What is anti-semitism, an illuminating discussion with a friend

 

Antisemitism, Jew-hatred, is an ugly, disturbing, yet puzzling and resilient social phenomenon, and it takes many forms. It is similar in many ways to crude racism, but also different. We seem forever to be wondering what it is, why it exists, and how to respond to it. In the linked column, from the NYT a few years ago, Brett Stevens (formerly of the WSJ) tackles the question “what is it?” and, as usual, does a superb job of providing a guide for the perplexed. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/12/opinion/antisemitism-jewish-israel-war.html 

My friend Kenny Hymen recently sent it to me, with some comments of his own, and a poignant story about his recent experience as a tourist in Morocco, that I felt compelled to share with you. 

First, Kenny’s “random thoughts”  on the column:

 ·  The Progressive Left and the hard right are very focused on identity politics. And that focus is primarily on the victims, the persecuted, oppressed, disadvantaged, disenfranchised etc. And there must be someone to blame for that.

·    I hear little of the success stories ie those who’ve risen from disadvantaged backgrounds and become successful, be that in business, professions, science, philanthropy. Many of these success stories are Jews and many are also black.

· Too many Jews have become success stories, creating a pent up loathing from the broader community… jealousy and “they’re to blame for the disadvantaged and less fortunate”. Must have ripped them off. Look how many billionaires are Jews. Over millenia, Jews have been too successful, especially as forced refugees/immigrants in new countries. We all know that many immigrants have a higher need/passion for success, to replace what they may have had before and especially to ensure that their children thrive. I would say that almost all Jewish immigrants have this passion…. And we’ve been on the move for over 2 millenia so we apply this passion to succeed to successive countries.

·   Then there’s the quest for education. Let me share a story of my lightning visit to Tangier and the deep discussions with my guide Ahmed (not his real name) on 

the history and roll of Jews in Morocco.

 “they (Jews) were so successful.  They built up trading businesses that helped the country’s economy.  The rulers liked the Jews. The Jewish merchants acquired wealth and they bought beautiful apartments.  (he showed me a street where 90% of apartments were owned by Jews 50-150 years ago). My father worked for a Jewish merchant.  Such a wonderful man.  So honest.  No contract signed… just a handshake. He gave my father a small share of some of his businesses. My father did well and bought a few flats (apartments). The merchant told my father he must educate his children so that they can succeed. My father decided to move to a different area close to a good school.” 

All 5 of the siblings went to university … Ahmed did a 5yr linguistics degree. he speaks 5 languages. 

So Ahmed, “how did the other Moroccans feel about these Jewish merchants and their families ?” 

“They hated them.  So jealous.  They must be stealing money from us … “ SOUND FAMILIAR? 

This to me is a classic summary of the plight of the Jews and the regular rekindling of antisemitism. As long as the Jews are suffering and not succeeding, antisemitism is percolating without boiling over. But once you start succeeding and being noticed. Woe betide.

 When I asked Ahmed what he thought about the Abraham Accords (to which Morocco was a signatory) he knew nothing about them.  If a successful university graduate knows nothing about the Abraham Accords no wonder the "Arab Street" is on a different planet from their rulers. 

[And now Kenny turns to modern Israel]: 

Until the 1980’s Israel was generally regarded by the West as the “victim” and fitted well into the community’s view of victimhood. Being constantly attacked by multiple Arab armies. 1948, 1967 & 1973. Fending them off bravely … little Israel. 

And when Palestinian hijackers landed Israeli hostages at Entebbe in 1976, what country could launch a successful rescue mission in a foreign country, aside from Israel? (Jimmy Carter couldn’t do it in 1979   he crashed his helicopters In the desert). 

But slowly the tide has turned.

Israel, drawing on the Jewish passion for education & science and the independent, unstructured thinking and “can do” ethos embedded in the IDF, became the Startup nation. Some of the most cutting-edge technology of the past 20 yrs comes directly or indirectly from Israel. Business and investors applaud that but progressives hate it. Big business and Tech exploiting the masses. Granted some of the technology can be used for nefarious purposes as can electricity, nuclear energy, social media etc. 

