Monday, March 2, 2026

Antisemitism

If you're engaging in antisemitism, cut that shit out!

Bigotry against Jews never really goes away. It sinks into the mud and shoots up regularly for the ignorant and the hateful to engage in anew. 

Opposition to how Israel treats the Palestinians is not antisemitism. It's not even remotely arguable that the bombing of Gaza back to the Stone Age, or the stealing of Palestinian land by Settlers in the West Bank is defensible. But pro-Palestinian protests over the last few years have taken a decidedly anti-Jewish tone. As if Jewish people in the United States and worldwide have any influence on what the government of Israel does. I don't recall any widespread prejudice against WASPs when the U.K. was committing atrocities in Northern Ireland; Russian-Americans aren't subject to hatred based on what Russia is doing in Ukraine; Chinese-Americans aren't blamed for China's actions in Tibet and against the Uyghurs. But the bigots will make an exception for Jews. (For that matter, there is no suggestion that any other nation on Earth, no matter how terrible it treats its people, should not exist. But some activists make an exception for Israel — but that's a discussion for another time)

Another thread in the tapestry of modern antisemitism is the fact that Jeffrey Epstein, the twenty-first century's devil incarnate, was Jewish. Some of his correspondence speaks disparagingly of non-Jews. The term goy (plural goyim) is used — and people who are inclined to see nefarious Jewish conspiracies see the word as a slur, or a secret code word, when it simply means "non-Jew", or "gentile". The fact that someone named Rothschild appears in the Epstein files numerous times, with the Rothschilds being the favorite bogeymen of antisemitic conspiracies of yore, just adds fuel to the fire. 

Despite the support that many fundamentalists and White Christian Nationalists seem to have for Israel, they mainly do so because they believe the "End Times" that they have decoded from the Biblical Book of Revelation involves a revival of the nation of Israel. They don't like individual Jews, seeing them at best as people who aren't up to date in the religion department, and at worst, anti-Christ and Satanic. 

What is more disturbing than the MAGA crowd and their religious buddies expressing their antisemitism is the number of self-described progressives who buy into it. I have seen rationales for antisemitism, sharing articles that make the Protocols of The Elders of Zion seem reasonable, or quoting Jewish right wing bigots as if they represented all Jews. People need to vet their sources of information more thoroughly. 

Don't buy into the bigots' propaganda. 

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