We must be consistent when it comes to anti-semitism

There are three main kinds of anti-semitism that are discernible. One form prevails on the fringes of the right, which suggests that there is an effort by Jews to undermine the white race. The syllogism goes as follows: Jews are overwhelmingly in high-level positions so they must be behind every bad thing affecting society. A popular thought also is that Jews are the culprits behind the mass Muslim immigration and are acting against the indigenous European populations, and thus, Western civilization. This mythology was a motivation for the San Diego synagogue shooter.

As I’ve written about before, another form is the anti-semitism on the Left, which manifests in its hostile opposition towards Zionism and Israel. Guising it under their firm belief in social justice, leftist anti-Semitism is a facet of their anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-racist dogma. In addition to their general anger towards the “capitalist class,” leftists see Israelis as Western colonial aggressors who oppress Palestinians, and brainwash Western governments.

Accusations of “dual loyalty” also come as we’ve seen with radical anti-semites like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. This anti-semitism finds common cause with Islamic anti-semitism, which is rooted in a theology that encourages hatred of the Jewish “disbeliever” who should be subordinate to their Muslim superiors. What lures the left to this is the mutual dislike for Israel and the fantasy that Muslim extremism is a reaction to the imperialist plots of the West in which the Jews have took part.

What makes anti-semitism so pernicious is the belief in conspiracies of which the believer is rarely disabused. We saw this in its Islamic form Saturday, courtesy of AJ+, the company operated by the Qatar funded news network, Al Jazeera. The video was basically a reading of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and peddled classic anti-semitic tropes. It promulgated outright Holocaust denialism, averring that Zionists blow the number of slaughtered Jews out of proportion. This master class in slander then went on to argue that Zionists have profited from the Holocaust since they took money to displace Palestinians, and took inspiration from Nazism to create Israel.

Yes, such a production is a moral abomination; but it’s not an aberration when it comes to Al Jazeera’s content. Other smear jobs have been produced since it’s a mouthpiece for Islamist causes—particularly the Muslim Brotherhood—and is possessed by an animus toward Israel and the West. The network has an Arabic and English division, and the content is catered in different ways depending on the audience, but the agenda remains. In its Arabic content, the network is forthright in its anti-semitism and anti-Americanism, given that these sentiments are common in the Muslim world.

Radical imams pontificating about annihilating America and Jewish control are a frequent feature. Whereas content meant for a Western audience is presented in ways that’d be palatable to the average anti-Israel leftist. As Samantha Rose Mandeles of the Middle East Forum elaborates in a brilliant article: “For the West, where serious citations of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are less acceptable, Al Jazeera replaces motifs of Jewish control with those of Zionist influence; in English, the network attacks American society under the guise of anti-racism and advocacy for oppressed populations.”

The defence, “Well, I’m just anti-Zionist,” has made championing anti-semitic rhetoric easier for the left-wing moralist who is convinced they are bringing an end to Western oppression. Attempting to make Zionism synonymous with racism has long been a tactic by which Islamists and their useful idiots can delegitimize Israel. Al Jazeera has indulged this with alacrity. One article, for example, draws parallels between AIPAC’s influence and Nazi propaganda. Arguing that the Zionist lobby has a “daunting” hold over America, the author opines that “Joseph Goebbels and Leni Riefenstahl could not have done any better staging a fascist duet of images to project and assert power.”

All of this is should be condemned unequivocally. But will it? I doubt it.

As my colleague Barrett Wilson tweeted:

May 19, 2019

There is an inconsistency in judgment when it comes to what bigotry we should rid from the public square. Based on a puzzling criterion, there has been on-going purges of those deemed to be bigoted conservatives.

But outspoken anti-semites still enjoy a presence on social media, most notably pro-terrorist groups who have fantasized about the destruction of the Jewish State and have compared Jews to rats. If the application of disciplinary measures were consistent, Al Jazeera, Linda Sarsour, and followers of Louis Farrakhan would probably fit the bill. That’s not the narrative the woke Ayatollahs of Silicon Valley and others want to maintain, though. Extremism only permeates the right, according to conventional wisdom.

What perverts our discourse is a double standard. Whenever right-wing anti-semitism is expressed, it’s said to be a harbinger of violence, and everyone must rally against it. This is warranted, and morally correct. However, when a left-wing radical spews similar nonsense about greedy, murderous “Zionists,” it’s just loud activism. Or when a radical Muslim sermonizes about how Israel and Zionists have bewitched the West, it’s coming from a place of legitimate grievance regarding Western foreign policy.

There appears to be specific criteria for what kind of anti-semitism deserves condemnation.

But the fact is that there are right-wingers who take the extreme view that Jews are the orchestrators of a globalist plot. There are members of Canadian political parties who support anti-semitic causes like BDS. The leader of Britain’s foremost left-wing party is an anti-semite. And Islamists in the West have imported into society some of the most sadistic kinds of anti-semitism.

Though some may deny the charge and assert their benevolent motives, it’s all the same: They’ve been afflicted with the anti-semitic bacillus.

It’s sad that this hatred is once again ascendant. We must denounce it whether it’s the Islamists who claim supremacy over the Jew; radical leftists who act upon their delusions and rage against oppression as a sort of religious observance; or the fringe idiots on the right who think the scourge of Jewry is poisoning western civilization.

I’m a philo-semite, as any sensible person should be since the undeniable contributions Jews have made to civilization are extraordinary. So the parasitic idea that their presence has tainted society, rather than helped nourish it, should be combatted regardless of the host who is spreading it.