The Many Faces of Anti-Semitism

By Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal Pioneer

On Oct. 27 in Pittsburgh, a murderer killed eleven Jews, and wounded others. 

But anti-Semitism includes more than just physical violence by killers. We should not ignore other, less brutal but more insidious, forms of anti-Semitism, especially those movements and people masquerading as “anti-Zionist.” 

While the neo-Nazi ultra-right thinks left-wing Jews run the United States, the ultra-left says the same about pro-Israeli Jews.

Those on the left have more power than those deranged lunatics that slaughter Jews, because they control most cultural institutions and are often embedded in mainstream colleges, political organizations, and the media. 

All of this has led to a steady normalization of anti-Semitism in American society, particularly in progressive circles. 

“Most American Jews are politically progressive and are accustomed to thinking of anti-Semitism as an expression of right-wing ideology,” writes Benjamin Ginsberg, a professor of Political Science at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University. 

“They are often surprised and dismayed to discover how pervasive anti-Semitism, often thinly disguised as anti-Zionism, has become on the political left.”

One of the big forces on American college campuses today is anti-Semitism. These institutions are now home to the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement targeting Israel – though there are no similar campaigns against countries like Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan or Zimbabwe, all guilty of major human rights violations. 

Some faculty cow Jewish students and organizations on campuses and make those institutions feel like unwelcoming places for many.

Democratic Party’s leaders, including former president, Bill Clinton, sat with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on the stage at Aretha Franklin’s funeral last August. Farrakhan has referred to Jews as termites.

Most media ignored this until Jewish news outlets began to publish criticisms. Why the silence? Because, increasingly, the “progressive” formulation of racism involves power – only those with privilege can be racist, nor can they be victims of it.

That’s why Linda Sarsour and Amika Mallory, leaders of the Women’s March, have combined anti-Zionism with a favourable view of Farrakhan. 

Especially on the left, some see anti-Semitism as a wholly separate phenomenon from and perhaps a lesser form of bias than racism.

Jews, this argument posits, are too embedded within the system to have prejudice effectively wielded against them as racism. Individuals may sometimes be persecuted, but as a group they are not oppressed, since the vast majority are well-educated members of the middle class. 

This has problematic implications for Jews. First, it equates Jews with white and institutionally privileged people, ignoring the history and ongoing prevalence of anti-Semitism.

Second, it ignores the fact that Jews as a class are often falsely maligned as too powerful--which, paradoxically, would make them fair game for ridicule under the prejudice-plus-power definition.

“Anti-Semitism is a strange form of prejudice,” notes Olivia Goldhill, a journalist with the website Quartz. “Rather than denigrating Jews as inferior, it casts them as maliciously superior. It’s a bias that’s as popular on the left as it is on the right.”

On the far right it’s easy to spot anti-Jewish animus. On the far left, though, we have a more complicated challenge because misinformation is often expressed in the language of social justice, which makes it easier to mislead well-meaning people.

Intersectional ideology, which falsely analogizes the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with the struggle for civil rights in the United States, has become fashionable in progressive circles. 

The growing number of critics and outright opponents of Israel among Democratic Party activists in the United States has become a concern.

The Democratic Socialists of America, in effect the left-wing of the Democratic Party, has 50,000 members and 181 chapters. At its 2017 convention, delegates voted to support BDS. They chanted, “From the river to the Sea, Palestine will be free.” As this refers to pre-1948 Palestine, it entails the elimination of Israel.

In the Nov. 6 midterm elections, three Democrats who have nothing positive to say about Israel gained seats in the House of Representatives.

Rashida Tlaib, elected in a Detroit-area district, is a supporter of the BDS movement, as is Ilhan Omar, with a Minneapolis seat. She has called Israel an “evil” country and an “apartheid regime.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a socialist who will represent a New York district, has said she wants to end the “occupation of Palestine.” 

The same people who insist that “anti-Zionism” is not anti-Semitism will then accuse those who call George Soros a “globalist” of being anti-Semites – even when not referring to him as Jewish.

No one has a monopoly on hate.