Posted on 01/24/2017 5:41:18 PM PST by SJackson
Face-to-face confrontations between anti-Zionists and Jews on university campuses have been increasing at an alarming rate.
The media has documented at length how President Donald Trump’s rhetoric has carved out a space within public discourse for the propagation of what had ceased to be acceptable speech in a mature liberal democracy, including misogyny, xenophobia, antisemitism and incitement to violence. Indeed, on the eve of the election, Trump ventured into the repugnant waters of global conspiracies, accusing Hillary Clinton of meeting “in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of US sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers, her special interest friends, and her donors.” Such language echoes the antisemitic tropes of nineteenth and twentieth-century Europe, which abetted the rise of fascism, the reversal of Jewish emancipation, and, ultimately, the Holocaust. Such language is also an effective device for Trump to “signal” to his unabashedly antisemitic followers among the alt-right that explicit Jew baiting will be tolerated under his new regime.
In American right-wing antisemitism the word “Jew” can be omitted and the category of Jew is nebulous, and “international banker” by definition means Jew. Left-wing antisemitism is equally pernicious, if not more so. To the Left Zionism is no less a cultural code for “Jew” than international banking is for the Right – and anti-Zionist rhetoric is far more pervasive and threatening today than anti-banking rhetoric. To my knowledge there has not been a single face-to-face confrontation between an antisemitic Trump supporter and a Jew.
Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page.
Whereas face-to-face confrontations between anti-Zionists and Jews on university campuses have been increasing at an alarming rate.
Carefully coded antisemitic discourse is not only respectable and normative among the Left, but it has also become more insidious in recent years, particularly among distinguished academics, such as Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. Although Khalidi is an outstanding historian and his scholarship on Palestinian national identity is essential reading for anyone studying Mandate-era Palestine and Israel, he is active in the boycott movement against Israel and makes no secret of his contempt for Zionism and rejection of Israel’s legitimacy. In a radio interview earlier this week, he lashed out at Zionists who have allied themselves with Trump, using language that should make any professional historian cringe.
Khalidi stated that “these people infest the Trump transition team, these people are going to infest our government as of January 20.
And they are hand in glove with a similar group of people in the Israeli government and Israeli political life who think that whatever they think can be imposed on reality.” This is hardly the first time Khalidi has alluded to an Israel lobby manipulating the American government (and public) in the interest of the Jewish state. But he has crossed into the realm of racially toxic discourse in deploying the word “infest” in conjunction with Zionism. The “infestation” of politically nefarious Jews was a hallmark of Nazi antisemitism, and one need only watch Fritz Hippler’s 1940 film, The Eternal Jew (Der Ewige Jude) to see an example of Nazi propaganda likening Jews to a global infestation of rats. “Infestation of Zionists” is a cultural code for “dirty Jew.”
As a professor of history, Khalidi’s use of the term “infestation” is inexcusable, all the more so since he occupies a chair named in honor of Edward Said, who spent his career documenting and deconstructing the racially charged discourse used by the West to justify its colonial practices in the Middle East. Much as we condemn those who refer to Mexican-American immigrants as “hordes” and “gangs,” and those who refer to black people as “thugs,” Khalidi must be held accountable for his words. He is a venerated figure among Palestinian activists because he is considered a respectable and judicious scholar.
Such rhetoric is another step toward the legitimization of coded antisemitism among the Left, especially on college campuses.
As the era of Trump continues to unfold we are learning to be vigilant against antisemitism and other forms of discrimination emanating from the Right. But this should not blind us to the coded antisemitism propagated by activists through the delegitimization of Israel. Against the backdrop of history, there is only one way to interpret a verbal assault against an “infestation” of Zionists.
Jarrod just broke the ignorance scale for cognitive dissonance.
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
I agree with the author, there are right wing antisemites, but it's largely a function of the left. Especially in political discourse. I can't think of an antisemitic political figure on the right in the US. Time for someone to present a sheriff, somewhere.
My changes, giving the author the point that sometimes is rhetoric is that of a jerk
The media has documented at length how President Donald Trump’s rhetoric has carved out a space within public discourse for the propagation of what had ceased to be acceptable speech in a mature liberal democracy, including misogyny, xenophobia, antisemitism and incitement to violence.