The economic success of the Startup Nation now made Israel to the oppressor - no longer seen as a victim.  

Following the 2000 Camp David offer from Barak, that was turned down by Arafat, the Israeli appetite for a settlement with Palestinians has steadily receded, helped a lot by the “reign” of Netanyahu.  Settlements, the closest to the current fad for Colonization, have ramped up this narrative. Many in the world see Israeli settlers in a similar way to Russians in the Donbass. The combination of extreme right-wing nationalists and Haredi fundamentalists has significantly weakened global support for Israel, from Jews and non-Jews alike. 

So, we are in a situation where ugly Israel is a global oppressor/colonialist, an economic powerhouse “relative to size of population” and becoming a pariah when it defends itself. It fits perfectly into the “oppressor” camp. Think Al Assad/Russia bombing Fallujah/Mosul, Putin’s bombing Mariupol, Bucha

And the percolating, pent up loathing of mainstream communities for Jews has been unleashed. It plays perfectly into the key drivers of antisemitism.

 What can reverse this?

 Do we need to return to victimhood?

The Nazis accomplished that pretty well and the world tolerated Jews for a good 35 years after WWII 

 The Haredi drive to eliminate Science and Maths from Haredi education may be a perverse attempt to cut out the education that tends to drive Jews’ success. Produce theologists with no broader education?

 Our discussion ends with me mentioning to Kenny Natan Shiransky’s incisive test for identifying speech that is anti-semitic. The three D's for whether speech is antisemitic. When is Demonizes, when it delegitimates and/or when it engages in double standards.

What is a "just war"?

 

President Trump, excercising authority as the commander in chief, and in consultation with advisors, bombed the nuclear facilities in Iran - clearly an act of war. How should we feel about this?

War is a particularly problematic issue for libertarians - one that occasions deep divisions between them. There are some who, almost reflexively, oppose any kind of war, as a particular kind of violence, no matter what the surrounding circumstances. Anarcho-libertarians can find no place for it, they question the very existence of government itself. I have never understood this position, though I agree heartily with their penchant for dramatic reductions in government scope and size. When the prospect of abolishing government becomes plausible, i will gladly have that discussion.

 In the meantime, governments exist, and there is evil in the world. Surely, if we sanction the action of self-defense, we must acknowledge the validity of a just war. The justifiable divisions of opinion revolve around how one interprets and analyzes the current reality. Is the threat really existential in nature? What actions will deter it? What actions will make it worse? How much damage and suffering will it cause, to whom? Can we rely on our fallible, corruptible leaders to get it right, etc.

 I don't have answers to these things. No one does. The future is unknowable, and the minds of others are impenetrable. But, for what its worth, here is my non-expert opinion. 

I support the bombing. I buy the argument that Iran is an existential threat, not just to Israel but to the very fabric of our western civilization. For many decades now, the threat has been building, Iran has sponsored numerous terrorist organizations and specific incidents, like the bombing of the JCC in Argentina, the attacks by the Houthis, Hezbollah and most recently Oct. 7. Iran paid for the incredible tunnel infrastructure built by Hamas, for one purpose only, the destruction of Israel. Thousands of people around the world have been killed and injured, including many Americans. The official Iranian position is one of hostility to the West and the commitment to destroy Israel and exterminate Jews. This is part of a religious commitment in Shia doctrine to achieve the second coming. 

The nuclear threat? The argument that it is for peaceful purposes, like energy generation, is implausible. The level of enrichment achieved is not necessary for that. So what is it for? Some people say "deterrence". Against whom? No, given the level of fanaticism and demonstrated beligerance, I personally would not be inclined to gamble that Iran does not intend to use a bomb once acquired. 

So, while I certainly have my differences with Donald Trump, the man and the president, I am glad he did this. Now, it is true, we will need to deal with the fallout. Thankfully, this is not like Bush's Iraq invasion, which was a disgrace, based on lies and personal grudges, that caused massive distruction in the long run, with which we are still dealing. This should be a very limited action. Let us hope so. 

Just one man's opinion.

