Loading ...And so the psychopathology of Jews is writ large in America. Thugs are celebrated, victims denounced. America is vilified, European-Americans are vilified. The “Other” — to use an indispensible bit of leftist jargon — is celebrated.
And like the abuser who represents himself as the victim, and is seconded in this misrepresentation by the actual, traumatized victim, so the practitioners and defenders of violent and aggressive behavior here and in the Middle East claim that they are the oppressed. Concessions are instantly forgotten and new demands issued. Racial preferences have been in place since 1965. Untold millions of European-Americans have been denied admission to colleges and universities and been rejected for jobs because of their skin color. In the Middle East, territory over three times the size of Israel has been given up merely for the promise of peace and an end to terrorism. Never in modern European history has contiguous territory conquered in war been returned to the defeated nation or empire without concessions elsewhere. But there has been no real peace; there has been no end to terrorism. And there has hardly been a flicker of gratitude for the concessions, any more than for Affirmative Action.
A couple of final thoughts.
1. I’ve used the term European-American throughout this article, except in the title. I don’t like hyphens any more than the next guy, but for defenders of people of no color, “White” has no future. Whites wanting representation on any campus in this country will have to present themselves under the aegis of their nationality. Even the student council at UC Irvine would be hard-pressed to turn down an application for an Italian-American Club, an Irish-American Society, or an Association of Polish-American Students. Ask for a “White” club and you’ll be charged with hate speech. In any case, “whiteness” was historically not part of any European identity. If surveyed, most Europeans for a millennium before 1800 would have identified themselves as Christians, and mentioned their family, their village, and their province, county, duchy, or principality.
2. The anti-Semitism of the left is ineradicable. It long predates Zionism, going back at least to Karl Marx, if not to Voltaire. The task of community organizers in the 19th and early 20th century was to get workers to say in public “capitalist” instead of “Jew.” And as long as Israel exists, left anti-Semitism will only become more vociferous and more audacious. Nationalism (in the West) is wicked, but nothing is as evil as Jewish nationalism. The solution for the left has always been for Jews to disappear, a bloodless (they hope) Final Solution.
Anti-Semitism on the right is growing too. It’s an update of the 19th century version. Jews are denounced precisely because they are not nationalists. Their first loyalty is not to their own country, but to Israel. According to the ADL, 31% of Americans and 41% of individuals worldwide believe this. Before 1947, a common accusation was also that the first loyalty of Jews was to their co-religionists abroad: the scourge of America was “the international Jew.”
There’s probably a still larger group in the U.S. that resents Jews less for their support of Israel than for their leftist politics, particularly their advocacy of open borders and amnesty — even when they understand the historical reasons for this support. Others, who are in no way anti-Semites, are puzzled about this, too. Hispanics, after all, do not like Jews any more than do African-Americans. According to the ADL, 30% of each group is anti-Semitic, versus 5% of non-Hispanic whites.
Mass immigration does not seem to be any more in the interest of Jews than is their support of Obama, disciple of Edward Said, pal of Rashid Khalidi, Ali Abunimah, Salam al-Marayati, Mohammed Elibiary, et. al.
It’s sometimes not appreciated even by those who are not anti-Semitic that Jewish opinion is not monolithic on any subject. Politics in Israel, as the recent election showed, is as rancorous as anywhere in the West. If in fact 69% of Jews in the U.S. supported Obama in 2012, as pollsters claim, that still means about one in three did not vote for the President. Though most families agree to disagree, every week there are shouting matches — or at least sarcastic exchanges — over lox and bagels at holiday gatherings, bar mitzvahs, weddings, and funerals.
Jews can do no more about neo-Nazi anti-Semitism than they can about that of Bill Ayers and his friends or about Muslim anti-Semitism. The good news is that Jews can do something about the low-grade antipathy on the right on the part of individuals who don’t know Stormfront from The Weather Channel. But to do so, they will have to fly in face of the good opinion of the bi-coastal bien pensants.
They will have to say:
Americans? My people.
European-Americans, AKA Whites? (We’re not on campus) My people. Afrikaners? My people.
And they will want to say as well, proudly, along with Evangelicals and the great majority of conservatives:
Israelis? My people.