EVEN IF YOU DON’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT JEWS, THE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF NON-JEWS SUFFERING AND DYING BECAUSE OF ANTISEMITISM SHOULD SPARK A TINY FLAME OF EMPATHY.
Antisemitism has existed for a very long time in the West and going East right through to Russia. It existed in the United States but to nowhere near the extent it did in Europe. After WWII, this plague dissipated to the point where it was confined mainly to some crackpots. No respectable person would want to be seen as comparable to the Inquisition, the Hitlerites and the Stalinists.
It seems to me that it reentered the bloodstream via the universities and Islam. They were at first mostly two separate ideologies, but they joined together. It was the left wing ideology of the universities that it spread to larger culture. Oppressor-oppressed, CRT, intersectionality and all that jazz. The bias has been widespread throughout the media, but it was kept enough under the covers that most people didn’t notice. Curiously, after 9/11, Muslims became one of the protected classes but not Jews. That’s a big topic in itself.
At the risk of going on for too long, the West’s relation with Islam should be a far larger topic than it has been, at least in the mainstream media. The US State Dept has been Arabist for decades. Why? Money must be part of it. But our Middle East State Dept experts must be aware of documents like this from the Muslim Brotherhood:
“The Ikhwan [i.e., the Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
The State Dept tells this to any Americans thinking of travelling to Saudi Arabia, the country surely behind 9/11:
While in Saudi Arabia, you are subject to local laws. If you violate Saudi laws, even unknowingly, you may be expelled; arrested; imprisoned; held without trial for lengthy periods of time; interrogated without counsel; subject to corporal punishments, including lashings; or executed.
Are you gay? The State Dept tells you:
Same-sex sexual relations, even when consensual, are criminalized in Saudi Arabia. Violations of Saudi laws governing perceived expressions of, or support for, same-sex sexual relations, including on social media, may be subject to severe punishment. Potential penalties include fines, jail time, or death.
The State Dept tells us:
Saudi authorities do not permit criticism of Islam or Muslim religious figures, including on social media.
The government prohibits the public practice of religions other than Islam. Non-Muslims suspected of violating these restrictions have been jailed and/or deported. Church services in private homes have been raided, and participants have been jailed and/or deported.
Muslims who do not adhere to the strict interpretation of Islam prevalent in much of Saudi Arabia may encounter societal discrimination and constraints on public worship (emphasis added).
Public display of non-Islamic religious articles, such as crosses and Bibles, is not permitted.
————-
Now this is all true for most of the Arab world. Where is the media on this? Whenever an Arab leader comes here and is interviewed by reporters, they are obsequious in the extreme. No tough questions. No informing the public of the reality of these cultures. Certainly nothing on their extreme antisemitism. Our journalist are essentially collaborators. Saudi Arabia alone beheaded 345 people last year. Business as usual. Any reports on that?
I think that if the media did its job and exposed this, a great deal of the antisemitism would disappear. If they informed the public about antisemitic lies coming from Russia for decades, it would also do a lot the lessen the problem.
Incredibly depressing but also incredibly accurate, IMHO.
As a side note, I’d love to hear/read your take on the rise of the hate-Israel right in the U.S.—people like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and more recently, Vice President JD Vance. Much of the focus recently has been on the hatred of Israel on the left (and with good reason), but the right has historically been full of Jew-hatred. It seems like that bastion of antisemitism is suddenly (or maybe not so suddenly?) reviving itself.
Because of its very elasticity and theoretical incoherence, antisemitism is the real world expression of the old adage, “that which explains everything, explains nothing”. It should be an intellectual embarrassment, but it seems that human nature requires this simplistic solution even if it doesn’t address the actual problem.
In ancient times, it was all about carrying out the ritual properly. If the problem (drought, plague etc) persisted, you doubled down, but eventually you gave up if the solution never came.
Antisemitism seems to short-circuit the connection between problem and solution with magical thinking. In that, I’m reminded of the Irish actress who analogized Israel to the Death Star in Star Wars and explained that if it were destroyed, peace would reign on Earth.
If that’s what was actually at stake - universal redemption with only the Jews standing in the way - one could understand the single mindedness. To any reasonable observer, however, that entire mindset is delusional caused by the warping mental framing of antisemitism which sits at the center as a black hole destructive of all rational thought that comes too close.
Very well said, Pat. Here’s one more argument: the Middle Eastern countries inflaming their streets against Israel are then free to blame all of their mismanagement and corruption outward, preserving their power.
I’ve never seen the figure of 17 million Jews. The World Jewish Congress says the global Jewish population is approximately 14.7 million to 15.7 million.
Excellent extrapolation. The kind of thing I'd have needed AI to parcel out for me. Well written as always, though as far as the Oxford Comma goes, all I have to contribute is this:
And again, I can't even tell you the number of times those guys at the Burn re-iterated, as if they were trying to convince themselves, that "we can't be antisemitic, we're Jewish..."
So many real genocides are unseen because this word is desecrated and f*cked. So many real victims are unseen because everyone is obsessed with the fake ones. Sad.
Another great peace, Pat. Sadly, the world leaders don't seem to care about helping solve world crises. Rather they focus on pandering to radicalised voting blocks domestically. You are absolutely right to point that obsession with Jews and Israel is extremely harmful to the Western liberal democratic ideals.
Antisemitism has existed for a very long time in the West and going East right through to Russia. It existed in the United States but to nowhere near the extent it did in Europe. After WWII, this plague dissipated to the point where it was confined mainly to some crackpots. No respectable person would want to be seen as comparable to the Inquisition, the Hitlerites and the Stalinists.
