Culturally coded antisemitism across the political spectrum

Jerusalem Post ^ | Jarrod Tanny

[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.

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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.

[DoughtyOne]

I agree.

[The Toll]

What is dirty communist media filth code for?

[IWontSubmit]

Look up the background of the most outrageous, vituperative writing or action that arises in the news and from my tracking, 90% of the time it emanates from one of the self-hating, bed fouling usual suspect.

It is a death wish.
Example amongst many:
Some serious ass kicking is in order:
NAJews volunteering for annihilation …. Seattle Jewish organization fighting Islamophobia with posters
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3511179/posts

And, most annoyingly:
“..... the support of American Jewry is enormously important.
Obama would presumably seek to avoid alienating his Jewish constituency,
80 percent of whom voted for him and also contributed more than 50% of Democrat campaign funding.”
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Candidly-Speaking-Obama-Netanyahu-and-American-Jews

About 2% of the populace votes at 70%+ Democ.rat and accounts for
50%+ of the funding.
High value targets.

[Falconspeed]

“When will they ever learn?” Excellent question. Answer: Moving away from stubbornness toward gratitude is the way we all learn. I accept the possibility that the Messiah showed up and split while some of my Jewish coworkers are stubborn and just don’t want to talk about that possibility.

Anti-semitism is huge just as anti-Republicanism, anti-traditional marriage-ism, etc.

[wardaddy]

Kushner is in the White House

One of the big three loyalists

Bannon, Conway , Kushner

Preibus and Spicer are the other top dogs in da house

This is how Laura explained it today

You know we have folks on this forum right below that level

Team Trump via Breitbart savvy made real efforts here early on

[DoughtyOne]

My comments here are not just made to fellow FReepers.

I consider them to be thoughts that lurkers will read. I do my best to simplify concepts, so folks can back some of the things we need them to.

I’m sure others post with the same thoughts in mind.

I am very proud of what Trump has been up to so far.

[Pelham]

I agree. I often do the same.

We have no way of knowing who all reads FR. A cogent argument made here may even be useful enough for it to get stolen and claimed by someone else. If nothing else posting here entertains us and keeps us off the streets.

So far Trump has been living up to my hopes for what he would do. Most of them anyway. I think he is far more wily than his detractors realize. And I still think that there is more than a little similarity between how he operates and how Eisenhower did as described in Greenstein’s The Hidden Hand Presidency.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the nice response, and the mention of the book.

I’ll have to check it out.

[Nuc 1.1]

Apparently Mr. Tranny is ignorant, dumb, or both.