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In case things weren’t weird enough..now the Left implies that support for Israel is itself Anti-Semitic

Posted by $ Markus_Katabri 1 year ago to Philosophy
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From Wikipedia:
Right-wing evangelical Christians in the United States are often vocally Zionist while also holding antisemitic attitudes towards Jews. Conservative Christians are amongst the strongest supporters of the State of Israel in the United States. With 7.1 million members, Christians United for Israel (CUFI) is the largest Zionist organization in the United States. Many Christian Zionists believe that the Gathering of Israel is a prerequisite for the final coming of the Christian messiah, after which a portion of Jews will convert and the majority of Jews will be killed and condemned to Hell.[7] Ben Lorber and Aidan Orly, writing in Religion Dispatches, have described Christian Zionism as "one of the largest antisemitic movements in the world today".[18] Haaretz writer Joshua Shanes condemned CUFI founder John Hagee for promoting an "apocalyptic and deeply antisemitic worldview" and promoting some of the "most dangerous myths of the modern era." Hagee has promoted financial conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family controlling the federal reserve, said that Hitler was sent by God to murder Jews who refused to emigrate to Israel, and described the Antichrist as a "half-Jew homosexual."[19] Slavoj Žižek has also described John Hagee, as well as Glenn Beck, as examples of Christian fundamentalist "anti-Semitic Zionists." Žižek said that Zionism itself has "paradoxically become anti-Semitic" because the movement promotes hatred of anti-Zionist Jews by constructing a figure of Jewish anti-Zionism "along anti-Semitic lines."[20] Žižek describes the way that Jewish anti-Zionists are maligned as "self-hating Jews" by Zionists as an example of Zionist antisemitism.[21]

Zionist leaders and organizations in the United States have been widely criticized, particularly by the Jewish left, for allegedly downplaying the severity of antisemitism in the United States and for alleged complicity with the Trump administration in order to pursue pro-Israel, Zionist causes. Atalia Omer, a professor of religion at the University of Notre Dame, has written that "Israel's silence on white nationalism and its implicit or explicit condoning of antisemitic Zionists" has decisively convinced many American Jews that the Israeli government is not keeping Jews safe and is actively endangering Jews living in the diaspora. Omer cites the "moral shock" of Israeli silence on white nationalist antisemitism for discrediting the "Zionist monopoly over the narrative of Jewish survival."[22] Sarah Levy criticized Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), in Jacobin magazine for being "notably silent" about antisemitism during the Trump era.[10] ZOA was deluged by messages from outraged supporters following ZOA's support for Steve Bannon and Klein's statement that he could not be an antisemite because "He's the opposite of an antisemite. He's a philo-semite."[10][23][24] +972 Magazine's Natasha Roth-Rowland said that a "rise of Zionist antisemitism as a standard behavior among large swaths of the GOP and its ecosystem has become a defining feature of the American far right's worldview and modus operandi."[25]

In 2017, Judith Butler denounced antisemitic manifestations of Zionism within the Trump administration. Butler wrote that Bannon is both a "strong Zionist" and that "his antisemitism apparently does not get in the way of his support for the Israeli state, and that his supporters in the Israeli government do not seem to mind." Butler argued that right-wing antisemitic Zionism is a manifestation of white supremacy, whereby the white Ashkenazi ruling class in Israel makes alliances with right-wing politicians in other countries on the basis of shared anti-Arab racism, anti-Palestinianism, and Islamophobia.[26]

In 2019, the Russian-born Jewish-American journalist Masha Gessen described Donald Trump as a "pro-Zionist anti-Semite". Gessen noted that Trump's administration had pursued pro-Israel policies while also spreading Jewish stereotypes, such as the speech Trump delivered at the Israeli American Council National Summit where he declared that "A lot of you are in the real estate business because I know you very well...You're brutal killers, not nice people at all." Calling Trump's comments "plain, easily recognizable anti-Semitism", Gessen said that Trump views American Jews as "alien beings whom he associates with the state of Israel."[27][28]

