— Feature, Musings —05.26.2025 04:21 PM
My latest: Jew hatred comes from the Left
Does antisemitism come from the Left or the Right?
In truth, Jew-hatred is a shape-shifter. It isn’t practiced by one ideology – it’s embraced, at different moments in history, by every ideology, Right and Left. It is an ideology unto itself, in fact, one that is older than capitalism, communism, and all the other isms.
It adapts; it changes with the times. It endures, like a pestilence for which we have no cure.
But in the 600 days since October 7, 2023 – when Hamas and Palestinian civilians slaughtered 1,200 Jews in Israel, raped 200 women and girls, and kidnapped 250 Jews and non-Jews – antisemitism has been overwhelmingly seeping out of just one side of the ideological spectrum: the Left.
Many readers won’t be particularly surprised by that. Since October 7, my colleagues and I have been writing about the unspooling of sanity in the West, and documenting the delusional psychosis that has seized the new generation of Jew-haters: Gen Z and Millennials who overwhelmingly classify themselves as “progressives.”
There’s nothing “progressive” about hating someone because of their faith, race or sexual orientation, you might say, and you’d be right. But the youthful Leftist Israel-haters have seemingly convinced themselves that they are opposing a colonialist, settler, white supremacist apartheid state – and, ipso facto, they aren’t antisemites. They’re fighting racism.
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The left try and dress it up to justify it as something other turns pure ignorance. IMHO
I would be interested in knowing how things are categorized as antisemitic (and who does the categorization).
For example, within the past week Israel has killed various Palestinians under the (now proven false) claims that they were driving without lights (false), or somehow harboring Hamas terrorists.
If someone calls out and condemns Israel for those actions, calling the Israeli government murderers, is that categorized as anti-semitic?
This is a genuine question. I do support Israel’s right to exist, and Israelis’ right to leave peacefully and without Hamas terrorizing them. But I also see wanton killing and starvation by the Israeli government, with no regard for who they are hurting.
Presumably I am no more antisemitic for calling that out than I am anti-American for calling out the Trump administration’s nonsense.
This is why a lot of the public debate on this (as with so many issues) is so inane and face-palmingly irritating. Because there is so much imprecision and gross generalization that goes on.
I’ve always been a believer in some sort of two-state solution. But this goal has been systematically sabotaged for decades now by extremists on both sides in Israel (and elsewhere but mostly in Israel).
I absolutely agree that it’s unfair and intellectually dishonest to call anyone who has any criticism of the Israeli government or any of its policies anti-Semitic. But where the line is to be drawn between that sort of legitimate criticism and cloaked anti-Semitism is fraught with difficulty.
I think it’s also true that a lot of left-leaning and Palestinian-sympathetic groups have become so uniformly, unthinkingly and reflexively anti-Israel and extreme in their rhetoric that it’s understandable why a lot of people would simply label them as anti-Semitic.
Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that we currently have what is arguably the most right-wing government in the history of Israel. Adding further fuel to the fire is that fact that all rhetoric is now turbocharged by the hyperbolic idiocy of social media, so that so many people spend their days consuming inflammatory one-sided garbage and outright disinformation. One of many examples being that many Gaza/Hamas sympathizers in the West have no idea that Hamas is an avowedly genocidal organization.
Warren,
Many on the left self-delude with not even an afterthought for those killed in Israel. Civilian deaths in Israel and Gaza deserve to be treated equally and condemned to the same extent. Meanwhile, Netanyahu self-deludes for political reasons, you know, something about potentially staying out of the slammer.
As General William Tecumseh Sherman stated “You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace”. This terrible conflict was initiated by Hamas, a terrorist organization, and Hamas has made no effort, to the best of my knowledge, to bring it to an end. Instead, they have continued to inflict misery on their own fellow citizens by waging a war they can’t win, with the costs being borne by the people of Gaza. Hamas poses an existential threat to all Israelis and Jews (since Hamas and their fellow travellers don’t seem to care to differentiate between them). So for those who want the fighting to stop, tell Hamas. It’s up to them to release the hostages and negotiate a surrender.
The problem there is that Hamas is a death cult and its leaders (and presumably most of their rank and file) are sociopathic freaks. Thus they couldn’t care less how many residents of Gaza suffer and die in pursuit of their sick project of eliminating Israel from the map.
EHWAL,
Except Hamas wants to continue to exist and they likely will. Add to that the semi-permanent hostage bargaining chip as their insurance policy, and things look rather bleak for Netanyahu.
Bibi deludes himself with his claims that he can destroy Hamas. Peace is the only way forward and that won’t ever happen as long as these two main actors remain in the picture. Poor Israel, poor Palestine, poor Gaza.