a proud citizen of the freest country in the world, in which Jews have been safer than in any other country in history
I’d love to see what research the author conducted before arriving at these very bold conclusions. It must have been exhaustive indeed.
the persistence of antisemitism stands as a stubborn counterargument to Martin Luther King Jr.’s hopeful faith that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.
Aside from the referencing of Martin Luther King being so cliché at this point, above all it saddens me how so many people do it in ill faith.
If Hamas’s own words are meaningless to you, go look at how released Jewish hostages discussed their captivity and then compare it with the released Palestinian prisoners discussing theirs.
The practice of projecting immediate social fears and hatreds onto Jews grew from the human need to treat some nearby group of people as the Other.
This is just a rehashed argument from early Zionists claiming that antisemitism is natural, so Jews have to shove off to Palestine.
the pseudoscience of race that flourished after Darwin
The core of this new antisemitism lies in the idea that Jews are not a historically oppressed people seeking self-preservation but instead oppressors: imperialists, colonialists, and even white supremacists.
It is not inherently antisemitic to criticize Israel.
Usually when Zionists offer this trite reminder, they give no examples, maybe because ‘Israel isn’t doing enough to exterminate Arabs’ isn’t a criticism that they want to utter in public.
The author’s history is loaded with classic Zionist untruths, like the U.N. creating the neocolony (not exactly), the neocolony being compensation for the Shoah (not really), the exodus of Palestinians being accidental (nope), then delves into this:
the paradigm of white supremacy also does not correspond easily to the Jews. Around half of Israel’s Jewish citizens descend from European Jews, as do most American Jews. But those Jews were not considered racially white in Europe, which is one reason they had to emigrate or be killed. Roughly half of Israel’s Jews descend from Mizrahi, (literally, Eastern) origins. They are not ethnically European in any sense, much less racially “white.” A meaningful number of Israeli Jews are of Ethiopian origin, and the small community of Black Hebrew Israelites in Israel are ethnically African American.
Mentioning Jews of colour only weakens the author’s point since they regularly face discrimination under Zionism. Also, the point that European Jews were not yet canonized as white is irrelevant since most of them are white enough for the neoliberal establishment.
On the left, one line is that Jews are weaponizing the Holocaust to legitimize the oppression of Palestinians.
‘Jew’ isn’t a synonym for Zionist, dipshit. G‐ddamn, I’m tired of responding to this. I know that I only covered a fraction of it but I’m too annoyed to continue. Fuck this author.
We are idealists that refuse to understand there is a difference between Jewish people as a whole and the modern state of Israel.
These awful Marxists look at the material reality of the bombed hospitals and wonton destruction of civilian infrastructure, but they need to understand something more important than the real life destruction of human life.
These truths are:
Antisemitism = bad
Jews = Israel
Antisemitism = being against Jews
therefore being against Israel = antisemitism
Thus, when Marxists oppose Israel's bombings = antisemitism
If you state the minor detail that not all Jewish people are not supportive of all of the actions of the state of Israel, we'll dismiss it as irrelevant. Because our idealized concepts are more important than the consequences of following through on those actions.
The interesting thing is that everyone has heard of Auschwitz and the west impliedly takes credit for it. And while it wasn't the only example, the reason we probably don't hear about some of the others is because the yanks don't want people learning what they did when they actually did the 'liberating'.
Because colonization would be more difficult if the colonizers felt guilty about their atrocities. Thus, they have to blame everybody but themselves (irrespective of how lazy that is), which they have always done:
[W]e shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their Highnesses; we shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him; and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their Highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us.
And that we have said this to you and made this Requisition, we request the notary here present to give us his testimony in writing, and we ask the rest who are present that they should be witnesses of this Requisition.
When you are given a place of authority with complete control over what is published and no real fourm for critique, you can say whatever you want and a majority will believe you .
But.
The more we understand bourgeois media and institutions the more we can use the tools as well. Unless you belong to some sect who believes in spontaneous communism. If you do then feel free to carry on as you were.