The liberal journalist Peter Beinart said that Zionist antisemitism is likely on the rise in the United States and that it is unclear that Zionists are less likely to harbor antisemitic sentiments compared to anti-Zionists. According to Beinart, "It is easy to find antisemitism among people who, far from opposing Zionism, enthusiastically embrace it."[29]

During the January 6 United States Capitol attack in 2021, several insurrectionists waved Israeli flags. In this context, organizations including the Adalah Justice Project, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Students for Justice in Palestine made social media posts suggesting a link between Zionist ideology and antisemitic right-wing extremism. The Anti-Defamation League describes these comments as part of an emerging effort among anti-Israel activists to associate "the Israeli flag with white supremacy, racism, settler-colonialism, violence and more". The ADL disputes this association and notes that the organizations promoting the link did not mention the wide variety of other flags present at the Capitol attack, including those of Canada, Cuba, Georgia, India, South Korea, and the former state of South Vietnam.[30][31]

Austin Ahlman of The Intercept said that Zionist organization Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) employed antisemitic tropes during the 2020 election after DMFI released attack ads criticizing the progressive Jewish California politician Sara Jacobs. The ads emphasized Jacobs' wealthy background, portraying her "fortune and privileged life" as making her out of touch with ordinary Americans. The Intercept said that the "imagery and language employed by many of the ads are reminiscent of common antisemitic tropes", noting that DMFI had previously endorsed wealthy non-Jewish candidates. Rachel Rosen, a DMFI spokesperson, denied accusations that the ads were antisemitic.[32]

In August 2022, the left-wing Jewish organization IfNotNow tweeted that AIPAC was antisemitism after AIPAC said that "George Soros has a long history of backing anti-Israel groups" and that "J Street & Soros work to undermine" pro-Israel Democrats. IfNotNow tweeted that AIPAC was not a Jewish organization, did not represent Jews, and in allegedly promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories about Soros, AIPAC had become part of the "antisemitic far right."[33]

In 2023, George Washington University psychology professor Lara Sheehi faced accusations of antisemitism from the Zionist organization StandWithUs after claiming, among other things, that Zionism itself was antisemitic and that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.[34][35]


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  • Posted by LarryHeart 1 year ago
    There are plenty of Anti-Semites coming out of the woodwork world wide without besmirching all Christians by a few anecdotal outliers.

    Linking to white supremacy is ridiculous. There are small pockets of white supremacists and Christian pastors like Hagee who still buy into the myth that Jews are punished for not believing in Christ or killing God. Even the Pope has debunked that made up story.
    Just because some pockets are filled with evil does not mean that the pants are on fire.
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    • Posted by mccannon01 1 year ago
      Nicely put, LarryHeart. This constant droning on and on about white supremacists is really getting to be an old eye roller. I'm a 71 year old white guy and still have yet to meet a dyed-in-the-wool white supremacist. I figure there has to be a few out there because whenever one or a few pop up every news camera in the country points at him/her/them and runs the story every 5 minutes 24/7 for at least a week in order to get all the left wing commentary and black "leadership" clucking. Then any white person that says "I wasn't even alive during slavery and Jim Crow days!" is immediately called a white supremacist. Whatever...
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    • Posted by teri-amborn 1 year ago
      This article is "package dealing" at best.
      It's horrible slander at worst.

      Context-dropping is often employed by "Christian pastors" when it comes to understanding the nuances of the Biblical (Hebrew) narrative however I'm certain that they don't call for voilence against anyone...let alone the Jewish community.

      I found this article to be a deliberate effort to cause the uninformed to begin harrasing people ("Christians") for what they "feel" that they know about them....a comon ploy of journalists and many others these days.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 1 year ago
    Or more accurately, Israel's Government, just like, it's Not America nor Americans, but it IS our Government just as with every government in the world.

    "WE ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW KAKISTOCRACY"!
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  • Posted by $ blarman 1 year ago
    This is just projection: nothing more, nothing less. The most anti-Semitic groups in history have always tried to distract from themselves by pointing to others. Guess who funded the German groups who got behind Hitler and Kristalnacht? U.S. Democrats. Who funded the KKK? US Democrats. That's why it absolutely baffles me why any Jew in America votes for a Democrat.
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