ClaireH
Diamond Member
I would argue that the far-left antisemites and the Islamic Fundamentalists cannot be separated : the overlap is too great. What is happening is that the Islamic Fundies (Omar, etc.), driven by their hatred of Jews, cheer on antisemitic movements such as BDS, and then the far-left, who sees everything in terms of “oppressed” and “oppressors,” jumps onto the bandwagon and aligns with the Jew-hating Muslims.
The more far-leftists align with activist, pro-Palestinian Muslims, the worse antisemitism will become. Nowhere is this more apparent than on college campuses, where the pro-Palestinian, Israel-hating crowd has fermented such an atmosphere of intolerance and outright violence toward Jews that students, such as those at CUNY, are afraid to be on campus.
From your words, the following supports the sentiment:
“Yet the big fallacy is to consider these different types of anti-Semitism as different or even ideologically opposed. In fact, there’s just one type of anti-Semitism that simply dresses its ugly persona in different ideological garments.”
New York Jewish Week - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
jewishweek.timesofisrael.com
I appreciate this type of thinking because it tends to “lose the trees” and focuses on the forest, the bigger picture. Perhaps it matters less about which group is doing what the most, and more about targeting specific antisemitism rhetoric and actions.
This is the tricky part. While it’s important to identify specific individuals for hateful words and violent actions, it’s equally important to identify all groups that allow the rhetoric under their banner.
So here lies the underlying problem: A person can self-label as anything he or she wants. Unicorns for Us…etc. So one guy says, “I am a leftist and I hate “X”, while another member of the same political group says, “ I’m a leftist and I have no problem with “X”. It always falls back to an individual basis, for any determination of innocence and guilt, and for significant thought distinctions.