The editors of the Jerusalem Post write in the New Antisemitism:
But what is a conscientious anti-Semite to do in an age of multiculturalism, when “otherness†is in? Singling out a Jew for being different, ridiculing his exotic traditions – in short, acting like an anti-Semite – is not just unpopular, it is downright unacceptable in the age of political correctness.
The indefatigable anti-Semite will not be deterred, however. If he can no longer attack the Jew for keeping kosher, for wearing distinctive dress, for adhering to Shabbat, a different tack must be taken. The Jew must now be coopted to the evil establishment. He is the rapacious capitalist, the smug acquisitionist; he is part of the neocon Cabal directing US foreign policy in Iraq.
But more than anything, the Jew is the warmongering Israeli. Once derided for his weakness and rootlessness, the Jew, who hoped to put an end to anti-Semitism by establishing his own state, is now singled out for being too aggressive, too militant.
History never ends. It just takes on a new shape. Over and over again.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
I’m sure I’m not the first to notice it, but one of the ironies of Zionism is that in a sense it had a result completely different from what it intended.
Herzl said a Jewish state would normalize the lives of Jews everywhere; with a Jewish state the Jew would be, say, like an Irishman outside of Ireland. He would be a man like other men. Instead, of course, the reverse has happened–what the Jew was to other people the Jewish state is to other states.
And the Bundists and other socialist Jews, who opposed and derided Zionism, thought that creating a Jewish proletariat would convince others that Jews were just like everybody else, and defuse antisemitism, which so often focussed on Jews as evil capitalists. That did not work out so well. There weern’t many Bundists left after 1945.
Except for states like the USA, Germany before the Nazis, or Britain, where Jews really were accepted and safe from pogroms, there is no alternative to Israel. The antisemites will be hostile to Jews whether or not Israel exists. Antisemitism will become more or less fashionable whether or not Israel exists. The antisemites will be with us always. The best we can do is club them down when they come at us, snarling, and remind the Gentiles that, while they may come for us first, the same vicious swine will come for them later, under some vacuous and shallow pretext. Thus it ever will be, until the Messiah comes.
Indeed, a common refrain among pre-WWII antisemite was, “Jews out – go to Palestine where you belong. That’s your country, and you shouldn’t be here”. Now it’s: “Jews stole Palestine, which belonged to someone else before they came. Zionists out of Palestine”. Basically, the world won’t be happy until Jews are living NOWHERE.