THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ICEBERG

IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION’S ANTISEMITISM CULTURE™, THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE: THOSE WHO KNOW WE CARRY ANTISEMITIC BIASES AND THOSE WHO DENY IT.

Enough with the “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism” crap. Just do the work.

(Yes, I’m in Israel — but, as I’ve said, I will be taking time to reflect on what I’m hearing and so stay tuned …)

In my last post, I invented my Iceberg Theory of Antisemitism™. In short, the 10% (or whatever) of the antisemitic iceberg we can see is the Kanye West, Charlottesville, swastika-waving, Jew-bashing hatred.

The submerged 90% are unconscious biases that even those who carry them do not know we possess.

The last post was sort of theoretical, flushing out the general idea.

This post is about the practical application of the theory.

Everyone (well, all decent people) agree antisemitism is bad. But introduce Zionism — which is the pretty simple idea that Jewish people deserve national self-determination — and it all hits the fan. A vast number of people will respond, Well, now, hang on. I’m not antisemitic but now you’re moving the goal posts.

I’m not, actually.

I’m not making the crude case that anti-Zionism = antisemitism. But I am emphatically rejecting the ridiculous case that the two are utterly unrelated, which is the preposterous assertion made by the self-assured airheads who declare “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.” We can’t have a genuine conversation about antisemitism without a frank conversation about anti-Zionism. We have been trying to go around it. But we need to go through it.

I’ve written about this some already and I’ll do it more.

Meanwhile, let’s look at how subliminal ideas about Jews can impact us in the real world. As I said, all good people concur that antisemitism is bad.

Too often, people are unaware of the subtle ideas we carry about Jewish people (this is the 90% of the iceberg). To understand how this works, let’s apply it to a case study. Obviously, I’m talking about how ideas we subliminally carry about Jewish people get projected onto how we think about the Jewish state.

As I noted in the last post, common antisemitic biases purport that Jews …

- Aim to dominate the world

- Are rich and control banks and the economy

- Are the root of all evil

- Incite wars

- Are untrustworthy and disloyal

- Enslave (or oppress) non-Jews

- Take things to which they are not entitled

- Are puppet-masters of governments and those in power

Of course, decent people don’t think these things about Jewish people.

But let’s consider for a sec the way we think about the Jewish state.

First, let’s set terms of reference. Zionism is the idea that Jewish people have the right to national self-determination in their ancestral homeland. Since Israel was recreated as a sovereign state, in 1948, Zionism simply means Israel has the right to exist. It does not mean any of the millions of demonic definitions assigned to it by anti-Zionists.

Now let’s consider the antisemitic tropes we set out above and consider them in the context of Israel and Zionism.

For example, the core tenet of antisemitism is that Jews seek to control the world. Since 1948 at the latest, this antisemitic idea has morphed into the ludicrous idea (ridiculously prevalent across the Middle East but also stupidly common elsewhere) that Jews (that is, Israelis) seek conquest over the entire area from the Nile to the Euphrates. In other words, pretty much the entire Arab world.

Another example: Listen to the hostility against Israel (and its overseas organizational allies like AIPAC) and you’ll notice what amounts to a global control conspiracy. In the anti-Zionist narrative, the Zionists are puppet-masters controlling governments, media and most of the forces that matter in the world. (Not Jews, mind you, say the polite people, Just Zionists!)

Another one: Try defending Israel on social media and see how long it takes to be accused of being in the pay of the Zios. Because Jews = $, in case I need to put a fine point on it for you.

Along with this, you can tack on the untrustworthiness and disloyalty canards because, as you can imagine, people who only care about money and dominance are not going to bother themselves with loyalty or trust.

Our ancestors viewed Jews as the embodiment of all evil, as the literal enemy of goodness.

In today’s global imagination, Israel plays that role.

Coincidence? Sure. A big one.

Whatever is considered evil in today’s world — racism, economic inequality, imperialism, settler-colonialism, injustice of every sort — is projected onto Israel. Many countries are guilty of these offences to varying degrees. Only Israel is depicted as the apotheosis of these sins.

It’s the very literal definition of scapegoating, which is, if I need to hit you over the head with it, what 2,000 years of Western civilization has done to a single Jew on a cross, including every Sunday morning just down the street from your house.

Throughout history, Jews have been accused of fomenting war — a remarkable feat for a stateless people. Despite the fact that every conflict Israel has ever engaged in has been a defensive war launched by its enemies, Israelis are the ones accused of being the warmongers.

Jews have been accused of enslaving or oppressing other peoples and, despite the fact that Arab citizens of Israel are the freest Arabs in the Middle East, still these racist ideas of Jews as oppressors obtain. (Yeah, Arabs in Palestinian territories are, let’s say, less free, but this does not detract from my point; it proves it. On this, more in the near future.)

One of the most common antisemitic canards, of course, is the idea that Jews take what does not belong to them. (All of these factors dovetail. Money, untrustworthiness, oppressing others ….)

This is where the rubber of antisemitism really hits the road of anti-Zionism.

Let’s not even bother right now with the historically, documentarily and archeologically irrefutable fact that Jews are indigenous people in the land we’re discussing.

Let’s acknowledge, for now, simply that Israel has given away proportionately more land in peacetime than any other country in history. In agreements with Egypt and with Jordan, Israel traded actual, tangible land in exchange for an intangible promise of peace.

In the Oslo Process, Israel offered everything the Palestinians said they wanted — the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with minor territorial trade-offs.

The Palestinians said no.

Because (as they and their overseas allies don’t even pretend to deny anymore) they want it all — from the river to the sea.

Somehow, the people who have given up more land than any other people in history — and who offered to hand over even more — are accused of taking what is not theirs.

How can such an inverted perception of the facts dominate the global imagination?

Because what our ancestors accused Jews of doing and being, our generation accuses Israel of being and doing.

All of this history is to make the point that anti-Zionism may not be antisemitism in the crude sense of I hate Jews, therefore I hate Israel.

No. It is just a tad more subtle.

The issue is that, as in the final example, when you hear Israel accused of “stealing” Palestinian land — even though that contradicts every ounce of historical evidence — you may be inclined to believe it, because somewhere deep in the recesses of your subconscious, the voices of your ancestors tell you that’s what those people do. That tracks.

And so, this is the submerged antisemitic iceberg, the 90% that we don’t see. The 10% (let’s say) who are the stark-raving, tiki torch-carrying, swastika-painting Kanyes are a serious threat. But they are identifiable and can be confronted.

The thing that makes the submerged form of antisemitism especially scary is that these insidious ideas permeate our subconscious and influence how a lot of “ordinary,” “reasonable,” “antiracist” people view the world around us.

So?

So ordinary, reasonable, antiracist people have a lot of introspection to do to see which end of the iceberg we are on. Because, I would argue, in Western civilization’s Antisemitism Culture™, there are two kinds of people: Those who know we carry antisemitic biases and those who deny it.

As long as we insist “anti-Zionism is not antisemitism” or otherwise refuse to do the work, to engage in the introspection necessary to identify the biases we carry about Jews, we are not the people we say we are.

Worse, while our society has not yet reached a point where large numbers of people are influenced by creeps like Kanye or the marching middle management Mussolinis of Charlottesville, a huge number of us unconsciously carry ideas about Jews that infect the way we think, act and vote.

We are part of the submerged iceberg of antisemitism.

And until we acknowledge the biases we carry, we are a danger to the very things we claim to cherish.

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