Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism: The Link

The History News Network ^ | July 21, 2006 | Diana Muir

[quidnunc]

This week, the Spanish Foreign Minister felt compelled to defend Prime Minister Zapatero from charges of anti-Semitism.

Zapatero had donned the black-checked keffiyeh that is the symbol of Palestinian determination to destroy the Jewish State and criticized Israel for using “abusive force that does not protect innocent human beings.” [1]

It was all too familiar.

On any given day one can find some eminent European — a university professor, high-ranking churchman, a parliamentarian — gravely explaining to reporters that harsh and disproportionate criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic.

And their protestations sound plausible. After all, this is not your grandfather’s anti-Semitism. Israel’s highly-educated critics do not refuse to dine in restaurants that serve Jews, use epithets like “kike,” or believe that Jews control the international financial markets and are more likely than others to engage in shady business practices.

At least that is what I assumed until someone did the study.

Two Connecticut professors got curious about the constant denials that extremely harsh critics of Israel were anti-Semitic. Edward H. Kaplan, the William N. and Marie A. Beach Professor of Management Sciences, and Charles A. Small, Director of Urban Studies, Southern Connecticut State University, decided to examine the issue in formal way. Their paper, “Anti-Israel Sentiment Predicts Anti-Semitism in Europe,” appears in the August issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution. [2]

Kaplan and Small ask whether individuals expressing strong anti-Israel sentiments, such as the statement by Ted Honderich, Emeritus Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London, that “those Palestinians who have resorted to necessary killing have been right to try to free their people, and those who have killed themselves in the cause of their people have indeed sanctified themselves,” are more likely than the general population to also support in such old-style anti-Semitic slurs as “Jews have too much power in our country today.”

The correlation was almost perfect. In a survey of 5,000 Europeans in ten countries, people who believed that the Israeli soldiers “intentionally target Palestinian civilians,” and that “Palestinian suicide bombers who target Israeli civilians” are justified, also believed that “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind,” “Jews have a lot of irritating faults,” and “Jews are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want.”

-snip-

The study’s other interesting finding was that only a small fraction of Europeans believe any of these things. Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism flourish among the few, but those few are over-represented in Europe’s newspapers, its universities, and its left-wing political parties.

For Americans who do not read the European press, the level of raw anti-Semitism in European intellectual circles can be shocking.

-snip-

[quidnunc]

2 Kaplan, Edward H. and Small, Charles A., “Anti-Israel Sentiment Predicts Anti-Semitism in Europe,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 50 No. 4, August 2006, pp. 548-561 http://www.yale.edu/isps/seminars/antisemitism/kaplan.pdf

[rocksblues]

This crapola of innocent civilians being killed is just that crapola.

When Israel does go to the ground they should issue the following statement.

We are coming, if you are a civilian you should evacuate asap, otherwise you will be considered the enemy!

[PA Engineer]

What I always knew and now quantified BTTT. Thanks for the post.

[TSchmereL]

Ted Honderich

Emeritus Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic

University College London

“those Palestinians who have resorted to necessary killing have been right to try to free their people, and those who have killed themselves in the cause of their people have indeed sanctified themselves.”

Moonbat logic, that is.

[nopardons]

bttt

[wideawake]

The important finding here is not that anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are essentially identical phenomena - that surprises no one.

What is slightly more interesting is that it is clearly skewed to the left of the political spectrum - which stands to reason, since all Leftism derives ultimately from a hatred of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But what is most interesting is that genteel anti-Semitism is more pronounced in journalism, higher education and politics than in other fields of endeavor.

This basically means that the information elites - those members of society whose vocation is to inform, teach and persuade - are preaching anti-Semitism and their audience, students and constituents are not really buying it.

This also makes sense - these elites consist of people who are obsessed with seeking approval and influence for themselves and their ideas. The very existence of the Jewish people and the truth which God vouchsafed to them throws the tawdriness and inadequacy of their highfalutin notions into sharp relief.

The rising prominence of Islam is symbiotic - the opinion elites sense that Islam and their own "cultured" Left share common enemies. Islam gives them vicarious pleasure - it is the id to their ego.

Muslims say and do the things they wish they could but which politeness says they can't.

Reciprocally, the opinion elites have resources, breeding and access to the West's structures of power which Muslims want but lack the discipline to obtain.

Each side uses the other, the Leftist thinking of the Muslim: "He'll come around to my way of thinking eventually" and the Muslim thinking of the Leftist: "I will eventually outgrow my need for him and behead him, unless he converts."