It seems to me that it reentered the bloodstream via the universities and Islam. They were at first mostly two separate ideologies, but they joined together. It was the left wing ideology of the universities that it spread to larger culture. Oppressor-oppressed, CRT, intersectionality and all that jazz. The bias has been widespread throughout the media, but it was kept enough under the covers that most people didn’t notice. Curiously, after 9/11, Muslims became one of the protected classes but not Jews. That’s a big topic in itself.
At the risk of going on for too long, the West’s relation with Islam should be a far larger topic than it has been, at least in the mainstream media. The US State Dept has been Arabist for decades. Why? Money must be part of it. But our Middle East State Dept experts must be aware of documents like this from the Muslim Brotherhood:
“The Ikhwan [i.e., the Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
The State Dept tells this to any Americans thinking of travelling to Saudi Arabia, the country surely behind 9/11:
While in Saudi Arabia, you are subject to local laws. If you violate Saudi laws, even unknowingly, you may be expelled; arrested; imprisoned; held without trial for lengthy periods of time; interrogated without counsel; subject to corporal punishments, including lashings; or executed.
Are you gay? The State Dept tells you:
Same-sex sexual relations, even when consensual, are criminalized in Saudi Arabia. Violations of Saudi laws governing perceived expressions of, or support for, same-sex sexual relations, including on social media, may be subject to severe punishment. Potential penalties include fines, jail time, or death.
The State Dept tells us:
Saudi authorities do not permit criticism of Islam or Muslim religious figures, including on social media.
The government prohibits the public practice of religions other than Islam. Non-Muslims suspected of violating these restrictions have been jailed and/or deported. Church services in private homes have been raided, and participants have been jailed and/or deported.
Muslims who do not adhere to the strict interpretation of Islam prevalent in much of Saudi Arabia may encounter societal discrimination and constraints on public worship (emphasis added).
Public display of non-Islamic religious articles, such as crosses and Bibles, is not permitted.
————-
Now this is all true for most of the Arab world. Where is the media on this? Whenever an Arab leader comes here and is interviewed by reporters, they are obsequious in the extreme. No tough questions. No informing the public of the reality of these cultures. Certainly nothing on their extreme antisemitism. Our journalist are essentially collaborators. Saudi Arabia alone beheaded 345 people last year. Business as usual. Any reports on that?
I think that if the media did its job and exposed this, a great deal of the antisemitism would disappear. If they informed the public about antisemitic lies coming from Russia for decades, it would also do a lot the lessen the problem.
Incredibly depressing but also incredibly accurate, IMHO.
As a side note, I’d love to hear/read your take on the rise of the hate-Israel right in the U.S.—people like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and more recently, Vice President JD Vance. Much of the focus recently has been on the hatred of Israel on the left (and with good reason), but the right has historically been full of Jew-hatred. It seems like that bastion of antisemitism is suddenly (or maybe not so suddenly?) reviving itself.
Thanks Ian. Ugh. Yes, I'm working on something on that front. It's like Whack-A-Mole and it's so damn depressing.
Oh, and I’d add Megyn Kelly to that list.
Because of its very elasticity and theoretical incoherence, antisemitism is the real world expression of the old adage, “that which explains everything, explains nothing”. It should be an intellectual embarrassment, but it seems that human nature requires this simplistic solution even if it doesn’t address the actual problem.
In ancient times, it was all about carrying out the ritual properly. If the problem (drought, plague etc) persisted, you doubled down, but eventually you gave up if the solution never came.
Antisemitism seems to short-circuit the connection between problem and solution with magical thinking. In that, I’m reminded of the Irish actress who analogized Israel to the Death Star in Star Wars and explained that if it were destroyed, peace would reign on Earth.
If that’s what was actually at stake - universal redemption with only the Jews standing in the way - one could understand the single mindedness. To any reasonable observer, however, that entire mindset is delusional caused by the warping mental framing of antisemitism which sits at the center as a black hole destructive of all rational thought that comes too close.
Very well said, Pat. Here’s one more argument: the Middle Eastern countries inflaming their streets against Israel are then free to blame all of their mismanagement and corruption outward, preserving their power.
I’ve never seen the figure of 17 million Jews. The World Jewish Congress says the global Jewish population is approximately 14.7 million to 15.7 million.
Excellent extrapolation. The kind of thing I'd have needed AI to parcel out for me. Well written as always, though as far as the Oxford Comma goes, all I have to contribute is this:
https://www.tiktok.com/@elle.cordova/video/7489972127379213614?lang=en
And again, I can't even tell you the number of times those guys at the Burn re-iterated, as if they were trying to convince themselves, that "we can't be antisemitic, we're Jewish..."
YES YOU CAN
I love the Oxford Comma video, btw.
They can also be stupid.
So many real genocides are unseen because this word is desecrated and f*cked. So many real victims are unseen because everyone is obsessed with the fake ones. Sad.
Another great peace, Pat. Sadly, the world leaders don't seem to care about helping solve world crises. Rather they focus on pandering to radicalised voting blocks domestically. You are absolutely right to point that obsession with Jews and Israel is extremely harmful to the Western liberal democratic ideals.
Antizionism is exorcism for lost souls.
Interesting perspective
Empathy is in short supply.
Brilliant. And there’s a proof. As anti-semitism continues to fester, these serious issues have only gotten worse