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Demonstration in Jerusalem 2023
Photo: Mostafa Alkharouf / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
Hatred of Jews manages the incredible feat of hiding everywhere and appearing quite openly at the same time. New variants are constantly being added and ancient Jew-hatred practices are being reinterpreted: Nazi anti-Semitism, Islamist anti-Semitism, right-wing anti-Semitism, left-wing anti-Semitism, Christian anti-Semitism, Muslim anti-Semitism, ethnic anti-Semitism, post-colonial anti-Semitism, bourgeois anti-Semitism, woke anti-Semitism, conspiracy theory anti-Semitism, vulgar anti-capitalist anti-Semitism ism, pseudo-anti-racist Anti-Semitism, intellectual anti-Semitism, accepting anti-Semitism, self-exoneration anti-Semitism and, among many others, the currently largest movement: Israel-related anti-Semitism. Often enriched with a new, well-known anti-Semitism of annihilation.
This text is intended to make it easier to discover and understand anti-Semitism, to understand the motives, to be able to understand the train of thought, no matter how absurd, unrealistic and dangerous they may be - in order to then be able to combat hatred of Jews more offensively and better. Therefore, here is an almost non-sarcastic insight for non-anti-Semites into how the soul and brain of anti-Semites work, specifically in relation to the current war in the Middle East.
“Anti-Zionism” as a super trick
Anti-Semitism is out – but really only as a word. Although all anti-Semites want to hate Jews, almost no one wants to be called an anti-Semite anymore. There is the perfect distraction strategy for this: anti-Zionism. Jews are treated with hatred as ever, but instead of Jews they are talking about “Zionists.” That's enough, no one has to bother with complicated justifications, there are far too many allies in the public for it to cause problems. Since October 7th at the latest, all Jews have been equated with Israel, Israel with all Jews and everything together with Benjamin Netanyahu. Thank the anti-Zionism artifice. Of course, it must be ignored that applied anti-Zionism is exactly what Hamas has done and is still doing. Nevertheless, you can even safely write “anti-Zionist” in your social media profiles – but be careful, not everyone likes gender.
Perpetrator-victim reversal
The essence of modern anti-Semitism is the perpetrator-victim reversal. Whatever happens, the Jews are to blame. Anyone who doesn't easily hear "Jews" in the country of the perpetrators can easily switch to "financial elite", "globalists" or "Zionists". The same is true on a global political and anti-Semitic level. There, Israel always bears responsibility for everything that happens. The leitmotif for this corresponds to the eternal formulation of the perpetrator-victim reversal: The Middle East war began with Israel defending itself!
Selective forgetfulness of history
The post-colonial hatred of Jews that has become fashionable from the left requires its own forgetfulness of history. Jesus, born in Nazareth in what is now Israel (near Haifa), was known to be Jewish and was called “King of the Jews” 2,000 years ago. Judaism as a whole emerged more than 3,000 years ago in what is now Israel. One might think that with such overwhelming evidence of thousands of years of Jewish history in Israel, it would be difficult to pretend that Jews were somehow "colonialists" or "invaders." But that's not true, all historical evidence, documents and traditions that do not fit into the anti-Semitic belief are simply ignored. The often heard argument that it was so long ago is particularly absurd. Apart from the fact that there is evidence of Jewish life in the region despite many violent expulsions, this means that the rights of native populations have an expiry date - which doesn't necessarily sound like friendly post-colonialism.
Criticism of Israel
The classic way to defend against anti-Semitism is to fundamentally reinterpret any hatred of Jews as “criticism of Israel”. No argument really seems too absurd. If, for example, three Palestinians set fire to a synagogue - then a German court believes the defendants' assertions that they wanted to "draw attention to the Gaza conflict" - in other words: criticize Israel.
Extreme short-term memory
Speaking of Gaza – from an anti-Semitic perspective, it makes sense to speak exclusively of Israel's war against the civilian population in Gaza. Every reason for the military deployment is forgotten or denied, like October 7th with its murders, rapes and torture. Or that Hamas could stop the war on the civilian population by simply giving up. Or that Hamas is still kidnapping a lot of people. Or that Hamas has promised to carry out mass murder again and again, or that rockets from Gaza are still being fired at Israeli children, women and men.
Many parrot the infamous, anti-Semitic lie of a “genocide” against the Palestinian population, which is little more than trivializing the Holocaust. Bonus: Advanced anti-Semites simply forget that Hamas itself doesn't care in the slightest about the Palestinian civilian population and can stage its terrorist-totalitarian PR show all the more effectively the more innocent Palestinian people die.
