1) My assumption is that anyone can be caught up in social contagion, scapegoating, and propaganda. Following sports also helps me experience that.
2) I frame the NY Times as “establishment,” not left or right. A priority on getting things accurate, but not upsetting the boat. There’s going to be nothing that seriously challenges Israel. It contains the limits of how the establishment wants to debate. It is also corporate, so has to pay attention to a variety of power-brokers. It will not question Israel’s right to exist, by may report that such people do exist. Generally those people will not be given a their own voice.
3) My lens is that people and nations have interests. I try to think through those before labeling people as good, bad, or evil. Also, audiences matter.
4) I don’t see the overall dispute as concerning religion, but about politics and land. I also tend to blank out when people talk about Militant Islam, in part because 99% of the time when people are talking about Islam, I can assume they have never read anything serious about it. Granted, I have an academic bias here. Islam should not be considered a religion or an ecclesiology but a legal code, one that is often combined with other legal codes (including Jewish). I remember the story of an American soldier finding a “Islam for Dummies” in an ISIS camp (remember, lots of recruits came from English Speaking countries), which is pretty much a symbol of how we should think Islamic fundamentalists know of Islam.
5) What is interesting about the NY Times articles, is what it left out and the corrections at the end of the articles. In one, it acknowledged that the hooligans in the video causing terror were Maccabi fans, not Arabs as initially reported. It did not report how many Dutch were harmed by Maccabi fans. Granted, I don’t expect many people to know the details about Israeli football, but Maccabi Tel-Aviv fans are notoriously racist - they even once chanted down their own Arab player. Their racism even horrified other Israelis. This makes chasing Arabs in the streets believable. Only Al Jazeera and a couple independent dutch journalists reported it.
6) The Al-Jazeera articles seemed to cast a wider net of persons being interviewed. The article also included a comprehensive video that unpacked media bias in the west which was illuminating.
7) There will always be a tension between a sort of universalist strand of left-liberalism and minorities of any kind, as liberalism is a universalist tradition that tends to flatten historical particularities. This is a built in problem which several philosophers and political theorists - after Kant, including Karl Marx, and black Marxists, and other post- moderns have tried to wrestle with. The same arguments by Jews about universalism are the same ones that African Americans often make.
8) My lens, definitely from the global south, is that there is no mystical substance specifically about Judaism that deserves genocidal attention by Christians. This renders it a fetish in the Christian imagination, which I reject. When it is a minority tradition, it becomes a target because it is a minority and weak, not because of its specific practices.
9) One tool might be reclaiming our own theological heritage in rejecting anti-semitism. Anti-Semitism is anti-catholic and anti-orthodox, as reflected in the church’s rejection of Gnosticism, Marcionism, Montanism, and the other anti-jewish movements in the early church. Do we need Bari Weiss’ metaphor? Its modern perversion is reflected in Calvinist conceits about perfection and purity, mirrored both in American and South African exceptionalism and divine providence. Israel’s understanding of its divine right to exist *follows American and South African beliefs in their god given right to rule over other people. It is our own dark heritage that whites believed they were chosen to take land from others. Ironically, it is Christian Nationalism that has unleashed the campaign in Israel against Palestinians. We should certainly stop blaming Israel for the war, and put the blame squarely on the shoulders who seek to cleanse Israel of Muslims. That would be White Christian Zionists, who make Jews a side character in a schismatic, demonic narrative about the apocalypse. Zionism is a fine belief; christians cannot wash the taint of anti-semitism off their own version. Making Israel safe there abdicates our own requirement in protecting minorities here. “Why do you need to live in America? Only Israel can a Jew be safe.” my friend dave reported someone saying to her daughter in Israel. I curse that presumption. Besides, we’ll go after black people first.
10) My own practice: talk to friends. I have rabbis, Palestinian Poets, local Jewish vendors, dutch relatives, all of which I’ve spent time talking to. Second, I do look for Palestinian voices in the media, and by and large that’s had to be through social media and non-corporate media sites. For the scandalous stuff, Israeli media tends to be the most interesting. That’s where they report Israeli soldiers raping palestinians and settlers burning down Palestinian villages. That’s where you might find out about Adnan al-Bursh. A few people I follow include Mohammed El-Kurd and Double Down News.
11) I found the PDF interesting, but I admit, I’m not sure how to understand anti-semitism as distinct from other kinds of social contagions. One can deny conspiracies about Jews is while reporting what AIPAC says itself about its own influence. Quoting the original zionists about their intentions does not make one an anti-Semite. There may be progroms against Jews, but I can say that in 2008 in Odisha, it doesn’t feel different. Muslims in my own home country are regularly suffering from the same sorts of progroms Jews suffered for centuries. Anti-Semitism is a western disease, unfortunately transferred into the Arab world. Lord have mercy.
