimes against Jewry because some gentiles really do have a stubborn anti-semitic gene and some Jews want their people to always be the victims rather than the victors?
“But most of them are not really self-hating Jews, as their critics assert. They are instead just terribly misguided, unwitting parties to an insidious campaign.”
I don’t buy this. How can they be misguided when they mouth derogatory comments about Jews? It shows a particular type of ignorance when it is claimed they don’t understand what they are doing. Of course they do.. If it walkes like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck or in this case ugly haters of people who have done nothing to them at all. The left has joined with the Islamists (that is clearly evident) and the Islamist hate the Jews and have for thousands of years. The Islamists live in the 7th century and will probably never progress to the 21st.
Jews and Israel are civilization’s canary in the coal mine.
Regarding contemporarty progressives’ hostility towards Israel (which is used, to varying degrees, as a euphemism for Jews), I found this passage to be right on the mark:
“The universalization of victimhood demands the liquidation—physical or symbolic—of the persecuted particular.”
…
“It is precisely for this reason that the Jew, who holds fast to his suffering as if defending his private property, must let go of his exceptionalism, in order that he be absorbed into the suffering whole.”
That’s part of the harvest of the awful diversity & multiculturalism intellectual fad. Differences are to be celebrated … until they hint at uniqueness.
Mix that with envy and jealousy of the Jewish people’s success … and you have something toxic and explosive.
LukeHandCool (who, listening to his uncle’s stories and recollections of relatives recently, realized he inherited his social phobia from his one Jewish ancestor–his maternal Great Grandmother Hirschbein. Damn Jews).
This is just one of many issues where competing interests exploit appeals to emotion and a selective history (or reality) in order to promote their position in society and the world.
As for the so-called “self-hating” Jew or otherwise, this would not be the first time when Jews betrayed other Jews. Their delusions of grandeur, dreams of instant gratification, or addressing vulnerability is a mortal trait, which is not at all unique to them.
Anyway, the history of the so-called “Palestinians”; the slave trade by black Africans, Arabs, and Muslims; the imperial ambitions of Islamic enlightenment; etc., are not spoken of in polite company. So, no one should be surprised when other selective behaviors occur in order to offer advantage to some competing interest. This is a seemingly inescapable element of the natural order in its most progressive form.
“… in some sense, after all, postmodern universalism deeply identifies with what the “Jew” was supposed to stand for.” Frankfurt School, Derrida, Popper, Soros, progeny.
The State of Israel is just an easy target for postmoderns, regardless of their religious descent. Low hanging fruit, also lusted for by Mohammedan imperialism. It’s opportunism, and as I see it, it has no legs. Every ME nation depends on the State of Israel and every one knows that. They are not going to take it under, they are not going to let it go under. Period.
Israel’s ME neighbors don’t know what they want, they’re not a little schizophrenic. And they all know the “Palestinians” are incapable of self-governance and peaceful living. Arab regimes have destroyed far, far more “Palestinians” than Israel has. No Arab state in the ME wants “Palestinians” in their hair or their tents.
The real goal of postmoderns is no nation states at all, just the oligarchy and the servants, whose number regardless of any kind of descent requires radical, ruthless downsizing. To an oligarch, everyone else is a servant, including fellow oligarchs. This creates … difficulties.
It’s not anti-Semitism that’s rising. It’s anti-humanity and specifically anti-anything that can stand against the oligarchy. However, I like that word Judeophobia for anti-Semitism, which is direct hatred of Jews qua Jews. Anti-Semitism is an ambiguous and therefore weak word for that phenomenon because Arabs are Semites.
As the writer notes, some Jews through recent centuries at least have invited Judeophobia because they did seek oligarchic power for themselves. Such have hardly been the only ones to do that. Nor have even the majority of Jews, who like all other human beings want to make their lives in peace and happiness with neighbors. But as a group having small numbers, high prominence and strong self-advocacy, such Jews as contemplate oligarchic power are an easy target and an easy door to untrue generalization regarding “Jews.”
In any case, neither Jewish nor any other deconstructionists will reconsider their philosophical driver, so there’s little point in wringing hands about any of what’s happening. If it is of God, it cannot be stopped. If it is not, it will wither under the blasts of reality. My estimate is that deconstruction is not of God. Fulfillment is, but not deconstruction. Fulfillment does dissolve structures but deconstruction aims to smash them. It’s the difference between natural death and murder. Deconstruction is obsession with power, having it exclusively and wielding it absolutely. Mohammedans fit in nicely with that attitude.
No nation states, yet. No structure outside the oligarchy, sure. No activity unless pre-approved and policed, uhuh. Postmodernism is the enemy, not Jews, Judaism or the State of Israel.
On the topic of why some Jews seem to hate Israel, haven’t they been there several times before? I’m struck by the coincidence of the behavior of the children of Israel today versus that noted in Isaiah 30:10 and 11,
GNB