Antisemitism in the US reached its apex between 1920-1940. It has shrunk steadily to about 14% of the population, and only has institutional support amongst right wing fringe groups, e.g., Christian Identity churches, Aryan-White Resistance, Klu Klux Klan, Holocaust Deniers, Liberty Lobby, and American Neo-Nazi organizations.
You will recall prominent right wing figures such Henry Ford and Father Coughlin suggesting that the New Deal was a Jewish financial conspiracy. This sentiment exists today on the far right, where we are told that a cabal of Jewish bankers secretly controls world finance. Of course we cannot forget Nixon's famous "liberal Jewish media".
My question: why did the main stream right abandoned antisemitic rhetoric, pushing it to the margins, where it thrives in a network of lesser groups, who are disowned when they bring bad press.
My answer is this: I think this shift away from antisemisitm can partly be explained by the importance of Israel during the Cold War. As Britain was shedding it's colonies (and thereby leaving the middle east), America began to compete for middle east geopolitical assets. Bringing the world's largest energy region under one's sphere of influence was vital to both SuperPowers. Suffice it to say, the money & weapons that started flowing from the US to Israel during the Cold was staggering. During this time, the corporate money that flowed into antisemitic groups dried up. Antisemitic elements within right wing punditry was reigned in.
After the Cold War ended, isolationist components on the Right urged the party to reduce funding for Israel (and Saudi Arabia), claiming that there was no longer a need to protect the region from Soviet domination. Enter the Neocons (many of them Jewish), who believed that the region's oil wealth was too important to ignore. They convinced the party to increase it's support of Israel, who became a chief asset in the War on Terrorism. For this reason antisemitism was again marginalized. It would remain on the fringes, where it would be used electorally, to mobilize uneducated people who wanted to take their country back from invisible demons and shadowy jewish conspiracies.
Why do you thing antisemitism was purged from the main stream right?
You will recall prominent right wing figures such Henry Ford and Father Coughlin suggesting that the New Deal was a Jewish financial conspiracy. This sentiment exists today on the far right, where we are told that a cabal of Jewish bankers secretly controls world finance. Of course we cannot forget Nixon's famous "liberal Jewish media".
My question: why did the main stream right abandoned antisemitic rhetoric, pushing it to the margins, where it thrives in a network of lesser groups, who are disowned when they bring bad press.
My answer is this: I think this shift away from antisemisitm can partly be explained by the importance of Israel during the Cold War. As Britain was shedding it's colonies (and thereby leaving the middle east), America began to compete for middle east geopolitical assets. Bringing the world's largest energy region under one's sphere of influence was vital to both SuperPowers. Suffice it to say, the money & weapons that started flowing from the US to Israel during the Cold was staggering. During this time, the corporate money that flowed into antisemitic groups dried up. Antisemitic elements within right wing punditry was reigned in.
After the Cold War ended, isolationist components on the Right urged the party to reduce funding for Israel (and Saudi Arabia), claiming that there was no longer a need to protect the region from Soviet domination. Enter the Neocons (many of them Jewish), who believed that the region's oil wealth was too important to ignore. They convinced the party to increase it's support of Israel, who became a chief asset in the War on Terrorism. For this reason antisemitism was again marginalized. It would remain on the fringes, where it would be used electorally, to mobilize uneducated people who wanted to take their country back from invisible demons and shadowy jewish conspiracies.
Why do you thing antisemitism was purged from the main stream right?
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