While I don't necessarily accept misogyny and xenophobia I can understand where a leftist might attempt to make a case. Antisemitism and incitement to violence, no.
Lost me when he tried to equate Trump’s talk of bankers, to code word “JEWISH” bankers.
Trump’s daughter is a Jew by marriage, and is raising her children with their Jewish father in the Jewish faith.
Trump has asked Ivanka’s husband to come to the White House to be and advisor. Now this guy wants me to buy into a Trump anti-Jewish mem?
Disgusting.
Equating Khalidi with Trump?
The author iß either dishonest or delusional.
the first 2 things all of Obama’s Moslem terorrists do when they get into USA is...
1. start practicing at the firing range, and
2. go to campuses (campii?) and create cells that then do anti-Jewish, anti-Christian demonstrations, disruptions, and intimidations of innocent American students
we need to repatriate tens of thousands of enemy agents now, thanks to Obama the Infiltrator in Chief
Only Trump supporters are anti-Semites, doncha know?
While the accusers engage in childish labeling, their own side plots away at their own demise. Self hating Jews, who ignore their history of the past century, that concentrated power in a central government headed by a power mad false political idol. Ingrates who should be forced to camp out on Allied cemeteries filled with thousands of crosses, prior to tours of what’s left of concentration camps
When will they ever learn?
He wasn't equating Trump's talk, rather "right" wing antisemites use of the term. Which is accurate. The left uses it too, though Zionists gets more attention.
The writer seemingly can’t take an honest look at the antisemitism of the American left and the Moslems in the US without first taking a cheap shot at Trump and conservative Americans. Damned few Americans actually consider “international bankers” to be synonymous with Jews, and of those who do, as many or more are on the left as are on the right.
Actually, a pretty dumb article from a confused mind.
Don't stop there. Both Donald Jr. and Eric are married to Jewish girls, and Tiffany is dating a Jewish guy.
I gotta say, if President Trump is the raging anti-Semite they he is, he sure hides it well. *cough*
We'll have to somebody check on Barron a few years. :-)
“Indeed, on the eve of the election, Trump ventured into the repugnant waters of global conspiracies, accusing Hillary Clinton of meeting “in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of US sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers, her special interest friends, and her donors.”
Here is the transcript from Hillary Clinton’s private speech to Brazilian bankers:
“My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the Hemisphere,” she said in the May 2013 speech to the Brazilian bank Banco Itau.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/8/hillary-clinton-dreams-open-borders-leaked-speech-/
I don’t know. Never?
Just because someone is Jew or a Christian, etc doesn't make them exempt from criticism or the law.
We had to put up with that nonsense with 0bama and his sycophants for too long - I for one have had my fill.
Indeed, on the eve of the election, Trump ventured into the repugnant waters of global conspiracies, accusing Hillary Clinton of meeting “in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of US sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers, her special interest friends, and her donors.”
Such language echoes the antisemitic tropes of nineteenth and twentieth-century Europe, which abetted the rise of fascism, the reversal of Jewish emancipation, and, ultimately, the Holocaust.
Such language is also an effective device for Trump to “signal” to his unabashedly antisemitic followers among the alt-right that explicit Jew baiting will be tolerated under his new regime.
I've read this four times now, and I can't agree with you.
I wasn’t aware of their Jewish connections. I appreciate the mention.
He’s just flat wrong IMO. I’m not going to read more into it than that.
These people who get so worried over Trump are some really strange characters. They have misread him terribly. They make charges that are nowhere near truth.
It’s a shame. Trump doesn’t deserve it, and this guy should realize Trump is a friend of Jews and Israel.
Kinda like how Hillary should've won, because "everybody said so"...
I hear ya.
Two points:
1. False claims
2. Insulting a man that is clearly an ally
With people like this driving good supporters away, who needs enemies?
The left aka "party of tolerance" is gonna pull this and much worse but our electorate is beginning to see through the lies. Still p*ses me off but doesn't mean we have to take it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.