[Fiddlstix]

......believed that “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind,” “Jews have a lot of irritating faults,” and “Jews are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want.”

Sounds to me like nazism is alive and well over there...

[TSchmereL]

Not everyone who is anti-Israel is anti-Jewish . . . but every Jew-hater is anti-Israel.

[wideawake]

To the contrary, this study provides some empirical evidence that almost everyone who is anti-Israel is anti-Semitic.

The statement that "not everyone who is anti-Israel is anti-Semitic" is a canard.

It might be accurate to say that not everyone who opposes Israeli government policy is anti-Semitic as long as they believe that Israel has a right to exist as an independent and sovereign nation.

[alecqss]

"...the Leftist thinking of the Muslim: "He'll come around to my way of thinking eventually"

I disagree. To leftists islamists are wet-boys doing the dirty work. The left is under idea that they will be able to eradicate no longer needed islamists quickly after "imperialism" is defeated.

I think they are mistaken, though we will never know that for sure. Neither left nor islamists are going to win.

[goldstategop]

There's no difference between the two. It is simple sophistry and when Israel's enemies claim they're only opposed to "Zionism," they really mean "The Jew." Nothing has changed; its the old anti-semitic wine poured into a new bottle. But its still the same wine and the same Jew-hatred we've witnessed throughout history.

(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em, Down Hezbullies.)

[ApplegateRanch]

the statement by Abu Ted Honderich Thirdriech, Emeritus Grote GrotieToTheMax Professor of the Philosophy of Mindlessness and Illogic at University College London, that “those Palestinians who have resorted to necessary killing have been right to try to free their people, and those who have killed themselves in the cause of their people have indeed sanctified themselves,”

We can be sure he wasn't talking about those who were resisting Ham-@ss.

[wideawake]

Correct. All Zionism is, is the belief that the Jews have a right to establish a national homeland.

You can't honestly say that you like Jews and then say that they have no right to a nation like any other people who have the will and resources to establish one.

An American, especially, who denies the right of another people to establish their independence and sovereignty is doubly fishy.

And, for the record, the Palestinians are not a people. The Arabs are a people. And the Arabs already have several independent, sovereign nations.

[goldstategop]

One can legitimately criticize this or that Israeli government policy or aspects of Israeli society without run afoul of being labeled an anti-semite. Lots of Israelis do that robustly in their free and democratic society. Where it does cross a red line, is to criticize Israel's existence or that places qualifications on Israel's right to defend herself that effectively renders the very exercise of that right meaningless. When one does that, that person is without a doubt an anti-Semite both because he denies Israel has a place among the nations and he denies Jews have equal standing with the other peoples on the earth. And of course such people want to see Israel destroyed. I am not for a moment ever suggesting their views have merit but rather to illustrate the absurdity of their position, which is grounded in as much logic as that of people who hold to the views of a flat earth. Arguing with an anti-semite is a waste of time.

(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em, Down Hezbullies.)

[TASMANIANRED]

They leafleted the area prior to hostilities.

[ApplegateRanch]

They leafleted the area prior to hostilities.

Heavily and repeatedly.

[Sam Cree]

*

[MississippiMan]

I'm normally opposed to "studies" that waste valuable time and resources to "discover" things that a third grader has known for years. In this case, I applaud it; whatever it cost, it's worth it just to see it acknowledged SOMEWHERE that rampant anti-Semitism is alive, well, and growing like a weed.

MM

[TASMANIANRED]

My Grandma used to say: Them that can't listen gotta feel.

[goldstategop]

Exactly. And the origins of Zionism have roots in the Torah. Israel is as much a nation as it is a collective community of believers. Even the Neturei Karta, that cabal of twisted self-hating Jews acknowledge this - they just insist a Jewish State should not have been established without the aid of Divine Providence. But where anti-Zionism is offensive, in not that it denies Jewish rights to a sovereign nation; its that it posits the spectacle of non-Jews telling Jews what is near and dear to them. Zionism is not the philosophy of a 19th century movement; in truth it can be found in Judaism's prayer books. For instance, the Amidah, recited by pious Jews daily, speaks of a return to Zion and Jerusalem. The Jews know better than any one else the highest realization of Judaism is to reconstitute Israel in its homeland so the time-bound commandments can be fulfilled there as they can be fulfilled nowhere else. And only in an independent Israel can the nation become the holy kingdom of priests and the light to the nations God meant her to be. That is the essence of Zionism.

(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em, Down Hezbullies.)