"I’m not sure how to understand anti-semitism as distinct from other kinds of social contagions." Yes, I think that's the heart of the matter for many liberal minded Americans. It's why the left has always expressed antisemitism while deny that it is doing it. We simply can't bring ourselves to see that antisemitism is different. See "But antisemitism is something else. The most dangerous antisemites don't regard Jews or Judaism as inferior but as the embodiment of what they revile most. For millennia, antisemites have identified Jews with whatever in their worldview was ly detestable or treacherous" https://aish.com/how-to-speak-out-against-antisemitism/ - "Antisemitism is the most ancient hatred, rooted in Christian religious teachings that go back millennia. Over that time antisemitism has morphed into variants that are both blatant and insidious, but equally harmful to Jews. The shape-shifting nature of antisemitism is part of what sets it apart. Antisemitism is also different from other forms of racism, which often vilify victims as inferior." https://www.ajc.org/news/10-tough-questions-on-antisemitism-explained - A resource for understanding antisemitism https://lovehasnolabels.com/learn/religious-community/jewish-community/bias
I think we ought to distinguish between anti-semitism as a political event and as a mystical or liturgical one. One will account for how Israeli political forces align themselves with groups who are theologically anti-semitic. Secondly, the mystical one, I would argue, still has an identifiable series of mechanics that can be explained by Girard’s theory of the scapegoat.
Someone may not see anti-semitism because they are blind to it. Or they may not see it because it is not there. One can also be accused of anti-semitism without believing that Jews are a distinct category that is responsible for what a smaller subset might look like.
For example, if one understands AIPAC as a hostile group of Jews interested int taking over the federal government, then this would be anti-semitism. If one understand AIPAC as an alliance between Conservative Evangelicals, the military industrial complex, and the Israeli government as a way of maintaining a steady cash flow into Israel. One’s beef may be with the Calvinist and theocrats who want Israel to be a part of an apocalyptic story invented by Christians.
Maybe in the west this is true. But whereas Christian liturgies and texts reinforce anti-Judaism, The Koran is very clear about giving Jews suffrage. The issue about Zionism, broadly speaking, for most Arabs and Palestinians, is fundamentally about land. The reinforcement of the religious divide was a conscious political narrative to make the Jewish state palatable to a west that was also historically hostile to Islam.
It seems to make anti-semitism into a replacement for original sin.
Apparently a number of Hindus have joined the IDF. I find this astonishing on some level from a religious perspective. Hindu nationalists are now fetishizing the Israeli state and Jewish supremacy. How does this fit into the narrative of anti-semitism as a global phenomenon?
This morning I read an article in the Tablet about an Israeli soldier who was part of Bnei Menashe, a group of Indian Jews. That reminded me that Brother Gawain had mentioned what he called Hindus who where in the IDF. In any case I found the Tablet article interesting - https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/fallen-soldier-bnei-menashe-indian-jews . Here's the Wikipedia posting on the - https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/fallen-soldier-bnei-menashe-indian-jews I know, none of this is directly related to the Amsterdam story. Still, you might find it interesting.
A nicely done, comprehensive article. Thank you.
1) My assumption is that anyone can be caught up in social contagion, scapegoating, and propaganda. Following sports also helps me experience that.
2) I frame the NY Times as “establishment,” not left or right. A priority on getting things accurate, but not upsetting the boat. There’s going to be nothing that seriously challenges Israel. It contains the limits of how the establishment wants to debate. It is also corporate, so has to pay attention to a variety of power-brokers. It will not question Israel’s right to exist, by may report that such people do exist. Generally those people will not be given a their own voice.
3) My lens is that people and nations have interests. I try to think through those before labeling people as good, bad, or evil. Also, audiences matter.
4) I don’t see the overall dispute as concerning religion, but about politics and land. I also tend to blank out when people talk about Militant Islam, in part because 99% of the time when people are talking about Islam, I can assume they have never read anything serious about it. Granted, I have an academic bias here. Islam should not be considered a religion or an ecclesiology but a legal code, one that is often combined with other legal codes (including Jewish). I remember the story of an American soldier finding a “Islam for Dummies” in an ISIS camp (remember, lots of recruits came from English Speaking countries), which is pretty much a symbol of how we should think Islamic fundamentalists know of Islam.
5) What is interesting about the NY Times articles, is what it left out and the corrections at the end of the articles. In one, it acknowledged that the hooligans in the video causing terror were Maccabi fans, not Arabs as initially reported. It did not report how many Dutch were harmed by Maccabi fans. Granted, I don’t expect many people to know the details about Israeli football, but Maccabi Tel-Aviv fans are notoriously racist - they even once chanted down their own Arab player. Their racism even horrified other Israelis. This makes chasing Arabs in the streets believable. Only Al Jazeera and a couple independent dutch journalists reported it.
6) The Al-Jazeera articles seemed to cast a wider net of persons being interviewed. The article also included a comprehensive video that unpacked media bias in the west which was illuminating.
7) There will always be a tension between a sort of universalist strand of left-liberalism and minorities of any kind, as liberalism is a universalist tradition that tends to flatten historical particularities. This is a built in problem which several philosophers and political theorists - after Kant, including Karl Marx, and black Marxists, and other post- moderns have tried to wrestle with. The same arguments by Jews about universalism are the same ones that African Americans often make.
