Many people thought that antisemitism was all but a thing of the past. Oh, well, yes, out there in the fever swamps of extremism, it still lurked; this could be acknowledged. The white supremacists of the right and the woke cultural Marxists of the left still basked in this evil. But, surely, among moderates, any such viewpoint is summarily dismissed. (Who says that the proper political spectrum is a straight line? Perhaps it is more of a circle, where the two supposedly opposite philosophies meet, albeit in some cases for different reasons.)
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But this view was smashed not on October 7, 2023, a day of mourning in Israel. On the very next day, even before the IDF had begun to take any defensive reaction to this despicable savagery, so called mainstreamers had by then come to the conclusion that the mass murders, mass rapes, were all the fault of the victims. To demonstrate their hatred for Jews in general, and Israelis in particular, they began tearing down pictures of the some 250 hostages seized in Israel on that day of infamy.
No, no, antisemitism is not, only, a phenomenon of the political extremes. It lies just beneath the surface in the hearts and minds of all too many "moderates" in the "civilized" west, as well as all around the planet.
There is a very specific form of nihilism that accounts for this spectacle of Jew hatred. It is no coincidence that these Anti-Zionists are in the same line of thought of Noam Chomsky on foreign policy, where the fundamental axiom is that the US government is the source of all evil; it is the Big Satan for helping Israel, which is the Little Satan.
These people do not want to promote human flourishing or liberty. They want to see everything burn that is connected to Judaism. They don't oppose the state Israel for their love of peaceful human cooperation, but because they are full of hatred.
In this particular case, they simply don't care what would happen if Israel disappears. They don't care that the Middle East is full of theocratic totalitarian dictatorships. The only way for them to legitimize denouncing these regimes is if they could blame the US government (or Israel) by doing so. Otherwise, they just don't care. For these people, nobody seems to have agency but Americans, Israelis and the US government. Everyone else, including genocidal maniacs, are somehow determined to be as they are and therefore have no responsibility for anything they do. Hamas is innocent; Israel is guilty.
Moreover, they say they oppose war. In reality, they side with anyone who is willing to wage war against Israel. And if these countries are not involved, they simply don't care. A dictatorship is a war waged by a government against its people. That is what Iran does, or what Hamas does in Gaza. That, these people cannot see. But if Israel is not involved, somehow they don't care, or it's simply not a priority for them. Fundamentally, they hate.
And when evil is obviously on the side of Israel's enemies, such as with Hamas, they blame Israel anyway. How? They claim that "Israel created Hamas." This is a completely absurd statement, given that this Muslim Brotherhood organization was financed and supported by Iran, Qatar, Turkey and Hizballah. "But Israel allowed money to flow into Gaza from Qatar"? Yes, because the alternative would have been to do what Israel is doing now. Reluctantly tolerating Hamas because you have a bigger enemy (as the PLO in the 80's) or to allow for this terrorist organization to receive funding because the alternative is to wage total war against it (as Israel is doing now), does not equal "creating Hamas." Moreover, the cement and pipes were meant for peaceful purposes, not for tunnels and rocket launching pads. But they don't like that either. So, damn Israel if it tolerates Hamas, damn Israel if it fights Hamas.
Moreover, there is a relevant aspect of the phenomenon of Judeophobia or antisemitism that is often ignored. This is not a phenomenon of discrimination, but of demonization. The antisemite regards Jews as evil incarnate, so no explanation, no defense, makes sense to him. This is why all is permitted against the Jews and no defense is legitimate when undertaken by the Jews.
This is why the Anti-Zionist types, and the like, don't even want to deal with arguments in favor of Israel. They see Israel as fundamentally evil. Nor is this a phenomenon of supposed land theft, or the evils of the state of Israel. There were anti-Jewish pogroms committed by Arabs long before either of these came to allegedly pass. Hebron in 1929 anyone?
These are people full of hatred who criticize everything, not to build or to defend that which is the real expression of human flourishing in reality. Just read what these people say on every topic, do they cherish any achievement of real human beings on earth? Do they appreciate that Israel treats its Arab citizens far better than their counterparts are dealt with in Arab countries? No. Do they realize that there are gay parades in Israel, while homosexuals are tossed off roofs in Arab countries? Of course not. Do the feminist organizations in the west cry out against the mass rapes committed by Hamas? To ask this is to answer it.
Yes, there are claims that the Jews have taken over land properly owned by Palestinians. To deal with this fallacious viewpoint, would take an entire book. As it happens, we have written one that undermines that precise assertion: Block, Walter E. and Alan Futerman. 2021. The Classical Liberal Case for Israel. With commentary by Benjamin Netanyahu. Springer Publishing Company; https://rd.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-3953-1
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