Modern Anti-Semitism

[DRSB]

The article is clear on what kind of violent racism is the object of criticism.

[Hermit]

The article is clear on what kind of violent racism is the object of criticism.

The article fails to provide a single example of anti-Semitism, let alone violent racism by progressive leftists. What its author, Deborah Lipstadt, did mention, is this: "If they are active in Hillel, the Jewish student organization, they may be informally barred from being active in progressive causes". An example of anti-Semitism? Fuck off. Hillel is an avowedly Zionist organisation. Its motto is: "Wherever we stand, we stand with Israel", and it does not permit any speakers who criticise Israeli policies to speak under its banner. Lipstadt conflates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Lipstadt isn't alone in doing that and to be fair there is some basis for the claim, in that anti-Zionists can and in some cases do incorporate antisemitic ideas into their anti-Zionism. In addition, as the article below points out, antisemites are happy to use anti-Zionism as a beard for their bigotry. I believe that the distinction is important, and that valid criticism of Israeli policies, referred to in shorthand as anti-Zionism, should not be automatically lumped in with antisemitism.

'Antisemites use the language of anti-Zionism. The two are distinct'

Anti-Zionism is antisemitism. So claimed France’s President Emmanuel Macron in a speech last week in which he promised to change policing regulations to criminalise anti-Zionism.

The condemnation of anti-Zionism as antisemitism has a long history, but in recent years has become increasingly accepted by mainstream politicians and organisations. This shift in perspective has taken place against the background of rising antisemitism, from physical attacks to racist tweets, fuelled by both the resurgence of the far-right and the growth of antisemitism on the left. Particularly in sections of the left, anti-Zionism has more and more appropriated, often unrecognised, antisemitic tropes.

All this is undeniably true. Yet, it remains important to resist the equation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

...

There are, in other words, many forms of anti-Zionism, some progressive, some antisemitic. What has shifted is that leftwing ideas of anti-Zionism have become increasingly colonised by antisemitic forms. The reasons are complex, ranging from evolving notions of “anti-imperialism” to the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories.

One key development that has helped foster the shift is the growth of the politics of identity and of the tendency to see “good” and “bad” in terms of the group to which someone belongs and the privileges that they are supposed to possess.

Identity politics has led many to target Jews for being Jews, especially as they are seen as belonging to a group with many privileges to check, and to hold all Jews responsible for the actions of the state of Israel. Many who support the Palestinian cause, including many within the Labour party, seem genuinely unable to distinguish between criticising Israel and sowing hatred against a people.

The elision of anti-Zionism and antisemitism is a feature, then, of both sides of the debate. On the one side, it helps to legitimise antisemitism, on the other to close down debates about Israel and to criminalise genuine struggles for Palestinian rights. We should reject both.

[JimC]

There is a similarity to reactions to Islam. Valid, robust criticism of Islam is in danger of being conflated with the racist attitudes of right wing nationalists, to the point where many on the left automatically view any criticism of Islam as suspect...

[Scot Dutchy]

Entirely agree Jim. To criticise anything these days is automatically to be "anti".
Of course there is justifiable criticism of most things but you cant say it.

[Brian Peacock]

The antisemitic monster rising from the slime is not Corbynism – it is white nationalism

At 10pm on Thursday 12 December, millions of Britons felt their chests tighten. As the exit polls sounded the death knell of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour and the birth of an all-powerful Tory Party, many people – from Britain's Muslim community to its undocumented migrants to its Universal Credit recipients – found themselves struggling to breathe. 

How strange it was, then, to read of British Jews’ response to the election in a Jewish Chronicle article headlined: “We breathe easily now”. This reaction – from a community that had held its breath for a Corbyn defeat so long that it was, as it were, blue in the face – was entirely predictable.

Jewish media and communal leaders had, for years, and with increasing intensity as the election approached, made it their mission to convince their community and compatriots to keep Corbyn out of No 10 – and had succeeded. Why wouldn’t celebratory G&Ts be in order?

Sadly, these celebrations were short-lived. On the final night of Hanukkah, members of South Hampstead Synagogue left the Sunday service to discover the building daubed with antisemitic graffiti. Relief quickly gave way to bewilderment: how, when we had so recently “crushed [antisemites] at the ballot box”, were they ever more emboldened on the streets?

What it made clear was that the rendering of Jeremy Corbyn as Public Enemy #1 had led many British Jews to believe that the end of Corbyn would spell the end of (at least the worst excesses of) antisemitism in the UK. Whereas under Corbyn, “anti-Jewish racism has been allowed to run amok”, this “historic achievement for Boris Johnson” would, the Board of Deputies was certain, set Britain on the path towards becoming “a beacon of inclusion and respect for all its inhabitants.”

If so, the events of the last couple of days are not a promising first step.

By focusing almost exclusively on antisemitism within Labour, British Jewish leaders have blinkered their flock to the broader catalysts of global antisemitism, whose steady rise long preceded Corbyn, and will long outlast him.

Just hours before the attack in North London, five people were stabbed at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York. An historian spotted a trend. “Taken together with the stabbings in New York,” commented Simon Schama, “something truly monstrous is rising from the slime.”..

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/an ... 64746.html