8) My lens, definitely from the global south, is that there is no mystical substance specifically about Judaism that deserves genocidal attention by Christians. This renders it a fetish in the Christian imagination, which I reject. When it is a minority tradition, it becomes a target because it is a minority and weak, not because of its specific practices.
9) One tool might be reclaiming our own theological heritage in rejecting anti-semitism. Anti-Semitism is anti-catholic and anti-orthodox, as reflected in the church’s rejection of Gnosticism, Marcionism, Montanism, and the other anti-jewish movements in the early church. Do we need Bari Weiss’ metaphor? Its modern perversion is reflected in Calvinist conceits about perfection and purity, mirrored both in American and South African exceptionalism and divine providence. Israel’s understanding of its divine right to exist *follows American and South African beliefs in their god given right to rule over other people. It is our own dark heritage that whites believed they were chosen to take land from others. Ironically, it is Christian Nationalism that has unleashed the campaign in Israel against Palestinians. We should certainly stop blaming Israel for the war, and put the blame squarely on the shoulders who seek to cleanse Israel of Muslims. That would be White Christian Zionists, who make Jews a side character in a schismatic, demonic narrative about the apocalypse. Zionism is a fine belief; christians cannot wash the taint of anti-semitism off their own version. Making Israel safe there abdicates our own requirement in protecting minorities here. “Why do you need to live in America? Only Israel can a Jew be safe.” my friend dave reported someone saying to her daughter in Israel. I curse that presumption. Besides, we’ll go after black people first.
10) My own practice: talk to friends. I have rabbis, Palestinian Poets, local Jewish vendors, dutch relatives, all of which I’ve spent time talking to. Second, I do look for Palestinian voices in the media, and by and large that’s had to be through social media and non-corporate media sites. For the scandalous stuff, Israeli media tends to be the most interesting. That’s where they report Israeli soldiers raping palestinians and settlers burning down Palestinian villages. That’s where you might find out about Adnan al-Bursh. A few people I follow include Mohammed El-Kurd and Double Down News.
11) I found the PDF interesting, but I admit, I’m not sure how to understand anti-semitism as distinct from other kinds of social contagions. One can deny conspiracies about Jews is while reporting what AIPAC says itself about its own influence. Quoting the original zionists about their intentions does not make one an anti-Semite. There may be progroms against Jews, but I can say that in 2008 in Odisha, it doesn’t feel different. Muslims in my own home country are regularly suffering from the same sorts of progroms Jews suffered for centuries. Anti-Semitism is a western disease, unfortunately transferred into the Arab world. Lord have mercy.
"I’m not sure how to understand anti-semitism as distinct from other kinds of social contagions." Yes, I think that's the heart of the matter for many liberal minded Americans. It's why the left has always expressed antisemitism while deny that it is doing it. We simply can't bring ourselves to see that antisemitism is different. See "But antisemitism is something else. The most dangerous antisemites don't regard Jews or Judaism as inferior but as the embodiment of what they revile most. For millennia, antisemites have identified Jews with whatever in their worldview was ly detestable or treacherous" https://aish.com/how-to-speak-out-against-antisemitism/ - "Antisemitism is the most ancient hatred, rooted in Christian religious teachings that go back millennia. Over that time antisemitism has morphed into variants that are both blatant and insidious, but equally harmful to Jews. The shape-shifting nature of antisemitism is part of what sets it apart. Antisemitism is also different from other forms of racism, which often vilify victims as inferior." https://www.ajc.org/news/10-tough-questions-on-antisemitism-explained - A resource for understanding antisemitism https://lovehasnolabels.com/learn/religious-community/jewish-community/bias
Two other notes:
I think we ought to distinguish between anti-semitism as a political event and as a mystical or liturgical one. One will account for how Israeli political forces align themselves with groups who are theologically anti-semitic. Secondly, the mystical one, I would argue, still has an identifiable series of mechanics that can be explained by Girard’s theory of the scapegoat.
Someone may not see anti-semitism because they are blind to it. Or they may not see it because it is not there. One can also be accused of anti-semitism without believing that Jews are a distinct category that is responsible for what a smaller subset might look like.
For example, if one understands AIPAC as a hostile group of Jews interested int taking over the federal government, then this would be anti-semitism. If one understand AIPAC as an alliance between Conservative Evangelicals, the military industrial complex, and the Israeli government as a way of maintaining a steady cash flow into Israel. One’s beef may be with the Calvinist and theocrats who want Israel to be a part of an apocalyptic story invented by Christians.
Maybe in the west this is true. But whereas Christian liturgies and texts reinforce anti-Judaism, The Koran is very clear about giving Jews suffrage. The issue about Zionism, broadly speaking, for most Arabs and Palestinians, is fundamentally about land. The reinforcement of the religious divide was a conscious political narrative to make the Jewish state palatable to a west that was also historically hostile to Islam.
It seems to make anti-semitism into a replacement for original sin.
Apparently a number of Hindus have joined the IDF. I find this astonishing on some level from a religious perspective. Hindu nationalists are now fetishizing the Israeli state and Jewish supremacy. How does this fit into the narrative of anti-semitism as a global phenomenon?