From my FB page. Today's musing minute

 Today’s musing minute

*SPOILER ALERT*, IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE TV SERIES “YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS” OR ARE CURRENTLY WATCHING IT, WATCH THE WHOLE OF IT BEFORE READING THIS IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THE SPOILER.

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Clearly, art is often a vehicle for social philosophy, even propaganda. The extent to which a work appeals to its viewers depends very much on the conscious and unconscious values that they hold dear, that they relate to, that motivate and energize them in their imagination of a better world.

I found the series interesting, engaging, sometimes amusing and frustrating. Interesting because it is full of beautiful talented actors doing their thing against a backdrop of a beautiful affluent neighborhood. Engaging, because the situations are sometimes cleverly ironic, also sometimes sad, in an exaggerated but familiar way. But, also, very frustrating, because of the constant, but unmissable, sub-text of social criticism and perverse moral judgement resonant with the “social justice” credo pervasive within the chattering class of our current society.

The story is rather simple. Andrew Cooper (Coop), [John Hamm], is a regular hard-working ambitious American guy who makes good, better than he could have imagined, and gets to live the “good life” in a fabulously affluent suburb, with his glamorous wife and two slightly troubled kids. Except that the “good life” turns out to be not so good, full of stress and spite and trivialities, which Coop only comes to realize after suddenly losing his job as a superstar hedge fund manager, having earlier lost his marriage and become estranged from his kids. The series is about how he tries to cope with the new calamitous world in which he finds himself. Now, suddenly in his life, everything is dark.

I will leave those details to the show. A driving theme, emphasized by Coop’s recurring eloquent third-person narrative to the viewing audience, is the revelatory value of what has happened to him. As a consequence of these unnecessary losses (a result of misallocating his time and energy by pursuing misguided ambition for material and status-achieving goals) his eyes are opened by degrees to the hitherto hidden reality of his pathetic existence as a “rich person”.

In his new reality staring poverty and deprivation in the face, he begins to realize the offensive nature of his friends’ lives, particularly their penchant for acquiring useless mega-expensive stuff, which they never use, and sometimes don’t even remember they have. Zero-sum thinking is seductively present throughout this. I could almost here the script writer thinking: “they have all this stuff while so many good folk are struggling and starving. Its unjust, isn’t it?” One could almost hear the “social justice warriors” cheering.

So, as if motivated by this, Coop decides, since they don’t need all this useless treasure (watches, paintings, jewelry, … ) he might as well steal them, and fence them for a fraction of their market value, in order to bridge the financial gap in his fractured life until he can figure out something else. Coop the narrator suggests he should have known better, but not because it was after all, theft, and clearly and blatantly immoral, but because the system is rigged atainst him.

He gets greedy and finds his circumstances getting more and more entangled, ultimately facing a charge for a murder he did not commit. In a scene near the end of the final season’s episode, he confronts the person who has framed him for the murder, and asks her why she was prepared to sacrifice his life for her purposes. To which she illuminatingly replies, “because you don’t deserve that life!” in contrast to herself who worked up from the bottom and sacrificed more than he did to get it. And, strange to tell, Coop admits he basically agrees with her – his illuminated conscience speaking aloud.

I saw many aspects of an upside down morality. One of particular interest was the common misconception of the nature of “value” – what it means, what it is. So, when Coop makes contact with a tough, no nonsense inner city woman (who somehow seems to be Jewish) who is an expert fence for stolen goods, she lectures him about not understanding the value of real concrete physical things as against the (imaginary?) value of the pieces of paper he is used to pushing around in his hedge fund job. She is saying to him, you have left the imaginary world of parasites on Wall Street and now find yourself in the scary real world of objective merchandise.

So, when suddenly, things turn back around, and Coop is offered his old job back plus more, and is in a position to return to the $100K membership country club, and all the other good things, he strings things along before dramatically deciding to turn his back on this cesspool of richness and return to the honest, decent, socially just job of burglarizing his neighbors. Are the viewers supposed to applaud his clarity, his courage? Am I being cynical and uncharitable? You can decide.

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