Never question propaganda
The lying and production machinery of Hamas and other Jew-hating organizations has been known for a long time, but it still works, because the constant drip of propaganda not only hollows out the stone, but also the head. For many years, Israel has been attacked with an unscrupulous but unfortunately effective information war far removed from reality, which in fact is always directed against Jews as a whole. Fake videos, fake images, made-up statistics, made-up stories – everything is allowed in love, war and hatred of Jews! In the age of social media, right-wing and left-wing anti-Semitism propaganda is like cogs in this machine. Because, as Adorno put it, anti-Semitism is easy to spread if every rumor about Jews and Israel is believed unchecked: the fastest, most emotional claim wins.
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Brazen double standards and bigotry
Many anti-Semites only care about Muslim lives when they are suspected or claimed to be killed by the military of the only Jewish state. According to official UN figures, around 380,000 people, mostly Muslims, have died in Yemen since 2015. These deaths are almost completely ignored by the public. No march, no demonstration, no expressions of pity in hundreds of western cities. The vast majority of them were civilians, but these people were killed by other Muslims and not by Jews. The population, which is extremely angry in the Israeli context, doesn't care about them or is fobbed off with sensitive asides.
It is pretended that Israel alone is responsible for the current Middle East war and that there is no war anywhere else. It ignores the fact that Hamas has repeatedly rejected ceasefires and continues to call exclusively on Israel for a ceasefire, without apparently giving much thought to the hostages or the rockets or the reality in Israel. Every formulation that could be interpreted favorably for Israel is redefined negatively by anti-Semites and their sympathizers. The prime example of this is always talking about “retaliation” when for Israel it is actually about “defense.” As if Hamas were not responsible for anything and the Israeli military or, best of all, Netanyahu himself (i.e. basically all Jews) were responsible for everything.
The bigotry is garnished with the fact that committed people relentlessly fight against every racist, misogynistic or otherwise misanthropic microaggression - but remain silent even in the face of mass murderous anti-Semitism. Or find reasons why that's okay now. The bonus here is to ignore the fact that Hamas not only oppresses the Palestinian civilian population, but is also misogynistic, racist, homophobic and transphobic and, in every respect, deeply misanthropic and glorifying violence.
Confused puns
One of the most blatant formulations of Jew-hatred is the claim that Palestinians cannot be anti-Semites because they are Semites themselves. Anti-Semitism simply means hatred of Jews, and if you don't want to see that, you should go fold lemons with a few yellow butterflies.
Accusations of racism as a protective shield
From the left, bourgeois or Muslim side, every analysis of Jew hatred, no matter how conclusive, is now often answered with accusations of racism. These accusations do not need to be substantiated or argumentatively proven in order to be effective; the mere accusation is sufficient for a substantial part of the public. Unbelievable, but true: In this way, even very German-white people can easily brand people of Arab origin, Muslims and black people as "racists" - if they point out Arab or Muslim anti-Semitism. It becomes downright historically impressive when a left-wing, white, 65th-generation middle-class German child and descendant of the perpetrator accuses one of the at least 200,000 black Israeli Jews or one of the over 1.2 million Arab Israelis of racism.
Ignoring inappropriate facts
The technique of ignoring inappropriate facts is often used to defend against accusations of racism. Well over half of Israel's population and Jews in Israel are not what is commonly considered "white." But Mizrachim or Sephardim or even Ethiopian Jews. The aforementioned Arab Israelis, around 20 percent of the population, are also mostly ignored because these are all unfavorable facts for anti-Semitism such as post-colonial or pseudo-anti-racist anti-Semitism.
Jewish friends as proof
This classic, which was particularly popular shortly after the Nazi era, is still very relevant. The Jewish friends are needed to be able to openly hate Jews without having to deal with the annoying accusation of hating Jews. In the news-addicted, social media-crazy 21st century, many anti-Semites employ the professional variant of the “Jewish friend,” so to speak: the Jewish witness who happens to loudly state exactly their own stance, which is why it certainly cannot be anti-Semitic. This approach must not be burdened with too much differentiation or reality, the Jewish witnesses can camp far away from any reality - they don't even have to be Jews, yes, they don't even have to really exist, it's enough for someone on Telegram to say so.
Self-inflicted belief
But if some anti-Semites' humanity is still so strong that they start to doubt - then the belief in self-inflicting is the best weapon. Anti-Semites use a strictly logical approach: without Jews there would actually be no hatred of Jews. So the mere existence of Jews bears a significant share of the responsibility for anti-Semitism, it's clear! And the Israeli government, the Mossad or “financial Judaism” are certainly to blame for the rest. Jews are actually to blame for anti-Semitism - this is perhaps the darkest, bitterest and deadliest misanthropy of Jew-haters, regardless of whether they admit their anti-Semitism or not.